Dr. Redheaded Neighbor - Will Halstead

War Follows You

"Stay put gang. Go search Maxon." I held up my hand signaling for the rest of my team to stay back behind me. We were responsible for locating some hidden explosives that were supposed to be shipped out somewhere we weren't sure of.

Maxon ran forward entering the house through the nearest window. "Easton, we've got visual." One of my team members came over showing me a camera.

Maxon had a camera attached to the top of his vest and we could see everywhere he went. He went from one bedroom to another until he entered a basement showing us a wall lined up with boxes upon boxes of explosives. "He's got'em. Move in." I dropped my hand and our team made our way slowly into the house.

My boots banged on the stairs, and I was the last one to come down into the basement. "Easton! There's foot traffic over here."

"You think someone else has already came down here?" I asked my friend Antler.

Antler shakes his head no, brushing his fingers on the fresh footsteps hearing some movement behind some of the boxes. "Look at these markings. These are fresh just like our boots will be which means- "

"Someone else is down here." I finished his train of thought.

I heard a women's voice make a noise before a few of us draw out our firearms and aimed them in the direction. "Ah!"

"Come out with your hands up!" I called out while Maxon bared his teeth seeing a figure come around the corner.

The figure was a dark-skinned man all covered in different types of robed fabric. "You have no right to be down here. You are trust passing." He held a woman against his chest with a gun to her head.

"Sir these explosives were stolen from a nearby US army base. They do not belong to you." Antler explained to the man.

The guy pointed the gun at us, waving it around where I was nervous that it could go off at anytime. "You are the trust passers here. God will make you pay for what you did to my kids."

"Ma'am, can you tell us what happened to your kids?" I asked her.

She winced beginning to cry before her husband shoved her onto the ground. "A bomb went off – destroyed our house – uh!"

"I will not let you take her from me. We shall be reunited with them in heaven." The guy drew something out from behind his back, holding up a switch with a big red button and then I noticed the timer on the nearest explosion box.

Maxon started barking his head off bolting up the stairs when I hollered to my team. "Weapons hot. I repeat weapons hot!" I ran as fast as I could letting the rest of my team go up first hearing the ticking getting louder behind me.

I managed to get out of the door watching Maxon leap up into the low flying helicopter that had the rest of my team inside. "Mallory!" Antler called my name holding out a hand for me. I screamed barely grabbing his hand by the time the building blew up.

"No! I - I'm sorry." I thrashed in the blankets of my bed throwing my arms and legs about. My chest was tightening, and I shot awake when I felt a hand touch my shoulder.

"Mallory – woah- "I heard someone say before I twisted the person's wrist the opposite way where they winced in pain.

I drew my other hand into a fist trying to figure out who the intruder was and how he got inside my apartment. "Who the hell are you, intruder!"