Third Party Disaster

A quiet night illuminated by lamp posts and flashlights, a man wanders around within the confines of barbed wire reaching the rooftops of small buildings dotted around.

He steps into the shadow of a tree, oblivious to the figure approaching him from behind. He quickly turns around waving his flashlight in the air, "damn mosquitoes." He mumbles.

Just then, all the lights around him turned off, shrouding him in complete darkness. "Mr. Clay, we appreciate it." Clay's body is stiff on the ground and gets dragged away.

The mysterious assassin approaches a locked door behind a small building. They hold out a card with the name 'Clay' printed upon it. Scanning the card on a pad the door clicks before opening, "what're you doing here so la-" The men inside the building are quickly put down by the assassin.

"Take it all back home." The assassin says and a group of people wearing dark clothes swarm through the door, they carry cardboard boxes and wooden crates outside the barbed wire before disappearing into the faint twilight.

A group of 30 soldiers surround the area. Bernard crouches down in between a grouping of bushes, binoculars in hand. "Seems like the area's not very heavily guarded." Amelia drops down from a ledge behind him. "Did they really have to build this place in the mountains, my shoes are all covered in dirt now."

"You're 2nd in command and you're complaining about dirt?" Bernard handed her the binoculars. "Shut it, I'm concerned about my cleanliness. I don't want to catch any weird diseases in the middle of nowhere."

Bernard had split his men into 6 groups, consisting of 5 men each. Just then, several dim lights began flashing around the mountainside, from within the dense forest. "They're ready, you good to go too?"

"Just give the signal." Amelia stashed the binoculars into her suitcase as she holstered her revolvers besides her waist. Bernard shined his light and they all descended at once. "It's been a while since we were on a mission together, hope you aren't rusty." He stomped the ground and bounded towards the facility followed by Amelia.

"I've been practicing in my spare time."

Upon reaching the barbed wire, Amelia flexed her legs, silently hopping over the wall gracefully in an instant. While Bernard had to cut the wire using wire cutters. Amelia ran behind a wall, wary of her surroundings as Bernard finished making a hole.

"There's a group of them inside here." Amelia extended her thumb from her fist and pointed to the building she was leaning against. "They're probably sleeping." Bernard checked for his men and they were all in position.

"Gas em' now." Bernard ordered.

Amelia grinned, "gladly."

She had packed a grenade in her suitcase, which was now in her hands as the door creaked open slightly. Amelia rolled the grenade inside and shut the door, after a moment a purple gas began leaking out from under the door.

"Don't inhale that no matter what, a single whiff of it will kill you." Bernard responded with a thumbs up.

The other groups finished clearing every building and they approached the target building. Only to find the door wide open, 2 guards dead inside with their throats cut out and it was empty. "Did they figure us out and relocate?" Asked a soldier.

"And leave all their men behind?" Bernard responded, "someone else must've been behind this."

Amelia tapped Bernard's shoulder, "look at this." She pointed towards a small drawing on the back wall. It was shaped like a rat, black in color. "Whoever this was has good tastes in color."

"That solves it, a third party was involved here. They acted faster than us." Bernard clicked his tongue, "this means the mission is over right, let's go to the mansion now." Amelia impatiently demanded.

"Everyone gather back at the base, we're going to the mansion." Guns cocked behind them before they could even turn around.

"Drop everything and hands where I can em'." Bernard noticed Amelia gritting her teeth and her face beginning to turn into that of a lion's. "Amelia don't." He whispered as softly as he could, but it did not seem to reach Amelia.

"Duck!" She yelled shortly before unloading both her revolvers at lightning speeds behind her. The men behind her screamed in agony as they were gunned down all at once and their blood splattered all around the room.

"Ms. Amelia's special move, ultra fast shooting!" The soldiers rejoiced in unison, "do you not care about your own allies Amelia?" Bernard questioned, but Amelia had already left, leaving behind 2 trails of smoke. "Everyone alive?" The men answered, "yes captain, we're still alive."

"Sebastian should've never gotten her those custom revolvers..." Bernard ordered his men to return. "Those men seemed to have came from the building me and Amelia cleared, how are they alive?" Bernard walk to the first building and went inside, taking great caution to see if any remnants of the gas remained.

"Gas masks." He slouched onto the bottom bed of a bunk bed and pulled out a mask from behind it. "They were all wearing gas masks. But how did they know about the gas or even that we were going to be here tonight?" Bernard's veins began to inflate, "there must be someone leaking our plans. A traitor among my own men."

"That means the traitor is with my men right now. I have to go find them!" Bernard stomped his way out of the room.

Amelia ran as fast as she could to get back to her car and immediately drove off upon reaching it.

Bernard struggled to climb back up the mountain as fast as he could, but he was already too late. In a small clearing in the woods, twilight shone upon the bloodied bodies of his fallen men. 29 dead, 1 remaining. Bernard charged towards the man, hands raised to his chest.

He swung twice but the man dodged, slid under his legs and stood up behind Bernard. "Why didn't you kill me along with my men when you had the chance." He asked, his tone deep and solemn.

"If I did, then I wouldn't have had the chance to fight against you. 1 on 1." The perpetrator raised 2 fingers and pushed them together. "You traitor."

"What a bad captain you are, Bernard. You didn't even notice 1 of your men going missing for 3 days, only to come back as if nothing happened." Bernard tightened his fists, "so you took advantage of my kindness."

"Of course I did." Bernard quickly turned behind him and swung his fist at the man, hitting him straight in the face. "You won't get away with that!" Bernard yelled as he drove his fist further into the man's face and slamming his back into a tree.

Bernard dashed backwards as a gunshot went off. "You conniving bastard." Bernard began bleeding from his side. The man held a pistol near his stomach, the barrel smoking. Bernard picked up a gun and aimed at the unconscious man. "This is what you get." His eyes filled with hatred and determination, he pulled the trigger.

The man woke up and instantly dodged the bullet. "What?!" As the man began running circles around Bernard within the cover of the forest, Bernard traced him with the gun and shot at random intervals so as to conserve his bullets. 'I won't be getting any time to reload with this guy around.'

While the man was still avoiding Bernard, he picked up another gun and started firing back at Bernard. Bernard had not expected his foe to be faster than he could react and thus had no time to avoid the hail of bullets flying towards him.

"Amelia... take care of Sheridan." He smiled as the bullets penetrated Bernard nearly all at once from every direction. He dropped to the ground face down, the dirt newly painted a sickly red.

The man placed 2 fingers against Bernard's neck. "He's dead."

Bernard's entire squad had not been annihilated by a single man as several figures emerged from the shadows. A taller man claps whilst approaching the one who killed Bernard. "Good job taking care of the Ox. Rat."