I TOSSED THE CRUMPLED DOOR ASIDE AND STARED DOWN at Howie. It hurt to see how terrible he looked. As I peered at him through the tinted visor of my Reaper gasmask, I could tell that he hadn’t showered in days and his lips were completely dry and cracking as he attempted to speak.
I kneeled beside him and placed my hand on his right shoulder. “It’s okay, Howie. You’re safe now,” I said as I hugged him. He attempted to return my embrace with his right arm but didn’t appear to have enough energy, as his arm fell to the floor.
“I’m sorry, Howie,” I muttered, holding back tears, “I shouldn’t have left you.”
“It’s okay,” he whispered, his voice barely audible.
“I’ll make them pay for this, Howie. I swear to God I’ll make them pay!”
“Just get me out of here,” he said as he began to shiver.
“Absolutely,” I replied. I heard several footsteps behind me as I took off my long black trench coat and placed it around Howie’s shoulders in order to keep him warm.
I had nearly demolished the entire room beyond Howie’s cell when I ambushed The Strangers that were guarding him. As I peered over my shoulder, I saw that amongst the rubble and unconscious bodies now stood four more Strangers. Three of them had M16s aimed at us, but they weren’t the ones that I was worried about. The fourth Stranger was gigantic. He stood nearly seven feet tall and had to weigh over 400 pounds. Despite his size, he didn’t appear to have an ounce of fat on him. I knew who he was. Howie had shown Jason and I profiles on all of the Stranger officers during the preparation for our last mission. This mountain of muscle was the Stranger officer known as Alpha. He wore the same black body armor and expressionless white mask as the other Strangers, but he was almost three times their size.
“This doesn’t end well, Reaper,” Alpha grumbled in an incredibly deep voice, “Stand down or my men will shoot.”
“You’ve got one chance to get the heck outta my way. I’m not gonna ask again,” I growled as I balled my gloved hands into tight fists.
“We have you dead to rights, Reaper. There’s no way you can win this!” Alpha barked.
“I want you to remember something, Alpha. When they’re lying on the floor, crippled and pissing blood and you’re crouching in the corner praying that the same thing doesn’t happen to you…just remember that I gave you a chance to walk away.”
“Alright then,” Alpha said darkly as he looked to his gunmen. “Kill them both.”
In a blur, I grabbed the crumpled metal door from the floor and held it before me, shielding Howie and me from the onslaught of automatic gunfire.
“I’ve located the package, Ace! But I’ve got my hands full at the moment. I may be a few minutes late!” I yelled as the bullets continued to ricochet off the steel door.
“10-4! Same here!” I heard Jason shout through my earpiece. He sounded like he was under duress, but I couldn’t worry about him at that moment. Saving Howie was my number one priority.
With the battered door still held before me, I planted my feet and launched myself toward my attackers. Alpha dove out of the way as I slammed into the smaller Strangers and knocked them unconscious. Alpha and I wrestled for control of the door before I yanked it away from his grasp and tossed it aside.
As I glared up at him, I realized that he looked even bigger up close. He was easily three times my size in terms of volume, but technically I outweighed him by about 400 pounds. I held my fists ready as he rotated his head and stretched his bulging neck muscles. My heart rate increased as he pulled his tree trunk sized arms in front of him and struck an aggressive stance.
We leapt at each other in unison, but he pulled his head slightly to the right, causing my fist to zoom by without hitting its mark. He jabbed me hard in the stomach before I could get my guard up. I wasn’t ready for that. I wasn’t ready at all. If I had been holding my stomach tighter, I could have easily taken the blow, but I was so focused on knocking him out with one punch that I left myself completely open to his counterattack. Alpha was easily capable of generating well over 2000 pounds of force with his punches, so even with my dense molecular composition, I was vulnerable if I wasn’t tightening my stomach.
The wind rushed from my lungs as I stumbled backward, reeling from what felt like a stick of dynamite exploding inside my stomach. As I tried desperately to catch my breath, he bull-rushed me and tackled me to the ground. This may take a little longer than I anticipated, I thought as I fought to defend myself against Alpha’s raining haymakers.