YPTS--Stage 3: The conflict

"ASSAULT"​

Current Writers:

Same notes from the earlier stages apply; see them if you need:
Stage 1 Introduction -- Stage 2 Introduction

In addition, please don't get too far ahead of the other writers. You will notice that most of the posts in Stage 1 and 2 are from the Host's PC and NPCs; most are rife with vague hints and opportunities for other Characters. (I have tried my best with Dan's and Sally's posts to provide "exposition" and create opportunities. Take them or create your own; have fun!)

If you need more, see: "Assault": Instructions And Guidelines


Writers joining after "Assault" has begun but is still running:

PM the Host, WriteWithMe.


Readers: What can I say but enjoy.

And to all, HAVE FUN !​

This parking space reserved for ...

Just kidding. A post goes here but its not ready yet

.....

MaryAnne

MaryAnne's lips widened, the she stepped toward Tes. "Are you sure, sweetheart? You have to be sure of this."

Tes's head nodded feverishly. "Yes. I'm sure."

"Because," MaryAnne took Tes's shoulders in her arms and gave her a stern look. "Sally has no way to check blood types. She has a way, but no time to do it. You have to be sure--"

Tes's head hadn't stopped nodding. "I'm sure ... AB negative."

"--because if you're not, Dan ..."

MaryAnne stopped short of saying will die and, seeing Tes's head still bobbing, smiled broadly again and said, "Okay, sweetheart. Let's see about getting you upstairs."

The Assault Team Recoups

"Team A status ... females captured, area secured, heading upstairs."

Peters looked between Carpenter and Black. "Who was that ... Lee?"

"Sounded like Taylor," Black answered, gritting his teeth as he retied the tourniquet around his leg.

"Who cares?" Carpenter spouted. "I'm just glad to see they didn't have anymore trouble taking care of--" He made a peace sign. "--two little girls."

Carpenter laughed, then flinched in pain, grabbing the bandage pasted to one side of skull.

Peters shook his head. All three of them were injured, but only Black -- who was sporting a tourniquet around his thigh -- was going to have mobility problems. Peters looked up to the landing a yard above them. His own brother -- his only brother -- was just opposite that fire door, dead, his blood now dripping over the top step of the landing.

Someone was going to pay, he reminded himself again. The informant had said nothing of an arsenal, or of people who might be willing to use said arsenal. The two dozen people a floor above -- excluding the two females now secured by Team A in what the Immunes called Heaven -- were supposed to be a bunch of pretty boys who were more brawn than brain, and an equal number of "chicks" who wouldn't life a weapon in fear of breaking a nail.

And yet here Team A was, sitting in the middle of a staircase, bleeding all over themselves with the zip tie handcuffs that should already have been used still in the back of their packs.

"So, what's the next move?" Carpenter asked through gritted teeth.

Peters answered by clicking his radio on and informing the other team, "Team A, we are headed to the green zone, new orders are in affect. I repeat we are headed to the green zone."

He looked to the others and said, "The plan, gentlemen, is ambush."



Back in what the had been told was the "packing area", located at the end of the shipping and receiving bay, Peters gave the new assignments as the waited for Team A to return.

"Black, you'll stay down here ... watch out backs."

Black nodded. He had had a hard enough time getting down one flight of stairs; he had no desire to fight his way back up three more.

"We'll send Percell back up to the landing--" Peters paused for a moment, remember who was lying on that landing dead, then continued "--to lay down some cover fire."

Peters saw his second man staring off into the shipping and receiving bay. "Carpenter, you steady?"

Carpenter didn't answer. He was watching the warehouse for Team A's return.

"Carp'!" Peters snapped.

Carpenter turned back to his team leader. "Yes, sir. Rock and roll."

"Okay, then. Once the other team returns, we head back up the other stairwell, and three of us hit the third floor while the other three hit the fourth ... on Percell's fire. Got it?"

The lights went out.

And Peters never got his answer.

