Hey guys =)
Finally after all this waiting I'm back, with Chapter 2. I tried really hard to get it out after I missed the set uploading deadline (busy me, being busy =3). Also I had to deal with a kind of writters block. If you have ideas for the story feel free to share them with me.
Enough of that…Let's get reading!
The silent click of the round sliding into the chamber broke through the silence. Hesh drew air in through his nose and out again with his mouth. None moved, not even the shadow. The first thought Hesh had, was that the person might have noticed them. Merrick touched Hesh's shoulder to signal him that he takes the lead. With caution Merrick tiptoed around the corner. As nothing happened Hesh grew nervous. He looked at Riley, who returned the glance.
Hesh's couldn't take it anymore; his first foot moved forwards followed by his other one. He dashed around the corner, with Riley in tow. The pistol held to eye-level; Hesh aimed. He steadied the gun by letting the barrel rest on the hand which he held a knife with.
"Could you please put that thing out of my face?" Merrick glared into the running of Hesh's pistol. The younger Ghosts didn't hesitate and holstered the side arm again. Hesh still trembled from all the adrenalin in his system. He calmed himself again.
"Wait where is–" Hesh began, but stopping himself as he saw something unexpected. Merrick shifted his puzzled glance from Hesh to behind his back.
"Looks like somebody was faster than us." Merrick remarked. He walked over to examine the dead federation soldiers that lay scattered all around the hallway. Fresh pools of blood had formed around the bodies, what indicated that they haven't been dead for long.
"Keep your eyes open." Merrick ordered. Hesh followed him passed the bodies. To Hesh it looked like, they had been ambushed by a small group out of nowhere. The attackers had done their job well; all of the bodies only showed one or two gunshot wounds, either in the torso or head. It was clear to both that they weren't dealing with amateurs here.
Further down the hallway,they could make out somebody, turning around the corner. It was nobody other than Keegan, who made his way faster over to them as he saw that it was them.
"Right on time." Keegan remarked casually, "Any problems?"
Merrick shrugged his shoulder and just pointed behind himself. Keegan leaned a little bit to the right, to see what Merrick was trying to tell him. Keegan nodded slowly.
"That wasn't us." Hesh brought himself in, the mistrust evident in his voice. "Something fishy is going on here."
The newly regrouped team finally reached the room, in which they suspected their target to be in. Intelligence suggested it to be a kind of control centre for the federation troops in the city. Since the UAV's could capture some audio signals from there. So it was only natural for a commander to in a commanding centre.
All of them positioned themselves on both sides of the door. Merrick grabbed his shotgun from his back. Hesh took a deep breath; breaching was always posing a huge risk for yourself and your mates. In his earlier years, Hesh made the bad decision to position himself right in front of the door and nearly took a bullet to the head.
The loud burst of the shotgun alerted him again. The lock of the door was replaced by a huge bullet hole. Next Merrick turned his back to the door and kicked the door open backwards. Keegan, Hesh and Riley moved inside;
"Freeze!" Keegan yelled into the room, accompanied by a loud bark of Riley. It took them a moment to realize that the person they wanted to capture had already been captured. The man laid in front of their feet, tied up in a nice and compact package; ready to be picked up. The man's eyes followed their very move in awe. Keegan kneeled down and ripped the tape of the man's mouth.
"Who did this?" Keegan grabbed him by his collar, forcing the man choke. "Spit it!" His grip tightened. The man opened his bloody mouth but no sound left it. Meanwhile Merrick and Hesh searched the room for information.
"He won't talk…" A man appeared in the doorway, leaning against it casually. The Ghosts instantly grabbed their weapons, ready to shoot the guy. A sizzling silence followed between them. The man's features didn't change, except for a smalls sign dancing over his lips. He intended to grasp something in one of his pockets. The Ghosts watched him alerted. All Hesh hoped was that he would throw a grenade at them, but that didn't seem to be his intention anyway, since he had his grenades resting on the other side of his belt.
"How crazy do you have to be-" He lightened up a cigarette casually, a smirk plastered on his face. "To cut your own tongue out." He walked passed Hesh and Riley, who turned around to follow his actions further.
