2016 August

Act I - The Early Days

California

Logan held his breath.

It was dark - very dark. But that didn't matter. Logan had his ears, and the darkness was a welcome companion. It helped him to stay hidden within the shadows. And when he was hidden, he could be both dangerous and unseen.

Like a ghost.

There was a faint snapping sound right ahead. The snapping of a twig on the ground. And then there was breathing. Very faint, but breathing nonetheless. There was only one, from the sound of it. Just as Logan had figured. In that case, Logan surmised that the squad must be spread thin. Probably not many of them in total, judging by the fact that they weren't working in pairs. Hmm. Brutal mistake. A mistake that Logan had staked a lot on. He could probably handle 2 of them at once with a successful ambush. But that would be too noticeable. Too big. Two guys scouring together turn up missing? That'd definitely have them hot on his tail.

Logan stopped thinking and started acting on instinct. He crouched down even lower on the tree branch. The flashlight attached to the soldier's helmet scanned around slowly and carefully, but Logan was confident he couldn't be seen. He'd chosen his spot well.

One step. Two steps. Three. Four. The soldier was armed with what looked like a Mossberg 500. He couldn't be certain if that was the weapon, but it looked like it. And it was deadly stuff, but Logan was far more deadly. Slowly, the soldier passed in front of the tree, unaware of the imminent danger. Logan tightened his grip on his self-fashioned knife. He waited until the soldier was a few steps past the tree, and then leaped.

Logan and all his weight came crashing down onto the unsuspecting Federation soldier. At the same time, Logan sank his knife into the soldier's neck and used his hand to cover the soldier's mouth. Blood gushed out onto Logan's hands, and they hit the ground. Logan could feel the muffled scream. He ignored it and stabbed the soldier once more. There was a moment of blood gurgled writhing, and then it stopped. He pulled his knife out of the dead soldier. It was slick with blood, and so were his hands.

Logan rolled off of the guard, breathing hard, staring into the night sky. His hands were shaking. They were covered in blood, in fact. But he was ohkay.

He searched the soldier. What he found was good enough. The gun was indeed a Mossberg. And the soldier had been packing about 50 shells. Logan didn't need all of that. In fact, he didn't need the Mossberg at all. Which was why he chose the small Baby Browning he'd found instead. There was only one extra magazine for it, though. It was good enough for Logan; he wasn't planning on going to war. But he used his shirt to try and wipe the blood off of the helmet so that he could try it on. It was a bit loose.

Logan shrugged and tossed it. He didn't need it.

According to his mental map, the woods ran on for about 5 miles to the north before breaking into a clearing overlooking Parker's Bridge. He could probably find his way back to the city if he managed to reach the bridge.

Logan shook his head. No. He couldn't do that. The Federation would hunt him down like a dog if he went there. They'd be assuming that the city was the only place he could go. And they would be correct in that assumption. Logan's only directive now was to survive. Get linked up with David, and then get out of dodge. There was no where in his mind that he could actually go to. Rumors existed of the nearby resistance cells. Logan was certain that somebody out there was at war with the Federation in this area, especially after that battle that'd happened. His best bet would be to try and find one asap. Dad had taught him and David to survive, but it was an entirely different game when there was a military hunting you down. Based on Logan's calculation, he would last about maybe 2 weeks at the most. That wasn't good enough.

Damnit.

In the meantime, he needed to get a move on. The Federation would be scouring this spot soon after not hearing back from the soldier he'd killed. Hmm. The game was changing, once again. Logan had just entered a new mission, with new rules and conditions. He and David had gotten split up after the waterfall incident. So objective number one was to locate David, once again. He had to find him.

Sergeant Ricardo Morales had to find the missing prisoners.

His squad had been dispatched immediately after they'd gotten word of an uprising at the prison. The inmates had been waging a strategical battle against the guards, which Ricardo had found strange. Reports had suggested that someone had been directing the prisoners in their battle for the prison. And that someone was a person that Ricardo had yet to catch. There were three of them, in fact. One of them was some guy that, for some strange reason, had no record in the prison catalog system. A mystery guy who'd apparently successfully impersonated a Federation officer to steal 2 terabyte's worth of information from the network.

