Chapter 6:  Harsh, Cold reality.

  “Move out! Gear up!”
Orders were screamed at us once we got there, we followed them accordingly. Strapping up our gear, with our bullet proof vests and grenade bags which required clips, and that was the sound that would stay in our heads. It’s always like that before combat, the quiet times where you really began to fear dying, Ryan felt this, flowing through his veins flowed his adrenaline. The M4 Carbine in his hands felt weightless as they rested on his legs, suspended between his seating position and the waist high concrete block at the bridge, bent.

  “Hey guys, ever watched dragon squad? That Chinese show?”
Battered Isaiah, not knowing exactly what to say to life the spirits of the men. Everybody just shook their heads.
  “Neither did I. Never was a fan of unrealistic movies.”
  He cocked his MP5A4 and was ready for action.

  We were then shown the video of that celebrity; she was right in the center of her scene when we heard the alarm go off. Then all of a sudden, Ryan spotted something. It looked exactly like Tiffany!

  “Boss, go back, and pause it as the alarm goes off and the camera moves 5 inches off original position.”
  Michael does just that, and yes! It was Tiffany!


Tiffany’s point of view, Monday.

  Tiffany woke up with the sun shining in her face, and wind blowing through her window and her curtains were sway with the breeze.

“I Love public holidays!”

  Tiffany says to herself as she just lazes around on her bed, then her phone rings, and she picks it up,

“Hello? Hi Sarah! What? Have lunch with you? Sure! Where? The Chinese restaurant at the top floor of the UOB bank!? Isn’t that so EX? WHAT!? You’re going to pay for me? *Squeal!* How much will that cost you? Free?! You have a voucher? Cool! What time?”


Ryan’s; point of view.

“Oh My God, Oh my God.”

Ryan was in dead shock, she is there… She’s right there. Only those 3 words were running through his head. “Oh my God.” Then another 2 words were slowly added in “Oh my God, help me!” His first mission, not only had he the risk of dying, or losing a limb, he could lose his future wife, his future.

“Ryan are you okay? You don’t seem right…”
Questioned Deborah. Ryan’s suicide drive kicked in. as he turned from the video feed screen

“Yeah, just saw someone I know…”
His head tilted down, his eyes to the ground.
“It’s Tiffany. She’s there.”
Tears began to form in his eyes, he was not exactly the kind of person who loses control of his emotions, let alone cry, but this overwhelmed him. The fact that someone he loved was in that tower, held hostage by a bunch of Extremists.

“Oh my God, Help us… Ryan, I’m so sorry.”
Deborah was trying her best to comfort him, placing her arm on his shoulder and coming down to his eye level

“Listen, I know this won’t mean much, but I know that we’re going to save her. Yes, we are going to get her out of there. Don’t worry”
Ryan lifting his eyes a bit to see her.

“Team Bravo is moving in! All units standby! Lock and load, guys we’re moving in!”

Ryan’s emotions then got the better of him and he darted across the bridge without a thought in his mind; he was running on instincts, to protect what mattered most to him. His squad mates followed up behind him, struggling to him up with him.

“Bravo 3 hold position! HOLD!”

Ryan suddenly snapped back into his body and everything was still in a blur of shock.

“Kendriks what the hell were you doing!?”

Ryan stayed silent, knowing what he had just done and regretted doing it.

“Okay, now we got things under control, we’ll move to the ground floor and clear it of hostilities. Then we check the elevators and see if they are functioning! If not, we’ll take the stairs!”

Daryl’s voice was distant, it was something like a strong wind was shielding his words from Ryan’s ears, shock had got him, fear had eaten him, and he was now no greater than an ordinary pet dog; following instructions without question, relying on the basics, and no will of his own. His squad moved to the bank structure, parallel to the ground floor.

“Hostiles, 4 o’clock, low! Open fire!”

There were several men at the mouth of the entrance, struggling to stay in cover and fire at the incoming squad at the same time. They looked rather calm for a bunch of rag-tag terrorists out from no where. From the distance Michael and his squad were at, he couldn’t exactly make out the faces, but the skin color was distinctly Chinese. Benjamin was the first to start the gun fight between the 2, firing 8 rounds in 2 bursts. Then the terrorists returned the favor, going full auto at the general direction of the squad, obviously the bullets flew meters off their targets. Dust began to kick up as the bullets pulverized the marble walls of the bank and the entrance of the tower, also shattering the glass of the entrance itself.

“Kendriks! Use your M4!”

Michael barked. Ryan lifted his rifle and took aim through all the dust, smoke and confusion. One thing in his mind was clear. Who ever was at the end of his sight was going to be dead man. Through out all this time of shock, Ryan was thinking about one thing, Tiffany. This was what he was thinking about.

Chapter 7: Life s’ a bitch, School s’ a puppy dog.

7 years earlier, Friday, March 25th
Ryan’s first day meeting Tiffany.

“God it is hot and humid in Singapore! Why did I agree to come here!? No one speaks proper English I can understand, the food here sucks! Why did I come here? Even back home things were better! Why!? Why!? Why?! Did you do this to me!?”

  As usual, Ryan talks to God on the way to school, whining and bitching about everything under the sun… Including the sun, by the way.  Ryan managed to get into Bartley Secondary School, with its high majority of foreigners compared to other schools in Singapore it was the place to go to if you just came in from another country, namely China, however being Chinese and being a foreigner doesn’t quite help when your from America and only speaks English.
  Ryan passed by Maris Stella High school, at this time it was still a high point of violence between the 2 schools, with Mount Vernen Secondary in the middle, being the neutral party.
  It was safe to walk pass the school at this time, just as the gates opened and the school kids were being dropped by their parents at the gate. As Ryan walked towards his school gate he felt a rough push at his right shoulder, he turned.

