Chapter 6: Now, We Are the Hunted

In the early morning, they would drove down into the forest. The fires have died down because of the rain, but the smell of ash and smoke filled the air, the team decides to put on their gasmask. The heat from the fires still lingers, encapsulating the team. "Roomy, take us to the entrance of the village," Richard commanded Roomy; he turns back to everyone else. "There we will dismount and check for survivors." Richard goes back looking at the surrounding. Dead and burnt trees, dead grass, he can even see the corpse of a deer. "Jesus…"

They finally arrive at the entrance of the village; the gate is burnt down and rubble-filled the land. "Dismount!" Richard and the team exit the Humvee and move their way inside the village, pass the gate, through the city center. "Spread out, search for survivors" The team nodded and each of them walks to a different direction. Richard approached a building who was surprisingly still mostly intact, he steps inside, watching his every step. He turns on his helmet flashlight and looked around, in the corner, two charred and burnt corpses holding hands. "Fuck…"

Josh approached another building; it's been razed to the ground. He inspected the rubble and kept his ears open for any screaming for help, instead, he found a corpse crushed under the rubble stretching its arm out, searching for help but got burnt by the fire's dragon breath.

Cassie, as a combat medic has seen many forms of injuries, from small cuts to literal holes in an Operative's stomach, she has seen it all so the scene did not disturb her that much but she still feeling deep regret. She clapped her hands together. "May you all rest in peace" she prayed.

It's the same situation with Larry and Roomy, they found charred bodies under the rubble, but no screams of help. Richard sat on the side of the well in the town center, takes off his gas mask and took a sip from his canteen. He looked around, it's bad. "God…" Cassie approaches him. "Yes, Cassie?"

"I count 32 building foundations, timed with an approximate 5 people living in each house, that's 160 people…" She reported.

Richard sighs and took another sip from his canteen. "MTF Command ordered us to avoid the dragon if we would encounter it again… I can see why…" He looked around again. He accidentally pushed his canteen over the edge of the well but caught it. "Almost…" He said, relieved after catching his canteen. He looks back at Cassie "We should finish up, search for another 2 minutes and we'll head back to Koda Village and warn them about the dragon…"

Cassie leaves to search again, Richard stretches his legs, then he heard a small voice. He thought it might've been a fly but it gets louder, he looked around to see if any of his team members were calling him, but no, they were still searching. He realized something, he looked down at the well and turns on his flashlight, there, a woman was calling for him. "We got a survivor!"

[-]

Meanwhile, Site 19

"Ravioli Ravioli do not lewd the robot Loli"

"Why am I friends with you Bright?" Clef asked the question.

Bright would start cackling, almost spilling the coffee he has in his hand. "Because I'm the only guy that liked your ugly face!" He would continue cackling.

The staff lounge was not too crowded at this time of day, the two of them are on break and decided to chat. Clef sighs. "Seen any good movies?" Clef asked.

Bright calmed down from the cackling answered. "No, all they play is that shit 90's movie," Bright answered.

In the middle of their 'conversation', a guard approached them. "Doctor Bright?" The guard asked for Bright.

Bright turned and look at the guard. "That's me, what you got for me?"

The guard gave Bright a piece of paper. "Transfer orders, you are being transferred to Site 19-B" The Guard explained.

The Bright read the paper, while Clef on the side drinking his coke. "Why?" Bright asked the guard.

"I don't know sir; they don't pay me enough to give a shit" The Guard answered.

"True…" Bright turn to Clef still reading the paper, Clef looked over at the document.

"So, transferred huh?"

Bright sighs. "Yep… man, they never let me have fun…"

Clef took a sip from his can of coke. "Probably because you blew up half the site the last time you have 'fun'"

Bright drinks the last of his coffee and threw the cup into the trash can. "Well… I better pack my bags then…" Bright sighs again. "The helicopter will arrive in the early morning."

Clef drank the last of his coke. "You better, the Site Director's not going to be happy after that little stunt."

[-]

Back with Lambda 3-4

Richard descends to the bottom of the well, using rappel gear the team brought, as he touched the wet bottom ground, making a small splash, the woman stepped back, scared. Richard inspected the woman, she's rather young, he doesn't see any injuries but he can see her visibly shivering, he concluded that she might have hypothermia. But then his eyes catch onto something interesting, her ears, they're pointy, like elves in fantasy, the village chief wasn't lying when he said this was an elf village.

Richard tucks his rifle away onto his back and approached the woman. "It's okay… I'm not going to hurt you…" He said in a reassuring tone, but it doesn't work, the girl kept on trembling and shivering, won't approach Richard a single bit.

It might be that his gear looks very alien to her, but he doesn't have time to take it all off, he needs to bring her up one way or another. He walks forward and grabbed her by the shoulders, she yelped and closed her eyes, Richard looks at her face, she looks like a 17-year-old.

