"Hey! Get back here!" A white mask yelled to a figure which did the exact opposite if what he told it to do.
"The hell are you waiting for? Go after her." Another white mask said, running past his colleague who then followed suit.
They managed to corner the woman and this time decided to shoot immediately after word had gotten out about the last group of white masks that gave their victims a chance to fight back. A bullet whizzed through the woman's head and she then proceeded disappear right before their.
"What the…?"
The two white masks were shot dead within seconds of each other.
"Nice shot Timur." Iana said, popping out of the bush she hid im as she controlled her hologram.
Glaz jumped down from the tree he was perched in. "Nice bait. They fall for it every time."
"I'm starting to worry they'd catch on."
"I doubt it." Glaz said. "By the time they see you, they're dead so they don't really have the chance to warn their friends."
"Good. Let's keep it that way." Iana said, passing the radio to Glaz. "Go report this to Cohen, I'll scout ahead for any more of them."
Glaz nodded. "Hey, we got two more white masks."
"Two more? How many has it been?" Ash responded.
"Too many for me to bother counting. Shouldn't we have found at least some trace of them?"
"It's a huge forest Timur, be patient." IQ cut in. "We've been here less than an hour, just give it some time."
Over the radio, Glaz heard Ash sigh. "I knew I should have sent a team out the first time he hadn't called."
"You followed Harry's orders." Thermite radioed in. "Ain't none of this on you, 'Liza."
"Keep the comms clear, I can't hear anything." Nokk snapped. "Where was their location when you received Harry's last call?"
"The area we where we dropped in."
"If they haven't been shot down early, then there's a good chance they've gotten far from there."
"That's the thing, we have no way of knowing that." Ash said. "We can't afford to skip ahead, we might miss them."
"Then this will take a hell of a lot longer." Nokk said. "Let's hope they can hold out for that long."
…
Several items hit the ground when Zofia pushed them off a table to clear space so the others can lie Buck down on it.
"Find something that can close the wound." Frost said in a panic. "Anything that can be used as sutures. Hell, even duct tape works just find anything."
Zofia ripped Buck's already bloodied pant leg revealing the wound that just won't stop fucking everything up. "Jesus christ that looks bad."
"Staring at it won't help Zofia. Find anything that could be of use to use."
"This is a logging shed Tina." Zofia said. "The things usually present here are meant to cut things down, not to stick them together."
"Then just focus on Sebastien." Jager said, pushing down on the wound. "Keep him awake. Let the others take care of it."
Zofia examined Buck closer. He was barely conscious when she lightly slapped him. She got a response from him which was good, but it wasn't exactly the response she was going for.
"Hey Zofia." He said drunkenly. "Do you really want to do this now? The others are here though."
"What did he say?"
"Don't take it too seriously. He's way out of it." Zofia said. If there wasn't the threat of him not waking up, she'd prefer he just stay unconscious.
Meanwhile in the background, Meredith broke open a tool box that had a pair of pliers in it. "Does anyone have a light? I have an idea."
"Here." Frost said, tossing her a lighter. "How can that help Sebastien?"
"You'll see. Give me some bullets, and some paper if possible."
After being given what she needed, Meredith got to work, taking apart the bullets and emptying the gunpowder into the paper.
"I think I have an I idea of what you're going to do." Harry said. "I'll clean the wound to make it easier."
Once Meredith got enough gunpowder, she put it over Buck's wound, making sure to cover all of it, then readied the lighter. "This is going to hurt like hell, do you think he has enough strength left to take it?"
Zofia looked at Buck's expression. He was awake to the point that he'd feel everything, but not enough to that he can tell himself not to move so that it won't get messed up. "I don't think he has a choice."
"Fuck. Zofia, find a way to keep him calm."
There was only one thing that came to mind when she was told to keep Buck calm, and Zofia didn't have time to care about what the others thought. As soon as Meredith lit the gunpowder, she pressed her lips against Buck's, holding him down onto the table while also absorbing his screams into their kiss. She didn't pull away until his wound was completely cauterized.
"That wasn't what I had in mind, but ok." Meredith said.
