Jaded Warriors book 2 (Jade Series)

Chapter 26

Chapter 26


“Shit!” I heard Gage say, his voice distant in my mind at the end of a long tunnel. I tried to move but couldn’t, I went to speak but the words wouldn’t come. I couldn’t breathe, paralyzed by the stabbing heat that burned like a hot branding iron through my chest as my face warped into tortuous agony.


Yellow tracing stars raced through the shadows before me as my vision slowly returned and I saw Gage over me. I watched his frantic movements as he ripped open my coat. I looked down, expecting to see blood only to find a bullet lodged into my vest over my left chest. A fleeting smile washed over his face, only in relief to see I wasn’t shot then panic again as he unzipped the vest. He grabbed the sides of my head, forcing me to look at him with his face inches from mine as I struggled for air that still wouldn’t come.


“Shh… just look at me, stay calm and focus only on air,” he said, his eyes searched mine for a connection then held me there. The blueness in his eyes, soft and comforting as I sucked in small, rapid bursts of air as if breathed through a coffee straw, not enough to sustain life. I felt myself fade. “Slow down, beautiful… take what you can get, but stay calm… it’ll get better, I promise… trust me, you’re going to be okay.”


I clenched my jaw tight and sucked through my nose filling only the tips of my lungs, each breath searing pain raged through my chest. I held it briefly then released it slowly and attempted to draw in another, still viscously painful. My lungs wouldn’t work and I clutched my chest as I writhed underneath him from the unrelenting pain but he held me to the ground.


“Slow… slow, breathe with me,” he said, then breathed with purpose and I took his lead. I gasped for each shallow breath, each one a little more satisfying then the last as I calmed. My breathing slowly recovered then a surge of cold air rush into my lungs. “There you go… you’re okay.”


My eyes burned with moisture and I let them close as he kissed my forehead and pulled me close. The chaos around us drowned by the soothing sounds of my own breaths in sync with his.


“Gage!  Jade! What’s going on? Are you okay?” 


“Ya,” he said, as he pulled back and I met his gaze. “We’re fine.”


“Thank you,” I whispered, still afraid to attempt to talk as his lips briefly touched mine with a kiss.


“You’re welcome… can you move,” he asked, as he helped me sit, then he hunched back behind the rocks as he pulled me with him. The pain in my chest turned into a pulsating throb with each breath I took as the firefight around us resurfaced and our surroundings registered. Two men lay lifeless before us.


“They’re using night vision,” Gage said, maybe as a deterrent to focus my attention back to where we were as he watched me closely for any signs of regret or remorse for shooting them. He got none, they would have surely shot the both of us.


“Kane, did you hear me, they’re using night vision,” he said, almost in a whisper as he spoke into his headset then pulled goggles off the dead man’s head and handed it to me. The first break in finding a way to defeat them.


The man’s eyes suddenly visible, open but glazed over and empty as he lay in a motionless twisted heap. Gage reached over him and took the other set of goggles from the second man and slipped them on.


“We need the flood lights,” Joel responded. The constant gunfight around us, dulled to sporadic, focused attacks off in the distance as everyone seemed to be gaining a second wind, still engaged in the battle.


“The switch is on the back side of camp,” I heard Kane say. “I don’t think we can get there… you are the closest, Gage. They’ve breached the line and are all around us… you’d be walking right into them.”


“Maybe so,” Gage paused, as he glanced at me. “But I can spot them easier now.” I slipped on the goggles and scanned the camp as he crouched on his belly next to me.


“Can you see anyone?” Kane asked.


“Yeah, there’s two snipers below the watch tower,” he answered, “one o’clock, Casey.”


“It’s too dark and I’m almost out of ammo. Our reserves are blazing in that semi they hit,” he said, the frustration building in his tone. “I can’t see anything past the diesels.”


“They could be closing in around us and we wouldn’t know it until they’re on top of us,” Joel said. “Can you get to the lights, Gage? Let’s even the playing field.”


“Yeah, I’ll get there,” he paused, then gave me a sidelong glance as he pushed the goggles into his hairline. “Jade’s going to stay here.”


I gave him a scowl. “I’m coming with you.”


“No you’re not… I don’t want you a moving target out there with me, now that we know what we’re dealing with, your chances of not getting shot are better if you stay down.”


“But,” I hesitated, I knew he was right, but I didn’t think separating was a good idea either. “We should stay together.”


