Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

Chapter 15

Operation Achilles

August 1, 4030

1720 Hours

Lexus, Earth

A single white light, that of a flashlight, hovers in darkness. A faint outline of a soldier standing over another; who's currently writing on their map. The faint sound of a pencil tip etching into the paper fills the silence.

Another white light illuminates to reveal Tina and Kelly, standing side by side. Tina is holding the flashlight.

Their features are stark, both covered head to toe in blood. Kelly appears a bit shaken. Her blonde hair is a tinge of pink covered by a white bandage at her scalp. A ricochet bounce underneath her Kevlar helmet, scraping clean hair and skin to her skull; only to deflect off her metal buckle.

She was lucky. The other soldiers they picked up before the MECHX fight was not.

"What's the plan, Fen?" Tina asks, at the same time trying to hold up Kelly who is lightheaded and dazed, in no condition to fight.

Fen looks up for a moment, dropping the pencil between his map.

"Asking me once every few minutes will not make the planning go faster,"

Tina shines the light down at Fens face; forcing him to raise a hand to his eyes.

"And every minute we spend in here is a minute longer of distance we need to cover. Hurry the fuck up,"

"Do you honestly think we're in traveling, let alone fighting shape right now?" Fen sneers.

Jaycee intercepts them; blocking the flashlight from Fens face. Fens view of Tina is obstructed by Jaycee's butt.

"You need to give him some more time,"

Fen lowers his hand and resumes writing. Fen doesn't wish to engage in section level politics. As far as he's concerned, his job is to keep them alive, not others. He hopes Jaycee will sort his girlfriend out.

"Please. I need you to get off his back," Jaycee says with a stern, controlling tone.

"off his back?" Tina steps back, nearly knocking Kelly over.

"We are sitting here in a parking garage wasting valuable minutes! Minutes that we could be using to traverse this damn city to get to Ealys rendezvous. It's not rocket science. We need to get to Ealy's grid location. Now!" Tina screams, her voice echoes—carrying into the darkness of the underground parking garage, acting as a bunker.

Tina appears to cry—her stress levels rising.

"I don't want to sit here and wait to die, " she omits, attempting her damnest to swallow her fear.

"I don't want to be stuck in a cage, while those machines wait for us outside that door."

And Jaycee, not knowing what's appropriate, steps into her space of comfort, and hugs her tight.

Kelly takes a step back, watching in envy as Jaycee and Tina embrace.

She feels a bit lightheaded from the wound. But as far as she's concerned, she's still in the fight. All she can hope now is—Please be okay Shawn. Please be okay. Stay alive for me. Stay alive long enough for us to meet at our rendezvous.

Jaycee brushes Tina's hair, pulling her head close to his.

"We need to trust each other, alright? We need to trust Fen. He's our greatest asset right now. Besides, if it weren't for him, we'd already be dead."

Everyone's heart stops for a moment at that sentence. Everyone's eyes fall to Jaycee. A tongue slip,and he knows it, as Kelly's daze dissipates at that claim.

"He almost killed me," Kelly breaks the silence.

Tina steps back and wipes her tears; inhaling deeply. All she can hope now is that he's willing to be whisked away.

Fen immediately feels cold. His eyes fall to the pencil; unable to look up at Kelly. Because what she says is true.

"What's done is done," Jaycee says—immediately killing the conversation—knowing damn well that's nothing more than a slap to the face. He will regret this later.

"What's done is done? You're just going to sit here and justifythe decision that almost killed me?"

Kelly raises a fist, trying to take a step towards Fen.

Jaycee steps into Kelly, gripping her arm, holding her in place.

"Let go of me!" Kelly shrieks. It's here, under the light, Jaycee can see the extent of her damage; the clumps of dried blood in her hair, the places of missing hair and skin tied down in a loose bandage. He can see her skull. The cuts and bruises around her eyes—She looks so hurt and defeated. He just wants to extend a hand and hold her close. But he can't. Not right now. After all, he's the leader. The glue to hold these people together—no matter how hard they try to tear themselves apart.

"Was he lousy? Yes. Does he need to work on a few things? Yes. But did he explode the totem pole that stopped an enormous machine from killing us all? Yes he did."

"Did you forget that I was five feet from the blast? I should be dead right now!" Kelly screams, feeling more and more lightheaded as each pulse of blood passes through her swelling brain.

He made the right call! Jaycee wants to scream.

Fen shuts his eyes, bites his tongue and stands.

"Please, Jason Ford. You don't need to defend my incompetence. I may be a frail man but I'm not a weak one."

