AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
Emersyn crawled through the thick brush, keeping her mind off the bugs crawling on her arms and legs and the mosquitos dive-bombing her head. Sweat trickled down her temples and soaked her already-wet fatigues and t-shirt. The river that ran between her breasts started to itch and she didn't even want to think about why. Their mission was to retrieve three American children who'd been kidnapped. They were close. She could feel it.
A quick glance back confirmed Diego, Donovan, Charly and Creed were still with her. They'd trained together in Operation Live Again. All of them, plus a few more back at base, had been wounded in the regular military, whatever regular was. They were all damaged, but they'd been retrained for this type of mission, and they were good at it. Today's mission marked their fourteenth together and they had a one hundred percent recovery record. When it came to these kids though, and bringing them home to their grieving parents sick with worry about what was happening to them, a hundred percent was the only acceptable record.
She reached the top of the hill and took a deep breath before slowly raising herself up to see what lay beyond.
A series of gunshots sounded; she dropped down and held her breath. Nothing flew overhead and no one behind her screamed in agony, so they were good.
Twisting her head once more, she locked eyes with Diego. He gave her a thumbs up then held up three fingers. The rest of the team was behind him.
Slowly raising up again, she lay her M-16 on the mound of dirt just under her right arm. Her eyes scanned the area below. A makeshift lean-to sat against a rock directly in front of them. They were less than twenty yards from the location, downhill mostly. The ground up here was dry, but she could see the mud caked on the feet of the three men walking along below. They wore dirty tank tops that at one time were likely white, but were now gray and caked with filth, sweat and lord knows what else. Didn't matter, they'd either die today or not, but she wanted those kids.
Diego came to lay against the hill beside her. "You stink, bud."
"Don't know how you can tell, rolling in your own aroma."
"Fuck off."
"Yep. Same here."
Donovan came next, laying on the other side of her and while he smelled too, she wasn't going to say anything; hopefully those jackasses below reeked worse than they did so they didn't smell them coming. Charly lay alongside Diego, and Creed on the other side of Van. They lay in silence for a bit, all of them assessing the area, all of them likely trying to come up with a plan.
Charly was the first to say anything. "This hill is only a few yards wide. Diego and I can go right and head downhill on this side. At the bottom, we can sneak to within a few feet of that enclosure where the kids are being held. There's roughly twenty feet of open space to get to them from the fringe. At that point, we'll need cover.
Emersyn surveyed the area Charly was talking about. "Solid idea. As soon as we have to start shooting, they'll know our location, so Van and Creed, what do you have?"
Van spoke first. “We can make our way halfway down the hill on either side. If you stay here and fire the first shots, then Creed and I can follow up with our own. That sends them in three directions not sure where we'll be coming from."
"Okay. Diego, what do you have?"
"As soon as the first shot is fired, one or two of them will move to protect that sad little jail they've erected, so once you see me running in, you'll need to take them out of the equation."
"Roger. Okay, Charly and Diego on the move. Van, take the left, Creed, the right. Let's make this quick and easy and the only casualties are them." She never took her eyes off of the men below, those assholes holding little kids. Fuckers.
They all moved into position. The bugs began a frenzied flight as they moved and she hoped that alone wouldn't give them away. Steadying her breathing, she tapped her communication device and reported to Sergeant Dillano.
"We're in place, we have eyes on the kidnappers and believe the kids to be in a makeshift shanty. Charly and Diego are moving to the targets; Van, Creed and I are cover fire."
"Roger that." Sergeant Dildo, as they called him, was a man of few words. He'd earned his nickname though; he was a dick of epic proportions and hated their training program, considering the team all useless damaged goods now. She loved every time they proved him wrong. Dildo. He was a dumb fucker, that's what he was.
Diego clicked the comm unit and whispered, "In place."
Van replied, "Roger. In place."
Creed chimed in, "Roger and in place."
Emersyn pulled her M-16 up and aimed just above the head of a man standing in the middle of the camp eating out of a filthy tin bowl. Likely maggots in the food, it was that disgusting here. They were in the middle of the Indonesian Rain Forest and she'd seen more hideous vermin than she hoped to see for the rest of her life. Bugs the size of helicopters and lizards and reptiles the size of volkswagons.
Slowly pulling the trigger, Emersyn let loose the first shot; the man dropped to the ground. His head lifted and searched the area while his two friends pulled their weapons and pointed in different directions. Van fired next and that shot was returned by one of the men below. The sound of a vehicle approaching had one of the men moving toward the shack where the kids were located; the man on the ground stood and ran behind a table, then pulled a weapon as he watched the hill.
An old cargo bus pulled into the area, and the men on the ground began yelling out to the driver. The driver jumped from the vehicle brandishing a rifle. They still weren't sure where their team was located. Perfect. Creed shot and his volley was returned several times. Knowing Creed, he’d scrambled down toward the bottom of the hill or was making his way back up here. He wouldn't stay in place.
Her comm unit clicked and Sergeant Dildo's voice ground in her ear. "Mission aborted. Stand back, make your way back to base."
"We don't have the kids."
2