He shook his head as his fingers weaved through my hair, then pulled me close and kissed me quickly. “Just stay down and don’t move… they’ll cover me, don’t shoot unless you have to… I’ll be back.”


I watched with a heaviness in my chest as he left me once more. I searched for glowing green figures through the goggles the dead man provided. No wonder they were a step ahead of us the whole time, you could see everything, every little movement, every man hunched behind shelter within my range of sight, including Kane and Casey. Joel and the others, nowhere in sight.


“Kane,” I whispered in my headset as I scanned the camp, “you should get some of these.”


“We have some in the arms tent at the refinery.”


“Kane, there’s two behind you, fifty yards… seven o’clock… three more, behind that semi to your right.”


“Just stay down, Jade… don’t be moving around,” Kane scolded, his worry no less evident in his hushed tone. His voice, muffled across the wire as he said something else, undecipherable to me. Casey and Gage chuckled. Apparently they both heard what was said.


“Six more scattered on the eastern ridge,” I said, as I moved slowly, partially ignoring my brother and I giggled briefly under my breath, then searched for Gage’s position.


“I heard that,” Kane recoiled.


“Sorry,” I whispered, as I spotted Gage crouched on the side of a tent. I searched the area behind him and saw five men on the south hillside headed my way. Three clustered close to the base, the other two, higher up the hill. I sucked in air as they moved with cautious intent towards me, inching closer and I wondered if they could see me, then suddenly the two stopped. They turned direction, crouched behind a ridge then set out to stalk different prey. “Two, high on the southern ridge… they’ve spotted you, Gage… they’re changing course and coming your way,” I said.


“Okay… I see them,” he said, my heart raced in my chest as he ran for his next cover. Sporadic orange tracers burst from their rifles as he continued to run through open fire then hunched down behind a truck as Kane and Casey retaliated to provide cover.


Suddenly, bullets whizzed over my head and I returned fire. Completely exposed to the three who stalked me, I scrambled to the side of the rocks and crouched behind them. The flames from the blazing jeep, still raged and hotter now that I wasn’t protected by my cover. The orange glow blinded my sight and I pinched my eyes closed tightly, then shoved the goggles into my hairline and continued to move to the other side. Partially exposed to the men who stalked me, partially shielded with my eyes shaded from the blaze. I replaced the goggles and sprayed continuous bullets with marked accuracy into the men who neared.


“Kane!” I yelled for help as one of the men fell to the ground with a throaty groan. The other two dropped behind shelter as machine guns pelleted shots into the ground in front of them. I braced my rifle between two rocks and watched for movement as my eyes shifted hastily between Gage and the men who shot at me.


A hollowed out ping echoed as a bullet struck my rifle and rattled it in my hands. I winced from the stinging vibration in my fingers and released the rifle as if it were hot coals. I shook my hands then picked it up again and spotted Gage in my sights. Two Militia waited fifteen feet ahead as they crouched into position, waiting for him to walk right into them.


I went to engage a bullet but the leaver wouldn’t budge, the housing chamber jammed with indented metal from the bullet. I scanned the darkness as I pulled out the pistol from the back of my pants. No immediate threat closing in on me at the time, but Gage was in trouble as I spotted the two Militia that followed him, thirty feet behind him.


“Gage, two directly at twelve o’clock… can you see them? They’re on the other side of that tent up ahead.”


“Okay,” he paused, his voice a low whisper. “I’m sure they’ll show themselves soon enough.”


“There are two more behind you.”


Suddenly, Gage jumped to the ground as shots were fired. He returned fire as I focused my sights on the two at his back. I fired round after round until they both dropped and my clip emptied.


As the battle continued I held my breath and waited for the endless shooting to wane. The seconds moved slowly. Each gunshot, each round fired brought us closer to an end as distant groans and guttural sounds of defeated, injured men echoed in the dark night.


“Light’s going on!”


I ripped the goggles off my head as six scattered flood lights poured down. Thick beams of fluted spot lights lit half the camp with dark recessed shadows in between as if the sun shone through a black night littered with holes. The brightness briefly stunned me and I rubbed my eyes as I hoped they would adjust quickly.


The shooting surged with a rampage of fire as I heard shouts of men in my ear.


“Jade!” Kane yelled, his voice winded from exertion. “You’re right in the middle of them! Stay down!”


