Hell in a Handbasket (By Cass & Gage)

[Gage Silver 0]

Hell in a Handbasket

A Granger-Silver log

 

Gage didn’t remember signing up for Lord of the Rings, but they’d shown up anyway: Armor-clad troops hovering over Grayson on giant black dragons. Gage acted on his first instinct and moved for the nearest exit -- or made one. Every ground had its disadvantages, but Gage prefered open ground and maneuvering room to the confines of a city. His priority was getting the young, untested officer with him out before she became entangled in a situation for which she wasn’t the least prepared.

 

The shortest path took them down an alley to the outer wall. Pausing near the edge of the last house in the alley, he studied the next obstacle: a 3 meter wall that towered nearly 4 feet over his 6’2’’ frame. He glanced at Shavra and then back toward the center of town, eyeing the black-clad troops as they fast-roped to the ground from their monster transports. No time to find another exit. He checked the corners again and looked at Shavra.

 

“You’re going over the wall,” he instructed. “Once you’re out, Shavra, get up to Cass’s position.”

 

“Where?” she asked, glancing anxiously about in spite of the wall that blocked her view.

 

“Due west about 450 meters, on a hill,” Gage answered as he moved into the maintenance alley separating homes from the wall. He looked at Shavra. “You ready?”

 

She nodded warily and joined him. Gage shifted the sling of his rifle and clasped and lowered his hands. Putting a hand to the wall and grasping his shoulder with the other, she stepped into his grip.

 

“Which way is west?”

 

The question startled Gage. “Just worry about getting outside right now,” he replied curtly.

 

Tugging on his shoulder, she shifted her weight to the foot in his hands and he raised from his crouched position, boosting her up. It wasn’t enough for her to see over the wall. From the ground to the top of her head, their combined height, with Gage’s arms at full extension toward the ground, measured just shy of 9 feet but it put her within reach of the top. Balancing against the wall, she warily padded up the side until she wrapped her fingers over the edge. Conscious of her fear by the instability of her foot in his hands, Gage smoothly curled her 140 pound build further up the wall, exposing her head and shoulders. She shifted her grasp to the outer edge of the wall and should have been able to pull herself over from there, lift a knee and roll her body weight over the top. But it didn’t work the way Gage imagined.

 

Instead of using her free leg, she lifted the supported foot, sagged without Gage’s support, and, lacking the arm strength to do more, she began to slip and panic. Her feet flailed for purchase, making it impossible for Gage to catch one as he ducked her thrashing. Then her grip failed. Gage had only a few seconds to turn aside before she fell on his head, her slide down the wall scraping up her hands and arms.

 

Seeing the muscles in his jaw tense as he steadied her on the ground, she shrank. “I’m sorry; I tried,” she said, evidently too anxious to mind her burning skin. The sound of her voice didn’t do much to build his confidence in her wall-scaling abilities.

 

“Okay, plan B,” he remarked, exhaling off his frustration. Taking several steps back from the wall, Gage shifted his rifle sling about, took a running start, jumped, dug a toe against the wall, and easily pulled himself to straddle the 40 centimeter thick wall where he made a cursory sweep of their surroundings. Seeing nothing exigent in the immediate area, he briefly considered his position and hunched over to reach down with a single arm.

 

“Jump.”

 

Shavra flashed an uncertain look and then imitated his leap with a running start. But her jump wasn’t as powerful at only half the height, and more was lost as her smooth-soled boot hit the wall and slipped. Gage barely grasped her wrist on the way down; countering the sudden weight and inertia that threatened to pull him off with clenched legs and a white knuckled grip on the wall.

 

As Gage worked to stabilize their balance, she slapped her other hand around his forearm and dug in her nails. He quietly grimaced, straining to curl her full weight towards him with one arm and beyond thirty-degrees at his elbow. Pulling more from his core, he let go of the wall as soon as he was upright, finally able to ease her over the top with both hands.

 

Dropping her down the other side was considerably easier in spite of the sensation in his shoulder, weakened by numerous dislocations and age. She landed gracefully enough for the trouble.

 

The searing pain in his other shoulder didn’t hit until he swung his leg over to jump down. Not sparing a moment to look back, he landed on the ground next to Shavra and pointed toward a hill a little over a quarter of a mile in the distance.

 

“That way. Go,” he said, pushing her forward.

 

Shavra broke into a run. Stalling briefly, Gage craned to find the source of the burning sensation in his rotator cuff. He spotted the black end of a bolt, buried to the shaft and jutting out from his back, and stretched to pulled it free with a grunt. He frowned at the deep red blood coating the .177mm point and barrel and, stuffing it in his pocket, sprinted to catch up with Shavra.

 

***

 

 

As hides go, the one Cass had chosen for overwatch on Grayson City was palatial. On a hill just short of 500 yards from the city wall, a long, low bush sheltered her from prying eyes and the afternoon sun. A thick layer of moss cushioned the otherwise hard-packed dirt, almost too comfortable for the five plus hours they’d been there. The best part: only a few low buildings impeded her line-of-sight into the city square where most of Creek’s personnel had congregated (good for investigation; bad when dragons arrive in attack mode).

 

As Silver appeared over the crest of the hill, Shavra in tow, Moa crept from his hide where he had been wedged between two boulders beneath a tree 20 yards to Cassie’s left. The rest stayed put: Daniels and O’Neill against boulders below them - one facing the city and the other facing uphill to cover their backsides - and Hammond sitting cross-legged in the crotch of a dense evergreen to Cassie’s right about 35 yards higher on the hill. A quick mental calculation left Souter tailing Shalin, and Gonzales and Yamanaka with the exec floating among the crowds within the city walls.

 

The one thing Cass had taken that would be a total violation of the PD if discovered was a state-of-the-art computerized sniper scope, a safety net that allowed her the advantage of fast, easy adjustment in a tight situation (like this one). It also had a blue force tracking system built in to keep her from taking out one of the crew. Always a plus.

 

Cass kept her eye to the scope, tracking as many of the crew as possible and reporting hostile positions to in-town command as Silver slid in next to her. Moa slipped him the high-power binoculars.

 

“Glad you made it, Sir,” said Cass, pot-shotting the dragon-troops that had engaged the crew and townspeople and occasionally painting a new dragon target.

 

“Me, too,” he muttered. He craned again to eye the small hole in his duster. The blood had soaked his shirt immediately around the wound, but it looked like nothing noticeable had made it outside the heavier coat. That the hole was tiny and the dark brown duster helped to mask its appearance. Maybe if they stared at him long enough, someone would notice it.

 

Shavra quietly stood next to the tree where she had stopped, panting to catch her breath.

 

“Looks like friendlies, Sir?” Cass asked as a figure in white plate armor appeared on a wasp and shouted orders to the town guard.

 

Gage grimaced at the blinding white spot in the distance. “Looks like.”

 

Still prone, he rolled to look at Moa. “Keep an eye on Shavra,” he said, reaching beneath his collar to feel out the small wound and then rubbing his bloodied fingertips in the dusty soil and grass before anyone knew what he was doing. “I'm going back in.” He got to his feet.

 

“Right behind you, Sir,” said Cass before punching her com. “Alfa, cease fire. Coming down with Silver. Daniels, get up here and take Moa’s position. Silver and I are going back in. Trading my M24 for your Mk11 on the way by; you keep painting those targets for Creek.” A quick change of channel got her to Creek for a temporary cease fire and update.

 

After the exchange with Daniels, Gage and Cass covered the remaining 400 meters to the city wall in roughly one and three-quarter minutes. They scaled the wall and disappeared inside.