Wings of Death

Stranded

The two Shock Hounds led the way and the Arch Knight tanks followed their lead. They moved slowly and kept their eyes peeled for both Bloodwings and falling rocks. The headlight allowed the cameras mounted on the vehicles to give them an accurate picture of the road ahead. It was a scary ride to the top of the hill in utter darkness. Nathan breathed a sigh of relief when the vehicles reached the summit and came to a halt. He had never been a huge fan of hills. The winding and bumpy roads made him feel nauseous.

Alex noticed that sick look on Nathan’s face and gave him some water. “Bro, are you okay?”

“I feel like puking. I think I am going to take the cable car on the return journey”, replied Nathan. He slowly got down from the armored tank and breathed in the fresh air at the summit. The cool breeze blowing at the top of the hill made him feel refreshed. He was reminded of his school days when they used to go on field trips twice a year. Though he did not like the trekking expeditions he enjoyed the company of his friends. Those memories were still fresh in his mind. His school friends were probably dead by now. The thought made him shudder in fear.

“Switch on the flashlights and follow my lead. We are going in”, the Captain’s booming voice summoned him back from the realm of memories.

The bunker had become overgrown with grass and weed. The soldiers had to hack through the foliage to uncover the main door. It was made of pure titanium and had a broken number pad attached to it.

“Reynolds, plant the C4 charges around the door, one on each wall and a third on the ceiling”, ordered Captain Elijah.

“I am on it”,Corporal  Reynolds acknowledged the Captain’s orders and began placing the charges.

“Everyone please move back to a safe distance”.

“The charges are all set, sir”.

“Good job. It’s time to blow the walls”. Captain Elijah took out a remote detonator from his pocket and pressed the red button on top. A deafening noise pierced the skies and a huge explosion shook the ground. The walls around the door had been blown to pieces.

When the smoke cleared, the men moved in to extract the door from the pile of debris. It was so heavy that it had to be carried by two of them.

“There must be another titanium door in front of the communication room. Reynolds, come with me”. Corporal Reynolds and Captain Elijah entered the abandoned bunker and started searching for the communication room. The whole place was full of cobwebs and dust. In the bright glow of the flash light they saw a piece of metal shining through a covering of vines. They had located the second door. After hacking through the vines, they started drilling the wall around the door using battery powered drills. The Captain knew that using a C4 charge inside the bunker might cause it to collapse so he decided to drill through the thin walls instead. Though it was a time consuming process, it was certainly much safer. An hour later they had finally managed to extract the door from the wall. They were about to drag it back outside when they heard the familiar screams once more.

“Leave the doors. Everyone, get back inside the vehicles!” shouted the Captain.

They dropped the doors on the ground and got back inside their vehicles. Though they had heard the screams very clearly, the Bloodwings were nowhere to be seen. They checked all the camera feeds on the main screen but failed to locate the Bloodwings. The soldiers waited patiently inside the vehicles. 10 minutes passed and still nothing appeared on the screen. The Captain decided to find out what was going on. He put on his vanadium earplugs and got down from his Shock Hound. It was foggy outside; he could barely see a thing. Now he understood why they couldn’t see the Bloodwings. It was very difficult to track them in the fog and almost impossible to shoot them down. He went back inside his vehicle and informed everyone about the situation outside. They had two options in front of them: they could sit inside the armored cars and wait for the fog to clear up or they could put on their vanadium earplugs and try to locate the Bloodwings using their flashlights. Both the options came with their own unique problems. If they stayed inside their vehicles for too long the oxygen supply would run out and if they stepped outside they would just have 20 minutes to track down and kill all the Bloodwings. Since they were now stranded on top of a hill they could not expect any reinforcements.

Captain Elijah ordered his men to wait inside their vehicles till a solution could be found. The Bloodwings kept screaming outside but remained hidden behind the foggy blanket. Firing explosive weapons in that dense fog would be too risky.

Nathan suddenly remembered something and contacted the Captain on the radio, “I know how we can deal with them. Captain, do you remember the SAGL 32-Ts? They have thermal sensors attached to them and can easily track targets in the fog.”

“But Nathan we don’t have them with us. We had to leave all our weapons at the base because the Rain Blasters were too heavy”.

“I....actually thought it would be wise to bring them along, you know just in case we needed them. Before we left the base I put them in a bag and stashed them under the driver’s seat”.

Captain Elijah was delighted to hear this. The SAGL 32-Ts were the perfect weapons for this situation. He ordered Nathan, Joshua and Alex to step outside and eliminate the targets. The fate of this mission was now in their hands.

“Stay close to the vehicle and eliminate all targets of opportunity. I will cover you from my Shock Hound”, he added.

Nathan took out the brown backpack from under the driver’s seat and handed the SAGL 32-Ts to Alex and Joshua. The soldiers inside the car had surprised looks on their faces.

“Wow, those are some cool weapons. Good luck lads!” said a young soldier.

Nathan and his friends were ready to end the stalemate. They had come a long way from scavenging for supplies to taking on a Blood Demon. For the first time, he felt the soldiers actually depended on them. It felt good to be needed, to be trusted with a major responsibility. He knew the time had come to prove his worth. The three friends inserted their vanadium earplugs and carefully stepped out of the Arch Knight tank. They remembered the Captain’s training and took long deep breaths to steady their nerves. It was impossible to see anything in that fog, even the road ahead had disappeared completely. They carefully took aim with the SAGL 32 Ts and switched on the thermal scanner. In a matter of seconds multiple airborne targets popped up on the scanner. It took only a couple of seconds to lock on to the targets. Nathan was the first to open fire and took out three Bloodwings at once. Alex and Joshua followed in his suit.

“Let’s see who gets the highest number of kills”, said Nathan.

“Challenge accepted”, replied Alex with a grin.

They kept firing heat- seeking grenades at the targets and in a few minutes they had managed to shoot down every single Bloodwing in the vicinity.

“Clear! All the Bloodwings have been eliminated”, Nathan shouted enthusiastically into the radio.

“Well done boys. I am proud of you!” exclaimed the Captain.

Nathan and his friends felt as if they had managed to pass a major test. The young college students were praised by all the soldiers of Viper Squad. They had proven their worth during a life – threatening crisis. The fog cleared up after an hour and the men resumed their mission once more.