LET YOU DOWN.
chapter nineteen.
AS SOON AS THE CLICK OF THE LOCK on her apartment door signaled the departure of Alexa, Hunter turned and faced Kyle, "You gonna tell the whole story now?"
Kyle stood up from his seat at the bar stool, Miranda and Hunter following as they moved into what would be considered the living room. "Kevin was giving his speech when a group of men in blue security shirts moved in with HK's. Got Kevin first. Took the gun off of his body and returned fire. Miranda led the wives out while Ali and I went after the remaining shooters. Someone from across the street put a slug into Ali's left arm."
The fear and panic Kyle had felt in that moment was unmatched to anything he experienced in service. The screams of civilians, his friends and family, nearly drove him to be unable to think. Watching Kevin Campbell fall lifeless while accepting the highest military honor had broken him. His voiced reflected that, hoarse and empty as he spoke.
Hunter sat down in the arm chair, an iced glass of whiskey in her hands as she listened to his story, "Ali went to a hospital, he was fine, we all saw him there. Then they moved to transfer him but someone shot up the ambulance."
It was premeditated, they want Ali dead. Him specifically or else they wouldn't have hunted him down.
The blonde looked away in shock, running her tongue over her teeth in distian. Miranda, holding Kyle's hand, spoke up, "A bunch of terrorists looking to kill some Marines."
"Not some Marines," Kyle contridicted, "Us."
From her spot in the arm chair, Hunter watched as Kyle dug into the pocket of his jean jacket, pulling out a small worn down box of matches.
"You've gotta be kidding me," She muttered, eyes wide as she spied the familiar cardboard.
Hemland Providence, Afghanistan, 2016
"This is 3-2," Gunnery Sargent Hunter Callahan identified herself over the comm, "I got eyes on Abu Waheed."
"3-Actual, you have the green light," Her captain let her know as she laid next to Donny watching over the city.
Hunter steadied her rifle, slowing her breathing before ghosting her finger over the trigger and pulling. Her blank face quickly turned into a frown, "Where'd he go?"
"Oh, shit," Donny muttered under his breath sarcastically before peeling his eyes away from his binoculars and looking at the woman next to him, "So much for Miss I Never Miss."
"3-2 can you confirm the kill?
"Uh, negative."
"Roger. Maintain overwatch." Holloway responded but she could hear the disappointment in his voice, she wasn't sure if she had made contact or not. As soon as she had fired, the body of Waheed fell backwards and out of her view, "We're moving in for a look."
The Callahan sniper could hear the sudden roar of life to the humvees that they used, the dirt peeling away from under the tires as they sped into the small secluded providence. Even without looking down her scope, she could see the Marines from the 8113 exiting the vehicle as they moved smoothly. Every so often, her view would ghost over Lane, her fiancé in an assurance that he was okay.
"One possible, your twelve o'clock behind the wall," Hunter called out through her comm as she looked down the barrel of her customized M40. As the targets moved, she spied the others. Eyes moving between her team and the targets, she settle on the later and pulled the trigger once before the target fell into the line of sight of the Marines on the ground.
From her spot in her ghillie suit on the hill, she could see anything she needed to. As the three other men still standing fanned out from behind the wall, she watched as Ali and her Captain took cover before returning fire, knocking down two of the men. Hunter tracked the third, standing behind an oil drum as she pulled the trigger, nailing a bullet right between his eyes.
"3-4 troop is in contact. We got... four down," Ali called over the radio.
"All right, this is 3-2," Hunter said back, "I advise you check out that two-story building, northwest corner of town."
"This is 3-Actual. What do you see, 3-2?" Holloway asked over the comms.
"I got visuals on satellite dishes..." Hunter trailed off, eyeing the tall building through her scope, "Looks like somebody important might live there."
From her vantage point, Hunter watched as the 8113 regrouped, moving to intercept the location she had pointed out moments before. From the spot, she could also see the armed man as he headed for the edge of a roof, aiming his gun down at the marines who walked below him. Hunter quickly squeezed the trigger before he was able to do so first.
The sound of the sniper riffle rang out, the Marines hearing it before they watched a body fall to the ground in front of them, "I didn't know the forecast called for dead guys," Kyle Dobbs said, looking between the sky and the dead man who Hunter had quite literally rained down.
"Sniper's honor," she joked, it had more meaning than anyone would admit. Whenever the unit was particularly unsettled about an operation they had to complete, they made her promise she would have their backs— of course she always would without them saying anything, but she had begun replying with 'snipers honor' to signal her commitment to them. It might have been silly, but it helped settle the nerves. Hunter chuckled lightly, "No more threats this time."
