The Dragon Awakens

Chapter Eighteen

Lanie sat in her tent, staring at her lamp sitting in the middle of the floor. Everyone else was asleep-she could hear their snores all the way to her tent which she set up fifty yards away from everyone else. Shang and Charles were in their own tent and even Mushu was asleep in his sleeping bag beside her. 

 Clutched in her hand Lanie looked down at her phone, something she brought with her on every mission whether it was allowed or not. There was a secret pocket in her backpack where no one would find it, and it wouldn't make any noise or get detected by any metal detectors. Surprisingly enough, she had a full signal up here on the mountain. The number she'd punched in was that of her home phone number. There was a phone in each bedroom including her parents and Nainai's room. It was hardly ever used because everyone in her family had a cell phone but if it did ring everyone knew it was an emergency. She knew if she dialed the number her grandmother would pick up because she was the only one home. 

"Hello?" Nainai croaked, picking up the phone. 

"Nainai? It's me. Mulan," Lanie muttered into the phone, being careful not to wake Mushu. 

"Aiyah! Mulan! Where did you go? Your parents and I were worried sick when you didn't tell us about your internship." Lanie had to snort. Internship. Of course, that's what the DA sent her family in explanation for her absence. 

"I know, I'm sorry Nainai. I was just... Upset." 

She heard her grandmother sigh and the soft click of a light turning on. "Are you alright Kāihuā?" 

Lanie sniffed and rubbed her runny nose, the emotions of today flooding back into her. She didn't want to cry on the phone, her grandmother would instantly know something was terribly wrong if she did. "Yes. I just wanted to call and let you know I was okay. Goodnight Nainai." 

Her grandmother hesitated before responding. "Goodnight Kāihuā. Yuàn nǐ zhǎodào píng'ān." The phone clicked off and a tear rolled down Lanie's cheek. She covered her mouth to stifle the sob escaping and curled into a ball. May she find peace... If only. 

+_+_+_+_+

Lanie sat on Khan, bundled in her coat, and freezing as she looked out at the snow-covered Tung Shau pass. Mountains thousands of feet high rose on either side creating both covers for the people below but also for any who wished to ambush above. A hill rose in front of them blocking any view they had of the other side. Lanie shifted in her saddle, a deep pit of despair in her stomach. She didn't know what lay on the other side of that hill, but she knew it wasn't good. 

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Lanie whispered to Shang so no one else could hear them. 

"Are you doubting me?" he snapped, narrowing his eyes as he looked at her. Lanie starred him down, frowning. Their plans from this morning were simple: go through the pass and if they encounter any members of the HUNS to fight and win. They had multiple angles and battle tactics and weapons to use but they did not have confidence. All the men were restless, looking around nervously and fidgeting with their uniforms and guns. Yao was talking some very loud smack in the back of the group but Lanie and anyone else who bothered to listen to him knew it was just empty talk. He was as nervous as the rest of them.

"Of course not. Sir." 

"Then let's go." He clicked his tongue and the horse moved forward five steps before they both heard a shot fire behind them. Shang spun around and Po was standing there, holding a gun, his face as red as a tomato. 

"It misfired!" he shouted and Shang looked around wildly. 

"You just gave away our position!" he snapped and then all of a sudden the ground began to rumble and snow started to drift down from the mountains and roll down the hill towards them. They all watched in dumbfounded silence as hundreds of men lined the top of the hill, weapons pointed straight at them. 

"Men! Ready your arms!" Shang shouted, leaping off his horse and grabbing his own weapon. Lanie stayed put on Khan, watching the men continue to gather on top of the hill. There had to be at least a thousand of them up there and there were maybe fifty of them down here. If they were lucky they'd last maybe an hour. And it wouldn't be pretty. 

"Ready? Fire!" Shang shouted, and guns started going off around them and the HUNS men charged down the hill, the sounds of shouts and screams filling the air. 

Lanie took a sharp breath and pulled Khan around, towards the bombs they kept in the cart Khan had been pulling. Po and Linc were cowering next to it, holding their unloaded guns tightly to their chests. 

"Come on men, move! Unload these bombs, it's the only defense we have! A bullet can only hit one man!" Lanie shouted, waving to them.

"And load your damn guns!" 

Men began to scramble around her, grabbing the grenades and grenade launchers and the one machine gun they had managed to carry with them. As five of them loaded that up, the rest of the men were valiantly trying to take out as many of the HUNS front men as they could. And the countless hours they spent at target practicing were paying off. No bullet was wasted but it was hardly doing any good. Tens more would just rush over the fallen bodies, their own guns in hand. 

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," Yao whimpered as he hauled out a crate of grenades. 

"We need a god damn miracle..." Lanie whispered, looking frantically around her. They could turn around and run but it wouldn't do them much good except maybe buy them some time. The path down was too slippery to take quickly and there was only one route. They could fight their way up the hill where death was a sure outcome and then who knew what would happen. The HUNS would charge through the path and the war that these fifty brave men had tried to prevent would become imminent. Thousands of men and women would die trying to defend their country against these radicals because her elite team couldn't stop. 

"We need to stop them," Lanie stated, watching the wave of men inch further down the slope with every passing second.

"That's the goal!" Yao snapped, reloading the sniper rifle in his hands. 

"Give me the RPG." Lanie hopped off Khan and took the huge launcher from his hands and strapped it around her back. The HUNS were still 250 maybe 300 yards away; she could do it if she ran fast enough. The snow was deep but her training at camp had given her more muscle than the DA or her own personal training had. She could do it. She had to do it. 

"Ping! Where the hell are you going?" Shang shouted as Lanie burst past them and sprinted up the hill. Men yelled after her but Lanie was deaf to everything but her breath and the crunching snow beneath her boots. It was cold. Everything was so cold. 

"Come on, come on..." she ran about a hundred yards, her heart pounding in her chest. This beat jumping out of an airplane in a wingsuit down the sheer Cliffs of Dover down to a tiny little dinghy. She'd stuck that landing but while that might have resulted in a broken leg, this would result in the loss of her life. The loss of a lot of lives. 

"Grenade, check. Safety... Oh god. No, no, no, don't jam. Don't jam." Lanie jiggled the safety and it popped out right as she heard the roar of the HUNS leader, Shaun, just a few yards away. Lanie lifted the RPG onto her shoulder and instead of pointing it at him she turned sharply and fired into the snowy cliffside of the mountain. As it launched and she flew backwards into the snow, she prayed to her long-dead ancestors that this had worked.