Just as Alex begins to panic, she hears her name
being called. She spins one last time, finally seeing her mom standing near
T.J. at the front of the crowd. Alex runs towards her practically tackling her
in a hug, a few tears finally slipping down her face.
It
takes a good minute before Alex releases her mom, and moves on to Chase and the
rest of her friends and family. Just then fifteen cargo deuce and a halves pull
up and Alex snaps back into military mode. She starts ushering everyone onto
the trucks and making sure everything runs smoothly.
Once
everyone is on she climbs onto the back of the first truck in line, the
movement of doing so causing the pain in her side to worsen. She tries to
ignore it but it’s starting to throb. She sucks in a deep breath hoping it will
help at least somewhat.
Alex
listens to the random chatter of the people in her truck, not really focusing
on anyone in particular. It’s all just background noise to her at this point,
her ears still ringing a bit from all the gunfire.
As
the trucks come to a stop at the entrance gates of Camp Lejeune Alex jumps off
the back of the first truck, regretting the action almost immediately, pain
intensifying throughout her left side. Once explaining to the MPs guarding the
gate, all the trucks are let in and the people are led to the spare rooms in
the bunker.
Meanwhile
Alex heads to the General’s office for a debriefing of what went on at the
hotel. The General congratulates her on another job well done, informing her that
as soon as they have more information, her team will be allowed to go after
Abdullah once again. She thanks him before heading to the infirmary to have her
side and head checked out.
Just
as she reaches the door the bunker, the tornado warnings start sounding, the
wind picking up drastically. One of the soldiers helping in the bunker opens
the door and Alex orders him back into the bunker telling him to make sure
everyone is in and away from the door.
Suddenly
she gets a call from T.J. He’s panicking because he was in a debriefing with
the General with the alarms sounded and now he can’t leave to check on his wife
and daughter who live off base. “Alright, calm down, I’ll go and get them and
bring them back here,” Alex says hoping to ease him a bit.
She
takes off in a full on sprint to the parking lot, hopping into her 1972
Chevelle, and speeding towards the gates. The MPs are reluctant to let her out
but she explains the emergency in full and they allow her to go on the
condition of when she gets back the three of them will take cover in the booth.
As
she speeds down the empty, wet streets, the rain beings to come down much
harder, hail starting to slam against her car. She can feel the wind attempting
to shove her car every way that she doesn’t want it to go, but she holds on as
tight as possible.
She
comes to a sliding screeching halt outside T.J.’s house. Running up to the door
she begins pounding on it, hoping they are ready to go. Rebecca pulls open the
door cradling Lily in her arms, their bags on the floor next to them. Alex
grabs the bags as she ushers the girls to the car.
As they near the base
Alex’s headlights hit the storm just right and they can see the monster size
tornado heading right for the base. She shoves the accelerator all the way to
the floor hoping they can make it in time.
Just before she reaches
the gate, she spins the car around and throws it in reverse, backing up to the
gate, allowing the girls to get into the booth first. Alex barely has time to
climb from the car and get into the booth before the tornado shoves the car into
the door, slamming it shut with a hard thud. They can hear the deafening wind
whipping outside, as the booth is attacked by random pieces of debris.
Just as Alex lifts up a
bit to see where the storms is, the window is pelted by bricks, cracking the
bullet proof glass. She drops back down and covers her head, expecting it to
break at any minute. When it doesn’t she realizes it’s very quiet outside. She
stands up and looks out all around the booth and notices nothing is moving.
Taking a chance she opens the other booth door slowly,
hoping that her eyes aren’t deceiving her. Once she knows for sure the storm
isn’t close anymore she helps Rebecca off the floor and leads her and Lily back
to the car.
Once the MPs raise the bar Alex lurches the car backwards
and heads for the bunkers. T.J. is already standing outside waiting for them,
and he smiles widely as the car nears him. Both he and Rebecca thank Alex for
going after here and Lily. “You guys know I’d do anything for the three of you,
no questions asked,” Alex simply states as she heads down into the bunkers
looking for everyone.
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