Traitors (Damned of the 2/19th - Book Five) - Finished

Knife VS Axe.... again.

2/19th Special Weapons Group Barracks
Restricted Area - Western Germany
Early Winter - 1986
Day: Fifteen

Nagle's hand snaked out and grabbed Taggart by the sleeve, pulling the pregnant woman toward her, and I veered to my left, coming in fast. I could see his arms tighten as he prepared to bring it down on the two women in front of him, and I doubted he could see me in the dimness coming at him with steel in my fist and murder in my heart. Nancy was turning around, shielding the other woman with her own body as the axe started coming up.

The axe came down just as I stepped in front of Nancy and Taggart, the handle connecting with my shoulder as I stepped inside the arc of the weapon and took the blow meant for the two women. Pain flared in my shoulder and my entire right arm went numb. I drove a punch into his stomach, driving my forehead into his face when he whuffed bad breath into my face, hearing his nose crush and feeling blood spray into my face.

"Get her out of here!" I yelled, trying to bring my right arm into play and getting nothing in response but blinding pain. I pushed the LT into the door across from us, my boots getting traction despite the snow and wet tile, and I almost passed out from the pain when my right shoulder drove into him.

"I'm not leaving you again!" Nancy yelled back.

"Fucking communist traitors!" The LT screamed, punching at me with one hand.

"Get her out!" I yelled back, releasing slightly then driving back into him with my shoulder. I felt more than saw Nancy and Taggart move by me as the LT grabbed me and slung me against the wall, my right shoulder leading the way, and when I hit I almost passed out from the pain, but somehow managed to keep on my feet.

I ducked down and spun in place, the axe whipping over my head to strike the far wall, concrete chips showering me as I drove into him again, forgetting against about my right shoulder, and bellowing in pain as I hit him first then we both slammed into the wall. I put a left into his gut, and he pushed me away. I lost my balance and hit the wall again, the pain so bad I almost passed out. My vision swam and I could feel tears running down my face from the pain as I sagged against the wall and felt my head swim.

Move, dumbass! my father's voice roared in my head, and shook my head and growled before I pushed off the wall and dropped down as the axe arced toward me, but not quite fast enough, pain and confusion slowing my reflexes. The cruel bit of the axe missed me, but the haft of the axe slammed into the top of my head, my world vanishing in sparks and a roaring rushing noise. I managed to get one hand out to try and break my fall, but my right hand refused to work, and I ended up falling to one side, my face crashing into the tile.

The lights had gone off, and I couldn't see the LT or anything else as I popped back up in a desperate, scrabbling lunge that crashed me into the LT. I kicked his feet out from under him just like the Rangers I pal'd around with had taught me, then kicked out, feeling my boot thud into something.

"Hold on, brother!" sounded from down the hallway, punctuated by the crash of the double doors leading into Titty Territory. I turned toward the noise, still seeing nothing but blackness, but the LT grabbed one of my feet and yanked. The ice and snow betrayed me and I pitched over backwards, my head bouncing off the tile with a white flash. I kicked out, trying to find the LT in the darkness, then felt him scrabble up me, kicking and punching as he went, my knee hitting his chest, then his thigh, as I punched him twice with my left hand. When his boot hit my shoulder I screamed, and I heard Bomber roar a threat as he pounded down the hallway toward us.

Instinct told me to roll, and I knew that if I rolled left I'd hit the wall and stop, so I rolled right, the white bar of fire that had replaced my arm getting trapped underneath me.