GRIM, s. mactavish

Chapter 3

Location: US / Mexico Border

     Rodolfo and Alejandro sat on the top of the wall to wait for Carmen to joining them and once she did, they dropped down to the ground. She didn't want to make her wounded leg any worse so she went down the ladder.

    Dogs barking nearby caught Carmen's attention. She limped to Rodolfo and passed him with her gun trained ahead, ready to shoot any cartel members beside Hassan. The three of them maneuvered through the bushes, following the trail.

    The dog continued to bark that made the owner of the trailer come out to yell at the cartel members for going into their yard. Once Alejandro had given the signal to move forward, the same man yelled at Alejandro, Rodolfo, and Carmen but the situation was deescalated when Carmen told them to get back into their house with her gun pointed at them.

    They moved forward to cross the street to the house on the corner where the garage had just closed. Alejandro kneeled in front of the garage, telling Rodolfo to open it while him and Carmen covered him. One car filled the garage with a work space to the left of it. Carmen walked inside once it was safe to do so, announcing, "Special Forces!"

    A man came into the hall swinging a baseball bat at them but Alejandro pointed his gun at him, telling the man to back off. Rodolfo cleared the room in front of the garage and they went into the living room to find an empty room. Hassan was moving quickly.

    Carmen limped out of the house with her gun still aimed in front of her, waiting for Alejandro and Rodolfo to join her. Once they did, they ran down the alley where Hassan was moving towards.

    That was until a cartel truck came at them in a truck going full speed. Carmen was quick to pull the trigger of her gun. She never liked the cartel and wasn't willing to spare any of them. The three of them shot at the truck, killing the cartel the men in the first truck and shooting the other truck which also happened to have cartel men. 

    Alejandro squeezed between a shelving unit and something else that Carmen couldn't quite see. Rodolfo and Carmen also squeezed through the small space, but not without any issues with Carmen. The back of her knee was pushing against the object behind her for a seconds before the pain went away as Rodolfo pulled her out.

    Another persons home they had to walk through to get ambushed by the Local PD. They shouted for the three of them to drop the weapons and they did, Carmen limping towards the officers. They were threatening them. One officer went to arrest Alejandro but a officer with a cowboy hat stopped him.

    "Where's your suspect?" He asked, looking at Alejandro.

    "We tracked him to that house-" Alejandro went to point but an RPG had hit the police cars, making an explosion. They were flown back from the power of the explosion and landed just a couple feet away from the cars.

    Cartel came over to shoot the offciers, then Alejandro, Rodolfo, and Carmen. Carmen drew her pistol from her waistband and aimed it for the cartel members who had started to make their way over to the three. Alejandro and Rudy followed Carmen's footsteps in killing the men, and slowly getting to their feet. More gun shots could be heard as the bullets hit the police cars. Carmen grabbed her sniper rifle from nearby and placed it on top of the trunk of the car and looked down the scope.

     The first building had two men, one with a rifle, and the other with an RPG. She first took the guy out with the RPG. Then moving her aim to the other, a quick and easy scope. The second building had one man with a M4. Once the man stood still, she pulled the trigger and the man fell from the roof and onto the street.

    "Rodolfo, sweep the interior. Carmen and I are gonna cover you from the outside."

    Rodolfo made his way into the interior of the safe house while Alejandro and Carmen kept their guns aimed at the exterior of the safe house. Until Carmen saw orange light inside the house. She looked through her scope to see fire inside the house.

    "Hey. I'm seeing smoke. What's your status?" Alejandro spoke into the mic.

When there was no response, Carmen began to worry. Her eyes were dashing to every window that was visible to her, "Rudy, how copy?"

Still, no response. She glanced at Alejandro for confirmation to go ahead.

    "We're moving interior, Rodolfo!" Carmen said into the mic but stopped when Rodolfo's raspy voice came through, "Colonel, Carmen, don't- I'm not getting out. . ."

    Carmen struggled to make her way inside the house. Though she was injured, she didn't let that stop her from hurrying as she didn't want to lose one of the people she truly cared for. She couldn't live with herself if Rodolfo had died, knowing she had time to save him. Carmen made her way upstairs with Alejandro behind her. She pushed her gun behind her and ran to the room with the door open to see Rodolfo on the ground, coughing as the smoke engulfed his lungs.

    They both put an arm of Rodolfo's on their shoulders and carried him out of the house, trying to not breathe in the smoke.

"Don't do that again. You could've gotten hurt." Rodolfo whispered in Carmen's ear before coughing up the smoke that had entered his lungs.

"Shut up. I'd save you a million times even if I got hurt." Carmen stated as her face scrunched with pain as having Rodolfo's arm over her shoulder put a lot of weight onto her wounded back and leg.