Future Memories

Chapter 23

The day of the operation...

We decided to stay here until the day of the operation. The amount of supplies we had was enough to last us weeks. We had acquired yet another vehicle from that skirmish a few nights ago. We decided to divide into three groups. I would lead the group of Samson and Denise. Brayden would lead Caleb, Anthony, and Myra. Tim would lead Riker, Evelyn, and Paul. My group would take the original armored vehicle, Brayden's group would take the newer vehicle and Tim's group had the chopper. We readied up and got going as soon as possible. We headed towards the location and encountered small amounts of resistance along the way. Nothing too difficult to take care of. We arrived at our meeting point about an hour later. I debriefed everyone before we went in. Our plan A was to try to get her peacefully. I'd go in with my squad and try to negotiate with them. Plan B was to threaten and intimidate. That plan was farfetched, but we put it on the table. Plan C would be an assault on the stronghold. We drove up in our vehicle to the stronghold. It wasn't anything fancy, but impressive. It was a fenced in area with fences 10 feet high topped with barbed wire. It was large enough for over 150 soldiers to stay comfortably. They had a prison-like are with barbed wire fences rigged to an electrical box. Inside, I spotted her. She looked a lot older. She was dirty and her clothes were practically rags. She was very skinny. She was probably starved. Seeing this made me curse under my breath and made me want to kill those bastards. "Are you ok?," asked Samson. "I'm fine," I said faking a smile. We arrived about 200 yards from the gate and got out of the vehicle. We were approached by guards and questioned immediately. "I'm here to ask to negotiate with you," I said calmly. "What would you like to negotiate?," the first guard said suspiciously. "I would like to negotiate for a prisoner," I replied. "Which prisoner?," another guard asked. "I pointed to Ella. "Her. The one with brown hair and blue eyes." A guard snickered. "I don't know. She's a cutie. I might want to have a fun time with her..." He didn't get to finish his sentence before I punched him in the jaw. I heard bones crack and saw blood. I got on top of him and started to pound his face in. Samson and Denise took care of the other two guards. They dragged the bodies off, but I continued punching. "You bastards! You fucking bastards! You stole her from me! Now you will pay with your lives!" I got off and began dragging his almost life lifeless body. I brought him back into the woods and waited until he gained consciousness to finish him off. When he opened his eyes, the first and last thing he saw was a knife coming down to his throat. After I finished, I'd realized what I done. It's ok. He was talking about your sister in a bad way. He could've hurt your sister. You did the right thing. Those thoughts were running through my head, but I couldn't help it. I was guilty for leeting the man have one last look at the world, hope, before killing him and his hope with him. I left the jungle and met up with Denise and Samson. "Are you alright," they asked. "I'm fine, just had to take care of something," I replied. We had decided to go try again. We approached the gates and asked to negotiate for her. Surprisingly, they agreed. We paid a heavy price in supplies, but we were able to get Ella back. They guard went to get her and brought her to me. "Ella," I said with tears in her eyes. Her sunken blue eyes stared up at me. "Xave...Xavier. Is that you," she asked having a hard time speaking. I nodded and hugged her close. I thanked them greatly for their cooperation. We went back to grab the supplies and when we returned, we were met by over 25 soldiers...