Nadya’s Nights: Road to Vengeance
Night Four: Revelations
Chapter Fifty: Dawn
by Indy McDaniel
Copyright © 2009 Indy McDaniel
Nadya got to her feet when the elevator passed the third floor and kept rising. Her legs were still sore, but the little bit of time she’d spent resting had helped. Her breathing had returned to normal and she wiped the last of the sweat from her brow.
The elevator reached the floor labeled ‘G’ and stopped. Nadya and Samantha moved to opposite sides of the elevator. Sam lifted her gun. Nadya checked her’s and saw she was out of bullets. She tossed the weapon aside.
The doors only managed to slide halfway open before the dents got in the way. There was the sound of screeching metal, then the doors tried to close themselves. More screeching metal, the doors closed an inch, got stuck again, tried to open, then came to a stop.
Taking a peek outside, Nadya saw a small hall leading to a set of double doors. “I’ll take a wild guess and say that’s the way out.”
Samantha listened to her phone and nodded. “Confirmed. She’s already disengaged the lock.”
“Well then what the fuck are we waiting for?” Nadya said, moving out of the elevator. Samantha followed along behind, keeping her gun at the ready. Without a weapon of her own, Nadya kept herself ready to move if she needed to. They reached the exit without incident. “There isn’t gonna be a whole platoon of assholes waiting to blow us to bits, is there?”
Sam shook her head. “No. Should be all clear.”
“Here’s hoping…” Nadya muttered, then tapped the pad beside the doors allowing them to swing open. She gasped as a blast of biting cold air rushed over her. As she let her breath back out, she could see it in the air. She wasn’t sure where the base was exactly, but it was definitely someplace fucking cold.
Samantha moved ahead, out through the doors, swinging her gun to one side and then the next. She wasn’t immediately cut down by gunfire, so Nadya assumed that it was, in fact, safe. Moving outside along with Sam, she looked around.
The area looked desolate. The ground was soggy but devoid of much plant life. Nadya figured they must be somewhere in the tundra of northern Russia. Not a bad place to hide a massive, underground secret base. She didn’t see any vehicles. “How the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?”
“Lulu says there’s a helipad,” Samantha said, nodding off to the right. “That way. It’s under guard.”
“Of course it is…” Nadya slid up against the wall of the small building they’d just exited and glanced around the corner. There was the helipad, with helicopter sitting pretty. Five well bundled, not to mention well-armed, guards stood around it. “Just one problem. I don’t know how to drive one of those things.”
“I do.”
Nadya looked back at Samantha, blinking. “Seriously?”
Sam gave a nod. She certainly looked plenty confident.
“Alright, then. So all we gotta do is get to it…”
Samantha gave Nadya a playful smirk. “You go left. I’ll go right. And we’ll meet up in the middle.”
Nadya thought about it and shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
* * * *
The M.A.D. guard standing about halfway between the helipad and the bunker that lead into the base took a long drag from the cigarette he had. He found it helped to keep warm. Not as well as a nice bottle of vodka, but it did the trick. He eyed the chopper resting on the helipad with resentment. If it wasn’t for the bloated piece of mechanical shit, he wouldn’t have to be outside at all.
Then he heard the sound of feet squishing into the soggy ground, approaching him from behind at a rapid pace. He turned in time to see a petite blonde girl charging towards him before leaping into the air. His eyes widened and the cigarette slipped free from his lips, falling to the ground and sizzling as the lit ember touched against the moist soil. The girl’s body rose higher into the air and she brought her knees upwards, reaching about head height.
The guard gripped the rifle slung around his shoulder tighter but hesitated to bring it up into firing position, either from half-frozen joints or simple shock. Just as he started to bring it up, Nadya kicked out with her left leg, smashing the heel of her boot into the man’s forehead and giving his brains a good scrambling.
The brain damaged man dropped backwards to the ground and Nadya dropped on top of him, her hands already reaching for his rifle, trying to get it off him.
“Hey, you!” another of the guards yelled, having spotted the commotion. “Freeze!”
I’m already freezing, asshole, Nadya thought as she tried to untangle the shoulder strap of the rifle from the unconscious guard. She glanced up to see the second guard was already bringing his own rifle to bare on her. Cursing, Nadya gave the rifle a hard yank and the strap tore free from the rifle and she was finally able to pull it free, but she could see that the second guard had already gotten a bead on her.
A gunshot rang out and Nadya would have thought she was dead if it weren’t for the complete lack of pain. Instead, the second guard was falling back, a line of crimson leaking down the side of his face from a small hole in his temple. Glancing to the side, she saw Sam coming up from the other side, tossing her now empty sidearm away.
All the noise had gotten the attention of the three remaining guards, though. They came around the chopper with their weapons ready. Sam dove to the side as one took a shot at her, the bullet kicking up a clop of soggy dirt. Nadya swung her new rifle up to her shoulder and panned around, taking aim and firing off a small burst, cutting down the offending guard.