“Surprise Surprise, it’s that American boy!”

  It was Kalep and his gang of hopeless discipline problem-ed boys, his hair was filled with lead, because somehow his hair always managed to stay flat on his head shape, even when he jumped, heavy hair... Ryan wanted to avoid another fight, although he had no training in much combat, thanks to his father he was though and able to defend himself well.

“Look guys, I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to humiliate you in front of both our schools, so if you’d back off…”

Ryan pushes one of them back, one who was getting too close.

“And run back to your school and find yourself some gay assed people to F--- I’d really appreciate it.”

  John, who was the most favorable of Kalep’s gang, who was not very handsome but had the muscles of a cow, threw a punch. Ryan dodged it, caught his arm and threw him at his school gate. A crowd was gathering and Bartley’s own group of "hopelesses” were on their way. The rest of the gang charged, and Ryan stood his ground.
  Ryan can’t remember quite what happened after he did that, probably got his head smashed in and his limbs broken. Of course these weren’t true. The next thing he knows, he is lying in bed with a gorgeous girl by his bedside smiling at him.

“Heeaaa-Vaaann…”

Ryan was thinking to himself, as a teenage boy he wasn’t much different from any other his age, hormones were to blame, they Always are to be blamed.

“You’ve been out for the last 3 hours… How do you feel?”

Asked this “angel”

Ryan couldn’t really think straight. His head was still spinning and every muscle in his body felt numb or aching, and his eyes hurt from the glaring light. The place smelt of air-freshener goodness and the air-con was luxurious.
“Am I in heaven? Or is this a good dream with hot girls and lots of sweet chocolates…?”

Ryan looks around the room… It was the sick bay, common white florescent lights were used, and it was roughly about enough to place 12 beds to each other, crammed into every nook and cranny. In this room, there were 6, each with curtains, incase privacy were needed.

“Okay… I guess not… Only got one good looking girl… I feel like I was run over by Miss Silva…”

The girl laughed. Miss Silva is a really over weight teacher, who’d got the nick name, the bowling ball for a good reason. She replied.

“Thanks, I’m Tiffany by the way, what is your name?”

Ryan lifted his aching hand for a hand shake but failed to lift it higher than his chin.

“I’m Ryan, Ryan Kendriks. So why are you here? Next to me, alone? Hasn’t school started, or are you so sweet that you’d rather look after an injured man than study in that boring classroom?”

Tiffany laughed,

“Yes, Yes I’m a sweet girl”

And she smiled sheepishly. Just then a teacher walked into the room and cleared her throat, she had her hair in a bun and had something like a chopstick in her hair, and she had a typical pear shaped body.

“Ryan! Bad enough that you were involved in a fight, now your trying to flirt with one of the school’s red cross members!”

She turned to Tiffany,

“Thank you Tiffany, you have helped a lot by watching him, you may go back to class now.”

As Tiffany was getting up she looked at Ryan, and whispered.

“After school, if you’re better, come find me, class 3B, see you”

Then she left. Miss Tan then asked what happened…

Chapter 8: History, does it matter?

Later that day, after school Ryan made his way to Tiffany’s class. There she was, with a group of friends she waited, just standing there chatting with them and giggling. As Ryan went closer Tiffany asked her friends to leave, worse thing you can ask a group of 3 teenaged girls to do… They started giggling uncontrollably and whispering to each other. Tiffany smiled and said

“Ignore them; they’re always like this… So how are you feeling?”

Ryan stretched his back a bit and took a deep breath of the clean air from the cemetery next door to his school, well mostly; Maris Stella was blocking the direct air.

“Much better, I feel so good I could jump out the window from here!…”

Tiffany smiled, and inhaled before she spoke

“Nah, I think it IS the air! I feel like jumping too!”

They both laughed and began talking about other things, walking through the empty corridors of the school. There they became good friends almost instantly; however nothing really sparked them to be together as a couple. Ryan always got into fights, and although he was always had minor injuries, he was never really blamed for starting the fights, Kalep was rather famous, even in Bartley. For every fight, Tiffany volunteered to go to the sick bay and look after Ryan, who’d probably gotten beaten up on the way to school.

  Tiffany was a bright student, who didn’t really need to study to pass any of her subjects. So she had lots of time on her hands as she only needed to study 2 hours a day to get an A+ in any test, she helped Ryan in some of his subjects when he was weak in them, they both improved and got to the top class in Sec 4.

  During the school holidays that day they both hung out together as friends and Ryan hung out with some of Tiffany’s friends, during the December holidays they both had partners, neither of them got jealous or anything, but more of; enjoyed the extra company. Then as Tiffany broke up Ryan comforted her the best he could, when Ryan broke up Tiffany comforted him the best she could. It was really a great friendship they shared, nothing more, and the idea of a relationship between them did come to their minds every once in awhile but never got materialized.

  They passed their ‘O’ Levels and got applications to CJC, then that’s where they actually considered being more than just friends.

  Tuesday, January 22nd, Post ‘O’ level 6 month break. 5 years earlier.

  Ryan had got a part time job in Starbucks, he was now 17, as he saw his 17th birthday on the 21st, and he was planning a birthday party with his friends on Saturday 26th of Jan. He was working when he got a call on his mobile phone.

“Hello?”

