Jaded Warriors book 2 (Jade Series)

Chapter 25

Chapter 25


My chest caved with each breath as the air whistled with rapid surges through my lungs. I dropped back behind our cover and squeezed my eyes tight as I blinked back the moisture, trying to control the panic that threatened to consume me. My blood raced with viscous turbulence as my heart pounded against my chest like a hammer. Flashbacks of Hector rushed into my mind.


“Shit!” Joel said, as he moved next to me and looked at the situation through binoculars.


I jumped back up into position. “That’s Jackson!” I said, my voice wavered on the verge of failing me. “He’s going to kill them!”


“Not yet he’s not… he would have shot them by now. He wants something.”


My eyes burned and the freezing air didn’t help. I blinked a tear from the corner of my eye as I heard a loudspeaker break through the brittle silence. “Send out my son!” Jackson, yelled, his voice boomed across the valley. “You are surrounded… you can either surrender!  Or we will take you by force!”


Jackson shoved Kane and the guard forward and the line pressed towards the slope as they descended with slow, purposeful intent off the ridge towards our camp.


“He knows we don’t have a shot… even if he stops at the stream bed, he’s still three hundred yards away… even if we get close enough, we don’t have the accuracy with these machine guns to avoid Kane and the guard.”   


“I do,” I said, then snapped a cartridge into place and shifted a bullet into the chamber as I kept my sights on Jackson and his slow decent down the hillside.


“How do you know it’s on sight? Have you ever shot that thing?” Joel asked.


“No,” I paused, then looked at him with desperation in my eyes. “We have to do something!”


“Mateo said he tested them and they’re accurate,” Gage said, as he glanced over his shoulder at me.


I only half listened to Gage as I squinted my left eye shut and looked through the scope at the hillside.  “They’re moving slowly on purpose… he’s giving us time to think about it.”


“He must be pretty confident he has us outdone,” Gage said. “We need to come up with a plan… and fast. Even if you can shoot Jackson from here… there are fourteen other men waiting to get a round off.”


“Maybe I should go with him, Joel, he’s not going to shoot me.” I heard Casey’s voice cut into my ear through the headset.


“Not a chance, Casey,” Joel said, acute fierceness in his voice.


“What’s the plan then?” Casey asked.


“We need to move closer… Gage, get to that watering truck,” Joel paused briefly as he looked out across the camp. “I’m going to move to those boulders by the mess tent. There’s a slope and the grass is tall just past that. We’ll have to get as close as we can… Casey, can you move closer?”


“Yeah.”


“Jade, it’s going to be on your signal,” Joel said, his eyes, always the same intense icy blue, the same as Gage’s when he’s angry. “On three!”


“Wait?  What! You want me to shoot? I’ll let you use my rifle… one of you shoot!”


“Jade… don’t think too hard about it, just shoot.    It’s an object…”


“It’s a man!  A man who is hiding behind my brother! What if I miss, what if I shoot Kane?”


“Yeah!” He yelled, his eyes lit with fierce intensity. “He’s just a man, a man who will kill that guard and your brother… He’s nothing but a target!”


“Jade,” Joel said, as he interrupted us, “Gage needs to move forward with me so we can take the others out and get to Kane and the guard fast before they kill them… this will work!”


“You can do it,” Gage said, his voice softened, his eyes encouraging. “You won’t miss… you won’t hit Kane.”


“Okay,” I heard myself say.


“Okay, Jade, you are taking the target behind Kane,” Joel said, he spoke with intentionally clear, chosen words, his eyes searched mine as he leaned closer, probably for signs of predetermined failure. “And I want you to take the two closest targets to either side… can you do that?”


“Yeah,” I said, my voice resolute, much stronger than how I felt inside.


“Okay, let’s move, Gage… Casey, you guys ready?” he asked, as him and Gage headed for their destined locations.


“In position,” Casey answered, his voice, a low deep whisper. “You almost ready? They’re crossing the meadow towards the stream bed. Looks like there’s a small plateau just before the stream. I think they’re headed there.”


“Sixty seconds,” Gage said, his husky voice sent a chill through me as he spoke in hushed tones through my headset.


I sighted Kane with a gash under his right eye. The guard walked next to him, both with their hands behind their back and battered with fresh gashes. Jackson stopped three feet back and I spotted him in the crosshairs of my scope. He would pick a spot like that, higher ground, visible by the whole camp. A perfect spot for an execution, he wanted everyone to see. My mind whirled at the thought of what I had to do, what depended on my success, the consequences if I failed. My brother’s life. Tears welled, then I forced him out of my mind. I couldn’t think about him. I needed to stay calm, I needed to stay focused.


“Wait for Jade’s signal before engaging,” Joel said. “I’m in position… Gage?”


“Ready.”