"Move to our position, 3-2," She was commanded. The blonde rose to her full height, compacting the legs of her gun as she slung her tan backpack on her shoulders, Donny doing the same.
"You know its gonna take forever to get down there, right?" Donny asked, gesturing towards the way they had originally hiked while looking at his sniper who just shrugged before throwing her M40 down the side of the hill large enough to be considered a mountain. Switching to hold her M27 in her hands, the blonde sat on the edge before saluting to Donny and rolling herself down the side.
By the time she had reached the bottom, she was a tad sore but held a smile on her face as she laughed, knowing Donny would follow her soon enough. "I don't think I've ever seen Hunter Quinn Callahan laugh so much... and its over rolling down a hill."
Looking up, she took the hand that Lane Dunn had offered her with a smile. He pulled the woman close to him, gripping onto her by her tan Kevlar vest. Hunter had been right, Donny was in fact right behind her because a weight slammed into the back of her ankles and sent her forward, into another fit of laughter as Lane caught her, wrapping his hands around her as he slyly placed a quick kiss on her cheek.
Hunter and Donny had followed Lane to the house she had tipped the 8113 off about. The one with the satellites. "All clear," she had heard Rodriguez mutter.
"Coming up," She called, gun still pointed high as she prepared to take out any targets missed along the way. She nodded her head to her Captain as she reached the top of the stairs, "Any sign of the Mullah?"
"Blood but no body," Lane answered as he moved stood stand next to his friend and leader. Hunter frowned, now only clad in her green Marine cammies and tan tactical gear.
"Hey, guys, you'll want to see this," Sargeant Miranda Tio said, appearing in the room as she wave for the 8113 to follow her.
The team fanned out as they cleared the hallway one last time, following loosely behind Tio. Hunter's head cocked to the side as she rested her gun, the clips letting it fall against her chest as she looked around. "How many kilos is this?"
"I don't know, but god damn..." Zendar responded, "That's a lot of dope."
Hunter smirked, looking at her long time friend, "Wanna try some?"
Dobbs rolled his eyes but kept a smile on his face, "Oh, please, doing drugs with you in high school was enough to last a life time."
"One time! One time we snorted something," She exclaimed, looking over at him exasperatedly with a pointed finger, "And if I remember correctly, it was your idea."
The packages of heroin were stacked along the walls, far too much to keep on tables. Hunter had never come across an operation this large before. No one in the 8113 had. "So no Mullah still? We goin' door to door?"
"Knock 'em in, clear 'em out," Her captain confirmed with a nod.
Hunter was unsure of the exact number of homes they had infiltrated, cleared with guns only to find nothing but dust and mess. "Clear," She called out as they moved into the front room of yet another house, the M27 held high as she was prepared to meet someone.
Hunter sighed, looking into the bedroom. A woman, holding the neck of Waheed, Hunter loosened her grip on her gun as she moved to take her helmet off, small fly aways of hair fell in her face as her low bun became less proper, "This is 3-2, jackpot."
At those words, Lane sped by her and used his teeth to take his glove off of his hand, using his first to fingers to check the pulse of Waheed as he laid, a bloodied bandage around his neck. Lane shook his head, no expression on his face, "He's dead."
Hunter turned to face Donny, giving him the middle finger as he rolled his eyes before she spoke, "I never miss."
"Let's bag him and get him out of here."
The Callahan woman walked away, Ali by her side as Donny moved ahead of the two. The wails of the wife of Waheed could be heard throughout the providence, "God, her husband was a drug dealer, not Saint Theresa."
Ali scoffed, looking at the woman next to him, "That's like nine kinds of disrespectful."
Hunter shrugged but Ali beat her to speaking, "Tio will talk to the wife."
Soon after, four of the 8113 men carried the black bag that held Waheed's body, his wife sobbing as she trailed stumbling after him. Three more men, not Marines, men of the providence, knelt in the hard dirt as they looked straight ahead of them. Their eyes showed the fear that their faces did not.
"What are we waiting for?" Ali asked, "someone's gonna come for all that H and I don't wanna be here when they do."
"For real," Rodriguez chimed in, "I ain't defending Pablo Escobar's summer home."
Captain Holloway felt his head snap to the side as he eyes Rodriguez, "You'll defend what I tell you to defend. Is that clear?"
"Then what do we do with the dope?"
Ali looked at Hunter, acknowledging her question as he squatted down to look one of the living men in the eyes, "Burn it."
"Hate to burst your bubble," Miranda said, joining the deliberating group, "We got hostiles coming up from the west."
"How far out?"
"about a click-"
Hunter cut Tio off, "That's only like ten minutes in this terrain."
"They want a gun fight? We'll give it to them," Holloway nodded, turning to Rodriguez who stood next to Tio, "Have an exfil ready. And how much spare diesel do we have?"
