Chapter 17


Danni slammed the door behind her on purpose. She knew that only gave her seconds to figure out what to do. At least, she realized, that this was not her imagination. She got a good look at their intruders just before she ducked into the kitchen. She saw two of them and, as near as she could tell, that was all they were dealing with. That was the good news. The bad news was that they were both dressed out in all black, wearing heavy body armor, carrying automatic weapons, and they had night vision goggles on.

To face them, Danni had on a pair of shorts and a night shirt. She looked around the kitchen, close to where she was standing. She came up with an idea and, knew she did not have very long now. She heard someone in the commissary, just on the other side of the door.

The man did not wait. The door burst open and he came in with his weapon ready to shoot. His entry was quick and full of energy. It did not work all that well on a tile floor that had just been recently covered with some twenty year old grease from a pot that had been sitting next to the sink for just as long. It also did not help when the lights suddenly came on. The guy was blinded as his crisp clear vision of the night suddenly turned into a close up view of the sun. The guy got his goggles up, as he tried to keep from slipping, and just in time to see Danni swing the frying pan right at his face.

The man did not remain silent when he hit the floor. His yell was half in pain and half in anger when he called out for help. Danni found that she was angry too. She had the guy on the floor and she was not going to let him get up again. She put a knee in his sternum as she came down on him. The pan came flying down from behind her head, with both hands grasping it, and she slammed into his face, over and over, as she yelled, “not-uh-gain!” She cried it out with every as she swung.

It was on one swing that she saw the other guy. He was standing in the kitchen door and he had his weapon pointed right at her. Danni saw the little red light come on under his barrel and knew the other side of that laser was making a similar dot somewhere on her body. The guy took an extra second and told her, “I thought I finished you off the last time.”
Danni closed her eyes. When she opened them again the man was gone but, not far. She heard him yelling out in the commissary. He too was now yelling for help and, along with his screams of, “get him off! Get him off,” there was yet another sound. Danni realized what it was soon enough.

The man on the floor reached up and grabbed Danni’s arm. He had quite the iron grip for a guy who had just had his face smashed in. Danni smashed it in a little bit more with two more strikes from her frying pan. He let go and she ran into the commissary. Tables and chairs were knocked over and the intruder was on the floor. Rusty was on top of him and the dog was growling aggressively as he chewed into the man’s right arm. 

Danni took her opportunity and ran back into the hall. She missed the first three steps as she jumped onto the stair case. A second later she almost ran right into Shannon who was coming in the opposite direction. The teenager did not look or even act scared. She was obviously just confused, “what the hell is going on down there?” Shannon could make out the sounds of her dog growling and she accused Danni, “what did you do to my dog?”
Danni shook the kid and screamed at her, “Shannon! RUN!”

They both flinched when they heard the gun shot. Danni actually almost fell backwards as she was gripping her chest. Shannon went into a panic after that. Almost as soon as the gunshot went off she heard her dog yelp in pain. Then she did not hear anything at all. She ran for the staircase and that is where she saw the man with the machine gun come walking out of the commissary. He was joined by a second man only moments later. That guy pulled his blood soaked hood off and, even with all of the damage to his face, Shannon realized she knew the guy. He was one of the men from the warehouse. He was the guy that had tied her up in the back of that van and tried to blow her up.

The man was not a happy camper. He locked eyes with Shannon just as his buddy raised his weapon to shoot. The weapon was slapped down. The bloody faced man made sure that Shannon heard him when he said, “no. This is going to be slow and painful.”