ALICE

Chapter 56: HONOUR

Chapter 56: HONOUR

 After a quick assassination of almost everyone outside the hill once ZERO left the other way by helicopter, Angel held a knife to the throat of the last remaining LSF.

 “For the last time. Tell me what’s going on in there or I will cut off your arms.”

 The LSF remarkably stayed silent, until Angel jammed his knife into his shoulder. He howled in pain and fell onto his back. Angel bent down to retrieve his knife, and only had to put his hand on the handle before the soldier was willing to talk.

 “She’s well-prepared in there. Mines, tripwires, she’s got a lot of guns and knives. No one except him,” He motioned to the faceless man that ZERO had shot. “Has gotten out alive.”

 Angel nodded, and then slowly pulled the knife out of the man. He groaned, but then stopped as Angel pushed the knife into his face. Alice turned away, the gruesome sound of the knife pulling through flesh too much even for her.

 Angel looked to the team. “Watch your feet. If the girl attacks you, go for CQC if you can. If you absolutely must shoot her, go for the arms or legs. No center mass.”

 Alice nodded and reloaded her rifle before heading towards the front door which was swung slightly ajar. She gently pushed it open, revealing a blackened floor and a severely gimped dead guy laying on the ground missing a few limbs.

 The team gently walked into the foyer, the earthy wooden walls now spattered with blood. Alice gingerly stepped over another dead body that was still bleeding, a huge kitchen knife stuck in his neck. She walked into a room that came off the foyer, with two French doors leading into a once-fancy room with a crackling fireplace that Alice couldn’t see thanks to a couch in the way. Alice noticed that the room smelt disgusting, like someone had overcooked an already-rotted roast.  Watching her feet, Alice looked past the couch and saw an LSF soldier, head inside of the fireplace and pinned by a metal grate designed to keep the wood inside. Alice turned left as Angel and Redd walked up the stairs to the foyer. In the next room were no dead bodies, however a tripwire across the doorway that was connected to a grenade almost caught Alice by surprise. She grimaced at the thought of being kneecapped by the explosive as she stepped over.

 The room beyond was empty of both dead men and traps as far as Alice could tell, but she was careful anyway. She took a quick look around, in cupboards, behind the counter island, but after finding nothing, she moved onto the next room, which was a real horror story setting.

 There was blood coating the entire floor of the room, with several dead men, including one actually pinned to the wall thanks to an army knife that could really be classified as more of a small sword. Shell casings that were only now becoming cold laid all over the floor, and every soldier was still holding onto their own weapons, all but one, who was missing his assault rifle, his pistol, his knife, and his Kevlar vest with all the ammo on it.

 Alice spoke quietly into her headset, “I suspect that the girl is armed. Be careful.”

 That was when Alice heard a gunshot from upstairs.

 The whole team ran up the stairs, where Redd was lying on the ground, coughing but still lucid. Alice bent down to him, but was yelled at by the captain. “Don’t worry about me, get after her!”

 Alice looked to the closest window. It was broken through, just a few drops of blood sitting on the window sill. Alice looked out the window to see a woman sprinting over the snow away from the cabin and the LSF camp, her dark hair flowing out behind her.

 Alice took a few potshots at her, not really trying to hit her, but definitely to stop her. One round clipped the girl’s leg, but much like Alice did that one time she got shot, she kept running.

 Alice decided she wasn’t going to let the girl get away. She jumped out of the window, landing in a roll that would usually have hurt, but thanks to the thick powdered snow was not bad at all. She started sprinting towards the girl, only slightly superior in speed and endurance thanks to conditioning and endless laps around the base. Alice kept going, having to do knee-highs in spots where the soft snow was especially deep.

 Alice finally caught up to the girl, and attempted a tackle. The girl turned around in time to see Alice jump on top of her. Alice tried to get her in a pinned position, but panicked when she felt the end of the girl’s pistol pressing into her stoumach. Alice managed to roll off the girl and let the gun discharge harmlessly into the air, but sacrificed her pin on the girl. Alice stood up as fast as possible, and took a wild punch to the torso of the girl.

 The blow glanced off of Alice’s enemy; however the girl stepped backward and nearly lost her balance, giving Alice a second opening. She took it, swinging her leg up out of the snow into a vicious kick to the side of the girl’s head. The woman fell back, but began raising her gun. Alice jumped onto the girl, wrestling the gun out of her hand. She finally managed to grab it, at which point she pressed a button to slide the magazine out of the bottom, and pulled the slide back to release the bullet in the chamber. She tossed the mag several feet behind her, flipped the gun in her hand, and smashed the handle into the side of the woman’s head. She was disoriented, but surprisingly still awake. The woman pulled a knife from her leg sheath and tried to stab Alice, who managed to catch the blade a mere second before it went into her neck.

 As she tried to wrestle the razor sharp knife out of the other woman’s hands by the blade, she felt the metal cut through her tough gloves and into her skin, but managed a grip on the knife all the same, even if it was slipping.

 Alice held as tight as she could, but she felt the knife getting closer and closer to her, before she just closed her eyes and waited for it.

 But she heard several clicks, and the hands holding the knife to her throat went limp. Alice opened her eyes to see Angel holding a Taser to the girl’s neck. He pulled it away quickly, switched it off, and put it back into his pack. Alice dropped the knife, and stood up, only then coming to realize how much pain her hands were in.

 “Are you alright?” Angel said taking a glance at Alice’s palms.

 Alice peeled the blood and snow soaked gloves off of her hands, and threw them to the ground. Her hands were covered in deep slices that were still beading with the red fluid. Angel tilted his head slightly,

 “I’ll bandage them up in a minute. Let’s move this girl first.”

 The girl stirred slightly when touched, and Alice rolled her eyes. Angel reached into his backpack, grabbing a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a small glass container of disinfectant. He tilted both into a large gauze pad and held the makeshift chloroform rag to the girl’s mouth and nose. The woman promptly drifted off to dreamland.

 Angel and Alice ached grabbed an arm and soldier dragged her back to the cabin. When they got inside, they saw Redd leaning against a wall with Taco looking at his gunshot.

 “Every single time. Every mission I go on, I get shot.” Redd said as he looked down at his chest.

 Taco spoke as he looked at a small puncture that was in Redd’s undershirt. “It looks like the Kevlar you were wearing stopped most of it. You’re bleeding a bit, and that rib is definitely broken, but you should be alright.”

 Redd nodded, and started putting his coat and vest back on.

 Nine walked inside, his submachine gun still in his hands. “There are quite a few jeeps outside. Some are still running so the engines won’t be frozen in those ones. But we should definitely move. The body count is pretty high on this one so it won’t be long.”

 “Agreed. Let’s move.” Taco said, “You wanna drive Cole?”

 Redd grunted as he tightened his vest and spoke in a strained, hollow voice, “You go ahead.”