The long awaited Chapter 10, Escape.

My eyes slowly cracked open, the light hurt. My head was pounding like a drummer's cadence. I could taste potatos. I realized I probably had a concussion, and then also that I was strapped to a metal folding chair.

I finally managed to force my eyes open enough that I could see; everything was in double. Definitely a concussion. Somebody was yelling something at me, there was a flash of light on chrome, a gun barrel. My head was jerked to the side by a strong hand, more screaming, I couldn't make it out over the high pitched whine in my ears.

"Chief Kasumi Saito, Serial num-" I heard myself saying before I was cut off by a strong hand jerking my hair again.

My head was jerked back towards the front and I saw a needle coming towards my face, panic kicked in, my hair stood on end, a moment later there was a flash of orange, then a flash of red, and I was on the floor, still strapped to my chair, as consciousness left me I could see the red pooling in the corner of the room.

I was sitting in the back seat of a family sedan, watching the scenery pass by lazily. I felt small in the back seat, and recognized the car, my grandfather's old caprice; I must have been about eight. My grandpa was driving us over to his house; I always spent the weekends there growing up. I smiled when I saw the house up ahead, a modest two-story he built with his own hands. I looked at the rearview mirror and he smiled at me, that goofy grandpa grin that he always had.

The crunch of the gravel under the new tires was reassuring, grandma was standing by the house up ahead, she was smiling too; we were going to make cookies this weekend in time for Christmas, the snow was already covering the yard and the pond was frozen. Grandpa got out of the car and opened the rickety old garage, the garage my dad had spent most of his youth tinkering in. He came back; we pulled in, and then got out into the cold winter air. I ran to my grandma, deftly avoiding slipping on the ice and embraced her in a hug, I felt my grandpa pat his hand on my head.

I jerked awake, my face was deep in cold water, and then it wasn't. I choked and coughed out the water from my lungs and scanned my eyes around the room while I retched.

I saw half a dozen men with guns pointed at me, my hair began to stand on end again, then I felt a sharp shock, my body convulsed and I went slack, out cold again.

The tears were wet on my face, my dad put his arm around my shoulder. The casket in front of me contained the remains of my grandfather, world war two veteran, postman, and the greatest man I had ever known. He was why I enlisted in the first place, the reason I always went out of my way to help others, he was… somebody who if I could be even a tenth the person he was, I would have been okay.

"Its okay" my dad said, "after your grandma passed… he was ready to go."

"I know…" I said, sadly, "but I wasn't."

I woke up again, the room was empty this time and I wasn't face deep in a bucket of water; the back of my neck burned. They must have used a stun gun on me. I was wearing what looked like medical scrubs and I could see faint scars on my body when I looked under them.

Faint scars and a few fresh scars, I noted, and a row of stitches down my rib cage, had they been experimenting on me? How long had I been here? Why was I remembering my grandfather?

I sat up and I felt a tingly energy flowing through my body, and then it was gone. I slipped out of the bed and examined the room, one window in the wall, simple architecture, modern Japanese but… not like any place I'd been before. I heard the lock on the decidedly western door click and I shuffled behind it, waiting.

"…and we've yet to actually find any… yes I know… yes I'm checking on her now… yes I'll get back to you on it." I heard a voice say, as if into a radio or a phone, the door cracked open and they started to walk through.

I grabbed the handle of the door and slammed myself against it, bouncing it repeatedly off of whoever was coming through, I heard a yelp and they fell backwards through the door, I pulled it open and rushed through, the man was on his hands and knees trying to get back up, I dropped onto him and wrapped my arm around his neck and squeezed, cutting off blood flow to his brain.

In a few seconds he went slack and dropped to the floor, his head making a dull thud against the wooden floor. He would be down for a little while, I decided as I moved past him, looking around the modest dwelling, it appeared to be some kind of farm house.

I heard footsteps and quickly scanned the room looking for a place to hide, there was a small section of paneling missing on the baseboard of the far wall from the room, it looked like I might be able to pry it loose without much effort, I shifted myself across the room as quickly as I could, careful to balance on my feet to avoid making too much noise.

The footsteps were closer now, I grabbed at the panel and pulled, it popped open instantly, I noticed it was hinged, a hiding place? I crawled inside the alcove and pulled the board down behind me as the source of the footsteps entered the room, a woman who looked to be in her early sixties carrying a clipboard, Caucasian, she noticed the man on the floor as I felt a sharp poke in my side as I lay in the cramped space.

She bent down to check his pulse while I reached for whatever was stabbing me, my hands felt cold metal, and smooth wood, I slowly, carefully turned my head around and saw what it was that had stabbed me, the front sight of an old bolt action rifle, whoever owned the house must have hidden it there.

