Awaken the Sleeping Giant
Dunn had run about twelve stop lights and fourteen stop signs and they'd only been driving for roughly five minutes. In other words, he was driving like a bat out of hell.
"Allen! You remember what room Ramirez was in?" shouted Dunn, cutting off an eighteen wheeler.
Allen who was holding onto every available surface in an effort to not be thrown from the vehicle, yelled "Room 287. Second Floor. Left Wing."
"Got it. Hold on, we're going to take a shortcut." said Dunn, swerving the Humvee off the road and into a formerly quaint park. Now a pot marked shell of it's former glory.
Allen looked up to see that the sky was now filled with parachuting Russians and their air support. Once proud structures, symbols of the American dream were now being slowly destroyed by precision air strikes. Ahead stood the Capital building, it's dome falling in on itself. To his left stood the Washington Monument, it's peak crushed. Revealing the girders that were put in place to prevent such damage to it.
"Sarge, have they even hit our military infrastructure?" asked Allen, still taking in the destruction.
"What do you mean, Private?" asked Foley, holding onto a canvas strap that hung from the Humvee's roll cage.
"Have they destroyed our bases and all that? 'Cause all I see here is them destroying major national landmarks." said Allen, "It's almost like they're trying to demoralize us."
"Yeah, well try as they may. 'Cause all it's doin' for me is making me mad." muttered Dunn, swerving around an upturned bus with it's passengers spread all over the road.
"Maybe.. But I have to agree with Dunn on this one. They're just pissing off the entire goddamn country." said Foley, watching a flight of MiG's drop their payloads on the Lincoln Memorial.
Shepherd found himself standing before the entrance to a massive nuclear shelter in the Cheyenne Mountains in Colorado Springs. He waved off his guards, no need to bring two heavily armed bodyguards into a secure U.S. facility. Approaching the steel door separating the shelter he took in the vast size of the whole place. Sure, their may only be a small guard post but beneath those mountains was a whole colony of secure tunnels. And a conference room full of U.S. Military High Command and the Secretary of Defense, William Cullen. Shepherd hated the man with a vengeance, Cullen had been the one to take away his stars following the nuclear incident five years prior. But that was the past, whether he liked it or not he needed Cullen's help. The man had access to resources that Shepherd needed if he planned to take down Makarov. Shepherd walked slowly, taking in the vast array of Military might that would soon be at his command. Abrams fresh off the assembly line. Platoons of highly-trained special forces operators. Hell, if he played his cards right he might even be able to commandeer all U.S. Forces stationed in Washington D.C. But, first he had to actually get inside the secure facility. He approached a solid metal door, but unlike most doors this one had no handle. Instead on the wall next to it was retinal scanner. Shepherd never understood how the thing worked and didn't even really care. He was here for his Blank Check.
Ramirez awoke to the sound of explosions. Quickly, he swung himself out of bed and removed his hospital gown. He threw on his BDU's as fast as possible and retrieved his M9 from his bedside table, Dunn had left it for him the last time he'd visited. It was a breach in hospital policy but Ramirez figured it was an okay rule to break given the situation. He staggered out into the hall, his side weeping blood from the various stitches he'd pulled when he put his clothes on. But the pain was a reminder that this was all real, not some fantasy he'd put together in his dreams. Gritting his teeth, he started towards the entrance.
Dunn parked the Humvee on the front grass of the hospital. It wasn't like anyone was going to give him a ticket in the middle of a Russian invasion. Foley decided to stay with the vehicle while Allen and Dunn went in to retrieve Ramirez. The strode in through the sliding doors and into the waiting room, which was overflowing with victims of the last attack. Dunn calmly walked up to the front desk and requested he be allowed to see one Private James Ramirez.
"Sir, you'll have to come back later. Visiting hours are three to four." said the nurse, in between bouts of cracking her gum.
Dunn laid his M1911.45 on the counter, and asked "As I said before, I'm here for a Private Ramirez. Now, are we going to have a problem or I am going to have to drag him out of here by force?"
The nurse gulped, and keyed the silent alarm.
Ramirez stumbled into the waiting room he found the room full of hospital security who were in the process of arresting Dunn. Allen stood quietly by the door.
"The gun wasn't even fucking loaded!" yelled Dunn, struggling with the officers. Noticing Ramirez had entered the room, he called "Hey, Ramirez! It's me, in a bit of a jam here. Mind helping a brother out?"
"You know this nut job?" asked the security guard.
"Yeah.. He's in my squad.." said Ramirez, his feet still a bit wobbly.
"Alright. I'll let you off with a warning. But if you pull this kind of stunt again, I will beat the shit out of you. Understood?" said the Guard.
"Yes, Officer.." Dunn said sarcastically.
"Good. Now get the hell out of my hospital." growled the Guard removing the cuffs from Dunn's wrists.
"Allen, I can't believe you didn't back me up in there.." grumbled Dunn, rubbing the scraps on his wrists.
"Hey, I didn't want to get arrested!" said Allen, putting his hands up incase Dunn felt like punching him in the face. Noticing Ramirez's bloody tee-shirt, he added "Ramirez, you okay?"
"What this?" asked Ramirez, touching his bloody side, "Guess I ripped my stitches. No big deal."
"We'll get you checked out when we get back to base." said Dunn, hoping into the driver seat of the Humvee. Foley handed him a small slip of paper.
"Cop told me to give that to you." he said.
"What! Unlawful parking? This is bullshit, Reds are invading and I get a fucking parking ticket.."
"Please place your eyes on the scanner." commanded the Retinal Scanner. It was an odd experience to be taking orders from a machine but everyday was a new experience. Yesterday it was raising a Company of soldiers intent on doing his bidding and today it was taking orders from a hunk of metal. Shepherd placed his eyes on the Scanner while it ran a laser over the surface of his eyeball, similar to how a bar code is read at a grocery store.
"Scan complete." said the Scanner, "Full name and Rank."
Shepherd sighed, what next? His waist size. "Shepherd, Adrian. Lieutenant General."
Everything they were asking him were things they should already know, they had his retinal scan for god sake it wasn't like he had someone else's eyes in his head.
"Welcome General Shepherd, it is a pleasure to meet you this evening." said the robotic voice as the steel door leading into the bunker opened.
Shepherd stepped into the elevator leading to his meeting with Cullen, and more importantly his final piece in his puzzle.
Wonder if anyone noticed the Half-Life reference. I just had to put that in their. Figured I needed to explain how Shepherd got his blank check so he could fund his evil organization. Please place your eyes on the scanner, I mean Please Review!