And When Our Children Tell Our Story [On hiatus until I pull my life together]

Chapter 5

Blood warning?

Alex's PoV

I wake up at oh nine hundred hours. That's nine AM to a person who doesn't use military time. I turn over and press my head under John's neck. I actually got some sleep last night, and I'm ready to go. But I have an hour and a half to kill before we leave. Might as well stay here for a while longer. I only need fifteen minutes to get ready. So I close my eyes again while my brain ticks away, imagining hundreds of different scenarios for what might happen today. 

John wakes up forty seven minutes later. By then, I couldn't handle being in a bed anymore, so I got up and was pacing the room, muttering to myself for the past twenty six minutes. " 'Xander?" He croaks.

"Good news John, the only way any of you die is if you're idiots or don't listen to me, and the only way I die is if I shoot myself in the head or the heart." I inform him.

"That's a little morbid for the first thing I hear when I wake up 'Xander." He remarks.

"You're waking up to me telling you the odds of your death are approximately zero as long as you don't screw up. How is that morbid? Whatever. I'm going to go smoke." I walk out, grabbing the pack of cigarettes and the lighter in the bed-side table as I leave. I walk out onto the deck, lighting my cigarette and leaning on the rail to look out at the water. It's too peaceful. Well, I'm going to utterly shatter that peace in less than an hour. I should take a shower. And polish my bayonet again. And my M18. Yeah, I'll finish this cig then go do that. I've got a big day ahead of me, I gotta look good for it. Question, should I keep up with my facade of being a woman? Nah, I'm bored of it. I won't look that different with my hair down and damn I'll be glad to finally not have to put make up on to hide myself. Fuck what everyone else thinks, I'm done pretending to be a woman.

I step out of the bathroom seventeen minutes later in blue jeans and a plain red shirt. I clap my hands loudly, drawing everyone's attention. "Alright! We have approximately sixteen minutes before Operation Backlash is put into effect. Now is your time to use the bathroom and get your weapons together, go over codewords a final time, make sure your headsets are operational, all that. I am going to go grab the bombs and guns and bring them up, take what you're supposed to." I walk into one of the closets and pull out an army backpack, one of those huge ones, a half dozen grenades, dozens of rounds of ammo, dozens of bombs, five M18 pistols, and a short knife. And my bayonet and some gun polish. I put it all, except for the bayonet, in the backpack and carry it out to everyone else. "Alright, here's your guns." I draw them out and spread them on the floor and take out the polish, opening it and pouring some on a rag to clean my bayonet. Fourteen minutes. It doesn't take me that long to polish a gun. Thirteen minutes now. We have to leave soon.

I turn my headset on. "Alright men. Echo, are you in position?" I ask into the microphone. Operation Backlash has begun. We're all set up in the woods, I'm directly facing the strike point, John, Laf, and Herc are spread out a few paces to my right and left.

"Roger that Fives." Her voice says. Her as in Maria. Yes, we all have codenames as well. Just in case our microphones get hacked. Yes, I did give us all Cone Trooper codenames. I fucking love Star Wars.

"Good." I pause and check my watch. Guard will be changing in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. "Eclipse." I whisper, the designated codeword for the grenade launch.

"Code Orange." She says a minute later. I hear gunshot following that. She's engaged the guards.

"Rochambeau." I bark into the microphone. Yes I'm re-using the codeword from when we escaped here. But it's a good one and it sounds like 'rush on boys' when said quickly. And we need to rush. I strike a match and light a bomb. Only a few seconds. Taking careful aim, I hurl it through the air. It strikes exactly where it needs to be and is quickly followed by three more from John, Lafayette, and Hercules. BOOM. "Luna." I tighten my grip on my bayonet and grab my pistol off the ground, waiting for the smoke to clear. It does to reveal a hole the size we need. My calculations were on point. "Rochambeau." I repeat, dashing forward. I hear three pairs of feet behind me as I leap through the still smoking hole, carefully avoiding the rubble from the bricks scattered in and out of the cell. I almost get hit with a chunk of brick, but I dodge it. Still grazes my shoulder and draws blood, but it doesn't count. I run out of the cell. The door is wide open. I see someone and raise my gun. "Code Red." I whisper into the microphone. My men stop.

"Don't shoot!" I wave the smoke out of my face and see good ole Thomas Jefferson.

"Hello again dipshit." I greet him. "We're here to rescue your sorry ass. Go tell anyone else in the building to come to this cell and run out as far and fast as they can. Go!" I order him. He blinks in confusion but turns and runs off. "All clear." I say. "Echo, report."

"I'm doing good Fives. Taken down a dozen guards so far. Used a mix of ammo and grenades." She replies.

"Good. Boil, come on. Quickly." I say, running down the cell block with my bayonet raised, making my way to the security office. "Hardcase, Jesse, Code Green."

"Roger that Fives." John's voice sounds in my ear. They stay inside the cell, waiting for us to disable the cameras.

"Echo, status update."

"Running low on grenades Fives. Still a lot of ammo though."

"Alright. When you're out of grenades, you know to meet up with one of us." I say, finally reaching the security office. There's five guards in here. I take them out in a matter of seconds. They lay on the floor, their eyes clouded, looks of shock on their faces, blood pooling heavily out of their chests, making red rivers on the floor. "Boil, do your thing." Hercules nods and sets to work. I don't watch him, I keep my eyes on the screens. A few minutes pass and they go dark.

"I've deleted the footage of us being here as well." He says.

"Good man. Code Yellow." Hey, I'm not taking any chances with anyone finding out what we're up to. Whether someone's hacked these or if someone just happens to hear us. I'm protecting myself at all costs, so yeah I had my men memorize about fifteen different codes with different meanings. It was the same in the army.

Okay I seem to have to divide this chapter into two parts bc I don't want it running on for three thousand words.

-Bottomless