Path of Ranger: Volume 1 (34 page)

When the creature problem was over, the partners got back to dealing with the soldiers. But when turning to the mercs, they saw as a whole group of monsters attacked them. Three beasts had already torn two of the soldiers apart. The men tried to shoot back, and it didn’t do any good for them. The 5.56-millimeter bullets of the M16 rifles weren’t enough to break through the monster’s ribcage. They did nothing, but only scratched them.

JB noticed during the fight that these creatures were much stronger than the ones he had fought the night before. He couldn’t get away using the knife this time. And soon after the pack finished killing the soldiers, they would go after him and his comrade.

The mech started shooting in that direction. He targeted the soldiers as well as the monsters. A constant stream of flame was coming out of the machine gun muzzle, releasing hundreds of bullets in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, JB got a bit closer. He had just one try. So the mutant took the best vantage point he could and made his shot. The aim was a fuel tank of one of the cars. Automatic recharge launched all of the charges out. The kickback was strong, but JB’s hand didn’t shake a bit.

The target was reached. The vehicle exploded. Another one’s tank followed right after. Dozens of gallons of fuel made an explosion that threw apart everything around. One of the Humvee's doors flew close to JB’s head but didn’t hurt him. The monsters disappeared in the wall of fire that gradually went up as a black smoke.

Watching that action, JB grew a self-satisfied smirk on his face. He turned to Mark to share that passion. Gibson stayed put too, watching as their enemies burned. Then, suddenly, he put up the machine gun and went shooting. The voice from a speaker shouted something, JB couldn’t recognize any of that. He looked aside and saw as one of the flaming monsters was coming at him from above. The weapon was empty, so the only thing that the mutant came up with was to hit the creature in advance with the shotgun. So he did. The monster almost swiped him, but was thrown further with the momentum of JB’s massive body. The beast was passed towards the mech.

Gibson received the pass properly. He punched the monster in a chest with a bayonet and threw him aside right after. The massive burning body launched in the park’s direction. The scientist looked at his partner. JB was laughing his pants off. So Gibson smiled too. A moment after another explosion emerged. This time it came from the side where the creature had gone. The laughter stopped and JB got down immediately. Pieces of fresh meat flew through the air. Just a few seconds after they both realized that it was one of the mines set in the park.

“Where did they come from?!” the mutant shouted. His hearing was still partially out because all of those firing and explosions.

“Perhaps they had followed us. Used our path through the wall,” Gibson supposed. “If so, we need to hurry. Others can be in danger.”

“I have an idea! Get on!” the mutant said when taking his knife out of the Humvee’s roof.

When his primary weapon was back, JB rushed to the driver-side seat.

“Wait,” Doc said. “There, most likely, is going to be a shootout. Put some of the bulletproof vests against the windshield.”

“How would I see the road then?”

“How would you do anything if you’re dead?”

“Huh…”

JB kicked the previously damaged door off the hinges to look outside while driving. Then he threw out the dead driver. Doc did the same, he removed a killed gunman from the roof and climbed on it with his mech. The bulletproof vests of previously fallen mercs went behind the windshield for the driver’s protection. The transport rode on the road towards the enemy base.

In a few minutes, the camp showed up. The inner perimeter was protected with a high-voltage fence. Plus, there were four observing towers about fifty meters’ height each. The soldiers on those towers had M60 machine guns at their disposal. Gibson knew how vulnerable JB and himself were against such weapons. The only thing he was counting on was to get over the gate before they would open fire.

The damaged Humvee streamed towards the closed gate. The mercenaries had to think that that was their own people coming back with a mech trophy. It was the only possible reason, which Gibson could think of, why they didn’t open fire. Then they did. Coming through a cloud of bullets, the car was getting covered in holes. That moment JB fully appreciated Doc’s advice about those vests. The hood got smoky, but the mutant didn’t loosen the gas pedal for a second. Gibson grabbed the machine gun on the Humvee's roof with his robotic hand to start shooting back. He tried to keep mech low, so he didn’t even see where the bullets were going to. He just directed the fire approximately at the checkpoint.

