《Rising of the Red Tide》Chapter 14 (Part 4)
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John Miller sat in the car scanning through the video cameras attached to his soldiers. He barely realized that he was in a car, which was heading for his bunker, because he was so focused on the events which were unfolding. He looked away from the screen for a moment and could see that his car was surrounded by several other vehicles. He was under the protection of Code Blue soldiers, flanking him on all sides. John's family was also on the way to the bunker, but they were travelling in a different vehicle. This was to allow John to watch the top secret mission in real time.
From the outside world it must have looked like not much had changed. A President always has many vehicles around them. But this was very different for John. He had military protection now, rather than secret service. He had a secret military force operating on U.S. soil to track down terrorists, rather than the FBI. And finally he couldn't even occupy the White House, which was now viewed as too dangerous. John's world had changed tremendously in just a few hours.
The rain outside had switched from a drizzle to a downright downpour. The day was quite gloomy, both figuratively and literally.
Now John returned his attention to the screen, where both he and general Howard had been scanning through the video feeds of the Code Blue soldiers. They were hoping to catch a glimpse of Clayton and his companion.
After scanning through a few times, John noticed a man with a gun.
"Stop general, look at this!" John shouted, despite the general sitting right next to him.
"Yes sir, I see. They have orders to engage cautiously to avoid harm. It appears our friends have no clue we are on their side." General Howard said in response.
The two watched as all 5 Code Blue soldiers jumped out of the car, leaving it in the middle of the road, and started shouting.
"Wait, we are not here to cause you harm." One soldier yelled.
"Who the hell are you?" Clayton asked, without lowering his gun.
"We are American soldiers, we are here to help you, not harm you." Another soldier replied. All Code Blue soldiers lowered their guns in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.
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John could see that Clayton was looking over at the female Chinese woman. It seemed as though they were trying to make a nonverbal decision together. John could also see that Clayton's father and daughter were there, along with two other people he didn't recognize.
"General please direct the other Code Blue soldiers to get to that location immediately. I want those people protected. The terrorists could be lurking around." John ordered.
The general gave the orders, rerouting the remaining soldiers to that location.
John could see now that Clayton and the Chinese woman were talking quietly to one another. Clayton had lowered the gun. It seemed as though Clayton and the Chinese woman no longer viewed the Code Blue soldiers as a threat. The 5 Code Blue soldiers now began walking toward the group. Likewise Clayton and the Chinese woman walked toward the soldiers.
"My name is Qi Lian." John heard the woman say, as she reached out her hand to one of the soldiers.
"My name is..." The Code Blue soldier began, but was interrupted by a shout.
"Y'all need to look out!" John could hear someone shout out.
John watched as the Code Blue soldiers moved into a circular formation, trying to discern where the attack could be coming from. After frantically switching between the cameras John could see that the attack was commencing from two sides. It appeared as though there were approximately 20 or so terrorists on the attack.
"Jesus, how long do you think until we get more men in there? They are going to need it now!" John asked frantically.
"They aren't far out, the first group of 5 should arrive any minute now." General Howard responded.
The terrorists converged on the soldiers and the fight began. John could see Clayton's father and daughter had managed to slip away, but the other two people seemed to be standing in the middle of the fight stunned.
Meanwhile Clayton had raised his gun and was firing haphazardly into the crowd of terrorists. It was unclear if he had been able to hit anything. Qi Lian stood next to Clayton, in a defensive position.
At this point the video became difficult to follow. With both the soldiers and the terrorists fighting with such fast motions, the whole situation was confusing.
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What was clear was that the Code Blue soldiers were outnumbered. One of the Code Blue soldiers fell to the ground, and stopped moving. John presumed he was dead. The soldier had fallen so that his camera was facing toward Clayton and Qi Lian. John focused in on this camera. He noticed that 4 terrorists had surrounded Qi Lian and Clayton.
This enabled John to watch Qi Lian fight. What he witnessed was nothing short of incredible. Despite the fact that all of these people were extraordinarily strong and fast, she stood out among them. With a series of kicks and punches, she managed to knock three to the ground and began fighting with the fourth member. Clayton managed to shoot one of the terrorists on the ground in the leg, causing her to roll away quickly. Then Clayton needed to reload and the other two got back up.
Qi Lian had gotten leverage over the other soldier and had pulled out a knife. But as she went to stab him she was knocked over by the other two soldiers. Qi Lian kicked those two off of her, but as she stood up she grabbed her side. It appeared to John that she might be injured. Through another series of kicks and punches though, she made her superiority known.
Then with one quick action she pulled one of the terrorists into her arms and put the knife to his neck. At the same time a terrorist had grabbed ahold of Clayton, similarly threatening to take his life.
"Stop now or I will kill your leader!" Qi Lian shouted.
All of the fighting stopped. John took advantage of this moment to check on his Code Blue soldiers. They had fought valiantly, but it appeared that only one of the 5 remained.
"ETA general!" John yelled, again ignoring the fact that the general sat right next to him.
"They are there sir. It appears the terrorists have blocked the road with SUV's. The have gotten out to run the rest of the way." General Howard said.
"Let go of Han now or your precious Clayton dies." One of the terrorists said.
"No, you let go of Clayton first." Qi Lian replied.
"They are approaching now!" A terrorist yelled from the distance.
"NOW!" The terrorist in Qi Lian's arms yelled.
A moment later John heard a tremendous boom.
"What the hell was that?" John said aloud.
General Howard shook his head indicating that he didn't know. Now again they switched through the cameras that were available to them. Eventually John was able to see the black smoke billowing up in the air, a sight that was becoming quite familiar today.
He could also see that the first wave of reinforcements that they had sent were a mess of charred body parts, from the next wave of Code Blue soldiers.
"Damn, we lost more men!" John screamed angrily.
In the confusion of the situation John could see that Qi Lian had let go of the group leader, Han was the only name he had picked up. But Qi Lian had managed to free Clayton, while killing the terrorist who had held on to him. Just as it appeared the terrorists were about to attack Qi Lian again, a terrible noise rang out. It sounded like metal snapping. Then bricks started falling to the ground. It became apparent that the whole building was coming down thanks to the blast.
All of the people standing near the building ran. John was watching the video from his only remaining soldier on the scene. The Code Blue soldier turned in time to see the vehicle that he had been riding in being crushed by a mixture of brick and metal.
"This is not over Qi Lian!" John heard someone say, John assumed this came from Han.
The soldier ran in the same direction as Qi Lian and her companions. John could see Han hopping in a vehicle and the vehicle speeding away, as Qi Lian made one last ditch attempt to stop Han from escaping. Then Qi Lian got in the car and started to drive. She stopped to pick up the remainder of her group, and she also allowed the Code Blue soldier to jump in.
Then the van took off, with tires squealing in the direction of Han's vehicle.
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8 147Elysia in Another World
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