Path of Jen: Bloodborne (26 page)

Jen stood up and ran to the house. She
bypassed the kitchen and ran straight to the back room where she
had stowed the rifle at the request of Ahmed’s father. She picked
it up and charged it automatically. She placed the buttstock in her
shoulder and flipped the safety off as she hurried back to the
kitchen. Ahmed’s father was holding his daughter down as she
thrashed and screamed and tried desperately to bite him. Ahmed’s
mother was on the floor next to them, bleeding out onto the floor
with a knife in her side and a wound in her neck. Jen raised the
rifle to her cheek and looked down the sights at Asiya’s twitching
corpse. She put a bullet in her head with a loud bang. Her ears
rang as she swung the rifle toward the girl. Ahmed’s father let go
of his daughter and raised his hands to block Jen. Small bloody
hands grasped his face from behind and he screamed as she bit into
the back of his neck with her small teeth.

Jen didn’t waste any time. Another loud bang
and there was a small hole in the front of the man’s head. He fell
back and Jen fired again this time into the girl. It hit her in the
chest, but she kept fighting to get up and making a horrific
gurgling sound. Jen pointed the barrel at her head and squeezed the
trigger again. The girl’s head snapped back and she lay still.

Jen backed away, still pointing the rifle at
the trio of corpses on the floor. Her back met resistance sooner
than she expected and she realized someone was behind her. She
tried to turn with the rifle, but she was like a child compared to
the person behind her and they easily snatched the gun away from
her and wrapped her in strong arms.

“Jen, It’s okay. It’s just me, relax,” Deep
South said soothingly as she struggled in his arms. She managed to
turn toward him and looked up to see it was Dustin.

“This is my fault!” she said collapsing
against him with tears streaming down her face. “I’m so sorry!”

Deep South held her in his big arms and let
her cry it out. “I know. It’s okay. You didn’t mean to. I know,” he
repeated.

The door flew open and Ahmed burst into the
kitchen from outside. He immediately saw his family on the floor
and rushed to them. Deep South shouted, “No! Kid, stay back!” but
it was too late. Ahmed threw himself on top of his father and
hugged him tightly. He touched his sister’s bloody face and wiped
the sticky residue on his own clothes.

Deep South cursed under his breath and
stepped away from Jen. He brought the rifle up in one swift
movement and fired two rapid shots into the boy from behind. He
stood there for a moment and then cursed again. He dropped his head
in disgust and walked outside. Jen followed.

He was leaning against the hood of a silver
SUV in the driveway, and Jen walked over to him. “What do we do
now?” she asked. She wanted to be close to him and to feel the
comfort of a friend, but at the same time, she knew she was
dangerous.
“He must find me repulsive,”
she thought.
“I
can’t blame him."
She leaned against the vehicle about an arm’s
length away from him.

“We burn this place so nobody else gets sick,
and then we get you somewhere safe." He looked her in the eyes and
said, “The more I think about it, the worse I like the idea of
bringing you onto a base. What if…this happens there? We could be
looking at hundreds dead, or even thousands."

Jen turned away and hid her face. She wanted
to curl into a ball and cry. “I know she said. I just wanted to go
home, but now…" She wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her
tunic and stood motionless.
“I feel so hollow,”
she thought.
“Why is this happening, Lord? Why do you let me live when this
keeps happening? Are you waiting for me to be strong and kill
myself?”

She sniffed and turned toward Dustin. Her
eyes were red rimmed and filled with tears. “You should put a
bullet in my head and burn me with them. God can’t want more of
this to happen. It has to be his will that I die here too.”

Deep South shook his head. “No, Jen. I can
guarantee you that is not what God wants. Why would he let me save
you if he wanted you dead? Why have you stayed alive so long if
that wasn’t what he wanted? Jen, I believe God put me in your path
for a reason. I’m not going to give up on you, do you hear me?" He
stepped close and bent his head down to look her in the eye more
directly. “You have to stay alive if we’re going to find a cure for
this. There might be other people out there carrying this by now.
Do you get that? I’m on your side Jen, and in my mind, you’re the
most precious resource on the planet right now. Because, if this is
out there…if it spreads…you might just be the only way to save
us.”