He approaches.

"And besides. What she says is true. And while what I'm about to say won't make this any better, this is my truth. Kelly, when I manually detonated the totem pole, I already wrote you off as dead."

"I. . . I knew it," Kelly utters, her anger dissipating from disbelief, to utter betrayal and sadness. With weak knees.

"Woah, easy, easy now," Jaycee helps her down to the floor as weakness fills her.

"I'm. . . Sorry," Fen answers, locking eyes with Kelly.

"Sorry?" Kelly laughs between wiping tears. The utter disbelief. The vision of blue foam that spluttered up against the sky as she ran for her life. "Look, I will make up for it. Not now, and I don't know how, but I will, one day, mark my words. In the meantime, I need you to trust me. Because I have a plan, and I will keep us alive, I promise you that."

The sound of Fens voice is sturdy and confident. Something that Tina, Kelly, and Jaycee were sure Fen wasn't capable of. But it did sooth the air of the eery feeling of inescapable death.

Kelly weakens and steps back.

"Please, give him the chance," Jaycee whispers in her ear; squeezing her shoulder with a comforting hand.

"You better not make me regret this,"

"I won't," Jaycee says,

"In truth?" she begins, her eyes falling to Fen whom is preparing his notes a final time before announcing his plan.

"I think I will,"

Jaycee bites his tongue and pulls away.

And Tina watches on in silence; feeling helpless at this charade of power plays.

"You mentioned a plan, Fen?"

Fen looks down at his map. He follows the red contours of possible blockades, and the blue lines of possible routes to the Grid location at the city center park. He feels as if he's staring at the edge of the world, standing then thousand feet up knowing that if this plan does fail, death is certain. And yet, even though he hasn't finalized the critical details of the plan, he feels it's time for good news.

"We have two options. The first option is we see how far this underground parking garage or bunker, leads us. If we're lucky, there may be a few if not numerous paths leading around the city. That is if the tunnels or entrances are not blocked or caved in. If they aren't, we may be in business. However the downside is we don't know where this bunker leads, how dark it is, and if our flashlights go out, well then, we're stuck in darkness. Which we all know means getting lost. . .

Fen takes a moment to pause, ensuring Kelly, Tina, and Jaycee are all paying attention.

Fen turns back to Jaycee.

"The second option is we send scouts out the way we came in. With us four, and that new girl—"

"Catharine"

"Yeah, when she returns from scouting the bunkers main area, it should be enough hands to clear the debris that blocked our entrance when the machine collapsed near us. I know the entrance is dangerous but keeping close to the surface we can start sending out scouts to path us outwards into the city. From there, we pop flares here, here, and here. That triangulation will give a grid for all soldiers to regroup too. Once we've done that, we can push scouts deeper into the city to provide a proper route towards the beacon setting up OPs along the way. It's a two stage system, but it works."

Jaycee grinds his teeth. All eyes are now looking at him. And for the first time, he can feel the weight of his actions affecting a section—in a theater of war.

His decision may get people killed.

"And in what plan does this involve getting to Captain Ealy as quick as possible?" Tina interjects, with Kelly, nodding in agreement.

"We need to get to the rendezvous."

"No." Jaycee perks up. "Right now we need to remember the mission. The beacon has to fall. And to even think about that we need to survive the night and regroup our forces. Fen is right when he says that the only two options are those suggested."

"And if we disagree with the plan?" Tina rebuts, crossing her arms.

"Well lucky for you, this isn't a democracy. You will listen to me, because Captain Ealy left me in charge!" Jaycee raises his voice, turning to Tina, whom, appears to be shaking in anger; her eyes contemplating to disvow her boyfriend and acting commanders wishes.

"Do not, challenge me any further. Any of you," Jaycee says with a final look from each standing individual.

"Now, Fen. What do you think is the best decision?"

"I. . .as much as the principles of warfare on hit and run tactics talk about dispersing units through large areas of ground. . . I feel that in order to survive this assault. . . We need to triangulate those who have survived and regroup them underground. Once we have gone underground, we can push through the city hopefully using these underground tunnels. The tactical objective of destroying the beacon today has failed. But the strategic objective can still be won. We can still take the city of Lexus."

Jaycee nods, slamming both hands into his pockets.

He takes a moment to think; his eyes falling to the standings of his soldiers. Right now, only one is injured.

"Alright. Tina, Kelly, do you have any ideas to accomplish this mission?"

Tina shines the light back up at her core and face.

