Chapter Eighteen- Into The Fray
Officer Leonard Grizzoli stood in front of his SWAT Team as they all waited for Price to come back, he had no idea what the Grizzly bear was doing but he knew it was wasting important time.
He turned when he heard footsteps approaching, to see Price and Redbone jog down the stairs "gear up, we're leaving" Price said as he stood in front of them all.
Grizzoli nodded and stepped forward "we were just waiting for you" he said as the four teams in the basement left the floor and walked up the stairs.
The other six SAS teams seemed to join them as they walked out of the church "woah . . ." Fangmeyer gasped as he looked at several plumes of smoke visible in the distance "a fire?" Nick asked.
"From the napalm . . . That stuff doesn't go out by itself" Price said as they watched it in the distance "we should move, teams four through ten, get in formation . . . We're heading North" Price finished as Grizzoli watched the soldiers follow the officer's order and spread out.
Soon it was just the four teams again as they walked out of the churchyard "alright, let's move then" Grizzoli said, determined as they began to press deeper into the abandoned city.
He watched Price hold the radio up to his mouth and speak into it "Bravo Six to Checkpoint One, we're heading back in . . ."
"Roger that, Bravo Six, notify Checkpoint if there's contact" Bogo's voice said through the radio.
"Hard copy, this is Bravo Six . . . Team One and the SAS are Oscar Mike" Price said, looking at the team and nodding "let's move . . ."
As the SWAT and SAS Teams made their way further from the church and deeper into the city, the deadly silence from before came again.
It was almost potent as they continued to comb through the long abandoned streets. Grizzoli could see the angst and paranoia of the SWAT team, Fangmeyer with his paw pad resting on the trigger, Nick with his M4A1 raised up at the surrounding buildings, and Price gritting his teeth as his eyes scanned back and forth.
Until the silence was suddenly interrupted "so . . . Anybody wanna get some drinks at the bar after all this is done?" Nick asked, frightening practically everybody with the first word.
"Jesus mate, you almost made me shoot," Delgato said almost immediately in response.
"Not the time then?" Nick said a bit regrettably, "no, I just thought we've already established that we're gonna get hammered after this" Fangmeyer laughed.
Followed by Price laughing "I'm down for that . . . As long as it's a good bar" he said as Grizzoli saw him lower his weapon.
"I know a few places in Downtown" Grizzoli said, joining in "what do ya drink, John?" Delgato asked with audible curiosity.
The Grizzly laughed "not beer . . . Bourbon" he said with a grin "whiskey, Huh? You don't drink any beer?" Fangmeyer asked.
"Never liked it . . . Tastes like shit" Price shook his head "hey, not all beer tastes the same" Delgato quickly objected.
"He's not wrong, but I'm not much of a beer fox though . . . More a fan of something like hard cider" Nick said tilting his head in what Grizzoli assumed was thought.
Price nodded "I've had that stuff on a few occasions, it's actually decent . . ."
"Well once all this is done, I'm all for us going for a drink . . . Just gotta make sure Judy doesn't get hammered because she gets drunk after two bottles" Nick said, laughing at the end.
"I'd imagine she's a lightweight though Nick, bunnies aren't meant to take in much alcohol" Mchorn commented.
"Don't get excited yet though, this is still far from over" Price reminded as everyone suddenly grew alert again.
After that, silence returned and the teams continued their advance into the city with extreme prejudice.
. . .
Nick Wilde held his M4A1 rifle as he and the SWAT team made it through the open and empty streets of Happytown, streets he knew like the back of his paw.
He was beside Officers Fangmeyer and Price as he did this, both of which were just as paranoid as he was.
His eyes shifted back and forth as he anticipated almost anything to happen at any second, while using his acute sense of hearing to his advantage.
The only notable things he could hear were the footsteps of the mammals behind him and his own breathing, there was complete silence otherwise . . . And that made him have a terrible gut feeling.
He didn't really know what their next objective was, he wanted to say it was the armory at the construction site but he really wasn't sure. Wolford had told them a lot of what he saw when the criminals had him, and that the stock of weapons there was much bigger than the one at the church.
And technically being the expert of the area in the group, he had to know where they were going.
"Anybody know where we're going?" He asked abruptly, but there was no answer for a moment.
"Nowhere specific, we don't have a PID on Rouen yet, only the direction he went, which is North" Price explained rather thoroughly.
"Why would he go deeper into the city when he can just leave?" Catherine asked confusedly "Catherine has a point . . . It doesn't make much sense" Fangmeyer added.
"He still thinks he's won . . . The mission is to drive him out of here where we can get him easily" Price said, taking the cigar out of his mouth.
"You think he's near the center?" Nick asked, wincing his eyes in suspicion.
"Most likely" Price said in response "it's miles inward from where we first hit 'em . . ." He finished.
"Well . . . If we're going north, then we're doing it wrong by taking the sideroads, there's a main road that goes right to the center" Nick explained, pointing in the direction of the road he was talking about.
"If we wanna get there quick, that'll be our best bet" he finished "I agree with Nick, but it's too risky, there's no doubt there'll be mammals waiting for us" Fangmeyer said, making a point.
