Reality Under The Apple Tree -- A DDLC Fanfiction

Chapter 7 : Last stand

Monika and I sprint towards the apple tree. This was the place where we met barely a week ago and now it is our place of hope.

As we approach the apple tree, piles of sandbags greet our eyes. A ring formation around the tree while others scatter around irregularly, just like what I asked for.

'Thanks Gavin and Jason, you guys might have just saved my life.' I whispered quietly.

I inspected the formation and notice something special. A ballistic shield. Isn't that Gavin's weapon? Why is it here? I flip it around and see a note clipped onto the shield.

Consider this as a token of our friendship. Wish you luck!

P.S. Don't forget to return to me after everything is done.

Gavin

I begin to unload my combat supplies. I take my packs of C4 and place them around the apple tree in a checkered pattern, and set my smartwatch into detonator mode. 'Connection successful. Press the digital crown to detonate.' My watch face gave me an ensuring notification as I continue to set up my defense.

'Monika,' I instructed. 'Please remain prone next to the apple tree behind those sandbags and wait for my call. They shouldn't be able to see or hurt you behind those covers. Do not stand up before I told you to do so.'

Monika nodded in agreement. She took off her backpack and lied down next to those sandbags. The height of the sandbags are sufficient to cover up her entire body, making her invisible from the outside.

'Is it good?' Monika asked. 'All good. Stay that way.' I shouted back to confirm.

I checked my P90 one last time to ensure it is in full auto mode. It is 11:45 pm now and all we can do now is wait.

This is the slowest 15 minutes I've ever encountered in my life. Time does pass slower when I am anxious. After what feels like years, my smartwatch finally vibrated gently on my wrist, telling me it is midnight now.

I heard a faint explosion in the distance. The task force must have blasted through my door and are searching through my house for Monika. I don't care about my house now. After my plan we are leaving this city anyway so why care?

'Any time now.' I thought to myself. I hid myself in a bush nearby and silently watched through the dense leaves. It is nighttime now and thankfully both my combat suit and my bulletproof vest are plain black in color, which offered some more camouflage alongside with the bush. After another 10 minutes or so I begin to hear several footsteps approaching.

The task force is here. I observed silently as they moved around in formation. 'Search through this area. Stick together, target is armed and highly dangerous.' I heard someone instructs them from behind. Little did they know that sticking together is going to be the biggest mistake they made.

I watched them for a bit longer until they all walked into the blast radius of my C4. This is it, the time is now.

I gently pressed the crown on my smartwatch.

The blast was very effective. Due to them being in a formation close to each other, the explosion is able to deal collateral damage to their squadron. Around half of them are killed instantly while the rest of them are disorientated by the shockwave.

I dash towards the nearest sandbag piles to switch cover. I then peek from my cover and unload dozens of rounds on the survivors, killing a few more. The 5.7mm round fired by my P90 are proved to be highly effective against moderately armored enemies, and the high fire rate also helped me to strike fast.

As soon as the enemies regain their conscious, they begin to return fire at my direction. Fortunately, years of training had taught me how to use covers to my advantage and move strategically. Those bullets fired by the enemies ended up either hitting the sandbag or completely missing, dealing no damage on me either way.

I move around those randomly placed sandbags and spray whenever I have the chance. The high fire rate P90 does have a disadvantage though: it drains ammo really fast, but the reloading procedure takes like 4 seconds or so. Soon my 50 round mag run out of ammo and I had to reload. I grab a stun grenade on my belt and toss it at their direction. I hear one of them shouted 'Grenade!' But it is too late. Stun grenades have a short fuse and once it explodes it creates a blinding flash which can blind my enemies briefly, creating a time window for me to reload my weapon.

Before the can even recover, I have already completed my reload. I switched my position once again before they realize, and poured yet another bunch of bullets towards them. One by one the task force members fell, and soon it is evident that the task force is in full rout and are beginning to retreat.

There are only two enemies left. One of them used his teammates as cover and is very close to me while the other one has long been pinned behind a cover by my furious bursts. I aim at the close one while peeking from behind sandbags and squeeze my trigger. Then I realize I have no ammo left.

'Shit!' I exclaimed. I need to figure out how to kill the close one first. I will have to kill him with melee weapons. Then I turned my head and see that ballistic shield.

I slide across sandbags to grab that ballistic shield. My motion was so fast that neither of them were able to react before I grabbed it. With the shield in hand, I launched myself towards the nearer enemy, using the shield as cover. The impact is so forceful that I cause the enemy to lose balance and bang his head into the ground, ending his life. The further enemy fired at me with his PP-19 Bizon but his effort was futile as 9mm bullets can be easily stopped by the ballistic shield. I pull out my combat knife from my belt and throw at his direction. The knife impaled into his chest, effectively killing the last enemy.

I cast the shield aside and inspected the region. The ground is full of dead bodies and seems that I did it. I eliminated an entire squadron alone.

I raised my head to see a tall figure standing a couple meters away from me. He is holding a HK416 but he didn't shoot me. Heck, He didn't even aim towards me.

'I expected this from you, A13.' That person spoke with a grin on his face.

(1135 words)