Malevolence: CATU Book 4 Ch. 17

"Yeah."

Matthews drapes Nash's arm over her shoulder assisting him. Thanks to the sniper rifle's silencer it doesn't alert anyone so the two make it to the door without incident. Matthews pushes the button for the door release and both soldiers stands with their weapons ready. The doors part without any soldiers rushing in. Matthews and Nash look at each other and both shrug then head through the doors.

They walk blindly through the blizzard that has seemed to stir up while they were inside the complex. Their only guide is the steady tracking signal from Bridges armor. After an hour of trekking through the snow and blizzard a large cave looms over them. Switching over to night vision the two enter. The wind is instantly cut off and with only the howling of it slowly fading as they go deeper; the only sound comes from the crunching of the boots.

As they proceed deeper, the sound of wind completely fades and darkness encloses them. Ahead they see a small fire and a form lying behind the flames. From the distance it is too grainy to get a clear picture but they assume it is a body.

"Hold it right there," a voice says from behind them. They freeze, hands on their triggers and ready to make their move. "Commander? Matthews?" The two relax and slowly turn to see Bridges standing with his weapon lowered. "How did you find us?"

"The tracking locater from your armor," Matthews says.

"We've got that?" he asks, hinting at surprise.

"Well yeah," Matthews shrugs. "If you would have read the manual, you'd have known."

"I knew there was a reason they gave me one," he says with a faint smile. "Are either of you hurt?" he asks now switching into corpsman mode.

"Nash was knocked unconscious for a few minutes. I took a pretty good knock myself but I think it's only bruising."

——

After inspecting Nash and Matthews, he determines Nash has a mild concussion and Matthews' ribs are indeed just bruised. He explains the events outside the east gate and how Mason is fine suffering only minor scratches and bruising. He woke some time ago but had fallen back to sleep. "After falling through the crevice, we found ourselves not too far from here. I was out for I guess was only a few seconds. I could hear the soldiers above discussing whether we had fallen and was dead or not. I pulled Mason out of the crevice into the cave. After a half hour when the soldiers didn't come down I built a fire and checked Mason. I guess the blizzard had a lot to do with the soldiers not pressing for a search."

"It's good to know everyone is alive and not seriously injured," Nash stated.

"Looks like our mission failed," Bridges says.

"Well we can't win them all," Matthews commented on it. Turning to Nash she asks. "What's our evac?"

"We only had one option," Nash explains. "We were to take the base."

"What?" Matthews asks unbelieving what she just heard.

"You heard me."

"Then what the hell are supposed to do?" Bridges asks.

"We wait," Nash simply says. "Avyanna has to be taken out. Another team will be sent to do what we couldn't; it'll only be a matter of time. So we just have to wait."

"That could be awhile Nash. Once this blizzard lets up you know as well as I do those soldiers will be out looking for us," Matthews reasons.

"Then we need to be preemptive," Nash states. "Since you and I have the only working armor, I want you to find someplace to hide that overlooks us. I'll go to the entrance and keep guard. Bridges will stay here and guard the rear. With any luck we won't be here before we starve."