"Sergeant," a voice spoke from up ahead of her. "We found one of the members of Delta Force. A Sergeant Stewart, according to his tags. The Captain requests you go to him, and get information out of him, since you're the best at persuasion."
"You mean torture," the Sergeant answered, and Beth felt a rage build up within her. "Where are Bevan and James? I've called them twice on their radio. No response."
The other voice spoke casually. "Probably sleeping on the job, sir. They aren't exactly the best Armacham have trained. Anyway, Sergeant Hilde, Captain Gravell is waiting for you."
The sound of footsteps indicated that the Sergeant was leaving to act out his orders, but Beth had no intention of letting Sergeant Hilde getting there. Peering from behind the door leading away from the stairs, she observed her odds. It was a large room before her, filled with tables and chairs. A counter was located in one corner, holding many bowls of salad and buffet food. It was a cafeteria. She counted the amount of men before her. Including the Sergeant Hilde - a large, muscular man wielding a combat shotgun - there were seven ATC security members. One - obviously the other speaker - followed Hilde towards another door at the other end of the room, carrying a handgun. Three men were huddled near the salad bar, discussing amongst themselves, two armed with RPL Submachineguns and the third unarmed, though Beth saw his weapon - a combat shotgun - laying on a table. One man lay on the table, singing drunkenly while holding an empty bottle of whiskey, his weapon holstered at his side. The final man, an African-American man carrying a 10mm High Velocity Penetrator Gun. Beth had seen this weapon before during her training. With a lethal flechette of nails, this weapon had the power to pin its victims to walls.
This was going to be a difficult fight.
Staying low to the ground, Beth sidled the door open silently, and aimed her weapon at the leaving Sergeant Hilde. She aimed the rifle at his head, focused her breathing, and her finger tightened on the trigger-
"Intruder!"
Yelping in shock, Beth turned to see one of the men beside the salad bar point at her, grabbing the attention of the other men. She watched in horror as Sergeant Hilde turned, and fired at her instantly, narrowly missing her head. Ducking behind the door, Beth breathed out. Things were going bad.
"Take her out!" Sergeant Hilde barked, and suddenly she could hear him running away. He was escaping.
Not thinking of her safety, Beth jumped out of cover, and fired a short burst, and was glad as the Sergeant fell to the ground and slid across the floor, his back bleeding out from the several holes that exploded upon him. The soldier next to him took the remaining rounds from the burst, exploding his head in shards of skull and brain matter.
The men at the salad bar started to fire upon her position, and without thinking she leapt behind a turned-over table. Bullets hammered upon the table, but none pierced through it, to her fortune.
"Frag out!" one of the men called, and as she looked up, she felt colour rush from her face as the rounded object came hurtling through the air towards her.
Instinctively, Beth flipped her gun in her hands, holding the barrel, and like a baseball bat swung the weapon, knocking the frag back towards the thrower. As she ducked, she saw the smirking thrower lose his confidence, and his face go blank before the frag grenade blew the expression off, along with most of his face. Bullets continued to rain upon Beth's table, the constant noise drilling into her head painfully.
She blinked hard, and was surprised by what happened.
"DO. NOT. WA-VER!"
The voice was deep, and seemed to be slowed down. Shocked, Beth also noticed that the bullets did not hit the table as constantly as they had previously. Moving from her position swiftly, she watched in awe as the African American soldier turned his head slowly towards her, and moved his body and gun to face her. But the movements were slow, almost mechanical. As though-
As though time is slowing, she thought, and realised it wasn't just that. Her body felt like it was being drained, as though a machine was sucking all the energy out of her through her head. And it was draining fast.
Muffling the warning voice in her head, Beth turned swiftly, and fired three rounds into the man carrying the Penetrator, and watched as he slowly toppled, his gun firing wildly, one harpoon-like round piercing through another soldier's head and pinning him high onto the wall. Another struck the drunken soldier through the chest.
"RE-TREAT!"
The remaining ATC soldier dropped his weapon, and with his hands over his head fled towards the door she had come from. Taking no chances, Beth shot him down as his hand clenched the door's handle. As he fell, a zipping sound ran through her head, and the body hit the ground quicker than it had been falling. It seemed time was constant once more.
"That was amazing!" Telford's voice gasped in awe from the radio. "How did you move so fast?"
"What?" Beth answered, confused. "I didn't so anything. If anything, time slowed down."
"Not from what I saw. If anything, you were moving like a blur!" he replied, still in awe. "Those guys didn't have a chance!"
"I don't-" she stopped talking. She had done something. A hard blink had done it. She tried again, but to no avail.
A groaning sound distracted her from the time incident, and she noticed that Sergeant Hilde was not dead. In fact, he was attempting to crawl towards a shotgun in front of him. Not giving him the chance, Beth ran to his position, despite feeling drained, and stomped on his back. He screamed, and lashed out fruitlessly at her.
"Bitch!" he cursed. "You'll pay for this."
"Where's the hostage?" she asked authoritively.
"Go to Hell," he growled, and spat on her boot.
She pushed her other foot harder onto his wounded back, and smiled as he snarled in agony.
"He's downstairs with Captain Gravell," he moaned.
"Thank you," Beth smiled, and without further ado, shoved the gun's barrel into Hilde's mouth, and fired two rounds, feeling the blood splatter over her face.
