Chapter 10 #2
The world below her illuminates into different shades of grey.
Men and women on the ground scramble to find their teams and head off to their destination.
Too busy spotting her team from the air, she miscalculates the landing.
The air is thrown from her lungs as her body slams into the ground.
She takes a few gasping breaths, trying to force oxygen back into her body while she fumbles with the straps.
Embarrassed, she climbs to her feet and makes her way over to the huddle, pushing past her own feelings to focus on finding Riley.
She sticks as close to Alex as she can, picking her path carefully, stepping as quietly as possible
It’s not long before they reach the river, where just across it lies Dmitri’s first camp, and somewhere inside is Riley.
Gun over her head, she wades into the waist deep water, crossing just as Alex had demonstrated on the plane.
The moment they are free of the trees, Liz sees the compound lit up in the distance.
“Hold positions. Everyone down.” Alex’s voice comes over the small com built into her helmet.
The team drops onto the ground in unison, waiting for their leader to give his next order. Liz peers at him as much as she is able through her goggles, watching intently as he looks through some type of binoculars. He reaches for his helmet, fumbling with a dial on the side before speaking again.
“Everyone hold. They have four men patrolling the front. Lauren, can you see them from your side?”
“Yep,” a confident voice replies.
“On three, we drop the ones on the right, then left,” Alex says, pulling the sniper rifle from where it has been perched on his back.
Liz watches in amazement as he pops out the attached bipod, holding the gun steady while he aims. He counts to three and releases two, simultaneous muffled shots.
She can’t see if they hit their mark, but the following shots tell her they must have.
They remain, holding their positions, inching their way forward, waiting to see if any reinforcements come after their downed men.
Every step they take sends her heart racing.
She knows she should not be doing this. It has barely been six months since she was rescued, and even she knows that’s not enough time to be doing what she is.
It does not matter if she has been training ten hours a day nearly every day for six months.
It has taken the rest of them years to be doing what they are.
Finally, they make it to the scattered buildings surrounding the towering abandoned structure at the center of it all.
She flips her goggles up and follows her team into the light, trying her best to follow orders and hang back, allowing them to do what they do best. That works for a while, staying behind and sweeping each building they pass as gunshots fill the air around them.
Screams ring out from all directions and Liz ducks into the next door.
A towering figure jumps out of the dark, running toward her, wielding a knife the length of her arm.
A deafening crack explodes from her weapon, followed by a sickening gurgle from the man as he falls to the ground, blood pooling.
Bile rises in her throat. She hunches over and vomits onto the floor, heaving to catch her breath.
Alex pulls her back, spinning her around so she is no longer looking at the man she just murdered. Liz didn't think she would have such a horrible reaction. She has killed men before, although each time was out of desperation.
“You’re okay, but we need to move. Now,” he says, guiding her out of the building. Her gun is back at attention, checking the rest of the buildings, shoving the image of the man and the way his eyes glazed over out of her mind, trying to replace it with one of Riley.
It feels like hours have passed when they reach the looming structure in the distance. An abandoned hospital, Alex had told her. Dmitri had the entire construction crew killed when the massive stone frame was complete. Bodies litter the ground around her as she walks next to Alex.
“All teams should be here by now. They are clearing the floors of hostiles. If they find him, they will tell us, but we need to keep looking until they do. You take the left, I’ll go right. This floor should be safe, but keep your gun up no matter what,” he says into her helmet.
She gives a small nod, lifts her gun, and starts down the long hall, checking each room as she goes. Whatever team went through before her did one hell of a job.
“Floors two and three are clear,” a voice Liz doesn’t recognize says over the radio. “Headed to four. Seems like less and less the higher we get. I think we are almost completely clear.”
“Tunnels are also clear. We’re coming to you, Alex,” Mikey’s voice rings in her ears. Relief floods her until he speaks again. “Saw some guys come through the back on our way, so keep your eyes up.”
The soft crunch of footsteps sound from down the hall. Liz ducks into the next room, making sure it is empty before she presses her back to the wall, listening to a mix of people walking toward her.
It may be Mikey, but she is not willing to take any risks.
They are running out of time, and hiding isn’t going to find Riley any faster.
Liz takes a deep breath and steps into the hall, gun up and ready to fire.
Her anxiety eases when she comes face to face with Mikey being trailed by two others she has yet to meet.
He gives a small nod, and they continue down the corridor, breaking off and searching each room on their own in an attempt to speed things up.
She hears whispers when she steps into the next room.
Unable to speak or signal for help, she proceeds on her own, cautiously stepping around fallen debris.
The room is empty. Unable to shake the uneasy feeling, she goes to the open space where a window should be, ducking to stay hidden.
Tall bushes twisted in growing vines have had all the windows blocked from whatever is on the other side. Her blood runs cold. Whoever is out there isn’t speaking English, and they are most definitely not with her.
Not thinking, she leaves the room, looking for a doorway that leads to where the men are. Three rooms down, she finds what she is searching for.
“I found a backdoor. There are a few men outside, but I can’t tell how many. I am going to check it out,” Liz announces.
A mix of voices take over, whispering as loud as they can to wait for someone, and not to go alone.
“We don’t have time. I’ll stay hidden.” Her eyes dart from the floor in front of her back to the open spaces she walks through.
Every step is slow and deliberate. The door leading out is shattered, leaving just a metal frame that clearly has not moved in a while.
Perfect. The men out there must have gotten in another way, leaving this way open for her to sneak through.
The overgrown brush gives her enough cover to commando crawl her way over.
“Six people, and they all have guns. I don’t know what they are doing, but it seems like they are looking for something.
I’m going to try and get closer.” She drags her body through the dirt, crawling along the outer wall, moving impossibly slow to minimize noise until she can hear them more clearly.
They’re speaking Russian, so she can’t understand a word of it, but she can understand the tone. They are scared, panicked even.
She worms her way behind the impossibly tall bushes, stuffing her gun through the leaves, and peers through the scope. What she sees has her sick all over again.
All the blood drains from her only to be replaced by an anger she has not felt since the day her brother took her family from her.
There, in the center of the small expanse of mud and shrubbery, is Riley, strung up by the skin of his back, hanging like a mutilated puppet.