Avenging Laura (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Highlander’s heart went into his throat when he heard the shots ring out into the silence. His group had to hold him back from racing to where the sounds came from.

By the time the second shot rang out, his group was heading forward, weapons raised, and comms silenced. It was too quiet for his liking. Reading the body language of those around him, he wasn’t alone in his assessment.

The first room they came upon had Highlander’s whole body going numb. He saw the meat hook hanging from the ceiling and the rope laying on the ground. What made him go still was all of the blood on the ground and a few places on the walls.

“Breathe, Joe. She’s alive. If she wasn’t, they would have just left her body here. We will find her. It may not even be her blood,” Captain Irby tried to sooth Highlander as she looked around the room, seeing the same things he saw.

“There’s blood on this wall. Looks smeared as if whoever it was, was using the wall to hold them up. It’s going out of this room.” Jack pointed to the far wall.

“Let’s go hunting!” Dominick seethed through his teeth as he followed Jack out of the room, both of them following the smeared blood trail.

Highlander closed his eyes and said a quick prayer to the man upstairs that they found his heart, his soulmate, his lass alive. God help the universe if she was dead. He would raze this fucking planet to the ground to make sure he got every living motherfucker who had a hand in his wife’s death.

Weapons raised, he followed everyone out of the room, repeating his prayer that his wife was found alive. While he knew his kids needed their mum, he needed her just to be able to breathe.

When he looked up, he noticed Jack raising his fist for everyone to stop their movement and be quiet. Once all movement had stopped and no sound from the team was made, he heard the soft sound coming from the direction they were headed.

“Found her. We need medivac now !” Ghost’s voice came through the mic a second later.

Without waiting for the others to react, Highlander took off running, his weapon raised. When he turned the corner, he found both Wolf and Ghost’s team in action.

“We have no signal to make a call with. I’ll stabilize her. Get someone’s ass to the top to demand medivac. Move it!” Truck demanded, on his knees beside two bodies on the ground.

“Sit rep!” General McCoy yelled at the growing group as he came up on the scene with Sheriff Phillips, Commander Hurt, and Captain Irby behind him.

Highlander didn’t give two shits about the others around him. He rushed to where Truck was and looked down to see who he was working on. He saw the young girl that Cookie was working on.

Next to the young girl laid his heart and soul. Beaten, bruised, face swollen and bloodied. Her chest wasn’t moving. Why wasn’t her chest moving?

“Fuck, she’s not breathing. Get those fucking jammers moved. I need the AED kit now!” Truck screamed, doing compressions on Laura, begging her to keep fighting.

“Has the rest of this bunker been searched?” Sheriff Phillips yelled out, not taking his eyes off of the scene before him.

“Aye. Found one body. Looks like he got beat with a bloody pipe. I’m going to say our lass did that. There’s more blood over there. Not sure if that’s hers, the kids, or someone else. Those three are the only ones found here,” Tommy advised the sheriff as he looked around the bunker.

“Is there another way out that we’re not seeing? There’s no way that one man did all that in there,” Captain Irby questioned as she started to walk away, signaling for Alpha Squad to follow her, despite their desire to stay near their fallen teammate.

“Jammers have been removed. Tex has a medivac enroute. ETA three minutes,” Fletch’s voice came over the comms.

“Irby to all of Bravo and Delta Squad. Keep an eye out for any bodies coming out. Wolf, Ghost, or whomever, I need asses and elbows over there. There’s blood by this wall and looks like it’s going through the wall on the ground. Help me find the fucking lever and lets nail this son of a bitch!” Irby raised her weapon after motioning to her team to start searching.

“Found it!” Diesel announced as a section of the wall started to move in front of Captain Irby.

Weapons raised, Alpha Squad proceeded into the darkness. Commander Hurt snapped his fingers and pointed toward Wolf and his team, who followed the women into the tunnel that was just found.

Whoop

Whoop

Whoop

“Medivac is on-site, landing in T minus fifteen seconds.”

“I need something to transport her upstairs. I’m afraid if I move her, I’ll cause more damage,” Truck admitted to the group.

“Here!” Mac declared as he pulled a packet out of his backpack.

When Mac opened it, it turned into a flexi stretcher. Handing the item over to Truck, Mac assisted him in moving Laura gently so that they could get her on it. Once they were able to get her on it, Ghost picked up one end and Mac picked up the other end with Truck continuing to do CPR on her as they rushed as best they could out of the room.

Highlander looked over to see Coach, one of Ghost’s men, pick up the little girl who whimpered at the movement. Turning away, he quickly followed Ghost, Mac, and Truck out of the bunker refusing to allow his wife out of his sight.

When they got to the top, the helicopter was waiting for them nearby. Two medics jumped off the bird and ran to them with a stretcher between them and an AED device.