She gingerly stood and stumbled the first few small steps. “I can. Sore, but I can.”
“Good. Lex, Nevada, get a head start for rendezvous B with these two. Mac and I will follow up with him—” I pointed to dead Alec, “—once we’re done here.”
The girls urged Silas and Bridgett out of the room. Once gone, I started cutting Alec’s bindings, but left his hands anchored for the moment so Mac didn’t have to pick up his deadweight off the ground. I snagged her attention as she wiped her blade clean on the now-dead militia guy’s pants.
“Did you get any information?”
Mac’s hardened gaze found mine. “As predicted, he squealed. We need to get the fuck out of here. This group is closely associated and funded by the local authorities!”
“Fucking what?” I hissed, cutting Alec free when Mac bent in front of him. “We’re meant to be handing the innocents over to them!”
“Well we can’t fucking do that now, can we?” She stood with him slung over her shoulder and jiggled to adjust her hold. “The ransom was because the local government, or whatever they call themselves, is fucking broke. Not only did they ransom these fuckers, but those women and children are from nearby villages, waiting to be sold to fuck knows who.”
I gulped down the bile that rose up my throat. I was hardened to killing men and women during the call of duty but kidnapping and trafficking churned my stomach. Those kids… I shook off the trauma from my own childhood and rushed after Mac. She stopped short in the narrow hallway and cursed. Shoving my way past her, I also came to a halt.
Dozens of innocent tear-streaked faces stared at us. Eyes full of hope and lit with cries for help. I avoided looking at the children clinging to their mothers’ sides, instead addressing the women in English, then basic Spanish.
“Please, get out of the way. ¡Muevase a un lado!”
Some moved, others pushed closer.
“You take,” one woman said, pointing at her young girl, perhaps around six. “Tomarla. You take,” she pleaded again.
The desperation in her eyes cut through my hardened heart, and I hesitated. In all the times I saw combat, I never fucking hesitated—until now.
“No,” Mac snapped assertively, and as gently as possible, started pushing through the women that blocked the exit. “C’mon, Hallie, we need to fucking move.”
More women thrust children at me. Those kids screamed in terror as their mothers pushed them away in a desperate attempt to convince me to take them to safety.
I waved a hand back and forth. “No. No! I can’t take them. No puedo.”
Their voices got louder and angrier. I felt the shift in their temperament as they screamed, “You take!” in sheer distress for their children’s lives.
“For fuck’s sake, Hallie. Hurry the fuck up!” Mac’s voice cut above the repressive void that tore me further from the mission’s plan.
“Fuck,” I cursed and pushed through the swarm of despairing woman. It sickened me that humanity had come to this. Absolutely fucking sickened me to my core.
As my foot hit the ground outside, a bellowed shout and gunfire cracked through the air.
“Fuck! Contact right!” Mac yelled.
“I’ve got you covered, Mac. Go, go, go!” I returned fire on the local uniformed officers that stormed the clearing, all while trying to shove the women and children who’d followed me outside, back into the fucking building.
Their screams grew louder as I fired more shots. “Get the fuck inside,” I screamed. “¡En el interior!”
Mac’s puffing voice sounded in my earpiece. “I’m coming back. Get your fucking ass to the clearing while I cover you! Fuckinggo!”
After one last blind shove to the people I longed to save but couldn’t, I sprinted for the tree line, trusting Mac’s cover-fire cracking through the air close around me.
Exclamations and voices distraught with agony filled the air. On a chanced glance over my shoulder, I saw officers dropping like flies as Mac took more of them out.
It wasn’t enough though. There were too many. Reaching her side and panting hard, I helped lift dead Alec onto her shoulder before radioing ahead to Lexa and Nevada.
“Make your way to rendezvous A now.FORSETIandHELLFIREenroute to rendezvous B. Contact at extraction point. Returned fire. Multiple casualties—”
My contact report cut short when a fresh wave of shots rang out in the clearing, immediately followed by the high-pitched screams of women and children. My gut dropped when I realized why their cries decreased, until falling silent altogether.
“Enroute to rendezvous A,” came Nevada’s voice, though it barely penetrated the horrified haze that had me reeling and wanting to vomit.