“What’s it going to be?” Jackson’s voice belted through the air, loud and confident and threatening as he forced them to their knees. He hit Kane in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle. Suddenly without warning a gunshot blasted through the sky and the guard jolted, then slumped motionless to the ground. An audible gasp burst from my lungs as panic surged through me like a hot current. “Just making sure you’re taking me serious! Casey! Come forward!” Jackson yelled.


Hector’s face flashed before me, bloody and beaten, as Jackson brought him in to hear I helped with his capture then his body, jerking involuntarily as the Militia, under Jackson’s orders opened fire on him. Jagged breaths raced past my lips, the icy air burned at my lungs as I fought the terror inside me.


“Jade!” Gage’s voice, hushed to a whisper but stern through my headset burst into my ear and echoed in my head. “Take a deep breath!”


“Okay,” I said, my voice ragged with emotion.


“You only get one shot, Jade,” Casey said, his voice cut across the radio. “Make it count.”


I forced a slow breath in through my nose then exhaled through tight lips as I squelched down my panic, then jumped into position and found Jackson in my sights again. “Kane, if you can hear me… drop on three.”


“You have until the count of three! Then I’ll fill him full of lead!” Jackson boomed.


“One,” I whispered in a hushed tone into my headset, my voice trembled along with the tips of my fingers as I struggled to steady my hands, Jackson forcing me into action. I aimed with shattered confidence as my heart raced in my chest.


“Come out, Casey or Kennington will die!” Jackson yelled. His face rigid with anger and rage. His brows pinned together at the point of my crosshairs.


“Two,” I said, my voice firm as I swallowed the knot in my throat and gritted my teeth together. A surge of heat rushed through my veins. Fury built inside me as I tightened my finger around the cold metal of the trigger.


“Three!” Splintering pain shot through me as the butt of my rifle slammed into my shoulder. One single shot split through the air, the echoing blast rang through my ears. I watched Jackson’s head bounce back. Staggering on his feet, he dropped to his knees. As if on autopilot I squeezed the trigger twice and hit the next two targets. The sound of machine guns burst through the air.


I let the barrel of my rifle drop slightly as I looked over it at the chaos before me. I spotted Kane on his side on the ground as he curled his legs forward and brought his hands in front. He brandished a gun from the dead Jackson. Rolling to his back and with a sweep of the gun, he sprayed Militia with lead. Friendly fire traced through the air at his sides. The remaining twelve Militia that stood with Jackson started to fall.


‘Jade! Stay down!  I’m moving back!” Gage’s voice yelled through the radio. His breaths exerted, strained. Other men’s voices cut through around his, sporadic and stressed, wild as shots fired in all directions. The gun fight continued as the remaining Militia advanced their attack, their locations unknown around us.


“They’re closing in on the left!” Joel’s voice cut through, then Chale’s as they communicated orders to the others in their vicinity surrounded by Militia. “Casey! One o’clock!”


I screamed on impulse as shots fired into my cover around me. I dropped to the ground and scrambled between two stacks of pallets. A firm grip tightened on my ankle. I looked back, frantic to see a Militant soldier. His eyes raged with hate. He jerked me towards him. I scrambled to grasp anything immobile then curled my arms around me as crushing weight of the stacked pallets toppled in a heap on top of me.


With bruit force he yanked again, pulling me out from my crushing shelter. Jagged edges penetrated my jacket and cut into my arms as I scrambled for the strap of my rifle and pulled it out with me. He kicked it away then jumped on top of me as I twisted to my back and I launched a foot in his face. His head bounced back then returned to glare at me with fury in his eyes and blood gushing from his nose. He struck me with a swift blow from his fist. “Ughh!” I screamed from the blow as stars shot through my vision and threatened to go black.


“You’re coming with me!”


I cried out as if it gave me strength to get away as I struggled against him. My fists slashed through the air hitting him wherever I could. In a blur of action, I felt arms grab me as unknown forces pulled us apart. Who, I didn’t know but I continued to kick and swing in a frantic anger at whoever I could hit.


“Jade!” Gage’s voice, startled me as he pressed his hands to the sides of my head and forced me to look at him. My breaths rattled around in my lungs, rapid and heaving as I saw him then relief settled into my eyes. I looked for the man who assaulted me to see Kane in a frenzied rage pummeling his face, disfigured and bloody from the incessant blows.


“Kane! Watch out!” I cried, as two Militia soldiers rounded a tent with him in their sights. Strapped to his back he swung his rifle around and emptied a few rounds as the men fell lifeless to the ground.


“Gage, behind you! Six o’clock!” Chale’s voice cut through the radio.


He whirled around with a spray of lead and dropped two more to the ground, barely visible in the deepening dusk. Trapped in a kill zone the metallic scent of blood, mixed with the smell of dirt and gunpowder lingered heavy in the air as smoke from launched grenades and gunfire curled around us.