"Zofia, do you mind explaining yourself?" Harry asked.
"Really? That's what you're worried about?"
"Well it doesn't seem like Sebastien will bleed out any time soon, so yes." Jager said, as puzzled as Harry. "Why don't you tell us what you just did."
Zofia looked at Meredith and Frost, the two people who already knew her secret, for help, both of whom had none to offer. She groaned from her stupidity. "Alright, fine." She said. "Sebastien and I, we're together."
"Well, you were together." Frost pitched in.
To be fair, it was an important distinction given their current situation, but she'd be lying if she said it didn't sting a bit. Well, a lot. "Gee, thanks Tina."
"I didn't mean anything by that, I just wanted to let them know that the two of you are no longer in that kind of relationship."
"That doesn't matter Tina." Jager said. "And how the hell do you know about it anyway?"
"They were actually pretty obvious about it."
"There were rumors going around actually." Harry said. "I just never paid them any attention. Apparently I was wrong to."
"Look, let's get out of here first, then you can ridicule me all you want when we get back." Zofia said. Things between the six of them were no longer tense. Right now, everything was awkward, and she wasn't sure which of the two was worse.
"Cohen, you better hurry your ass up." She whispered to herself.
…
"I see Streicher's plane." Glaz told the others, hanging back and getting ready for any white masks that Iana could bring to him.
"What's left of it anyway. The area's clear Timur, we can push onward." Iana said, switching her hologram off and making her way down.
"You heard her, meet up at the crash site." Ash said over the radio.
Nokk was the last to arrive, and by the time she did the others had already checked everything out. "Did you find anything to go on?"
"One of them was injured." IQ said. "There's fresh blood near the crash and it leads a trail towards that direction."
"Then let's follow it. What are you waiting for?"
"You. We were waiting for you."
Normally, none of them would be happy if their friends were ever hurt, but whoever it was that was injured, they were thankful for because it gave them something to follow. There was just one problem though.
"Keep your eyes peeled." Thermite said. "If we thought of following the blood trail, chances are the white masks did too."
"Not to mention they have a huge head start on us too." Nokk said, breaking into a run. "Haul ass everyone, I did not go all the way here just to bring home a bunch of corpses."
…
Ever since Buck woke up, he felt different. His leg wasn't split open anymore, his blood didn't feel like spilling out of him at the slightest movement and most of all, his head was laying on something soft as oppose to what it had been laying on for the past couple of hours. When he found out just what it was exactly that he was laying on, it made him all the more comfortable.
He looked up to see Zofia smile down on him as she gave him a lap pillow. "Well good morning sleepyhead."
"I don't think its morning anymore." Buck said. "How long was I out?"
"An hour or so. How's the leg?"
"My leg has hurt ever since we crashed, but now I guess it's a little better."
"Great." Zofia said. "You know, this feels weirder than I thought it would be."
"Really? What does?"
"When your head is in between my legs like that, you're usually doing something else."
"Hey, knock it off. Not when the others could hear us."
Zofia shrugged him off. "None of them are here right now, besides, they already know."
"What? How?"
Figures that he won't remember, not that Zofia would want him to. Even she was embarrassed. "T-that's not important."
"Well, how did they take it?"
"Streicher was shocked at first, but is otherwise ok with it." Zofia responded. "Harry said he wanted to have a long talk with us when we get back though."
"Well shit. I have that to look forward to."
"Beats being here though." Zofia said.
"Maybe. But I wouldn't mind staying like this for a while."
Zofia smirked. "You just love thighs, don't you?" She teased. "Such a pervert."
"Forget to erase your history once and this happens." Buck groaned.
"There's something called incognito Sebastien. Its just three keystrokes."
Buck laughed for a bit before his smile slowly faded away in light of what he was about to talk about next. "Hey Zofia?"
"Hmm?"
"When we get back…I want us to be together again."
"What about…"
"We'll have a talk with Jeremiah." Buck said. "Get all of this properly settled."
Zofia smiled. "I'd like that very much."
Buck mirrored her smile. "I lov-"
Harry burst through the door of the shed. "Just because I said I'll let it slide for now doesn't mean you get to be all lovey-dovey like that out in the open."