I could faintly hear her whispering to the man on the floor, he started to stir. 'It's now or never…' I grabbed the front of the rifle and rolled out of the cubby hole and dragged it along with me, the woman turned to face me as I got to my knee and swung the rifle up against my shoulder, I snapped the bolt handle up and pulled it back slightly, saw that it had a round in the chamber, and slapped it shut again.

"Don't move, don't say a word…" I whispered out to the woman as I pointed the weapon at her head, which is when I recognized what I was holding, a Russian M44 Mosin Nagant Carbine, it had to either be a war capture or… given the climate of the second impact world, the farmer may have been a soldier in a post-impact war… I blinked my eyes, stopping my mind from wandering, I pushed myself to my feet and noticed that the sling on the rifle was lined with pouches, likely ammo and the rifle's cleaning kit…

I shook my head again, I couldn't concentrate, what had they drugged me on? I bit down on my lip and everything snapped back into reality, the woman was reaching for something…

I pulled the trigger, the gun bucked and my ears popped from the shockwave of firing inside of such a small room, the woman hit the ground clutching her arm, started running down the hall she came from, cycling the bolt on the rifle as I went, ejecting the spent casing and chambering the next round, the air smelled like old gunpowder and spent primer.

I ran through the thin sliding door leading to the outside, there was a large military helicopter sitting in a clearing ahead of me, several other military vehicles littered the field with various tents and other temporary structures, several people in military fatigues were running towards me, the gun shot had not gone unnoticed.

My vision started to drift again, I bit down on the inside of my cheek and snapped the heavy Russian rifle up to my shoulder, I lined up on one of the soldiers running towards me and fired, the gun jumped wildly in my hands, my small frame not used to the recoil of a full powered rifle, my shot went wide but it caught their attention, they raised their own, fully automatic, rifles towards me, I backpedaled around the house I'd just run out of, cycling the gun as I went, realizing the gun was now empty.

I could hear the running soldiers getting closer, I tore open one of the pouches hanging from the sling and found three loaded stripper clips, the ammo was green lacquer coated, Czech military most likely. I slotted the clip into the guide on the top of the rifle's receiver and shoved the five rounds down into the magazine, the clip shot out as the last round clicked into place and I slammed the bolt closed, ready to fire.

My eyes caught the bayonet on the side of the rifle and I remembered something my grandpa had said about the old Russian bolt actions. "These guns are kinda tricky about the front sight, back in the war they would always fire them with bayonets fixed, they sighted them in that way, and so if the bayonet isn't in place the shots could go wide"

I pulled back the spring clip on the bayonet and swung it to the front of the rifle and locked it forward, unsure why I had remembered that at that moment; glad all the same that I'd have a better chance if my shots could connect…

I pressed my back against the side of the house and held the rifle at the ready as the footsteps got closer, the carbine was heavy in my hands, but it was a reassuring weight, let me know that there was something to it…

A helmet poked around the corner and I slapped the trigger, a spark on the helmet and then the owner of it fell to the ground and twitched, I didn't know if I'd killed him or if the shock against his helmet had just knocked him cold, I couldn't make myself care…something was wrong in my head.

I cycled the bolt and ran along the side of the house, the footsteps seemed more hesitant now. I ducked around the corner and ended up on the back side of the house, opposite where I'd exited. A young soldier came around the corner, I pulled the trigger…and heard nothing more than a simple click.

He turned and saw me, I lunged as he raised his weapon, I speared him in the sternum with the bayonet and cycled the bolt, ejecting the dud and chambering a fresh round, I slapped the trigger and the recoil pulled the bayonet back out of him as he fell back onto the ground, blood coming out of his mouth…

I cycled the bolt open again, ejecting the spent shell as I shoved my hand into the pouch and loaded three more cartridges into the open action. I slapped the bolt shut and kept moving away from the house. I could hear gunfire behind me, and I dove to the ground, the shots went high, I could hear them shoot past.

Then I heard an engine and I turned to see an HMMWV pulled up between me and the house, the Ma Deuce on the roof barking out a song of destruction as the rear driver's side door flew open, I heard yelling from inside, "Chief get in this vehicle, now!"

I folded back the bayonet as I instinctively responded to the command; I dove into the back seat and heard the engine rev up a second before we started tear-assing out of the camp. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the reduced light, there were two soldiers in the vehicle, the gunner and the driver, I couldn't tell anything about them from my current position.

"Look, I don't even know how you could be who you say you are, but when our lieutenant tried to stop the guys with the masks from cutting on you they shot him in the head, that's not right, that's not how we do shit in the Corps. Whoever is calling the shots isn't in any chain of command that I am going to respect, so we're getting you and us the fuck out of here." The driver said as he accelerated onto a highway.

I finally heard the browning on the roof quiet down as the gunner dropped down into the back seat, "So you're the girl they were messing with in there huh?" I recognized the voice, Brooklyn, Brooklyn was under water.

