AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There was no hesitation in his voice… and the trio of men stood and crouched, making their way to the building nearest to them as ordered.
“Once we are clear – I want Turner, Pena, and Morrison to sweep the next building. We are going to move from shelter to shelter and get out of here, boys… got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Move out…” Mitchell ordered and swung his own rifle upwards along with several other them to give them cover as they made their way to the brick building nearby.
That’s when it all fell apart.
Bullets began riddling the wall they were hiding behind in an alarming fashion. Eric certainly didn’t want to die out here, but racing down a dirt road that hadn’t been cleared or mapped yet also seemed like a surefire way to get killed… especially since he didn’t have his dog yet.
Stupid red tape… and him.
He was a moron for agreeing without anything in writing, taking the officer’s word as fact… and now he was here, dodging bullets, as the screaming echoed in his ears. Something was wrong and one glance at Mitchell’s face told him it was bad.
Clark was panicking, Perry was talking rapidly… and Reed was eerily silent.
“MEDIVAC!” was being shouted and punctuated with static as the gunfire around them was deafening.
Selkirk was slapping him on the shoulder and his mouth was moving but Eric couldn’t hear anything over the popping and echoing surrounding them. The man was pointing at his gun, giving him an annoyed look, and then signaling something – before pointing at himself.
“I’m not giving you my magazine. You shoulda grabbed a few more from the weapons locker,” he argued, shaking his head… only to hear another voice come through his earpiece loud and clear.
“Command, we are deploying a hot drop in the area. Teams on the ground, take cover immediately – we are inbound and hot. I repeat – we are inbound and hot. Stand-by.”
“Da…” Selkirk’s words were cut off by another round of fire, “… did he say?! Did he say what I think he said?”
“I didn’t catch all that,” Peña barked, grabbing Selkirk’s arm and shaking him. “Did he just say that he…wasbombingus?!”
They could still hear Clark screaming, echoing eerily in his ears as Eric looked at the other faces surrounding him. Keyes, Talbot, Selkirk, Peña, Turner, Collins, Pendergast, Muldoon, and Ortega were all looking at him in sudden awareness and comprehension of what was happening.
… And because Eric was nowhere as good at hiding his thoughts as Mitchell was, and had somehow been adopted as a ‘makeshift leader’ since he was supposed to be the new explosives expert.
Expert?
Ha!
It’s hard to be an ‘expert’when they had yet to find a bomb for him to disarm the ‘easy’way. No, all of them had been ‘the hard way’ and detonated in different ways. Tossing heavy rocks before them hoping to catch a trigger, metal detectors, praying fervently as you drove over unmarked roads, while wearing protective gear no matter what… just in case.
Their gear wasn’t going to save them if the bomb hit close enough.
That was when the bullets that had been ricocheting all around them went eerily silent, and you could hear a jet – and Clark.
“Just get down here…“ Clark was still screaming in panic. “Where’s the MEDIVAC? Reed! Hang on buddy! I need another hand, he’s bleeding…!”
“Deploying…”came the eerily calm voice.
“We’re gonna die,” someone whispered aloud, as the stark awareness hit Eric hard.
It might be true.
He’d been here for a few months, and might actually die in this hellhole, he thought wildly… only for Mitchell to shove them down to the ground, flinging himself over them bodily.
Eric really respected that man, even if he didn’t want to be here – and he’d follow his commanding officer everywhere just for moments like this.
Mitchell didn’t run.
He never ran. He protected them with whatever he had – including himself.
