Apocalypse: The Savior with System

37 Defend the Arsenal

Paul and Rahu reacted a beat after Quinn did when she jumped from two tables away to push Eric and Judith to the floor. Paul, who had been watching Eric and Judith with curiosity, did not immediately see the pinpoint-sized figures hovering in the dusk sky until Quinn’s foot hit the top of one table to give her the boost she needed to quickly get Eric and Judith out of the way of a rocket.

Paul and Rahu fell sideways and separated, the sound of the explosion mixing in with Andie and Eli screaming. There were too much smoke and dust to see clearly and Paul judged his next instruction based on what he could hear.

“Get Andie out of here!”

Rahu opened fire towards the gaping hole in the wall where floor-to-ceiling glass panes used to be. Paul took some pot-shots, hindered by the haze. He sensed Rahu close by.

“Judith!” Paul called out.

“I’m okay!” she yelled from somewhere close to the kitchen. “Eli’s with me! Eric took Andie!”

To Rahu, Paul said grimly, “We didn’t think they’d use an airstrike.”

Rahu grunted. “We did, that’s why we set up the wall defense system.” He repositioned the giant carbine on his shoulder. “But Eric still needs to get at least a few seconds, undisturbed, to start those guns.”

The sound of whirring blades drowned out the end of Rahu’s words. Hot wind and more debris flew at them with the rotor wash from a helicopter that managed to float level with the hole in the wall. Immediately, black-clad, armored, and armed people began jumping into the mess hall.

Without prompting, Rahu stood and began shooting at them, felling a few but another helicopter arrived and deposited its contents. Paul watched in dismay as some of those ran towards where he knew Eric could have taken Andie to escape. Leaving Rahu to take care of his area of the mess hall, Paul ran after the others, taking down those who were at the back of the bunch. By the time those in front realized this, it was too late.

Eli managed to take two down. Judith wounded three in the leg.

“No doubt some of them have entered from below,” he told Judith.

“Did we time this wrongly?” asked Judith worriedly.

Paul shook his head. “This is government property. Whoever it is supervising the attack knows how to get in quickly. Don’t worry, Eric will find away.”

“Paul!” they heard Rahu shout. He looked up and saw a helicopter coming straight at them. But it suddenly rose in a straight vertical, allowing them to see someone dangling from a rope ladder tied to its landing skids. He—or-she—had a long-range gun aimed at him.

“s**t!” Rahu cried, his heavy running steps echoing in the mess hall as he pushed away tables and chairs to get to Paul. Paul raised his gun but felt Judith push him away just as Rahu dived and fell in front of him. There were two shots—the second one hit the buffet counter near his head but the first he did not know where.

“s**t,” Rahu groaned.  

Before Paul could ask if Rahu was okay, continuous explosions rocked the entire building. The helicopter with Paul’s shooter swerved dangerously sideways, almost dislodging its dangling passenger. Two helicopters in the distance fell amid the screaming of humans and stuttering rotor blades.

Eric has finally activated the wall defense! The remaining helicopters began leaving, dangling ropes by which they picked up their men from the arsenal. Some of them, though, weren’t quite so lucky to survive as one by one they began to fall dead to the ground, picked off by an invisible shooter.

Thanks, man, he thought with relief, thinking of Eric’s timely rescue.

Relief that was short-lived, however, when he heard Judith whimper beside him. He looked down to see blood pooling to the floor beneath her.

“s**t!” Paul exclaimed, immediately tearing off Judith’s pants leg to expose a bullet wound that was gushing blood. Judith was pale and cold to the touch, struggling not to shiver. Her face was pinched in pain.

“Oh, God, I’m sorry!” Paul said, his voice shaking. He tore off the hem of his shirt and fashioned a tourniquet above the wound to staunch the bleeding. Judith gasped when he tightened the knot.

“I’m sorry!” he cried, holding Judith gingerly.

So the other bullet hit her when she pushed him away, he thought fearfully. He looked at Rahu’s grim countenance. If Rahu had not dived in time and alarmed them all, assassin included, that bullet could have landed in Judith in another more vital place. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was being told that his fear was bordering on irrational.

But there it is.

“I’m not going to die,” Judith said bravely though her voice was almost a whisper. “You have to bring me to the sick bay beside the labs.”

