Lauren looked away from the shooting and embraced her mother, pressing her face into her shoulder.
Derek Morrison started to approach Sergeant O'Neill, but the other sergeant held up his hand. "Don't come any closer," he said. "We can't risk the spread of infection. You'll have to wait there with the others. You can hold onto your weapons, Sergeant, but the rest of you are going to have to put them down. Please place them on the ground and step away from them. The rapid response team should be here any minute, and they might get the wrong idea if they see you armed."
Kat lays down her weapons on the ground before her. "Be sure to bring those back, we pretty sure will need them later." She says and takes off her helmet and shakes her hair free from tangles. She even unbelts the straps of the kevlar vest and leaves it open. With the job done, she can afford some respite.
"Fair, enough" Emily said giving Lauren one more squeeze.
"Sgt. O'neil, is it?" she said turning towards the man. "I am Emily Montrose. It's a pleasure to meet you and thank you for helping us."
Inside the gates- Kathryn could see some of the men checking her out when she took off her helmet and loosened her vest. Hector and Duncan were ogling her, but Alfredo and Joey gave her more admiring looks. Harvey glanced at her before looking shyly away. Kyle was paying more attention to Lauren than to her.
"Those weapons look military issue, ma'am," Sergeant O'Neill said to Kathryn. Though he maintained military discipline, he obviously noticed her. "The armor definitely is. Anything that's military property will go to the stores, but anything that's yours you'll get back once you're cleared. We'll be sure catalog everything. Once you're given a duty assignment, you may be issued equipment depending on what that assignment is." He smiled at Emily. "Pleased to meet you, Ms. Montrose, but I'm only doing my duty. You'll have to lay your weapons down too, by the way." He nodded back at Derek. "Glad you survived the crash, Morrison. My name's O'Neill. We'll see about getting you into another crew once you get a clean bill of health, but for now you'll have to go into quarantine."
"I'm AIrman Cassie Reynolds," said the short female driver. "You've already met Reverend Billy Roberts here." She motioned to the old man in the Racal suit.
Lauren placed her rifle on the ground along with the ammo she carried, the bag with her late father's golf clubs, and her knives. "Don't worry, Kyle," she said. "They'll give us back your dad's rifle."
"Okey-dokey," said Kyle. He followed suit and laid down his M4, rifle magazines, and shotgun shells.
Cynthia placed her shotgun, shells, and knife on the ground.
The roar of engines came from the south and got steadily louder. Two Stryker APCs were approaching the area in front of the destroyed gates. "Oh, good," said O'Neill. "The reinforcements are here, and if I'm not mistaken, your ride to the clinic. The rest of you should put down your weapons now. Ammo and armor too."
"Do we really gotta give up our guns?" asked Hector with a frown.
"Yeah, we do," said Joey. "Just cooperate with the Air Force." He put his own pistol and magazines down. The rest of the guys with him did likewise with their weapons.
EMily complied and put down all of the weapons she had on her. She moved towards Lauren and Kyle and grabbed their hands. He heart swooned at the possibility that they may finally be safe. She and her kids had made it. "We made it" she said to them softly as a tear rolled down her cheek.
Kat lets the kevlar down on the ground as well as the 9 clips of reserve ammo she kept in the vest pockets. Some of the buck shots to the shotgun Cynthia lay down scatters about from one of the larger pockets. Now, more exposed that she really wants, she stands with her red halterneck, short black skirt divided by the two sturdy belts she had taken from that farm yesterday. Not much to work with but she walked over to Emily, Lauren and Kyle to reestablish the original group. "Yeah, they´re military, salvaged during the course of the day, sir."
She crosses her arms subconsciously to the glares from the men and waits for their rides.
Sergeant O'Neill nodded. "You'll get them back, sir," he assured Ho. "You'll want to put your ammo with them, too, to keep everything together. It'll make things more complicated if you turn it over at the clinic."
Lauren hugged Emily and Kathryn, and Kyle put his arms protectively around the whole group. "We're finally going to be safe!" said Lauren. "Things are going to get better now, I'm sure of it! I just wish Dad were here..."
"I miss my Ma and Pa too," said Kyle.
The two Strykers approached the open area in front of what was left of the gates, where they stopped. The rear doors opened and nine heavily armed SF troopers spilled out of each one. Most of them took up defensive positions at the entrance to the base. One of them, this one armed only with a pistol, approached Sergeant O'Neill. "I'm Lieutenant Grayson," he said. "I'm taking over at this position, Sergeant. My platoon will hold it until the engineers can come and barricade the gap. Get the civilians into the Strykers. They'll take them to quarantine. Then you can catalog all of their gear."
"Yes, sir," said O'Neill, saluting. He turned to the civilians gathered nearby. "Everyone get into one of the Strykers, please. You too, Sergeant Morrison. Each vehicle holds nine passengers."
"You heard him, men," said Joey. "Let's move." He led Alfredo, Harvey, Duncan, and Hector into the Stryker on the left.
Kat looks at the tank-like vehicle and nods approvingly. She walks over to the one not used by Joey and his crew. "See you, 'Fredo!" She waves at the large man. Then she enters the metallic whale and waits for it to get crammed and moved to a better place.
Inside the gates- Alfredo blew Kathryn a kiss as he boarded the Stryker on the left.
Billy helped Derek into the Stryker on the right and followed him aboard. Emily, Lauren, Kyle, Cynthia and Ho followed them.
In the Stryker-
The troop compartment was cramped, even with one of the nine seats empty. Strykers were not designed with comfort in mind. Billy closed the hatch after everyone had boarded, and soon the APC pulled out and started moving.
Lauren tried to rub her sore back, injured when the pickup truck had overturned. Kyle was also in pain, though he tried to put on a brave face and avoided showing it. Emily had also been hurt in the crash.
OOC,Anyone in the Stryker may try First Aid on one of the injured people. [b]Derek[/b] has already received the maximum treatment, however. If you succeed, roll 1d3 to see how many HP that person regains.
Kat McCoylooks to Kyle´s wounds but can´t make any remedy to his pain. "Sorry Kyle, I´m at a loss. Maybe someone else can see to this?"Kat sits back again a little angry at herself not being able to help.
"Here, Honey" Emily said to Lauren. "Let me see if I can help you with that." Emily moved over and tried to work on Laurens back but was unable to in the back of the moving Stryker
"Ugh. Sorry sweetie. Looks like a deep tissue bruise and I can't do anything about it." she said.
In the Stryker-
"Ow!" cried Lauren. One of her cuts began bleeding afresh. "It's okay, Mom. There'll be doctors when we get to the clinic." She managed to stop the bleeding by borrowing her mother's medical supplies.
"Uh, maybe I can help," said Kyle. "I helped animals on the farm when they got hurt."
The Stryker rolled onwards for a while before it stopped. After a moment, it continued forward slowly for a short distance before turning around and stopping again. An SF trooper in an orange Racal suit opened the rear hatch from outside. "Everyone, please get out," he said. Through the open hatch, the entrance to a building was visible, but they couldn't see much from inside the vehicle.