Big Luke
I can't remember the last time I let someone punch me this much. I was bound by my ankles and wrists to a wooden chair. In one of the rooms on the first floor. With every seemingly bullshit, but yet completely true, answer I gave to Gregor (the ringleader), I was rewarded with a swift roundhouse on the right side of my face. Gregor was left handed. It was going to sting when I finally got to shoulder my rifle and blow this prick's brains out.
"Now, I'm going to ask you one last time. Who do you work for and how did you find us?" asked Gregor. He spoke with a slight German accent.
"And I'm gonna tell you that you wouldn't believe me even if I did tell you," I replied which was retorted with another punch across my face. "I should go back to my ex," I stated after the stars flew from my vision.
"And why is that?" asked Gregor.
"Because she hit harder," I replied with a chuckle but I got punched again.
"Maybe I should go have a chat with your girl? See what she has to tell me," thought Gregor out loud to my face.
"My threat still stands. You lay a finger on her and I'll fuck you up," I threatened, fully aware that I was still bound to the wooden chair.
"You seem to care a lot about this girl. Your very protective over her. Now, I know she's not your wife. No ring. How could you two go undercover as a married couple but didn't think to put a ring on her finger?" this guy was starting to connect the dots a little. "What is she to you?"
"At the least, she's a promise to her brother. At the most, she's a good friend," I replied. "I look after my friends."
Gregor grabbed another chair and sat backwards in it to face me. He was about to say something but closed his mouth and listened to his earpiece. His expression changed to that of rage as he pounded his fist on the top of the chair.
"Shit!" he exclaimed as he kicked the chair. "Well, it turns out that the rest of your team jumped two of my guys. Stabbed them to death. Where are they?"
"I have no idea. I would hope that they're miles and miles away from here," I responded.
"I'm going to go talk to your girl. Maybe she can give me something I can use... or maybe provide me something to get my frustrations out," he said. Then he stepped out of the room.
I was going to kill that fucker.
My wrists were tied behind me and my legs were spread so my ankles reached the legs of the chair. I was thankful that the chair was made completely out of wood. I took a look around the room to see what I could find. It was mostly dark with only a couple of hanging lamps from the ceiling.
I needed to get moving. I lifted my arms back so that they rested just below shoulder level. This is why I do situps, I thought as I forced my chest forward to wrench on the back of the chair. At first nothing really happened. I kept throwing my chest forward to no avail.
I almost gave up. The damn chair just wouldn't bust. I thought about the people who depended on me, Brandon, David, Chiron, Mathew, Brittany, the rest of the camp. I wasn't going to let some chair stop me.
I wrenched harder, putting my abs into overdrive. Ignoring the burn. Crack! It wasn't super loud, but the sound fueled my determination. I wrenched harder and faster until the whole back of the chair snapped from the seat. SNAP!
"Fuck yeah," I said to myself as I slid the back of the chair from between my arms to the ground. I still didn't have full use of my hands but I made progress. I stood up and stretched as much as I could. Then I rolled into my right shoulder with the rest of the chair still tied to my ankles. As I came through the roll, I slammed my feet in a ax-swing like motion and smashed what was left of the chair. I kicked the now loose cordage from my ankles.
Now it was just a matter of getting to my feet. I used my legs to rock my weight back onto my shoulder blades. Then rocked forward in a downward movement. My head quickly replaced my feet and my feet planted on the floor.
Before I could try to find something to cut myself free, the door opened. One of Gregor's goons walked in. I wasn't expecting him to be there and he wasn't expecting me to be unbound from the chair. We just stared at each other for a half second.
The he pulled his pistol but I kicked it from his hand before he could pull the trigger. Then I kicked him in the nuts while he was stunned. I pushed him over with my foot and stomped down on his neck. He was dead and I could move on.
I had to kneel down to grab the short, fixed-bladed knife from his kit and un-sheath it. I then turned it around in my hand and worked the blade across the flexcuffs. After about five minutes, I was able to cut my wrists free. I picked up the pistol that the goon was using then headed out the door. I saw them place my kit and guns in the room across the hallway when they first escorted me into the interrogation room.
I walked into the room with the pistol raised. Nobody. I found my kit and geared up. Then I checked for my radio, it took a round at some point. There was a small hole in the side of the pouch and the radio was blown apart inside. No talking to anyone today. I shouldered my M16 and pointed it at the dead goon through the two open doorways. Sure enough, it stung like hell with my cheek up against the tubular stock, but I didn't care. I needed to get us out of here.
I worked my way back towards our suite. It was me against, what? Ten? Twenty opposition? I was trying to push thoughts of what Gregor might be doing to Brittany right now. Even if he didn't touch her, I would kill him. I didn't even really know who these guys were, but they weren't working for Kronos. Every time we ran into PMC, they always had monsters with them. It was only on rare occasions that they didn't. These guys were trying to hide something else, something that I wasn't concerned with. Drugs, prostitution, dirty money, I didn't give a shit. We just needed to get home.
