Late October,
Jess took cover as concrete dust and debris sprayed into the air as bullets hit the column she was behind. Her body running purely on adrenaline as she tried to survive.
Though there were some days where she wondered why she bothered. But then she only had to remember her enemy showed no mercy. If she was honest, she wanted to die on her own terms. Being strung up like the others or worse was not appealing to her. Naturally her gender predisposed her to a fate worse than what the male populace faced which added to her conviction to outlast the assholes trying to kill her.
Jess gave a frustrated growl as she left her cover and fired her 9mm at the man. He dropped to the ground dead, but before she had a chance to pick up his weapon, she felt the searing burn of a bullet grazed her arm. She cried out in pain and dropped behind the closest cover. Bullets rapidly punched into the wall behind her. She covered her face from the debris. Cursed as her arm burned with pain. She knew it was a flesh wound but damn did it hurt.
She rolled onto her belly and picked up the closest gun which happened to be her latest kill's AR15. She checked the ammo, it was nearly spent. But then so was the newest asshole's weapon as he was wasting bullets into the concrete above her. He wasn't alone as she heard him shouting for back up. It looked like food would have to wait for another day as she had to get out of there while she could.
She waited until she heard the telltale sound of a spent cartridge. When she heard the guy attempt to reload his weapon, she rose from her position and fired blindly as she needed to get out of the building as she raced out of the food warehouse.
So much for getting food today... she thought grimly as she ran as fast as she could to the car she stashed. She heard the men coming after her. She jumped into the driver's seat and quickly hotwired the car. She was relieved as the engine turned over quickly. She sped out of there as fast as she could. She made it halfway to her hideaway when the car ran out of gas.
"Damn it." she cursed in frustration. She pulled the handbrake and picked up the rifle. She probably had three or four bullets left. It wasn't ideal but nothing was ideal about her life at the moment.
Jess looked around to make sure she was alone before she abandoned the car and quickly made her way to the hospital. Thankfully the detainees seemed to leave the hospital untouched which made it the perfect hideaway. She pushed through the front doors not caring of the stench or sight. It had been traumatic in the beginning but now she was accustomed to it.
Jess headed straight for the supply room, she made sure not to touch any of the bodies so as not to disturb the rats or the bodies given their state of decomp was fragile. She grabbed the supplies she needed and went to the pharmacy as antibiotics were a must. She set herself up in a private room she'd cleared a week ago.
Jess looked at the graze and knew she'd need stitches but it was outside her skillset. So, she wrapped fresh bandages over it and gave an exhausted sigh. She was tired, she felt the tears fill her eyes from exhaustion and grief. She was so damn tired of being alone.
Jess missed Tex, she could use his sense of humour and never-ending amount of confidence and hope. But she hadn't seen or heard from him since July. She hadn't even tried to reach Section 7 as it was just suicide. If she was honest with herself, she was afraid of what she'd find if she did go. Amir and his men got out and that meant Tex was dead. He and everyone else she knew on the compound. She choked on a sob as the tears fell down her face as grief got the better of her.
She sank to the floor and buried her face in her hands as she let the tears flow. That deep raw empty ache inside her throbbed painfully. Her throat ached from the lump that had been lodged in her throat for months. Sobs racked her body and all the thoughts she refused to think crept in and tortured her.
Jess felt something cold and wet prod her hands, a low whine sounded. She pulled her hands away from her face and sat up, a beautiful German Shepherd dog pushed its face in hers and licked her cheek.
"Oh, where did you come from?" Jess asked softly, her body trembling from adrenaline fatigue and her crying jag. The dog was persistent and was shaking with excitement, his tail wagging wildly. She saw the military vest as she avoided the overenthusiastic puppy kisses. "Sit." she ordered, the dog complied. She rubbed his head and scratched him under the chin as she read his name tag. Her eyes went wide in surprise, her heart lifted. "Oh my god, Halsey!" she said happily.
"Where is Frankie?" She asked him, she looked to the doorway and didn't see him or anyone for that matter. She frowned and rose to her feet with shaky legs. She grabbed Halsey's leash and her rifle. "Where's your team?" she asked Halsey in a hushed voice.
