The End of the Beginning
Chapter 73: Run

Three ISAF patrol cars skidded around a far column, turning on their sirens. The squalling sound and flashing high pitches were deafening inside the tank. One car took the lead in front of the other two. All of them were accelerating. They were about 200 feet away and closing. A guardsman sitting in the lead cars passenger seat rolled down his window and leaned out of it. He drew his P90. A blue laser at the tip of the gun locked onto Abeo.

“No! Lawal!” screamed William. “Run!”

Abeo frantically began running back to the van. The guardsman lined up his laser onto Abeo’s back.

“Everyone down!” shouted Jake; physically grabbing everyone he could around him, pushing them down behind the van.

William grabbed his P90. He put his foot up on the vans right front tire and jumped over the hood. Vega saw this and raced after him running around the backside of the van.

“Abeo!” shouted William. He pulled up the P90 he had and aimed it at the approaching patrol cars. He squeezed the trigger but nothing happened. He remembered to his horror about ISAF weaponry and their safety mechanism, the bio-modules. It was not synched to William. He could not use the gun.

Abeo was no more than ten feet away from William now. William reached out his arm for his rescue officer. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Vega running towards them. He wished she wasn’t.

Five feet away. Once he grabbed Abeo he was going to force him under the van to crawl through to the other side.

“Come on, Abeo!”

The guardsman squinted down his sight and rested his finger on the trigger. He took a calming breath and fired a three shot burst. William lunged for his rescue officer when suddenly blood spewed out of Abeo’s mouth. Abeo arched his back in pain and flared his arms up. Abeo fell dead into William’s arms. William looked down at him in pure shock; not even realizing the blue laser was now on his own chest.

Vega threw herself into William, knocking him down away from Abeo, onto his back as three more bullets flew over top of them landing in the vans white aluminum. Using the van as cover, Jake began firing back with his handgun, the only weapon on him. Vega dragged William under the van and pulled him through to the other side where the team was hiding. Jake managed to hit the guardsman firing at them. He fell out of his window to the ground. He may have been alive but that chance disappeared when the following patrol car ran him over accidently.

“Stay down everyone and stay behind the van!” ordered Vega.

Jake kept firing his handgun until it was empty. The patrol cars were now less than 100 feet away. Instead of reloading it with his extra clip he dropped the gun and ran crouched over to the trunk of their stolen patrol car. Bullets started being fired again, riddling the side of the van, shattering its windows.

William looked over on the ground and saw Jake open the trunk of the patrol car and start fiddling with something inside of it. To William’s surprise Jake pulled out something he recognized from his military days, an AT4, a shoulder launched rocket weapon.

“You have a bazooka?” wowed Simba.

“Heads down!” yelled Jake. “Heads down!”

He gave himself clearance from the patrol car, steadied his legs, and aimed the weapon at their attackers.

“I’m sorry my brothers,” Jake whispered as he removed the weapons safety. He placed his right thumb on the firing button and pressed it. In a rush of yellow flames exuding out the back of the weapon, the rocket flew through the air at 950 feet per second, through the open sliding passenger van door and out the shattered windows of the other side. In less than a second the rocket hit the first patrol car and exploding just after coming through the dashboard. The speeding car flew apart in flames, its chassis spinning out of control and crashing into the car on its right. This car’s driver was killed on impact, causing the car to hit one of the tank’s columns head on. The third car skidded away and broadsided another column. Several pieces of all three vehicles slid past the team for several dozen more feet.

Jake tossed away the rocket launcher and ran over to the vans trunk. He flung open the vans double doors and pulled out two P90’s.

“Captain,” called Jake.

William turned over. Jake threw him one of the guns. William caught it with one hand and got up.

“I’ve had its biomodule encoded to you. You can use it now, come on!” rushed Jake.

“Wait,” said William, “give one to Sergeant Horbert. She knows what to do with it.”

Jake found the gun he had encoded for Vega and gave it to her. She cocked it. William did the same to his.