Jane and Gabe (attack)

Jane was standing there looking at the room with the three men in it. Standing there she looked around at the surroundings of the room, and then in the hall. Looking up from her crouched position she noticed the breaker box. Grinning evilly she looked at Gabe.

”Alright I think we have a plan. Listen to me. I am going to go in I want you to count to five. In a normal count....1..2..3..4..5...Like that and I want you to pull the wires.”

Looking at her and then the box Gabe nodded.

”Ok but they are locked in the box.”

He said to her calmly as he knelled there beside her. Nodding Jane stood up. Pulling out the firing pin from the pistol she began playing with the lock. Gabe staring up at her, and occasionally back into the room watched carefully. After a few short moments Jane had picked the lock. Hooking it to her belt. Opening up the box she looked at the wires. Finding the ones he would need to pull she pointed to them.

”These are the wires that you are going to pull after counting to five. Do not pull them to soon and do not wait to long. Once this starts timing is going to be everything. There is chance one of us will be hurt in this but I am going to do my best at that not happening. Now don't worry about that though. Look once you pull the wires, I am going to be heading in right down the middle I need you to shoot any where but the middle, do not throw a grenade because if you do you will blind me. Just make noise shoot off some of the rounds.. Do what you gotta do to get their attention so I can get in there ok.”

Seeing him nod she went back over to the door. Watching the men she saw as the point man turned and faced the other way opposite of them. Walking into the room silently she took aim with the pistol, placing the firing pin back into it. She got closer to him and took aim, dead on the back of his head. Shooting him he fell and the lights went out.

Gabe had done his part now he was in the room shooting like a mad man and banging into shit he could not see. It worked he got their attention for her, he did what she told him to do. It seemed to be working. Till he felt the sharp pain in his side. Dropping behind one of the piles he placed his hand over it. Feeling the wetness her cursed soundlessly to himself.

Jane could hear the men shouting. Hearing one right in front of where she was she waited till he was silent, till some of the shooting ended. Standing she shot blindly with the gun that had the bean bag rounds. Hearing him hit the floor she took her position once more. It was all silent. She didn't know where Gabe was or if he was ok. Waiting and waiting.

A sharp pain hit her in the back of her head. As the other 'man' clocked her with his gun. Laying on the ground she could see stars. Taking her hands to her head she could feel his feet right there. Wrapping her hands around his ankles she yanked as hard as she could till he fell to the ground.

Getting herself up she made her move, Kicking the man in his stomach. One of his hands caught her foot and threw her to the ground. Gabe could hear her breathing he could make out the other man as having finally found the damn flash light. Running over to them he shoved Jane out of the way. Dropping the flash light he picked the man up by his throat and caught him with a right hook before he had any time to react. Silence was what followed after that. Dropping the man. Gabe dropped to the floor.

Jane could see pieces of what happened going over to Gabes side she looked down at him.

”Thank you are you ok?”

Peters took out his plastic encased map and was glancing at it when pop--

He turned just in time to see someone -- a woman -- putting a bullet into Carp's head. Blood sprayed from the man and then--

Total darkness.

Peters dropped the map and, dropping to one knee, swung his assault rifle up toward the woman. "Down! Down!"

"What the fuck!" Black hollered, trying to spin on his one good leg. It was 1930 hours, give or take; pitch black outside; no lighting inside. "Where? Where?"

"Shut up!" Peters commanded, knowing Black was only giving away his position -- which, unfortunately was between himself and the woman he was suddenly more than willing was worth ten to fifty grand, depending on who she was.

In the next room, the rapid fire of an automatic rifle erupted.

Peters dropped to his face. He knew it was distraction fire; the shooter's "partner" was here, in this room, so the guy, or "girl", was aiming for effect. But Peters wasn't going to be an easy target for the woman who'd just killed another one of his team.

And then a flash -- muzzle flash, Peters knew, even without considering the boom from the shotgun it came from -- lit the room just long enough for him to see the shooter's position. He rose quickly and -- not knowing Black's position -- chose to swing his weapon at the shooter rather than fire and possibly kill yet another of his team members. The rifle made a solid whack, presumably to the skull, and a moment later he heard a body hit the floor.

