Prey

Bonus Chapter - Mira

"Eighty meters North is where the chopper will meet us. We just have to make it."

I rubbed my chin in thought as I poured over the map that Moore had unfolded on the table. It wasn't far but it sure felt like it. The lives of my team was on the line. We had already lost two and Moore and I were the last remaining.

This was supposed to be a covert op where we infiltrated the base of Stargazer and retrieve the information still on their servers. The officers that were stationed lay as cold corpses where they fell, the warm environment speeding up the decomp. It was only a matter of time before back up arrived. An ambush had already caught us by surprise — somehow they had known we were coming and were ready at the mouth of the river down south.

Jones had been the first to die and we hadn't seen the assailant. It happened so fast that we lost visual and a while later found his skinned corpse hanging high in the lofty limbs of a vine-covered tree.

Sanchez was next. His death had been sped up thanks to a gunshot wound by a camp officer, the officer then received a bullet to the head by my ten-eleven handgun. He bled out so quickly that we couldn't do anything but collect his tags and leave him. I mercifully ended his suffering, of course, but it hurt like hell.

Never before had I lost men so quickly like this.   With the base cleared out and the data safely tucked into my pack, we had nothing to do but move forward as planned. The mission was nearly complete and the dead left an empty hole.

"Nashville, there's a river that cuts through the trail so we may be able to throw off the trail of whoever is tracking us. The bastard won't be able to find us after that." Moore busied himself reloading his pistol while I popped another magazine into my Hammerhead AR.

I grunted, "We can keep cover through the vegetation." A glance at the sky told me it was close to sunset and therefor would enable better stealth. "Hide our heat signatures, limit comms, and knife any PMCs. I'm low on mags so we need to be wise."

He nodded in agreement, wiping at the sweat on his brow. Moore's dark hair was a sweaty mess and my own hair wasn't much better off, my tight bun frizzed out in the humid jungle. Moore had been by my side since boot camp so long ago and we had never left an op without each other. If he went down then I went down.

That's how it was.

Checking my watch, I rose to my feet and pocketed the map. We were wasting too much time.

"Let's get a move on. We're expected by sunrise. Whoever is following us is in for a rude awakening. You fuck with Voodoo One, you suffer the coming tide." I drained a bit of my water canteen as my comrade agreed, taking a swill from his own.

The heat of the jungle was stifling. Damp heat rose from the ground, no thanks to the earlier rains when we arrived. I had stripped from my outer layers and wore my camouflage shirt and cargo pants, my boots excellently keeping my feet dry.

Getting an infection out here was a death sentence, especially since the medic was rotting a couple hundred meters behind us. Sanchez deserved a proper burial but we had no time. It was stay and do it or go down with him as the unknown assailant continued to ghost attack my team and I. I clutched his and Jones' tags a little tighter as they hung around my neck.

I released them to better grip my Hammerhead AR and having it on the ready in case of another attack. So far the path was free of non-friendlies. With a little reconnaissance ahead, Moore had plotted a path where we could keep hidden and send our stalker in circles trying to find us.

Whoever was out there was good. Really good.

Without being seen, he had taken out my men and some of the Stargazer guerrillas with ease. I'd never seen anything like it. To maintain complete stealth while taking out multiple targets at once took tremendous skill, almost like a hunter. We were this hunter's prey it seemed. About ten meters north of the base we decided to cover ourselves in mud in case the stalker had night vision. It was dusk now and night vision would help our stalker who so effortlessly stayed hidden.