Chapter 63

I feel like I'm on a writing roll right now so I'm just gonna crank out story as much as I can lol. Two weeks since work calmed down and I don't know what to do with myself. I hope you all are enjoying the story still. Love hearing from people about what they love, or hope happens. I'm trying to speed it up just a little to get back to some story points I've brought up. SEAL Team is supposed to go back to filming late May according to TV Line so I hope in the next month or so we get some teasers. Enjoy a new chapter until then!

Mandy was positioned by the window she looked out of earlier. She carefully looked out the side of the blinds to monitor where the enemies were that she could see. Ray had gone to check the backside to see if they were going to ambushed.

"Doesn't look like anyone is on the backside yet," Ray whispered coming towards Mandy.

"We should probably make our way if these guys pass on through," Mandy whispered back. "Shh, right on top of us."

Both hunkered down and were ready for a fight. Mandy held her breath as they stopped in front of the home, they were hiding in. She couldn't tell if they had suspected they were hiding there or not. She couldn't make out what they were saying either.

"Maybe we'll get lucky," Ray said as Mandy turned to look at him with wide eyes.

"Don't say-," Mandy began but was interrupted as gun fire surrounded them. "You just had talk about luck," she called out.

Ray stuck one of his machine guns out the window and shot back, while Mandy fired through another. They both tried to take turns in firing to conserve ammo.

"Grenade!" Mandy yelled as she dove away from position seeing someone throw a grenade that landed towards the front of the house. "We gotta move before they pin us down!"

"Get the grenades!" Ray yelled out.

Mandy crawled towards their stash grabbing a handful of them. All around her, bullets were flying. It felt like they'd been fighting a battle for longer than a few minutes.

"Here," Mandy said to Ray. "You start heading for the back to make sure we have a clear path. It doesn't look like they've gotten there yet but we're running out time."

"I'm not leaving you behind," Ray said sternly.

"I'll be right behind you," Mandy said as Ray raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Promise."

"Okay," Ray said believing her. He fired off another round of bullets before moving to let Mandy take his place.

They both nodded at each other before Ray started making his way for the backside of the house. Mandy took a deep breath before firing of a couple more rounds to give Ray a head start. She could see the enemy starting to close in. Mandy looked over at what was left in the bag of gear they had stolen from the car. An idea popped into her head.

"Here goes nothing," Mandy said as she took the pin of grenade and threw them. She threw as many as she could before making a mad dash the way Ray had went. "We gotta go! Don't know how many are out there! Lean on me," Mandy said helping Ray down the path.

They were onto the street over from the house when a large blast went off. Both stopped and looked at the home now blown to pieces and the flames left from the blast.

"What the hell was that?" Ray said as they turned to keep moving.

"I might have set off some IEDs for when they made entry," Mandy said as they hobbled down the street.

Ray looked at Mandy in awe. He had a lot of questions about her tactical knowledge of ops. She had a cut near one of her eyebrows that was bleeding along with other tiny ones from all the debris that had flown around them.

"Flyer one," Ray laughed. "You really are meant for Bravo one," Ray commented.

"Well, I only work with the best," Mandy smiled but then paused as she heard vehicles coming. "We need to get into this warehouse. Sounds like patrolling is going on again."

They turned the knob of the door that thankfully opened. They quickly dove in and shut the door just before the enemy turned onto the street.

"Now what?" Ray asked looking around.

"I don't know," Mandy said honestly.

"HAVOC, this is Bravo one, any update?" Jason called over the radio as the pilot called out, they were one mike out from landing. No one had responded back to Jason for a few seconds before Jason radioed in again, "HAVOC, any update?"

"Bravo one this is HAVOC, we'll get you a sit rep in a second," Blackburn responded.

Lisa was staring at the screen in shock. They'd all just seen multiple explosions go off. Everyone looked at each other not knowing what to tell Jason. The last thing they needed was a Jason Hayes unhinged.

"Wait! Look," Jack called out seeing two figures taking the backside path. "That's gotta be them, right?"

"Could be," Troy responded before a large explosion to the target building occurred.

"That's Mandy," Troy and Jack both said looking at each other and shaking their heads.

"How do you know that?" Lisa asked confused.

"Mandy likes to make things go boom," Troy chuckled. "Can we get a visual of where they're headed? Update Bravo to continue heading to the original target building then to where they've moved."

Meanwhile on the chopper no one really said anything as they all watched an anxious Jason waiting on news. HAVOC not responding couldn't be a good thing.

"Bravo one, this is HAVOC," Lisa called out and everyone listened in closely just has the helo started to descend as well.

"Go ahead HAVOC," Jason responded.

"Enemy combatants attacked the target building," Lisa relayed. "Proceed to target building and updated coordinates of Bravo two and Flyer one will be sent to you once we have something."

"Copy HAVOC," Jason said before getting out of the helo.

"Ray and Mandy must be putting up a fight," Sonny said as they made their way to the awaiting vehicles.

"Sonny and Trent, you're with me," Jason ordered. "Clay, Metal, and Brock, take the other car."

They were still eight clicks away from the residential area they needed to head to. In Jason's mind, they were too far away. Jason's mind ran through scenarios of what they could find. He hoped Ray and Mandy had just a little more fight left in them.

