Chapter 39

CHAPTER 39

Mark

B ullets pinged off the rocks above us. The cracking sound of the gunfire echoed through my head. Cursing, I knelt down in front of a boulder and peered over.

"Ten o'clock low, two-hundred-meters!" Artie shouted as he ripped off a few rounds. "Did we land in their fucking headquarters?"

I looked downhill and saw their point man firing as he tried to run uphill in our direction. That was good news for us, his shots were wildly erratic, giving us a chance to take cover and aim in. I lined my sights up on him and waited for him to raise his rifle again. Holding my breath, I stared at him, silently telling him to take another shot. The brief pause when he finally aimed in made him a stationary target. I fired. His body jerked back and rolled down the hill. Further down, maybe five-hundred-meters, more were coming.

There was no time to feel remorse, apprehension, or much of anything. Too many were converging on us and it was going to be all we could do to stay alive until our back up found us.

"Just our luck to land in a valley controlled by these assholes!" I yelled back. We hadn't really had a choice, but I definitely would've preferred a nice quiet spot instead. The blaring alarms and our engines beginning to shut down had forced my hand. "Let's go, keep moving up. Help is on the way. We just need to keep distance between us and them."

I read the worry on Artie's face. It was there swirling around inside of me too. What if they're too late? I mentally forced the thoughts from my mind. They wouldn't be late. Not my crew, and not Jen. We just needed to hold out long enough to be found.

The copper taste of blood was thick on my tongue from where I'd bitten it when we'd taken that hard landing. If we didn't move we'd end up with a lot more blood than that leaking from our bodies. I wasn't about to let that happen.

Even in the high ground like this, six on two wasn't the best of odds, and we already spent a lot of ammunition on the ground with that little welcoming party. More were bound to be coming. We couldn't afford a prolonged firefight. We couldn't stay here and hold our position. We had to climb.

"Any luck with the radio?" Artie asked as we continued our assent into the hills. His breaths were coming fast and hard. My own matched his as my lungs burned in my chest. We were both in top physical condition, but this was steep, shitty terrain, and we were moving as fast as we could. It was the only chance we'd have of staying alive long enough for the cavalry to show.

I pulled it out of my vest and looked at the screen before shoving it back in its pouch. "Negative, still not locking in on a satellite." We were equipped with satellite radios; they could talk to anyone on earth who had access to the encrypted frequencies. It sort of required connecting to a satellite first, though. We had no way to call in our position until the piece of shit decided to lock in. Typical government issued equipment, great in theory, not so much in practice.

Artie stopped ahead of me. "You hear that?"

My ears were still ringing from the last shots I took. I paused and listened. Rotor blades. Relief coursed through me. Someone was coming for us. "Get down, get behind cover, keep an eye on our friends coming up the hill."

He squatted again and aimed down the mountain. I knelt behind a rock as well, but kept my eyes in the air, down the valley. A single Black Hawk was flying this way. I couldn't suppress my smile. "There she is Artie! I told you she wouldn't leave us hanging." There was no doubt in my mind that it was Jen barrelling toward us as fast as her helo could go.

If I make it out of this fucking nightmare, I'm marrying that woman, I promised myself.

Artie fired a few rounds downhill in response to the insurgents' actions. The enemy was torn between following us up the hill and the incoming Black Hawk. I pulled my radio out again. Still not connected. The radio was a ten-thousand-dollar piece of shit that took twenty minutes to connect when in the U.S. Here in the mountains of Afghanistan, who the fuck knew if it ever would.

I looked up and saw Jen landing down by our aircraft. Some of the bastards were turning around and heading back down. I jammed the radio back in its pouch. "Piece of shit!" I roared at the useless hunk of junk that was preventing me from warning Jen about the danger heading her way. Fear like I'd never known flooded my chest, adrenaline racing through my system. I leveled my rifle and took a few shots. I was more afraid for her down there than I was for myself. I'd happily take a few rounds to keep her safe.

The group had split up, some running down the hill and some continuing up. Those running back down were too far away for our shots to find their target. I growled in anger. Jen was going to be on her own down there. It wasn't that I didn't trust her to be able to take care of herself. I just didn't like not being there to watch her six.

I had to refocus, though, because those who'd stayed behind were now running toward us and were getting closer. We were about to have problems of our own to deal with. I opened my vest and pulled out my signal mirror.

Time to try it old school.

Wrapping the mirror's cord around my wrist, I grabbed my rifle again and took a few shots. My mind smacked me with the memory of my training session with Jen.

What did I tell her about the odds of a long range firefight? Or prolonged fire fights? Fuck me. Just my luck that this was the part I would get wrong.

The Black Hawk was taking off again right as an Apache showed up on scene. It had to be Laura and Brady. Some of the anxiety inside of me eased knowing my crew was here to back her up.

Jen rose up high and started a slow circle. That's my girl, you know where we're going. I unwrapped the mirror and started to angle it to reflect the sunlight. "Come on Jen, we're right here."

An explosion in the valley caused me to drop the mirror and pull my rifle back up. Looking down, I saw the fire from the rockets and Laura flying through the valley. I couldn't suppress the laugh as Brady lit up the valley with exuberance. For any enemies left alive it was going to feel like they were in hell with all the flames down there. These assholes thought they'd take advantage of a single helicopter, and now they were getting more than they could handle. It's what they deserved and it made me want to howl in victory. It was still a bit early for that, though. First Jen needed to find us.

"We get through this there won't be an insurgent alive within a hundred miles!" Artie shouted, sharing in my excitement. We weren't safe yet, not by a long shot. But we weren't alone. That made all the difference in the world. I picked the mirror up and shined it at Jen again. This time I knew she saw it. The Black Hawk tipped its nose and was coming to us.

"Get ready!" I yelled to Artie.

"There's nowhere to land, where is she going?"

"Watch those motherfuckers below us. Let's clear out as many as we can before they can get any shots off at her." Typical Jen. She was going to pull a risky stunt and save our asses from the fire. "She's coming to us."