Jen looked into his eyes and slowly nodded.
“Okay, thank you Dustin. I’m sorry for being so dramatic. It’s
just…really hard sometimes." She smiled at him bravely and said,
“Now, what can I do to help?”

Deep South looked at her with admiration.
“I can’t even imagine what this girl is going through. God, if
you let me, I promise to be her guardian angel and see her through
this."
He took a breath and let it out. “Go see if you can find
the keys to one of these things,” he said, while pointing at the
vehicles. “And see if they have a cell phone hidden somewhere. I’ll
go get us some more food and water to bring along. Oh, and grab
some blankets or anything else we can use for clean bandages. I’ll
have to keep changing this,” he said, pointing at his leg. “When
we’re ready to go, I’ll set the fire. Let’s try to be ready in
fifteen, okay?”

Jen nodded. “Okay, got it. See you out here
in fifteen." She walked quickly toward the house and disappeared
inside.

Deep South stood quietly and watched her walk
inside. He shook his head, thinking about the impossible situation
they were in, and then set out to find supplies.

Hours later, they were nearing Baghdad. Deep
South pulled out the cell phone Jen had found in the farmer’s
bedroom, and dialed. “We’re about ten clicks away. ETA is thirty
mikes,” he reported to his contact. He explained to Jen that his
unit, although Army Special Forces, operated with US Marine Force
Recon from time to time. He was setting her up outside the city
with a group of operators with a reputation for being brutally
efficient at killing anything that needed killing, and one hundred
percent trustworthy to their brothers in arms. “If you ever need
help killing some bad guys and then hiding the bodies, these are
the guys to call,” he told her. Jen couldn’t tell if he was serious
or joking.

Earlier, after leaving the burning farm, Jen
asked him about using the phone to call her parents. Deep South
wanted to say yes, badly, but it wasn’t safe. The feds were
certainly listening to her parent’s phone calls, and if they got
ahold of this number they could use it to track them. “I’ll get
word to them soon,” he promised her. “You just keep your head down
until I get some assurances for your safety, and then I’ll come get
you and bring you in.”

Deep South pulled the Toyota Land Cruiser off
the main road and followed a dirt path into the hills. It was
morning and the sun was in their eyes as they crested the first
rise. As they dipped into the low ground beyond, the sun
disappeared and Jen could feel an immediate drop in temperature,
even inside the vehicle. They drove off-road to the east, just
north of Baghdad, for another half hour before coming to a small,
hidden compound under camouflage netting.

They stopped as soon as Deep South made out
the netting in the early light. It took Jen another minute of
careful looking to see the compound. Deep South opened his door and
stepped out with his hands raised.

A few yards in front of them, on his side of
the vehicle, a US Marine stepped out of the bushes with his weapon
raised. Jen heard a noise behind her and turned to see another
Marine reveal himself on her side of the vehicle. They were dressed
in a dark multi-cam and wore green balaclava’s against the cold
morning air. The masks had a skull painted on the front, making the
men look like menacing ghosts or demons. Jen felt a chill, and it
wasn’t from the temperature outside.

“Staff Sergeant Parks,” Deep South said to
the Marine in front of him. “You guys should be expecting me.”

The Marine immediately lowered his weapon and
motioned them through. Deep South climbed back in and shut the
door. “Okay, let’s park this thing,” he said. “Don’t worry, Jen.
These guys are a little intimidating, but they're hard as hell.
Nothing will touch you as long as US Marines are watching over
you."

He drove under the camouflage netting and
turned the Land Cruiser off. They both got out and four more
Marines walked forward to greet them. They had emerged from two
different tents and were dressed more casually than those out
front. Jen noticed that each of the men was armed and they looked
combat ready despite their lack of uniform tops or head gear.

Deep South shook hands with each of the men
and introduced Jen to them as well. The senior Marine in the
outpost was Sergeant Lynch, who was about the same height as Deep
South but much thinner. He had extremely close cropped red hair, a
red beard, and his arms were covered in colorful tattoos over
corded muscle. Sergeant Lynch invited them into his tent, which was
on the left. Jen followed Deep South and the Sergeant, and was
relieved to find that the air was much warmer in the tent.