"You were listening?"
"I only overheard that last part but it was enough." Harry said. "Sebastien, what the hell man? I told you to act like her husband, not take his place."
"Harry, you said you overlook a lot of things right? Let this be one of them."
"I really wish I could Sebastien, but I can't. Not when I'm…partly to blame for it happening." Harry said. "Plus the fact that Zofia is mar-"
"Don't." Zofia warned.
"You get the point. If this were any normal relationship, I'd turn a blind eye to it, but its not."
Buck sat up. "Just give us time Harry. We'll deal with everything."
"Does that mean what I think it means."
The two of them silently nodded.
"Its not directly related to Rainbow so I guess I don't really have much of a say in it." Harry sighed. "I just hope you two know what you're getting into."
Zofia held Buck's hand. "We do."
Buck smiled at Zofia, who smiled back. The moment was as sweet as it was fleeting, since the sound of gunshots brought them back to reality.
"What the hell? What was that?"
"Was it the others?"
Harry shook his head. "No. They were supposed to be leading them away from here."
"You said Eliza sent a search party right? If they were both looking for us, it would only make sense that they'd run into each other." Buck said.
Zofia grabbed a rifle. "If that's true, they're massively outnumbered."
"What are you planning to do Zofia?"
"What does it look like?"
Buck got up and grabbed a rifle as well. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Alright then, let's do this."
"You're out of your goddamned mind if you think I'm letting you come with me."
"You said it yourself, they're massively outnumbered." Buck argued. "They'll need all the help they can get."
"One person won't make much of a difference."
"One person makes all the difference and you know that."
Harry cleared his throat. "Um, if I may. This lover's quarrel is nice and all but those gunshots out there don't seem to be decreasing so can we please get a move on?"
"I'll be getting a move on." Zofia said. "You two stay here."
"Oh for fuck's sake." Harry snapped. "Zofia, I get it, you don't want Sebastien getting hurt, but this whole not letting your partner come with you because its too dangerous thing is so overdone at this point and I'm sick of it. You can't protect each other all the time, danger is part of your job description."
"Not to mention the fact that of you find Eliza and the others, you'd have to come back for us, which means you have to fight for much much longer than necessary." Buck added.
Zofia glared at Buck, looking like she was about to punch him. She grabbed him by his collar, but instead of hitting him, she pulled him in for a kiss, making Harry roll his eyes so hard that he saw the inside of his skull.
"Don't you dare die on me."
Harry pushed past them. "I'm sorry, I know this is like, a huge moment for you two but can we go already!"
…
Jager, Frost and Meredith all left the shed as soon as Buck seemed to be stable at the suggestion of Zofia that they need to keep the white masks away. Meredith volunteered first, followed by Jager who didn't trust her to go out alone, followed by Frost who didn't trust both of them to not kill each other.
"So how exactly are we supposed to keep them away?" Meredith asked.
"We just have to find a way to get their attention." Jager said. "I doubt that would be hard since they're already looking for us."
"Yeah but, how?"
"I'm open to suggestions."
Frost looked at the sky, which just began to darken. "Its almost nightfall."
"I want this day to be over too Tina, but we're not out if the woods yet."
"Literally." Frost said. "But that's not what I meant. The darkness is our advantage, and they know it. They'll be on edge, and we can use that."
"What do you have in mind?"
"They'll be expecting us to call for help. By know, they must have run into Cohen's search party so right now, they're waiting for us to signal them to us. I'm thinking an emergency flare or two can send them way off our trail."
"We need flares for that though, something we don't have." Jager said.
"Let's get creative. You, I'm going to need my lighter back."
Meredith patted her pockets and came up empty-handed. "I may have left it with Sebastien."
Frost sighed. "Its fine. I didn't want to start any forest fires anyway." She said. "We'll figure something out."
The sound of gunshots echoed through the forest, taking priority away from their current problem.
"Or we can just improvise."
…
After using the last of his ammo to gun down the white mask behind him, Thermite dropped his rifle and bolted, the sound of his claymore going off behind him telling him he had one less white mask to worry about. Two if he's lucky.
