Night fell, and everyone was in their proper locations. Ellis was in a building however many ever yards or meters or whatever away. Close enough to make sure he got a good shot, but far enough not to give himself away if everything went tits up. Johnny was at the rear gate of the mansion with Laura and Spike. Spike was in a harness Laura wore around her midsection with a muzzle wrapped around his snout. Two of the frat trio, Jim and Steve, were at the front gate while the local boy was working on cutting power.

  Johnny looked over at Laura and then at Spike. The muzzle and contraption that held the dog in place were very much for the bad guys’ protection for the time being. Once the firefight started, if it started, the dog would be vicious and hone in on whatever bad guy was threatening Laura and end the threat.

  Johnny was wearing a simple pair of worn jeans and a black form-fitting t-shirt. Laura, the always professional soldier, was in her usual fatigues. The pair were hiding off the main street in an alley to the side of the mansion. Laura looked through a night vision scope, looking over the grounds.

  The mansion looked about as you’d expect a mansion to look in the Middle East. Even though it was in the middle of the desert, there were well-manicured lawns and trees and bushes everywhere.

  The soldier couldn’t help but hate the man even more than just looking at him. Beyond that, it wasn’t just a simple mansion. It was a damn bunker. In order to get to the target, they were going to run over lots of open ground to get to the cover of the house. Johnny hoped they’d be able to hide behind some of the bigger trees if they needed to.

  “Man, I’m fucking beat,” Johnny looked over at her with a smirk. “Thank God for those little pills they give us.”

  Laura pulled away from her scope to look at him with a coy grin. “What a way to lose sleep, though, huh?”

  All Johnny could do was nod and grin before he put his game face back on and got serious. “What’s it looking like over there?”

  “Not great, but it should be easy enough with our nonlethal weapons,” she informed him.

  Johnny nodded again and then tapped the collar he wore around his neck that had a microphone in it. “How are we looking at losing power?”

  “Uhhhhh…” came Efran’s voice over the mic.

  Johnny blinked, and he and Laura stared at each other with frowns.

  “Uhhhhh, what?” Johnny asked.

  Just as he asked, there was a loud noise of the power systems failing nearby. Laura reached out to tap Johnny on the shoulder. She was already looking back through the scope, and he stared at the ground, wondering what the hell Efran’s problem was. When he looked up and over, he grinned.

  “Alright, gang, we’re on. Overwatch what’s going on?” He spoke lowly into the mic as he and Laura moved down the alley towards the gate.

  “Oh, it’s looking like all hell broke loose. Emek is smacking his guards around in the penthouse demanding to know what’s going on,” Ellis said while he gave a little laugh.

  “Front team?”

  “Working our way in now,” Steve spoke briskly through the mic.

  Johnny heard the suppressed gunshots in the background as Steve checked in. He frowned and got out his bolt cutters. “We’re supposed to be using nonlethal unless needed. We aren’t supposed to be causing an incident,” he scolded.

  “We have the rubber bullets Lou, it’s alright,” Steve assured his commander.

  While Johnny worked the bolt cutters to cut through the fence that surrounded the safe house mansion, whatever you wanted to call it, Laura stood guard. She scanned the perimeter, the Tavor assault rifle held at the ready. Spike buzzed with anticipation. No noise came from the dog, though, which spoke more to its training.

  Once Johnny had the fence opened, Laura went in with him close behind. While she had the IDF standard weapon, he used a simple M4. It was slung on his back until he went through the fence line. Then he had it in both his hands and at the ready. Aside from the rubber bullets, they all did have some magazines with actual bullets in them, just in case. Then when it came to Ellis, he didn’t fuck around. He was locked and loaded and ready to save the team’s ass if he needed to.

  The pair ran through the backyard with no shots fired, though they heard the yelling inside. There were also a lot of gunshots coming from the front of the mansion. Although worried about the other two in front, Johnny and Laura were grateful for the distraction. It gave them a pretty easy time getting through the yard.

  “Efran, get up there and help them out. We will lose no one doing this stupid-ass mission. Overwatch, what’s going on?” Johnny commanded into his mic.

  “On it!” Efran yelled, his voice strained as he moved.

  “They’re getting shot at from inside the mansion. They flipped some kind of switch inside. I can’t see inside the building. They fucked the windows,” Ellis called back.

  Gunshots boomed through the earbuds Johnny wore that were connected to his mic. “We’re good for now. The guard at the gate flipped a panic button or something. This keeps up. We’re saying fuck it and switching to real ammo. These rubber bullets are shit.”

  Johnny grunted, “Negative. Permission denied for the time being.”

  Laura looked over at him. “We’re clear. We can move in from behind,” she said.

