Cassie looked up and saw the Priest being escorted into the building by another soldier and climbing down from the second floor. Upon seeing his niece, his shoulders softened as Bethany ran up to her uncle.
The Priest picked up his niece as he made contact and hugged her tightly to her chest, tears running down his face.
"I'm sorry," Bethany sobbed into her uncle's shoulders.
"It's not your fault," the priest told, "there's nothing you could've done."
"I could've kicked him in the nuts," Bethany protested. "I could've hurt him to escape. I wanted to bite him in the nose but I didn't want to hurt him like that one boy I hurt."
The Priest felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach, his legs feeling like they could splinter at any moment, and a dam of tears so big it was about to burst like a water balloon.
I told Belinay never to initiate violence, he cried in his head, and I lied about him having a fracture.
The Priest put Bethany down before stumbling away to fall to his knees and land on his side, sobbing.
Bethany sat down next to her uncle's side and rubbed a hand through his hair. "Uncle, please don't cry. It's not your fault."
"I lied to you Bethany," he cried, "I guilted you into not fighting back and you ended up kidnapped."
"Uncle, I chose not to fight back because God wouldn't want me to hurt someone, not because of the boy." She cried into her uncle's shoulder once more. "God said to turn the other cheek, not slap it."
I can't protect Bethany, the priest wept in his head. I am worse than her parents could ever be.
Tyler jumped down from the second floor and ran up to the two religious people's sides. "We're in war; no time for emotions!"
Bethany moved to the side to help Cassie lift the priest up to his feet.
"Secure the VIPs first," Tyler told Alec.
"Roger that," Derek said.
The gunshots outside were getting louder and more erratic.
The soldiers outside the warehouse opened fire on the pickup trucks that pulled up. They riddled each truck with every bullet they could manage and could only hope that one of those bullets would pierce through the metal and hit the attackers hiding behind.
There was a soldier on the battlefield named Blake, who was scouting out his targets using thermal imaging while his partner, Massey, was using night vision. Experience from back in Afghanistan when they were firing at Taliban took over their bodies almost instinctively and shot at the enemies.
Blake and Massey hid behind the warehouse and took their time reloading before firing blindly from behind cover.
A third soldier ran up to meet Blake and Massey as he clutched his bleeding shoulder and pressed his back to the wall. "I'm bleeding," he deadpanned, "ouch."
"Massey, dress that wound," Blake ordered. "I'll cover you."
"Roger that."
Just as Massey turned around to meet the wounded soldier, a hooded man with a knife slit the soldier's throat from behind. He swung the knife at Massey before he was shoved to the ground by Cassie, who found another way out of the warehouse with Bethany and the Priest behind. The hooded man swung the knife at Cassie, who blocked a punch with her forearm and kneed the hooded villain in the stomach. She saw the knife almost striking her left cheek and she punched the villain in the nose.
Cassie pushed the villain back and knocked the knife out of his hand and to the side. The soldier stumbled back into Massey, who finished him off with a headshot.
"We got to get out of here," Cassie told Massey.
"No shit, Drake."
Blake pointed at the SUVs on the other end of the field. "Massey, we're escorting the civilians to the SUVs, ASAP. Take point!"
"Roger that." Massey grabbed Cassie's shoulder. "Let's get out of here."
Massey took point and provided covering fire at the hostiles as he and Blake lead Cassie, Bethany, and the Priest to the SUVs. The Priest kept Bethany safe by keeping her behind him and keeping his head down.
Cassie felt a stinging pain in her right abdomen and collapsed to the ground. Another villain had struck her in her stomach with a pair of brass knuckles after sneaking up behind her. Just as the villain with the brass knuckles was about to finish Cassie, he was shoved. The Priest shoved the man back before flipping him over his waist and snatching the brass knuckles from his hand.
Blake turned around and shot the brass knuckles thug, splattering blood on the Priest's clothes.
Cassie tried her hardest to ignore the intense pain in her stomach and proceeded to get up to her feet and keep on moving with the group, getting closer to the SUV with every step.
Cassie looked over her shoulder and saw two more hooded men hiding behind a 4x4 jeep and opening fire on them.
The Priest shielded Bethany's eyes with his hand. "Don't look, Belinay!"
Cassie took out her M4 carbine and shot at the thugs before they had a chance. They both took cover behind the jeep so she kept on suppressing fire at them. They shot blindly over the hood and nearly hit her in the head. She grabs the Priest and Bethany and yanks them with her.
After intense gunfighting, the two hooded men threw caution to the wind and jumped up from behind cover. Cassie killed both of them without blinking an eye.
Another 4x4 rolled up with four more villains jumping out. One of them had a rocket launcher.
Where do these guys get this stuff? Cassie exclaimed.
When Cassie ran dry on the bullets in her assault rifle, she pulled out her pistol and quickly shot at the rocket launcher thug and aimed at the one standing beside him.
Blake turned around and blasted the other two thugs before returning fire in front of him.
Cassie looked over and sighed in exasperation when she realized the SUVs were still a walk away.
