Chapter 5
May/7/2022: Ancient Ruins, Peru:
Nonna's team had been following this hallway for quite some time now. They hadn't seen any sign anyone was here, but they knew they were. Hiding out in the shadows somewhere were their quarry, sleek and silent taking precious care to keep themselves hidden. Something Nonna silently hated these people for. She didn't want any ambushes or other surprise engagements, yet she knew that those types of contact were unavoidable for this type of mission.
A light ahead of the group alerted the lot to activity. Nonna gave up a hand signal and the group crouched down to avoid being seen. Slowly they moved their way towards the hallway exit and upon entering the new room Nonna was met with quite a sight.
The walls and ceiling were the same as the rest of the temple, however in the middle of the room were dozens of armed men moving about and packing up weapons into wooden crates just like the ones outside.
Nonna continued to scan the whole room and one individual caught her eye quite quickly. She saw him standing off to the side of room talking with another person, but Nonna saw his face clearly. It was him, Kai Adachi. Nonna allowed a small smile to cross her lips. After so long of searching and scouring the country Nonna had finally found her quarry. Nonna noticed Austin was next to her and she felt an unconscious feeling to latch onto his arm in celebration, but quickly reminded herself that the two of them aren't on good terms. He'd probably find it condescending if she were to touch him now.
Austin himself noticed Kai Adachi was there in the room. he felt some form of satisfaction that Nonna had been able to track him down, but something confused him. The man Kai was talking to, Austin didn't recognize him, but he could tell that he was also Japanese. The Japanese man wore a suit and tie, surprising for the climate they were in, and had glasses on his face. his hair was black and sleek but then again many Japanese men had that look.
"I see him. Kai Adachi. He's over on the far side of the room." Johnson said motioning over to Kai's position.
"Oh come on we can take them." Butch said enthusiastically.
"Hold your fire Corporal. I want to bring him in for questioning. Him and who ever that other Japanese man is." Nonna said. Butch lowered himself and mumbled.
"That's no fun."
Unbeknownst to most of the group a solitary figure was slowly inching there way towards the group. The man had his arms raised and the rifle in his hands pointed at their backs. The only person who noticed the man was Austin as he felt a presence behind him. Austin felt the man getting closer and when he reached within a certain length away from him he quickly turned and grabbed the barrel of the gun and pointed it into the air. Unfortunately the Peruvian Rebel squeezed the trigger sending bullets flying and catching the attention of the whole room. Austin swung his hand flat and struck the man in the neck discombobulating him before giving a good strong uppercut to the chin. The rebel fell to the ground and before long the Separatists in the room started firing at the group.
Nonna sunk her head down avoiding the bullet fire as the rest of her group began returning what fire they could. Darius noticed more Separatists coming up from behind them, took his MP5, and gunned the man down.
"They're coming from behind us!" Darius shouted.
"Cavendish, Robinson provide covering fire, Mayes take point and lead us out that way!" Johnson ordered his men while pointing to their right at another hallway entrance. "Go!".
Austin rose into a crouch, subconsciously grabbed Nonna's hand and sprinted as fast as he could in this situation. Following the two were Laskey and Johnson before Butch and then Darius. The six made it to the hallway and ran inside, finally being able to stand again do to being out of the line of fire and moved down the hallway.
Soon the group came across a split going in all four directions. Johnson began moving into the middle path, from where they came, while the others scouted the two other directions.
"I got nothing!" Darius shouted down the right path.
"Me neither!" Austin shouted from the left.
"Where do we go Lieutenant!?" Butch requested while covering the path they came from.
Nonna tried to remember which way they were going but she had forgotten it all during the firefight. Only then did bullet fire come from their previous path.
"Contact!" Butch yelled opening fire with his RPK gunning down the Separatists in the front, before taking cover down the right hallway with Darius and Laskey. Austin and Nonna took cover in the left hallway while Johnson himself was stuck down the middle hallway.
"Split up! Make your way back to the entrance of the temple, we'll regroup there!" Nonna ordered. The three across from her nodded and made their way down their respective hallway. Austin and Nonna began moving down theirs as well. Although they didn't see or hear an acknowledgement from Johnson, Nonna felt he was doing as ordered. Now they just had to find Marks team and get out of this place.
