The four men approached where the gunshot came from in a scattered line that made sure they wouldn’t be mowed down in a single swipe of bullets. The safeties of their weapons were off. They were glancing around in full readiness. Bullets would be flying at the first sight of enemy. With every step they moved they made sure to stay close to a vehicle so they could get to cover as soon as they needed to.

Suddenly, they saw a body on the ground right next to a broken vehicle. The uniform on its body told the four men it was once a fellow comrade.

KJ made a sign, and one of the men approached to check the body out while the other three knelt down in caution.

The body was facing the ground. The man frowned and put his rifle aside and replaced it with a pistol in case the body was actually an enemy in pretense. He carefully turned the body over with his pistol pointing at the body.

Instead of the enemy he expected, the man slightly relaxed when he saw the familiar face of a fallen comrade. However, as he looked down, he was horrified to see something strapped to the man’s body.

“Take cover…” Before the warning could come out, the man felt a burning pain all over his body. That was the last thing he knew.

An explosion ripped his body open and killed him instantly. The distance between the man and the grenade was so close that no amount of experience could save him. The shards of the fragmentation grenade punched through his body like it was paper. Even the kevlar vest failed to save him.

The rest of the men took cover without hesitation. This saved their lives as the projectiles created by the explosion were deflected by the vehicles covers, but before they could get back on their feet, another dark object fell on the ground beside one of the men.

It was another grenade.

A normal person would be paralyzed by fear and thus miss the best opportunity to respond. This soldier was different. He acted without wasting a single second as he leaped out into the open, grabbed onto the grenade, and wanted to throw it to a safe distance away.

It might be dangerous if the attacker held the grenade in his hands for a few seconds before tossing it out, which meant the weapon might explode in his face, but the man’s mind turned quickly. It took a lot of experience with firearms to know how to “cook” a grenade, and the chances that the attackers were professional soldiers was low. An amateur wouldn’t take the risk.

The grenade was about to leave his grip when something hit the man in his chest. It was just a handgun, and the bullet proof vest saved his life, but the impact made the man fall on the ground. Usually this was a good thing as he was returned to cover, but with a grenade about to go off dropped on the ground next to the soldier, this wasn’t as nice.

The man’s eyes went wide open as he realized what the situation was and he scrambled back. He made it half a meter when the explosion occurred.

The flying shrapnel took half his head off.

KJ unleashed a string of bullets at where the grenade came from, but all they hit were metal. The attacker already moved away.

“KJ, report! What happened?” The voice of his captain didn’t help either.

“We’re down two man.” As painful as it was to admit, KJ told the truth.

“And the attackers?”

“I...we have no idea.”

“What?” Riley yelled loudly. Her anger was obvious through the comm. “You lost two men and you didn’t even see the enemy?”

“They used traps against us. They have never shown their face. We have no idea how many of them there are or where they are. We need reinforcement now!” KJ demanded quickly.

“Copy that. Maintain your position and wait for help.” Riley closed the comm and turned to the rest of the soldiers. “Let’s move.” She said nothing about helping her trapped comrades.

“But…” A man frowned. Abandoning two brothers in arms was just cruel. More importantly, today it was KJ that was abandoned. Tomorrow it might be them.

“You heard the order. Our mission is to retrieve gasoline. We can’t afford to risk our mission and waste time on an unknown enemy of unknown power.” Riley said coldly.

She was cold and order following, and there was a reason for it. Ever since General Howe rose to power, he had been actively replacing emotional and caring officers with cold and emotionless ones. They were the ones that could abandon democracy and be the stepping stones of a new dictatorship as long as they could benefit from it.

Courtney Riley was one of the said officers.

“But they are our brothers…” The question was quickly ended with a pistol put to his head. He immediately went silent. Satisfied, Riley lowered her weapon and moved toward one of the SUVs. The fellow soldiers signed and exchanged frustrated looks, but then again orders were orders.

One by one they entered the SUVs. Less than a minute later, the convoy started moving away from the station.

Back in the roads, KJ and the other man remained silent. It had been quite a while since he asked for help. They weren’t that far from the station. Reinforcements should be here by now, assuming there were reinforcements at all.

KJ asked himself if he was in Riley’s position whether or not he would send help. The answer was yes. He would never leave a brother in arm to die. Riley, on the other hand…

The other man knew the same thing as he looked to KJ. Fear was in his eyes. Highly trained didn’t mean fearless. In fact, almost every human being was scared of death. Exceptions were rare.

KJ kept his mind cool. That was the only way to get out of this alive. Now that he thought about it, the attacker were likely in small numbers. Otherwise they would just wipe the two men out. All the attackers had was the element of surprise. If they could act simultaneously, they might be able to locate the enemies and eradicate them. If they hesitated any more, they would be shaved off one by one.

Plans were passed on, and ten seconds later both men got up with their rifles ready. As soon as they got out of their cover, bullets started firing, and one of the man’s head exploded. The helmet he wore did very little. Even if the bullet was stopped, the kinetic energy the round brought was enough to turn the brain organs into a bowl of soup.

KJ glanced at the way the other soldier fell and instantly realized where the bullet came from. The attacker used a silencer, but it wasn’t enough to fool him. He raised his rifle and fired short, concise bursts of bullets.

He heard a pained groan.

Not being overconfident, KJ emptied his magazines, reloaded, and slowly approached the vehicle. His sweaty finger was tightly put on the trigger. Any movement would result in more bullets in the air in half a second.

His heart went cold when he felt his legs tripping over something.

The next second an explosion consumed him.