"HAVOC, this is Bravo one. What's the status on QRF?" Jason radioed.

"QRF is in route to your exfil. QRF was also able to spare a few to send towards your way as well. They're still a while out," Blackburn responded.

"Copy HAVOC," Jason responded. "Step on it Trent."

Mandy and Rat went through the slim inventory of weapons they had left. They had a few grenades left. Both took a side arm and one other gun.

"Looks like we each get one set of extra ammo too," Ray observed.

"Hopefully, the team isn't too far behind," Mandy said loading her gun.

"You think they're here already?" Ray asked.

"I was on the phone with Jason when the bomb went off. My Dad would've instantly deployed them or other resources since he couldn't reach me," Mandy shrugged.

"Something tells me this isn't the first time you're Dad has pulled all the stops out to rescue you," Ray chuckled.

"You'd do the same for your daughter, wouldn't you?" Mandy raised an eyebrow.

"True," Ray replied. "I'll take higher ground. Less movement for my leg."

"Sounds like a plan. We don't fire unless we have to. Gotta conserve whatever we have," Mandy replied. "Cuz, I don't know how much longer we can hold out."

"We're gonna get out of this," Ray said as Mandy helped him up the stairs.

"Love your faith, Ray. Where do you want to go?" Mandy said. "Wish we had comms so we could at least give each other a heads up on what's going on."

Mandy helped Ray get situated and then went to another window to look out. For the moment things seemed quiet, but they both knew it wouldn't be long before the enemy figured out, they were hiding out nearby.

"HAVOC, this is Bravo one, any update a location," Jason asked as they approached the residential area.

"Bravo one, coordinates are being sent to you now," Lisa replied, and Jason exhaled. "There's a building couple streets over."

"Any update on the tangos?" Jason asked as Trent stopped the car.

"Enemy combatants are still heavily around original target building but moving towards new target," Lisa replied.

"I'm calling an audible," Jason said over the comms. "We're driving in instead of on foot. Bravo two and Flyer one won't last if we go on foot. HAVOC, how is QRF looking?"

"QRF is a few clicks out still, should be there for exfil," Blackburn responded.

"Copy HAVOC, Bravo is driving to towards target building instead," Jason replied.

"Copy," Blackburn replied back.

"Isn't driving in going to attract attention?" Lisa asked.

"They're running out of time," Jack said. "Need to get there fast before the sun is up. Enemy just got onto the street," Jack replied watching patrol turn into the are Mandy and Ray were now hiding in.

"We're never going to catch a break," Lisa sighed.

"They just need to hold on a little bit longer," Blackburn replied. "They've put up one hell of a fight so far. Mandy and Ray won't give up that easily."

"They're coming down our street," Mandy said from her position. "I'm gonna go below you. You keep overwatch in here?"

"Got it," Ray nodded cocking his gun.

Mandy quietly moved down the stairs. She wanted to be ready in case anyone breached. In what little time they had hiding out, Mandy had quickly run through the building to get a feel for the lay out. She really hoped that the team wasn't that far out. She wasn't sure how much longer they could hold out. Ray was injured as well. She figured the adrenaline would wear off soon. As she got into position, she could hear vehicles approaching.

Meanwhile, Bravo team was coming up to what was left of the original target building. They could see the smoke and a few lingering flames as they got closer.

"Heads on swivel," Jason called out just as gun fire rang out.

Trent quickly drove the car behind one of the other vehicles parked there. They jumped out of the cars and used the doors as shields as they shot back.

"What's the plan!" Sonny called out.

Jason looked around. It didn't look like there were terribly outnumbered, but the gunfire probably just alerted any other enemy in the area that they were here. It also probably told the enemy that Mandy and Ray were nearby.

"Trent, frags out," Jason called. "We gotta end this quick. We clear the building and surrounding area fast and head for the next target building," Jason called out and the rest of the team confirmed.

Mandy watched as the enemy approached. She held her breath. Even though she'd made fun of Ray for cursing them with luck, she hoped they got lucky this time. Next thing Mandy knew she could hear gunfire going off back towards where they came from. She carefully moved into view and looked up towards where Ray was. Both let out a slight breath. It meant help was nearby hopefully.

A series of explosions could be heard going off, but Mandy and Ray had bigger problems. The men patrolling their street had stopped in front of their building. They were talking back and forth. One tried the handle of the door, but it hadn't budged due to the piece of wood Mandy found and jammed it with.

"Here goes nothing," Mandy whispered as she hid in the shadows again.

The team had just thrown a bunch of frags and the gunfire ceased. They slowly moved out to clear the area.

"Area is cleared," Clay said looking around. "What the hell happened here?"

"Someone set a bomb off," Sonny said looking at the ruins of on IED Mandy had used. "Someone set up the enemy to walk in and go boom."

"Okay, let's move towards-," Jason began before gunfire and an explosion went off.

"What was that?" Sonny asked looking towards where the sound came from.

"HAVOC, this is Bravo one, we're headed towards the second target building," Jason called over the radio.

"Copy Bravo one, be advised, second target building looks to be under seize," Lisa relayed.

"Let's move, move!" Jason said urgently as they quickly ran back out towards the vehicle.