The White Feather- A story of infinite worlds

Sniper’s Fury

“If we aren’t dead by now, they are obviously waiting….for something. So let’s act normal. Dillon, kick that soldier’s balls.” Thomas said and relaxed a little bit.

Dillon looked at Thomas for a moment and then smiled. With a swift kick, he landed the most brutal kick on the soldier lying behind him, crushing whatever was left of his ‘package’.

“Now let’s sit down and talk.” Dillon said.

“Zeus, scan the radius of one kilometer and tell me the number of human heat signatures, excluding us.” Thomas said and sat down on the ground, in front of Dillon.

“That’s gonna take a minute. What do we do for a minute?” Dillon asked.

“Arm wrestling?” Thomas asked and smiled.

“Just what I was thinking. Sir, with all due respect, I will crush you!” Dillon said.

“You’re all talk and no walk. Well guess what, your tongue’s not helping you win this one.” Thomas said and put his arm in wrestling position.

Ironically enough, Dillon put down Thomas in less than five seconds.

“All talk and no walk, huh?” Dillon said and chuckled.

They didn’t seem like two men whose lives were about to end any second. They didn’t care if they died; each of them had lived for over a century and had reached the point where you are just fed up of, well, everything. They had experienced everything in the world- Adventure, love, pain, tragedy and joy. Everything….except stability. They just wanted a stable life and a peaceful death. But none of these was possible while they worked for The White Feather. And their senses of duty forbid them from deserting their job.

“Thirty males, twenty females. Ten of them carry a sniper rifle and wear camouflage. Others carry shotguns and assault rifles. Commonly in the groups of three, sometimes five. Density is high within two hundred foot range.” Zeus suddenly dictated the search results.

“Share the results with my teammates.” Thomas said, coming back into leader mode.

“What do we do now? We’re surrounded and there are snipers taking an aim at our heads. This was a f*****g ambush.” Dillon said.

“Boss! If this right then it’s is gonna be a tough escape. What do you want us to do?” Raptor radioed.

“Raptor, is your sniping as good as when I left you?” Thomas asked, checking his gun’s magazine.

“Technically, you left our world an hour ago. And I don’t think much changes in an hour.” Raptor said.

“Okay. So use your assistant and tag all hostiles. The roof is dark, so it’s possible that they haven’t spotted you. We still have a little element of surprise.” Thomas said.

“Affirmative; Tagging hostiles now.” Raptor and Warner said in unison.

“Now Dillon, they are aiming at our heads. So the best idea I can think of is to pop two simultaneous flashes followed by my time freeze. Remember to dodge as soon as the flash explodes because they will fire in bewilderment. Got it?” Thomas ordered.

“We have one shot at this Thomas. Don’t f**k it up.” Dillon said, frowning.

Thomas smiled and took out a flashbang from his utility. Dillon did the same.

“Blessed are the wicked who are freed by my hand.” Raptor said on radio. He used to say this before switching to his animal mode.

Thomas took a deep breath, looked at Dillon and nodded. The pins from the flashbangs fell down together. They dropped the grenades in opposite directions to cover all angles and closed their eyes. Thomas took a hold of his watch and listened closely for a pop. As soon as the flash went off, he dodged and pressed the button, commencing time freeze.

“Fifteen second time freeze has been allotted to you, agent White.” Zeus said.

Thomas broke into action and pounced on Dillon. He lifted Dillon and swung him on his shoulder like a sack of meat. He looked back and spotted a bullet five inches from where he was standing. It was a really close call. If he had been late by a split second, the bullet would have landed in his spine.

With five seconds remaining on the clock, Thomas sprang inside the building, tripping on the glass lying on the floor. He fell down but quickly regained his senses. At the last second, he threw a smoke grenade towards the gate to block sight.

There was a second of silence after the time freeze ended. Thomas looked at Dillon who was looking around in amazement and trying to grasp his surroundings. He opened his mouth to say something but sniper bullets tore up the floor right in front of them.

“f**k! We have to get inside. Run!” Thomas said, grabbing Dillon’s elbow.

Meanwhile, Raptor’s assistant had tagged the players in the mountains. Warner had already taken out two snipers after seeing their muzzle flashes.