"Very ruthless," Telford said disagreeingly. "You must be really fun to drink with."
"Just direct me to Sergeant Stewart, and this Captain Gravell," she ordered.
"Fine. Go through the door Hilde was running to. Then take the left corridor. That'll lead you to an unguarded stairwell. Go down the stairs, and when you enter the next corridor, enter the first door on your left."
"Thanks," Beth nodded, and followed his directions at a quick pace.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Telford's directions were extremely accurate, and with no resistance in between, Beth found herself outside the interrogation room in a matter of minutes. Peering through the window next to the door, she studied the situation.
The room was a small office room, and coloured a dull white, like a hospital room. There was a wooden desk that had been flipped over, and all that had sat upon it was spilt across the floor messily. On the wall was a board, with notes pinned onto it. One note in particular caught Beth's eye: 'Remember to email Aristide. She's riding on my back like crazy! - Aldus Purple'.
Sergeant Stewart, beaten badly but very much alive, was sitting in a chair, his hands cuffed and placed behind him. Standing next to him, his knuckles showered in blood that was not his own, was a large, beefy man wearing black, military gear. The man had dark-red hair scruffily arranged upon his head, and a goatee. Another man stood the other side of Stewart, but compared to everyone else, he looked skinny and weak. His face was almost rat-like. But it was the man standing opposite of the three that caught her attention. His head was shaved, and like the red-haired man, he had a goatee but coloured blonde. He wore a light-coloured military uniform, with three medals pinned onto the right breast of his military blazer. She guessed this important-looking man was the Captain Gravell.
"Now I'm going to ask you again," Captain Gravell asked, his accent clearly giving him away to have originated from the state of Delaware. "What is your mission?"
"Bite me," Stewart retorted weakly, and received a punch to the face from the red-haired man, who grinned viciously.
"Now, you're making this difficult on me," Gravell sighed. "I need to know what you are doing here, and how many of you are there. If you cooperate, it will go smoother for you. If not, I'll be forced to make it as uncomfortable for you as possible."
"Again, bite me!" Stewart muttered, and spat onto Gravell's boot.
Gravell, disgusted, pulled out a cigar, and lit it. Smoking it casually, he wandered towards a combat shotgun leaning against the destroyed desk.
"You give me no choice," Gravell sighed, and with the speed of a bullet grabbed the shotgun's barrel, and swung the butt of it at Stewart's head.
With dawning horror, Beth watched Stewart's head snap to the side, and dislocate from his neck, bones jutting out from the back of his neck.
"No!" she cried out, forgetting the danger in front of her.
Gravell turned to his men, hearing Beth. "Take her out!" he shouted, and ran towards another door. Beth didn't give him a chance.
With fury flooding her system, she leapt to her feet, and fired the remains of her clip into the red-haired man and his weedier accomplice. As they fell, Gravell turned around, and leapt at her, determined to knock her down. Beth tried to reload quickly, but found Gravell collided into her, knocking the gun out of her hands. The two fell to the ground with a thud.
Before Beth could defend herself, Gravell brought a fist down onto her face. She screamed as her nose clicked and blood leaked from her nostrils. Another fist came down on her face, this time catching her jaw. She felt the inside of her cheek split open, and allow more blood to flow out of her.
"I'm going to give you twenty flavours of pain, bitch!" Gravell growled, and brought his fist down again, this time hitting her throat. Shocked, she lost the ability to breathe.
Gravell got off of her, and stood up. "Now to finish this," he grinned, and lifted his foot up, determined to bring it down on her head.
She watched as the boot came down, but as it got close to her face, it moved away, as did the body of Gravell. A figure hurled itself at Gravell, and with hostility the figure wrestled Gravell on the ground. Gravell booted the figure off, and grabbed his shotgun. As his hands grabbed the shotgun, the attacking figure locked his grip on the shotgun.
"Let go," Gravell muttered, and attempted to smash the barrel of the gun upon the attacker's head. The attacker dodged both hits, and countered with his own, much more successful hits. In three strikes, Gravell's face pulled a dazed expression, and the Captain seemed unaware of anything. Taking advantage of the situation, the attacker placed the barrel under Gravell's chin. Realisation dawned in Gravell's eyes, and at the last second pulled the gun away, avoiding the shot that could have blown his head off. Furiously, the attacker brought his knee up, smashing it into Gravell's testicles. With a scream, Gravell lost his grip of the gun, and staggered back.
Gravell's last look was of resignation as he stood there, his hands cupping his crotch, and the pain in his crotch was soon replaced with a large gaping wound in his chest. With a groan, Gravell's knees buckled, and he toppled down, spilling his heart and lungs out onto the floor.
The attacker threw the gun to the floor, and turned towards Beth. The person marched up, and as they bent over, Beth was overwhelmed with happiness at the sight of the handsome face before her.
"Need a hand?" Trent Bransen grinned, and offered a hand.
She took the hand, and as he hauled her up, she locked her arms around him, and hugged tightly, letting tears flow freely.
"I thought I lost you," she whimpered into his ear.
Trent laughed. "You should be so lucky."
"Sergeant Cullen," Telford's voice spoke. "I found your fiance."
With that, Beth burst into laughter.