"I don't. . . but I can prepare to move. I'm anxious to atleast. Give me the coordinates and locations where flares need to be popped. I can move at last light.."

And Kelly, speaking to her demons, attempts to stand.

"I. . . I may be injured, but I can help with the flares. . .also, I want to set up a casualty collection point. Between us, we should have plenty of glowsticks. I have no problem scrounging for wounded on the battlefield. We can't be the only soldiers that are hunkered down, awaiting help. And it would act as a good buffer period, instead of all the soldiers flooding the main entrance at once.."

Fen raises a hand to his lips, thinking.

He looks down at his map.

"Not a bad idea. . . the buffer period will be a must. But I have to stress, we can't risk collecting anyone beyond a level four. If they can't walk, you leave them. You bury them into a corner somewhere, mark their grid, and get them to lay low. Once we can collect them, we will."

Jaycee nods in agreement.

"Then it's settled. Kelly, once Catharine returns, Fen will give you the coordinates for the flares and a casualty collection point. I may also need a map overview. I need to know where to find you if shit hits the fan. In the meantime, Tina and I will scout a path to the beacon."

"Roger that,"

"Seconded,"

Fen raises his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose.

From the darkness, the sound of boots walking on concrete. Fifteen meters or so from the group of Soldiers, Catharine turns on her headlamp.

It's here, she has a blue backpack in hand.

"How is everyone?" she asks, one of her hands bandaged—a few specs of red.

"We're doing good," Jaycee admits, "a plan is in place,"

"Awesome, I can't wait to hear it—"

"What happened to your hand?" Kelly asks, her liveliness returning.

Catharine drops the blue backpack to the floor and holds up her bandaged hand.

"Oh, this? I got it cut smashing a few car windows."

Catharine turns to Fen, "I got some goodies you might be interested in in that blue backpack. But Fen, to be quite honest with you, I'm pretty sure this is just a parking garage."

Fen smiles,

"At first glance? Sure. But this parking garage has reinforced steel beams and is still standing after God knows how many bombs. I say it's a bunker disguised as a parking garage," he declares proudly, only for the new girl to roll her eyes and sneer.

"His boyfriend felt pretty convinced as well," Jaycee adds, smacking Fen on the shoulder.

"Whatever you say four eyes. In any case,"

Catharine turns to Jaycee, "Boss, you can fill me in on the plan of action, but first. . .can we eat?"

And Catharines stomach, as if on cue, growls.

* * *

After many hours of digging, Tina and Jaycee are the first to exit the underground bunker.

It's night. In the distance, smokestacks fill the sky along with tall office buildings burning like many beacons. Four corpses litter the ground in front of them.

Tina and Jaycee, rifle in hand, move twenty meters beyond the bunker; setting the perimeter. The temperature has dropped now, and yet adrenaline pulses through their veins. The cold breeze that slaps them in the face is ignored; while their eyes boggle wide, taking in the low light and falling shadows. Behind them, Kelly, Catherine and Fen, step out from the rubble.

"Do you think they made it out okay?" Tina whispers, clenching her rifle closely, her eyes peering down the road.

"I trust Ealy and Adam, if we made it out, I can only trust they have as well,"

Tina smirks,

"True that,"

Behind them, the sound of footsteps as Fen and company disappear, cutting through a small alley between the two buildings.

Tina raises her arm; her wrist band illuminates an orange glow on her face as she reads her current location, along with intended Rendezvous point. She turns off the light.

"I'll take point, stay close."

Jaycee nods,

"What's our distance?"

"By the way of the birds we're about four kilometers out,"

Tina stands, and begins to move; Jaycee behind.

It's a strange thing, walking a battle zone at night. The silence allows your mind to turn every shadow into an enemy and every sound into a threat.

When they reach the intersection, Tina stops. Her eyes falling to the corpse of a soldier; his body nothing but mangled mush from when the enemy MECHX crushed him; flat.

Her lips morph to a smile. A chuckle.

"I still can't believe this. Even staring at this fucking corpse I can't believe we're actually here, on Earth."

She kicks the corpse.

Jaycee watches—spectator like--as Tina, not looking for a response, more talking to herself, extends her gaze up at the dark clouds; the odd star, and the sparse cracks to the glowing full moon.

"We're finally here on Earth, and I'm not quite sure we accomplished anything today,"

Jaycee chews on that idea, as it's a hard fact to swallow. But it's the truth. They lost a lot of soldiers today, and nothing to show for it—for them, anyways.

He can only wonder if somewhere, out there, a group of soldiers are regrouping, preparing an assault on the beacon.

