Chapter 32- Cutting Both Ways

Chapter 32

Cutting Both Ways

Somewhere

His eyes flickered open and the pain began to roll, slowly, downhill onto him.  He screwed his face up and gritted his teeth.  The pain washed through him and took him down into its depths.

He sat up straight and coughed.  There was blood in his mouth and the air was thick with the smell of burning fuel.  He tried to remember what had happened before but his recollection of the events was scarce, faint.

“You’ve got to do it, we have to know that you aren’t infected.  Then you will be safe,”

He remembered these words, floating through the air.  “Then you will be safe,”

Safe, he wondered what had happened to keep a person safe from.

Oscar opened his eyes and saw the fires burning all over the village square.  The air was thick with the stink of burning fuel and a worse smell underneath it.  But Oscar couldn’t remember why, couldn’t remember what events had taken him to this point.

He looked to his left at the ground.  The grass was scorched and shriveled.  There was a fragment of metal still smoking lodged into the floor.  Oscar reached towards it and his hand recoiled before it reached.  Something had really put the burn on it as it was now red hot.

Oscar looked over at his right.  There was a terrible dark red stain on the ground that extended out from a burned and crumpled form that looked vaguely human.  Oscar felt an acid taste in the back of his mouth.  He turned to one side and spat.

Who was the body?  Oscar tried to remember and caught fragments of names and faces, Wharton.  One of them was called Wharton.  Oscar tried to remember what he looked like, what he sounded like.

He tried to get up but his head swam and once again, there was that bitter copper taste in the back of his mouth.  Oscar put a hand to his mouth and wiped the blood away from his lips.  Then he ran a hand across the back of his head as he got, shakily to his feet.

There was a roaring sound in the distance and Oscar tried to figure out what it was.  But he couldn’t quite focus on it.  It was a strange sound, almost familiar.  Oscar took a faltering step forward, stumbled and fell to the floor.

Oscar’s hands slammed into the floor with a jarring impact and he felt the pain in his palms and up his arms.  He spat on the ground again.  Just then, there was a low moan from near to him

“Oscar?” croaked a voice.

“Who is that?” said Oscar.  But his own voice was strange to his own ears.  He sounded faint, old and broken.  Oscar cleared his throat.

“Oscar?” croaked the same vague voice.

Oscar cleared his throat again and got to his feet once more.  “Who’s there?” he asked.

“Down here,” came the barely audible reply.

Oscar looked down across the floor to another human figure lying near his feet.  Oscar slowly lowered himself to his knees.

“Marcus, your name is Marcus,” said Oscar to himself as well as the horribly wounded man.

“That’s right,” came the voice through a thin smile.  “Oscar, are you okay?”

“My head hurts,” he replied.

“You need to focus, I’m not sure if anyone else has survived the explosion.  You need to clear your head and focus.  Can you do that?” came the thin voice.

“I think so,” replied Oscar.  “I’m not sure I remember what was happening before,”

“There was an explosion.  One of them set off an explosion, it killed Newman and I think it may have killed the others too,”

Oscar remembered it now, the young woman and her sudden movement.  Then the air was full of flames and Oscar had been thrown through the air.

“What do I need to do?” he asked.

“You need to find the tac-radio and make sure that Sat-Com knows we’re still alive.  Otherwise they might just bomb this place off the face of the Earth,”

“Right.  How do I do that?” he asked again, his head hurting with the effort.

“There’s a switch on the side.  If you bring it over quickly, I’ll walk you through it.  But you’ll need to hurry,” breathed Marcus weakly.  He raised a hand to get Oscar’s attention and then pointed down to his side.

There was blood and bone visible under his jacket and Oscar saw to his horror that Marcus was soaked in his own blood.

“Dios mio,” breathed Oscar.  “I’ll get you a medical kit!”

“It’s way too late for that, “ replied Marcus.  “Just get the tac-radio and you can save yourself, maybe even save the rest.”

“Come off it Marcus.  You’re hurt. I can help you,”

“Afterwards, if you must.  Get the damned radio.  Now the second thing you need to find is a gun.  Mine is smashed to bits.  So look around for a working firearm.  Do you know how to check the chamber?”

“I was in the Guard for a while.  I know how to check,” replied Oscar.

“Good, good man.  Now hop to it,” coughed Marcus.

Oscar got back to unsteady feet and wandered over the burning wreckage of the village towards a pile of metal objects.  His vision swam again and he felt the ground rushing up to him again.  Oscar sat down suddenly with a jolt.

“I can’t, I can’t focus,” he said to himself.

“It’s okay,” said another voice.  “I got it,”

Sat-Com, Somewhere in Virginia

Captain Thomas walked back over to the General’s office.  It had been just ten minutes since the shock news that one of the infiltrators had escaped into the countryside.  Captain Thomas had lead a search of the base and the exterior guard posts.

All he found was ruined corpse of a guard and a blood trail that lead out towards the forest that surrounded Sat-Com.  Captain Thomas had lead his men back inside and gone to report the situation to the General.

“The General’s in a bad mood,” confided Lt Molly Walker to the Captain as he stood by the door.  He knocked and waited for an answer.  Captain Thomas straightened his uniform and looked around nervously.

“Is he in there?” asked Captain Thomas.

“Yes he is,” replied Lt Walker.

Captain Thomas knocked again, shook his head and waited.  The command and control room was still a buzz with activity but there was a seriously downcast air.  The mood was low.

“Whats wrong with the team?” asked Captain Thomas.

“You didn’t hear?” replied Lt Walker.  “Of course you didn’t.  There’s been a coup,”

“As if we don’t have enough to deal with.  Where?” muttered Captain Thomas.

“Here, in D.C.  General Pierce has taken the whole Executive branch into “Protective custody.”  He’s issued a press release,” said Lt Walker.

“You’re kidding me?” spluttered Captain Thomas.

“He said it was the only way to deal with the threat successfully, with no political meddling,” said Lt Walker sadly.

“I don’t know why you sound so upset about it,” interjected another officer.  “With those meddling bean counters off our backs for a while, maybe we can get on and do our jobs,”

The door opened at last and the General stood in the door.  He looked tired, older than he had been earlier.  Captain Thomas stood straight and reported to him.

“We couldn’t find it.  It got away and headed into the town,”

“Yeah,” replied General Petersen.  “That was most likely.  Still it was worth a try.”

“Sir, what’s the situation here now?”

“The situation is that we’ve been taken out of the loop for a while.  But I’m not going to wait for orders from the new brass,”

General Petersen walked out onto the floor of the command room.

“Everyone, we’ve got a new mission,” he announced