A/N:
Hello all! How are you? I hope you're doing well.
Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. I had a lot of things going on for the last few weeks. I hope you enjoy this!
Extra: Captain Frank Davis is inspired by a character called Lieutenant Frank Castle or the Punisher. If you don't know, there's a Netflix series on the Punisher which is starred by Jon Bernthal. I don't really talk much about Captain Frank but he does not have the same tragic story as Frank Castle did.
Cheers!
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The mission: To rescue a war prisoner from an armoured prison transport via helicopter. Wolf will travel through the Point and separate into two teams. Team One will be picked up by helicopter on these coordinates, while Team Two will continue to these coordinates and wait for orders.
Crammed inside a ten-ton truck with a four-hour ride to the destination was the most hated part of any mission. There was no air-conditioning at the back, only the breeze from the wind and it is open to the weather. Currently its night, so we got the cool wind.
The temperature was estimated to drop to single digits soon.
Each readying ourselves for the long journey, we got comfortable on the not-so-comfortable seats. Some chose to sleep, while others turned on their music. I sat amongst the rookies with Quinn on my right as I opened a book I had brought along and got myself comfortable – resting on the seat with my head on my pack.
I could feel Gunner's eyes on me. It felt inquisitive. "Quit staring or I'm going to shoot you in the eye," I warned without looking up.
"She doesn't miss," added Quinn.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Lucas demanded next. "Have you never seen a girl before in your life?"
"I'm just curious how she got into Wolf."
"I'm not going to satisfy your curiosity, shit goblin."
We stared at the other unflinchingly, and I slowly brought up a middle finger to his face before I resumed my reading. The other boys snickered at the display and we went about our business. Two hours in, I laid down on the bench while I read and dozed off with the book covering my face.
By the third hour, the scenery changed from flat muddy lands to heavily forested area, which brought down the temperature even further.
The fourth hour rolled by, and Frank woke us up by hollering from the window. We would reach the destination within half hour and we needed to get ready before the drop off. Yawning and stretching, I sat up from the bench and kept the book, muttering under my breath at how much my back hurt, that I was getting older.
Quinn quickly reminded me that I was not old, in fact I just needed to do more back exercises and I told him to shut up as I suited up, wearing the two layers of clothes, my bulletproof vest before sipping up the outer coat. I clipped on the chin strap, hitting the helmet so it sits on my head and brought down the goggles. I brought up the jacket collars, so I zipped it up to my mouth. Lastly, I wore the special winter gloves.
The truck spluttered to a stop.
"Move! Move!"
We left the transport in two rows, landing on muddy soil, splashing it everywhere and headed down the beaten path towards the looming mountain ahead. Frank joined us in the back, each soldier was on high alert. From here on out, we were on enemy lands.
"Keep your head up!" Frank ordered. "Eyes peeled!"
"Yes, sir!"
Bitterly cold and humid – such a brutal combination. The weather had turned harsh and every breath was painful. The cold moves in almost immediately, I could feel it wash over my skin and I shuddered against the freezing wind.
This is going to be fucking brutal.
"It's dipping down to single digits!" Frank warned.
"Keep warm boys!" Lucas said. "And girl!"
That earned a laugh.
We left the road and crossed towards the mountain, standing at the base as we gathered our wits about. We knew the mission, we were to cross this Point and get to the other side where we would meet up with the other team to begin the mission. Transport could only go so far due to the danger of the roads. The orders were easy, but the temperature was harsh, and the terrain was harsher.
"Let's do this." Frank knew our moods were sailing down. "We've gone through colder temperatures before. What are we?"
"Wolf!"
"AND DO WE DO?"
"NO MISTAKES!"
Crossing the muddy path and onto granite slope, we scaled up the mountain easily. The highest peak was 8300 feet elevation. It was a good hike. An ominous brittle silence filled the trees ahead and everyone had fallen silent as they concentrated on going up.
The cold licked on my face and tried to creep under my clothes, slowly spreading across my skin. It seemed mild at first, but it was starting to numb. With each breath, more heat rose in puffs of white vapour. With each gust of wind, more heat dissipated into the whiteness. With each step, the cold settled in deeper.
I had my rifle swung behind my back with my handgun drawn, eyes moving across the still background with precision.
"Keep your senses alert," Frank ordered. "Thread wisely."
A fog began to cascade down from the heavens and covered the mountain with its white cape. It looked ethereal, but I had no time to admire the view as we had company.
"Contact front!"
The shuddering rounds of bullets pierced over our heads and we peeled off to the side immediately. I grabbed the rookie, Blake by his collar and threw him behind a tree while I rolled towards the undergrowth. The enemy group appeared out of nowhere and surrounded us.
"Peel it!" Marcus yelled as he dove into cover. "Go! Go! Go!"
"Get high, Amelia!"
