Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 215: Burning Ring of Fire

[Suggested song for this Chapter – Heart of Courage, Two Steps from Hell]

The Rebel soldiers lay in wait for oh two hundred to tick by.

For Indy, Loveday, Arrie and Opal, there was no excitement, just hearts pounding with fear and silent prayers they and their friends would survive the night.

They had seen too much gore now to take any pleasure in battle.

The fresh recruits were mostly still bright eyed and bushy tailed. Arrie thought sadly that that would soon be beaten out of them...

Or maybe not if Niko and Baer were the blueprints. They seemed to maintain a kind of wild delight in soldiering, like they were cut from Viking cloth.

"Five minute countdown until the armoury goes up," she told her soldiers.

At exactly midnight, an absolutely massive explosion rang out through the previously silent night.

It was so loud that there could not be a soul in Squeaking Point, or indeed the surrounding townships, who had missed hearing it.

The boom was accompanied by a huge mushroom cloud of fire and smoke that erupted from the armoury into the black sky, turning night into day as it burned.

Bits and pieces of shrapnel rained down across the town, smashing through rooves and plummeting into the ground.

There were a few beats of delay among the Rebel soldiers as they recovered from the shockwaves and the deafening sound.

Then, their sergeants rose to their feet and started shouting orders.

"Light the detonating cord!" yelled Arrie.

The shouts of enemy soldiers could just be heard from the centre of town.

Two Rebel soldiers ran for the detonating cord and lit it, racing back to the shelter of a ditch running alongside the road, where the rest of their Section waited for them.

"Cover your ears!" Arrie shouted.

They all lay crouched together waiting for the cord to burn down. Seconds later, another series of massive explosions rang out from all sides of the town, and a huge wall of fire burst to life like a pyrotechnics display, rapidly joining together to form a giant burning circle.

It was eerily beautiful, thought Arrie. Kind of like what she imagined the entrance to hell to look like.

The heat was immediately intense, and she realised there was no way they were going to be standing any closer to the flames than where they were currently crouched.

"Alright, spread out," she shouted above the crackle and roar of the fire. "Take your places and make sure you can see your neighbour on each side so there are no gaps. We’ll stand far enough back that we don’t singe our eyebrows. If the grass catches alight and you’re in danger, retreat as far as necessary to stay safe."

The Rebel soldiers took their places guarding the perimeter and waited to see what would happen next.

The townsfolk had been secretly gathering in a handful of the largest houses as far as possible from the armoury as the night wore on. The houses were now packed to the gunwales with people, mothers trying to keep their babies and fractious toddlers quiet. Long queues forming for the toilets.

It was with relief that Casey lead his people out of the crowded houses. He and their military leaders stood together, urging the people on.

"Come on, come on," Casey hissed. "Women and children first. Then adults who aren’t soldiers. Any soldiers who aren’t stationed on the escape route, follow up the rear with me."

The soldiers who were ordered to man the escape route flew off to take up their positions, rushing the people along single file and as silently as possible.

Niko stood at the ready behind the warehouse. He wiped his brow with relief when he saw the first of the young families appear, silhouetted in the half-light cast by the fires.

He watched the perimeter flames on either side of him. They were still one hundred metres apart, but that gap could close at any minute with the strong westerly wind that was blowing.

"Right, let’s go, let’s go!" he called to the women. "Follow behind me. Go as fast as you can."

A long string of people followed behind Niko like ants, making their way towards the esplanade and the sea. It was a twenty minute walk, but it would take longer for those carrying children, the elderly and possessions.

Casey waited until the last of his people had joined the long snaking queue leaving their village, then he and a handful of his soldiers took up positions at the rear, keeping an eye out for the Emperor’s men, swords drawn as they walked facing backwards.

Two of his sergeants laid a line of fuel down as they went, closing the missing piece of the perimeter fire before running back to join them.

The Emperor’s soldiers who had survived the blast had banded together under the most senior man left alive, Captain Phillips. He gathered the ragged troops, their faces blackened by soot, the smoke starting to make breathing difficult.

"Follow me men, let’s find a way out of this inferno!" he shouted.

He didn’t give a shit if the townsfolk were escaping. The Captain assumed that the survivors were running for their lives, just like them.

The soldiers ran down an empty street behind their leader, heading for the open fields they knew lay beyond it.

Reaching the end of the road, the Captain saw that there was a ring of fire burning on the edge of the town. It was growing larger as it started to consume the houses closest to it. The wind was blowing in a westerly direction, pushing the fire out towards the fields and away from the ocean.

"This way men!" called their Captain, starting to run back in the opposite direction as it became clear they would struggle to find a way out on the western side of town.

An arrow flew through the flames and struck one of the soldiers at the rear.

"We’re under attack, Captain!" came a shout, as another arrow pierced through the flames and took a man in the leg.

Rebel soldiers under Indy’s command had caught a glimpse of the group through the flickering wall of flames.

"Let’s go men!" the Captain lead the soldiers behind the cover of some nearby houses, though they were starting to go up in flames right before their eyes.

As the Captain lead his men back the way they had come, it became clear there was no retreating towards the east; the flames were being driven towards them by the westerlies.

The Captain felt a rising sense of panic. They needed to find a way out of this circle of fire before the wind drove it right over the top of them!

He chose another road that lead towards the west and pelted down it until they were close to the wall of fire. At the other end of the long road, a towering wall of flames was starting to spread towards them.

They would soon be sandwiched in the middle unless they could find a way through...