Surrounded

Volga was the first one to wake up. She got up from her sleeping bag and looked around her while she was stretching out, seeing that she was the only one up and it was about time to go to the battlefield she decided to play her role of chief and to go wake her men up.

[ Where is he? ] she asked herself. She had walked almost around the whole store, waking up her entire troop until she realized that she didn't see Jamal anywhere. She even made another round thinking that maybe they crossed each other but she just missed him while she was focused on someone else. However, the result was the same and instead of finding him, she met with Sania and Carl at the back of the store. They didn't notice her approaching as they were hurriedly putting some stuff in their bags. [ Maybe it's because I've pressed them to quickly prepare themselves ] Volga guessed.

Anyway, she decided to not care but rather go ask them concerning Jamal's whereabouts.

" Hey guys, " she called them when she came enough close, they got up surprised as if she just caught them in a middle of a crime, " are you okay? " she first asked.

Sania coughed " Oh yeah, we're alright, it's just that we're a bit surprised ".

" Yeah, I see it, " Volga said with a tone of curiosity, " anyway didn't you see Jamal somewhere by any chance? I've been looking for everywhere in the supermarket but I couldn't find him ".

They both glanced at each other as if they were agreeing on the answer to give.

•••

" It's said that you've spent the whole night watching over us, " Volga said to Jamal who turned his head to look at her, he smiled and turned it back to stare at the horizon, " you would have made such a great knight. But it was quite foolish, though, we didn't risk anything inside ".

They were on the roof of the supermarket and, while she was talking, Jamal was in front of her, sitting carelessly on the balustrade and swinging his legs in the air.

She stepped forward to stare with him at the horizon while the sun was slowly rising. " Why didn't you ask me to pair up with you to guard this place? " she asked, seemed like she didn't intend to let him off the hook so easily, " you know that the nights... are not safe, and you also know that today's mission risks to be quite long and people have to be fully operational for that. And you more than anyone else. What would happen if... " she didn't have the time to finish as he cut her by doing something weird, or at least, something she didn't expect him to do.

Jamal rolled on his back and jumped on his feet, did a backflip, and finished his gymnastic move by stretching out his body. " As you may see, I'm not wounded, not even a single scratch on my body, " he began telling her while showing his body to her, " and I'm full of energy, ready to go kill some villains so stop worrying unnecessarily and let's rather focus on our preparations for the battle ". Hopefully, for him, those simple words were enough to calm her a little bit.

She quickly examined him and effectively there was no hint of tiredness. " Okay, you win, but the next time, don't do that alone, " she finally declared.

" Got it, " Jamal nodded. They headed to the exit to take the stairs and together they went down meeting up with the rest of the crew.

•••

A few moments later, they were all in their respective vehicles, rolling in the direction of where Jamal had said the fight would be.

The latter was, as his usual, with Volga in her convertible leading the cortege of cars. The only difference now was that they were accompanied by Sania who was sitting quietly in the backseat, and the three of them were constituting the main force of the army.

In fact, the plan was saying that once they would be near the zone of fighting, they would separate into three groups with each group a specific job to do.

They were now close enough and had to start executing their plan.

At first, we had the support group, composed of two cars so two teams and each team count four people who had to go in first ahead to clear the places where the barrage group had to stand or to simply make sure they were safe. Once they were done the next step was to leave their cars and rushed into the different buildings around them, their guns in their hands, ready while waiting for the others. Hopefully, for them, there was no outlaw inside the buildings as they entered, they were all already standing in the posts assigned, at the windows, from where they could reach any enemy in the street when they contacted the other groups to let them know that the places were secured.

After receiving the message, the barrage group composed of three teams of 12 people escorted Jamal's group, the intervention team, inside the zone of fighting before they split up again. The barrage group went to block the streets where they were supposed to not let the chance to any of the outlaws to escape. They placed their cars perpendicularly to the road, in a manner that would obstruct the ways, and then, they moved behind, with their weapons loaded so that whenever the outlaws would appear in front they could shoot them. The support group who were high on their spots were overseeing almost the entire zone, so they would be able to alert the barrage group when the enemies would be coming and help their comrades in case they would be too many for them to handle.

Then finally came the stated intervention team composed of only Volga, Jamal, and Sania. They would be fighting the outlaws directly from their backs while the allies' army continued to fight them from the front, which should make it easier and faster to crush them.

" Bring the car close to them, " Jamal said to Volga earlier before they separated with barrage group, he was pointing out the pickup on his right, " I need to take my motorbike ".

While she was approaching her car to the other one she asked him, " is it impossible for you to fight without it or you're just doing it to give you a certain style? "

" It gave me a greater speed and a good mobility which is particularly effective against a large group of enemies, " he paused and smiled before he added, " but it also for the style ". He jumped from the car to the back of the pickup where his motorbike was tied solidly, he released it, got on it, and jumped out from the pickup to roll beside Volga, while they were accelerating toward the sector where the noises of the gunshots were coming from.

•••

" Fire! Fire! kill me all those sons of bitches! " Nelson, the commander of the whole army, was shouting some of what he called " words of encouragement " to his men, while they were exchanging bullets with the enemies in front of them, even though most of them couldn't hear him because of the noises.

They were there for quite a moment but on contrary to all their previous clashes, that time he was particularly excited as, since a moment now, the fight was starting to take a different turn from its usual. Normally, both the outlaws and them would come on the battlefield early like this and would shoot at each other while hiding themselves behind some wrecked cars or the barricades they had made with bags of concrete powder until they saw the sunset when they would flee back to their HQ to come back to the same place at the same time the next day, to do the same thing.

The battles used to be quite monotonous where they could lose only one or two men in one week, however, this time there was something odd and Nelson noticed. He would even say that they were taking the upper hand over the outlaws.