But from the sound of a dead, warm night—the battle was over.

"Jaycee?" a whisper,

Jaycee looks up from the corpse, catching a glance at Tina, whom, has made her way up the wall of debris into the second story building.

Without hesitation, Jaycee follows.

This building appears to be that of an apartment complex, with the main staircase blocked off by a mountain of debris; forcing Tina and Jaycee to search for areas where the ceilings have fallen onto one another, or enough of the building has collapsed as an area to climb.

Unlucky for Jaycee, Tina, as a messenger, is also an amazing climber. This obviously skill discrepancy forced Tina, on many occasions to halt and wait; at the odd gap assisting in his climb. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, if it weren't for the fact that they need to scout enough ground to cover half the trip before sunrise.

It takes an hour before they're standing six stories above the city streets.

* * *

Tina is sitting cross legged, in her lap is a map of the city. She has a pencil in hand, as she draws a few straight lines, along with the current grid location at the corner Manchester street.

Four kilometers out, in the middle of a supposed Lexington Park is the rendezvous point. And while Tina keeps thinking about the Rendezvous, everytime she looks at her boyfriend, she thinks of the true objective.

And yet, that still didn't solve the obvious issue before them. As while Tina is quite good at navigation, she fears the current city terrain in front of her, compared to the map in her hand, will be as hard as walking up a hill absolutely wasted. The reality is, most of the city streets are buried under rubble; and those that they're able to traverse, are considered dead pockets; a term the soldiers use to describe dead ends, or places you can't escape if flanked from the rear.

Thus, Jaycee, scouting under the light of the moon and stars has determined—

"Are you sure the alleyway is the only option?" Tina asks, dragging her pencil across the Manchester Street and Runner Avenue, highlighting the alley that will take the section East running the rails of Lexington Park; bypassing the rendezvous entirely.

Jaycee lowers his binoculars and looks down at the map between Tina's crossed legs.

"I don't feel comfortable taking Manchester street,"

He points, dragging his thumb towards the Alleyway. His thumb follows the journey.

"and if we take the Alleyway here, we can hit the abandoned school or the hospital; whatever one that's still standing. That's a good vantage point to get our bearings, and if we're lucky, we may be able to get a good view on the beacon tonight. Best case scenario we can also flash our light rec to the rear to see who responds."

"I still say we take Manchester and hit the—"

A flash of light flies over their presence. Immediately Jaycee and Tina drop low to the floor, digging into the debris of the building.

The sound of humming—that of a fan fills the air, the light on their position.

Tina and Jaycee look to eachother as if to say what do we do?

And yet, staring at one another, there is enough light to see the fear ingrained in each other's eyes.

Beneath them, on the city streets—the sound of a metal machine moving. The joints groaning like that of an old, swaying bridge.

"Where did they come from?" Tina mouths,

"I don't know," Jaycee answers,

"I didn't even hear them,"

"Me either," Tina answers, still not uttering a sound.

The light doesn't move—hovering on their position—Tina looks up to see that of a flying drone; the light suddenly passes through the torn building, continuing the pathway into the street behind them.

The sound of metal machine below dissipates into the distance.

Five minutes pass until they shift and move again. And when they sit back up, the city is not as they left it. Dozens of lights illuminate up and down the streets as many smaller machines; each accompanying a hovering drone with a spotlight, goes through the rubble.

"Those are new," Tina whispers. Quickly, she pulls out a notepad and pencil.

"Let me log them."

Jaycee quickly pulls out binoculars and rolls to his left, sticking his head out a small mousehole into the street.

He looks down at the machines; the presence of them almost makes him forget to breathe.

"At least eighteen feet. Unarmed. They look like tall slender humans. They have a mini helicopter like thing that follows them."

Tina nods, writing down the observation.

"Anything else?"

Jaycee squints and raises his head above the rubble once again.

"They look to be searching the battlefield. Scavengers, perhaps?"

Jaycee says, watching as one of the machines moves a few pieces of brick, picks up a corpse, and tosses it aside.

Tina turns to Jaycee,

"We'll take the alleyway and hit the school."

"Right—"

-POP! POP! POP!

A red hue fills the white light, the sound of three flares shooting up into the sky; only to explode.

Quickly, the light flashes off their presence—taking note of the red flare.

Their chests loosen, their breath catches up.

"We gotta go,"

"You don't need to say that twice,"

As quick as they can, Jaycee and Tina pull themselves from the room and drop to the fifth floor; making their way inside the building.