Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (15 page)

~*~*~

As General Loreto
and Lieutenant Davidson marched toward the entrance of the hangar, Molly saw
that their uniforms were bloody. “They must have had a rough time.”

“Who wouldn’t
have?” Derek muttered. “
Redding
was wiped out. I’m surprised they’re still alive.”

“What will happen
to them?” Lucy asked, watching as the two soldiers were led toward the main
doors of the hangar.

“They’ll be taken
to where the rest of the prisoners are,” Frank stated.

“We’ll have to
rescue them,” Lucy said.

“What? I thought
we put that matter to rest,” Frank said.

“What if it were
Mike?” Derek asked.

“What do you
mean?” Frank replied.

“What if Mike was
one of those prisoners? Would you try to rescue him?” Derek questioned.

Frank nodded. “He’s
my friend.”

“Well, those two
are our friends,” Lucy said. “If we don’t save them, what are we fighting for?
Logan
would never
turn his back on someone who was willing to help, and I’m not going to either.”

“Me neither,”
Derek said.

“Me too,” Molly
said.

Frank ground his
teeth at the hardheads, searching desperately for any way to change their
minds. He leaned his heavy head against the wall. “No, I have no idea how we’ll
do it, but I guess we can attempt a rescue.” He peeked through the glass pane,
making sure the hangar was still empty. “Come on, let’s get going.” He slid
over to Lucy and Derek. “Remember, you can only survive for so long in that
hatch, so wait until the last possible moment, okay? With any luck, we’ll be
back within half an hour.”

Lucy wrapped
Molly in a bear hug. “Take care.”

Derek patted his
sister on the shoulder. “Keep safe.”

Molly sniffed
something back and managed a smirk.
“Will do.”
She put
on her helmet once more and, holding the silencer in front of her, waited for
Frank to climb out of the Striker. Once he was out, Molly followed, and soon
the two of them had reached the hangar doors.

No one said a
word until they disappeared from view. Once they were gone, Lucy rolled her
eyes at Derek. “Let’s see how easy it is to slip into the hatch.”

“Okay,” Derek
said simply, doing his best to hide his trembling hands.

For the next five
minutes, the two of them practiced climbing in and out of the hatch. They had
just finished getting out for the third time when Lucy froze, face glued to the
window. Four Seods emerged through the hangar doors and strode toward the
Strikers. “We’ve got company.”

Derek hurried
over. He was silent as he watched the Seods split into two groups. One group
went over to the far side, while the other group headed toward them. “We better
get ready.” He hurried back to the hatch and climbed in.

Lucy hesitated
for a few moments while she ascertained where exactly the Seods were heading.

Derek lay down
and waited for Lucy to do the same, but she didn’t. “What are you waiting for?”

“We can’t close
the hatch too soon, or else we’ll run out of oxygen.” Lucy glanced toward the
door of the aircraft and waited for the footsteps to reach it, but they didn’t.
Listening closely, she caught hushed snippets of conversation as the Seod
fighters examined the Striker next to them.

She sat down and
waited for the voices to come closer. It took ten minutes, but finally, she heard
footsteps right next to the door, and just as the door slid open, Lucy pulled
down the hatch. The hatch closed just as a Seod strode into the aircraft.

The two were
silent and as still as mice as they heard another Seod follow the first one
into the aircraft. Lucy tried to breathe slowly and quietly, but her heart was
racing a million miles an hour. She had no idea how long the Seods would stay
in the Striker. She just hoped that it wouldn’t be too long, for there was no
telling how long the two of them could stay cramped in the small compartment
with only a small amount of oxygen.

After reaching
the back of the relatively small cave,
Logan
sat down. As
his brother joined him, he balled his fists. “Do you have any thoughts on how
we can escape?”

Kenneth frowned.
“I thought you did. Why did you wink at me before if you—
”

“I just didn’t
want to discuss anything right there in case that Seod can speak English.”

Kenneth furrowed
his brow. “I see. Well, apart from trying to convince that Seod to come in here
so we can knock him out, I don’t know.”

“Hmm, I don’t
think he would fall for such an old trick like that,”
Logan
said.

“What do you
suggest then?” Kenneth asked.

Logan
reached into
his pocket and pulled out a silencer. “I know it isn’t much, but I have this.”

“You can say that
again,” Kenneth muttered. “I mean, sure, it can kill some Seods, but how many
are there in this base? And how many of them wear those protective suits?”

“It’s still
better than nothing,”
Logan
argued. “Besides, can you think of a better suggestion?”

Kenneth shook his
head. “It looks like we’ll have to rely on your crazy plan. So once we get out
of here, where do we go?”

Logan
thought for a
moment. “I wonder what the Seods were doing with that rocket thing back in that
cave.”

“It looked like
they were getting it ready for something,” Kenneth said. “Hey, are you thinking
what I’m thinking?”

Logan
nodded. “They’re
going to shoot it through that hole.”

“And into the
atmosphere,” Kenneth said. “If only we knew what was in it.”

“It doesn’t
really matter,”
Logan
replied. “After all, it can only be good for them and bad for us. I
did see some green liquid being poured into the rocket, though. I wonder how
that fits in.”

Kenneth studied
the door at the front of the cave. It seemed to be bolted into the wall and
looked sturdy. “So, what do we do about the door?”

“Well, this gun
might have something to say about that,”
Logan
said,
studying the exotic silencer. “From what I’ve seen, it’s pretty powerful, though
I have no idea what type of ammo capacity or charge this thing has. We’ll just have
to use it sparingly.”

“If we try
shooting at the door, wouldn’t the Seods hear and investigate?” Kenneth said.

