Chapter Twenty Nine- Outgunned, But Not Outranked
August 8th, 2019
Officer Mason Hartman- ZPD SWAT, ex-Navy SEAL's, ex-spec ops.
Location- [REDACTED]
"Mason! Mason, wake the hell up!" Were the first words officer Mason Hartman heard as he regained consciousness, his eyes slowly fluttering as he was slapped in the face by someone.
"Come on, man, wake the hell up!" he heard again, the wolf's arm slowly rose and placed itself on his head as he woke up.
His eyes widened at the sight of his captain in his face "Gabriel, what the fuck happened?" He asked immediately as he backed up.
He saw the brown bear drenched in blood and sweat, breathing heavily as he looked back at him.
"We got the hell outta there, but we're stuck here" the bear said through heavy breaths as Mason stared at him.
He looked out the broken wall in front of them and at what looked like some kind of construction site, his eyes narrowing as they adjusted to the light.
"W-where's Adler?" He asked, glazing at Gabriel for a second "he went in . . . Told me to wait here, he didn't even have a weapon" the bear explained, with audible concern.
The wolf shook his head "you're kidding me, Adler's gonna get himself killed like that" he said to himself as he got up and crouched.
"Yeah, no shit . . . I haven't heard anything yet, but he's definitely surrounded" Gabriel explained.
"He told you to wake me up?" he asked as the bear nodded, Mason looked at the construction site again and bore his teeth.
"He wants me to go in and help him then . . ." He concluded as Gabriel nodded too "I can't help, too fucked up . . . Just don't die" the bear said.
He looked at him and nodded "try not to, just stay here, we'll figure something out" the wolf said before getting up and quickly descending down the steep hill in front of the building.
. . .
Mason Hartman quietly yet hastily took cover behind part of the crumbling fence surrounding the construction site, which provided ample cover for him.
He hugged the fence as he moved across it, eventually reaching a large gap in it and peering through.
He looked at the stone wall of one of the buildings he had observed before making his move, it looked like it was two stories, so it'd give him a good view of what he was dealing with.
He ran to it and hugged the wall, looking for some kind of entrance as he silently crept against it, paws up and ready to put up a fight with whoever he saw.
As he crept over to the other side of the building, he did see an entrance, but there were some armed mammals looking in his direction, so he waited.
Once they had looked the other way, he booked it towards the doorway and quickly hugged the wall beside it after getting in.
Mason's head recoiled as he saw a dead wolf on the floor, throat slit and a pool of blood beneath them, he nodded.
"That must be Adler . . ." He murmured as his attention was turned to a small flight of stairs a few feet away from the dead wolf.
The very much alive wolf walked over to the stairs silently and held his fists up as he ascended them.
Taking deep breaths with every step he made, Mason's head flicked to the side, teeth bared and paws in a fighting stance.
Though he dropped his guard for a second as he saw two dead wolves on the ground in front of a large opening that overlooked the area.
He snuck over and checked the two bodies, rummaging through pockets and turning them over slightly for any weapons.
The first canine had nothing on them, though it looked like they did at one point, because there was a single 7.6 caliber round on the ground next to them.
When he went to check the other one, he came up with nothing, though when he rummaged through their pockets he saw a gun handle.
Mason slowly pulled out a Beretta M9 pistol from one of the wolf's pockets and looked at it. He examined the handgun and unloaded it, it had a full magazine but that was the only one there was.
Either way it worked "fuck it, I'll go with a pistol" he murmured as he cocked the sidearm and loaded it.
Even though the pistol wasn't suppressed, it was definitely better than his fists, and it wasn't like he didn't know how to use it.
He stood up a bit and looked over the ledge the two wolves laid in front of, Mason now got a birds eye view of the area and immediately started looking for Adler.
He could see about 20 or so mammals, maybe less, most of which were armed and were carrying large crates to the street and placing them there.
He held his pistol in his paws as he crouched there, looking for those signature stripes of a tiger, even if he was risking being seen, he took a long time trying to spot his team member.
He looked at the crates the mammals were carrying, Mason was immediately certain that there were some kind of weapons in them.
All of the mammals there appeared to be completely unaware that they were being watched, let alone that some of them were dead.
As he looked at the surrounding area, he finally saw him, he spotted the striped cat crouched behind a patch of rubble, eyeing the mammals as they passed him.
He looked at Adler for a moment, before the big cat glanced at him and stopped. Mason gave the big cat a noticeable nod as Adler seemingly took a second to realize who he was.
He watched the big cat make the signal to rally up and Mason nodded, looking back at the stairs behind him and moving.
As he descended down the stairs, he determined how he would get across the construction site and to Adler.
He would use the rubble to quickly get over and reunite with the tiger, Mason would have to be quick but careful, and it was a good thing he was trained in that kind of stuff.
