Chapter 4

"Boss, that didn't sound right with two explosions. I thought Bam Bam only mentioned one charge, not blowing?" Sonny questioned as they waited along the mountainside.

"I Know." Jason bowed his head and took an unsteady breath. "6 Sitrep?"

"8 Sitrep?" Jason asked again, and he was met with silence and static.

"Crap." Ray huffed under his breath as Sonny and Trent walked off a few steps and let out a string of curse words.

…..

Liz slowly woke up and twitched her fingers and toes. Her first thought was her internal checklist: limbs intact, and nothing felt broken; that was a good sign. Then her heart screamed out for Clay, and where was he? He had reached her just in time as the RPG hit the northwest corner, and the explosion knocked them back. Their eyes met in a split second, and a breath of relief came across their lips as they were both alive and not hit by the blast. But that moment was cut short as the roof started crumbling under them. Clay jumped into action and thought about Liz and the need to protect her at all costs. He turned them over and used his body as a shield as they fell through the floor, dropping floor by floor until they landed on the second level unconscious.

As Liz rolled over to gain her bearings, her head screamed out in pain, and she felt something wet along her temple as blood gushed down towards her eye. Liz could get on her knees with a little extra effort, and her arms instantly went towards Clay's neck to check for a pulse as he lay motionless underneath her as soon as she noticed him along her side, unmoving. She was furious he risked his life like that as he took on the brunt of his and her weight each fall. But relief flooded her as she felt a pulse and saw his chest slowly rise and fall with each breath. She did a once-over, slowly to avoid jostling him, moving her hands along his body to feel for any broken bones. His feet, legs, thighs, and pelvis felt ok, so she moved along to his hands and arms. Once she reached his shoulder, she was starting to get a bit optimistic and soon wanted to kick herself for thinking they could have come out of that fall unscathed. His shoulders felt ok, and as she went slowly down his chest to check his ribs, her breath faltered. Both of his bottom ribs felt off but not broken. She inhaled as she pulled up his shirt and saw the bruising along both sides of his lower chest. She closed her eyes, let her breath slowly exhale as she opened them, and noted there was no other deep bruising or blood along his body. Therefore, she could conclude no internal wounds from debris or internal bleeding. Falling floor by floor was their saviour as they did not end up taking the entire fall of the two stories in one blow. Clay was slowly starting to rouse, and she knew from experience he tended to explode out when he came back from consciousness. Liz leaned back and waited, but she kept her hand on Clay's ankle; it was her tether for security. She needed to touch him for her body to relax and realize he was alive and with her.

Clay then shot up, yelled for Liz and her to get down, and shouted RPG incoming. He scrambled to try and get on his knees towards her, but Liz lunged at him to hold him down and stay sitting. His baby blue eyes were still staring past her, trying to fight against her to get up. Still, with her holding him down and sitting on his lap at this point as he struggled and was overpowering her, the added pain from his ribs caused him to wince and blink a few times, bringing him back into the present. She slowly saw his eyes come back into focus and land on her face as she stared at him, not saying anything, unsure if he was fully back with her.

"Liz. Are you ok? …Where are we?" Clay questioned as he focused on her face and his eyes diverted up towards her temple as he slowly grabbed her face and turned it towards him so he could assess the cut.

"I'm ok; I'm just a little banged up. We fell through the roof from that RPG blast. I think we are on the second floor, but it's hard to tell with all the dust and debris blocking any windows." Liz replied, and she tried to swat Clay's hands away from her face as she was still worried about him and still needed to check his head out to find out what caused his moment of fuzziness. "Hey." She cooed as she connected with his hands as he was still fussing with her cut and trying to do his own assessments of her status and held them as she slowly pulled them down to her lap and met his eyes. "I'm ok, I promise."

At that moment, she realized she was still in his lap from holding him down; she started to blush and tried to get up, but his arms stopped her as he pulled her into a hug, relieved they were both ok. It was like he needed to hold her and feel her against him to ensure she was ok and not lying for his sake. As he did, he winced, and she pulled away, getting off his lap, and kneeled beside him with a concerned look.

"I think you have bruised ribs on both sides, so you must take it easy. Don't move too much. I checked you out, and nothing else seems to be broken or bleeding, so we are pretty lucky, but let me see your head." She informed him as she slowly leaned into him and pulled his head to face away from her and tip down.

