THEM (Season 1): Episode 1 by M.D. Massey Page A

and hit cover within just a few seconds of leaving the water.
    Switching to selective fire, I pulled up onto the dock and took a bead on the first person I saw in front of me. I dropped him with a burst to the torso, continually moving forward as I fired on the next closest casualty waiting to happen. I stitched him up the torso and fired another burst to his head, which spattered brain and blood on the third guy standing just a few feet on the other side of him. Bad guy number three froze just long enough for me to hit him with a three-round burst in the upper chest and another to the face as his buddy was hitting the ground.
    I was almost to the building when I turned counterclockwise to find bad guy number four. As I was in rotation, I heard the loud crack of the .300, and completed the turn only to watch bad guy number four’s brains sliding down the wall to my eight o’clock. He’d been coming up on me from my blind spot, and Bernie had just saved my ass. I gave a quick wave and entered the building from the first floor, clearing the room as I entered.
    Making my way through the lower level, I carefully cleared each room one at a time. The last thing I wanted was to have one of these goons come up behind me while I was sneaking up on their buddies above. It was fortunate that Gabby and I had cleared this place earlier, because I knew the layout and that gave me a distinct advantage over the current opposition. I made it through the lower level without incident.
    I dropped my rifle to let it hang from the one-point, and drew one of my Glocks as I stalked silently up the stairs. Just then I heard the muted crack of the .300 again, and figured that Bernie was laying down suppressive fire on the sniper position above me. That must mean that he’d seen movement, which told me there was a shooter or shooters above me. Exiting the stairs into a dining area, I stayed low as I approached the deck.
    Back on the boat I’d counted seven in the group, including my friend Pancho Vanilla. Peeking around the corner to get the lay of the land, I saw a man and a woman on the deck. From the looks of it, the man was acting as spotter and the woman was setting up a sniper’s position with an old deer rifle, a .30-06 bolt-action. By my count these were the last two except for Vanilla. I came up on them silently while they were distracted by the steady cadence of Bernie’s suppressive fire. Without emotion or remorse, I put two bullets in each of them, being careful to stay out of sight so Bernie wouldn’t mistake me for the enemy.
    Six down, one to go. Now, where in the hell was Jimmy?
    Just then I heard the report of a small pistol, three shots in rapid succession, followed by the crack of a small-caliber rifle. Throwing caution to the wind, I set the Glock down next to me and grabbed the deer rifle from the dead woman in front of me, sighting in on the boat with the scope. Gabby was kneeling with her sidearm pointed over the side of the boat, and I could see a corpse floating in the water on the far side. I couldn’t tell if it was Pancho or not, so I dropped the rifle, holstered my Glock, and switched back to the HK again.
    As I headed down the outside stairs to return to the docks, I saw someone fleeing back toward the gate. I quickly drew a bead on the fleeing figure and popped off a burst without effect. They were too far off to bother wasting more ammo, so I let it go and headed back to meet Gabby, Bernie, and Margaret on the docks.
    As I approached the dock, I could see Bernie stand up and wave the all clear to me. Margaret was nowhere to be seen, but I imagined she was still in the cabin and waiting for Bernie to tell her it was okay to come out. On the other hand, Gabby was walking drunkenly toward me as I headed back to the boat, her Ruger still in her hand and dangling at her side. I’d seen that walk before back in Afghanistan, and immediately knew something was wrong.
    Once I got closer to her I could see blood on her