The End of the Beginning (Part 1d)

I was pulled up to my feet. I heard a lot of voices around me but everything was muffled and hazy. I tried opening my eyes to get a better view but the sack over my head prevented my vision. The blood dripping in my pupils also did not help out. All of a sudden the room of conversation halted on a dime.

“At ease men. So, this is the piece of shit that decide to throw a wrench into my plans?” The voice was stern and did not sound to please that some of his men were lying in a pool of their own blood. “Is he awake in there?”

“Sir, I doubt it. He suffered a major blow to the head.”

The force of an open palm bitch slap striked down across my cheek. I can feel blood dripping out of a new orifice in my head. The warm flow of red dribbled down my cheek. I was propped up on a wooden chair where they handcuffed my hands behind my back. The next sensation was not a pleasant feeling. I felt the barrel of the gun press hard into my temple. I heard the hammer get cocked back on some sort of sidearm. This was how it was going to end. Protecting some secret project for what? To be executed with a smelly bag on my head?

The leader of this brigade wasn’t satisfied with the way I was going out. He wanted to get his rocks off a bit more. “Take the bag of his head. I want to see the fear in his eyes when I tear him down with one damaging round.”

The bag was removed and I felt the stuffy air hit the open wound on the back of my head. I tried to look for my killer. I wanted to see who it is. I wanted to know whom I was going to come back and haunt from the grave. Everything was cloudy. The blood in my eyes was worse then I thought. I tried to move my arms to clear away the blood, but they were bounded behind me. Seconds passed by and I was still struggling to get a view. Why was I still struggling? Why am I not dead? What is this bastard waiting for? Just pull the friggin’ trigger! Silence just fell over the room. Maybe I was already dead. I had this weird feeling that everyone in the room was staring at each other.

“Everyone get out of the room…NOW! Collect the rest of the troop and head to extraction point Delta immediately! I will be shortly behind. NOW I SAID!”

I heard the sound of feet scampering down the halls. Cold water quickly rushed over my head clearing away a lot of my lost blood. Whoever this was didn’t feel like killing me. Or, didn’t feel like killing me as a helpless victim. He unlocked my cuffs and threw a towel onto my lap. I wiped away the blur to see the most shocking thing that I seen in a long time, and I seen some weird stuff down here. Was he my guardian angel? No, it was my childhood friend from years ago.

“What the hell! Is that really you Frost?” I almost didn’t believe who was standing right in front of me.

“Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing. What are you doing here? You can’t seriously be working for these pieces of shit.” Frost looked a little nervous. I bet he was thinking of my reasoning for being here.

“You know me. I love an adventure of pure horrific outcomes. Plus I needed to pad my résumé and earn a quick buck.”

“So you’re telling me that you somehow got in debt with these fools?”

“You do know me. Its actually pretty funn….”

“Stop! I don’t have time for catching up Mase. Right now, I don’t care why, what, or how you are here. I’m assuming you are still legit. And with that assumption, I want to offer you a new opportunity. You’ll need the work since your current employer is about to have a fire sale.” Frost started unloading some of his gear onto a near by table.

“You know I don’t jive with that U.S. Military line of work.”

“Who said anything about the United States or military? This is totally opposite from that crap. Let’s just say it pays extremely well with many top-level perks. Take my gear and high tail it out of this region. You don’t want to be around when it starts raining….if you get my drift.” I nodded. “Remember that small bar in southern Mexico where we picked up all those kilos of snow? Meet me there in five days at noon.”

“And if I decline?”

“You won’t want to decline, trust me. You might not get the chance to decline if you are not out of here in ten. See you on Saturday. The first round is on me.”

Frost bolted out of the room faster than an Olympic track star. I didn’t know what hit me harder. The butt of a rifle to the head or this new job offer from an old friend? Whichever it was didn’t matter. I had limited time to get the hell out of Dodge. I took a huge swig from the canteen that he left and stuffed everything I could into my pockets. I was trying to picture my best escape route out of the building, woods, and mountains. How much firepower was he letting loose from above? It didn’t matter. I knew it was going to be enough to level the place. The last thing that I grabbed of his was a satchel full of ammo and some sort of explosives. I reloaded my rifle that was on the table and threw it over my shoulder.

I decided to head back towards the bell tower and grab my duffel bag. I knew I could make a quick escape for the river from that side of the compound. I had two choices of getting there. Either take the stairs or the ventilation shaft. The vents would have been hard to climb back up. I then remembered the secret area I found right off of the vents. I came closer to the stairs and thought if it was worth it to check out my new findings. I had nine minutes left. It would only take me three to get outside. Of course, my curiosity told me to go for it. I ran past the stairs and headed for the vents.
Someone screamed out to me. “Mason! Stop! Where are you going?” Well, look who decided to show up. It was my backup. One guy didn’t equal to a backup, but he looked badly bruised. I’m guessing Frost and his crew finished off whatever was there. I stopped and started to walk back towards the backup.

I started to console him, “Dude, are you alright? What did they do to you?” I walked right up next to him and helped him lean up against the wall. I don’t remember what his name was. This was just a job to me and not a frat party. I wiped his blood of his brow. He looked happy to see me. I don’t know why. I pulled my .9mm from my back holster and quickly shot him in the head. Before his body hit the ground, I was already running towards the vent.

That damn bastard burned a minute of my time. I started having second thoughts about checking out this room, but its kind of too late when you are on your hands and knees deep within a vent. I was right over the room and I seen a bunch of database servers pinging away with flashing green and amber lights. I broke away the vent cover and crawled down into the room. There must have been a dozen servers in here. I didn’t have time to hook a terminal into each one or even to download them onto something. So, I did the next best thing. I started to rip out each of its expansion drives. The only thing I had to carry them was this satchel. So out came the ammunition and explosives and in went the hard drives. I was ready to leave and had 4 minutes to spare.

I never experienced an earthquake but this was damn close. The room shook violently after a huge explosion rocked the compound. Dust started to fall from the ceilings. Then another blast shook the place. What was going on? Is my watch still working? The next blast sounded as if it was over top of me. It was so loud that my ears started to ring. I was so distracted by the ringing and explosions that I did not notice the ventilation and an iron beam structure came crashing down onto a table I was standing next to. The force of the beam split the table in two and knocked me to the floor. How was I going to escape now? Who knows what was left to the buildings?

While I laid on the floor I noticed something that was under the table. It was a panel that read EMERGENCY EXIT. Just my luck. Yeah, just my luck. The panel that led to my escape was now being blocked by a heavy iron beam that would not budge. I heard a few more explosions. They sounded as if they were hitting the laboratory area on the far side. I had to move quickly. Either they were going to come back around for a second attack or I am going to be trapped in this room forever. I grabbed the smallest explosive that Frost left in the satchel. It had enough power to clear out the room. What choice do I have? I have to get out of here. I placed the explosive right under the iron beam and set it for detonation. I took refuge behind a cabinet of empty servers, not like it would provide ultimate protection.

The blast rocked the small server room shredding the iron beam, vent, and other debris into pieces and whipped them around the room like a tornado. When all the dust and debris settled, nothing moved in the room.