“Hi Ryan! Its Tiff, I have a really great surprise for you on Saturday! Just wait ok? So how are you? Not suffering from deadly hangovers from last night, with all your illegal booze!? Kidding! Anyway is your work place safe from nasty flesh eating termites?”

Tiffany joked at the end of her sentence.

“I’m fine, and my job? Yes it is safe from the criticism of the French, Thank you for being so concerned…”

Tiffany laughed at the not-so entertaining humor.

  Saturday, January 26th
Joanne’s condominium; at the heat of the party

The place was booming with a mix of modern pop, the clatter of plates and utensils and the chattering coming from the 12 people inside. Tiffany and her gang were eating and gossiping as usual. Ryan didn’t have many friends, he’d just ask his friends to bring along their friends and so on. Like a random meet because you won’t know who is going to be at your door.

  James, who’d Ryan, met in his early days of his Starbucks part time career. Invited a whole score of girls, add them up with the girl-friends of Tiffany and you’ll get 9 girls… Tiffany had brought about 3 of them, including the house sponsor, Joanne; Whom Ryan did fancy a lot, but didn’t really need a girlfriend at the moment. Ryan then felt a tap on his shoulder as he was talking to some of the girls that James had brought along.

“Hey, come on, I told you I had a surprise for you didn’t I? Follow me.”

Ryan excused himself, and left with Tiffany outside to the other side of the beautiful elevated estate. There they walked in the moon light, mostly silent. Then as they we’re walking past the point where this side of the estate looks over the other side, Tiffany stopped and looked over and asked Ryan to do the same. She then said softly in a voice just more than a whisper.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It is.”

“Makes you think about your life, doesn’t it? About all the things you’ve done, right or wrong, all the things you could have done, or if you regret them… I’ve been thinking, about what I want in my life, and about what I’ve done with my whole life. I’m not sure if I have made the best choices, or the right ones… Or if I had screwed up completely… It makes me sad, because I’m me aren’t I? I should know what I’m doing shouldn’t I?”

Ryan saw a tear in her eyes, but she turned away from him to gaze upon the view.

“No, not even the wisest know if they’ve done was the best thing they could have done… No one knows for sure if you’ve totally screwed up, and even if you’d see that you did, God knows otherwise. We are in His plan. All outcomes are perfectly designed avalanches, one choice affects another, or another’s choice. Don’t trouble yourself with such things, you’ve done what you’ve done, regret them none… Wh-“

Tiffany put her finger on his lips, interrupting him; Then stared into his eyes, which were a bit shocked at first then they swelled down to eyes of tenderness and calmness. Then she kissed him and pulled herself against him with her arms around him. It was their best moment together, as far as they’ve known each other for the last 7 years.

  They stood there in that single kiss for awhile, then after awhile they stopped and gazed over the view for the next few minutes, both thinking deeply. Tiffany started.

“I don’t know what I did was right, or wrong. I don’t know if it was the best thing I could have done, or screwed up completely…”

Ryan, turned to her, smiled, put his hand on her arm and said, softly like the voice she first spoke to him at the moment.

“Tiffany, I’m not sure, but I liked it…  I’ll think about it, ok? And I’ll let you know.”

Then he gave her a hug and said,

“Don’t worry about the future if you don’t know what it’ll be… Enjoy the present while it lasts. God will decide what is to happen, so let us not bother Him with our insecurities…”

Then Ryan looks at his watch,

“Tiff, you can go ahead and head back first, I’ll stay here and think about some stuff… Well, concerning you…”

Tiffany looked amused, and beamed while saying

“Ok! I’ll wait for you there then!”

Chapter 9: Hell on earth.

Ryan remember that last phrase at this moment, more than he ever remembered it, the sight of the moonlight reflecting off Tiffany’s skin and her partial silhouette figure in the fading light. Turning away from him and walking away...

Why am I thinking about that moment at a time like this!?

“Kendriks! What the Hell are you waiting for? Fire!”

Ryan took aim as he would during shooting practice. He fired. The person who had been at the end of his sight was lucky; he’d be shot in the head, causing instant death, no pain, no suffering.

“Taking aim Sir!”

Ryan replied in a strong voice, like he’d usually do. Daryl then made a small announcement.

“Hey hey! Looks like our Ryan has come back to earth! How are you doing there Ryan!?”

Ryan replied in a ‘duh’ voice

“Fine, thank you, we have to get to those explosives first then to the hostages right?”

Nathan replied

“Rodger that!”

“But when the terrorists know that we’ve unarmed the explosives, won’t they kill the hostages?”

There was a bit of surprise in the eyes of Michael. He didn’t really think about that. His Ego, though flattened a bit, didn't really matter to him; and that was going to save many lives.

“Acknowledged! Ok guys, we’ll split up into 2 teams! Kendriks, Fong, Debby, Mario, with Coulder, the rest of you, come with me.”

Then he began relaying the situation back to command as Ryan started shooting at the 4 terrorists at the entrance who were still alive. The bullets from Ryan’s M4 blew holes in the heads of those who’d been stupid enough to be standing outside the cover of the Chinese stone statues of that dog looking dragon, which had been placed there because of Chinese superstitious beliefs of “Feng Sui”.

“Fong! Debby! I want you 2 to get to the side and blow a hole in the glass and check out the elevators! If their jammed, locate the stairs and secure it! Go!”

Mario and Ryan took down the last of the terrorists, and the team began moving forward. Team 2 split up and Debby and Fong went round the other side. Neil, Isaiah and Ryan moved up through the entrance. Team 1 followed right behind them.