He reached the bottom of the stairs and snuck out one of the doors, hightailing it over to several piles of rubble.
The wolf began moving from one to the other, much quicker than how his friend did it almost an hour prior.
He looked over his cover every time before moving, waiting for the right moment to dash to the next piece of cover.
As he made it to where Adler was, Mason whispered something loudly "thunder . . ." His ear pricked up as he waited for a response.
"Lightning . . ." Adler's voice responded, it sounded like a good distance away but he moved in that direction.
"Thunder . . ." He said as he crept closer through the rubble.
"Lightning" Adler responded, his voice now sounding closer than ever as Mason got up and ran over to another pile of rubble.
"Thunder" he said one last time, though there was a different response "huh? Hey! What are you-?!" another voice said.
Mason spun around as they were suddenly cut off by a suppressed shot behind him, he saw a lion fall to the ground in front of him.
"Lightning. Saved your ass, Mason" Frank's voice said coldly as Mason looked at the striped cat and huffed at what he saw.
"Yeah, damn right . . ." He responded as he ran over to the tiger and took cover with him, "anybody notice?" he asked, as Adler shook his head.
"Don't think so . . ." he replied as he handed Mason an Ak-47, "but I save this for you, it's unsuppressed but it'll do" Frank said as Mason grabbed the rifle.
"How kind of you" Mason said as he looked at the firearm and held it in his paws. "I'll be sure to use it then" he said again.
The tiger leaned up against cover and audibly sighed "you got a plan, Frank?" The tiger shook his head at the wolf's question "not at all . . ."
Mason looked around and thought of their situation "there's no way we can do this quietly, there's too many and they're too spread out" he said, trying to offer the loud option.
Frank nodded "yeah, but where the hell are we gonna be when we start it?" The tiger asked in frustration.
"Back where I came from, it has a good view of everything" Mason responded, pointing a thumb behind him.
"That's some risky backtracking Mason, but your fucking right" Frank said with a sigh as he got up.
Mason walked over the dead lion and crouched down to check their body, on the ground next to them was a Grau 5.6 assault rifle.
The wolf picked up the rifle and looked at it "when the hell did Fyodorov get access to Russian arms?" he asked as he examined it.
"This thing has a red dot too . . ." He added quietly in amazement "I don't know, but I have a feeling there's more than that here" Frank replied as Mason continued looking.
After further searching, he realized that the lion was practically fully loaded, there were several more magazines for the Grau, magazines for the Beretta, a hand grenade was on their waist, and another Beretta M9 was in a holster above their pocket.
He grinned as he looked at the pistol and then at Adler "might as well duel wield with these . . ." He watched Frank shake his head "when you're out, Hartman . . ."
The two mammals then began to make their way back to the building across the construction site, dashing from cover to cover.
As they did, the two looked at what they would be dealing with, Mason could count at least 16 mammals walking around, all armed with what looked to be assault rifles or submachine guns.
The duo slowly made their way into the building and swiftly up the stairs to the second floor, crouching and overlooking the area once again.
The large gap that they crouched in front of had a wall of makeshift sandbags surrounding the ledge of it, granted it wasn't very high, but it would protect their legs from a few bullets when they go loud.
The aim of it all though was to get shot at the least possible, make the least noise and then move on.
Mason watched Adler stand up a bit and look out in front of them, beckoning the wolf to move up with him.
The two mammals looked at their surroundings for hostiles, scanning the area, it didn't take very long at all.
"Two- no, three at the entrance . . . Assault rifles and smgs, two wolves, one coyote" Frank said, gesturing his head towards the entrance where he had spotted the thugs.
Mason nodded "alright, four of em, at the truck outside, they're distracted . . . Rifles, smgs . . . truck isn't armed" he said to the tiger beside him.
Adler nodded slowly "that's six . . . Wait, big group over there, near the building . . ." His partner said, pointing at the side of the building across from them.
"Six more, mostly wolves; assault rifles and smgs, they look military issue" Frank said, looking at Mason for a second.
"Got it, that's twelve . . ." Mason nodded as he spotted more thugs "over there, left side, two more . . ." He said, gesturing his head to the left.
"Their isolated, good targets . . ." Frank said, swiveling his rifle to the left side.
"The other two must be inside" Mason said calculatedly as Adler nodded "then it's your call Mason . . ."
Mason nodded "go ahead . . ." he said with a slight grin.
AN: Hey all! Uh sorry about how late this post is, I know it's been quite a bit, and I still haven't gotten writing yet . . . So I really gotta work on that! And I'm planning to, believe me! Anywho though, just thought I should drop this here as a little something to keep you folks updated! That's about all for this AN, so see ya around.
Love ya and appreciate ya, A Laughing Wolf