They had been waiting in a small apartment for three hours now, each taking turns on watch. Once and a while a small conversation would break out but every time silence came. Brandon was tuning the equipment, getting better reception with satellites and the like; josh had just started his watch and was busy staring at nothing. Alex kept cleaning his gun, and James was staring into space. Bored he looked over at josh.
"Anything?" he asked, josh barely moved his head
"Nothing, just two guys on watch, just like the last time you asked" josh replied
Unsatisfied with the answer James pressed on. "What are they doing?" said James pressing.
Josh was beginning to get annoyed "They're just standing there talking alright, that's all their doing, so when you ask in the next five minutes, my answer is still gon'a be their still just standing there and their still just talking OK" Josh sighed heavily and got back to keeping watch. James however couldn't resist one last jab.
"What're they talking about?" he asked slyly.
Josh glared at James "James, shut the hell up" was all Josh said.
Satisfied, James got back to staring at the wall.
James tried his luck with Brandon
"Hey Brandon, how's the tuning going" he asked
Brandon stared at James, for once for James Brandon actually scared him, so James backed off.
James gave up "I'm bored out of my gourd here, what the hell are we doing?" he moaned
"Waiting for orders jackass, so quit your bitching, if you want something to do, go grab..." Alex paused "hey Brandon what'd you ask me to get?" he asked.
Brandon looked up from his work "I need any 8g cell phones you can find and a satellite enabled device, the laser designator we have is faulty, would have targeted US instead of where we point the laser, so we need a new GPS, that should be it" Brandon finished speaking and went back to working
Alex looked at James "you get that?" he said
James jogged down the old wooden stairs in the back; they led to an electronics shop on the bottom floor. Pacing through the aisles poking about for equipment needed, he stumbled past a few ancient plasma HD TV's before finding the cell phone stand, grabbing what he could he stuffed them into his pockets. Just as James was about to leave he spotted a GPS package lying in some rubble, looking around to make sure there were no enemy patrols around he made his way to the front. As James was making his way to the front he tripped on some fallen debris, this wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't hit a shelf, causing it to stumble slightly. Holding his breath James made a silent prayer for it to not fall, but the gods were having fun and decided to play a game. The shelve fell with a crash, causing anything upright to fall and hit the ground as laud as possible.
"Oh shit" muttered James, dashing to the back stairs he found his teammates already rushing down. James decided to make the first move
"I can explain" he said, Alex had had enough though.
"James" he said with barely contained hatred "I give you one task and you fuck it up! You stupid stupid moron" he yelled. Brandon interrupted
"Alex, the second stupid was not necessary, in any case, we should be evacuating before guards arrive, and they will" he said. Just as James was about to speak up though, a hail of bullets tore through the shops windows, dust kicked up and the wall behind them began to disintegrate. Alex pulled James to the ground, the rest ducked; the sound coming from the machine gun was like thunder, except at five times a second, a whoosh sound came from the front, Alex's training told him this was an RPG, he gritted his teeth as an explosion erupted upstairs, searing heat cooked their skin, splinters showered them, a cry came out, James looked and saw josh cradling his arm. James was ready for a second rush of bullets, but then he heard something
"assez! vous deux y aller et de les tuer, à la fois de vous faire le tour et les encadrent"
James heard marching from outside the store; Alex was already reaching for his pistol
"On my count, run for the backdoor" he said. The group readied themselves for the retreat.
"Three"
"Two"
"One"
The boys stormed for the backdoor, a second later Alex started firing his pistol, a cry came out from the front, Alex had hit one of the rebels. James had made it past the back door and was now covering the side of the store, the machine pistol he was carrying was covered in soot, he was sure it wouldn't fire, before he could contemplate on it any further though, a rebel had ran around the back to flank them, seeing James he raised his rifle to fire but James beat him to it. James shot at the rebel for a few seconds before letting off the trigger, he pulled out his clip to see if there was anything left, by the weight he figured he had half a clip left. A fire fight had erupted inside the store, the machine gun outside continued firing, pinning everyone down, James knew they would be killed if he didn't do something. Gritting his teeth he ran down the side of the house, grabbing the assault rifle the rebel had dropped. It was a tushido SR5, China's response to the long lived AK- series. It still had a full magazine. Taking cover at the corner of the shop he could see that the machine gun was mounted on top of a rusting yellow pickup truck. The corner was on his right, meaning when he came out to shoot, he would be exposed to enemy fire. With a silent curse he jumped out of cover and took the shot.
His heart was pounding in his ears, his peripherals were fogging up, all his focus on the sights of the gun, everything was happening so slowly. He could see individual flashes from the machine gun. He took a breath, lined up the sights, and pulled the trigger. He felt the recoil in his shoulder, the sudden heat blasting his face. Slowly things began to speed up. The machine gun stopped firing; James could see a dead rebel slumped over the gun.
Alex saw James make a run for. he struggled to his feet; he saw a group enter the front of the store. They saw him and opened fire. Once again the machine gun started firing. Between the machine gunner and the rebels Alex knew this was the end. Josh was on his feet, readying his SMG. One of the rebels broke cover, Alex took his chance and fired, and the rebel screamed and fell to the ground. Josh was shooting at the cover, together they were surviving but barely. Suddenly josh was flung across the ground and hit the wall with a dull thud. His shoulder was bleeding profusely. He had been hit. Alex was ready to accept death when the machine gun stopped firing. A few seconds later in ran James holding a rifle. Alex shot the last rebel as he broke cover.
"You flank that gunner?" he yelled, part def from the constant gun fire.
James looked exhausted "yea that was me" he replied
"I hate to be the one to break the bad news but josh is almost dead, does anyone have bio-foam on them?" said Brandon, he was hunched over josh, keeping pressure on the wound.
"James, you have some right?" said Alex, who was still covering the entrance.
"Yea I have some, but we should get out of here, I bet everyone in a quarter mile heard that" replied James
"Good idea, Brandon, is he stable?" Alex was beginning to take the role of a leader.
Brandon looked up "he stable but without care he won't last beyond ten minutes."
Alex rolled his eyes "so that's stable?"
Without another word, Brandon and Alex helped Josh to his feet. James led them to the truck.
"Guys, I have an idea, grab some of those bandanas and the rifles; we slap those on and rush out in disguise." James realised that when spoken out loud the plan sounded horrible.
Brandon of all people, saw the value in this "it may give us enough time to treat Josh" he said
Alex shrugged "If Brandon thinks it'll work, good chance it will. Josh, you handle josh in the back of the truck, James you drive, I'll take the gun" he said, already climbing into the back of the truck
James grinned as he started up the truck "Driving ,finally, something I'm good at"