Danny and his team waited in the hallway, surrounded by dead bodies and rats. He wasn't sure what he was expecting. He and his team just knew they heard the sound of someone crying. Halsey was drawn to it, so much so he pulled his lead out of Smith's hand and disappeared down the dark hallway. No one was game to go investigate without Halsey giving them some kind of signal. He hadn't made any noise which wasn't comforting at all.
"I'm telling you, this place is haunted." Cruz said.
"Ghosts aren't real." Cossetti argued in a shaky voice. "Are they?" he asked.
"Then how do you explain what we heard? the wind?" Berchem asked, clearly messing with the new guy.
"US NAVY, COME OUT SLOWLY WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" Danny boomed as he knew it wasn't a ghost but they needed answers. Danny was mentally counting down a minute before he would just go after Halsey when the dog reappeared in the hallway.
A second later, a woman stepped out into the hallway. She was Caucasian, 5ft7 with long sandy blond hair tied into a ponytail. She lifted head to bright light of the flashlights on their weapons.
"What the-" Berchem stopped short of cursing as they were on comms. Danny saw what he did.
"Identify yourself." Danny stated, but he already knew the answer. It was his older sister Jessica.
"Jessica Morley." She said, she squinted at the bright lights in her face.
Danny motioned for the others to lower their guns. He stepped forward and took in the sight of her, as he barely recognised her. She was a mess. She looked exhausted, sweaty, covered in grime, blood and dirt. The only clean part of her was the fresh bandage on her arm.
And here she was in Gitmo which was the last place on the planet she should be, especially in a major hotspot like the hospital. She was crying, she never cried and it was incredibly disturbing to him. All of it was disturbing him, the dead bodies, his now emotional and messy older sister. He felt like he landed in some bizarre reality where nothing made sense.
"How is she not sick?" Cruz murmured, a question they were all thinking. She looked healthy. It was incongruent to everything they knew about the virus.
"Better question is why are you all here? You're supposed to be in the Arctic. Did you find a way to make a vaccine?" Jess asked them, she then shook her head. "No, it's not important. You need to warn the Nathan James crew that there are detainees loose on the base. They have free reign of this place and are armed to the teeth." Jess said, confirming to Danny that she did in fact know everything.
"Nathan James, be aware there are hostiles in the area. Armed and dangerous." Danny said over comms. He still didn't know what to make of Jess' presence but he believed that she knew more about the base than him. "How are you alive?" he asked her.
"I'm immune," she said, fresh tears filled Jess' eyes as her expression turned grief stricken. "Everyone else on the base died from the virus. Those who survived were killed by the detainees. I'm the last man standing." she said despondently.
Danny was speechless, the Jess he knew was distant, cold and unfeeling for most part. Here she was deep in grief, an emotion he never thought she was capable of expressing. She looked away and wiped at her face as she was caught up in her own world.
"Lt Green, you and your team need to get moving. You're running on limited air." Rachel's voice said over comms, it pulled his focus back to the mission.
"What about her?" Danny asked, he could've claimed Jess as his sister but frankly he felt like the biggest chump. He'd told people his oldest sister was a Operational Efficiency Consultant for big firms which was clearly a lie. A lie he had fully believed and embarrassingly perpetrated for her, for years. As he couldn't imagine Gitmo needed help in that department or the military wasting the money. So, it begged the question of who was she and what had she been doing here? Questions he couldn't get answers to in that moment.
"Does anyone on your team have medical training?" Rachel asked.
"Smith is the team medic." he stated.
"I will talk him through taking a blood sample. We'll confirm her immunity status. For now, those medical supplies are more pressing." Rachel said.
"Copy that." Danny said, he turned to the team. "Smith, you're with Jess. The rest of us are to continue with the mission. Let's go." he ordered.
"Jess, good to see you." Smith said, he stepped forward as the others rushed off back. "I'm gonna take your blood for our Doc to test. She wants to make sure you're not a carrier." Smith said as he motioned for her to follow him.