Richard would pick her up by the legs and began carrying her, the girl still looked terrified. He talks through his radio. "I got her, bring us up" The Humvee tow began pulling Richard and the girl back out the well, his team helped the girl out first and Richard got out himself.

In the sky, two F-22 Raptor Fighter Jets flew by and patrol the skies, the airfield is now complete and they are finally conducting their first air patrol. This does startle the elf girl, seeing massive swords flying in the sky, freely and unchallenged. This air patrol also has another reason, to locate and possibly destroy this Flame Dragon.

After looking up at the Raptors, the elf girl looked around, she's shocked and immediately pass out onto Cassie's hands. "Lambda 3-4 this is Thunderbird 1 how's it looking down there…" One of the pilots of the F-22 asked the team.

"Thunderbird 1 this is Saturn Actual, the village is burnt to ash, we only found one survivor so far…" Richard answered the pilot's question.

"That's unfortunate, we'll keep the skies clear, over and out"

Richard sighed, taking out his canteen and sips from it. He walks over to Cassie who was treating the elf girl. "Cassie, how is she?" Richard asked still holding his canteen.

"I've stabilized her condition, she has mild hypothermia and most likely PTSD, after watching your entire village burn down to the ground, it will take a toll on you" Cassie explained with relief. "She won't be up for a few hours…" She returns to check the girl's condition.

Richard nods and goes to Larry who was still searching through the rubble, setting aside a plank of wood. "So… what's your reaction to elves being real?"

Larry shrugs as he continues to inspect the rubble. "I don't know… at this point, we have to expect everything…" He would step closer at the rubble and flash his flashlight through the cracks.

Richard sighs, no point staying here any longer, all the rubble has been checked and all of them contains dead and charred elf bodies. "Also, sir," Larry said to Richard. "There's no room in the Humvee for the elf girl, should we call the other teams?"

Richard just realized that as well. "Oh, uh yes. I'll contact the other teams to see if one of them can lend any help…" He walks back to the Humvee.

23:11, USA.

A white van drove down the street of a Suburban District, heading for a destination. Inside, 6 men in tactical Spec-Ops gear sat and waited while another is driving the vehicle. All wearing balaclava with skulls with different colors to conceal their identity. The one in purple turned to the team. "If anything pops off, we're gonna have a hard time telling the people it was a gas leak."

The one with red balaclava answers. "Depends on what happens, hey Powers what's the pool right now," He asked another operative named Powers, the one in pink.

"Save it, Coleman, you had your chance" The one in blue interjects.

"I wasn't talking to you O' Neal, Powers when's the bet will close?"

Powers turns to Coleman. "When you get out of the car, you gonna call it?" Powers answers.

"Depends on the pool."

Powers turns to the operative on his left. "Fletcher?" He calls the one in green.

Fletcher looks up at Powers. "250"

Coleman looked uncertain. "Given the intel… Cognitohazard" He looks at Fletcher. "That's my final answer."

"Done," Fletcher said.

"Ready up," The driver said to the group, they ready their weapons and the van stops in front of a house. The operatives made a line. "Payload Zero-One to Talk we've passed Vector moving into the target building over," Powers reported to Talk.

"Roger Zero-One, over"

The team moves up to the front door, three stacks up on the door while the other three stayed behind to watch the perimeter. Coleman took out a lockpick from one of his pouches and gets to work on the door as everyone kept an eye out.

Coleman unlocks the door and put away the lockpick and hold his rifle, the team put their GPNVGs down and Coleman opens the door slowly and quietly. Coleman looks around for a few seconds, trying to identify any hostiles and moves in as the rest of the team follows. They split up to secure the first floor, pats on shoulders to give directions and their weapons raised. They check every room, every corner, and every inch of the first floor to identify any suspects.

They would move into the basement, their weapons still raised. Securing the basement, Fletcher turns on a light in the basement, and the team pulls up their NV goggles. "Talk this Is Payload Zero-One, building secure, moving to SSE over." Powers look at Coleman and the one in purple, Lester. "Zero-Two and Three, on me. We'll handle the first floor."

The two nodded and they move upstairs as O' Neal and Fletcher check the basement. In the basement, there's an office. On the table, there's a single running laptop and on the side a file cabinet. O' Neal opens the file cabinet and turns on his flashlight, there's a lot of files stored in there. As for Fletcher, he opens up the laptop only to see a program running. "What the hell is this…?" Fletcher muttered seeing the program, he gets to work.

[-]

Lambda 3-4

Lambda 3-5 "Uranus" arrived with their Humvee and APC, their squad leader named Turbo approached Richard. "So, you boys need some help?" The female operative asked while looking around, her voice a little muffled by the gas mask she is wearing. "My Squad's APC can fit the Elf girl you found."

