Giant teardrops rolled out of Monica's red eyes as she stood still trying to believe what had just happened. She had just shot her father. The smoke was still coming out of her gun's muzzle. All she could hear was a whistling sound in her ears.
She had just shot her father.
There were people around her trying to pick up the bodies, some were running after the man who had just run through the wall, while a few were standing in front of her saying something she couldn't comprehend. She looked past them at her father's corpse, who was shot just a minute ago but looked like he had been decaying for weeks.
She had just shot her father.
She started saying under her breath repeatedly, "Get a hold of yourself". This was her cathartic release mechanism from shock states. She snapped out of it after a few seconds and looked around. She remembered why she shot her father. That man or thing somehow hypnotized her father when he was aiming at him. He pulled his desert eagle away from the man and shot the soldier next to him. The soldiers next to him were shocked. They gave him warnings to stand down. They all died. In the end, he aimed his gun towards her. But he didn't shoot. And Monica saw his eyes asking for help. He wanted to end the torture. A man who would lay his life down for his boys had shot 5 of them. So she pulled the trigger. One shot through the head. There was a loud sound of the wall breaking and a few people ran after him.
The man.
Monica remembered everything now.
Visibly angry she called out aloud," Where the hell is he?"
A young soldier who was shocked as well answered, "He ran north-west, He is about to run into our unit 32 checkpoint guards."
The man was nowhere to be seen. He must've been very fast.
"Get me a direct line there and get a chopper ready. We're going to find that monster."
Monica checked her gun and picked a rifle up as well. She headed towards the hole in the wall when her second-in-command, Richard, interrupted. He asked Monica to have a word in private. Monica saw that he was concerned and has something important to discuss. She moved aside and waited for him to start.
"Madam, first of all, I'm sorry about -"
"No need, continue" Monica was cold and abrupt.
"Since General isn't here anymore, you are now responsible for this mission. We need you at Ops center more."
"My father would have gone after him..."
"Yes, but ma'am, you're better."
Monica thought about that for a while. Yes, Charles was abrupt and handled the situation very aggressively. And she had the situation under control. The man was even willing to negotiate and possibly surrender. But his father shot the man and that triggered a response. It could have been handled better. Now she needed to be better and more composed. She needed to take charge and be careful.
"Ok, give me choppers on pursuit and visuals as well. Get a drone or two up there immediately."
"Sure, ma'am. There's one more thing, Your father was expecting a few people from Nepal, they're here now."
"They'll have to wait, but bring them to the main Ops center."
Monica was about to leave but stopped. She moved closer towards her father's corpse and put her hand over his eyes. He was still hot, his face was now sunken even further. His face started resembling a skull now. There was no flesh left, just skin and bone. She teared up again, but she knew what she had to do; hunt him down. She stood again and called one of the soldiers.
"Take him for autopsy... Be careful!"
She heard a helicopter land and immediately went out. The copter started ascending to a considerable height. Monica could see the whole park from there. She pulled her radio out and pressed the 'on' button.
"What's the status on the target?"
"Ma'am we can see him, he has stopped running and now is standing a hundred and fifty feet away. Joes are ready and Snake Eaters are on the way."
She couldn't see the checkpoint from above. It was probably below the tree lines.
"Don't engage, let me get closer."
"Ma'am, negative. He has both arms outstretched towards us. We are ready to engage."
Monica was furious now, they wouldn't have questioned if it had been her father. If they could just stall till the Snake Eaters arrive, they have a chance. The Snake Eaters are special forces, they have enough firepower to level a building. She called the officer in charge again.
"Don't screw the pooch, Soldier! Wait till the special forces arrive. I repeat wait for the backup."
There was shouting on the radio for a while. The soldier called again.
"Ma'am, something's wrong. Steve has a fifty aimed at us. Soldier stand down... He's loading... Everyone! clear to engage friendly... "
Boom! there was the deafening sound of firing. Monica immediately recognized the .50 caliber machine gun and knew there would be no survivors. The firing stopped and after a few seconds, a single shot was fired. Monica signaled the pilot to move towards the site. It took less than two minutes to get there. The helo landed near the execution site. Monica got out with two soldiers watching her six. The bodies were lying around ridden with bullets. A soldier was near the machine with a Glock and a single shot on the side of his head. That man, Steve, had already started rotting. But no sign of the fugitive. She was scared now.
"What is this thing?" she thought.
She buzzed the radio to call for support.
"Get a team here and get them for autopsy. And hurry up, they start decaying quickly."
Monica headed back to the copter and sat down. The pilot turned back and asked.
"Where to, ma'am?"
"Back to the base."