Mark reared around the corner of the room he was in and raised his MP5 to gun down one of the Separatists chasing his team. Mark heard gun fire earlier and when he and his team went to check it out they ran into a small group of the Separatists. A small firefight ensued but Mark was forced to retreat when enemy reinforcements showed up. It was obvious that the Separatists were trying to heard them somewhere, most likely into a dead end, but Mark wasn't stupid. He had so far managed to slip his team passed two Separatists groups and made his way back through a hallway they had come from before finding a hideaway to take a breath.
"What do we do now Mark?" Carl asked out of breath.
"I used three magazines. We better find a way out of here fast or we'll run out of ammo." Taylor said bringing up their ammunition.
"We'll fallback and head towards the entrance. If I know Nonna as well as I do then that's where she'll want to fall back." Mark said. The others nodded and took another minute to regain what energy they could. They would be hard pressed to get back to the entrance of the temple like this, but they had to.
Resuming their trek through the temple Mark's team entered a room that was filled with items that made Marks eyes bulge. The room was filled with tanks and armored vehicles. Old soviet era weapons, American APC's, even old tanks from WW2. This was troubling. Not only did these Peruvian Separatists have access to the Tankery Black Market but they could get modern day American Military vehicles.
Mark moved through the 'garage' of vehicles as his team made their way towards the opposite end of the room. There they found another hallway entrance that was more spacious then the other hallways and moved through it. from there they moved slowly yet cautiously, staying alert while preserving what energy they could. Noise of feet running caught the teams attention. Coming around one of the corners came a Separatists but he was shot in the back and fell over to the floor. The next person to emerge let Mark sigh in relief.
"Austin, Nonna, over here!" Mark called to them. The two smiled at the sight and ran over to their friend.
"Mark, glad to see your still alive." Austin said giving a hug to his childhood friend.
"What happened? We heard shooting and then all of a sudden we're getting swarmed by Separatists." Taylor asked.
"Long story short, Kai Adachi is here. They have heavy weapons and a lot of men. We're falling back to the entrance of the temple to regroup." Nonna said.
"Lieutenant, we just passed a room full of vehicles. Old soviet vehicles, WW2 tanks, and Modern day American Military Vehicles." Shinso said. The others nodded to confirm his story. Nonna and Austin frowned at this. There was no way they could get all that type of military hardware without inside sources.
"Alright, lets continue falling back. Shinso, you take point. Lead us back and out of here." Nonna ordered.
"Copy Lieutenant." Shinso acknowledged before moving ahead of the group. Following them in order was Austin, Mark, Nonna, then Taylor and Carl.
While they were traversing the hallway Austin noticed Nonna had a look on her face. it wasn't pain or shock or fear but confusion. He didn't understand what there was to ne confused about so he let his inquisitive nature get the better of him.
"You ok?" He asked. Nonna looked up at his surprised he asked but answered his question.
"Why did you grab my hand back then? When we were fleeing from Kai's men, you grabbed my hand. Why?" Nonna asked. Austin looked troubled by the question. He didn't really know why, he just did. Maybe he felt like he needed to. back on the island all those years ago when they were on the mountain it was her who grabbed his hand to start running from the bear. Maybe he just felt obliged to do so.
"I don't know. Maybe I was just obliged to do so. You are my ranking officer after all." Austin said. Nonna didn't buy it.
"No. You always do that stuff. Getting me out of trouble seems to be your go to thing when ever there's trouble going around. Or did you forget the times with the bear?" Nonna asked rhetorically, she knew he hadn't forgotten.
"Don't insult me, I still have the scars." He said. At that Nonna's eyes widened. She was still never comfortable with him having those scars. She still felt responsible in a way. He did get some of them protecting her.
"And yet you still try. Why? Its not like you still care." Nonna shot at him.
"Don't go poking my already leaking heart. You know I still do care, otherwise I wouldn't even bother talking with you." Austin said. Nonna glared at him and rebuttled.