And the other two just so happened to be the pair of boys that Ricardo had arrested in the first place. It was such a strange turn of events. It was strange for several reasons. The biggest reason being the fact that the kids were, so far, successfully managing to slip Ricardo's grasp. He'd pegged them as the 'survival' type in their brief encounter, but he was mystified as to how they could be so good at evasion. The mystery guy, Ricardo could get. He'd already deduced that the 'mystery' man was the Russian agent. But the two kids?

Ricardo was curious. He might ask when he caught them, but he was under strict orders to shoot on sight. No more prisoners, no more mercy.

His earpiece lit up with traffic.

"Sergeant, you might want to see this."

Ricardo stood up from behind the bush slowly and signaled for his team to press forward. Shadows moved out from cover and moved up by several meters. Then Ricardo tapped the side of his helmet and activated his microphone. "Talk to me," he whispered.

"The new guy, Juan. He hadn't reported in after 10 minutes. I sent a pair to search for him," Corporal Castillo said. "We found him."

Ricardo closed his eyes for a brief moment. "See if you can track the guy who did it. I'm sending my team to recover the body, but I'll catch up with you. Be careful."

"Roger." Castillo responded, and then the channel clicked off.

Juan was only 20. War is hell.

Corporal Castillo had been the same way. He'd almost gotten killed several times during the Caribbean Campaign. Hell, they all had. But Castillo had always been lucky. Which was why Ricardo relied on him so much. And lucky Castillo was close to catching the Russian guy - at least, Ricardo assumed it was the Russian who'd killed Juan.

Ricardo crouched low and made his way to the pointman of the team.

"Did you catch all of that?" Ricardo asked.

Pointman nodded.

"Get a move on, then. Be careful - these guys are dangerous. Never underestimate your enemy."

Pointman nodded again, and then signaled for the team to follow him.

Ricardo followed them for a while, but they soon split up. The team went in the direction of Juan's body. Ricardo went in the direction of Castillo, to hunt down the killer. The chase was on.

Logan kept his pace fast but careful. He couldn't afford to be slow, but he couldn't afford to be sloppy either. The Federation would be tracking him by now. He was tempted to take the time to cover his tracks, but decided against it. It would take up too much time.

There was a sound up ahead; at least, Logan thought he'd heard something. Which was enough to warrant his attention. He instinctively went prone and crawled beneath a thick bush, slow enough to keep from making sound. Looking out into the darkness, he couldn't spot any movement. He waited for 3 more minutes before crawling out from beneath the bush. He couldn't afford to waste time hiding from nothing. But he moved slower now, with his Baby Browning held out in front of him, finger resting on the side of the trigger guard. Logan made it about 20 steps before there was some scurrying in the bushes left of him.

His reflexes kicked in, and he swung the pistol around to face the threat. He'd nearly fired. But it was just a squirrel, scrambling to get away from him. It made a lot of noise as it crawled around in the dark, and Logan breathed a sigh of relief. His heart beat had spiked right there for a moment.

Logan thumbed the safety back on, and then proceeded forward. He'd been operating off of shrewd guessing to try and figure out what direction David might be headed in. It didn't work all the time, but Logan had faith in his calculation ability. His calculation told him that David was probably nearing Parker's Bridge. It was the only landmark that they both knew about in this area, which made it the prime spot for them to rendezvous. Heck, it was the only spot they could rendezvous. David would be embedded deep within the treeline on the northern side of the road, overlooking it. Waiting for Logan to show up.

There was still some ground to cover, and Logan wasn't sure if he could outrun the Federation. His plus time had dropped by about 4 minutes and 17 seconds after first hearing that squirrel. It was a bad situation, and Logan couldn't try to ambush them. It would be several of them. And they would be far more careful than the guy that Logan had killed. They'd probably be shooting on sight. All of that added together made them highly dangerous. The little small pistol Logan was packing would be nothing to the assault rifles and shotguns the Federation would have.