Fong-

Fong moved to the side of the building, with Debby following right behind him. Through the glass he could see that the place was relatively clear of hostilities.

“Debby, we’re going to shoot through the glass ok? Hostiles will be crawling all over our asses if we don’t move quickly.”

Just as he finish the sentence and turned back to face the glass, the glass panel exploded and the whole wall came crashing down. Certainly 2 or more people were firing fully automatic Ak-47s into the glass wall; bullets were popping by their heads and Debby started to panic, not knowing what to do. She mumbled as thoughts went through her head. About 9 rounds later, she mumbled

“Grenade”

She thought for a second, and realized what she had just said “Grenades! Right!” Then she reached down to her belt and grabbed a M84 grenade and threw it as fast and as hard as possible in the general direction of the incoming fire. The explosion rocked the entire ground floor, causing the nearby glass walls to also explode, as the grenade fragmented into metal shards cutting through the flesh of their aggressors.

Benjamin-

The walls to the side of the building collapsed and the place was a mess of flying glass, giving his team minor cuts on the areas not protected by reinforced Kevlar.  

Damn what in the Hell was that? Wait a minute, that was a M84!

"Deborah!"

Benjamin shouted as he charged straight in after the glass had all fallen, Benjamin, Fidarham and Sim went straight to the elevator area in the hallway and shouted “CLEAR!” Deborah looked up from the prone position that she had previously had been and shouted “Clear!” and Debby climbed through the new opening and pulled the shocked and wounded Fong up.

“What is the matter with him?”

“He took half the wall of glass as it came down; he is badly cut up and is in a state of shock. Fong? Are you ok?”

“I’ll live... And I'm 100% ready to kill something”

“Alright, here we split up, the elevators are obviously jammed, so our only option is the stairs,  my team will be taking the service ladder up to the 30th floor to disable the bombs, we will be awaiting your signal Coulder, Isaiah’s team will be taking the stairs straight up to the top floor. Okay? Let’s get a move on!”

Said Michael and the teams split up and Benjamin grabbed a hold of the center of the elevator shaft and stuck his knife in sideways, prying the doors open enough to be opened the rest of the way using his hands.

“Okay guys, I’ve got an open elevator, let us move up the 30th floor and take a break there while we wait for Coulder’s team ok?”

Isaiah-

  Debby shot the lock to the door leading to the stairs up, and kicked in the door. But just as she kicked it in the door blew out in a fiery display, the door was bobby trapped. Debby flew back from the impact, and landed on the ground about 2m away from the door, thankfully her days in the army; Predating her career as a Police officer were those with a bit of Ju-Jitsu.
  With the force blowing her right back, she took the impact on her side as she went down, rolling horizontally; Getting bruised a bit but nothing as serious as it could have been. She then got back up with a steaming boot, burnt but not ruined.

“Jesus, an inflammatory bomb… God be with us man…”

“Ok, let’s be careful people, they’ve probably trapped the whole damn staircase.”
Coulder said in a stern voice. Ryan bent down to Deborah concerned.

“Deb, you ok?”

“Just a bit knocked up but I’m fine.”
Picking up her weapon and moving on.

The team moved into the stair well and looked up to an eternity of stairs to the top level. The looked through the center hole in the stair well to find a hanging grenade on the 3rd level.

“Careful guys, we’ve got a string trap here.”

  Coulder’s voice echoed up all the way to the top level. The team moved up a couple of levels very wearily looking for a transparent fishing But just as they were coming up to the 3rd level they heard a man screaming in Arabic and jumping out of a corner of the stair well.

  The man was distinctly Middle-Eastern, and very young no older than 17. He had explosives strapped to his body like ammunition strapped to Rambo. Then before anyone could do anything, he blew himself up sending burning hot pieces of meat flying in every direction along with shrapnel cutting into the concrete with deadly speed. The whole team was at least partially covered in blood of this man or hit by a burning strip of flesh; which by the way, hurt like Hell. Ryan, who was taking point for the team at that point in time, got it the worse. Shrapnel stabbed him in the helmet and the metal plates in his vest, being stopped but sending him backwards into a wall...
  
  Ryan was covered in blood, with his ears ringing from the amount of explosives that went off. Knocked out of consciousness for a few minutes.


Chapter 10: Dreamer’s wish

January the 26th 5 years earlier, later that night after Ryan’s birthday party was finished and everyone had said their well wishes.

Ryan had made some new friends that night; most were the friends of James. He bid everyone farewell and thanked Joanne for the place and told her that they’ll talk sometime soon. Everyone was going back from which they came, Ryan included.

“Hey Tiff! Wait up!”

Tiffany turned back to the door, and saw Ryan running out of it with his black formal long sleeved shirt on and black pants, giving him a stylish look, with his hair gel holding his hair in an old fashion flat hair style; Ryan’s silhouette looked good. Ryan caught up with Tiffany, and put his arm around her shoulder.

“What a party eh? Tiff… I have to tell you something…”

Tiffany waited in anticipation for his answer, she really knew him very well, and could tell that the answer she was about to get wasn’t going to be the one most desired… However her hope doesn’t fade in a split second and she continued hoping for the best…

“Tiffany, I can’t really say how happy I know that you feel for me… But…”

Tiffany’s hope had now completely gone south, and her tears were on the brink of coming through her eyes.

“But what…?”

“But I think we’ve got to get a coffee first…”

“Huh? What?”

“Coffee! Come on I’ll treat you!”