"What are you guys doing this far south?" Jess asked, she watched the others rush off in the direction of the supply room. Halsey clung to her side and nudged his head into her hand, she scratched him behind the ear.
"We needed the supplies. It was too dangerous to dock stateside or so I assume. What do I know? I'm just a grunt." Smith said.
"A lost grunt, we need to go this way for the supplies you need to take a blood sample for testing." Jess said she showed him the way to the pathology lab and 10 minutes later he had a vial of her blood tucked into a pocket on his vest. "Do you have sentries posted outside?" she asked.
"No, we weren't anticipating any survivors. I'm gonna treat that arm for you while we're here." Smith said.
"Oh no, don't bother. It's just a graze, it will heal." Jess said.
"You're bleeding through the bandage." Smith told her. Jess looked at her arm and saw that he was right. But there wasn't time for this, she knew Danny and his team were on limited air.
"It will be fine, where's Frankie?" Jess asked him.
"I should change the dressing." Smith said, he avoided the question which told Jess everything she needed to know. Frankie was dead, her heart broke for Danny and Halsey.
"We should check the perimeter. Amir will have sent some of his men here to flush me out with the rest of you." Jess said. She worried that Amir and his men were going to attack the ship and send men here to attack them. They wouldn't come in, but they would wait and attack them when they left the building.
"What?" Jess asked as he gave her a weird look.
"Just weird hearing you talk like that. When last year, we were talking about how to streamline my financial records into more efficient and colour coded filing system for tax time." Smith drawled in wry amusement.
"Ah yes, the questions." Jess drawled as she wasn't amused at all. Her carefully constructed world fell apart months ago. She just didn't expect to see Danny or anyone she knew for it to matter.
"CIA?" Smith asked, as they both knew she wasn't in the military and not many other intelligence branches operated out of Cuba.
"Don't make a big deal out of it." Jess told him, Smith nodded as he pulled out fresh gauze and bandages for Jess' arm.
A low rumble sounded in the distance and the room shook. They both looked at one another. Smith spoke quietly into his comms. Jess tried to make out what he was saying but couldn't hear make out through all the plastic.
"Where was that?" Jess asked him as another distant explosion sounded.
"The others have engaged the hostiles. Far from here but I think you're right about checking the perimeter." Smith said as he rose from his seat and picked up his weapon.
"You should head to the roof, you won't need to use up your oxygen tank and you'll have better sight lines. I'll check the ground floor and exits with Halsey." she told him, she refused to standby feeling useless when she could help.
"Ok, let's go." Smith said.
"Man, only got 15 PSI." Cruz said as he checked his oxygen levels. Danny looked up from his bag to see the clock on the wall, time had passed by in the blink of an eye. What was taking Smith and his sister so long? he thought, he didn't think taking blood samples would mean being a man down for the near entirety of their mission. He had gone through the myriad of emotions and landed firmly on pissed off when it came to Jess.
"Shit. I'm at 9%." Cossetti added, the new guy was a mess. Danny didn't blame the guy for being jumpy given their surroundings or the fright of his sister. Finding a live person in this place was the stuff of nightmares. Add in the distant fighting and explosions, knowing one simple tear of a suit was a death sentence? it was enough to make anyone's nerves raw.
"All right, guys, listen to me. We got a job to do here, and we're not finished yet. No supplies means no vaccine. No vaccine, no going home, no seeing your families. Follow my lead. We'll be out of here in less than 10, got it? Let's do this thing. " Danny told them.
"Lieutenant Green, please don't take any more chances." Rachel said anxiously over comms.
"Green, we got trouble." Smith said, his transmission garbled with whatever Rachel was saying.
"Say again." Danny said as he paused in grabbing medications from the pharmacy. He and the others had packed up the lab equipment and supplies Rachel wanted.
"We got 4 hostiles setting up a party for us. I can't take them on without compromising my position. Make that five now. They have chained the exits." Smith told him.
"All of them?" Danny asked.