I heard a long, descending whine followed by a loud explosion that rumbled through the air along with a plume of orange flame and black smoke that mushroomed in the air fifty yards away. The armaments truck launched off the ground, fully engulfed as a wave of heat rushed over me with a gust of air. Ash and hot cinder hit my face as the blast forced us to the ground. The western sky blackened as the smoke choked out the moon in the darkening sky.


“Get her to that jeep and get her out of here!” Kane yelled, fire in his eyes as he pointed south in the direction of the vehicle. His cheek, just below, reddened by the gash and abrasions around it. Sweat and dirt and blood, smeared on his face.


“Yeah!” Gage confirmed.


“I’ll cover you,” he said, then yelled into his headset for assistance. “Cover fire! Headed south!”


“Got it!” Someone responded.


Gage swung a backpack over his shoulder, we ran to the next shield as bullets whizzed overhead. “We’re headed to that Jeep!”


“Okay!” I cried, as my insides unhinged from the terror around us. Flashbacks of our escape from the jail invaded my mind. My heart sank. The distance between us and the jeep, one hundred yards with very little cover.


“Let’s go! Run fast!”


My feet sprang underneath me with compelling force, Gage right behind me. The ricocheting whine of bullets whizzed overhead before they peened into the jeep ahead, then suddenly, the screech of a rocket launcher propelled an orange tracer through the black night. Gage grabbed me from behind. He pulled me to the ground as it exploded on impact into the jeep thirty feet in front of us.


We tumbled to the ground and the razor sharp ice sliced into my hands as I braced for the fall behind an outcroppings of rocks, our only cover. A blazing flash roared over us like a jet engine as the jeep flipped in the air in a fireball and crashed to the ground. He jumped on top of me, covering our heads and I pressed my face into his chest as I gripped his arms. Our chests heaved with exertion against each other and I gasped, choking as we breathed the toxic, smoke filled air. Ash and debris settled around us like black falling snow as the roar died to a raging thunder and the threat of bullets waned around us.


“Gage! Report!” Joel yelled.


“We’re okay.”


Indistinguishable desperate voices called over the wire as their own situations sounded grimmer than ours.


“Joel, to your right!”


“We need cover!”


“On it! Hang tight!”


“Shh,” Gage said, and looked at me under the firelight as the shooting stopped in the vicinity around us. His face shiny and dark from char and sweat, masked slightly under long flickering shadows. His eyes determined and alert as he scanned our surroundings. The fiery blaze ahead of us, the gun fight behind us.


He glanced at me, worry in his eyes as he touched the gash on my head. My skin twitched from the sting as he brushed over the cut and bruise on my cheek. “Are you okay?”


“Yeah,” I said.


“Are you hit anywhere?”


“No,” I said, as I gave him a weak smile, then my smile faded as I looked over him closer for any signs of injury. “Are you?”


“Just a few flesh wounds, nothing serious,” he said, as I noticed his blood soak into the sleeve of his jacket.


“Gage! You’re shot!”


“It just grazed me, I’m all right,” he said, his breaths still rapid from exertion. He moved slowly to his side braced on one elbow still hovering over me as a shield then pulled another clip from his jacket and snapped it into place. I followed him as he positioned behind the craggy rocks, our only means for cover and looked out into the black night. Muzzle flashes traced through the sky revealing the locations of about twenty insurgents who dominated the pitch black landscape.


The rapid drumbeat of Gage’s rifle pierced my ears with deafening insult. I glanced at him as he sprayed them with lead, his jaw set firm, his brows pinned over steely eyes that glistened in the reflection of the enormous blaze of the jeep.


Several peens of bullets pelted the ground and rocks to the right of me filling the side of my body with stinging gravel and I whirled my rifle around. With aimless direction I shot into the night from the direction they came from with continuous shots. A flash sprouted fifty yards in front of me and I shot towards them then heard a man’s deep guttural grunt as I must have made contact. 


“Gage!  Where’s your location?” Kane called out over the radio. His voice strained as he dealt with a battle of his own.


“Not far from the south rim! They took out the jeep!”


“They’ve been a step ahead of us every time!”


I stared into the darkness behind us as I wondered where Kane and the others were. Flashes of orange tracers raced through the sky from all directions as the firefight continued and I had no idea who shot from where.


Sudden movement to Gage’s left caught my eye as two men invaded our cover. “Gage!” I screamed. Time stilled in swift, rapid motion before me. In a blur, I shot as their large overpowering frames burst towards us and returned fire.


A sudden jolt to my chest stole my breath and I gasped for the air punched from my lungs. Jagged rocks broke my fall as I fell back from the impact. I writhed with burning pain that seared into my chest, unbearable, unrelenting and intensified as each second passed. Stunned by the blow and unable to breathe, the blackness whirled into a tunnel as my vision went dark.