"Oh, we got enough," Kyle said, a spark lighting in his eyes about the thought of him being able to light the million dollars worth of drugs on fire.
Her captain turned to face her and Donny, "Callahan, overwatch."
"Copy, I'll set up on top of the stash," She told him, moving to walk away but noticed the look he gave her as if to say she was crazy, "Safest building here. No one'll send an RPG into that, I'll be the most well protected mother fucker."
Hunter and Donny moved quickly to set up on top of the building that housed the stash of heroin. She had discarded her helmet and switched back to the long M40 as she stared out into the fields. Her eyes were peeled as she felt like to was barely blinking, too hyper aware of what was going on around her.
It was true what they said about Marines and Soldiers, in the middle of a war, they could be fine- relatively speaking. The adrenaline and stakes that made their blood pumped allowed them to perform the best they could. But under calm conditions, anything normal, most would begin to freak out.
Hunter was no different. As she felt the impending doom of a group of hostile targets approaching, she did not have the dreaded rock in her stomach that showed of nerves. Instead, she had a twitching finger and steady breath as she laid ready to protect her team, her family.
"Here we go again," Donny sighed, bringing his binoculars to his eyes.
"Gonna do some good hunting, Pumpkin," She told him, her voice quiet, "just like the Alamo."
"You realize how the Alamo went down, right?"
Hunter shrugged, focus turning serious as she spied the first hostile, "You ready?" Donny asked her which earned a nod, "All right, I got it at seven meters."
"All right, I'm gonna hold seven and a half, low on his belt," Hunter replied, getting the angle of the shot ready, "What you got for wind?"
"About 8 miles per hour."
"Giving it two dots, left hip," Hunter told Donny, her words helped him learn. The scope was marked with sight markers that would help the shooter create a consistent basis of targets, of course, this only worked if the shooter knew all the components to sniping. Donny was still learning, a few less years into his service than Hunter was and he took all the advice he could get.
Below them, in the streets, stood Kyle Dobbs, gun slack in its rope at his side as he held a pack of Marlboros in his hands. Walking in front of each man he stopped, asking if they wanted a cigarette before tucking one between their lips before the could even answer. Then, he pulled the black match book out of his front pocket. Black Wolf Bar - Lubbock, Texas, read the back of the booklet. Kyle proceeded to light each cigarette before throwing the book on to the ground at the feet of the third person.
The other members of the 8113 hurried to stack all of the packs of wrapped heroin to burn while back above Hunter fired one shot after another. "Shit, they got our location," Donny cursed as he tried to avoid the ricocheting bullets.
"Calm the fuck down and keep feeding me targets," She all but growled at him. In the past few minutes, she had taken out nearly all of the first wave but she could faintly see another moving in front beyond the hills. Two men stood, Hunter fire the bullet at the head of the first as the stood close together. Both men dropped to the ground. "Shit, that's one way to conserve ammo."
Over the wind and gunfire, she could here he sound of the exfil rescue vehicles approaching, but even louder than that was the sound a fire whooshing as it sprung to life and ate at the heroin.
Present.
"They're hunting us because we burned their dope four fucking years ago?" Hunter questioned rhetorically as a dark cover glazed her eyes in anger.
"Well that and... you killed the man's father," Kyle clarrified, throwing the black match book on the coffee table.
Hunter rolled her eyes, sipping the glass of whiskey while her free hand toyed with her dog tags as a comforting mechanism, "I've killed lots of men."
"Abu Waheed," Kyle deadpanned, causing Hunter to choke on her drink as he uttered the name she had not heard in years.
The Callahan sighed with a tisk as she ran her tongue over her teeth, "So they hunt us, we hunt them."
"We're legally limited here," Miranda chimed in, "I get you guys are angry, I am too, but you can't track them down. You'll just get yourself killed."
"Then we need to warn the others," Hunter said somberly, standing as she walked into her room. Moments later, the blonde returned with a picture in her hands, "Well the three of us know. Lane, Donny, Zendar, Kevin, and Ali are dead. That leaves Holloway, Rodriguez and Cartwright," She concluded, looking down and pointed to the three faces on the Unit picture.
Miranda looked up from the picture and glanced between her boyfriend and friend, "How much time do we have until they come after us in the States?"
"They might already be here for all we know."
Hunter looked over at Kyle, a dangerous glint in her eyes, "let's hope for their sake, they aren't."
HI! I know you want THAT
chapter with Eddie but
I promise it's coming next
then things get fun tehe
ALSO chapter thirty six
is when season five starts
as of now so there's a lot of
plot between now and then
(and maybe a Hunter
begins episode hehe)