“Uhh… Okay…”

Tiffany stayed silent… It’s obviously that she wasn’t very happy… They both walked to the near by Starbucks, just outside the estate. There they sat, sipping coffee staring at each other… Tiffany’s tears started to fall…

“You hate me don’t you?”

Said Tiffany, her tears stuck in her eyes, unable to roll down her cheeks

“Hate you? Why would I hate you?”

“I mean, I'm your friend, and I don't think I should've said what I said… I'm really not sure if I really meant it or if I just had an urge to say it at that single moment of time… I'm not sure how I feel for you exactly... I mean I do Love you, but maybe not in the way that you might want me to...”

Ryan pulled his chair next to hers and placed his head next to her's. Whispering gently

“Tiffany… Tiffany… We're all confused every now and then…”

Ryan continues, putting his arm around her in a comforting one-armed hug. She then rests her head against his.

“Tiffany… I'm not sure what exactly you feel about me… Or if you are even sure how you feel for me… But, it doesn't really matter to me now, because I love you…”

Tiffany turns her head and looks into Ryan’s eyes. Ryan can see that the tears that are falling are starting to stop, and that she has hope in them once again.

“What?”

“Tiffany, I love you. You believe that?”

She sees the truth in his eyes that is undeniable.

“In what way…?”

He stops in his tracks… He obviously doesn’t know what to say… Who would in that situation? Because in truth, he’d like to stay just friends with Tiffany, and also in truth, he’d like to settle down with Joanne… “What do I say? What do I say?” Ryan just couldn’t think straight, he didn’t know what to say… It was a hard dilemma for him; break this poor girl’s heart? Which he knew was very sensitive and kind hearted… Averagely pretty, nice, polite, adorable... The kind of person who’d you would actually like to raise a family with. Or a girl who was somehow stunningly beautiful, who’d he could have a great sex life with, who was rich, and had parents were willing to give money away like it was just rice made paper… “Choose now” said a voice at the back of his head. But if he chooses Tiffany now, wouldn’t they break up in a couple of years? And wouldn’t he just miss the chance of having the greatest wife of all time? Then he remembered one thing that he had said to Tiffany before… “To break out of dilemmas, just choose and don’t regret.” He made his choice.

“Ryan? You have to tell me very truthfully… How do you love me?”

Ryan looked straight into her eyes and identified pure yearning for those few words to certify her want for a relationship with him…
Ryan leaned forward, continuing to stare into Tiffany’s eyes. Tiffany was lost, she didn’t know what to do, but naturally she drew closer, and she leaned in as well.

Chapter 11: The full 30rounds

Ryan regained cautiousness. He was lying down outside the door to level 58… The rest of his team was sitting next to him, idle.

“Hey buddy, how are you feeling?” Said Coulder, whom had carried him the whole time he was out. Sweating in the warm body amour, and the amount of effort done carrying him up thousands of steps.

Ryan felt his body go from numb to number…

“Numb… Hey how long was I out? What did I miss?”

Isaiah looked down and remembered what just had happened.

Isaiah- since Ryan blacked out.

Everyone was in pain but made as little verbal announcements of pain as they possibly could, if not, that man’s friends would turn up and they’d be in deep shit.

“Everyone ok?” Whispered Coulder

“Kendriks is down… Wait, no he is breathing… Should we leave him here?” Whispered Fong

“Hell no we don’t! We need him when we reach topside!” Hissed Deborah

“Ok, Isaiah, can you carry him up the stairs as we clear the way for you?” Whispered Neil

“Ok let’s do it” Replied Isaiah

And that is what they did; things went mostly smoothly, just a few traps here and there, until they reached the 45th floor.

Deborah-

45th floor was only a few stairs away, Fong and Neil were leading the way but they were getting dead tired climbing all the stairs and checking if the place was clear of traps and suicide bombers. Neil did a hand signal for a trap and stayed low, crawling towards the tread like fishing line. It was really hard to see such things because the whole stair well was painted white. Neil was about 4 feet away from the wire when a grenade dropped out from nowhere, Deborah watched in horror has Neil began to panic and bolt into the direction of the wire. Of course she couldn’t see it, but it was taken into account. Neil went foot first into the wire and an explosive that was taped to the near by wall went off. Bang and the explosive blew fragments of concrete and nails to chew off the flesh of Neil’s neck and head, just then, the grenade which looked cylinder shaped turned out to be a flash bang grenade… And it went off right next to Neil’s head as he fell backwards down the stairs. Bang and blood started to pour out from his ears… It was like a horror movie gone terribly wrong. Deborah was in shock; she looked up to the other flight of steps of the 2nd half of the 45th floor and took fire. Bullets ricochet off the walls and railings and blew fragments of concrete into her back. She jumped to the 45th level and opened fire at the gunman, and blew holes in his chest. Fong ran to Neil and started searching for a pulse in his veins, nothing.

“Command, Bravo 8 here, man down, Neil has been hit and he is dead. Out”

Deborah inhaled sharply and exhaled, it was the most horrifying thing she had seen in her entire life. As she was recovering from the shock of the blast, she heard another man screaming, charging towards her with a button in his hand and an entire range of explosives strapped to his body, like the first man they encountered. She lifted her weapon and fire as fast as her MP5A4 could manage… The bullets tore at the man’s clothes and went straight through his body and wires which the explosives were connected to, and tearing through the ski mask the man was wearing, 30rounds later she let her finger off the trigger and started running upwards; she dropped her empty clip to the floor and jammed in another magazine with another 30. Charging up the stair case with her was Fong, and Isaiah who had dropped Ryan when the explosives went off and heard that there was a man down.