As she did so, he stayed quiet, assessing their situation and plotting a way out, and she saw him wiggle his limbs slowly to determine how he felt.

"Shit." Clay hissed as she prodded his hair to try and find the source of the bleeding she noticed along his neck.

"Sorry, it looks like you hit the back of your head hard where your helmet ends. Can you pass me some gauze from my medical pouch along my back?" Liz asked.

As Liz patched Clay's head up, he listened carefully to see if he could hear any enemy troops waiting outside for them. Nothing but silence came in. The silence that worried him the most was nothing from their comms either, no voices, no static—just the sickening sound of silence.

…..

"Bravo 1, Sitrep!" Blackburn called out as he paced along their mission room inside TOC, waiting for someone to give him some answers. They got a moment of ISR and saw two explosion sites where the team was set up and then nothing but static. "Bravo 1, I need some answers… Bravo 2? All Call signs?"

Davis looked at him and Mandy with tight lines across their lips as they could do nothing but wait.

"HAVOC, Bravo 1. We hit Jackpot and had to split up and leave 6 and 8 behind to blow the last charge that failed. We are waiting for them at the second checkpoint to hike up to exfil." Jason commented as he felt his chest tighten with concern. "Can you get ISR over the compound still?"

"Good Copy." Blackburn let out his breath relieved to make contact. "Wait, Bravo 6 and 8 were still at the compound? We saw a secondary explosion site along the building at the edge of the trees." He almost whispered as he tensed up again, realizing his team was not out of the woods yet.

"Shit, no, this can't be happening." Sonny was cursing as he slowly put it together that the second explosion was directed at his best friend and baby sister. "Did you see anyone through ISR get out before the explosion?"

"No, sorry, Bravo 3. We have only had a patchy ISR visual with the weather, and it's been removed by the clouds again." Davis replied with a hint of worry in her voice.

Gunshots then rang through the forest, causing Bravo to tense up and take cover.

"HAVOC, we have enemy fire, but I don't think it is directed at us yet," Jason commented as he let out a little sigh of relief as he realized that if there was fire, then Liz and Clay had to be alive, there was no one else they would be firing at. That hint of relief was short-lived as he internally panicked as he did not know how many troops were firing at them, and although Clay and Liz were overly skilled and could take on a few troops on their own, they were unfamiliar with this terrain and could have injuries.

"Copy 1, We have been advised you need to get to exfil point with the HVT." Mandy blurted out before she realized the repercussions that Jason would be throwing her way.

"Like Hell! We are not leaving them here." Jason yelled.

"We do not expect you to leave them, and god do I know you would go against all orders if we even tried to ask, but you need to get up the mountain to the exfil location and wait for them there. If you follow the shooting, there will be more trouble getting all of you out once nightfall comes in. And with no ISR with the tree coverage, we can not give you any clear idea where they may be located and heading up towards you." Blackburn responded, holding his hands in fists, not likening the idea, but having to follow the Upper Brass orders he just received.

"He's right, Jase," Ray replied off comms, grabbing Jason's arm to turn him to look at him. "We will have a higher advantage and can keep an eye on them up there. It will be easier for them to get up to us with just the two of them and dodge the enemy vs having the whole team and our HVT here creating a larger target. I don't like it, but it may be the easiest way to get everyone home safely."

"Copy HAVOC," Jason replied through coms.

…..

Clay and Liz managed to get up, move out of the building, and head through the field towards the tree line when they heard gunshots whizzing past their heads. All they could think of was getting out of the open and behind the cliff for cover, regrouping, and finding where the shots were coming from. Just as they were about to reach the ridge, another round of shots rang out, and Clay lunged forward, startling Liz. She jumped down the four-foot cliff behind him and saw him sitting up against it, pulling out his weapon to return fire, but she noticed he was slower than normal. A particular sluggish movement overcame him, but she had no time to inquire further into it as she popped up over the cliff and started to return fire. She hit one of them in the arm as they ducked away back into the rubble building for cover. It was not until then she had a moment to catch her breath and realized Clay never came up to help, and she slowly looked down towards him as she lowered herself back down, and all she could see was a blonde mop of curls folded over his chest as he slowly slumped to the side into the dirt.