Back to the present.
"Sir, are you…" Mark interrupted, Alaric turning to look at him with a sad smile.
"Yeah… I don't have anything to lose anyway" He smiled.
"And with this I can redeem myself, Maria…" he muttered under his breath, Mark unable to hear.
The memory of his conversation with the blue-haired girl in mind, the last time he had spoken to her, never seeing her again after that encounter.
He had tried to look for her, but couldn't find any trace of her. It was as if she was an angel brought to him at that very moment.
At least, that is what he believed.
Mark, unaware of his captain's thoughts, stood there in silence, seemingly in contemplation.
He wanted to advise against it, but even his own conscience knew saving only two was wrong.
Orders were orders after all.
The mission was an HR mission. Trying to save this many would make it HR + CT: Hostage Rescue in addition to Counterterrorism.
This would need more troops, something that would take a lot of paperwork and several days at best.
"Their ritual won't last forever. Take the targets and go…" Alaric squeezed Mark's shoulders, bringing the latter out of his thoughts.
"I will solo this joint, don't worry." Alaric forced a smile, Mark's eyes widening momentarily.
He could tell his boss had resolved and braced himself for whatever would happen.
"Sir, have this…" He took off his tactical belt and handed it to him.
"We will come back for you after the mission, I promise." He saluted Alaric before leaving with the two kids.
...
"Where is the commander?" Outside, Jake inquired as he saw Mark out with the targets, Alaric still inside.
"Solo CT," Mark simply answered.
"What the…"
"We will come back for him. Let's finish the mission quickly…" Mark sharply interrupted.
They were in enemy territory. There wasn't time to waste on opinions.
They understood, took one last glance at the door, Alaric's silhouette barely visible in the dimly lit room.
"We will come back for you," they all thought in unison.
With renewed determination, they moved with slow but hurried steps, the kids sandwiched between them.
Meanwhile, Alaric stood among the now thirty-five children.
He tended to the sick and wounded, providing them with first aid.
"Thank you, Uncle Soldier," one of the kids bowed to him, Alaric smiling in response.
The image of the little girl he couldn't save flashed through his mind.
There had been a lot of people he couldn't save over the years.
Children, elderly, teens, none of them as heavy as the eleven children who had died by his hand.
"I will save you," he gritted his teeth, determined to save these kids and wash away the guilt that, though it had lessened, was still very much there.
"You, come here," he called one of the children, a dark-skinned boy who looked to be in his late teens, and gave him a military radio.
"Keep watch. If anything happens, press this and call me…" He gave the boy instructions.
The boy nodded timidly in understanding.
Done with that, he straightened up. "I am going to take care of the bad guys. Don't leave this place for any reason whatsoever. Whatever you hear outside, don't come out," he warned.
The kids hurriedly nodded.
After several days, some of them even weeks, someone had come to save them.
They weren't going to throw a tantrum. They would listen, for they knew how cruel their captors were.
"Mister, what about the boys who left?" the girl who had spoken to the Auric boys asked.
"That shouldn't concern you. What matters is that I will save you all…" The girl shivered slightly under Alaric's glare.
He wasn't foolishly smitten by children.
He just saw them as the future.
He was harsh when needed and meek when needed, and now he needed to be harsh.
He knew her type, watching others' situations and not her own.
Comparing herself with others, expecting fair treatment.
Such people were ticking time bombs, Karens in hibernation.
"Ok, take care."
With those words, he left the kids, his breaths steady, brows furrowed.
"Their ritual will end in the next two hours." He checked his watch, gaze scanning his environment.
The place was dead quiet, and he didn't know where exactly they were.
Two hours would have been enough to evacuate the kids, but he didn't want the same thing that happened earlier, someone walking out for God knows what.
They might come to answer nature's call or even come and check on the kids.
If he wanted to save the kids, he had to destroy everything so that no one could interfere with the rescue.
Even if he died in the process, so what.
He believed his comrades will come back, the kids saved either way.
"Hey, Silva, what are you doing?" An angry voice pierced his ears, the source his earpiece.
"CT," he replied without an ounce of emotion.
"What the f*ck, get out of there," the voice urged.
"Unable."
"What the…"
Alaric lightly tapped the earpiece, turning off the comms.
He needed full concentration and didn't want anyone to try to talk him out of it.
If he hadn't accidentally killed the eleven children, maybe he would have considered leaving the kids as the mission demanded, but no.
No, even then he wouldn't, he will save as much as he could within the said time.
Not all, but at least more than the two.
He walked slowly, moving from hut to hut, each empty.
Luckily, the buildings in the village were not many.
Three more buildings left.
He hid behind the shrubs closest to the first of the three.
If he had his crew with him, it would have been easy to know whether people were in or not, but now he had to depend on himself.
He took out his fiber optic probe and pushed it through a gap between the mud walls.
On his feed, he noticed three people standing guard in the small hut.
Brows furrowed in confusion, he adjusted the direction, noticing a large cellar door behind them.
"Bingo!" He smiled.
This was where they were all gathered.
A thought crossed his mind. Throwing several grenades in there would do the job, collapse the building onto them and block their path, but then he remembered what happened the last time he did something like that.
"What if there are children there…" he thought.
"Change of plans. I must attack after I check it out." He pulled out the device and rose to his feet.
Most would have moved towards the window, but there was guards peeking their head through, both by the only windows into the room, the door closed.
"How do I get in…" An idea popped into his mind. "Yes, that should work."
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A/N
5/5