Weapons Cache

Weapons were drawn by everyone present as they began to scramble for cover. Another shot was fired along with some swearing before the sound of someone screaming sounded out. All was silent for a long moment. Tom rushed forward to where the shots had been fired and rounded the corner of some tactical crates that were stacked in a pile near the east side of the building. When he got past the barrier he came upon a grizzly scene. Three bodies were lying on the ground, each one with a pool of blood around it.

Two of the bodies were those of military persons, neither moving. The third belonged to Zach and he was gasping for breath, blood running down the sides of his mouth as he held a hand over a bloody patch on his armor and clothes. Tom slid on his knees beside Zach as he removed his hand to see what the damage looked like.

"Dammit, Zach! What happened?" Tom asked him as he put his own hand on the wound to stop the bleeding. "I NEED A CLERIC!"

"Dillon....pulled a gun....shot me...killed another....I tried.....to...attack..." Zach said between gasps for air.

He began to cough and there was a gurgling sound that began in his chest and rose through his throat as more blood ran out of his mouth. Tom tried to let him roll to his side to get the fluid out. Derek came up behind him and began to check him over.

"This is bad," Derek said solemnly.

"Well, heal him!" Tom almost yelled as he kept his blood-covered hand futilely over the wound that continued to bleed through his fingers.

Derek extended his hands and a green energy washed over them. The energy extended to Zach, but when it touched his body, the wound didn't close.

"What's happening?" Tom asked frantically.

"His wounds are too severe for my level of healing. The rounds must have been hollow points. His insides are shredded." Derek said as he sat back.

"NO!" Tom cried out as he tried to use his own dark mending on Zach, but received a warning message that he wasn't the right alignment for the healing to work.

"It's....ok..." Zach continued as he gasped again for air. "Just....get jets...."

Zach's head went limp, and his eyes glazed over as he let out one last breath.

"FUCK!!!! ZACH!!!!" Tom screamed at him as tears began to gather in his eyes. "You can't go yet!"

He leaned over the body as it fell back to lying on its back and he banged a fist on his chest. Derek stood up and went to inspect the other bodies.

"Shit. Its Dillon. No idea who the other one is." Derek said. "I should have killed him too. I was just so sure he was trying to do the right thing."

Derek hauled his foot back and kicked Dillon's body hard enough that it slid across the floor.

"DAMMIT!" Derek yelled up at the ceiling.

By this time, the others had come over and were gathered around the scene.

"It's Breaker," one of the military men said as he looked down at them. "Sorry, that was his nickname. The third guy is John Breakingstead. He was one of the pilots. Really hated Marsh. Wasn't quiet about it either. Dillon must have taken his chance to take him out. They had a few run-ins in the past."

"How are we going to explain this to Zach's family," Tom said quietly, still sitting with the body.

No one spoke. The heaviness hanging in the air was almost palpable as Tom continued to look down at the lifeless form of Zach. He used his index and middle fingers to close the man's eyes and laid him back on the floor. He stood up and turned to face everyone else.

"Get the jets ready. I'll take Zach to the vehicles." Tom said as he looked at their faces.

Slowly they moved off to continue the work to get ready.

"It looks like..." Derek began.

"I know what it fucking looks like. The holes tell the stories." Tom cut him off, his anger getting the better of him.

"Tom, there was nothing we could do," Derek put a hand on his shoulder.

Tom jerked away from the touch, "I know that. That's why I'm so pissed." Tom replied as he took a couple of steps away, taking a deep breath. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap."

"It's fine. Let me help you with Zach." Derek said.

Together the two of them brought his body back to one of the vehicles and placed it in the trunk of one of the SUVs. Tom slammed the door closed and went back inside.

"Anyone else have any issues they want to get out of the way now?" Tom called to everyone as they worked.

Everyone froze and stared at him.

"Tom, this isn't the way to do this. We can have official inquiries when we are back at the base." Derek said as he pulled him away.

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Everyone's eyes followed him as Derek dragged him to the side of the building.

"You can't do that. Not now. Focus, man. Get the job here done, then look into it further. We have a lot to do." Derek told him.

Tom didn't look at Derek. He stared off into the distance past him and his face was set in anger, his mouth a hard line on his face.

"We messed up big time, Derek. We shouldn't have trusted him. I don't know if we can trust any of them." Tom said.

"I know. Trust me, I know. But we need them right now to get what we need to save the others. Over a thousand of them, Tom. Focus on that." Derek tried to reassure him.

"Fine," Tom said firmly and walked back into the building.

