Chapter 3
Cougar was currently standing up in the vehicle, his torso poking out of the hole in the top of the Humvee for shooters, with his sniper rifle in his hands, while Roque and Jensen sat in the area beside his legs. The plan was to barrel through the gates, kill the guards, rescue the children and get the hell out of dodge before the airstrike hit.
"Everybody brace!" Pooch shouted as the gate came into view.
Jensen and Roque immediately grabbed Cougar's legs, making sure the sniper wasn't going to be jostled around as they crashed through the gate and into the compound.
Pooch began to laugh maniacally as we drove through the compound with Cougar picking off Fadhil's men from the balconies of buildings and off of the back of trucks with expert precision and no hesitation. When we stopped, Cougar immediately ducked back into the vehicle as we all began to pile out, firing at the men swarming around us and using the Humvee as cover.
I overheard Pooch say to Jensen as they ducked down behind the Humvee, "Us against fifty dudes with AK's, huh!"
I smirked in amusement but didn't let my concentration up as Cougar and I continued to fire at any enemy soldier as cover for Clay and Roque to get on our side of the Humvee.
Then we all stood up and started shooting at the men trying to get around the vehicles, quickly taking them out while shouts filled the compound. We quickly ducked back own in cover again, waiting for Clay to give out orders. "Jensen, Pooch, get a truck for the kids! The rest of us will be out in five!"
"Not to mention the airstrike in four!" Roque reminded.
"Alright, we'll be out in four!" Clay shouted after Jensen and Pooch. "Rally point, on me!" He jumped to his feet and ran across the compound with Cougar and I providing cover while Roque trailed behind us. The two of them went towards the building they saw the kids enter but then I lost sight of them as Cougar and I continued to shoot the guards that remained outside and were still standing.
"On your left!" I shouted, seeing a guard coming towards Cougar. Immediately, Cougar turned and fired, the guard fell and Cougar and I began to back up slowly towards where the children were now coming out with Roque. Cougar began to speak Spanish to the kids, speaking faster than the demolitions expert could follow. It was the most either of us had ever heard the sniper say at once, but he was calming most of them down but one little girl was crying about her brother being upstairs.
"Roque, she says her brother is upstairs." I said.
Roque nodded. "Yeah, Clay's taking care of it."
I nodded and trailed behind the kids and the two members of my team to make sure that there weren't any more guards. We finally reached our get-a-way vehicle. A yellow short school bus where Pooch and Jensen were waiting for us. We loaded up the kids quickly and then ourselves, Cougar remaining by the door to make sure we weren't going to be attacked by a guard that slipped away. Finally with less then two minutes left, Clay appeared with the little boy in his arms. He climbed in with the boy, Cougar closing the back door immediately.
"Let's go!" I commanded as soon as Cougar got in.
Pooch floored it, knowing that we had less then a minute to get out of the blast range.
"What kind of blast radius are we looking at?" Roque asked, looking towards Jensen.
The blonde tech turned his small military issue tablet with the map of the area and the approximate blast radius it would leave. Roque and I immediately exchanged looks.
"Okay, Pooch, we're gonna need you to make this bus move a little faster." Roque said. Clay glanced at the screen too.
"Everybody hold onto something!"
"Like right now!" Roque shouted, spotting the stealth bomber flying overhead. Pooch quickly shifted gears and floored the gas pedal, shooting forward as an explosion rocked the area and a wave of fire started racing through the trees towards the bus. Pooch made the bus go faster but I knew we weren't going to make it in time. I turned my head down so that no one could see what I was doing.
I chanted softly in Latin in my head, protecting the bus from the flames.
My concentration broke as children and the others all started screaming and bracing themselves as the wheels touched the ground again after being propelled forward by the blast and began to hurtle down hill.
The screams continued on as Pooch assured us he had everything under control before we ended up in a large pile of mud, halting our decent.
All of us were breathing heavily.
"Everything under control, huh?" I quiped, causing for the guys closest to me to punch me lightly on my shoulders.
"Oh, shut up, Smoke." Pooch grumbled as he turned around to make sure the others were okay. Soon all the kids started laughing, happy that they were okay, and chattering about the 'fun ride'.
