1142 ~ Part One
My entry, find the post Right Here!!
The pre dawn attack would come unexpectedly, at least that was the plan. The tactical team surrounding the small village were the best of the best from all over the globe. They had run a gruelling gauntlet of trials in a crucible of competitive combat in order to qualify for this mission. They had won the right to risk their lives on an island simply known as 1142.
The team settled into their positions surrounding the village. Fields of fire were carefully chosen, and all escape routes had been accounted for and cut off with either man power or booby traps. The veterans and heroes of a thousand battles, each one was too professional to underestimate any potential enemy. Even if that enemy seemed to be a defenseless, previously uncontacted tribe living in a prehistoric village of grass huts with no discernable tech or other advancements.
Their confidence was not bravado. It was a quiet confidence of lives dedicated to battle. Lives that had been fired, forged, tempered, quenched and hardened into the finest fighting force ever assembled. The team leader’s name was Rudy. He gave three clicks on his throat mic transmitter and held up a closed fist.
The calm before the storm. Like a group of predators lying in the grass watching a herd approach, their collective gaze was riveted, their stillness complete and their focus unwavering. Their prey were dead already, they just didn’t know it yet.
Inside the closest hut, Sharine placed a hand on her man’s powerful chest. She tapped him twice with her index finger. Lashka didn’t respond. She tapped him again more firmly. It was like tapping a rock. She saw a tiny smile form at the corner of his mouth and she let out a sharp exasperated breath. Sharine whispered, ‘Why did you let them come?’ Lashka pulled her close and gave her a little kiss on the nose and smiled. ‘Because the children need the practice,’ he replied simply. A form appeared above them like an apparition. It was his middle daughter Inskya. Fourteen, and already the little lady of the house. ‘Shall I get my brothers, father?’ she asked.
‘No child,’ no need to wake them. ‘Take the baby and have fun.’
‘Thank you father,’ replied Inskya. She leaned over and kissed her mother and father, walked across the room, picked up her 10 month old baby sister and headed outside.
She walked into plain view carrying baby Talya. The assault team froze, completely taken off guard. A finger sign from Rudy and a team member bolted forward and took the baby from Inskya’s arms. There was no resistance from her, and baby Talya settled in and put her head on the soldiers shoulder. The soldier had no frame of reference for what was unfolding. There was a deep sense of foreboding that this young girl had neither pulled back nor refused to give him the infant.
Inskya didn’t monologue. There was no precursor to the events that followed. A terrible crack was heard like a tree’s massive trunk being snapped in two. There was no scream as Rudy slipped to the ground, his entire spinal column shattered, his dead eyes staring wide searching for understanding. His second in command took over smoothly, tapped his com button and said, ‘Weapons hot, shoot to kill.’
Twenty rifles snapped up and took aim. ‘Fire,’ came the soft command. Fingers tightened on triggers and carefully aimed rounds were released downrage with devastating, deadly intent. At least that was the plan. Their fingers passed through the triggers and kept on going through the trigger housing and into the hand grip. That is where their fingers stopped. Embedded in the hand grip as if their fingers were part of the weapon’s original manufacture. They were physically fused to their weapons now and unable to fight with them.
A huge bear of a man lunged forward wielding his combat knife with his left hand and swinging his rifle like a baseball bat at Inskya’s head. She never moved. The bear like man stopped as if a mime had run into a bullet proof glass wall. His face and body shattered and he crumpled to the ground. Not wishing the rest of the team to suffer any more than necessary, Inskya stood very still and concentrated. All of the team member’s heads snapped back at the same instant. The back of their heads hit their own spines and they collapsed with a sound like firecrackers being set off all around the village like a festival.
The only soldier remaining was holding Talya. Grasping for understanding, the soldier instinctively held up Talya using her as a shield. Inskya finally smiled with sadness at the soldier. Talya placed her tiny hands on either side of the soldier’s head and cooed softly. A tiny pop could be heard and the soldier’s eyes died instantly. The right eye looked skyward, while the left looked straight down. He sank softly to his knees and slowly fell to one side. Talya allowed gravity to run its course, rode the dead body to the ground and gingerly stepped off. She waddled over to her older sister, raised both arms and simply said, ‘Up.’
©Original Short By TheBugIQ