"Thanks, Turbo, Rimmy didn't give us a lot for the mission." Richard chuckled looking at his Squad's singular Humvee.

Turbo nodded. "Well, let's get moving." Turbo walked back to her squad, talking over her radio. "Earth Actual this is Uranus Actual we've rendezvous with Lambda 3-4 and will be making our way back to the FOB"

Richard walked back to his squad by the Humvee. "Lambda 3-5 will be bringing the Elf girl, transport her over." Cassie and Josh nodded and began to carry the Elf girl to the APC. "Roomy, start up the engine, we're leading the way." Roomy nodded and enters the driver seat. "Larry, man the .50 Cal. We don't want to get caught off guard." Larry nods and head inside the Humvee.

They waited for Josh and Cassie to come back, once they did, they entered their Humvee and drove back to Koda Village. On the way, the two F-22 Raptors did a pass through their area again. The way back is a silent one, but everyone kept their eyes out for any ambushes or that damned Flame Dragon.

Richard takes the radio. "Lambda 3-5 what's the Elf girl condition back there?" Richard asked Uranus the status of the elf girl, but he was met by this.

"Not good, the Kant counter is going crazy when it's near her. She might be a Green-type reality bender." Turbo answered with distress. "we have to drop her off, we can't bring someone like this back to the FOB"

Richard look at his team before answering. "Copy that, we'll drop her off in the village we'll be passing." Richard put the radio back to its holder and sighed. "Fucking hell…"

After an hour of driving they finally arrive at Koda Village, the Village chief welcomes them. "Welcome back travelers!" He glances at the two new vehicles. "And I see you brought more of your army."

Richard held up an arm. "We're not here to talk chief" Richard pulls out his phone and show a photo of the Flame Dragon. "Is this the flame dragon you mentioned yesterday?"

The chief squinted his eyes and lean closer to get a better look of the beast, his eyes widened after identifying what it is. His face turned pale and turned around to his villagers. He's talking too fast for Josh or anyone to translate, but with how the villagers react, they concluded that the chief is informing the rest of the village about the dragon.

The village chief turned back around and look up at Richard. "We thank you for warning us about this great threat… anything we can repay you with?" The villagers thanked them.

"You don't have to do anything, sir, although…" Richard gestured to the back of the APC. "About the Elf Village," Richard gestures the chief to follow him and walks to the back of the APC. Richard opens the back door and showed the Chief the unconscious Elf girl. "The village was burnt to ash by the dragon, she's the only survivor" Richard explained.

"Poor girl…" the chief said looking at the Elf.

Richard looks down at the village chief. "Will you be able to help her?"

The Chief shook his head. "No, both of our races are very different. Besides…" He looked back at his village, where villagers are running around panicked, carrying goods and stuff loading them onto their wagons and carriages. "We need to run away ourselves…"

Richard look at Turbo who was at the front seat of the APC and shook his head, Turbo sighed, disappointed. Richard look back down at the Village Chief. "Well, good luck…" Richard walked back to his Squad's Humvee with the chief nodding as he passed.

Richard enters the Humvee and leaned back on his seat. "Luck is not on our side today…" Richard mumbled.

The rest of the team know the situation as well, the entire interaction with the Village Chief is transmitted to everyone's radio. Josh takes off his helmet. "Fuck… So what do we do now?" Josh asked Richard.

Richard takes the Humvee radio and change frequencies to MTF Command. "Command… this is Saturn Actual… Koda Village doesn't want to accept the Elf Girl, what are our next orders? Over…" Richard said lazily and exhausted.

"How unfortunate, what is Koda Village reason to not accept the girl over?"

"The both of their races are very different, and they're evacuating the village to run away from the Flame Dragon, over"

An audible sigh can be heard from MTF Command. "Leave the elf girl and- Doctor Bright? What- hey! HEY-" A commotion can be heard from the other side like someone is fighting.

"Hello, MTF's!" Bright talks through the radio. "Did I heard something about Elf girls?" he asked curiously

Richard rolled his eyes before answering. "Yes, Doctor Bright… you heard that right…"

Bright gasped in excitement. "bring her back to the FOB now! H-hey! I'm talking here- Hey!" Looks like MTF Command has taken back control the station. "That's enough Doctor Bright! Return to your quarters!" MTF Command snapped at Bright as an annoyed grunt can be heard

Command cleared his throat. "Sorry about that…" There's a small, awkward pause. "New orders, you are to bring the Elf girl back to the FOB for examination and tests, over" Command continued.

This pretty much shocked everyone. "W-well, how about Koda Village sir?" Richard asked.

"Escort them until they reached their destination, that's all. Over and out"

Richard looked back at his team eyes wide open. "The fuck just happened…?" Everyone shrugged their shoulders