“Debby! Watch your 6! Check the corners and make sure they don’t get by you!”

Fong’s words echoed through the seemingly empty stair well, however as soon as the echoes echoed back at them, the attention of a million men was caught and what seemed like a thousand voices filled the stair well, military boots were heard rushing down the stairs, and indistinct words were muttered by the hand full. They were martyrs; willing to die for their cause, all of them. A man jumped out from the common corner of the stair well, only to be shot trice by Fong, who had changed to burst fire mode. The men who had come out of the 50th level were rushing down, perhaps they’ve been stationed there because they knew that some point or another that these invading men who had come to save the hostages would have made it this far, and this was like a stopping wall. Their boots clattered against the concrete steps, and their breathing was labored. They’ve been sprinting for the last 3 levels, but here is where they would hit the wall.

“There are about 30 odd men! Open fire!”

Bullets from the Terrorists affordable weapons flew from their guns to the walls. Ingrams, Aks, MP5A1s… The dust which was picking up blocked the visibility that was the saving grace of team 2. Fong, Debby and Coulder fired back at the muzzle flashes which were all too visible, puffs of light formed in the smoke and dust that was kicked up. Coulder threw a fragmentation grenade into the misty scene, causing much damage. Each one of them was scanning for targets through the mist which was now clearing, loading into their machine guns, fresh magazines. As they charged into the mist seeing no targets, they laid their eyes on the next level; the stairs which they tread on now were covered in about 7 odd bodies. As Fong charged up, he tripped on a body of a teenager looking no more than 15 years of age... As he stared a moment at the corpse,  5 other men came running down the next flight of steps, opening fire at Fong, who was now the first inline for the firing squad. He returned fire taking the first of the five down, but as he took aim for the next one; he was shot in the arm carrying his MP5, he ducked below cover and jumped backwards letting Deborah and Isaiah take care of them.

“Fong are you ok?!”

“Just fi…”

Just before he finished that sentence, he felt someone hugging him and arms wrapped around him, he then noticed that something square and hard was against his back, and he realized it was a suicide bomber. The man detonated the explosive, taking Fong with him. Gut and burning flesh now flew through the air once again, impacting into Isaiah and Deborah, who had just killed the other 4 terrorists; they both flew forward down to the ground just like Fong had done previously, seeing almost the same sight, young and beautiful corpses. Then a grenade flew down the center hole, and past the area where they were before it detonated. Deborah got up and started a labored charge once again, lifting her weapon next to her hip, ready to fire at any unlucky guy who was at the end of the barrel.  She just got to the next flight when a burst of machine gun fire from an RPK tore into her side, knocking her off her feet, as she fired in the general direction, thinking that if she was going to die now, she’s take that machine gun down with her. By chance, her 18 rounds which emptied her magazine as she fell hit the man with the machinegun and she was down on the floor.

Chapter 12: Showdown

After Ryan heard from Isaiah what had happened, he looked around him and found Deborah on her side, holding the right side of the abs. He went to her.

“Hey Deb… You’re going to be fine yeah?”

Deborah looked up with tears in her eyes.

“No… I’m dying Ryan… Slowly… I’m losing too much blood, even the improvised bandage isn't holding in enough blood... Ryan... I'm not going to make it…”

“Shhh! Deborah, don’t worry, your not going to die here; I'll promise you that, this will be over and we'll have you medevac-ed from here in no time. Now relax… We’ll get you out of here soon…”

“Lets get a move on shall we?” Says Isaiah cocking his MP5A5

“Let’s roll” Replies Ryan.

They both walk up to the top level, and open the door silently… The hallway was empty, and the entrance to the restaurant was unguarded, but shouts were heard. They moved into the restaurant and noticed that the guards were in the main restaurant, and there was another short corridor to a private bar parallel to the main restaurant.

“On 3 we both throw a flash bang into the main restaurant” Isaiah whispered.

Isaiah clicked on his radio for transmit and he whispered.

“Boss, we're into the restaurant and are now securing the hostages, you are clear to engage, out.”

1… 2… 3… And they both did thus. Readying for the last assault. BANG! The flash bangs went off and the 2 cowboys ran out from the private bar into the main restaurant with guns blazing, the terrorists who weren’t so experienced had dropped their guns and covered their ears, while the more experienced gunmen took aim in the general direction of the hall, Kendriks counted 14 before putting holes in the more experienced downwards to the less experienced, while Coulder took aim for the closest ones first. 4 terrorists went down as the effects were starting to wear off and the terrorists began firing at them, most of the bullets were close shaves but far misses, 2 bullets hit Ryan’s Kevlar vest but tore through it. Boring craters in his body and a bullet hit Isaiah in the foot. Just as it had begun, it had ended already. There were roughly about 50 hostages crammed into the space. Suddenly the door to the kitchen opened and 3 terrorists came out with guns pointed to the heads of 3 hostages. In a strong Chinese accent, a man went,

“Drop your weapons or these people will die…”

Ryan looked at Isaiah and twitched his right eye brow. And began lowering his weapon, just then, Isaiah opened fire and Kendriks followed, taking down 2 terrorists while Kendriks charged straight into the third terrorist and smashed his M4 into the hand which was carrying the Ingram. Taking the arm holding the hostage of the last terrorist he twisted it upwards and broke it, breaking all 3 joints with it. It was over…

Chapter 13: Fate

  “Boss, we’ve got the hostages secured.” Isaiah said casually through his radio, turning up the volume as he checked the rest of the restaurant, ensuring there weren’t anymore nasty surprises to blow up when he least expected them to.