"Eliza!" He yelled into his radio, to which he got no response. "Come in! Anyone! Shit."
He gripped his pistol so tight he felt the grooves of the handle imprint on his palms. Not only was he down to his side arm, he was also alone. He came into a clearing where he was exposed from every direction, meaning that place wasn't an option, but turning back means he had to face the people who were the reason that he was running in the first place.
With a sigh, he cocked his pistol and turned around knowing full well he was outnumbered and outgunned. Or at least he was until the people chasing him were turned to corpses at the sound of Glaz's rifle. Moments later, he dropped down from the tree he was in and approached Thermite.
"They were in the trees." Thermite said, who couldn't help but smile at seeing someone who didn't want to kill him. "Thanks for the save."
"Don't thank me yet. Have you gotten in touch with the others?"
"No. No one's been answering their radio lately." Thermite said. "Eliza told us that if that happens, we meet back at the LZ right?"
"That was only after we had found Harry and the others."
"We can't look for them by ourselves Timur." Thermite said. "I want to find them too, but we need to regroup first."
They heard more footsteps approach them and they raised their guns, nearly taking Zofia's head off when she came into view.
"Jesus christ, I should've just approached the white masks." Zofia said.
"Bosak?"
"And company." Buck said as he and Harry also appeared. "What took you guys so damn long?"
"Its nice to see you too." Thermite said. "Where's the rest of you?"
"I just radioed Tina. She and the others found Cohen." Zofia responded. "They said to meet up at the clearing where you landed."
"Did she say if everyone else was there?"
"She got cut off by gunfire."
"Then we'll just have to hurry." Thermite said. "Come on, follow me."
They all ran as fast as they could with an injured person among them, making sure that they were slow enough that he could keep up but fast enough that they would still have something to return to. With the longest day of their lives seeming to be nearing its end, the final stretch just had to be an actual stretch, didn't it.
The gunfire seemed to lessen as time went on, something none of them wanted to acknowledge in the fear of jinxing things. As they got closer and closer, Buck's leg hurt more and more until he finally stumbled in pain from forcing it while it wasn't even properly healed yet.
"Sebastien!" Zofia knelt beside him to help, but Buck just waved her off.
"How much farther Jordan?" He asked.
"Just up ahead."
"Go on, I'll catch up." Buck said, mostly to Zofia. "Get everything ready so we can fly out of here already."
Reluctantly, they all left him, and they got to the clearing where everything was way too quiet. The helicopter was right in front of them, but their friends were nowhere to be seen.
"Did we…did we get here first or-"
A flash of bright light illuminated the whole clearing and they saw their friends held captive by the white masks. Several trucks faced them, accompanied by dozens of white masks. If there was still any doubt that they were outnumbered, this just confirmed it.
They dropped their guns and they were all forced to kneel in a line in front of their helicopter. One of the white masks then proceeded to examine them one by one, pistol at the ready.
"You all have caused so much trouble haven't you?" he asked.
"All this for me?" Meredith asked. "I'm kind of honored."
"I'm glad you feel that way. At least you're happy when you died." The white mask said. "In fact, let me honor you even more by killing you last, that way you got to live the longest."
The white masks aimed at the first person in line, who just so happened to be Harry. "No more talking. I don't want to give you guys the chance to-, will you two shut the fuck up!"
The white mask shouted at two other white masks behind him. "I'm trying to kill some people here and you two keep fibbing like children. What were you two talking about?"
Neither of the white masks said anything.
"Answer me or you'll be kneeling along side them."
"Well we followed a blood trail right, and we made a bet that whoever it was that was bleeding would be dead by the time we found them, and none of them seem heavily injured so…"
Zofia was shocked when she heard this, and sure enough, upon checking, Buck wasn't with them. The white mask noticed her expression.
"That's because they're not dead yet. Search the area! We are not leaving until all of them are dead!"
"No need motherfuckers! I'm right here." Buck yelled from beside one of the truck and as a result, got every gun pointed at him. He looked at Zofia and offered her a sad smile. "I love you Zo."
He then proceeded to open the truck's fuel tank and drop Frost's lighter into it.
