Chapter 3

Meet the mercs

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She's stands on the beach, golden hair waving in the breeze.

"Babe, come here."

I approach to find that she's holding a small cats claw sea shell.

"Isn't it lovely? Crystal would love it. It would be perfect for her collection, wouldn't it?"

I try to agree, but I can't speak. All I feel is a strange anger. Why am I so angry? My rage increases until it seems that the horizon is lighting up with the light of a thousand suns.

Only it actually is.

In the distance rises a huge, bright mushroom cloud. I look to my wife, and am shocked to see her burning.

"Carter!" She pleads. "Help!"

And suddenly my anger is gone replaced with only one to desire, to save my wife.

I go to push her into the waves, to quench the fire that is slowly burning her away, but the ocean has dried up. Funny, there aren't any fish.

I look to my wife.

She's not there.

In her pace is a skeleton, still standing, still burning.

"Selena?" I whisper, finding my voice.

Then she speaks.

"Carter. I love you."

And she crumbles away to ash as the sky burns.

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I woke up to find myself looking into the face of a stranger.

"Mornin, sleeping beauty!" he said with a crazy grin on his face.

Instantly, my fighter's instincts kicked in. I rolled off the bed, simultaneously reaching under my mattress to pull out my nine millimeter. I rolled, pointing the weapon at the intruder as Billy stepped out of the kitchen.

"Relax, Rambo, he's a friend." Billy said in his usual calm voice. "Put that gun down, it's making Jonny nervous."

I slowly lowered the weapon, never taking my eyes off the man.

"Jonny, huh? That's your name?" I said. I turned to Billy. "What the hell is he doing here?" I looked around. "What am I doing here? How did we get here? We were at the bar, and…"

Billy pulled my enhanced battle rifle from the shelf, admiring it. "You were talking smack to the bar tender's daughter. He came around the bar and punched your lights out."

Funny, I didn't remember any of this.

"Hey, Billy," a voice came from the kitchen. "I think you're out of beer." The voice's owner came out of the kitchen. He was 5 feet tall, with rumpled black hair and a look on his face that said "I don't care if you are better than me, I'll still kick your ass." I knew his type. Full time Mercenaries. "Oh." He said as he spotted me. "I see 'drunk-and-happys' awake."

"Did you drink all my beer?" I asked, trying desparetely to keep my voice even, without much success."

"Your beer? I thought this was Bills house."

Another man came out of the storage room. "Dude, this guy has the best toys! Look!"

He said as he pulled out my grenade launcher. "I'm not sure, but I think this is military grade weaponry." He turned to me, a manic grin on his face. "You sure get around."

"What is going on here?" I asked, though no one heard me.

"You sure that's military grade?" Jonny asked, as he tried to take the grenade launcher. "Here, Kyle, let me see it."

"Give me a second!"

"Let me see it…

Billy face palmed as the two professional mercenaries fought over the weapon. Finally, I'd had enough. I pulled out my pistol, and fired three times in the air. That shut everyone up. Even the annoying dog across the street shut it.

Now that I had everyones attention, I decided to get things straightened out.

"Now, Billy, I'm going to ask you this as nicely as possible. WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE, and, WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN MY HOUSE!?"

Billy stood up and began introductions. "You've already met Jonny. He's an ex marine, specializes in infiltration and sabotage." He motioned to beer boy. "This here is Domonik. He's a demolitionist, and explosives expert. And this," he said approaching the guy who had my rocket launcher. "This is Kyle. He's the weapons specialist."I knew exactly where this was going. "They're going to be working with us."

"No." I said with conviction. "No, no, no. Out of the question."

"Carter…"

"They're mercenaries, Billy, Jarheads."

"Damn right we're mercenaries." Jonny said. "Best mercs out there." He turned to Kyle. "Now let me see that." He began trying to take the gun away from Kyle and they started fighting again.

"Okay, THAT'S ENOUGH!" I stepped in and pulled the gun away from both of them. "You mercenaries are all alike. Can't keep your hands still or your pants on! You get all worked up over the smallest, most insignificant of weapons." I turned back to Billy. "There is no way I am working with a bunch of trigger happy morons!"

Jonny approached me with his pistol out. "I don't know what you just said," he said, slurring his words, as if mocking me. "But I don't think I like it very…" He cried out in surprise as I grabbed his gun hand and twisted, bending it back painfully. "Ow, ow, ow! Okay, I get it, I get it!" I let him go and he stumbled back, rubbing his wrist. "Jesus Christ!"

"Alright, enough already." Billy grumbled. He looked at me. "Carter, they may be Immature for a bunch of mercenaries, but they take what they do seriously, and no one does it better. Besides, I've got the means to keep them under control."

"What means?" I asked.

The door opened, and a tall, thin woman stepped in."Alright, Bill." She said. "The truck's all ready to go. Whenever you're ready." She had long black hair that draped all the way down and around her shoulders, with big, bright blue eyes that you couldn't help but notice. She was wearing a tight, form fitting shirt and pants that left little to the imagination. She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen.

I found myself staring, fascinated.

"Carter." Billy began. "This is Christine. She's our medic. And this," he continued as a big burly black man came through. "This is Tom. He's Christine's body guard."

"Something I always said I didn't need." Christine said in an almost whiney voice. "You don't have to be so protective of me."

"Actually, yes I do. She's my sister, you see." Billy told me.

"Hey," Tom said in a deep, sonorous voice. "how much ammo do you have for that thing?"

I realized he was motioning to my pistol. "Oh, I don't know, maybe, four clips."

Tom shook his head. "Nowhere near enough. Here." He reached into his bag and pulled out a bunch of pistol clips. He handed them to me saying, "I have plenty more where those came from. Plus ammo for all your other guns. You can put them in here, if you want."

"Tom's also in charge of inventory. He's the only one strong enough to carry all the supplies we need." Billy told me.

"Cool." I said.

Billy turned to his mercenaries. "Okay, now listen up. When we're out there, Carter's word is law. You do as he says, or you don't get paid. Got it?" The others agreed to these terms, albeit, with some reluctance. "Now, let's move out."

I turned to Billy. "I thought you said I'd be getting it all."

"And you will. I'm paying them out of my own pocket."

Before I could step out the door, a hand came out and stopped me. It was Christine.

"You gonna find my neice?" She asked.

"Yeah." I replied. "and I'm going to kill the bastards who took her. Don't worry, everything is going to be fine."

"It's not Jennifer I'm worried about. It's Billy. He hasn't been sleeping at all for the past three days. Watch out for him, please."

There was no way I could look into those beautiful, pleading eyes and say no.

"Yeah, of course."

"Good." She said. I turned to walk down the steps, but was stopped again, this time I was in a head lock. "And just in case you were thinking of trying to make a move on me, forget it. I will kill you, if my brother doesn't get to you first."

"I wasn't…"

"Don't play innocent with me. I saw the way you were looking at me. Just don't press your luck." She let me go then stormed past, leaving me to rub my throat as she climbed into the truck.

"Carter!" Billy called. "Let's go!"

After a quick look around, I descended the stairs, climbing into the bed of the truck.

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to be continued...