Derek looked up at the sky and sighed heavily. He stood there, hands on his hips trying to compose himself before he went back inside. All of the jets were now outside and waiting. A short time later Anderson returned with the computer boxes. They drove up in a military-grade Hummer and hopped out, moving to the back of the vehicle, and opening the tailgate.

"Geeze, what's with all the long faces?" Anderson asked.

Then he saw it. The bodies lying on the floor and the pools of blood.

"Shit. Dillon?" He asked.

Everyone nodded.

"I was worried about that. How bad?" Anderson asked.

"Three dead, including Dillon. We're down another pilot as well." Derek said to him. "Did anyone know his code?"

"Maybe. They are supposed to be a secret, but some of them might have shared them. I don't know though." Anderson replied.

"Well, let's see if we can find out. We need as many of these birds in the air as we can ASAP." Derek said as he walked back inside the building.

"I remembered that we were coming up on an air show soon before everything went to hell in a handbasket. There's also a single A10 here on base that was supposed to fly in the show. We should absolutely take that with us." Anderson called after him.

Pausing, Derek turned around, "Put it on the list. We'll take it with us."

A tanker truck showed up a few minutes later and they used it to refuel the jets that weren't already topped off. The computers were passed out to each pilot first, then to Eric as well. With seven total pilots, they each selected one of the jets and climbed in to begin getting them ready to fly. One of the other pilots did remember Breaker's code, and Eric used it to get the jet started.

Anderson came by each of the jets to hand them a helmet as well.

"These cost four hundred thousand dollars to make. And the people who made them are probably dead. Don't damage it." Anderson said to Eric firmly as he handed him a helmet.

Strapping the helmet on, Eric closed the hatch and started the engine. Soon the sounds of jet engines were all that could be heard in the area. Moving to the tarmac, Eric took off first, the exhaust of the F35 turning downward. It lifted off the ground slowly at first, then when he appeared to get the balance down it rose higher before the exhaust rotated back to its original position and he took off toward Dallas.

The others followed suit and soon all seven pilots were off toward the guild base. The sounds were almost deafening, and everyone had to cover their ears as they stood in the hangar to avoid the heat from the engines and wind they created when taking off.

"Now, what was it you thought we should grab while we're here?" Derek turned and asked Kedron.

"Missiles," Kedron said. "Oh, and as many weapons as we can load into the vehicles. I bet these guys have some vehicles we can load up too."

Derek and Kedron both looked at the military members standing together near the hangar doors.

"Let's do it. Get them to cooperate and we will get the vehicles over to wherever you point us." Derek replied and went to tell the team.

"We need to pick up some freebies while we are here. It's a military base, so there will be a weapons cache somewhere. Kedron is going to take us there and we will load up everything we can. Get in the vehicles and we will head there now." Derek said to the Vanguard members while Kedron went to explain the details to the military team.

Everyone nodded without a comment and moved toward the vehicles. Soon they were headed to a building at the north end of the compound and parked out front. Exiting the vehicles, everyone went to the entrance where one of the military team opened the door and led them to the rear of the building. Opening a door, they came into something that looked like a warehouse stocked with almost every imaginable weapon.

A set of stairs led down into what must have been some kind of dug-in extension to the building with ceilings that looked to be about thirty feet high. Rows and rows of shelving lined the first half of the room with weapons, ammo, explosives, and many more tactical items and gear.

"Let's get started. Get as many things as will fit in the vehicles and we'll find some others to carry more. Fill your inventories too. Don't leave any free space. We won't find a cache like this again anytime soon." Derek said looking around the room. "In fact, fill your inventory first. Then load up in vehicles."

After about an hour of gathering weapons and gear, Bobby returned with the pilots who all joined in gathering items as well. Bobby had an angry expression on his face, which meant someone told him what had happened. But he silently went to work on finding the best items to take first.

"Derek!" Kedron called out when he saw him descending the steps of the storeroom.

Derek moved over to where Kedron was waving him down past the shelving.

"This is one of the things I really wanted to find," Kedron said standing next to what appeared to be a vehicle set on tank treads with some kind of missile launching device in place of the hack upper half. "The M270. Can launch missiles from the ground at targets. This should add to our firepower. They have two of them. I can drive one and we can get another person to take the other."

"Good. Do it. Get them out of here and let's put them in the lineup going back with us." Derek said quickly before looking around again. "Where are the missiles for the jets?"

"There are some here, but more of them might be stored in a separate building. We'll find them, don't worry." Kedron replied as he hopped into the M270 and started it up.

"Alright, everyone!" Derek shouted to be heard across the room. "Time to get more jets set up. And we have an A10 I want taken on this run. Not sure where you're going to land it but get it to Dallas and we'll figure out the details when we get there."