It took a few minutes before we - aka the Losers - were able to get our breathing under control. Then we got out of the bus, helping the kids, then started our trek through the jungle. Jensen radioed in for an extraction during our walk.
"Pinball, this is chopper three. Prepare for extraction."
"My favorite part was when we were completely on fire⦠but the shootout; that was good times," Jensen said as we neared the location of extraction.
We broke through the trees and into the clearing that was to serve as our extraction point, the helicopter already on the ground.
"There she blows!" Roque said enthusiastically to the kids, causing them all to laugh.
"Let's go, let's go!" Pooch said, corralling the kids together before we started running to the chopper.
The chopper door opened and the crew chief on the chooper looked to Clay. "Sir, there isn't enough room on the chopper for your team and them."
"Then it's them," he replied instantly. We began loading up the kids as fast as possible.
In no time, we had the kids loaded up. "Muy bien, chicos. Vamos a ir a dar una vuelta, eh?" Cougar started saying in Spanish, causing all the kids and myself to smile. "Agarrante fuerte, eh? Venga," the sniper finished, waving to the kids.
The kids all started saying goodbye, then the little boy Clay saved held out his bear to him.
"No, gracias," he smiled, gently pushing the small toy back towards the boy. "Keep your bear, okay? Keep him safe."
"Gracias," the small boy smiled.
"De nada. Adios," Clay said before looking to the soldier on the chopper. "Get them outta here."
The door slid closed and we stepped back, waving to the chopper, and looking at the smiling faces of the kids through the small windows as the chopper started to take off into the air. "Those are some cute little buggars," Pooch said, grinning up at the helicopter that was climbing slowly but surely into the air. "Hope they make it to the court martial."
Suddenly I heard a sound that sounded like a jet off in the distance.
"What is that?" Roque said, having also heard it. "Do you hear that?"
The others became aware of the sound, too. I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach.
"Guys.. this is bad."
"My signal is being jammed again." Jensen said. Then we heard a static filled voice coming over our comms.
"Max, Cobra One. Bandit locked."
We all stilled, listening to the radio conversation that wasn't ours.
"Understood. Cobra One, kill Bandit."
I felt horror consume me and I looked up at the sky, eyes locking on to the helicopter before I began running towards it, the rest of the guys following. Then a loud sound ripped through the air and Clay looked up to see a missile being shot out of a second stealth bomber and towards the helicopter.
"NO!" We all shouted.
The missile hit the chopper, causing the metal bird to explode into a ball of fire and raining metal.
"Oh my god." I whispered, horrified by the sight. How could someone do something like that? We continued to run forward but we were forced to come to a halt when all the pieces of flaming metal fell onto the ground.
In between the twisted and warped pieces of burning metal I could see the outlines of small charred bodies in the wreckage. I couldn't take it anymore and turned away from the sight. Clay, whom was standing the closest to me, immediately drew me into his arms and allowed me to bury myself into his chest away from the horrible sight.
I could faintly hear Cougar dropping to a knee and pulling his hat off, praying in Spanish, but I couldn't focus on anything else besides my and Clay's breathing as I tried to keep myself from crying.
"That's supposed to be us." I whispered. Clay's head moved down, pressing a kiss to my forehead in a brotherly fashion.
"You're right. That was supposed to be us, Smoke." I could feel the others looking at us then. I pulled back from Clay and looked around at my team.
"We were supposed to die. This Max was trying to kill us." Jensen said.
"So what do we do?" Roque asked.
"We can't go to the embassy," Clay said immediately. I nodded in agreement, picking up where he left off.
"We'll be framed for this. We'll be framed for everything." I continued.
"What do we do, Clay, Smoke?" Roque said again, including me in his question this time, speaking more forcefully as Cougar turned to us, replacing his hat. Clay and I exchanged glances again.
"We figure out a way to clear our names. But for now, guys, we're dead to the rest of the world," I said. Clay shot me a look but agreed with me. We began pulling our dog tags off of our necks. We tossed them to Clay before Clay tossed them into the fire.
"Let's move, Losers. We've got a long walk ahead of us."
