RUSTY | frank castle

THIRTY FOUR

The smell of gunpowder filled the garage. Rusty was making her own mix, she was good at it. She was like a chef in a five-star restaurant, making a famous meal with her own secret ingredients. She made a few jars of it, so the chances of the garage being left untouched were minimal. 

Frank had the ammunition ready, topping up the guns one by one. He stacked them, then placed them in various places in the garage. A few on the gas and water pipes by the ceiling, a few behind the furniture - whichever was most suitable and easy to get to. 

The two canines weren't trained to detect weapons or explosives, but could easily find it. Fender had gone with David, because Rusty really didn't want him to fight with an injury, he was recovering so well. She just hoped they wouldn't run into anyone. Lexi, however, couldn't live without a fight and Rusty knew all this gunpowder and the smell of firearms really got her going. She was just like herself and Frank. So ordered, kind, yet . . . so violent; deadly.

The woman had a few empty light bulbs lined up on her desk, laying beside some duct tape. She got a piece of paper from David's desk and made it into a cone so she could pour the explosive mix into the glass. She filled all of them up, one by one, before screwing on the top and taping it so it wouldn't fall with the weight of the powder. 

Frank organised the rest of the weapons before walking to Rusty as she screwed the last bulb into its lamp on the ceiling. She turned to see Frank holding black face paint in his hand, a little hope in his eyes. Rusty smiled at him, then took the container and took a step closer to Frank. 

Taking the lid off, she revealed that back mass. She put it on her fingers, before putting some of Frank's cheek. She did the same with the other, and put some on his forehead. Frank followed Rusty with his eyes, looking as she continued, seeing again that she frowned a little when she was concentrating. 

Rusty put some black on his jaw, masking the tiniest bit of stubble on his skin. She took her fingers away, finally making eye contact with Frank. She smiled a little, waiting for Frank to smile back, but his eyes just held sorrow, his face emotionless. 

"Don't be so stubborn." Rusty smiled. "We don't have time for that, now."

Her own eyes became dejected, knowing that doing this was the equivalent of suicide. She brushed off the feeling, smiling again as she gently kissed Frank's nose before putting a dot of black paint on it as a cherry-on-top kind of thing. 

Frank let out a single chuckle, and the corners of his mouth reached up in a little smile. 

"There's that smile I missed for so long." Rusty whispered. 

  •••  

With a glock safely secured in each thigh holster, a large firearm on her back like a bag, a small knife hidden in her boot, two knives attached to her vest, multiple throwing knives, extra ammunition and a few self-made hand grenades, Rusty waited in the shadows of the power station that lay upon the garage. She had Lexi snug next to her legs, both of their steps as silent as death as they walked upon the metal grids which allowed a walkway above the station's machines. 

Rusty heard a body drop. Lexi's head snapped in the direction Frank had went, so she knew one enemy was down. All three of them had comms in their ears (Lexi's adapted specially) so they could communicate, but Rusty didn't dare speak up now. 

Lexi heard some gurgling and chocking, so Rusty counted down another fatality. A gun clattered, but it was far from where the other soldiers headed; they didn't hear it. 

Rusty followed in their direction, signalling to Lexi to search for them. The dog stayed at a silent, steady pace, following the scent of the soldiers. Rusty realised they were following the signal of her and Frank's phones as they went down into the garage. 

Footsteps were detected by the two females, and so Rusty took out an LHR combat knife, a weapon she preferred to use in these types of situations. It was developed especially for the army, and, hell, it a deadly knife. 

The footsteps got closer, so Rusty backed herself up to a wall, hiding in the shadow of some machinery, Lexi right next to her. The woman looked at her dog for indication of when to strike, for her dog's sense of hearing was much better than her own. Lexi's ears tensed, her head following the sound of the footsteps. Then, he came too close. 

Rusty immediately got a hold of the soldier's neck, pushing the knife into his arteries. Blood spluttered from the wound, covering her hand, as well as dripping from his mouth as it mixed with his saliva. Rusty looked left and Right, seeing no figure in sight was a green light for laying the body down quietly and signalling for Lexi to continue her search. 

The ex-marine followed her dog, stopping a few metres above the entrance to the garage. She listened on as their feet shuffled around what had been her living space. 

She heard a man sigh. "Yeah, we're in the power station. There's no one here."

Lexi's ears tensed again, her head tilting to the side as she listened to the speech. The man was on the phone. It seemed like he was talking to the person in charge. 

Rusty turned quickly, hearing something behind her. She had a knife touching Frank's neck, and as soon as she realised, she put the knife away. She mouthed a sorry, and then saw he was holding a decapitated head with warm blood still running from its veins. "Nice touch."

"I'm sure. They were living here, but there's no sign now. They've got a whole bunch of computers in here, too. Heavy-duty setup, it looks like. And there's some torture video and, uh . . . some countdown running."

So they saw the video of Ahmad and Orange and all the rest of them in the room. The countdown didn't fail, that's good. Rusty crouched beside her dog, listening on as Frank stood by, the head still dripping more blood. 

"You wan us to bring it all back?"

There was a silence, so Rusty assumed that he was listening to the other person on the phone. She turned silently, taking a grenade from Frank's ammo belt and taking a grenade out. She found a blue string and used it to attach the grenade to the string. Frank caught up with her thinking and nodded to her, getting ready to throw the head. 

"The phones we tracked . . . they're right here on the desk."

Frank threw it, and soldiers surrounded it at the sight. Some of them were highly confused meanwhile some where horrified. Then. . . BOOM!