"You're Brooklyn." I said aloud, mostly to myself as I remembered being captured, the order to surrender from outside of the plug…

"Eh, no, I'm Calvino, that's Kharms up front driving. And you're… Well… our orders called you Ayanami, but you called yourself Saito, and there was a medic attached to Lima called Saito, but there's no way in hell… " he trailed off, sitting back against the seat as I set the safety on the rifle I'd taken.

"You'd be surprised" I commented, my head clearing a little as we bounced down the highway. "it helps if you just go along with it. You should tell Kharms to head for Tokyo 3, broadcast on the NERV channels that you have the first child… they'll probably arrest you, but given the circumstances I think that's the best course of action, I'll try to get them to let you go, and if not… I know people." I rambled, my head clouding up again… they had either drugged me on something or done something to my brain, I hopped the prior but still feared the latter.

"I heard it, and Cal, get back on the fifty, looks like they're coming after us with the helo." I heard from up front right before I heard the dull thump of helicopter rotors. Kharms pushed the pedal harder and the truck lurched forward in acceleration.

My mind drifted to the past, memories of something very similar. I heard the rapid fire of a mounted machinegun in the distance and a series of pings off the armor of the humvee, must have been up-armored or we'd have been turned into paste right then.

I heard our own browning open up as Calvino loosed a stream of automatic fire at the helicopter but the gunfire ended almost as soon as it started, "I'm out!" he yelled as he dropped back inside the truck. I kept trying to remember…

"Where are we?" I yelled suddenly to Kharms, "Are we anywhere near Tokyo-3? I need a radio, a cell phone, something!" A plan was forming in my mind as I shoved my rifle and ammo pouches at Calvino, "It's not a Barret, but it'll punch through a quarter inch steel plate at three hundred yards, I used to have one of my own." I explained.

He took the offered rifle and said "eh, what the fuck, right?" as he kicked the passenger side rear door open and leaned out, holding the rifle in a left handed grip as he fired at the helicopter, the two foot flash out of the end of the barrel surprising him, but he cycled to his second shot without hesitation.

I dove into the front seat and reached for the radio Kharms was handing to me, I looked at it, standard issue, exactly what I needed. For some reason there was only one frequency I could remember, the one Shimata and I had used in Afghanistan…

I cranked the tuning dial and turned the radio on, "This is… this is Saito, Shimata, I don't know if you're listening, I feel like an idiot for even trying, but for fuck's sakes if you're out there I'm in the shit real bad-" the radio chirped as a signal came in over mine.

"Kas? I guess Jun was right, Ayanami is you, no other reason you'd use this frequency, what's going on?" I heard the bewildered voice on the other end ask.

I keyed up the mic as Calvino fired another shot, "Bucket? Alright, before you ask, yes, that's gunfire. You remember Afghanistan, the first time, right after Shimata got taken out? In the back of the truck, the Hind? It's a lot like that, I'm at…" I looked around trying to find some land mark, some way of identifying my location, I spotted one, "NERV stationary emplacement Hakone-alpha-tango-seven –seven-niner, heading north, I need any support you can give me, over."

Kharms gave me a strange look, he must have been wondering what I was drugged on to try to radio for somebody I knew was dead, if only he knew…

The radio crackled again, "I don't have those kinds of resources available right now, I don't know what to tell you Kas…" he replied, mournfully.

I slammed my head against the seat back and keyed up the mic again, "Ah, damnit…" an idea popped into my mind; "do you know any NERV-monitored frequencies?"

He must have picked up on my plan as he came back instantly, and more excited, "one-five-six-dot-zero-five, we never use it because they are always on it, over!"

I cranked the dial on the radio and keyed up again "This is Pilot Ayanami Rei of NERV, I am being pursued by hostile forces, please respond. I repeat, this is Pilot Ayanami Rei of NERV, is anybody listening?"

There was a brief hiss and then somebody finally replied, "This is channel is for NERV use only, immature pranks will not be tolerated."

I recognized the voice, Katsuragi, I was sure of it, "Katsuragi, I can assure you that I am legitimate, if you'll remember in the battle before last, I protected your car from Unit T-"

"I believe you, do not disclose anymore operational information on insecure frequencies, that said, where the hell are you?" she interrupted.

"Long story, I'm in a US Marine Corps Humvee being pursued by a rogue Marine Corps Blackhawk, heading north past Hakone Junction Seven Niner Niner, towards Tokyo-3, accompanied by Two Marines, Calvino and Kharms, They rescued me." I added, hoping to protect them from any ill treatment…

"I'm sending you support now, they should be there in a few minutes…" her voice changed, like she was yelling away from the microphone, "No, abort the test, abort the te-" the transmission cut off and static poured from the handset, I saw a flash of light on the horizon, the kind of light when an AT field is used in combat, my blood ran cold.

"Fuck!"

We'll be pushing more towards Eva after this, was setting up for future conflict.