"Roger that," I said. "Q, on me!"
Together, we slipped past the group and headed up the mountain, scaling the slope with speed. Signalling that we would go around them, he nodded, and we went even further upward. The dimness of the forest did not make our ascent easy, but it helped mask our approach.
Blocking out the cacophony over the radio comms, we rounded behind them. From where we were, I could see their formation very well and double confirmed with the infrared binoculars due to the fog. Signalling that I will start shooting, I got into a kneeling position and took the first one out.
With one down, we went to the next point.
"Push forward!"
"Move!"
"Move!"
With each target taken out, the further and fiercer Wolf took them down. We met up with the rest further down the beaten path, surveying the area before we left, heading inside the cover and safety of the forest. Crouched in a loose circle, we kept an eye on our surroundings as we spoke.
"They know we're here," Frank muttered. "How is that possible?"
"Do you think someone leaked our position?" Lucas asked.
"How can that be?"
"That's the only logical explanation!"
"Huddle up rookies, don't stray too far!" I exclaimed, seeing the boys increasing their speed up the mountain, leaving us far behind. Only Ben and Q listened and slowed down while the other two sped up. "Hey! Stay close!"
"Rookies!"
"Get your asses back here!" Lucas yelled. "This is an order!"
"Oh shit -!"
"Peel it! Peel it!"
An explosion rocked the mountain where the two boys were, and we split into different directions immediately. Frank, Tom, and Lucas went left, Marcus stayed behind so he could radio in while Ben and Q followed me to the right.
"Contact front!"
"Flank right!"
"On it!"
"Any visuals?"
"Eight tangos."
"Wes? Blake?!"
Ragged breathing, blurry vision, adrenaline pumping, the sounds of bullets ricocheting and zipping past trees, grenades exploding and a shower of soil, and debris. Men grunting, cursing in their mother tongue as they barked out orders to their teams.
This was the sound of war.
"Do you have any visuals of the two bloody rookies?" Lucas was yelling his head off; I could sense his anger and his worry. We had lost sight of them after the explosion. "Wes and Blake, if you hear this, fucking report or I'm going to murder you!"
"Amelia, I'm coming to your back!"
Feeling a hit on my helmet, I turned to see Tom appearing within the mess. "There are twenty tangos at 9, and a few stragglers at 2," he whispered as he reloaded his weapon, slapping it to lock it. "Most likely the two rookies are further up."
Seeing him there made me quiet, as I realised something. It appeared as suddenly. It was an inkling, but I could not describe what it was. The deplorable things that he had done would never be forgiven nor forgotten, but I had learned how to forgive myself for the shit and suffering that I had gone through.
On other days, I would have kept the hatred growing in my chest as he relayed the information. Questions would pop in my mind, ranging from many things like why he would still pretend that everything was fine to cursing him, his future generations till his great-great grandchildren.
Today was slightly different.
The despicable behaviour weighed less, less crushing, and less painful. The memory is still there, it is still fresh in my mind, but it hurt less. I would still hate both. I would still gag at the sight of them. However, that tiny inkling, a smidge of it made me realise that I am a step further away from where I had been.
I raised my goggles to look. "Tom," I said. "You're a dick."
Surprised at my sudden statement, ignoring the laughter erupting in the radio comms, I continued. "Get off my back!"
Muttering about his lack of awareness to certain details, I pulled the goggles back on and poked my head out from the side of the tree trunk, trying to locate the two rookies. All I could discern amidst the chaos was the terror, the fear, and the ongoing of warfare.
"Push on!"
Peeking by the edge of the tree trunk, I watched them push forward when I saw a familiar object thrown in the air. I felt my throat tighten. "Wait! Get back!" I yelled, my voice cracked in fear. "Grenade!"
An explosion, expletives and a shower of soil. I ran past trees and did a loop, trying to get away from the action to a good roost, to have eyes on the situation. We were outnumbered and we need to leave this mountain immediately.
"Chief!"
"Everyone report!"
As they rattled off their individual positions, a map of the mountain appeared in my mind while I tried to pinpoint the locations of the enemies. The formation that they had were formidable and I wondered the type of equipment that they had.
"Shit! Shit!"
"Throw the fucking grenades!!"
"Shoot back! Stop yelling!"
"Fucking hell, is that –"
In the far distance, amidst the trees, I saw the shadows of an enemy trooper holding up the formidable weapon onto his shoulder. I felt raw fear drip down my spine as I swung my rifle around to shoot him down. Fastest fingers always win.
That thing on a mountain is -
"RPG!"
"Brace for it!"
"AMELIA!"
I took a deep breath to steady myself as I knelt, my arms relaxed but taut while they rested on my thighs. I could see him, despite the fog and I got him in my scope. The thrill of it, the never-ending adrenaline rush, the terror that spiked in my veins. All of it.
