He'd never felt the sun so hot against his skin. He was soaked in his own sweat and the dunes of sand he drove on slapped against his wet skin. He felt rather uncomfortable with the whole thing. But there were these moments where he didn't feel like he was speeding across a desert, racing away from a horde of armed men and vehicles that sought to capture him and his companions. Companions that screamed at the top of their lungs as they continuously chucked grenades at their pursuers and fired their rifles blindly.
He was in one of those blissful moments now. His mind was clear, without fear, and completely at ease and at peace with his predicament. He didn't know how long the calming feeling would last before he went on to screaming his lungs out with his companions, so he was sure to appreciate it while it did.
Whoosh. BOOOM.
And that was a rocket launcher.
"They're firing rockets, ALBAN!! I told you we should have taken one!" Marina spat out.
"They aren't looking like they're taking us alive, man!" Daniel screamed over the rapid-fire of his SMG
Alban only hummed a melodic tuned as he continued to zigzag the car away from their pursuers.
"Alban! Maxime didn't answer and when Alex did we'd already cut out of their damn base, are you sure our own men won't kill us on sight?" Marina yelled out
Again he only hummed a tune.
"Alban answer me!!!"
***
It was just about dawn. An hour away from their scheduled departure from the rather hospitable Malagasy military base.
It'd been a week since they arrived at the base, with periodic updates sent to HQ to let them know that they were indeed still alive and not burned, Alban and his companions had soon grown tired of the routine.
Over the week they had to perform as any recruit would. Obedient, faithful, eager and loyal to the damn Malagasy state. For Schelarians they had a hard time with the performance.
It wasn't all doom and gloom though, he had certainly learned a thing or two from the Malagasy generals training them, the drills they'd performed, his accuracy with a rifle had improved. Unlike his other companions, he'd never been in the military, he'd transferred from the regular old policing work into intelligence after he was scouted by someone from the ministry years ago. He never received such intense physical training so he could appreciate the favours it did his body more than his companions could. For them, this was just another chore.
He flashed his light twice, signalling the ok for Marina, their female companion to scuttle over from her semi-circular dorm. The had hidden at a nice and cosy blind spot behind the armoury, which happened to be adjacent to the women's dorm.
She scrambled her feet running as fast as she could with her body close to the ground. On her back, she carried an empty black bag, just like the ones they had brought along with them from their dorm.
"Great, you brought the bag," Alban said as she got to them.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Well, something always goes wrong with these missions." He shrugged.
"And you think I'd be the one to go wrong huh? Fucking men." She shoved the bag into his chest and huffed away to the entrance of the armoury, "C'mon already let's get the hell out of here, I need to eat some real food."
Alban and Daniel shared a look but soon followed behind her. Their plan was rather simple; they were intent on taking advantage of the holes in security that the base had.
Over the week they hadn't just done drill obediently and marched to the anthem of their enemy, they'd put their time to good use, scouting crevasses that where the information they'd gotten was shoddy. Making themselves errand boys and girl, they'd gotten all the outside time they needed to map the blind spots, dead cameras, and buildings that simply had no security.
Ironically, the armouring had no cameras, no alarms and no guards. Alban felt he'd be teaching the Malagasy a lesson once they pulled this off and got back home.
Alban and Daniel stood back as they watched Marina work her…charm on the locks of the heavy doors. The foolish Malagasy had only placed a few heavy padlocks on it but those were soon broken off.
The trio waltzed into the armour as though they owned the place. It was a very large space and to their fortune, it was filled with all that they needed and more.
"Okay guys, handguns, rifles and SMGs and their ammunition in this bag," Alban ordered as he threw the bag he held to the floor. "Grenades, C4, and any or all types of gas get it into Daniels bag, Medkits and rations go into Marina's bag. Let's get this done fast, it's almost dawn."
"And what will you be doing oh dear leader?" Daniel asked, speaking for the first time since he'd kicked him awake. He'd gotten more comfortable with the mission once he heard that the armies back home had been reinforced with true military-grade equipment and was biting back at the Malagasy forces.
They'd all gotten the good news way before Maxime had the chance to break it to them, the news of several defeats had reached their ears from the light gossips of their commanding officers here.