The car drove through the gate, knocking them out. JB could see an airfield from there. They were close to the finish line.

Just the car entered the camp, Mark jumped off the roof to clear the area where the rest of the group was supposed to show up. His task was to remove one of the fence sections, nearest to the park. The mech ran along the fence shooting off with its machine gun.

Meanwhile, the smoky Humvee truck reached the end of the road, heading straight to one of the towers. JB realized that he couldn’t stay in that car any longer. He pushed the gas for the last time and jumped off the vehicle. The Humvee hit the first tower’s pillar, ran through and crashed against the next one. The mutant rolled over the ground until his velocity was stopped by the stock of military crates. It was a hard hit.

Just he opened his eyes, he saw as the tower was falling on him. Despite the pain, he braced up and leaped out of its way. The thick heavy base of the column fell right beside him, lifting a cloud of dust into the air. JB got caught in that cloud. The top of the tower fell onto the fence, smashing a few sections down. Gibson was almost there that moment. If the speed of his mech had been slightly higher, he would have been a part of that pile of scrap metal.

As soon as JB gained vision out of that dust, he took out a pistol to shoot off the upcoming enemies. The reinforcement was closing up. And a seven-charge gun wasn’t nearly enough to take care of them. JB noticed fallen M16 rifles, which were in the boxes broken by the fallen pillar. Unfortunately, he couldn’t reach them without leaving the cover. Nevertheless, similar crates were around him. When he opened one of them, he didn’t find automatic weapons inside, but there was an RPG-7 rocket launcher with five extra charges. The mutant was very pleased with the find. He reloaded the gun and hid it behind the belt. Then he picked up a rocket launcher.

It wasn’t his first experience with such a type of weapon. There were a few times he had used it back in LA.

JB waited out for the shooting to calm down a bit. Then he stood up from the shelter and launched a rocket in the closest tower's direction. Not waiting for the rocket to go the whole way, he dropped back to his cover. Bullets flew above him. The explosion came from that side, then a far scream followed. It seemed that the tower sniper was down.

While JB kept his defense, Gibson was taking care of the others to go through. First of all, he made sure that there was no more voltage on the embossed fence sections. The group was supposed to be there by that time. Doc took off an empty machine gun from the mech’s arm and threw it on the ground. The screen showed up, which was hidden behind the weapon before. Using it, Mark checked the location of that navigator that he had given Skyman earlier. The people were close.

Doc looked in front of him to see as the first familiar people appeared out of the thicket. The captain came out first, Alex and Eugene – right after him. As soon as they saw the mech, they called for others. Gibson walked closer to them.

“Is everyone here?” he asked Skyman.

“Yes. Here, take it,” Josh gave the navigator back.

“You lead everyone to the airfield, use the tower as a cover. JB and I will take care of the mercenaries,” Mark said while checking as people were going through the fence.

The mech held its ground until everyone passed him. Gibson looked aside to see how JB was doing. The mutant hid behind some sandbags, shooting at soldiers with the rockets any chance he had. In general, he seemed to be fine. Despite a few hundred bullets constantly flying over his head. If not for those sandbags, which were covering an ammo stock, his position would be much worse.

During the fight JB kept checking the coffers, just in case. At some point, he found smoke grenades there. Just what they needed. JB used them right away.

He looked back, there were people running towards him, covered by the fallen tower. A couple men were carrying Vladimir, others just ran as fast as they could. Armed men were first to come. They shared JB’s cover and started helping out with the shooting. Steven was in the lead of them, his war experience became quite useful there. The goal wasn’t to kill every last mercenary there, just to shoot in their direction to keep them at a distance while the others were coming.