I welcomed it.
"Take him out!"
"Shut up!" I yelled as I took the shot, but my bullet hit a second too late, and I saw the missile leaving the barrel of the RPG. Screaming to take cover, we braced for impact. The wind sighed as if it was All-Knowing, and a second after, a deafening boom cracked the sound barrier.
The ground shook terribly, the trees flew as they got uprooted, and the terrain changed – slabs of granite were heaved. The fearsome mountain was helpless with our advances, and they could only shudder in fear as they waited for it to be over.
"Press on, damn it!"
"Amelia, for the love of God, have you found a roost yet?" Lucas demanded.
Honestly, it was difficult to concentrate when I hear the boys yelling in my ear. I had moved after the explosion and I was busy hiking across the terrain to answer, intending to find a good spot to start shooting targets and I was getting frustrated as time passed by.
The two rookies were not answering either.
The frigid wind poked me like icy fingers and wrapped around me like a shawl woven from snow itself, moaning in pleasure as I trembled. As I hiked further up, I finally left the cover of the trees and onto granite slopes. Taken aback by the sudden change in topography, I threw myself into the nearest cover I could see.
I checked the elevation and the distance to the enemy ranks. My body was craving for warmth and my arms were shaking due to the frigid cold. My harsh breathing left my lips, puffs of white vapour felt too stark against the murkiness.
"Standby."
I made myself comfortable on the hard granite, the usual belly flop while throwing a tarp over myself and began to work.
Ten minutes or so later, I hear the familiar squawk over the radio comms and Blake begging me to stop shooting. Hearing his frightened voice, I paused and switched to infrared, scanning to find the boy.
"Blake, where are you?" Lucas demanded. "Where's Wes?"
Narrowing my eyes when I finally found his Wolf insignia in the middle of a huge blob of red in my scope, I switched back to normal vision to confirm my suspicions and reported his location. Switching to infrared vision again, I tried to find Wesley in the mess.
"The leader said to stop shooting," Blake said. His voice was shaking. "Wesley is down and a few feet away from me."
Silence in the radio comm.
"If you want your team members back, I suggest you stop shooting my men," came the drawl of a mix of Bulgarian and Russian.
Slavic. They are so far away from home.
"Spread out, Wolf," Frank ordered quietly. "Amelia, pinpoint the location with infrared laser."
Following his order, Wolf began to spread out and we switched to infrared goggles to locate the enemy group. They found out that there were ten of them in a loose circle, with the forest protecting them on all sides. As we got into place, Captain Frank finally left the covers and went to confront the leader.
Each one of us has our target to terminate, and for myself, I had the leader of the group. "I want him alive, Amelia." My infrared laser was on his head, marked and waiting for the order from Frank.
"Good evening, my name is Captain Frank," he introduced. Frank's Russian needed more practice, I realised.
"Why are you here?"
"Aren't you going to tell me your name?"
He scoffed. "I don't need to do such things to an enemy soldier who can barely speak decently," he pointed out flatly. "You're on my territory and you start shooting at us."
"We did not," Frank replied faltering. He was trying to find the correct word. I supplied him with the correct ones. "We were told this mountain could be passed with no problems. My boys did not shoot first."
"We were told that there'd be people here," he drawled and laughed with his other teammates. "And they weren't wrong."
His statement sounded deafening against the freezing wind. I could feel my trigger finger tightening in anger. I knew Frank wanted to find out more about them and I needed to wait, no matter how much I wanted to kill him.
"If you could pass the boys over to me, and we'd be on our way," Frank was saying.
"No can do, you've trespassed on my lands," the Slavic man spoke. He cocked a handgun to Blake's head, making him whimper. "This boy was stupid enough to enter our territory."
Frank did not answer him and simply raised a hand to the sky, his index finger pointing upward. The next second, the enemy ranks were shot dead and they fell in heaps onto the ground, terrifying the unbeknownst enemy leader. He looked around at his dead comrades, fear and anger coursing through his face.
He was the only one left.
One by one, Wolf appeared from the covers of the trees, finally revealing themselves to the lone man and cornered him in a circle. Each man stared down at the enemy unflinchingly. Despite their guns lowered, he could tell that they were dangerous men.
His eyes widened. "Y-you're Wolf!" he claimed.
"Now release him," Frank said, switching back to Russian. "Please."
Obviously, he refused and used Blake as a human shield. In his anger and agony, he had not thought of the possibility of a sniper trained on his back. With Frank's order, I ensured he was still alive as I shot him, targeting his knee. He went down, releasing the terrified rookie and Blake scrambled away to safety, hiding within the ranks of Wolf.
In pain as he clutches his knee, Frank approached him. His face was set. "Now, you're going to tell me everything that I want to know," he said as he pulled out a nasty-looking switch blade. "I want the truth."
He paled.
.