"You guessed it." He threw a glance at the whimpering frame of the prisoner. "Very."
"Who are you!" Merrick pressed the guy against the nearby table, who only put his hands up in surrender. Hesh and Keegan moved around the table; their eyes looked on him.
"It's true what they say about you guys; Scheiße, you really are not into playing games." He noted.
"That does not answer my question!" Merrick pressed him harder onto the wooden surface. Instead of gasping for air the guy just closed his eyes and inhaled the smoke from his cigarette.
"What if I told you that I'm not alone." He provoked confidently. "There are about ten boys and girls all around the place, who would gladly like to help me out." Merrick released his grip. The man brushed of the dirt and further enjoyed his cigarette. He eye them closely, especially Merrick. He grinned about something they weren't aware of, but it wasn't an evil grin, more of a amused, even sympatric one.
"What is so funny!" Merrick yelled at him angrily. The strangers put his hands up in the air.
"So you are the infamous, Thomas A. Merrick." He began, closing his eyes. He didn't seem to care that none of them would hesitate to take him out instantly if he tried something funny.
"I am." Merrick growled.
"Well…" The smoker's glance fell onto Merrick than over to Hesh. "I had to come all the way here just to save your ass." The Ghosts exchanged puzzled expressions. What the hell was he talking about? Saving their ass? From what? Hesh had the bad feeling that this may very likely be a trap. He waited patiently for Keegan and Merrick's reaction, before he would bring himself in.
"From what?" Keegan wanted to know.
"You will find out soon enough." The guy checked what appeared to be watch. He pressed himself from the table he had leaned on for the most time. Hesh noticed something unusual on the man's sleeve; the patch on it was a skull pattern, but not a normal one, this was his father's pattern. Not in white, rather in the colours of the German flag; black, red and golden. Around the skull were 12 stars.
"Before I forget, it would be very nice if you would just obey to my orders." The man stopped in his tracks. He adjusted the cap on his head, which he wore turned backwards. He waved them to come along, before leaving the room.
"Seriously!" Merrick growled, while Keegan and Hesh checked their equipment. "I'm not taking orders from such a swellhead; even less when I know that person for about five minutes."
"Calm down." Keegan patted Merrick on the shoulder. Keegan and Hesh were already outside the hallway, when Hesh found his voice.
"I trust him." He simply threw in. Merrick raised a brow, even Keegan. How could he have trust in someone like that. Hesh must have a very good reason for saying something like that. None of them said something, so Hesh continued;
"He wears the patch of the Ghosts."
"God, does she ever give up?" Keegan, followed Merrick who took the lead in silence. Merrick didn't answer. Hesh had kind of an idea, who Keegan meant. It was her; the woman from back than in 'No man's land'. All made sense now. She send the guy to get them.
"Finally." The guy welcomed them at the next corner of the hallway. Behind him stood ten people; all wearing a similar city-styled camo outfit. Some wore helmets, others preferred to not wear any headgear at all. Their weapons seemed to be set up right and were in perfect condition, from what Hesh could tell.
"Let's go."
"Wait a sec." Merrick refused to follow them. "What is so dangerous that we couldn't handle it by ourselves?"
The Leader of the group, came over to Merrick, who wasn't really sure how to react. The man brought up his watch to Merrick's eyes.
"You see those red dots, outside the city?" He explained. "Good luck for us, those are reinforcements of the feds." Hesh's eyes grew wider in shock as he saw how many of them it where. That was too much firepower for the American forces outside the city. At this rate they would definitely lose the battle for the city.
"Anything else? Do you to go to the toilet or something?"
"We are not going anywhere!" Hesh yelled angrily. "I'm not going to let all those people on the front lines down. "
"What will you do? Run over there and throw stones at the federation tanks?" The Leader came dangerously close to Hesh.
"That would be better than running away."
"Don't you understand, even if we tried to help them, it would be already too late." The leader warned Hesh in a demanding tone.
