It was nothing like Corporal Myles had ever heard before. He was from Detroit, had seen people die, had heard people die. He witnessed drug deals go bad, people betrayed, people seek revenge for several things. Nothing he had seen was even close to this. Myles jumped as Abarra let loose with a three-round burst toward the approaching girl. All three landed center mass, and she went down.
“Target down!” Abarra said. He rotated his sight picture to another target when he noticed movement from the girl he just shot. “Oh, diosmio que demonios,” Abarra said under his breath. “Three-center mass and the target got up and is still coming.”
“Body armor?” Priest spoke.
“Negative, I can see her bra under her shirt.”
“Shit, we aren’t dealing with normal combatants. Put one in her head. See if she gets up then,” Priest yelled.
Abarra confirmed his sight picture and sent a round down range. The girl’s head snapped back, and she crumpled to the ground. Abarra watched her for a couple seconds. “Yep, that did it. She’s down for the count.”
“Everybody hear that? Head shots to put these ,” Priest barked.
Webb then keyed for Overlord. “Overlord, take out all hostiles. Repeat, eliminate all hostiles.”
“Copy.” By this time the entire team was engaged with the civilians running at them like wild beasts. They were charging out, screaming with no regard to their safety or survival. They were laser focused on getting to the team.
Based on what Shaw had witnessed in the conference room, he knew it would not be good if the people reached them. He opened up with the M48, sending round after round of .50 cal ammunition, which cut the approaching group down by the score. Legs were being surgically removed, along with arms, chunks of torsos and sections of skull. Even with one person having their lower half blown off, their desire to make it to the team never wavered. He kept crawling, dragging what was left of his lower torso and legs. Shaw put a couple in the guy’s head.
Doc was freaking out. As a medic he had seen a lot of gore in combat, but nothing like he was seeing right now. “Holy fucking shit. Look at that guy over there. I blew half his fucking hip off and he is still coming. His guts are all over the ground, and he is still moving. His eyes are gone too. How can he see where the fuck he is going?”
Webb barked, “Shut up and kill the son of a bitch already.”
“Ok, but shit, there is hardly anything left to shoot on this motherfucker!”
“Shoot him in the head, in the fucking head,” Priest shouted.
Doc fired into the crawling man’s face. “Holy Mary and Joseph. Did you see his head explode? I blew his head apart, and it looked like cauliflower.”
“Doc, shut the fuck up!” Webb bellowed.
Myles could hear the screaming and see the faces of the civilians charging at them. He could feel the concussion of the guns sending rounds down range. But he was in a fog. He felt like he was wearing a concrete suit. All his limbs felt weighted down. His head ached, his eyes burned, and something muted his hearing. The scene was blurry in front of him, and he couldn’t make out where he was or what was going on. Abarra was shaking his shoulders, finally snapping him out of his funk. He found himself slumped forward, and his weapon hanging down, not pointed toward the oncoming civilians.
“Are you all right? Hey Myles, what the hell is going on with you? Are you with us?” Abarra shouted.
Abarra’s voice started somewhat muffled but quickly cleared, and Myles could make out what was being said. “Yeah, yeah… I’m good,” Myles grunted out. “I’m good to go.”
Myles sighted on two people running at him about 100 yards away. Immediately the closest one went down after the side of his head exploded. A split second later, the woman followed, nosediving into the ground with such force it snapped her neck and left her head laying at a weird angle.
“Two down. Motown, you better wake up and engage your targets!” Overlord said, sounding annoyed. Myles just stared at the two bodies lying dead in front of him.
“What’s wrong?” Abarra asked quizzically.
“Never been this close to targets before. Never been this close. It’s different. I saw their faces, heard their screams,” Myles trailed off. Luckily for Myles, all targets were finally down.
Webb keyed, “Anymore targets in the area? Overlord, sit rep.”
“Negative, Spider. Area is all clear.”
“Ok, stay and provide support while we take click of what the actual fuck just happened.”
“Copy Spider, we are T–minus, 2 minutes for exfil.”
“Thanks, Overlord. Give out our coordinates here for the birds. This area is all clear, and I don’t feel like humping to the previous exfil point.”
“Copy that.”
Webb turned back to the rest of the team, “Ok, we got 2 minutes, so what the fuck just happened?”