“What’s your
point?”

“So what do we do
about them?” Kenneth replied.

“Do you have a
better plan? If not, shut up and get ready!”

~*~*~

Molly tried to
keep her hands from shaking as she held the silencer up against the back of
Frank. She was petrified as much by the cold weapon in her hands as of all the Seods
milling around. Most of them weren’t wearing the white suits, and they didn’t
look as scary.

It wasn’t as
though she had gotten used to the faces of the Seods, but as she had seen their
faces in numerous books in school, it wasn’t as though their faces frightened
her. She was more scared of the Seods wearing the white suits as she couldn’t
tell if they were staring at her or not because of their helmets.

With Frank’s
directions, the two of them cleared one hallway after another, but it seemed to
her like they were no closer to the
armory
than when
they’d started. Frank didn’t seem perturbed, though he had gotten frustrated
when they had to take a detour to avoid a group of Seods, all sporting olive-green
clothing and engaged in a pretty heated discussion.

Finally, after trekking
for ten minutes, Frank elbowed Molly. “We’re almost at the room. Turn right when
we reach the next intersection.”

Molly turned
right half a minute later. At the far end of the long hallway was a single
door. It was guarded by two Seods dressed in olive-green uniforms.

“Through here,”
Frank said, pointing to a door on the left.

Molly followed
him into the room. Frank closed the door and switched on the light. They were
in some kind of storage room. “Frank? What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t expect
for there to be two guards,” Frank muttered. He closed his eyes and thought.

“What do you
mean? Were you only expecting one?” Molly asked.

Frank nodded. “This
will require a change of plans. I was going to try to knock the guard out, but
I can’t take on two of them.” He winced at the searing pain in his legs. “You’ll
have to aim the weapon at them and tell them to put their hands up. I can then
grab their weapons.”

“But what if they
don’t understand English?” Molly asked.

“They will. Like
I said earlier, before anyone is sent to a new planet, they have to learn the
main languages. And, with the process we have, that doesn’t take long.”

“Why can’t you
hold the weapon and do the talking?” Molly asked.

“If they see me,
a human, holding a weapon, they’ll be suspicious. No, you’ll have to do it.”
Frank gingerly opened the door and peered out. All was quiet. “Come on, let’s
get this over with.”

The two walked
down the hallway and toward the guards. When they were still a fair distance
away, the guards didn’t take any notice of them. As they came closer, one of
the Seods frowned and reached for his silencer.

“Now!”
Frank muttered.

Molly whipped out
her silencer from behind Frank’s back and aimed it at the guards. She tried to
tell them to put their hands up, but as the second one grabbed his weapon, her
mouth dried up and she froze with fear. She couldn’t move and she couldn’t
speak. She watched in horror as the guards aimed their silencers at them.

Frank quickly
grabbed the silencer from Molly and, pointing it at the closest guard, fired. He
collapsed to the ground as the other guard fired his weapon. Green bolts flew
back and forth.

Frank clutched
his arm in agony as the guard crumbled to the ground, collapsing next to his
companion.

“Are you all
right?” Molly asked
,
looking on in horror as his blue
blood dripped onto the clean, white floor.

“I’ll be fine.”
Frank tore apart his shirt and wrapped it around the wound. He glanced toward
the guards, who were lying in pain on the ground. “I’ll put them out of their
misery.” He fired a green bolt into the chest of each Seod.

Molly watched in
horror and disbelief as the Seods muttered a final groan, and then, in a puff
of smoke, they vanished. “What the …” She stood still in horror as she gazed at
where the Seods had been moments earlier. Nothing except a few spots of blue
liquid could be seen. “What the heck just happened?”

Frank
thrust open
the door to the
armory
.
“Come on, we don’t have time to waste.”

Molly took one
more look at the area before she followed Frank into the massive square-shaped room.
It was divided into two sections. On the left were rows and rows of silencers,
so many that she couldn’t even count them, while on the right were all sorts of
explosives. Small ones, big ones, circular ones, square ones. There was also
what appeared to be an upgraded version of the silencer.

Molly clutched
the heavy handgun with two shaking hands and eyed it from all sides.

“Be careful with
that,” Frank called, noticing that the teen was aiming the weapon at him.

“Sorry.” Molly
put the weapon down and hurried over to Frank. “Is there enough here to blow up
the aircraft?”

Frank frowned. “No.”
He gazed around the half-empty room. “Usually there is a lot more stuff than
this.”

“So what do we
do?” Molly asked.

“Ah, well, let me
think.” Frank studied the explosives on the shelf. “We do have enough to make a
loud noise and cause some disruption, but if we’re going to make this aircraft crash,
we’ll have to cause a chain reaction.”

“And how would we
do that?” Molly asked.

“The missile room.
It’s the only way.”
Frank nodded to himself. “That’s the only possible way. But we’ll have to be
careful. Too many explosives and the aircraft will crash before we even have a
chance to get away.” He started stuffing the explosives into his pockets. “We
won’t need many, especially if I place these up against the actual missiles.”

“But how will we
escape then?” Molly asked, worried.

“Don’t worry.”
Frank grinned. “I’ll set a timer, giving us enough time to escape.” With his
pockets full, he went back to Molly. “Let’s go to the missile
armory
.” He sniggered when he caught sight of a white suit.
“I’ll put this on. That way, you won’t have to pretend I’m a prisoner.”

Frank quickly
changed. A few minutes later, the two of them hurried down the hallway.
Reaching the end, they veered left. Frank took three steps before skidding to a
stop. Ahead, at the far end, a group of Seods were charging their way.