Chapter 5

The other remaining members of the Bravo team made their way to the primary exfil location just as it started to look like dusk was wanting to roll in. With the long vertical hike, they did not manage to make very good time as they refused to let their HVT out from under his black hood and only stopped for minimal water breaks; with the heat, it was more of a circus act trying to handle him in the climb as well as keep themselves upright. It was not a straight-up vertical ascend as natural paths and edges were worn to aid the uphill walk. Still, to keep as straight a line up as possible for a direct route, some areas were steeper or narrower than others, and some members needed to grab a few rocks to steady themselves. This climb would be more difficult for Clay and Liz if they did not start right away as the darkness of night looms in the air. The team did not plan to be longer than a day, so they did not plan on bringing their NODs. Thankfully Clay and Liz did attach theirs to their helmets, thinking of all scenarios being overwatch and the possibility of having to cover the teams back in dark scenarios. Although they hated daytime assaults, this one was needed as Mandy got word from her asset the Phantom hardly stayed in one place for long, and there was a rumour that he was planning on heading out tonight to catch a flight to his next destination of terror.

Ray caught Jason's and Sonny's gaze down the mountainside, hoping to catch a glimpse of the last remaining team members, but their gazes came up short. Ray sent a silent prayer as they all turned around to set up a mini-camp in the middle of the clearing to grab some water and power bars and wait for their friends.

"Trent makes sure to get any medical supplies ready you think you may need for all scenarios as we know that these two like to defy all odds in injuries; this silence and the previous gunfire are leaving me with a pit in my stomach. Sonny and Brock set up a perimeter along the edge. Ray, get the HVT tied down and secure." Jason ordered. "Come on, you two, I can't lose either of you; it will break me," Jason mumbled under his breath to himself.

Jason has gained a fatherly affection towards his team's youngest members, and they have wedged their way into his closed heart since he lost Nate. He has grown to love all his team members, but these two played more of a role in his life than he initially wanted. They were added to his family in more ways than one, and he now views them as his children and would be crushed in all possible ways if he ever lost either of them. They were good together, always complimented each other, and seemed to have silent conversations on another wavelength, but they were both the most stubborn individuals Jason had ever known. And along with that putting them together could cause chaos in even the most docile situations. The stubbornness was not always about themselves, but the others in their lives, the ones they love, and they will go through hell and to the ends of the earth to keep everyone safe. And to do this, they would risk their lives as they were so stubborn to think of any other situation if needed; they would never lose. Jason loved and admired them for that; a true leader possessed these qualities, but he always despised that trait about them; he was not willing to lose them even if they had come to terms with the possibility.

"Jase, this ain't right! We need to go back for them. You know as well as I do that they will be too stubborn to die but could use help getting their asses into that chopper when it arrives." Sonny called towards Jason as he grew tense, watching the edge into the trees, waiting, and hoping to spot something. Anything.

"I know, but you heard Blackburn and Mandy, we are grounded here to wait for them, and normally I would agree, but we don't have our NODs or ISR to locate their position; we would be more trouble trying to find them and bring them back if we get stuck out there," Jason mumbled. He was not happy waiting either, but he agreed with Mandy and Blackburn in waiting and that Liz and Clay were skilled enough to make their way here safely.

"I know…. It still is bullshit but your right. I would not want to drag Brock's sorry ass up this hill with him being overly clumsy and tripping all willy-nilly." Sonny grumbled and heard Brock beside him snort and snoot him the finger.

….

"CLAY! Hey, Clay... talk to me." Liz all but yelled out towards Clay as she scrambled towards him, taking the break in the fire as a blessing and hoping they retreated or tended to their wounded, allowing her to get Clay and keep moving out. "Please, please, don't be dead," She whispered to herself as she reached him and noticed the pools of blood along his side soaking into his clothing and the dirt. The overpowering smell of copper overwhelmed her as she held back her stomach and dreaded to her core what she would find when she reached for his neck. Holding her breath, she went for his pulse and waited for what seemed like an eternity until she felt the faint pulsing of his very slow heartbeat. Overwhelmed by joy and her eyes welling with tears, she let her breath out, grabbed Clay's face to bring it up to look at her, and gently patted his cheek to wake him up as she rubbed his other cheek. Her thumb danced in circles in a calming manner to hopefully aid in his awakening and not have him in a full-blown panic, as well as keep her nerves calmed as she felt soothed having a touch upon his skin.

Clay did not wake up right away, and she took that opportunity to reach into her medical pack and pull out the limited gauze she had, quick clot, and pressure wraps Trent insisted she and Clay carry with them as they were prone to injury even minor every mission no matter how much they argued against him that having the extra medical supplies waw more a curse for their damages than them being the curse. Trent, of course, won that battle. Liz slowly and overly cautiously lifted off Clay's vest to help elevate the weight and pressure on his upper body until she could assess his wounds; she could not instantly see where he was injured as his whole left side of clothing was soaked in blood. Lifting his shirt, she silently cursed as she saw two bullet wounds gushing blood, one was just below where his back plate sat in his vest, and the other was off to the side of his vest as he must have turned his body slightly, looking back at their enemy. Quickly, Liz cleaned the wound best she could with the extra water in her ruck, applied gauze, and held them against Clay as best as she could as she attempted to rip open the first pack of her quick clot to poor on and pray it worked. She had basic medical knowledge and was signed up for more classes alongside Trent, but the timing would be far off as those courses were planned for next month, and of course, she would be in this dire situation now. Karma and luck were never on her side, it seemed. Once she got the packet open, she removed her knees, holding pressure and the gauze against his wounds, laid Clay onto his side a bit more to pour half the package on each injury, and watched to make sure things clotted. Usually, Trent would blow a gasket if someone used a quick clot pack over trying to stop the bleeding with gauze and pressure as it was extremely messy and complicated for the doctors to treat and clean the wound in the hospital correctly. But he would cave if there were no other option, and he always assured her if needed as a last resort, and there would be lots of moving, it was better to use the quick clot over the injured bleeding out. And Liz was pretty confident this would be the proper definition of last resort, being alone and still miles away from their exfil with an uphill climb in their near future. Once the clotting finished, she applied some more gauze for reassurance and used pressure wrap and extra tape to secure everything and keep it clean.

