The Shoebox Pursuit - Part 2 - Footsteps and Shadows

CHAPTER ONE

  It was night, and the fight was tight and contained. However, for a group as skilled and experienced as themselves, there was no great peril for the Alpha-Omega squad. But it had been a long trawl and the men had very limited resources - bullets were low, rations no longer existed and Yankee and Doodle were the only two still retaining their helmets. The group were backed up to the base of the cliff, but this was just another day’s work for them. Yankee and Doodle had taken the liberty and called dibs on the majority of the bad guys. They had the situation well in hand, shooting wildly in the direction of the enemy - Yankee gripping his sub-machine gun tightly, and Doodle with his pistols, one in each hand, the brothers not letting up for one moment, never allowing the Nazis time or chance to aim and fire back. Nevertheless, without their knowing, two soldiers had managed to flank their perimeter, and were now currently engaged in combat with Charlie and Specks.

  The unlikely fighting duo had strategically placed themselves back to back, staring off their enemy. Charlie was in contest with a rather short, but incredibly solid looking Nazi, whilst Specks dabbled in a dodge-or-die game with a gigantic soldier, who looked as thick as he was wide, and had fists the size of the poor geek’s head. Charlie had resorted to boxing tactics, having moments ago disarmed both Nazis, allowing him and Specks at least a fighting chance. The Captain attacked, punching the solid Nazi multiple times in the rib cage and stomach. But he took it with ease, striking back, throwing a balled-up fist twice across Charlie’s face, hard - and it hurt! He staggered back a little, dizzied. But at the exact same time the gigantic soldier had attempted to attack Specks, who swiftly ducked into a terrified ball on the floor, allowing the massive punch to sail over the top of his head and wallop Charlie directly in the centre of his back. SMACK! He went down, yelping in pain, shocked at the unseen thump. He looked at Specks, utterly flabbergasted.

  ‘He’s supposed to be yours,’ said Charlie. Specks peered out from behind his cower, merely pushing up his glasses in response. ‘I must not be living right!’ the Captain proclaimed, wiping the blood from his lip and stretching out the pain from his back.

  The gigantic soldier literally jumped over Specks and lunged forward, throwing out a slapdash, heavy kick in the direction of the floored Charlie. But Charlie grabbed the leg, stopping the boot mere inches from his own face. Instinctively he twisted it, and with all his strength, he sent the brute straight to the ground. But both the Captain and the giant were on their feet in a matter of seconds. Immediately they went for each other, wrestling like a couple of grizzly bears, sliding around in the wet mud. The gigantic soldier landed a few punches to Charlie’s torso, lifting him from the ground with each thump. But luckily for Charlie, the skirmish caused the brutes helmet to come off, and he grabbed the opportunity. Snatching the helmet before it reached the ground, he swung with all his might and smashed it into the Nazi’s head. The impact was so intense the helmet cracked apart against his skull, and the giant was unconscious before he hit the ground.

  Charlie spun on the spot, ready to tackle the next one. But the situation caused him to pause his actions. The short solid Nazi had been waiting for him, with Specks hostage, his neck in his hands, ready to snap at his chosen time. Charlie swiftly assessed his options.

  ‘You okay, Specks?’ he asked, outright.

  ‘Yes, Captain,’ he coughed in a weak trembling reply. ‘Given the gravity of the situation, that is.’

  ‘You know this is karma for allowing me to get sucker-punched in the back earlier! Right?’ Charlie joked, taking a bold step forward.

  ‘Don’t move, English swine,’ ordered the Nazi with a confident voice. ‘Or I’ll…’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ interrupted Charlie, raising his hands in the air and backing away a little. ‘Excuse my manners. I don’t think I’ve properly introduced myself. My name is Charlie. But you can call me Captain Crumble. And the innocent little fellow in your hands, that you are all too eager to snap in two, is my good friend and Science Officer, Specks. He is very intelligent, rather sensible, a right bore if I’m honest. Much more of a thinker than a fighter.’ Charlie dared a sideways step, causing the Nazi to shift uncomfortably, adding further pressure on his hold, causing the small man to quietly squeal. ‘I have a few other friends with me,’ continued Charlie with his rant. ‘They’re Americans. And as much as I love them, they aren’t particularly intelligent. They don’t overly think things through, and they aren’t remotely sensible. They fight first, and ask questions later. Much later. Too late, if I’m honest.’ He chuckled to himself at the thought.