Peters felt a grip at his feet, and before he could react was dropping to his back. His breath puffed from him as he hit. As he sucked more in, he felt feet kicking at him -- to the stomach, the groin -- until he got hold of one and, as she had done to him, jerked her from her feet and dropped her to the ground.

Peters got back to his feet, just in time to be blinded by a flashlight. He grabbed for the knife strapped to his chest, but felt a powerful hand seize his throat and lift him from the ground, slamming him against the wall, then pain to his face--

All Clear

Gabe moved the flashlight from one man to the next.

The man he'd lifted against the wall was dead; Gabe had felt the man's neck snap, a combination of the tight grip and the right hook to his temple.

The "lookout" -- who hadn't been doing his job well -- was missing most of his brain, which -- in the low light of the flashlight -- didn't look nearly as gruesome as Gabe assumed it would once they repair the circuit he'd jerked out.

And the man Jane had hit with the bean bag round in the hopes of taking a prisoner? Gabe assumed that if you read the disclaimer on the box of ammo, it said something to the effect of do not shoot in neck at close range. The man's head was nearly turned backwards from the combination of the broken neck and the position he fell to over a work table.

Gabe spun the light to Jane, illuminating her from the side. Under the shine of her own light, she was looking between the two maps -- the one she'd found near the man Gabe had killed with his bare hands, and the one he'd given her from Heaven.

She was wearing an expression Gabe knew well, and never liked to see. After all, you don't fuck as many women as he had, leaving them in various ways without once or twice seeing the look ... of betrayal.

Jane

Jane looked at the maps finally standing up she looked to Gabe. Seeing that he was alright she looked around the room. Grabbing some of the rope sitting in one pile and a rod from another she looked over to Gabe the gleam of the flash light showing her rage and the course of emotions as they waged inside of her.

"I need muscle... your muscle you wanna help me?"

She asked him as she stood there, all kindness having left her voice now.

Gabe stood, shone the flashlight around until he found one of the dead men's fully loaded assault rifles, checked it and looked back to her. "Muscle's to spare ... lead on."

Jane

" No one is going to die.... no something much worse is in store for him"

With her words she headed out of the room. Finding some rope first she made her way down and back to 'Heaven'. Finally making her way back to where Heaven was she went inside. Stopping she looked at Gabe.

"I am going to need a secured room. Only you Dan and myself need access and I want no one else to know what I have in said room. Do you know a place?"

She asked him as she stood there. She didn't know to many places having spent entirely to much time in the gym, she had a lack of knowledge on where she could take her new prisoner.

Gabe glanced to the men still lying on the floor; three were dead, killed in his desperated rush to protect Jane, and the fourth was still trussed up with the "handcuff" zipties Jane had pulled from one of the team's pack.

A secure place? That no one knows about? He should probably ask; for a decade, the national news had been returning to the stories of torture and extraordinary rendition and other topics the always related to secure places that no one knew about.

But ... he didn't ask. These men deserved what came to them. and Gabe was beginning to understand that Jane was just the person to give it to them.

"Basement," he said matter-of-factly. He jerked a finger over his shoulder and explained, "Coming down the stairwell ... there's a door we didn't see when Dan put us through the whole strip search routine. Jane ... it goes down."

Jane

Jane nodded looking at Gabe.

"Alright go check it out."

She said as she walked over to the man she had knocked unconscious earlier. Grabbing the helmet he had on she yanked it off. Her eyes locked onto the face as disgust and hate rolled over her. Standing there and staring down at him she felt the urge to spit on him.

Opting not to do that though she grabbed him under the arms and began dragging the body. Deciding that it would take to long to drag him that way, she squatted down next to the body. Pulling off the body armor he still had on, and making sure all he had left was his shirt, his boxers, pants, socks and shoes. Taking a deep breath she tried picking him up. Getting his arms up and over her shoulder she decided to just let his feet drag on the floor.

