Chapter 4: The Alamo

Jack had at least 15 puncture wounds in his back from the shrapnel that came from the ceiling. He was bleeding profusely.

"Jack, where are your keys?" said Juan

"Back pocket" grunted Jack

Juan took the keys and half-helped, half-carried Jack into the front seat. Then Juan collected the weapons that were on the ground and threw them in the back of the truck. Then Juan got into the drivers seat of the Puma.

"Jack, I don't know how to drive this thing" said Juan

"Put the key in the ignition" grunted Jack

"Where is the ignition" said Juan

"Forget it, Drag me to the drivers seat" said Jack

"Are you sure you can drive" said Juan

"JUST DO IT!" said Jack

Juan moved Jack to the driver's seat and ran around the Puma and got in the passenger's seat. Jack took the keys and inserted one into the ignition and put the Puma in gear.

Jack painfully drove the car to the Alamo. Which is a military station that was nearer than the hospitable from there current position. Jack was going 90 mph on a 30 road but when you factor in his condition it is justified. After 30 minutes of driving Jack finally got to the Alamo.

The Alamo was an impressive installation. It contained countless .50 Cal anti-aircraft guns, 10 tomahawk missile silos, a atmospheric MAC cannon, Factories for small arms, small ammunition, light and heavy vehicles, underground farming facilities, and even a small ship yard for repairing space ships. When the humans make a stand on this planet this is where it will be.

Currently Jack did not give a rat's ass about all of this information. All he cared about was getting past the 100 or more cars in front of him.

"Where did all these people come from" said Jack.

Juan was still struck with awe by the enormity of the installation.

"Fine, we are going around" said Jack.

Jack turned the puma hopped over the first curb, and drove the last two hundred yards on the outgoing road for the installation. At the end he just hopped the curb and slipped in the Alamo. Several feet after that he met the security checkpoint. Two men in forest camo got out of their air conditioned booth and walked up to the puma.

"What is your bisness here" said the first soldier

"We need to use the hospitable" Jack said with effort showing in his voice.

The larger man's eyes glanced over to the blood soaking Jacks shirt.

"O' my God" said the larger man to the smaller one "Look at his back"

The smaller man's eyes also stared at Jacks back

"We can't let you drive like that" said the smaller man

"I know where the Hospitable is so if you don't let me through, I will break your little road block" Jack grunted.

The smaller man started to speak "Just give me……" but Jack hit the accelerator before he could finish.

The Puma lurched out of park and immediately broke the pathetic stop arm that was connected to the booth like a chainsaw though a toothpick. As the Puma burned rubber away from the security booth the two officers fired stun rounds at it. One round whizzed past Juan's ear, another broke the puma's right tail light and a final one broke the right rear-view mirror. After they were 100 yards from the security booth the guards stopped shooting.

"It looks like they are calling in backup" said Juan

Jack stayed silent as he took the pain from his wounds.

After another 5 minutes of going on red lights and doing 70 in the 30 zone they finally got to the Hospitable. Jack skidded to a stop and let go of his consciousness. It was up to Juan now.

Near by another warrior was in an equally desperate situation. Captain de Blanc was the one solely in charge of the defense of Jerico VII. That meant at this moment Blanc was diligently analyzing his forces and how he could use them to defend this planet. It wasn't looking good. He had calculated that with out the civilian militia they would be slaughtered. But even with that asset their would still be inadequate troops to defend the whole planet. Their was only one solution, the Spartans. The Spartans were a highly classified group of elite soldiers that were further enhanced with Biomechanical suits what were code named Mjolnir for the Greek god of war. They would kill thousands of Covenant and they would just be warming up. If the Captain had these soldiers then their was a fair chance that Blanc could defend the planet. But currently the Spartans were in the core worlds on military police assistance. It was a three week journey from there to Jerico VII. It would be tough to survive very long without the Spartans.

Jack was lying face down on a hospitable bed when he came to. He could taste the remnence of anastasia in his mouth so he knew he had been operated on. Then he felt the catheter that was sticking out of his forearm. He assumed the liquid that was being pumped out of that catheter was helping him ignore the stitches in his back. Jack turned over to start getting up and immediately he felt many white hot knifes plunge into his back. He screamed in pain. After a few seconds in agony two nurses plowed through his door flipped Jack back over and upped the dose of morphine that was coming out of the bag.

One nurse whispered to him "Don't do that again or you could rip the stitches."

Jack could not reply because the morphine put him to sleep.

Sometime later Jack awoke and this time the catheter was taken out of his arm and their was no pain in his back. Jack got up with out pain and proceeded to find out what was going on. The first thing he saw was the T.V. mounted in his room. It was playing a news report.

"Thousands of people coming to volunteer for service in the Civilian Defense Militia. The line into the enlistment center is almost a kilometer long. Civilians have been told that they could use any weapon that they owned after they had passed a test on there usage of the gun. So as a result all people volunteering have a weapon of one kind or another. This is the first legal congregation of firearms in 200 years." The news anchor went to interview man in line "Sir, what are your reasons for volunteering"

"I've just come here to defend my home and my country" said the man as he adjusted a huge rifle on his shoulder.

"I'm glad there are so many people like you out there" said the reporter.

"You should join us" said the man to the reporter.

Then the T.V. went to a commercial break.

Jack slowly got up, fearful of the pain that he had before. After he got up painlessly Juan walked into the room.

"Hey Jack how are you doing" said Juan

"Fine, when can I leave this hole" said Jack

"Now. It's not like they can stop us" said Juan

"Ok let's go" said Jack

Jack got up and found his cloths and then went into the bathroom to change. Shortly after that two nurses entered the room

"Where is Mr. Conners" said the first nurse.

"Umm, I don't know, I got in this room by accident" lied Juan

"O no, I lost another one, Dr. Potter is going to kill me" said the second nurse.

The two nurses left the room and right after that Jack exited the bathroom with the clothes that he came into the hospitable in complete with blood stains and shrapnel holes.

"Where did you park the Puma" said Jack

"3rd floor of the parking garage" said Juan