“Done!” Paul said, lifting her in his arms before she could say another word. He nodded to Rahu and left the mess hall with Judith, running.

“D-Don’t run,” she pleaded. “It…It h-hurts more…”

“Okay, okay! I’ll slow down,” he said, making good on his promise by slowing down to a very brisk walk. Possibly delirious from blood loss, Judith laughed.

“So this is what it feels like to be shot,” she murmured.

Paul’s jaw clenched. “And if I had my way, you’d never have known that.”

“Apparently, you don’t always have your way.”

How Judith in her wounded state could still find the energy to tease him—the teasing from this usually stoic woman already a marvel in itself—amazed Paul.

“Eric’s a medic,” Paul told her. “He’ll know what to do.”

Judith stopped speaking and when he looked down, she had lost consciousness.

Of course, what with all the blood that she lost on the floor and was now still dripping down the arm supporting her leg.

Using the throat mic attached to him, Paul communicated to Eric.

“Eric, I need you at the sick bay now! Judith’s been shot!”

Eric arrived in the sick bay just as Paul was laying Judith down on a bed. He took one look at the blood that drenched even up to Judith’s shirt and all over Paul’s arms and said, “Two units, three at the most. I hope they’re well-stocked. Start taking those pants off of her.” Eric opened his tablet to read something, went to a large refrigerator, and took out two bags of blood which he placed in a warming machine.

Not even bothering with propriety, Paul found a pair of scissors and began cutting away at the fabric, taking care not to jostle Judith all too much. To preserve her dignity, Paul covered her body with a sheet and removed all her underwear and clothing.

“If you’re infected, I can’t let you insert the lines,” Eric told him, taking over and inserting an intravenous line into Judith’s arm, plugging one end into a bottle of clear intravenous fluid, adjusting the influx rate.

“This will keep her okay until the blood’s ready,” said Eric, finding several vials of anesthetics, one of which he administered to Judith. “And that will help with the pain temporarily. You better clean up, too, man. And you can put down those scissors now.”

Paul suddenly realized he still had the scissors in a death grip. He threw them into the sink. “I’ll radio Andie to come here and help you with anything,” he said, leaving Judith in Eric’s capable hands.

A few hours later, Paul went back to the sick bay after cleaning himself up. He saw the transfusion was still on-going, with Andie seated beside Judith’s bed. She looked up as he entered. Eric was bent over a table, preparing different syringes, and glanced up at Paul before turning back to his activity.

“How is she?” Paul asked Andie.

“She hasn’t woken up yet,” she replied sadly. “But maybe that’s a good thing. Eric said she’d be in a lot of pain while awake. Best to keep her sleeping for a while to recover.”

Eric straightened up. “I’ve prepared all the necessary medications she will need for the next twenty-four hours. Is it okay if you stay here with her?”

Andie nodded. “I’ll be fine, Eric. I used to do this for one of the girls in the circus, too.”

Eric then looked at Paul, a silent communication that meant We need to talk.

“Just radio anyone of us if you need help,” Paul said to Andie, reaching down to pat Judith’s hand.

“I will.”

Neither of the two men spoke until they were inside the server lab where Rahu was cleaning his guns. Quinn was nowhere in sight.

Eric spoke first. “I saw the CCTV. Those shots weren’t random. They were meant for you.”

The memory of him getting shot at while getting out of a repaired military tank rose to the front of his mind. Paul shook his head in confusion. Rahu momentarily stopped what he was doing and returned to it after a breath.

“Strange, when Rahu was standing in the open there,” Eric continued, frowning slightly. “I know we’re all fugitives at the moment but the actions of that assassin seemed much too…focused.”

Paul had no answers either. Trust Eric to analyze combat operations with a doggedness that spoke of keen intelligence.

“And Rahu knew you were going to be targeted. He saw what was going to happen or he wouldn’t have distracted your assassin enough to jump in time.” Eric paused, wincing.

Enough to save you alone were the unsaid words.

The two men turned to look at Rahu who became even more determined to remove an invisible piece of dirt from an already gleaming gun.

“You know who it was,” Eric said almost accusingly. Paul was silent.

Rahu looked up from one man to the other…and grunted.