When I fell, Mac and John were on either side of me and caught me in time before I fell to the ground. “What is wrong Steve?” asked Mac. “I am not sure, just got a bit dizzy for a moment,” I said, “perhaps I should not have looked down.” “Yep, easy to get dizzy that way,” answered Mac. Meow,meow.=More message. 40 guards, 4 matching guns. 8 men. Front wall.

“That is a lot of men,” I said, “we will have to be extremely careful, we are outnumbered 5 to 1. Mac then tossed the cats over to Kate. Now it was John’s turn to jump and he almost did not make it, but Lars was there and grabbed him quickly. “Your turn Steve,” said Mac. I looked, but I could barely make out the window which was just 5 feet away.

“Steve, you okay?” Mac asked again. “I, I cannot make the jump,” I said, “it is just too fuzzy. You go, I will head around that side over there and try to take out two of those machine guns. That will help Sky coming in.” “And then what?” asked Mac, “then they shoot you.”

“My part will be over,” I said, “but I will only hinder you guys if I go inside. This is really the best way, now get going, they need you inside and there is no time to waste.” He helped me put together my gun before he left. “You have four clips on this side of your pack,” he told me. Then he shook my hand and jumped across. “Where is Steve going?” asked John.

“To try and take out the machine guns on the front wall,” he said, “he can barely see and said he would just slow us down.” “Then he gets killed,” said Catalina. “Yeah,” answered Mac, “oh, you are in charge Kate, Steve said so.” “John, you are in charge now,” said Kat and she quickly went to the window and jumped out over to the wall again.

Then Catalina landed on the wall behind her. “Two are better than one,” she said. Off they went and quickly caught up to me. “You should be inside with the others,” I said, “that is more important.” “An interesting theory that we must explore some day,” said Kat. Kat then got ahead of me and we waited at the end of the wall.

We would wait until we heard gunshots, then we would move into position to attack the machine guns. We likely would not have much time before they killed us. “What is that?” Kat asked Catalina. “It shoots explosives, likely the best way to take out those machine guns quickly,” she replied. All I could see now was light, and some shadows, nothing else.

I told the girls, they just looked at each other. Now what to do? Meanwhile, inside with the team. Mac and John quickly opened the door, one looking one way, the other looking the opposite way down the hall. They had silencers on their guns and both shot at nearly identical times and the two hall guards fell to the floor. The one had been drinking from a bottle, however, and it literally exploded loudly when it hit the floor.

The sound echoed through the hall. But they could not stop so they quickly ran down the hall to the room with the sign which read, “The Gray Room”. Just as they got there, one of the guards in the room opened the door slightly and Mac smashed himself against the door sending the man to the floor. Lars looked, spotted the other guard near the boy and shot him.

Then Crystal shot the first guard that had fallen. Bridgette went to the boy and talked with him quietly, letting him know who they were and that she was a nurse. The boy smiled just a little but said nothing. He went with them though, without fighting or questioning them. But the fighting began quickly now, with guards coming up the stairs.

John, Mac and Lars went first down the stairs shooting anyone they saw. Crystal and Bridgette stayed on either side of the boy and Sigurbjorn in front of him, with Astrid behind him. Meanwhile, Sky and Kristina were watching the clock closely.

“Now is the time,” said Sky, “sure you can shoot that thing with me driving?” “Guess we will find out,” smiled Kristina. She had the same kind of gun that Catalina had, but it does not shoot too far, so they had to get somewhat close to those machine guns. Sky had that car at full speed in no time and they came racing up the road.

The men at the machine guns had turned them around to fire at whoever it was coming out of the fortress, so they did not notice the car coming at first. That was a real plus for the girls. But, one of the men turned briefly to check the road and spotted the speeding car coming…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.