  “Tiff!” Ryan was yelling into the crowd, his words becoming lost in the murmur of  the hostages, talking amongst themselves, some of them bursting out into tears in relief that they were no longer hostages.

  “Tiff!” He repeated but there wasn’t a reply, the small crowd started thanking Ryan who was struggling through the crowd, looking for the girl he loved.

“Boss?” Isaiah asked, turning up the volume even further, gunfire erupting like thunder from a chasm into his ear. Isaiah quickly changed channels, to the squad main radio, allowing even more gunfire seep into his earpiece. “Anyone on Michael’s team respond… Anyone on this channel?”

“Coulder!” a voice fuzzed through static reception of the squad radio, drowned out by gunfire. “Repeat, Benjamin, is that you?” Isaiah paced towards the staircase, grabbing Ryan’s arm who was still trying to swim through the human crowd.

“Damn it, shes somewhere around here! Isaiah, let me go!” Ryan protested, fighting against Isaiah’s grasp on his arm.

“Everyone! Please move out to the hall and down the stairs please?” Coulder’s words flowed smoothly from his mouth, not a worry or an ounce of stress hung on them. But over the last few months, Ryan had heard these words before, he was hiding something.

“Whats up?” Ryan asked, still turning to look at the sea of bodies for Tiffany.

“Channel 54 Ryan,” He said quietly before turning to the crowd who had just began to move “Alright, in an orderly fashion, faster we get out of here, faster you’ll get back home…”

“Get… th- hostages… Wired… Down…” Ryan could barely make out what the heck was going on as he adjusted his radio, more interested in looking out for Tiffany.

Half the crowd was already in the hallway when the building rocked, causing the crowd to shriek suddenly as the walls shook.

“Please, don’t panic, we’ve got this covered.” Isaiah said smoothly guiding a passing group of freed hostages down the staircase.

“Da- God Damnit…” Ryan’s radio was still on when he stumbled on another room, in it lay corpses of the dead. He froze, fear captured him. She isn’t here is she?

“Blo- 5- held-” his radio became more and more shrouded with static, Ryan looked at the dead, his heart sinking, though he could not see Tiffany amongst them. But fear had him petrified, examining the screaming faces of death the dead wore, their fear instilled for eternity in their dead eyes.

“Ryan, you’re hearing this no?” Isaiah radioed over to him, snapping him out of his trance. “Still can’t figure what the hell is going on.” He said, solemnly.

“If you felt the building shake, that was a pillar going down, Benjamin is pinned along with Daryl and Fong. Boss is dead.” His words hit Ryan like a bucket of ice water, it wasn’t over yet.

Isaiah walked over to Ryan’s position, walking into a room of death.

“This isn’t the only one Ryan.” He patted Ryan on his back, using his MP5A5 in the direction of the room where more lay.

He didn’t want to look, he didn’t want to believe she was dead, he still wanted to believe she was amongst the crowd of freed hostages… He walked towards the staircase.

“We’ll clear that up after we’ve dealt with those planning to take down the building.” Stabbing his bayonet in between the elevator doors, prying them open like Benjamin did.

“We- -ed backup!” Daryl yelled over the radio, as Ryan pulled a repelling rope from his backpack, attaching it to a steel reinforced maintenance ladder to the side of the elevator shaft.

“Ryan and I are coming, sit tight.” Isaiah said over the radio, mimicking Ryan and pulling out a repelling rope himself as Ryan sat in the air, his boots against the wall.

“Sure its safe to leave the hostages on their own?” Ryan asked, as Isaiah moved in position to sit in an L shape, to prepare for a quick decent.

“What are they going to do? Get themselves captured again?” Isaiah said with a smile, he looked down, his heart thumping, half-worried the ladder might break, even though both of them were on different bars.

“Shall we?” Ryan invited Isaiah with a smile, who smiled in reply, nodding. Both of them repelling into the darkness of the elevator shaft.

Chapter 14: Shooting Gallery

Muffled gunfire echoed in the elevator shaft as the duo repelled down the darkness, wind against their backs as they headed towards the 30th floor, barely enough for their ropes to handle.

“Deb…” Ryan thought remembering he left her at the stair well, dying, promising her she’ll get medivaced as soon as this was over. “Lets make this quick.” He said approaching the 30th floor

Light was visible from one of the floors and told them they were getting close, the elevator doors blown apart by C4 explosives, “Guess they listened to Ethan’s advice, and brought some extra just incase.” Isaiah said solemnly, almost like it wasn’t meant to be a joke.

Swinging into the light, they unbuckled their repelling ropes and took cover in the hallway as their eyes adjusted to the light.

“Here!” Benjamin yelled from behind an overturned desk, along with Daryl wounded firing his MP5 over the desk, blood streaming down is face.

The floor was a wide open space with pillars scattered across the whole floor, the closest one to the window demolished along with the window. Explosives strapped to each of them. With the terrorists on one side and the four remaining members of the team behind the desk on the other, trading bursts of fire from their places of cover.

“Whats the situation?” Ryan yelled over to the overturned metal desk, “We’re both pinned!” Daryl yelled briefly as he traded another burst of ammunition with a terrorist on the other side.

“And we’re running out of ammo!” Yelled Benjamin doing the same, “use your M4 Ryan, you seem to be the only one who can hit anything in this spam fest!” he continued, reloading his weapon

Ryan took aim round the corner of the hallway, muzzle flashes coming from all directions. As if they were around every pillar in the gallery.

