Darkness Dissolves When the Door Opens

Rescue Party

They exited the tree line and the Jeep swerved right, almost hitting the group of ducks trying to find their way to the small lake. The dirt road was so unstable and dust blinded their already reddened eyes to another level. 

“So,” Mike started. “Mind telling me the whole story?”

“Axell came to me and said the third team was ambushed by Corporal Yamako’s company and kidnapped all of the children and women escaping there. He said they are bringing them back to the Cathedral.”

“How did he know that?” John asked, wondering. “I mean, did the Japanese soldier just amusingly take one the coms and mumbled their exact location accidentally?”

Now that John mentioned it, Jules realized everything was lies. Those words slapped him and gutted his belly. “Shit.”

“Is Axell giving us out to Yamako?” Asher asked. “That motherfucker−”

“We don’t know that, alright. I’ve been with this man for a long time. There is no way he would work for the Japanese.”

“Mike’s right. As asshole that man is, he’s still the leader of the resistance.”

So many questions bubbled in their heads. So many strange things happening in the last five minutes, yet Mike still pressed his foot to the gas pedal and didn’t slow down. They didn’t even think about it anymore when the Cathedral’s tower bell formed before their eyes.

“I can’t believe we’re coming here again.”

Mike parked the Jeep fifty meters before the gate and hid it behind some bushes. The three Japanese trucks were painted with strange symbols and neither any of them recognized any of those.

The symbols were a black Capricorn with white splatters of paint helping on the back and a weird golden sword in the middle of it all. The other symbol was like a Nazi’s Swastika with blue fire behind it.

“What is this?”

“I reckon we’re ‘bout to find out.”

Jules strapped his rifle back and used his pistol instead. He crept, leading the others around and sneaked to the main gate after checking that no one was watching. The Japanese flag at the main lawn was stripped down and burned, but not by the resistance as they had no time to do that when they attacked.

The main door was wide open, meaning that whoever inside must’ve expected them. 

“Are you sure there’s no other way of coming inside?” Mike’s voice was so shaken, he seemed almost winded.

“Weirdly no. The Japanese blocked the back entrance with literal concretes. This is our only way in.”

“But they’re there, waiting for us.”

As if listening to Blake’s argument, a voice came out and scared the hell out of them. The voice, as familiar as it was, sounded so horrible and vicious.

“Just simply step in and we can talk. We’re not going to directly shoot you, we’re just talking.”

Asher slapped his face. “Some rescue mission.”

“If you linger there three seconds too long, I will do the same thing to this beautiful Chinese-Japanese lady as I did to that resisting fighter chap back there. Remember that? The one where I torment him with a heated screwdriver? I kept his fingers for collection, you know. I froze them. Give me some pretty penny in return.”

Jules stepped out from hiding. He entered the cold, pretentious building with nothing but his throbbing heart and his cold sweats. His rifle was ready to rumble but looking at the situation, he would die if he ever touched the trigger.