  ‘What are you getting at, you English buffoon?’ sneered the Nazi.

  ‘Yes, sir. I’m… afraid I… I do agree. What are you getting at?’ concurred Specks.

  ‘It’s rather quiet, don’t you think?’ asked Charlie, a hush in his voice, contemplating his statement.

  And he was right. The sound of nearby gunfire had long ceased. One way or another, someone had won that gunfight, and Charlie was ever the optimist.

  ‘Specks, I would highly recommend you don’t move.’

  Charlie unexpectedly ducked to the ground and covered his head with his arms, just as the deafening sound of exceptionally close gunfire filled the air. And just as quickly as it came, all went quiet. Charlie took a daring look. There stood Specks, in the same position, the Nazi soldier still holding him. But Yankee and Doodle were now in sight, a little way in the background, pistols pointed in their direction, with smoking barrels. And then it happened - the short solid Nazi soldier slumped over on top of Specks, dead and bloody.

  ‘Goddamn, that was close,’ yelled Yankee, absurdly loud, marching towards Specks and pushing the dead soldier from him.

  ‘What you talkin’ about, close? I was aiming for lil’ Specks, here,’ chuckled Doodle, slapping the geek affectionately on the back. ‘You okay, buddy?’

  Specks couldn’t stomach a reply. He was a quivering wreck, and stared wide eyed at the dead body at his feet in incredulity, gawping at the exit holes covering his torso and the scuff mark on the shoulder of his own uniform that he suspected was the doing of one of the brother’s rogue bullets. The boys grabbed the geek, pushing and nudging him over to Charlie.

  ‘Area secure, sir,’ they said in unison, changing their tone and sounding rather professional for a change.

  Charlie nodded, acknowledging their efforts. Without order they all took a moment to compose themselves. Charlie was muddy and freshly bruised, though it was almost impossible to tell. He was busy straightening up his uniform and pulling his rain soaked hair from his face. Specks was quiet and stunned from his close call - no matter how long he had been doing this, he would never be able to adapt to such heinous acts. Yankee and Doodle were both unscathed from the latest clash, already reloading their weapons and slickly holstering them. The group were all drenched, alone and isolated in the thunderstorm. As for Billy, he was still nowhere to be seen. He must have stuck to his word and gone his own way the first chance he had got. Although…

  All of sudden a shower of gunshots sounded overhead. The group looked up to the cliff edge, hearing what appeared to be a rather brutal skirmish playing out. Punches sounded, guns went off, painful yells and screams called out, and even the occasional pistol fell over the edge, landing at Charlie’s feet. Eventually all went quiet. Charlie and the boys waited patiently, the brothers ready with their weapons, just in case. Then moments later, Billy appeared, not heroically or majestically in any sense of the words. Instead he was being half dangled over the cliff by a bloodied Nazi, holding him from the scruff of the neck, whilst a second soldier, looking equally as beaten, stood with a gun aimed at the young man’s head. Billy was still wearing the same getup - shirt, tie, trousers, dog-tags around neck, all topped off with his messy black hair. And of course, he still had that strange metallic arm on show. It would seem that after the events of the Nazi-wolves on the train that fateful night, Billy had had a change of heart, and stayed the course with Charlie and the
boys.

  ‘Oh, hey fellas,’ he yelled down, on sight of his friends.

  ‘Hello, Billy,’ called out Charlie, sounding peeved with the boy.

  ‘So, Charlie… these guys have caught me,’

  ‘Yes, I can see that quite clearly, Billy,’ he replied again, definitely unimpressed.

  The Nazi with the gun randomly booted Billy in the back several times.

  ‘And this guy’s kicking me,’ continued Billy.

  ‘Yes, that is also quite clear.’

  ‘These guys wouldn’t do this if they knew who I was.’

  Charlie looked at his men, shaking his head in incredulity at the situation. He could see Yankee and Doodle holding back laughter behind massive grins.

  ‘Billy, even you don’t know who you are,’ he answered back, causing the brothers to chuckle. ‘How many of them up there?’

  ‘Erm…’ Billy awkwardly arched his head round and looked at the eight Nazi soldiers lying face down on the floor, who he had only moments ago taken out single-handedly. Dead or unconscious, they were no longer a threat to him. ‘That’s a matter of opinion. Could you rephrase the question, please?’

  ‘Just deal with it, Billy,’ snapped the Captain, finally boring of the conversation.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ replied Billy, a smile stretching across his face.