I rounded a corner on the third floor and found six goons waiting for me. They must have figured out that I had escaped after the dead guy didn't check in. I should have seen that coming.
I just barely dodged their gunfire by diving into a doorway to another suite. I busted open the door with my shoulder to see two naked girls and a naked guy on the bed. The guy was a lot older than the two girls, probably some politician I've never heard of and his two weekend prostitutes. They were all staring back at me like I was from another planet.
"Y'all wanna get down before you get your asses shot!" I ordered them. They quickly hopped off the mattress and took cover behind it.
I tuned back towards the hallway, dropping my M16 so the sling caught it. I drew my 1911. the shorter barrel means that I am more maneuverable for when they came after me. I was outnumbered and the only way that I had to fight these guys was to wait them out; make them come to me. Using the doorway as a funnel, just like the Spartans at Thermopylae Pass.
I heard someone down the hallway start to yell at someone in German. Probably someone higher on the totem pole yelling at someone on the bottom. This guy was about as dumb as a box of rocks. He noisily ran up to the doorway. As soon as he turned the corner, I put two rounds in his chest. He was flatbacked hard as his blood was sprayed from his chest.
I heard more German yelling and two more sets of feet running towards me. The first one popped around the corner, but was quickly followed by the second. I double tapped each one, alternating targets on each shot. I knew I only had two rounds left but three targets at the least.
"Hey, Jon Luke!" I heard Gregor's voice call out. "I talked to your girl. She cracked real easily when I threatened to kill you. She's got a real thing for you!"
"Jon Luke, I'm sorry!" I heard Brittany's voice call out to me. She was obviously distressed.
I pulled out my small, pocket mirror from my admin pouch. I held it out slightly so I could see down the hallway. I saw Brittany wearing a red bathrobe and her wrists tied in front of her. There was a single arm extended from an open doorway and in the hand was a pistol pointed at Brittany's head. Three others of Gregor's men standing in doorways with rifles pointed towards me.
"Bo?" I started.
"Yeah?" she replied.
"Are you OK?" I asked.
"Yeah. For now," she replied, sounding a little more confident.
"Hey, let me ask you something," I started, trying to sound as casual as I could. "Do you trust me?"
"Yeah. With my life. Why?" she replied, still a little shaky.
"Because I need you to do something for me. I need you to do that thing that I know you don't like doing but can do anyway. Get 'em to fall asleep or something," I told her, trying to get my message across without tipping the opposition off. I knew they were expecting something rash, but they expected it from me.
"I don't know if it'll work," complained Brittany.
"It'll work," I confided in her, still remaining casual. "I believe in you."
I watched her take a deep breath. I was looking at her through the mirror and she was looking back at me. I did my best half-smile to try to get a positive reaction from her. She smiled with her mouth still closed and something sparkled in her eyes.
"So, boys? Can you understand what I'm saying?" Brittany's voice changed, like she was more confident and less scared.
I watched the men nod, possibly unintentionally.
"Good. So, listen up. I want you strong men to put your guns down," asked Brittany.
"They only listen to me, Bitch. You can't order them around," Gregor replied from inside the doorway with his gun to Brittany's head.
Brittany slowly turned to face him, ignoring his insult. "You too. Put your gun down. Please? For me?"
I did my best not to listen to her. She was good at using that Charmspeak of hers. I holstered my 1911 and picked up my M16. I pushed the stock hard into my shoulder. Then I picked up my mirror again and looked back down the hallway. Brittany was still standing there with the gun to her head.
"Please? Just put your guns down?" Brittany asked again. She lifted the bottom of her all ready short bathrobe to show a little more leg. Little known fact: Sexual stimulation helps substantially with Charmspeak. I couldn't resist but to look south a little ways. Damn.
I shook any thoughts I had out of my head and checked the other men with guns. Two of which had their guns down but their eyes still pointed in my direction. The other was looking back at Brittany who was biting her other pointer finger at them.
That's when I decided to strike.
I flipped my selector switch to semi-auto before I knelt down in front of my doorway. I shouldered my M16 and lined the sights up on Gregor's hand, then pulled the trigger. There was a little blood but it got him to drop the gun. He wailed in pain as he retracted his arm. The other guys were still a little distracted but Brittany hit the deck.
I reached over and grabbed a smoke grenade from the dead guy next to me. I pulled the pin and tossed it down the hallway. Smoke filled the hall and gunfire started to ring out aimlessly.
"Brittany, Come on!" I called as I ran up through the hallway and picked her up. We ran down the hallway as fast as we could.
"What the fuck are you shooting at? Get them!" ordered Gregor behind us.