Alban rolled his eyes at Daniel and pulled out the archaic mobile phone they'd been using to contact HQ. Daniel nodded and got back to packing the weapons.
Something always went wrong with these missions and this was probably it. Alban had sent the equivalent of a phone bomb to HQ but had received no answer as of yet.
Alban had gotten understandably nervous. Several times over he'd thought of calling the entire operation off and sneaking back into the dorms but he'd already taken the first steps. He'd reported that they had all they needed and would make an escape today. If HQ was keeping radio silence for his sake or theirs he didn't know but it wasn't encouraging being left in the dark.
He shut the mobile down and tucked it in his pocket. Going on to help his companions pack up all the weapons. There was no doubt in him that all hell would break loose as they made their escape, this wasn't going to be a quiet break and so he intended to be prepared to fight back.
Though there was a chance that the Malagasy would consider their safe capture a priority for the sake of interrogations but there was always their unpredictability to consider. It was a fifty-fifty chance really, but he'd told Marina and Daniel that they'd try to capture.
"Hey, Alban, think this will come in handy?" Marina called out to him. In her hands, she heaved a rather heavy-looking rocket launcher.
His eyes widened at the site. It was the last thing he was expecting to find here. He shook his head, "No, leave it."
"Aww! Why can't we take it? You said they'll be chasing after us right? This will make them go away!"
Alban barely held back the urge to rub his temples, he couldn't tell her he didn't trust either of them to handle the damn thing. She was too trigger-happy and Daniel, for all his military training, was a klutz when under pressure, and this would be pressure like he'd never seen.
"No, it'll weigh the car down and hinder our escape, the car is already armoured and slow, it won't do us any good to weigh it down any further." He delivered the half-baked excuse, letting her whine as she let the thing drop to the floor. Luckily, it didn't explode.
"Alban, I'm done here." Daniel popped in from the car.
Alban gave him a nod and rubbed his hands together before jumping into the driver's seat of the heavily armoured jeep, "Well then, let's do this."
***
They'd cruised calmly in the base for less than four minutes before reaching the exit. Not even waiting for the poor Malagasy guard to complete his query, they drove straight through the flimsy gates of the base not bothering to look back.
They had gotten a nice and comfy fifteen-minute headstart before several vehicles caught up to them. Their pursuers had even brought along a megaphone and demanded their immediate surrender.
Someone shot first. Alban wasn't sure who or which side. Between Marina's trigger-happy nature and the fact that they were getting closer to the frontlines of the war, closer to the border, closer to Schelar, Alban couldn't blame the Malagasy if they carried out a cost-benefit analysis and figured it'll be better to end them here rather than chase them across the frontline.
Either way, they were being fired at, they fired back and with accuracy too. The Malagasy had forsaken armour for speed, that's how they'd caught up so quickly to them, but it also left them vulnerable to the rain of bullets Marian and Daniel unleashed from the back. Marina and Daniel had taken out two cars via dead drivers and busted tires. Their pursuers numbers had significantly decreased and now only three vehicles remained.
No doubt the loss of two vehicles was salt on injury, they completely scrapped the plan to take us in, their calls for surrender fell silent in wake of the explosions from the rocket launchers they fired.
Still, Alban hummed a tune.
"Alban you bastard!"
Marina had left her place in the back, jumping to the front to strangle him.
"Marina! What ack! Wh are you doing?!"
"We're all gonna die anyway, might as well kill YOU before I go!" her grip tightened and her eyes held no sign of stopping, only hate and anger.
"Marina…They're launching another one…" Daniel murmured from the back, still putting pressure on the bullet wound that had blood gushing out of his abdomen.
"What!" she left Alban's throat to have a look and true enough she could see the damn Malagasy reloading the launcher, ready to fire, "Alban!! What do we do?! We've run out of grenades!"
"Keep firing at the bastards then! Keep firing damn it!"
Alas, it was too late.
Whoosh. BOOOM!!
The rocket had exploded into the back of the jeep, propelling them forward and into the air. Alban, in his slow-motion montage, saw Marina's body beat around the car without a seatbelt to hold her down, Daniel's head had slammed into the window next to him and his head flying straight at the wheel before. Nothing.