Dog Days

Chapter 13

As we navigate through the back streets of the empty decaying city, we come across a main road. Before I can even step out to scan, Loki grabs my shoulder and pulls me back.

I look at him and speak in a low voice "What?"

He narrows his gaze and tells me "Sniper, three buildings down."

I take in a deep breath and he continues "Stay here. Cover me if you see something I don't."

I give a short nod, before he starts back down the way we came. He turns and starts heading away from the sniper. I give my crew a confused look, before I look out down the road to spot Loki running around, gun raised as he scans the rooftops. As he starts across, he fires two shots, before turns around and fires two more shots. A round fires out as he runs across.

Once he gets across to an alleyway, he holds up his walkie and tells me "Four Snipers down. Easily thirty guys in the street."

I narrow my gaze and ask "We fighting this?"

He raises it to his lips and states "Cover me. Start shooting after I get started. Don't get me shot." He glances down at his upper arm and sighs "Don't let me get shot again."

I furrow my brow and ask "You're hit?"

He sighs "I'm fine. It's just a graze." A guy starts towards him and he sighs "Gotta go."

He drops his walkie and pulls out a dagger. As the barrel of the guys rifle pokes around the corner, Loki grabs it, spins the guy and stabs him in the base of the skull. As he holds the corpse up, he turns around the corner and starts spraying bullets out of the dead guy's rifle, using the corpse as a shield. He pushes forward until he reaches our alley way. He smirks "Come join the party! I got most of them, but a few took cover!"

As we turn the corner, I furrow my brow and take a shot at a guy in a window. Over twenty bodies litter the street and I remark "You're a badass!"

He smirks, before he locks eyes on something and takes a shot "Four left, if not more. Let's get a move on!"

As we continue down, he orders "Dessi, Grim, Dashon, follow me!"

As we split, he takes east and I take west. He drops the corpse and puts away the dagger.

As he slams into a building, he fires two shots and calls over the walkie "We found headquarters!"

As he starts up some stairs, I bust into the building across from his and find a guy in the stairwell. As he raises his rifle, I take the shot. He falls down the stairs and I continue up.

As we clear the rest of the building, we go down to hear shots exploding in the building across. Panic spreads through me, but when I hear him speak through the walkie, I feel nothing but relief "You might want to check this out."

As Fandral, Drax, and Hogan come outside, I walk up to find Loki standing in a room of dead bodies. He has his bag on the floor, open, as he shoves a few papers in.

He looks towards me and declares "We've got explosives in the cupboard, and battle plans on the wall." He takes the papers out of his bag and hands them to me "And the symbol of a cell I'm chasing. The same one I believe our mole is working for. This means that they're hiding in the chaos of war. Using it to further their mission."

As I take them and look him over, he points to the symbol on the page that looks like a weird letter T. He points at a word on the page and explains "Apparently they call themselves the Sanctuary. They gave word to these guys about this location."

I stand there for a moment, before asking "Any clue on which one of my people are in charge of giving up our location?"

He takes in a deep breath, before declaring "This is a big start in finding out." He takes in a deep breath and explains "I'll take the rest of the day to gather intel, track locations, and do a deep dive into financial records. I'm going to have to use recognition software, which is a pain in my ass. Looks like a long night."