  Johnny nodded his head and looked ahead. “About the only thing we can do,” he said as he pushed forward from his cover of the large palm tree.

  “You guys stay down. We’re moving into position,” Johnny yelled into the mic.

  Just after he closed the mic, there was a hail of gunfire from automatic weapons, and Johnny dove behind another tree. Laura did the same to a tree next to him, and they looked at each other. She peeked around to make sure they were still clear while Johnny spoke once more to Ellis.

  “I got nothing Lou, I can’t see the trio. I know Efran moved in to help, but they’re ducked out of sight for the time being,” the sniper confirmed for Johnny.

  “We’re clear,” Laura told him, and they once more moved in towards the mansion.

  Without another word, the two moved quickly and got to the backdoor of the house. It was one of those large double sliding doors and there were immense windows everywhere. They each stood on either side of the sliding door trying to hide behind the little of actual wall that went all the way up. Laura peeked in and then shouted, all clear to Johnny, who was digging through a pack he was carrying.

  He pulled the tools out to try to break the glass quietly. He felt like a burglar in an old timey movie carving out a circle next to the handle of the door.

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  “Dammit, Johnny, get out of the way,” Laura shouted over another hail of gunfire.

  He looked up at her and went wide-eyed as he watched her lift the Tavor and aim it at the glass door. He could just roll out of the way when she tapped the trigger, and the glass exploded. Thankfully, she did time it with the shots coming from the front of the mansion.

  “That wasn’t very sneaky,” he chided her.

  She frowned at him. “Sneaky went out the window when the bad guys started using Uzis.”

  Johnny nodded his head. “Yeah, fair enough.”

  He breathed in deep and jumped to his feet before he gripped his rifle at the ready. He went in first, just as he should. Not because Laura was a woman or anything like that, but because he was the sergeant. It was his job to be first in and last out, no matter what sort of shit they were getting into. He liked Laura, maybe even…no. He stopped that thinking. Now wasn’t the time for that sort of inner reflection.

  The pair moved methodically as they went through the house and cleared the bottom floor. It was empty. Everyone had opted to move up, so they had height on the people in the compound’s front and could shoot down at them. Johnny moved to the staircase with Laura close behind.

  “How many floors were there in this place?” He asked her.

  “Four.”

  Johnny frowned and breathed in deep.

  “Steve’s been hit!”

  Johnny held up a hand, stopping Laura before she walked into him when the call came over the mic. The two stared widely at each other, waiting for more information.

  Laughing was the follow-up from Jim. “Right in the meat of the ass. The idiot was trying to back up and maybe get a better vant-”

  Then the line went dead. Johnny knew he shouldn’t have really spoken into it with where they were, but he looked at Laura, who was still wide-eyed and frowning.

  “Repeat. Repeat the info. I don’t copy,” Johnny said calmly.

  There was no response.

  “Overwatch, what’s going on?”

  The radio cackled. “We’re fucked. They must have known we were coming somehow? Even with the alarm, it wouldn’t make sense for this.”

  “Do you have eyes on the frat boys?”

  “Negative. There are people coming out though, and I’m cleaning them up as much as I can,” Efran told Johnny.

  “Do we abort?” Laura looked at Johnny.

  Johnny sighed and looked back at the door they had entered through. One decisive nod.

  “Efran, tell them to get their own damn target. We’re aborting. Get eyes on the three in the front,” Johnny commanded sternly, and moved away from the staircase.

  “Roger” was the only answer he received from the sniper.

  Laura was already moving towards the exit. She dropped the magazine from her rifle and put it in the back of her belt without permission or warning. With another motion, the rubber bullet in the chamber popped out, and she let it drop to the floor. Another magazine was placed in the rifle from her front, and Johnny frowned. He said nothing, but he followed suit. Non-lethality went out the window, and it was time to get out alive.

  The hot air from the outside was now on their exposed skin, and Johnny took a moment to look up at the night sky. He was happy until there was a cloud covering what little light the moon was giving off. Now he hated it. They dashed through the backyard, each rotating around and taking turns to look back towards the mansion to make sure they didn’t draw any fire. It seemed the firefight out front had settled. This was either a very good or a terrible thing.

  They were almost at the hole they had cut through when three jeeps sped through the alley they were waiting for at the start of the mission. Johnny went left, and Laura went right behind some trees. They waited until the jeeps squealed to a stop and the goons stepped out. They must have packed them in like they were clown cars.

  Not only were there a lot of them, but they were also organized with Mac 10s. They took cover and organized themselves in a position that would make an escape for the duo impossible through the rear. Johnny looked over to the actual rear gate that was shut and saw it was opening, with a team of them getting ready to come through.