Next, Liz started prodding Clay's hip and thigh trying to locate the bleeding, as asking an unconscious man to pull his pants down for her was not ideal and plausible right now. She rolled her eyes as she thought this was not how she wanted to get closer to Clay for a second time today and hoped he would not wake up until she was finished. But again, karma and luck were not on her side as usual, and Clay let out a startled grunt and whimper as she moved down his leg towards mid-thigh and finally located another gunshot wound. She kept going down his thigh to ensure she only had one location to deal with as she was running low on supplies. As she kept going, she saw Clay lift his head in a daze and try to regain himself, looking around and finally, his fuzzy eyes met hers. They slowly blinked into recognition for the second time today as he was having trouble staying in the present, and he grunted again and winced in pain, trying to sit up. Liz held him down gently with her knee as it looked like his thigh wound was a through-and-through from the back, so working with him on his side allowed her to access both holes quickly to get them up and moving before any more enemy attacks.

"Well, about time you decided to join me there, sleeping beauty," Liz joked as she did quick work at ripping open his pant leg with her knife. "You just had to go and get shot. You had to one-up me again on injuries as matching head wounds was just not enough." She laughed, laced with sarcasm.

"You would think, hey! It seems to be that I enjoy waking up on my back being poked and prodded by your tiny devil hands with the number of times it seems to have happened this past year." Clay snorted with a wince. "You, ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine; it seems the enemy focused on you as you hogged all the bullets that managed to grace us with their presence." Liz laughed again, wiping her hair out of her face that managed to slip out of her braid under her helmet. "I managed to get one of them in the arm or side of the body; I am not sure as I lost track seeing you slump down, but they retreated away, and I have not to heard anything from them since. If we work fast and you can move, we can get out of here, slip away quietly with the tree coverage, and hopefully get to exfil with no more bullets. Liz ordered as she handed him the rest of the water she didn't use to finish cleaning his thigh. "Here, drink the rest of this."

Once Clay was patched up and assured Liz over and over that he could walk, but she may need to assist him with a little human cane, they started quietly away from the cliff and kept as low as possible, trying to line up with as many trees to hide them. For someone who did not know this was a regular occurrence and that they mastered this skill together, this would seem like a very awkward movement with Clay being broadly built on a 5ft 11 frame leaning on her with a slight hunch and with one arm wrapped around her shoulders and Liz coming in as 5ft 6 with a slim frame glued to his side as she tried to support his weight as much as possible and loop her arm up around his waist. Each was carrying their handguns in their free hands as their rifles were too heavy and awkward for one arm, so they both had them looped along the front of their vests. Clay insisted he put his vest back on even though Liz tried to assure him that the extra weight and pressure were not helping his situation, but he noted there was no way he could get shot up again and leave her to deal with the pieces. He could not put her through that again as he was already feeling guilty that he could not help her more with his current injuries and needed to put more and more weight on her slowly, but he was wearing down fast. They had to make multiple stops for him to take a break and lean against a tree or sit on some rocks to try and keep her as fresh as possible with the breaks from his weight on her. She tried to get as much water in him from his spare bottle and a couple of bites from a bar they shared as she combined their rucks so he had one less thing to carry.

Finally, they made it to the patch of trees right before the clearing to the bottom of the mountain, and it could not have come sooner. Clay's steps were starting to falter more frequently, and there were times she could feel him dragging along beside her as she kept having to lightly pinch him along the back side of his arm to keep him awake and with her as much as possible. Liz found a large boulder just below waist height and leaned Clay on it as she slowly helped him sag onto the ground for a break while she ventured forward with her rifle to clear the clearing from any hostiles while they made their slow path towards the hillside to start their ascent. Liz looked up along the tree line, and she could see the clouds rolling in thicker than before as dusk and a possible wind storm was upon them. At this point, she sighed as she hoped they would have ISR coverage to convey their position to the team for aid, as their coms never returned online after the explosion and yet again, her karma and luck laughed at her. Before they left the building, Clay tried to combine their damaged coms systems to create a Frankenstein contraption, hoping he could add IT to his list of skills, but he had no luck. Liz took one last look back at Clay in his position, where he faced to the side to have quick access to their flanks for any enemy movement and swivelled in her direction if needed, and she then set out on her path towards the clearing. Still, she doubted he would even stay awake that long to be able to be in a makeshift overwatch position.

Just as Clay started to fade out and fade to the darkness that kept trying to pull him down, he glanced one more time towards Liz as she began to take a few cautious steps towards the edge of the tree line. He refused to give into the darkness that nagged him with each step, as he was known for his stubbornness and decided to fight himself against death. He chose to live up to that reputation as he was not leaving Liz alone to deal with an unconscious him and keep herself alive and make it towards exfil or force her into the position to leave him behind to get help as he knew she would never leave a man behind and would kill herself in the process fighting that situation.

Clay was now teetering the line of darkness when he was startled into consciousness by a muffled, blood-curdling scream.

"Liz!" was all he could muster out in a whisper as the darkness clamped down on him and pulled him down like he was drowning in blackness.