"Fangmeyer is right . . . If we do that we're gonna get ambushed for sure" Delgato added, Nick had to admit that Fang was indeed right, it would be the perfect opportunity for them to get ambushed.
He began to think it over in his head, attempting to come up with ways to avoid what they were suspecting, that was until Price spoke up.
"I'm with Wilde on this" Nick looked at him in surprise "what?" He asked as the grizzly stopped walking.
"It'll get us closer to Rouen a lot faster than this will, if those bastards have an ambush set up then we fight our way out" Price explained.
"And if we're suspecting an ambush, they won't have much of an advantage" Redbone added "if we take it slow, there's a good chance we'll beat 'em easy . . ."
"I agree, if they want a fight, then we'll give them one" Grizzoli said, there was obvious anger in his words, which was further emphasized by angry eyes.
Nick nodded at this "alright, it's not far from here so just stick with me" he said, a bit smugly now.
"Bravo Six to SAS, Team 1 is moving onto the main road and continuing north" Nick heard Price say behind him.
"Hard copy Bravo Six, we'll follow" a voice came from the other end, followed by multiple others.
Nick knew exactly where to go, the main street that went North was well . . . The Main street of the city, almost every side road led to it eventually. That didn't mean it was much different though.
As the mammals made their way closer to the supposed "main street", the silence from before almost lessened a bit, there were periodic bits of conversation that disturbed it, a good thing for the soldiers and officers.
The topics varied from their suspicions of the enemy to plans to go out drinking, but eventually something popped up in Nick's mind.
"So John . . . When'd you join the ZPD?" Nick asked, looking back at Price afterward.
"In '75, right after Nixon pulled us out of Nam . . . Police work was the only thing that remotely resembled the stuff I did in that jungle" Price explained.
"You applied immediately after?" Fangmeyer asked, surprised.
"A few weeks after, yeah" He answered with a nod.
"I was one of the last to leave when Saigon fell, killed about 200 of those bastards before they got me and I was flown out" he recalled.
"Must've been like hell on earth" Grizzoli commented as Price chuckled wryly, "Saigon wasn't even close to hell, mate, that was the jungle . . ."
"There's a reason why we hated the VC so damn much, Saigon was just the end of that pointless war" he explained further.
"You applied for SWAT right after then?" Nick asked "right after . . ." He affirmed.
"So you've been in the force a good . . . 45 years" Fang said in a bit of shock.
The grizzly only nodded as the conversation ended afterward.
Eventually the mammals reached the main street, walking onto it from one of the sidestreets, it was completely desolate like all the other streets.
"Here we are" Nick said as the four teams stopped on the old sidewalk, next to an abandoned traffic light.
Tall apartment buildings lined each side of the road, ones that were taller than what they had seen earlier, there were abandoned shops and stores that lied below and in between these apartments.
All the mammals looked up at them except for Nick and Price "if Rouen is North, we're going this way" Nick explained as he walked ahead.
He was followed by Price and Grizzoli, followed by everyone else.
Nick gripped his rifle tightly now as they walked down the street, he could almost see mammals walking down the sidewalk, cars parked so close to each other that they were touching . . . But all of that was long gone, and he couldn't deny it was eerie to him.
Suddenly after about ten minutes of silence, Fangmeyer stopped completely and so did Redbone, their ears pricking up and moving on their own "what?" Nick asked, stopping too.
"I hear something . . . Voices" Fangmeyer said "multiple of them" Charlie added.
"How many?" Price asked hastily, "I don't know, but it sounds like there's a lot of 'em . . ."
"They're not far from us at all either" Fangmeyer added, now concerned.
"Shit . . . This is Bravo Six to SAS and Raptor One, there's potential hostels in our proximity" Price spoke into the radio.
"Rog, we're a few blocks from your location, we'll get there ASAP" an SAS captain said from the other end.
"Negative, standby for confirmation" Price ordered.
"10-4, this is Raptor One, I've got eyes on your location" a voice came through the radio as the sound of a helicopter grew closer and closer.
"I see a group of . . . About 30 Tango's ahead of you, Bravo Six, maybe more" they said over the radio.
Nick looked at Grizzoli as this was said "give me an estimate" Price said frustratedly.
"Not far at all, they're practically right ahead of you . . ."
He watched Price shake his head as they stood in front of a steep dip in the road, Nick assumed that the criminals were below them.
Price suddenly turned behind him "Redbone, get inside one of those apartment buildings and see if you can get a vantage point" he ordered as the wolf nodded "which one, captain?"
"The roof to every one of those apartment buildings is accessible through the stairwell, any will do" Nick suddenly explained.
He saw that the sniper found that fairly helpful, as he looked up and nodded at nobody, before beginning to walk over to the sidewalk.
"Redbone, take Frost with you . . . It'll be better if there's two of you up there" Nick watched Catherine's ears prick up at this as Redbone stopped.
"Alright Frost, you're with me" the wolf said pointing a thumb at himself, the snow leopard stood up and hurried over to the sniper as the rest of the mammals crouched there.
"What do we do?" Fang asked as the two mammals disappeared "we wait until we hear back from Charlie and Frost" Grizzoli commanded. And the four teams did just that . .