A flurry of gunshots littered the air from unknown directions as I frantically searched for Militia. “Jade, don’t move,” Gage said, his voice urgent, but low and deep in his throat as it cut across the radio. “I’m coming to you.”


“Okay,” I answered back, as I tried to press myself deeper into the frozen ground, then searched the darkness out past the reach of the floodlight for anything that might be a threat.


“Jade! Behind you to your left!” The sound of Gage’s voice rang out from the earpiece in my ear as I jumped to my feet and aimed the pistol as I whirled around and pinned myself into the shadows of the craggy rocks and they hemmed me in providing just enough cover. My heart pounded in my chest as I searched the darkness for anything that moved as a teenage kid not much older than me, dressed in black Militia with an assault rifle in his hand, rounded the outcroppings of rocks, my only shelter.


The bright flood light, thirty feet away cast a shimmering light across half of his body, the other side shaded in bold contrast as dark as the blackest night. He looked briefly stunned by me as we stood maybe ten feet apart, my gun aimed at his forehead. He froze in place, his gun in hand at his side as a rush of heat burned through me, panicked that he would move before Gage could get here.


“Drop it!” I yelled. My chest heaved with exaggerated breaths that puffed in a white cloud into the air as an all-encompassing fear threatened to swallow me and I waited for him to respond. His eyes shifted back and forth, restless and harsh, as he searched for a way out. With my eyes sharp as daggers under pinned brows, I prayed my hostile expression masked my bluff enough as I knew my pistol was empty. “Now!”


“Jade! Shoot!” Kane yelled through the head piece. My jaw tensed as I tried to block my brother’s insistent orders out of my mind. I wanted to rip it out of my ear, but didn’t dare at the same time sever my only contact with the others. “Does anyone have a shot?”


“Not without hitting her,” Casey responded.  “Gage!”


“No, cover me,” he said, his voice harsh and determined cut across the headset. “I’m moving closer.”


“I won’t tell you again! Drop it!” I yelled, as I pressed a step forward and honed in my accuracy as if ready to shoot. The sounds of gun shots bursting sporadic through the night was just noise in the back of my mind as I focused on the guy in front of me.


He remained unmoved as he watched me, studied me, and then slowly reached his hand to the ground as he lowered his weapon. He stood slightly hunched as he took a step back. A long dark shadow dripped across his face. The ache in my arm from exhaustion and the weight of the pistol seemed to pull at my hands and I struggled against gravity to keep it steady. My heart pounded violently and made it difficult to breathe as it intensified the pain in my chest. I couldn’t see his eyes, nor his other hand, and I swallowed hard as I felt my throat constrict, on the verge of losing the confrontation.


“He’s got another weapon… Jade, shoot!”


“Now, kick it to me,” I said, then ripped the earpiece out of my ear, overriding Kane’s all-pervading influence. A bead of sweat trickled down my spine. My fingers began to tingle, from the frozen air that bit at my skin or the fear deep in my bones, I didn’t know. “And don’t think I won’t shoot you if you try something stupid!”


With a weak effort he gave the rifle a shove with his foot as it skittered across the ground scabbed with ice and stopped dead center between us. The frozen snow crunched like glass under my boots as I took a couple steps forward, guarded as I kept my eyes and my gun pointed at him, then I reached down and picked up the rifle.


Relief bubbled in my chest as I felt the rifle in my hand, then my insides turned brittle at the ricocheting whine of bullets, scattered and sporadic from all directions, pelted through the air. Several whizzed by overhead, then peened against the rocks behind me and I ducked my head.


With acute ferocity in his eyes he startled me as he lunged forward. My heart purged into my throat. I screamed.  A flash of shiny metal in his hand shimmered against the floodlight. I dropped my pistol as he slashed through the air with a knife. My reaction visceral as I spun around quickly to miss the assault. The sharp blade cut through my jacket and razor sharp through my skin. I barely noticed the sting. I countered, whirling around full circle and struck him with a swift blow to the head with the butt of his own rifle. He dropped to the ground and the knife fell from his hand.


A warm sensation, followed by a painful burn, traveled down my arm and grew with intensity as I stared in disbelief. I kicked the knife aside then stood over him with the rifle in position to strike him again as I waited for him to try to move. The night grew eerily quiet, the sounds of my own breathing echoed in my head as my chest caved painfully with each breath. His blood, black from the dark night, flowed freely from a three inch gash above his right eye and soaked into his eyebrow before dripping down his cheek.


