Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 145: Bust a Nut

After Smithton they had detoured north to Stanley. The town was relatively small, less than a thousand people, but there were some influential people who had retired there, so Delphi had included it in their propaganda route.

They started their leaflet drops at the southern end of the town well after midnight, and dawn was just breaking when they regrouped at the northern end, weary from a night of exertion and watchfulness, and ready for some sleep.

"Umm, General," said Wolf, pointing through some houses towards the main road, "that looks like a patrol".

Everyone looked where Wolf was pointing, and sure enough, it was a Section of soldiers on patrol.

They were knocking on doors and appeared to be hunting for something or someone.

"That will be their first response to the leaflets in Smithton," said General Meyer. "They haven’t wasted any time. I suppose they know we can’t have left the area yet."

He looked around at the topography. "Given there’s at least sixteen of them and only ten of us," he politely didn’t mention that five of ’us’ were women, even though he did think that was a disadvantage, "let’s head up to the top of The Nut. We can lay low there for a few hours and get some rest, while they check through the town."

The Nut was a huge volcanic plug that overshadowed the town of Stanley, rising to a towering 500 feet. But it was climbable without ropes and had a flat top, an ideal place for hiding out while getting a clear view of the surrounds.

They all turned to look at The Nut behind them.

Indy’s face paled and she exhaled a little fearful sigh. She was exhausted from no sleep last night and that looked like one hell of a hike wearing her heavy pack.

"I’ll carry your pack for you Indy," Niko offered her, uncharacteristically reserved.

"No thanks," she said flatly, pulling the straps on her backpack tight and marching off down the road after General Meyer.

The team walked up the steep but well-kept pathway leading to the top of The Nut.

"Oh my God," puffed Arrie to Indy, "I think my backpack is going to pull me back down the hill. It’s almost heavier than me and this extra downward drag is killing me."

"Don’t give up baby, keep marching," huffed Indy, who didn’t feel much better than Arrie despite being almost a foot taller than the tiny girl.

"I can carry your pack Araminta," called Baer gruffly.

He was bringing up the rear with Opal.

Wolf stepped in smoothly. Without even asking the girl, he plucked the pack off her back and added it to one shoulder, where he didn’t seem to even struggle with the additional weight.

She looked up at him gratefully and he patted her cute bob.

"Keep going Wonder Woman, you can do it," he encouraged her.

"I can run up this path now I don’t have that pack," she replied cheerily, taking a few running strides.

"Loveday, do you need a hand?" called Niko.

"All good, Nik."

Alton was setting the pace at the front. He stopped and turned back to check the patrol with his binoculars.

"Shit, they’ve spotted us!" he said under his breath to Delphi.

"How do you know?"

"One of their guys is staring right back at me through binoculars!"

"Let’s go troops!" he shouted. "We’ve been seen! Time to run!"

"The only way is up now," he grunted to Delphi. "We’ll have to work out how to get down without running into the patrol or make a stand on the top of The Nut."

"Time to bust a ’nut’, privates," called Niko, as they all kicked up a gear into a run.

"Ohhh," everyone groaned at his bad joke.

"Getting off this mountain could be a hard ’nut’ to crack," Wolf joined in.

"Nooo, Wolf, even worse," panted Loveday.

"But it took your mind off running up this steep path. Keep breathing deeply, you can do it," he encouraged Loveday.

The girls were really starting to labour, not being as fit as the men, and with the added disadvantage of being smaller, the extra weight of those packs was a real killer. Bogden was nipping at Delphi’s heels, encouraging her up the mountain.

When they made it to the top, the girls bent over, resting their hands on their knees and dropping their heads to catch their breath.

Alton and Niko sprinted over to the southern edge of the rock to check how long they had to work out how to escape or where to make a stand.

Delphi put her pack down and started to check out the flat top for any terrain that might be advantageous in a pitched fight. There was nothing obvious, but there was the old chairlift.

She hurried over to Alton.

"There’s no cover up here. We either form-up now and start shooting, or we need to escape ASAP. I think we can get down in a hurry without them seeing us using the old chairlift, but we have to go now!"

"It would be much better not to engage this early. If we kill a patrol they’ll send a whole Company after us," said Alton. "Where’s this chairlift?"

They ran over to the old construction. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"The townsfolk have removed the chairs, which is perfect for us," said Delphi. "It looks like the wires are still in good order, they must use them for something."

"Ferrying stuff up and down probably," replied Alton. "Alright, let’s do this! Folks, time to rock and roll," he shouted.

With everyone assembled, he showed them the technique.

"We have to get out of here now, and we need to be gone before they crest the peak. Clip your backpacks onto this line and zip down. Either hold on extremely tight or clip yourself into your pack with the harness. Let’s go," he ordered. "Arrie, you’re up first. Clip yourself in."

Arrie’s eyes were like saucers, but Alton didn’t slow down.

"Niko, over here, Lieutenant!"

Niko and Alton hoisted Arrie up and clipped the pack onto the wire with Arrie dangling below it, her arms through the straps and a front strap buckling her in.

"Good luck," General Meyer grunted, giving her a hard push.

Delphi and Loveday watched as Araminta flew down the wire at a hair-raising speed, her tiny legs dangling below her pack. She looked completely helpless.

"I wonder what happens at the end?" said Delphi to no one in particular.

Arrie had had the same thought as she hurtled down the hill at what felt like the speed of light.

"Help, help, help," she whispered a little mantra to herself, too frightened to let out so much as a squeal.

She tried to see how the chairlift ended, because she knew she was going to hit whatever it was, hard.

"Fucky, fucky, fuck, fuck!" she hissed.