After the last person had passed the fence, Gibson was going to close the line. Suddenly, the nearest ground fell down in front of him. One of the monsters jumped out of the dust. The creature leaped over the mech taking it down with its feet. Doc was so disoriented that he fell on his back. More beasts were coming out of the hole. In a less than a minute, there were more than a dozen of them. The scientist noticed the underground tunnel in one of the mech’s cameras. The monsters were probably preparing an attack on the farmers’ camp for a long time.

Seeing that picture, as a fallen mech was surrounded by a dozen of monsters, JB realized that Doc needed help. So he picked up the RPG with the last rocket inside to point it at the hole.

Just don’t shoot the dude… Just don’t shoot the dude, please…

To be sure, the mutant aimed a bit higher and released the trigger. The rocket left a smoke trail behind it. It was flying straight over the pack. JB realized how badly he missed. He was ready to go in there with a knife, when, out of the blue, another monster jumped up from the hole. It hit the rocket to cause a detonation. The explosion scattered the creatures over the area.

Some of the shelling hit the mech. The windshield was cracked and one of the hoses got damaged, but Gibson himself seemed to be fine. He rolled over and got back on his feet. He had lost half of the vision through the cameras and the left hand wasn’t entirely controllable. But he wouldn’t waste time. The metal giant ran for his life. That explosion was just a minor setback for the monsters.

Seeing as Doc got out, JB went into action himself. He dropped the rocket launcher and picked up a few more gas grenades to throw them towards the enemy.

Just about seventy yards left to the airfield. They had to go through, no matter what.

“What are you staying here for?! Keep moving!” he shouted as hard as he could.

The mutant took Vladimir from the men’s hands and threw him on his own shoulders. The whole group went out of the cover to run through the cloud of smoke, straight to the swingers. The guys kept firing at the mercenaries blindly even when they were running. Gibson kept running behind, providing a cover. One of the creatures caught up with the group. It was ready to hit one of the women, then Doc grabbed the beast with his only functional hand and threw it away.

A few others jumped the mech. At some point, Mark thought that he was done. Then shooting came from the enemy's side. The creatures went for them into the smoke. The human crying and shouting followed.

Skyman looked back, he saw that the most of the monsters were busy killing his enemy. The group finally reached the airfield.

Three ‘Apache’ type flying machines were right before them. JB was in the lead, he gave Skyman a signal to take the biggest one. Then he passed Vladimir to others. As for himself, he rushed to occupy a small-class swinger. He opened a side sliding door for the mech to get in, then he took over the pilot seat. Only once inside did JB wonder if he needed a key to start the engine. It was a huge relief to him when he saw a ‘start’ button instead of a key socket. Just as he switched on the engines, he went outside to check on the others.

“Put everyone aboard. We’re gonna cover you!” he told Wash.

Steven nodded in return. Then he turned to the transport, which was already under Skyman’s control. The captain took some time to study the control panel of the craft. JB took an AK while others were getting aboard. He fired at monsters, in hopes that it would at least slow them down.

The mech was running the last one. Gibson tried to fight them off as hard as he could. The creatures had outrun him already. He was devastated. JB was shooting, not saving the bullets. He managed to damage a few of the monsters so they left Gibson alone. But that was it, he ran out of ammo. Being lost in action, the mutant just threw out the rifle.

JB rushed to the cabin. He buckled up and grabbed the steering wheel. Then he switched a few buttons on the control panel, put a hand on a handle beside him and softly pulled it. When the vessel lifted about a foot from the ground, JB noticed with his side vision as a white spot jumped in. A strong hit followed. It was Gibson, he came aboard. As soon as that happened JB pulled the handle all the way. The swinger flew up.

Bridgers looked outside to see how the others were doing. The second swinger was already far away. Everyone got out.

It seemed that Skyman proved himself as a pilot in JB’s eyes. JB looked through the transparent bottom to see the ground. The smoke got blown away by the air stream from the thrusters, the view became clear.  All of them saw as a pack of monsters was tearing apart farmers and soldiers. They were getting more and more numerous with arriving ones. That land became theirs. Exclusive owners.