“They’re spreading and advancing from all sides. Warner, looks like we have to light a fire.” Raptor said, shooting in all directions and changing angles to avoid being hit.

“Roger that, spawning incendiary grenade now.” Warner said.

“Cover me!” Warner said after ten seconds.

He got up and threw the burning bottle towards the front gate.

The incendiary found its place just outside the gate, lighting up the ground instantly. Two hostiles caught the flames and ran around to seek help. After a few seconds of running around, they fell down as their flesh turned into char. The yelling was deafening.

“Make sure that the backup dosen't leave their building.” Raptor said, shooting one of the fire victims in the head to end his pain.

Warner quickly spawned a missile launcher. He positioned himself in a dark corner and lifted his head carefully. Just as he took an aim at the adjacent building, a bullet whizzed past his head. But he paid no heed to it. As he locked the scope on to the main gate of the building, a shot penetrated his right hand. It went right through his elbow and landed in the upper bone.

Warner accidently pulled the trigger instinctively, and the rocket misfired into the prison wall, making a big hole not far from the main gate. The recoil was massive and Warner flew backwards for a split second, before crashing head first on the ground.

“You all right there?” Raptor said, replacing his empty clip with a fresh one.

“Yeah, I’m all right.” Warner said and tried to get up. But a crashing pain  in his back knocked him down again.

“f**k! I think I broke my spine.” Warner said.

“Here! Take the nanites and inject them right below the affected area.” Raptor said, taking out a dose of medical nanites.

Nanites are a form of bio-robots. They possess the structure of white blood cells, which enables them to move across the body with ease. They were engineered by The White Feather primarily to carry out assassinations. The agents would put them in drinks or food, and as soon as the host took them in, they would force the cells of vital organs to grow tumors rapidly. This would cause death by cancer in less than five days. But soon the idea of medicinal use was conceived. You see, if nanites can grow tumors, they can also repair damaged body parts.

Warner injected the dose just above the hips. He cried in pain as his bones and flesh started rapidly growing inside him. In less than two minutes, he was able to stand up and vomited the dose of nanites through his nose, only to inject them again in his elbow.

“I’m gonna f**k these chumps up real good. Raptor, give me a flash!” Warner yelled as his body trembled from anger and excitement.

The flash went off just when Warner had finished reloading his missile launcher. He noticed a group of enemies make their way in from the broken wall. They were blinded by the flash and fired random shots in bedazzlement.

“Say hello to my little friend!” Warner said and smiled notoriously.

Most of the goons were blasted into bits by the powerful impact of the rocket and the others bled from their ears. Now Warner shifted his attention towards the backup building and saw the gate open in front of him. He took a hold of his rifle.

On the other end, raptor was having a hard time concentrating on his targets as he had to continuously change his position in order to avoid being hit in the head. Apparently, the nanites couldn’t repair a blown up brain.

“I’ve had enough of this s**t. Naira, spawn a G-15 laser sniper rifle with five extra charges.” He said at last, throwing away his old rifle.

“Bro, are you authorized to use that in 2023?” Warner asked.

“Is any one of them getting out alive?” raptor said.

“I don’t think so. But you know…” Warner said hesitantly.

“That was a rhetorical question, you stupid f**k. You are not supposed to answer that.” Raptor said.

“Whatever, mate.” Warner said and turned his attention to the front gate of the backup building, where he had already dropped three men and others were scared shitless to get out.

Raptor loaded a charge in his monstrous laser gun and locked on the tree line with high hostile density. He gripped the barrel tightly, and held his breath. In a moment of clarity, he pulled the trigger. The gun vibrated and the muzzle started glowing. As soon as Raptor let go of the trigger, a burst of red light rushed out of the muzzle. The laser cut right through the trees and hostile bodies as Raptor slowly shifted the spray rightwards. The beam cut the hostiles in pieces, separating heads from bodies and legs from torso. It was a m******e and brutality in its purest form.

By the end of five charges, all that was left was smoke and pieces of flesh. Raptor collapsed on his knees, sweating from carrying the weight of the pain he had just inflicted on others.

“All clear.” He radioed with a trembling voice.