Damnit.

There was another shuffle of leaves, this time to Logan's immediate right. He swiveled to face the threat, but he was too slow. His gun was knocked out of his hand. He spun around and threw a kick to the attacker's midsection - that was caught in mid-air. Logan caught a brief glimpse of his attacker. It was a Federation soldier in the uniform of an officer. The officer put a leg behind Logan's left leg and shoved him. Logan collapsed to the ground.

The officer went for a pin maneuver, but Logan rolled out of it, stood back up, and then threw a blow. His punch connected on the officer's jaw, and Logan threw another one. His second blow was blocked by the officer's forearm, and then a left hook was aimed at Logan's head. The blow was swift and fast - very fast - but Logan ducked beneath it and reached to wrap the officer up to tackle him. Logan was partially successful. He wrapped the officer up, and made to toss him to the ground, but a sharp elbow to Logan's back caused him to loosen his grip. Taking advantage of that, the officer looped his arm beneath Logan's and then slammed him to the ground.

As soon as they landed, the officer rolled across Logan and had him in a choke hold.

"Stop fighting and listen!" The officer said in a Russian accent. Logan wasn't even paying attention.

Instead, he used his legs to press up off of the ground. They were standing now, but Logan was still trapped in the headlock, struggling to breath. Logan leaned forward as far as he could, put his left leg behind the officer's right leg, and then snapped back upright. It was a trick dad had taught him to break out of headlocks. It caused the officer to lose his grip on Logan completely, and Logan immediately threw a left elbow over his shoulder. The blow was a half-hit, but it staggered the officer.

Logan then twisted around and attempted to drive his knee into the officer's stomach. It was blocked, and then a headbutt rocked Logan's face, and he was rendered dizzy for a spell. Then he felt two quick jabs in his midsection, followed by a straight kick to the chest. It sent him reeling backwards, falling on his ass. But Logan rolled with the landing, and came back up on his feet, with his knife in his hand.

He felt dizzy and weakened. This guy was dangerous. Logan felt that he might actually lose this fight. He'd never lost a fight before in his life, except to David. There was a trickle of blood coming from a cut on his head, and he was breathing heavily. He wiped the sweat from his eyes and tried his best to focus on the Federation officer standing in front of him.

"Listen to me!" The officer said.

Logan still wasn't listening. He couldn't. All he could hear was wringing in his ears. He was in pure survival mode. Logan just bared his teeth in response.

Logan stepped off of his back leg and lunged forward. A kick was aimed at him, but he slipped past it and went in for the kill. Logan slammed into the officer and went to stab, but his hit was deflected. They tumbled back into the woods and crashed to the ground together. The hill they were on was long and steep, but Logan didn't care. He was tangled up with the officer, and couldn't effectively use his arm. They rolled down the hill together, and his knife was lost somewhere on the way.

After a grueling downhill journey, Logan came to rest at the base of a massive tree trunk, looking up into the sky. He scrambled to his feet and looked around frantically. There was a brush of movement behind him, and Logan instinctively ducked, narrowly dodging the vicious haymaker. Logan caught the arm in his hands and flipped the officer over him. Once again, they hit the ground together, but Logan had the upperhand this time. He wrapped his leg over the officer's chest, grabbed his arm, and pulled, putting the officer into an armlock.

The officer twisted on the ground, slipped his arm out of Logan's grasp, straddled Logan and then threw a jab. Logan covered up with his forearms, and the blow glanced off. He kicked and knocked the officer back, standing back up. Without wasting time, Logan threw a kick and then went in for another grapple. His kick connected on the officer's shin, but his grapple didn't work. The officer slipped an arm beneath Logan's neck and drove him into the ground. Then the officer used his legs to trap Logan.

Logan tried to break out, but he couldn't. He was locked. Everything went black.