"If I recall you were the one who left." Nonna said. Austin glared this time.
"And If I recall the situation called for it." Austin said.
"That situation didn't call for you to just up and leave."
"Then what would you have me do?"
"Maybe do what you said and stand by me."
"I would have if you didn't become obsessed with this whole thing."
"Well maybe..."
"Alright! We get it, you two are sexually frustrated. Shut up and focus!" Mark, quite annoyed by the constant bickering between the two 'not so happy' couple, decided to try to get them to stop before they give their position away.
Marks words had some effect as the two stopped their arguing, but this didn't alleviate the tension. The two just stood and walked not looking at each other. Another minute went by before Austin sighed and turned to face Nonna.
"Nonna, I still love you. You are my wife. The woman I vowed to die for if necessary. Maybe you were right that I shouldn't have left that day but I was so angry that you seemed to become more and more obsessed with hunting down Kai Adachi rather than spending any of your time off with me and Cody. I'm sorry that I yelled." Austin said. Nonna looked at him with her eyes filled with half anger and half sadness.
"I still love you to. I just felt betrayed when you left me. I didn't know what to do expect to pour myself back into my work and I guess that I should have been more aware of how my not being around was affecting you and our son. I'm sorry to." Nonna said. Austin sighed again but then smiled held his hand out.
"I'll forgive you if you forgive me, deal?" Austin asked. Nonna smiled and giggled at the sentence. He said it to her one time long ago and now he was saying it again.
"Deal." She said shaking his hand. At this sight both Taylor and Carl sighed in relief while Mark smiled and nodded at his two friends. Maybe he could finally get Austin off his couch after all.
The mood was lightened but immediately took a darker and sour tone when the ringing of gun fire brought them out of their trance. In front of them Shinso fell to the ground, his chest practically blown apart from the impact of a shotgun shell. The Separatists responsible peaked around the corner of the hallway and aimed his shotgun at the group. Before he could get another shot off Mark took aim and fired his MP5 gunning the Separatists down. Austin pushed Nonna behind him and moved forward and burst fired his weapon at the corner. After a moment no one seemed to come out until, from the other corner, someone did. He walked into view without so much as a care in the world. He stopped and stared at Austin who swerved his aim towards the newest target. However before he could pull the trigger Austin stopped and his eyes widened at the sight. Standing In front of him was someone he never thought he'd see again.
"C-Cody?" Austin gasped not believing who he was seeing. Even Mark seemed stunned at the sight.
"Sorry little brother. Its nothing personal." Cody said before bringing his arm up, gun in hand, and pulling the trigger. Austin was still in shock and didn't think to move. The bullet impacted his chest, and he stammered a moment before looking at his brother again before losing feeling in his legs and falling onto his back. The only thing he heard before losing consciousness was the scream of his love.
"Austin!"
August/8/2008: Texas, U.S.A.
"Cody!" Austin cried out as he hugged his older brother. Cody Mayes had set down his suitcase and hugged his brother back into a great bear hug. "Do you really have to leave?" Austin asked.
"Yes, I have to. but don't worry, I'll be back, and when I do you and me are going to go to drive down to the beach and I'm going to teach you how-to pick-up girls." Cody said standing up from the hug. Cody was dressed in his army uniform, only several yards away was the bus meant to take him to boot. His little brother seemed to only be so against the idea but nodded at what Cody said.
"Remember Austin, you are a Mayes, and as dad always says we Mayes win our fights. I'll be back." Cody said.
"I know. When I get into High School I'm going to do Tankery to. I'm going to join the army like you and I'll get to fight along side you again." Austin stated. Cody only grinned at the words.
"You do just that. I'll be waiting for you little brother. Nothing will ever be able to stop us when we work together." Cody said gathering his suitcase and waving goodbye as he made his way to the bus. Austin waved back not daring to shed a tear. He would become like his brother, and he'd make him proud. Or die trying.
A/N: So I had trouble progressing the story from this point, found a way to do it, wrote it out, found out it wouldn't be consistent with a point in the story in the future so I deleted it and rewrote it. I'm sorry its so late, I'm an idiot, but I'm doing my best. thank you.