He kept his breathing steady, felt the wind from the broken window fall upon his face as sweat and blood dripped to the floor and took aim at a pillar, knowing full well a NATO 5.56 X 45 mm round from his weapon would be more than able to pierce through the pillar and through the skull of his estimate guess of height.

Pulling his trigger his jerked back, the recoil pressing his shoulder with a jerk and was rewarded with a body, dropping to the ground with a thump. He took aim for another as Isaiah threw his teammates behind the desk a few extra magazines.

“Isa! Give me a flash bang!” Ryan yelled as he downed another unlucky target, making his shots count.

“We tried that already, they’re too far away…” Daryl said reloading a fresh clip into his MP5. “Not at our position, or with Isaiah’s arm.” Ryan replied hastily as Isaiah threw a flash bang across the room, rebounding off a pillar round the room just as the team covered their ears and shut their eyes.

“Cover me.” Isaiah said abruptly as the flash bang went off. “Oh shit, what the hell is he doing?!” Daryl said as he showered the gallery with rounds.

Isaiah threw a fragmentation grenade to the other end of the room as he started disabling the wires to the first explosive on the first of 8 pillars.

The fragmentation grenade exploded with a puff of dust and smoke, throwing shrapnel into a bunch of their enemies as he went for another, the other 3 teammates covering him the best they could.

“Stupid fool.” Benjamin hissed as he got out of his cover as well and made for another pillar just like Isaiah. Mimicking Isaiah he threw a grenade to the other end of the room as he went from pillar to pillar using them as cover as he made his way across the room.

“6 more!” Isaiah yelled, throwing another pack of explosives to the ground as he watched Benjamin run by, his weapon raised firing at a terrorist who was holding his head with blood dripping from his bleeding ears.

“Ben get down!” Ryan yelled unleashing a burst of ammunition from his rifle as the dust cleared, making out 5 figures in the dust and taking down 2. Benjamin strafed right behind another pillar and sent a shower of rounds into the other 3, before turning round for a reload.

Benjamin froze, as a knife plunged into him as he turned, sending him falling backwards with a terrorist falling onto him, a knife in his hand as Isaiah put a round in his head before running out of ammunition, pulling out his side arm.

Daryl sat up, taking aim down the gallery, placing a few good shots down range.
As Isaiah went for another pillar, yelling “2 left!” killing another 2 with a few shots from his pistol, Ryan scanned the gallery as the dust settled, finding no more targets.

“Think we’re clear.” Ryan said, moving forward cautiously; there had been enough surprises for him today to let his guard down without being doubly sure. The blood from his earlier wound still across his face as Isaiah removed the last explosive from the last pillar.

“Wheres Boss?” Isaiah said, as he threw the last explosive pack to the ground.

“They ambushed us, it was clear when we first entered, until boss and Sim decided to disable the first one,” He pointed to the one that was demolished, along with part of the window. “Fid also got most of the blast.”

Ryan fell, his knees buckling underneath him in exhaustion as his adrenaline no longer coursed his veins.

“Isaiah Coulder to any of the surrounding police and emergency units surrounding the building,” he paused and looked around at the carnage and destruction. “The situation his been nullified, we’re clear.”

Ryan tilted his head towards his own radio, “and get paramedics to the 45th floor, one of ours is bleeding to death.”

Chapter 15: Epilogue

In a wind swept cemetery in the west of Singapore, over looked by the growing jungle at the edge of the grave yard; Ryan stood, solemnly 6 months later.

“Tiff…” A neatly carved marble grave stone marked where she lay, after her body was found in one of the rooms in the upper floors of the building.

The religious group were an organized group of international terrorists trying to make a mark in history by being the first to gather funds by ransoming hostages in Singapore and bomb it. Their plans were disrupted, at the cost of many lives and the families of those who died, whom Ryan visited often, even half a year after the event.

Tiffany Tay
1980-2002

“Beloved daughter and girlfriend, never to be forgotten in the tragic events shaped by fate.”

Ryan

That was hardly enough to express everything she had done in life… to my life. I couldn’t get over her death in the months after the events on that fateful day and retired, along with 3 other survivors of the ordeal, and sometimes I imagine her dinner sitting on my table sometimes when I get back from my new job as a journalist... With a heart melting note.

Isaiah went on to become a bartender, and when the Integrated Resort opened in 2011, he made a small fortune for himself and got out of Singapore to settle in Australia, where he lives today.

Daryl never had the loud mouth he did the day I met him at the office on my first day over a year ago, he went on to being a Army Regular, and become a drill instructor training Singapore’s next generation of soldiers.

“Ryan, are you okay?” Deborah hugging me from behind, pressing her head against mine on my shoulder.

Deborah survived, saved by a hostage who turned out to be a doctor having a meeting in the restaurant above, plugging her wounds with an improvised bandage and tourniquet, she didn’t retire, carrying on the legacy we left behind as the person who fills in paperwork on traffic infractions… Until hell breaks loose.

“Yes,” I whispered sadly, a tear rolling down my cheek, to be wiped away by Deborah whom had asked my to call her Denise ever since we got engaged 3 months ago… After she made the first move. “Just feel like a part of me is still missing.”

“I’ll fill that in time.” She whispered in my ear, as I looked at a ring on her finger which should have been in Tiffany’s.

“You will Denise, I’m sure you will in time, besides” I said with a smile turning away from the grave stone as we walked arm in arm back to the car park. “If another terrorist activity happens, it’ll probably be you saving me.”

-The end-