"This isn't about you." He grabbed Hesh by the collar and pinned him to wall. Keegan was just able to get a hold of Riley and Merrick. Hesh looked in the man's amber eyes, noticing how his features grew more and more into frown.
"I don't know what you were told, but this is war and in war you can't always safe everybody. This is not about heroics or your ideals. So I would greatly appreciate if you would just make my life a little bit easier by playing along." He let go of Hesh, who supported himself at the wall behind him.
He is right…
That guy is absolutely right about what he said. Hesh saw the images of his dying comrades and his father flashing in front of his inner eye. The pain he felt was still present in his mind. His head lowered.
"Mortars !" Keegan hissed as a deafening bang shock everything violently. Small fragments of stone began to crumble from the celling. The soldiers dropped to the ground. Hesh managed to crawl over beside Merrick, who attended to crawl over to the leader.
"Do you still want to get back to the front lines?" The man said, looking over his shoulder to Hesh. Louder and more violent bangs hailed all across the building. This was bad, still they came here to get them out. Hesh couldn't understand why they would potentially give their lives for them.
"Why…why are you helping us?" Hesh crouched beside the leader, who looked like he didn't really pay attention to what Hesh had to say. He had his mission and that goal wasn't to answer Hesh's questions obviously. Out of nowhere the man cracked a smile;
"In a strange and unexplainable way you as well as your too companions are our brothers in arms." Hesh's glance again fell on the guy's patch. "We are all Ghosts, so we're all in this together."
He should have realized when he first noticed the patch. They are Ghosts just like them; those other Ghosts. Part of the group they encountered in 'No man's land' and She was their leader. The mysterious woman with fire red hair and the tired look in her grey eyes. She knew all this would happen from the beginning, though she didn't let them know. Did she want to teach them a lesson?.
The trembling of the ground finally stopped. The group all got back on their feet and tailed after their leader. He led them down a dangerously damaged staircase. Understandable that he would rather choose the staircase than to be buried alive under a pile of debris. The stairs down to the first floor were blocked away. The leader swiped his rifle around briefly to make out an alternative route.
"This way!"
The rest obeyed without hesitation. The first floor looked just like the second withe exception of other parts being managed. The soldiers secure their position, each one hissing a short 'clear'. Hesh caught his breath and called Riley over to him. He observed the leader guy pressing against his earpiece;
"This is Geist 6. We could need a ride." He nodded slowly as the voice on the other end informed him. Subconsciously his eyes moved to the right, were the earpiece was. Next he grabbed his rifle and loosened the security switch, than he clipped in a fresh mag.
"Follow me." Merrick, Keegan and Hesh weren't sure were he was leading them, but everything was better than staying. They sprinted around the next corner to find that a huge hole had been struck into the floor. One after another climbed down. Hesh did the same and before helping Riley down. He patted his dog on the side and moved on.
In front of him was the enormous main gate of the palace. The group split and on positioned themselves all around the gate, crouched to make a smaller target and have a steadier aim. The leader weaved over Merrick and the two shoved open the heavy door. The bigger the span between the wings of the door got the more sunlight came in. Hesh's eyes first needed to adjust to the sudden impact of light. The first thing heard was the sound of a helicopters flying overhead. He only saw how the aircraft disappeared behind the next higher building. One a second glance Hesh realized that this were in fact federation choppers. In fact they were heading for the front lines at the outskirts of town. They battalion there wouldn't last long against that many enemies.
Explosions ignited all over the place; Mortar fire struck the park in front of the palace. One of the explosives hit a part of the palace.
"God damn it." Merrick tried to steady himself.
"They know we're here!" The Leader yelled to all.
"You don't say!" Merrick let out sarcastically.
"The party just has started." The guy pointed over to a bunch of Humvees approaching them. The broke a few meters away from the entrance in a way the vehicles could provide cover for the team. The gunners operation the machine guns on top of the armoured cars laid down some cover fire for them. Engines started howl as everyone was aboard.
"An there is the bouncer!" Hesh screamed, as an helicopter gunship, came into his view.
Shit. How are they gonna get out?
Write your thoughts in your reviews and as always thanks for reading =)