No Man's Land

28- Two Arrivals and a Departure

Jana O****
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"Nothing smart to say now, hm?" Yavuz taunted. I stayed silent, staring at her. Carrie's jaw clenched but she matched my gaze.

I was brought back to reality by a click as Yavuz raised his arm.

"It's a shame, Jana. I really did wish to keep you, for Ivana. And so much information- a pity." I looked back to Carrie, who shook her head slightly. I ignored her and dove to the side, angling my knife outwards so that I wouldn't nick myself. But as I let momentum carry me down, Carrie harshly grabbed my arm. The sudden change in direction made me fall roughly on my side and knocked the wind out of me.

I groaned and curled around myself, staring up at the cement ceiling.

"Jana-" Carrie started, but Yavuz cut her off.

"I suppose before you die, you'd like an explanation."

"They'll never forgive you, Carrie," I warned, struggling to catch my breath. It suddenly made sense- she'd wanted Chestine on the beach so that he wouldn't see this or get hurt. They'd always been close.

"I didn't want to." Carrie said flatly. "They know where my family is, I couldn't-"

"So you betrayed your country?" I hissed, but couldn't help but pity her. I wasn't sure what I'd have done in her situation. In the end I could never really hate her.

"I'm so sorry," She whispered. Yavuz cleared his throat and clicked the safety off.

"Any last words, Jaeda?" I pushed aside the nerves and stared him in the eyes.

"Ivana would have loathed you for this." The corners of his mouth turned downwards.

. . .

"Doviđenja, J-"

Before he could finish the sentence, I threw myself forward. A shot went off.

Carrie threw her elbow at Ezel's head with a grunt and whipped out her own gun, leveling it at his head.

"Jana, run." She hissed. "I'll be fine- the others are outside."

I swayed on my feet but started down the hallway. My chest felt hollow and full of heat. I made it 5 steps, 10 steps, 15.

Finally, my legs gave out what could have been only ten feet from the door. My vision swam. My ears rang. My brain felt like mush.

I stared at the concrete wall in front of me and imagined how stupid it'd be if it all ended here.

_____

Parker Magdalen
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With my back pressed against a thick tree, I glanced behind me at the grey compound. Oddly, it hadn't been concealed at all, only defended by how far it was from the beach. We'd had to walk just over an hour to find it, so the sun had now risen above the horizon.

We'd circled the building and had found it to have only that single entrance, which would make our job much easier but also much more dangerous if anything went wrong. In hushed voices Maxine and I had decided positions for everyone, and that she'd stay with the group that watched the entrance while I led the charge inside.

The surrounding bush was too dense to take a headcount, so I could only hope that everyone was in position. Calmly, I let my breathing fall into pattern and gestured with my pistol at Michael. He fired off a single shot and the security camera mounted above the entrance fell to the ground. His silencer had muffled the actual shot, but the camera made a loud enough sound that I knew we now had limited time. As quietly as I could, I slipped next to the door.

I pressed my ear to the door and listened.

Silence, and then a gun shot.

I looked to Michael, who nodded. He carefully shot off the bolt on the door, and as soon as the metal cooled I cracked the door open. I tossed our makeshift flash grenade (made from a lighter)  in and slammed it closed.

I gave it a moment before shoving the door open. With my gun in front of me, I rushed through the door and tried to get a grasp of my surroundings as the smoke cleared.

"Clear!" I shouted behind me. Somewhere deeper in the compound, shouting broke out. But amidst the chaos, I thought I heard a groan.

The smoke cleared. In the middle of the hallway, Jana sat with her back against the wall, breathing heavily. I ran forward and checked around the corners, not putting my gun down. "Michael?" I called.

The others flooded in through the door, with Michael in the lead. As soon as he saw her, he let out a sigh of relief. She gave him a look of faint recognition.

"Kind of you to make an appearance," She groaned, staring at the wall.

"You're alive," He exhaled. She ignored him and angled her chin up, pressing her eyes closed. Michael frowned and kneeled down in front of her. "What happened?" She shook her head slightly.

Michael lightly grabbed her wrist and felt for her pulse. While he did, my eyes drifted to her side; her shirt was saturated with a dark liquid.

"Clear the rest of the compound." I instructed, before kneeling at her other side. Michael muttered a curse and gingerly touched her back, examining the wound.

"Oh, what an absolute mess," She laughed spitefully, causing her to break into a coughing fit. She was probably delirious from the blood loss. "God, this was a disaster."

Michael look her up and down once more. "We need to evacuate the compound, ASAP." From his radio, a voice full of static rattled something off. "They found the passengers." He held out a hand, which Jana took hold up. She stumbled as she pulled herself up, groaning.

"Damnit," She muttered as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped over. Michael caught her and shifted her into a bridal carry. His eyes flickered with urgency.

"We've got twelve mercenaries but no Yavuz," Maxine said, emerging from one of the hallways. Her eyes drifted to Jana's unconscious body. "Is she..?" Michael shook his head.

"Not yet."

Above us, helicopters buzzed. Michael's face tightened.

"I think that's our ride."

. . .

Jana's face was swathed in her hair, concealing the bruises that had begun to blossom all over her skin. A trickle of blood had dried next to her mouth. The blood from her back had spread throughout the entire back of her shirt. It looked as if Michael was carrying a dead body, and she may as well have been one.

From the clearing, Parker struggled to flag down the helicopters. One managed to land on top of the compound's roof. Up in the air, four of them peeled off, presumably headed towards the beach.

Michael squinted at the helicopter and focused as three figures climbed out of it. The first he didn't recognize. The second, he realised, was one of the bureau's chief oversight officers.

The third was so familiar that he couldn't help but brace himself.

The second one was fixated on Jana and him, letting out a heavy sigh. "Great, this is going to be messy. I'll hail the medics."

Meanwhile, the third figure carefully jumped to the ground and approached them, high heels digging into the dirt. Michael awkwardly shifted his grip on Jana, trying avoiding eye contact. However, his pride forced him to meet her ferocious gaze.

"If she's dead, you might as well be too," Hissed Muriel Carter.

What's up y'all? I've had this chapter written for a while but I hated it and was too lazy to edit it until now. So yeah, I might go back and edit this again bc I'm still not a giant fan of it rn but anyway yeah, things are wrapping up. Sorry for keeping y'all hanging but also ✨SUSPENSE✨

Stay tuned...

<3 K