In this series of battles, where it was expected that only the most enduring would survive, the balance of forces was broken, Montclay's army was dominating the outlaws.

Nelson was shouting at his men to not give up and to continue moving forward to exterminate the enemies while the latter were falling one after another, killed by their gunshots. Although, he wasn't sure of the reason for that sudden change, as he could only suppose that, after carrying on one battle after another every day for all these months, the enemies finally got tired and didn't have the strength to continue anymore, he couldn't care about it too much, for the moment the priority was on the action he was in. " Move forward, don't even give them the time to breathe, " Nelson continued screaming.

At a moment, while he was reloading his gun he received a call from one of the captains commanding a little troop of soldiers somewhere on another side of the battlefield, he took his walkie-talkie " It's me, tell me what is going on there, Pat'? "

" I call you to ask the same question, here it seems that the outlaws are quite weak, we are advancing a bit too easily, so I wanted to know if the situation was different there? " the man asked.

" Yes I see, here too, we are going through the same situation, " the commander responded him.

" What happened to them? Why are they such weak today? "

" I don't know but we shouldn't complain. Listen, continue to kill them just like you have been doing until now, but just be careful to not move forward too carelessly, we don't know whether it is a trap or not, " he advised him after he gave a quick thought.

" Got it, I'm taking the liberty to pass the message to the other captains, " the man said before ending the call.

" For god's sake what is it going on? " he sighed and asked to himself. He shook his head to try to get rid of any negative thoughts and he returned to the battle.

They were literally penetrating in the outlaws' lines of defense and Nelson still couldn't figure out any clue of a trap they would have set, on contrary, he started to understand why the combat had turned the way it was. It seemed that the outlaws were actually fighting other mysterious opponents coming from their back, he immediately called Pat' to seek confirmation of his analysis, and effectively there was a third unknown troop which had joined the battle.

" Who are they, chief? " Pat' asked him. In reality, Nelson had already a little idea of who they might be but he needed to be totally sure before affirming anything as he didn't want to mislead his entire troop on only an impression. " I don't know either, but we should not let this opportunity slip, just continue focusing on our current opponents and don't try to establish any contact with the other group until I have confirmed their identity, " he replied before hanging up.

[ I have the feeling that we and this new group, have surrounded the outlaws, and if it's that so, I'm pretty sure that the situation has been plotted by them ]. And just after he had thought that they received a strange visit.

One of his men came at him in hurry to tell him that they saw a woman who was holding high a white flag while running in their position, [ a woman with a white flag? ] he found that strange and fishy, but he still had to act correctly, he stood up shouting at all his men to not shoot, he followed the other guy to go see that woman when she finally reached them.

The soldiers around her were aiming their guns at her despite the white flag she was carrying when Nelson arrived. Her weapon was hanging in her back while she put her hands up in the air as if to tell them that she wasn't hostile as she wouldn't have the time to reach the gun before getting covered with bullets.

" Drop your guns, all of you, " Nelson ordered his soldiers, he stopped in front of the woman and introduced himself, " I'm Nelson the commander of these guys and I guess you are a member of the army that is helping us dealing with the outlaws. So who are you? How can we be sure you aren't potential enemies? " he asked calmly.

" Nice to meet you, I'm Sania, and effectively, I belong to that group you just mentioned. We came to help you to finish off the outlaws and to this war for good, but for that, I would need your full cooperation. You can be sure that we are not your enemies at all, " Sania explained with a serene voice without a hint of fear.

" And how can I be sure you're not lying? " Nelson repeated his second as she has not been clear enough. [ Well, I can't blame him for being cautious ] Sania thought. She sighed and after putting her eyes on his and said, " we are with Jamal and it's him who has sent me ".

Everyone around gasped with expressions of surprise on their faces after hearing that name. Nelson's face change showing his relief, [ as I thought, it was effectively him ] he happily concluded. " And what do you want from us, it looks like you are already controlling the situation? "

" Not exactly, it will be too long to explain and we all don't want to waste time so hear me out. Jamal, the rest of our army, and I had been able to gather in a located place, even though they are not so many, they have still a bigger number than we have. The surprise attack gave them the impression that they are surrounded but it won't be too long before they figure out the truth, so we want you to join forces with us before they find ways to escape. I give you the signal to charge them with all your strength and in this single powerful attack we will wipe them out in one time. Do you agree? "

" Is that Jamal's plan? " the man asked while still thinking about it.

" Yes, he said that we have to quickly make use of the fact that they are scared and disoriented to exterminate them in a single blow. An enemy who has already the moral broken with no hope of survival is an enemy who can't cause harm, " she replied, quoting a phrase Jamal had told her.

Nelson stayed quiet a short moment, analyzing the plan, before raising his head and shouting to his soldiers, " well, listen to me, we will now prepare ourselves to give to those bastards our final hit, so raise your weapons high and scream with all your lungs in honor of our upcoming victory ". He, then, took his walkie-talkie and explained the plan to his other captains.

" Okay, we are just waiting now for your signal, miss Sania, " he said to her after he hung up, the latter picked her walkie-talkie and said " they are ready, " she then raised the device to allow the near soldiers to hear the voice of the woman who was giving the countdown through it, " OK, five... four... three... two... one... ". They were all in position, their hands carrying their guns, when they heard, " GO! "

They all left, running at full speed forward toward the outlaws while screaming with all their guts. The enemies turned a little and saw them coming from their back now, then they saw another group coming from their left and another one from their right but they couldn't do anything to counter as they were already busy with those coming from their front. They were completely lost and disoriented as they didn't know whom to fight and the result was that all got killed without none of them could even shoot a single shot.