More rifle fire sounded and Nadya felt a streak of pain go through her left leg. Crying out, she dropped down to one knee and swung the rifle back the other way, saw that the guard still had a good aim on her and threw herself to the side in time to avoid another burst that would have blown her guts out her backside.
Landing sideways on the ground, Nadya let off another small burst of fire. She didn’t hit anything worth a damn, but she caused the two remaining guards to duck low. Rolling over, she pushed herself to her feet, wincing as pain shot up her injured leg and limped as quickly as she could to put the chopper between herself and the guards.
One of the guards had a similar idea and made his way around the other side, intending to pop out and surprise her. Instead, as he rounded the chopper, he came face to face with Samantha. She leapt up, grabbing hold of one of the rotors and swinging her legs up, locking them around the guard’s head. She squeezed her thighs tightly, then jerked her legs to the side, snapping the man’s neck bone in half. She untangled her legs, let him drop, then released her hold on the rotor and dropped to the ground, kneeling down to relieve the man of his weapon.
Seeing the trouble he was in, the remaining guard started to back away from the chopper, trying to double back to the safety of the bunker. Nadya moved out from behind the chopper, her rifle ready, but the guard saw her first and took a shot at her, forcing her to duck back. Samantha moved up next to her, now carrying a rifle of her own. “Well, you know what the bloke said about doing the same trick twice…”
Nadya’s brow furrowed. “No… not really. But I think I get the idea.”
The two women crossed each other’s paths and moved around the helicopter, popping out from opposite sides simultaneously. The last guard swung his rifle one way, then the next, then dropped the weapon, turned and ran full tilt towards the bunker. Nadya and Samantha raised their weapons, took aim and fired, spraying bullets into the retreating man’s back and sending him sprawling forward onto the ground in a bloody, lifeless heap.
Samantha slung her rifle over her shoulder and headed for the cockpit of the chopper. Nadya moved to the man she’d introduced to her foot and knelt down next to him, fishing inside his pockets and coming out with a half-full pack of smokes. They weren’t her brand, but she didn’t really care. She found a lighter and stood back up.
The man let out a semi-conscious groan. Apparently, his brains weren’t as scrambled as Nadya had thought. Flipping the rifle around, she pressed the barrel against the man’s right eye and pulled the trigger, letting his brains scramble more and soak into the ground.
Climbing into the chopper beside Samantha, Nadya pulled the door closed behind her then popped a cigarette into her mouth, lighting it up and taking a very long drag. The delicious smoke filled her lungs and she held it there for several long moments before exhaling. She wasn’t sure if things could get much better. Then the helicopter started up and the blades began to spin and she had to admit they just had.
Once the rotors had gotten up to speed, Samantha lifted off. Nadya looked out the window, looking down at the small bunker that was quite deceiving considering everything it lead to. Her leg throbbed painfully and she turned her attention to it. The pant leg was torn. There was some blood but upon closer inspection she saw it wasn’t more than a particularly nasty graze. Tearing a strip of fabric from her shirt, she staunched the small flow of blood then leaned back in the seat, feeling exhaustion flow through her.
Looking through the windshield of the helicopter, Nadya saw the first hint of the sun rising and suddenly she felt even more tired. She glanced over at Samantha, who was concentrating on flying. “You know where you’re going?”
“At the moment,” she replied. “We’re going west.”
Nadya smirked and took another drag from her cigarette. “Good enough for now.” She tilted her head back, resting her head. It had been yet another long night. After everything she’d been through, Nadya wasn’t sure what could be thrown at her next. She doubted her new found playmates at M.A.D. would just pack it in and call it quits. She’d killed a whole bunch of their employees, not to mention stole one of their helicopters.
Her thoughts moved on to Xenia. She didn’t feel bad about killing her long lost sister, but now her brain was starting to wonder about her real family. Before finding Xenia, she hadn’t given any real thought to it. Now it had been forced onto her and the only real thing she knew about her biological family was that they were all apparently dead. She tried shrugging it off, since if they were dead, there really wasn’t much point in worrying about it, but it still kept nagging at her.
At least it did until the annoying voice that had kept quiet for so long finally decided to open its stupid mouth again.
What do you think Ulbrecht’s up to right now?
The only thing that kept Nadya from opening the chopper’s door and leaping out to smash herself onto the frozen tundra below was the fact that her body was far too tired to comply with her wishes. So instead, she closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep, hoping the damned voice would shut up once she was unconscious.
Don’t count on it, darlin’. I’m in it for the long haul. Or at least until you admit you’re completely, head over heels in love with him.
The only response Nadya’s cynical side could come up with was the lesson she’d learned years ago at Nikolaevna’s Orphanage for Lost Children. Her cheerier, optimistic side scoffed at that lesson, though, and her mental arguing continued as the sun rose higher in the sky until she eventually fell asleep.
The End.