Once they were inside, Deep South laid out
his plan to leave her there for a few days under their protection
and come back for her later. Sergeant Lynch looked at Jen with a
raised eyebrow.

“Sorry to be rude, but why the hell is she so
special?" he asked while looking Jen in the eyes.

Deep South explained, “She’s a High Value
Target for ISIS, is all I know. She has some valuable intel, and
they want her back. The problem is that she is an HVT for us too,
which is crap, but I aim to change that before I go parading her
through the city. I need to clear a path for her and get some
assurances from higher before I make the reveal. She
’
s 100% blue blood American, but the bad guys passed
some seriously tainted intel that put her on our radar. She’s had a
rough time of it Sergeant, and that’s why I need your help.”

Sergeant Lynch chewed on that for a minute
while continuing to stare at Jen. He turned to look at Deep South.
“Alright then. She can stay, but this ain’t a hotel." He looked
back at Jen with a hard stare. “No games, and no hooking up. Are we
clear? The last thing I need is a freaking soap opera out here. You
clean up after yourself, which includes keeping yourself clean. I
don’t want to smell your B.O., clear? Breakfast is at 0600, lunch
is when you take it, and supper is when the patrol gets back. No
stealing, no fighting, and no complaining." He paused and seemed to
relax bit. He said, “We have an Xbox and some movies in the other
tent, but I’m warning you, this is a grunt unit. We thrive on being
a little sick and twisted. Out here we aren’t used to exercising
proper manners. When you walk in there, you’re as likely to see
somebody naked in the tent as not. You’ll have to have thick skin
and be on your best behavior." His serious look returned and he
leaned forward toward Jen. “If there is any trouble, you’ll be the
one to go, clear? These are my boys and you’re a visitor. Does that
make sense?"

Jen sat quietly and listened respectfully
while the Sergeant laid out his rules. When he was finished, she
looked at Dustin to see his reaction. He just sat there with his
eyebrows raised and a smirk on his face, waiting to see what she
would do.
“Gee, thanks for the support big guy,”
she
thought.

She turned back to the Sergeant and said,
“We’re clear Sergeant Lynch. For the record, I’m not a hooker or a
drama queen, and I know how to pull my weight. As far as thick
skin, no problem. If you can tolerate me being a girl, then I’m
sure I can tolerate you men being men. Where do I sleep?"

Sergeant Lynch smiled and slapped his knee.
“Alright then. I think we’re going to get along just fine. You’ll
sleep in here. I’ll have the fellas put up a cot and a curtain for
you. We have a spare sleeping bag you can have, and some snivel
gear too.”

Jen looked confused. “Snivel gear?” she
asked.

“Stuff to keep you warm,” Deep South
explained. He turned to Sergeant Lynch and said, “Thanks brother.
I’ll be back in three days, tops. I owe you guys.”

The two men stood up and shook hands again.
Jen worried that he was going to just leave her there without
another word. Deep South looked at Jen and nodded toward the door.
“Come to the truck for a second, Jen.”

They sat in the SUV together in silence for a
minute. Jen finally turned to Deep South and said, “Dustin, I just
want to say thank you for watching out for me." He shook his head,
and she said, “No, I mean it! You saved my life, and you didn’t
judge me.”

Deep South raised his hand and stopped her.
“Jen, wait. Forget all of that for a minute. I mean thank you for
saying so and all, but…" His words failed him for a moment, and he
tried to work up the courage to be frank with her. “I want your
word that nobody here is going to get sick." He waited for her to
answer.

The question was a reality check, and it hit
her like a punch to the gut. She tried not to let her emotions get
the best of her, and she bit her lip and looked away long enough to
be sure she wasn’t going to cry. “Okay,” she said when she turned
back toward him. In a shaky voice she said, “I promise." Jen felt
vulnerable and her confidence was rattled.
“Does he not trust me
any more?”
she wondered.

“Thank, you,” Deep South said. Then, to Jen’s
surprise, he smiled and touched her hand. She tried to pull it
away.