"Get to the first floor," I ordered Brittany.
I stopped and knelt down next to the walls. But Brittany didn't keep running.
"What are you gonna do?" she asked.
"I need to buy us a little time. Here take this," I drew my 1911 and reloaded it quickly. Then I pulled another mag and handed them to Brittany. "Try to find the garage and find us a ride. I'll meet you there."
"Promise?" she asked in return.
"Go!" I ordered.
She didn't argue any further but she had tears in her eyes when she ran away. I forgot all about it and turned back towards the halls behind us. I switched my rifle to three-round burst and waited. When the first guy came around the corner, I triple-tapped him with one pull of the trigger. I switched the gun to full-auto and shot several rounds into the wall, then I turned around and kept running.
I tried to find Brittany on my way to the garage. The garage itself was towards the left side of the "U" structure that the resort was designed off. I made it to the stairs on the first floor when I finally found Brittany, but she was being harassed by another one of Gregor's goons, trying to take my gun away from her. I placed my sights on his head and blew his brains across the lobby. Then I finished making my way down the stairs. Brittany looked really stunned just standing there, gawking at the dead guy at her feet.
I grabbed her hand. "Come on. We need to go."
"You just shot that guy. You didn't even give him a chance." her eyes were still looking at the dead guy as I tried to pull her away.
"He would've shot you," I replied. "Now, come on!"
I basically had to drag her all the way to the garage. Once in the garage Brittany turned me around by the shoulder. She pushed my 1911 flat against my chest. I took it from her gingerly and holstered the weapon.
"I need you to take that," she said in a low voice.
"OK, that's fine, but I need you to take this." I slipped off my chest rig and handed it to her. "You need this more than I do right now."
I helped her put it on and then tightened all the straps down. It looked a little weird over the bright red bathrobe but I'd rather her be safe and poorly dressed than dead and fashionable. Then I took my hat off and put it on her head, low over her eyes to mess with her a little.
"Hey!" she complained.
"Most of your body heat escapes through your head. That will help keep you warm if we get stuck out in the cold," I told her.
"Let's just hope we don't get stuck out in the cold," she groaned.
I looked around to try to find something to steal to get away. There were a couple Humvees and jeeps. A couple dirt bikes. One Ferrari that I don't why they would have way out in the mountains and several snow machines. We needed to chose something quick before Gregor rallied his troops and came after us.
"Which one do you want? I'm thinking a snow machine," I asked, walking over to one of the Polaris'. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
Reluctantly, Brittany trudged over and sat on the seat of the snow machine. I sat down right behind her and pressed the electric start. The engine roared to life but before I could take off, I heard Gregor behind us.
"There they are! Kill them!" he ordered his men.
I pushed the flipper-style throttle as far forward as it would go and the snow machine took off. I started to drive the machine upwards. If we could loose them in the summits, we might be able to make it out of this alive.
The Polaris rode along the snow like a bicycle on pavement. I was surprised at how fast it was. But the cold, still night air bit at our skin. I felt Brittany shiver as she pressed her back into me to try to stay warm. I ignored the cold as much as I could. The adrenaline pumping through my body was helping me stay warm.
I took a brief look behind us to see several more snow machines on our tails. Most of the men driving them had passengers on the back with assault rifles. I tried to weave back and fourth to ruin their chances of getting a good bead on us.
That didn't stop them from shooting though. Bullets zoomed past our heads and bodies. Looking ahead, I could see that my plan of going through the summits wasn't going to happen. The terrain up there was far too jagged and steep for the Polaris to travel. I gunned the throttle all the way until we reached a super steep spot. Then I yanked the bars hard to the right, using the steepness to help us turn sharper in the bank.
The throttle was on the right handle bar, so I had to use my left hand to pick up my M16 from the sling, switch to full-auto and shoot at the opposition. I ripped through what was left of my thirty-round mag in a matter of a few seconds. I hit at least two of the eight snowmobiles that were chasing us. Gregor must have rallied some more troops.
"Brittany? I need you to help me reload," I asked her, speaking loudly so she could hear me over the gunfire behind us and the snow machines' engines. "Remember how I taught you?"
"Yeah, I remember." she took the rifle from me and reloaded it from my chest rig. Then she handed it back to me. I took it and rested the stock on my knee.
I steered the snow machine so that we didn't get shot. We passed the resort again. It didn't look like anyone was out on their balcony to see what was happening. They were probably boozed out and weren't planning on waking up till one or two o'clock in the afternoon. Something like twelve hours from now.
We headed for the treeline. If we couldn't lose them in the summits, maybe we could lose them through the woods.
We made our way down the mountain, dodging bullets and boulders. I could hardly make out details in the treeline in the dark. I spotted what looked like an opening or a short dropoff into a ditch, but turned out to be a log.
