The Spaces Inbetween

Chapter 9. The Price of a Life

    The three days that were given to us to train and rest and just brace ourselves went by in a flash. The reality of the situation once more sank into the faces of the survivors of the last battle. Even I had a certain look on my face that grim. Last time we were only going against guards and at the time we had more people. This time we were going against an entire army that was more trained than the last. Naomi noticed the look on my face and just grabbed my hand. She looked onward to a sea of a thousand faces.
    "Alright people. Everyone get into there assigned squads and start loading up into the trucks. Except Demon Company. You'll be taking to the air so we're putting you on the helicopters. Remember your objective is to get the Director while the other two companies defend and take care of clear the extraction path for you. Finally, I want to remind everyone that our lives as normal people depend on this battle. If we lose they'll take us all again. They might even just kill us. So fight with everything you have."
She finished her speech lifting my hand and her hand into the air. A roar of cheers echoed out. Everyone started running to their spots. The once grim look was no longer there. It was a look of fight, a look of determination. From a few scouting parties we saw that they have over 2,000 armed soldiers. While we only had 1,380 people, we did have our powers.
    While loading into the helicopters I looked around at my group.
    "To all of you who are fighting with me in Demon Company, just know that if you don't want to fight you don't have to. You can stay back. This is possibly the more risky task of our mission. I'm only wanting volunteers."
After saying this I looked across the seats. No one budged. I looked over at Naomi, who was loading the last of her group into the trucks. Everyone was geared up for battle. As we started taking off the lead scientist told us he put a cloaking device in the helicopters. We could go 100% invisible, but only for 30 minutes. The the cloak would be left completely useless.
After taking off we activated our cloak. Flying above hundreds of trucks barreling through the terrain we started taking fire from the military base. Explosions going off hitting near the trucks. I looked down just hoping they'd make it to the main wall and get inside. Shots were flying through the air and zipping by us. To a horrific scene I raised my head to the sound of panic.
     "This is Demon Company squad C! Our cloak has had a critical failure! We need to pul-."
Gazing out the window I see a shot sore through the air an hit Squad C's helicopter. Causing it to burst into flames and fall to the ground where it landed, then exploded. I rushed to the pilots seat and told him to be ready. As we approach the military base the sound of battle screams and explosions roared out across the now war fed field.
     "Sir, our cloak is down. Another critical failure!"
Immediately I told everyone to brace. I heard the shot of something then felt the impact on the helicopter. The pilot had evaded a head on hit but had to sacrifice the tail rotor.
I was thrown against the wall as we began to spin. With the hard impact of the ground we started going into a barrel roll. After flipping several times and going through the main wall, we came to a stop. I could smell the leftover gasoline. Gunshots rang out as I got to my feet and hit the emergency door eject. We all survived the crash except the pilot. From the impact of the initial hit, the cockpit had be completely crushed. As we emerged from the crash we saw the night sky lit up with fire and massive artillery shots. The yelling of our men grew louder and louder with every charge that went off blowing holes into the wall.
We came across a group of men running twoards the wall with the goal of intercepting people rushing in.
We turned our attention to them and they started firing at us. I went to throw up my shield but it was shattered after 3 shots. I got up next to one of the soldiers, grabbing him by the neck with my prostetic arm. I applied so much pressure that his neck snapped like a twig. His body went limp and hit the ground. I picked up his gun and started firing into the other soldiers. One by one they dropped.
I looked over at my second in command.
     "Alex, grab that M16 and follow me. For the rest of you, grab those M9's and go to the landing site for Delta and Serra."
When we split our ways I got a glimpse of Naomi's truck crashing through the wall. She hoped out of the truck with all her squad members. Putting her right arm in the air, she shouted. Her team started taking on the soldiers and killing them.
Me and Alex ran through the Court yard until we came across the building that the director was is.
I kicked in the door and swiftly moved inside. Alex followed behind me. With every bomb that went off outside the building shook throwing everyone off balance. Over the radio I heard our people asking for reinforcements as they were getting gunned down. I felt like I couldn't do anything to help them.
We came across another group of soldiers guarding a room. According to the Intel we had, the Director was in this room. I was out of ammunition and I couldn't push with my sheild. It was too hard to keep up with only one arm. Alex looked at me.
    "Sir... You better make this count and you better not forget me."
I was confused at first but then watched Alex rush infront of me and start blasting the soldiers that stood between us and the Director. In the midst of talking down the men I witnessed a bullet fire from one of the soldiers guns peircing Alex's chest. He went down in one singular motion.
I rushed over to him as the men he was against had all been killed.
    "Alex, your going to be okay man."
I started applying pressure to the wound but the blood kept gushing out with the consistency of a waterfall.
He grabbed my shirt and balled his fist.
"Loki, don't tell me shit like that man. You are the deciding factor in our future. My life... It might end right here but I'll live on somewhere else man. Just kill that bastard. Don't let my death be for nothing..."
With his last breath he asked me to do one thing. To free everyone.
I got to my feet and started kicking the door. With the rage and anger inside building up like a growing civilization, I kicked the door with all my power right above the handle. The door swung open, then broke off the hinges smacking the only guard in the room. The director rushed to his desk and pulled out a gun.
"You didn't think I wasn't going to arm myself did you boy?"
He laughed manically and started shooting me.
I put my prostetic arm up as the bullets crashed into it. The zips of shots stopping in an instant put fear in his eyes.
    "You've got so much worse coming to you than me just beating the hell out of you."
I continued to walk twoards him. He tried looking around and throwing stuff at my but I swatted the objects away.
     "Please spare my life, I didn't mean to do any harm to you kids. I just wanted to protect our nation. I wanted to protect the people. With other nations getting super soldiers we don't stand a chance Loki!"
I looked at him. He saw the burning hatred in my eyes.
     "Shut up! You don't want to protect shit! You want to protect the people of our nation? Tell that to Alex... He's out there on the floor. Gun downed because of the orders you gave your man."
I cocked back my arm.
    "I'm sorry Loki, please just le-."
I released a punch down on the top of his skull. It knocked him down and he was out of it. I carried his body through the hall way and then out the front door. The remaining forces of the military base were on their knees. I looked at Naomi and she smiled.
      We explained that the remaining men that are held at the moment were our prisoners of war. Until the minute we left we were going to keep there on the ground.
Quickly I rushed up to the wall in front of everyone. I made a statement.
"This is our enemy! This is the person that has oppressed us for so long. It ends today. I have a personal vendetta against this asshole! He took my arm. So today I am going to take his life. We've already stripped him of everything he has except one thing. Today I.... We are going to take his life and end our oppression today!.
There was a roar of everyone in the crowd. Naomi now standing next to me she put her hand on my shoulder.
    "Do it."
With one swift motion I grabbed the director by his head and put all the force I had into a turning motion. His neck snapped with the sound of a branch cracking. His body jolted as it fell to the ground. With such grace it fell through the air until stopping on the ground.
      "It's finally over. We are finally free!"
Once more the loud roar of the crowed grew. It was finally over. We were finally done.