“Where are we going, Major?” shouted Parker.
“Just follow me!”
The Company reached the first buildings of Ramstein, and enemy fire continued to pound the complex. They knew the tank traps and trenches would slow their advance for a while, but they had little time to escape. They’d been jogging for five minutes when Silva finally rushed up beside the Major. Until then, nobody cared where they were going, providing it was away from the enemy.
“What’s the plan, Major?” he asked.
“The plan is you follow my lead!”
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the military prison that only Chandra had ever seen. The others quickly realised their purpose for being there. Strong metal doors protected the entrance. She stopped them at the door and looked back to Blinker.
“Give me that ARMAL, Private!”
“With pleasure!” he replied with a mischievous grin.
“Major, you sure about this?” asked Suarez.
“More sure than anything in my life!”
She lifted the weapon up onto her shoulder and fired without hesitation. The doors of the building were blown off their hinges, and dust sprayed out over the already filthy troops. She threw down the device and lifted her rifle from her side. Chandra rushed forward into the dust cloud and with a dozen others at her back.
Silva was the first in behind Chandra, with Jones following quickly behind. They stepped through just in time to see the Major’s rifle stock strike one of the MPs and knock him to the ground. She flipped the weapon around and shouldered it with the sights trained on another sat at a desk.
“Major Taylor, release him now!”
“You know I can’t do that.”
She quickly fired two rounds over the man’s head, one of which clipped his cap and tore it off his head. The MP froze in utter shock.
“You heard the lady!” shouted Silva.
“Uhh… yeah… okay, but you’ll never get away with this.”
“Get real, son, have you seen the shit that’s coming our way?” asked Silva.
“Fuck this,” muttered Jones.
He turned and rushed through the prison. Seconds later two shots rang out.
“Go after him!” shouted Silva.
She rushed off down the corridor after the Captain.
“Don’t you know what’s going on out there? All hell’s coming down on us. You need to release any prisoners you have, and get the hell out of here!”
“Release them? We have strict orders!”
“To hell with your orders, do you know what the enemy do to any survivors?”
The man shook his head in surprise.
“Well I do, so unlock the fucking cages now!”
The man stuttered and reached for the keys as Silva gave him some encouragement with the barrel of his rifle. Jones appeared at the edge of Taylor’s cell where the Major was laid flat out on his bed. He got up with a look of utter shock and amazement.
“Jones, you’re back?”
“Damn straight.”
“You busting me out?” he asked.
“Bet your arse, you didn’t think we’d let Schulz keep you locked up forever, did you?”
Chandra rushed into view, as Jones shot the lock off the door of the cell and heaved it back. She was greeted by a broad and cheeky smile across Taylor’s face.
“You’re in this, as well? You know what Schulz will do to you for this?”
“None of it matters, anymore. Ramstein is overrun, and we have to get the hell out of here!” she shouted.
“Run, where?” he asked in surprise.
“I’ll tell you on the way. Let’s go!”
They rushed past as the guard passed them in the corridor, fumbling with his keys.
“You know I’ve done some serious shit in my time, but this? We ever get caught, and we’re goners?”
“If we’d left you any longer, you’d be dead anyway,” replied Jones.
They rushed out of the building to find armoured trucks rolling up. Taylor half expected it to be Schulz coming to arrest them all, but they were greeted by Sergeant Dubois.
“How on earth did you find us?” asked Chandra.
“You don’t think I knew this would be the first place you’d be when all hell broke loose?” she asked.
“You got space?”
“Climb in!”
The Company rushed to fill the vehicles and climb on top. Explosions erupted all around the base. Their anti- aircraft defences continued to pour fire into the oncoming craft, but they were only able to destroy a handful of their attackers. Pulses smashed down into the ground as the five vehicles rumbled forwards and out towards the western entrance. They watched in despair as the base was hit by barrages; so heavy that many of the buildings were flattened.
“I thought you’d never come. All that time in that cell, all I could think about was all of you, fighting where I should be,” murmured Taylor.
“Schulz has been a thorn in our side all the way. Maybe now we can get free of his idiotic grasp,” replied Chandra.
He turned to Jones with a smile.
“And you, you made it? Back in uniform, and at the front of it all again.”
Chandra smiled, but thought back to the suicidal scene she had seen at the trenches. She couldn’t bring herself to discuss it so soon after finally getting Taylor back, but she knew it was a new obstacle to overcome. Despite the fact that they were yet again on the run, she couldn’t help but be thankful to have Taylor back among them.
“We lose anyone?” she asked Silva.
“I saw one of Suarez’s platoon killed and a few from mine wounded, but we got off pretty lightly,” he replied.
“What will we do now that Ramstein has fallen?” he asked.
The others listened in intently.
“General Schulz may be a bastard, but he isn’t an idiot. All forces that have arrived in the last couple of months have been establishing a tiered defence over the next twenty kilometres east. We always knew a push like this was possible, and that we couldn’t rely on a single barrier to stop them.”
“Christ, he really has done his homework,” replied Taylor.
“As I said, a bastard, not an idiot. I have no doubt the Generals will have been the first out before the base fell, and they will be eager to know how you escaped.”
“What will you tell them?”
“The truth. You’ve seen what the enemy does to human prisoners. It was my duty of care to ensure your safety. Quite frankly, I believe the General will have enough on his plate to worry about you right now. He needs every soldier he can get, so he’ll just have to put up with you.”
“You really thought this through, hey, Major?” he jested.
“No, I’m making it up as I go along, and it’s just working out for the best.”
Taylor smiled, and he knew she wasn’t joking, although it still didn’t sit well with him that the circumstances of his rescue were attributable to the deaths of probably thousands of soldiers. He got up and stepped up towards the driver’s seat where Dubois was at the controls.
“You saved our asses again, Sergeant, you our guardian angel or something?”
She smiled as she looked back, gazing at Captain Jones. Taylor smiled, noting her affection for the Captain. He looked back and could see the blank expression on Jones’ face he remembered from when rescuing him. He
