The Mulligan Planet by Zachariah Dracoulis

another body dropped lifelessly. The
remaining were retreating only to realise that they were at the end
of the hall, their last turn just passed by Wolf who, pushing their
dead comrades with his table shield, was mere feet from them. Their
screams echoing through the halls, I had no sympathy for them
though, death will always beget death. When I reached Wolf and Gabe
we nodded at each other, took a step back and slammed into the
table, silencing their screams.

All
Clear
    We’d taken a few minutes to sit
and take it in, an alert from Lucy had been sent out informing us
that the hunters were eradicated other than the five who were
currently being tortured for information. The eyes of the dead
flashing through my mind every time I closed mine, the screams
ringing through my ears. I couldn’t move, the idea of that many
people dying, “What are we going to do Wolf?” he pulled the bullet
out of his shoulder and let it roll across the floor, leaving a
dark red trail in its wake, “We move. We’ll do this mission on
Friday then we’ll probably transfer to the base in Antarctica until
we can find somewhere else.” His voice empty and cold, Gabriel
kicked his gun across the floor, “This truly went balls up didn’t
it?” I nodded as I wiped some of the blood off on my pants, “It
really did. I haven’t seen this many people die at one time… ever.
I mean, I’ve seen a lot die, but never so fast, not so close.” We
sat there for a while, Wolf and I got word about several more
deaths, some who were wounded, others who couldn’t handle what they
saw and lost and decided to end it themselves. Twenty three minutes
had passed from the first breach to the interrogation of the last
hunter which had revealed that they’d brought their entire force
from a few kilometres up the road; they had found the base months
ago and had been mobilising. After an hour or so someone from the
command centre came for Wolf, Gabe and myself to guide us to a
large room in the heart of the base that was filled with buzzing
men and women operating computer systems, occasionally mumbling
something or leaving the room in tears. The guide showed us to a
smaller back room similar to the one I woke up in. Jason, Mike,
Kate, Anton and Gregorvich were in the room sitting around a large
oval table. Anton, who had a large split in his forehead, gestured
to the three remaining chairs, “Could you shut the door on your way
out Louis,” I heard the door close as I sat, “Now, Gregorvich got
in about ten minutes after the attack, he managed to get some
information.” He pointed at Greg who took this as his cue, “There
was a garage,” he threw some pictures to the centre of the table,
“A large truck-van like vehicle; that one almost looks military,
and a two seated black convertible.” I grabbed the picture of the
truck, blood smearing it under my fingers, it looked like an
armoured bank truck but slightly longer with a smoother, more
stylish front, “I’ll take Gregorvich with me in the convertible,
Kate and Wolf, I need you with Minks and the team in the truck.
I’ll need a suitcase with enough explosives to open the front door
but more importantly to make a lot of smoke, remote detonated would
be preferable,” I felt woozy, I shook my head slightly, “then you
guys bring the truck around, bring the C4 and weapons. I’ll need
Mike to lace the base of the building with the explosives, Alpha
can cover him, the rest of us will move through the building,” I
felt blood dripping down my back, I coughed into my hand as blood
bubbled in my throat, that prick with the knife must’ve gotten me
in the lung, “We’ll all meet on the roof for a helo extract.” I
slipped back into the chair and tried to keep my breathing
regular.
    Anton scooped up the pictures,
“Alright, you are all off duty until Friday morning, I suggest you
head to the medical centre for evaluation ASAP, they’ll make room
for you all. In case I don’t see you before dust