  “We’re caught. We need a way out,” Johnny said on the mic.

  “Come around front. It looks clear. You can check on the boys,” Ellis responded.

  He looked over at Laura and Spike. The dog was getting restless with all the new activity and targets. It fought against its restraints and growled into the muzzle it wore. He and Laura locked eyes, and they nodded to each other. She grabbed a rope, and then a moment later the dog was free. Spike landed on the ground and growled while he watched the people take tactical positions.

  “Come,” Laura commanded and then took off after Johnny towards the side of the building. Obediently and without hesitation, Spike followed Laura.

  The two humans took turns turning back and popping shots off into the darkness. Johnny wasn’t sure they were actually hitting anyone, but it seemed to keep the teams in their place for the time being. That would be good enough.

  As the three of them rounded the corner, Spike started growling once more. He even snapped toward the front of the building. Johnny, not being trained, just stared at Laura with a cocked a brow as they waited to move to the front.

  “I thought Efran said it was clear? There’s people out there,” Laura told him.

  Johnny cursed and peeked around the corner with his rifle held at the ready. Just a quick peek showing as little of him as possible.

  “You sure? I don’t see anything?” Johnny looked at Laura.

  Laura just shrugged and pointed at Spike. She looked at the dog and said something in Hebrew before she looked at Johnny. “Go.”

  Johnny nodded and rounded the corner with his gun up. Spike and Laura were close behind, with Laura making sure no one came behind them.

  “The front gate isn’t too far away,” Johnny told her as they moved. “We've gotta find the boys and get them out of here too.”

  Just as they approached their exit, Spike tore off and Laura swore. Before Johnny could even respond and do anything, Laura yelled out. Just before he turned to see what she was yelling about, Spike jumped through the air and mauled someone who Johnny could barely see. With a thud as a weapon hit the grass, the person screamed out as he tried to fight the dog off.

  “Johnny,” came a soft voice from behind him.

  He turned and saw Laura on the ground. She was trying to hold her stomach, but there was just too much blood pouring from it. Without thinking, he moved to her and pulled her closer to the guard shack.

  Johnny was sitting now, holding her across his legs, one hand trying to hold her stomach as the other fumbled for his pistol. He had dropped his M4 when he went for her, and it now sat a few yards away, useless.

  “It’ll be alright. I’m sure someone is coming for us,” he told her as he held onto her. He shot a few rounds off as bodies started coming around the corner. The sounds of Spike taking care of people who were coming from the opposite direction. Screams came from that direction, and blind gunfire and curses in Hebrew came from the direction Johnny shot in.

  “It’ll be alright,” Johnny told her once more. Probably more for himself than for her.

  “Johnny….” came a voice he knew in his ear.

  His eyes went wide. “Ellis, call someone. Get us the fuck out of here. Laura she-”

  There was laughter that came through the mic then. Then a very low and subtle, “Fuck you.”

  was the response that cut off his plea to get them help before the line went dead.

  Johnny went wide-eyed and felt the blood draining from his face. Another few shots popped off, and then Spike was back and with Laura sniffing and licking her.

  “Well, buddy, this isn’t looking great,” he said to the dog.

  Spike just whined and then looked at the sky and gave a howl.

  “Yeah,” was all Johnny could reply.

  THWOOP. THWOOP. THWOOP.

  Whirring of chopper blades in the sky and Spike gave another howl. A machine gun opened up, and Johnny saw the barrel flare from a mounted machine as the chopper advanced towards them.

  “Jesus fuck Laura, we’re saved. Laura, we’re gonna be alright. The fra- Steve, Jim, and Efran must have called someone for backup,” he said and shook Laura’s body.

  Her arm fell and dangled lifelessly, and Johnny went wide-eyed. He grabbed her and pulled her closer to his chest. A hand tried to smack her to wake her up, but the warmth had left her body. Johnny started yelling, and he emptied the pistol’s magazine, firing indiscriminately in whatever direction he thought he heard someone.

  When he was out of bullets, he just threw the gun. He didn’t realize it was US troops he threw the empty gun at until they were on him and grabbing him. Everything was a blur. Laura was pulled from him, and even though he wasn’t injured, he was carried off to the helicopter with Spike following him.

  Shouldn’t he have followed Laura? Why wasn’t Spike staying with Laura? Johnny blinked and felt Spike’s tongue licking his hand in the helicopter.

  How did he get on the chopper? He was sitting on the floor in a corner with a blanket wrapped around him and Spike staring at him.

  - Ratings: REACHED/15 (extra chapter today!)

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  thanks for reading, hope you’re enjoying!

  Im sorry people disagreed and I’ve fixed the issue people had.