"We're not going to make it," she yelled.
"Take cover behind the jeep!" Blake ordered.
"Let's use the rocket launcher on them!" Massey suggested.
The five of them took cover behind the jeep and continued their spray of bullets on the surrounding forces.
Cassie watched a bullet ricochet off the jeep. "I hope these guys have insurance because no one's going to rent a jeep in this condition."
Back in the warehouse, Tyler and Alec stayed behind to provide cover fire from the windows on the second floor. One of the soldiers with them was a sharpshooter and he was blushing like a schoolboy with a crush on his teacher with how many people he was sniping. He came prepared as he equipped his sniper rifle with a suppressor so the hostile forces couldn't track his position. Although, based on the gunfire coming his way, he could deduce that his enemies figured out his location. Downstairs, Derek opened the front door slightly to lessen the chances of his enemies hitting him while also having enough space to aim and fire.
These guys are wearing hoods, Derek thought, but these guys aren't Overlord. Are these more of Tariq's guys or something?
The sniper blasted one of the enemies in the head.
Tyler and Alec took their time reloading before looking at each other.
"Just like old times, eh?" Tyler smirks before firing blindly.
"'Old'? Excuse me, Tyler, but we're not that old." Alec quickly sprays a marriage of bullets at the hostiles. "A more accurate word would be 'recent'."
When Tyler's gun ran dry, he took out a grenade and threw it. "I didn't know you were discomposed by the word 'recent'; you're a young man, Alec."
"Yeah, if forty-four can be considered 'young' then I guess-" he was cut off by an explosion. "Yeah, I am young."
"Man, if only Erica were here to share this experience of feeling unencumbered."
Alec grunted. "Shut up and speak regularly."
"Just know when I use big vocab Alec, I am not doing it to diminish the intelligence of the youth you grew up with, nor make you feel frugal."
Derek couldn't help but wonder what was up with these guys he was shooting at.
Why are these guys fanatical if they are part of Tariq's crew. What lengths are they going to go to actually stop us from looking for Noah's Ark? If Tariq knew about the priest, he may know about Bethany and kidnapped her. But if these guys are so hellbent on killing us, why are they giving us a second chance? If these guys kidnapped Bethany, was it to draw us out into the open so they could kill us or give us a chance to give up. Then again, Tariq showed no mercy and most certainly wouldn't allow us to walk away. Does that mean it wasn't Tariq's guys who kidnapped Bethany?
Him staring off into space was interrupted when a bullet ricochets off the surface beside him and he quickly took cover. He sat up against the wall and stared up into the ceiling.
The only other possible explanation is Overlord. Then again, there is no way Overlord could've known about the priest or Bethany. What is going on here? Who actually kidnapped Bethany and how did these guys know we'd be here? No clues or demands were made in the few hours Bethany was kidnapped so they couldn't have planned for us to be here.
He could only come to one conclusion.
I don't care who kidnapped Bethany or who the culprits are, as long as she is safe and sound. Speaking of which...
He reloaded his assault rifle before looking out the gap in the door to see Cassie, the Priest, Bethany, Blake, and Massey pinned behind a 4x4. He now had a target in mind and VIP to protect:
Target: Guys shooting at Cassie. VIP: Cassie, Priest, Bethany.
Cassie specifically.
He traced the tracer bullets firing at the 4x4 jeep to its source and shot at the hostiles.
Back upstairs, Tyler and Alec decided to do a contest to see who could throw the grenade the longest. When they stood up and prepared to throw the grenades like baseball players, they saw something coming from behind the hostile vehicles.
More vehicles were incoming, except these ones were large 6x6 trucks, capable of carrying up to ten passengers in the back.
Those are Ural-4320 trucks, Tyler observed. Russian design. Are these guys Russian or... are these guys backup for the bad guys?
One of several Ural-4320 trucks plowed into one of the pickup trucks and crushed everyone behind it before stopping in the middle of the airfield and dismounting soldiers in the back.
The other trucks parked elsewhere on the runway and let out soldiers, who began shooting up the hooded hostiles.
What? There's a third party? Tyler looked around, remembering the grenade in his hand that wouldn't go off unless he let go of the primer handles. Is the enemy of my enemy my friend or my enemy?
One of the 6x6 trucks was going right for the wall under their firing position, answering hid question.
"Fall back!" Tyler ordered.
Tyler and Alec jumped off the second floor, dropping the grenades, but the sniper was slow to react. It wasn't the explosion of the grenades that killed him (as they hadn't gone off yet) but when the truck plowed through the wall below him and sent him falling and crushing him under the wheels.
When Derek saw the wall at Tyler and Alec's position decimate into a million pieces, he jolted and went wide-eyed as he stared at the 6x6 truck that stopped in the center of the room. He jumped out of his pants when he heard two grenades blow up near the hole the trucks came from and aimed at the first 6x6.
The driver and passenger stepped out, along with ten more soldiers climbing out the back.
He instantly recognized the insignia on the driver's shoulder.
The driver waved at him.
"Hey, Lowell. It's us, your old pals, Overlord."