  It should have been impressive, and in many ways it was, but it was more messy than anything. Using his metal arm, as he knew it had by far the most clout, in the blink of an eye Billy smashed the gun from the Nazi’s hand - it shattered to pieces. He grabbed him by the scruff of his uniform and yanked him over the cliff edge, sending him straight to his death. But the move was dangerous, clumsy, and the Nazi holding Billy lost his footing. In an effort to save himself the soldier let go, but Billy was quick, he reached out, grabbing the gutless man by the legs and dragging him down with him. The pair fell, bouncing off the side of the cliff as they went.

  ‘Aim for the bushes,’ shouted the brothers.

  Billy moved fast, grabbing the Nazi and pulling him in close. He booted them both away from the surface of the cliff, and for a brief moment all was quiet as they soared like birds through the night sky, the men below watching with open mouths at the stunt. But the moment was over all too soon. The pair smashed into the very top of one of the burnt out trees, the branches snapping in the tumble. They rolled through it in a chaotic spin before falling out the other side. It was a brief drop, but just enough time for Billy to twist them both around and place himself on top of the Nazi, using him like a human mattress. They landed on a large bush, semi-breaking their fall. Again they rolled over the top of the thing before finally crumpling onto the muddy ground, Billy landing rather fortunately on top of the Nazi. The boys quickly rushed over and roughly yanked Billy off the unbelievably dead soldier, and onto his back.

  ‘Billy. Can you speak?’ asked Charlie. Billy was staring bug-eyed into the heavens above without blinking, in spite of the heavy rain falling on his face. ‘Come on, boy. Snap out of it.’

  ‘Is it over?’ he spoke, in barely a whisper.

  The American brothers burst into laughter and yanked the young man up from the floor, instantly applauding him.

  ‘Billy, that was truly excellent,’ remarked Yankee.

  ‘Random, you rode that Nazi like a surfboard from hell!’ added Doodle.

  ‘I tell ya, Boom Crash Boy, this one’s going on my Billy Random Reckless list. Specks, do your thing.’ Yankee slapped Specks on the back, instigating him to pull out a small pad and pencil.

  ‘Damn straight. This one is going in my top ten. Right next to being completely submerged underwater for well over ten minutes, surviving a horse stampede, and my personal favourite, sailing a landlocked boat down an avalanche. Now, that was a day and a half!’ Doodle nudged Specks to hurry with his record keeping.

  Billy couldn’t muster the strength to reply. He was winded and leant himself on Specks, who was pushing his glasses back up his nose and studying the situation, whilst scribbling in his pad.

  ‘With terrain such as this…’ he began, his eyes flickering up and down the cliff edge. ‘From a drop of such an altitude as that… multiplied with the weight of two fully grown men… accelerating under the gravitational pull of the earth… and probably falling at a speed of approximately…’ But the men were already looking at him with a mixture of boredom and confusion. ‘Oh. Right. Maybe that’s best left for my journal. Summing up… It’s remarkable Billy is still alive,’ he finished.

  ‘Let alone in one piece!’ remarked Charlie, shaking his head in dismay. ‘Do you have any idea how stupid that was? You could have been killed.’

  But then something happened that no one was expecting.

  They all heard a single gun shot. It echoed across the land. The squad looked around, confused, desperate to make out where it had come from. But then Specks slumped a little. Billy grabbed him, slowly lowering him to the floor, as his body went limp.

  ‘Captain?’ the man whimpered in confusion.

  Yankee caught sight of something out the corner of his eye and pointed. Perched above them, high on the cliff edge, was a somewhat large soldier aiming a sniper rifle in their direction. He was huge, and wore a rather distinct eye patch over one of his eyes. And to the squad he was very familiar indeed. He was the One Eyed Man. Charlie glared at the fiend.

  ‘Take him down,’ ordered the Captain, through gritted teeth.

  The brothers opened fire. Their anger tore from their weapons, and every blast from every generous shot they took drowned out their profanities. But the sniper was quick, and ducked away, disappearing from plain sight.

  Specks was now lying flat on his back, looking pale as a ghost. Without thought, Charlie ripped open the geek’s jacket. The bottom half of his shirt was soaked in blood. He pulled it up, revealing a bullet hole in the right hand side of his stomach. Everyone gasped.

  ‘Captain?’ he whimpered again, looking up at Charlie in hope.

  But before Charlie had the chance to think up some reassuring words to say, Specks closed his eyes, and his head rolled to one side.