"Jess checked them all with Halsey. Looks like they are congregating at the front entrance of the hospital." Smith said over comms. Suddenly, Smith's absence wasn't so bad as he was covering their six and not wasting time.
"Where's Jess?" Danny asked, he checked his oxygen levels. None of them had enough oxygen to hold out in the hospital for back up. They were already rushing in getting the equipment to the east entrance of the hospital for them to take it on the way out. But that was clearly going to need to be addressed after they were safe from their current threat.
"She coming to you." Smith said.
"Hold your position. I'm sending the others to the roof to join you." Danny told him. He quickly formulated a plan as to their next move.
"Copy that." Smith answered.
"Here you are." Jess said breathlessly as she and Halsey popped up in the window to the lab. Everyone jumped in surprise and cursed as they hadn't heard her approach. Just another reason why Danny hated the hazmat suits.
"God Damnit!" Cossetti shouted.
"Could you not pop up like a Zombie in a movie?!" Berchem asked her incredulously. Jess gave him a dry look before she looked at Danny.
"Smith said he'd tell you what's going on." Jess said to Danny as she ignored the others.
"I'm up to speed. What have you got there?" Danny asked.
"Well, I figured you're all running low on air. So, you all go to the roof and I create a distraction." she said as she held up a bucket.
"With janitor supplies? What are you going to do? Clean them?" Cossetti asked in confusion.
"No, she wants to make a smoke bomb." Berchem said impressed.
"An IED would be better." Danny said. He had been thinking exactly the same idea. But he'd planned to use C4 and the battery pack from his camera. It rankled him that she was already ahead of him in planning. "Do you even know how to make one?" he asked her incredulously.
"Yes, who doesn't these days?" Jess asked blandly, Berchem smothered a laugh as Danny glared at him.
"What's your call, Sir?" Berchem asked him.
"You guys go up to the roof. Jess, Halsey and I will stay down here and create a distraction." he told them.
"Aye, Sir." the men said, they finished stuffing their bags and headed off to join Smith.
"You're being reckless. You should go with them." Jess told him. Danny kept packing his bag, he took it off to the east exit and placed it on the ground by the others.
"You're not my boss. So, stop wasting time and give me the bucket." Danny said he was tempted to press on the door and see if it would open but decided against it.
"You might be in charge, but no way am I letting you make a bomb while you're running low on oxygen." Jess headed back to where they came, Halsey loyally followed her. "You just conserve your air and energy and tell me when it needs to be deployed." she told him.
"I'm not having you make a noxious smoke bomb when I have C4." He told her.
"For the record, I wasn't going to make a smoke bomb. C4, please." Jess said as she held out her hand.
A few minutes later,
Jess crouched by the door of the main entrance as she carefully placed the IED she made and moved away. She kept low to the ground as she moved back to where Danny and Halsey were.
"Now what?" Danny asked, in an unimpressed voice.
"Gun." Jess held out her hand for his sidearm. Danny reluctantly handed it to her. "Let me know when." she told him, she looked at Danny, he talked on comms for a moment before he counted down. She shot the makeshift detonator and ducked for cover as the doors exploded.
Danny moved around her and headed through the door, Jess stayed behind with Halsey and listened to the gunfire and fighting. It was over and done in a matter of minutes, when she heard the shout of 'all clear'. She and Halsey walked out of the hospital to find Danny standing a few feet away without his mask on.
"Don't come any closer!" He told her. Jess held her hands up in surrender as she watched his team rush by, they were dragging one their own with them. "Nathan James, we need a medkit on the beach. Cruz has been hit." he said into his radio.
"What can I do to help?" Jess asked him.
"Nothing, just stay here, where it's safe. I'll be back." he promised her.
"What about Halsey?" She asked.
"Keep him!" Danny said as he ran off to help his team mates.
"Not even a radio." Jess said in disbelief. She looked down at Halsey. "Just you and me, let's go finish my brother's mission for him and his team. Maybe you can tell me what the plan is from here." she told him, Halsey panted happily as he followed her back into the hospital. She figured the least she could do was grab the equipment they desperately needed.