His expression, cold and condemning in eyes as dark as coal. I turned the rifle and stared down the barrel, with him at the other end, and engaged a bullet into the chamber. “Try it again,” I taunted, as I pushed my limits, hoping he wouldn’t. I glanced to the side as Gage rushed up with Kane on his heels.


“They’re falling back! Move up!” I heard Joel’s voice as I replaced the headset in my ear.


“Why didn’t you shoot him?” Kane yelled, with each stressed breath a white cloud curled in the air, him visibly angry with me as he picked the guy off the ground by his jacket. He ignored Joel’s request as he zip tied the kid’s wrists then shoved him forward. I picked up my pistol and held it up as I squeezed the cartridge release and it fell to the ground empty.


“My rifle jammed… and I’m out of bullets,” I said, with firm doggedness, irritation bristling my insides as Kane’s expression shifted from rage to disbelief. “I couldn’t exactly tell you… he’d here me,” I said, then glanced at the guy. His expression stunned by my bluff, his eyes full of awakened curiosity as if he didn’t hear me right. I beat him with an empty pistol.


“Well played, Jade,” Casey said, as he walked up next to me with a smile then with a weak effort, slapped me on the back and gave my shoulder a squeeze.


“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kane said, with a raise of his eyebrows, then shook his head in disbelief as he gave me a scowl in jest. My chest warmed inside with his approval. He grabbed the prisoners arm and moved him forward. “I bet you feel stupid right about now, don’t you,” he said, then laughed as he gave him a shove, and I watched as they walked away. “Move it… to that tent straight ahead.”


“Head up the north bank,” Joel said, his voice cut through between us.


My insides quivered as another rush surged through me and I glanced at Gage. “You’re staying put,” he said, as Chale and three men ran passed to assist. He ran a stressed hand through his hair and pulled the night vision goggles off his head and dropped them to the ground. I didn’t argue as fatigue surfaced in the wake of spent adrenalin.


“Give her some credit,” Casey said, as he pushed against Gage with his forearm, sending him off balance. He quickly retaliated as he shoved Casey back, his face etched with worry and sweat, evidence of his own exhaustion, then he turned to me.


“Yeah, she kicked some butt,” he said, then gave me a heart melting smile with his approval of how I did. His hair stood up in a ruffled mess, with a thin layer of dust on his face and black char smudged across the side of his forehead and into his brow. I felt heat rush to my cheeks.


He curled his arm around my neck and pulled me close as he placed a kiss on my temple. My heart fluttered in my chest as I returned a reserved smile and I wondered if he knew how ruggedly handsome he looked right then.


He sighed as his arm dropped, then leaned forward and picked up my empty clip off the frozen ground. He went to hand it to me, then suddenly, his eyes alerted with shock.


“Jade, you’re bleeding,” he said, his voice slightly panicked as I looked at my hand. Blood trickled down to the tips of my middle and third finger, a spattering of bright red blood on the crusty snow below.


“I’m okay,” I said, as I motioned to the knife, bright red blood marred the tip. “It’s just a cut-“


It’s just a cut,” Casey said, his mocking tone dissolved the sudden tension. “You should go get that looked at,” he said, then brushed shoulders with me as he moved past. He took the goggles from my head and left with two other men as they disappeared past the floodlights to meet up with Joel.


As I stood, finally alone with Gage amidst all the destruction, I blinked back a sudden surge of moisture in my eyes as a wave of exhaustion washed over me like hot sultry air. For the first time since before the virus, I felt like I belonged, like they trusted me enough to be included and I could earn a place among them if only Kane would allow it, though I knew he never would.


Sporadic calls across the radio from somewhere in the distance with coordinates of a location broke through the silence. Gage ignored it as he unzipped his vest and stepped forward then placed his hands gingerly on my hips and pulled me close. His fingers kneaded into the flesh just under my shirt. My hands glided softly across his chest, and down his muscled abs, the very source of my undoing as a tingling sensation moved over me. I let my eyes drift closed and rested my cheek against him. I sighed, enveloped in his arms as I smoothed my hands around his sides to his back, thankful it was over and he still stood next to me.


I jumped, startled as a finale of bullets burst through the air far off in the distance, followed by a long silence like fireworks on the fourth of July. I held my breath as I waited for news, then Joel’s voice, calm and resolute.  “Camp is secured.”