Making her way out of 'Heaven'

She headed off in the same direction that Gabe did.

Gabe

The door wasn't secured, as Dan had done to so much of SecureStore. Dan had never intended any of them to be here, Gabe assumed.

The thought of Dan lying upstairs made a chill run through him. Gabe had just killed men -- some with his bare hands -- and he'd just been injured himself in a fire fight; and now he was aiding Jane in what he was assuming would be torture, or at the very least enhanced interrogation. And yet, thinking of Dan -- the man who had taken them in and started them on a life of relative freedom -- was the thing that made him cringe. Odd ... he didn't usually care for other people like this...

Gabe turned his attention back to Jane, and the man on the floor of Heaven, and the imminent questioning. He wanted to know as much as Jane did who these guys were, and -- more importantly -- how was it that they'd gotten a map of SecureStore's fire evacuation plan with descriptions only Dan and Sally's people had ever used.

He made his way down the steps carefully. The lights were still on here, but the steps leading down were covered in a couple of months worth of dust.

Gabe looked around, adding the beam of his flashlight to the minimal illumination. It was a basement ... just a basement, no different than the one back home that he'd turn into a bedroom when he reached his teens and wanted away from his loud, obnoxious little brother. Gabe had expected something different from a commercial storage business, but no.

He descended the last steps and wound through stacks of shipping boxes to find what Jane was looking for: a secure place ... that no one would know about...

Jane

Jane made it into the hallway. Stopping she looked down the steps that Gabe had been talking about. Well this should be interesting she thought to herself as she stood there. Wiping her hand across her forehead she took a deep breath. A smile touched her lips as she saw Gabe walking back up the stairs.

"Here let me help you with that."

Watching him take the body and sling the man over his shoulder Jane smiled. Her eyes trailed Gabe's body and for the first time she noticed the blood on his shirt. The fresh blood at that. Stepping over to him she put her hand in front of his chest to stop him from going down the steps. Pulling his shirt up she looked at the wound.

"Gabe what happened?"

She asked him her eyes looking up to him now. Shaking his head he moved her softly to the side and went down the stairs. Following closely behind him Jane cursed herself. She had that issue of not looking out for her men.. 'Her Men' she thought over again to herself. Shaking her head she followed Gabe into what she figured was the best area that he could find for her. It was pretty good. She had to give the man credit.

.....

Dale - holding the stairs

Lights out? Perfect, but who's plan? Silently Dale moved lower down the stairwell listening for movement and voices. There was another guy down there.... A burst of fire came up the stairwell - this just got interesting....

.....

Dale

Dale was concentrating, he thought there was movement downstairs, then the bangs went off, his training told him how to deal with it, then he saw the figure at the top of the stairs - gun pointed at him.

He moved lightning quick, the person must have been distracted as they didn't - he grabbed the gun and pulled the figure to him, his arms wrapped round and pinned theirs in place.

he looked down 'Sophie? What the fuck?'

.....

Dale put his hand over her mouth 'shut the fuck up!' he hissed. Then the gunfire came from below 'well he knows we're here now!'

he kept her gripped tight then leanded over the bannister and single handed shot a bag down the stairs. Her squirming was annoying yet strangely pleasurable 'stop struggling!' he hissed and listened....

.....

Dale lifted Sophie off her feet and moved them back out of the stairwell, he jammed the empty shotgun thought the handles of the doors 'might hold them' then he looked at the girl 'are you OK?' he said his face softening 'where am I needed?'

she was scared - they probably all were - he doubted they'd seen death like this, and weren't expecting it here if they had seen it.

.....

Dale deliberately and carefully took the gun from Sophie, he checked it, cocked it and grinned. 'Professional has nothing on me. Now Sophie - calm down - where am I needed?'

he remained calm - ignoring her hysterics - knowing she'd respond if he took control. 'I need to know what's going on Sophie - so I can protect you'