He and the others stood on the eastern side of the pit, up against its solid concrete wall, not sure what to do.
Abruptly, a shotgun round blasted into the wall above Schofield's head.
Seth Grimshaw called: 'The two teams will engage each other immediately! If you do not begin eliminating one another soon, we will start eliminating you from up here!'
'Christ…' Juliet Janson gasped.
Schofield turned to face his group. 'Okay, we don't have much time, so listen up. Not only do we have to survive this, but we have to find a way out of here afterwards.'
'The mini-elevator,' Gant nodded to their right, to the northeastern corner of the pit where the detachable mini platform now lay flush against the pit's floor, albeit covered by five armed prisoners.
'We're going to need a diversion,' Schofield said, 'something to…'
The flying piece of metal nearly took his head clean off.
Schofield saw it at the very last second and on a reflex, he ducked, just as the jagged piece of steel slammed like an axe into the concrete wall behind him.
He spun, searching for the source of the projectile — and he saw it in the shapes of the two commandos from Bravo Unit, bursting out of the darkness, hurdling the pieces of broken plane, each man holding a length of jagged metal like a sword, and charging at Schofield's group at speed!
'Scatter!' Schofield yelled as the first commando came storming toward him, swinging down hard with his 'sword.'
Schofield blocked the blow by grabbing the man's downward-moving wrist, while Gant engaged the other commando.
'Go!' Schofield yelled to Juliet, Mother and the President. 'Get out of here!'
Juliet and the President dashed off into the darkness.
But Mother hesitated.
Schofield saw her. 'Go! Stay with the President!'
The prisoners cheered with delight as over by the eastern wall of the pit, Schofield fought with the first 7th Squadron commando, while behind him, Gant grappled with the second Bravo Unit man.
The President and Juliet — with Mother a short distance behind them — dashed north through the darkened maze, heading for the mini-elevator at the northeastern corner.
From above them, however, the chanting prisoners saw what Juliet and the President and Mother could not: three figures closing in on them from their left, moving quickly along the northern wall of the pit — Jerome Harper, Carl Webster, and coordinating the assault, Captain Boa McConnell.
Schofield and Gant stood back to back, fighting their own separate battles.
Gant had taken up a length of piping from the floor, and was now wielding it like a quarterstaff against the blows of her Bravo Unit commando.
The Bravo man swung his piece of steel viciously, two fisted, but Gant parried well, holding her length of pipe sideways, blocking the blow.
'How you doing back there?' Schofield asked, between blows with his own enemy.
'Just… frigging… dandy,' Gant said, gritting her teeth.
'We have to get to the President.'
'I know,' Gant said, 'but first… I have to… save your ass.'
She glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled, and in a fleeting instant, she saw his opponent move in for another blow and she shouted, 'Scarecrow! Duck!'
Schofield dropped like a stone.
His opponent's sword swooshed over his head, and the man overbalanced, and stumbled right toward Gant.
Gant was waiting.
Turning her attention from her own assailant for the briefest of moments, she swung her length of pipe hard, baseball-style.
Shwack!
The sound of her pipe hitting the Bravo Unit man's head was absolutely sickening. The commando collapsed in a heap just as Gant spun again — pirouetting like a ballet dancer — returning just in time to block the next blow from her own attacker.
'Scarecrow! Go!' she yelled.
'Get to the President!' And with a final look at her, Schofield dashed off into the darkened wreckage.
About twenty yards to the north of Schofield and Gant, Juliet Janson and the President were running hard, weaving their way through the debris-cluttered maze, heading for the northeastern corner, but unaware of the three men closing in on them from the left.
They went for Juliet first.
Two figures came bursting out of the darkness, from behind the destroyed rear end of the AWACS plane — Boa McConnell and Warrant Officer Carl Webster. They crash-tackled Juliet hard, hurling her to the floor.
The President spun to see her hit the floor, held down by Boa and Webster. Then he turned again, and saw Colonel Jerome Harper, standing amid the AWACS wreckage, watching from a distance.
The President was hurrying to help Juliet when- whoosh — a large blurring shape came exploding out of the nearby wreckage, missing him by inches.
Mother.
Flying through the air, out of the darkness, linebacker style.
Crunchhhh!
She shoulder-charged Boa McConnell so hard that she almost snapped his neck. The 7th Squadron commander was thrown off Juliet's body, visibly dazed.
Carl Webster was momentarily startled by the sudden loss of his fellow attacker, and he turned to see what had happened — just in time to receive a powerful punch from Mother.
Even though he was a bulky man, Webster was thrown right off Juliet by the blow and went crashing into a collection of plane pieces. Without a pause, he snatched up a wicked-looking four-foot strip of metal and brandished it at Mother.
Mother growled.
Webster charged.
The fight was as brutal as they come. They couldn't have been more evenly matched — both were experienced in hand-to-hand combat, both were over six feet tall, and they both weighed in at over two hundred pounds.
Webster roared as he swung his makeshift metal sword.
Mother ducked, then quickly grabbed a busted piece of the AWACS's wing flap to use as a shield. Webster's blows clanged down against her shield as he forced her back toward the battered wing of the plane.
As she danced backwards, staving off Webster's slashes, Mother bent down and scooped up a jagged sword of her own.
She tried to strike back, but Webster had all the momentum. He swung again, cutting deep into her shoulder, tearing open the sleeve of her dress coat, drawing blood.
'Arrgh!' Mother shouted, dropping her shield, fending off the next three blows with only her sword.
Damn it, all she needed was one opening, one chance…
'Why did you betray the President!' she yelled as she stumbled backwards, trying to distract him.
'There comes a time when a man has to make a decision, Mother!' the Army warrant officer barked back, yelling between blows. 'When he has to choose a side! I have fought for this country! I have had friends who died for it, only to be fucked over later by politicians like him! So when the opportunity arose, I decided that I was no longer going to stand by and watch yet another two-bit, whore-banging, draft-dodging fuck drive this country into the ground!'
Webster swung — a lusty, sideways swipe.
Mother jumped backwards, avoiding the blow, leaping up onto the wing of the plane, so that she was now three feet off the ground.
But the wing wobbled slightly under her weight, and she lost her balance for a split second and Webster
