Chapter 7

"We all squared away now?" Captain Enrico Marini asked me as I led the now properly armed and armored Rebecca Chambers up to the ready room.

"We're good, Captain," I replied. "Just having a discussion with Wesker again."

"One day your issues with him are going to bite you in the ass," Richard Aiken said with a smile and a shake of his head. "Captain Wesker has been trying to find a reason to get rid of you for the past year."

"Well, if he trained properly and wasn't an asshole I wouldn't have any issues with him," I replied as I checked my mags and my rifle one last time. "But he doesn't train with us, and he always acts so smugly when you explain something to him. Chambers would be a sitting duck in a firefight if Edward and I hadn't started training her properly."

"Alright," Aiken raised his hands in surrender. "I know when a grudge can't be settled with words."

"No," I shook my head. "I don't think I'd put it on the level of a grudge. I just don't trust the man to have my back in a firefight or any sort of combat," I shrugged. "He might be a fantastic guy outside of work, but I don't think I'm going to ever be close enough to figure that out."

"Alright, everything checks out on the chopper," Edward Dewey said as he climbed out of the chopper. "We're ready to lift off when you give the go-ahead, Captain Marini."

"Check your gear and your partner's gear," Enrico ordered. "There have been reports of both Wolves and Grizzly bears in the Arklay Mountains. So make sure that you've got everything you might need. Once we've made landfall we're going to be splitting up into two teams of three, with one medic going with each team."

"And stay in radio contact," I said as I pulled their attention to me. "I brought a 10mm for any bears we might come across. I mean, I've been looking for an excuse to redecorate my place, and a bear skin rug seems apt."

"We'll let you know if we run into a bear," Forest laughed. "But I'm honestly hoping that we don't."

–

–

"We're going to be touching down in a field that was specified by our contact," Captain Enrico Marini said over the headsets in the chopper. "Plan is to make contact and then start our investigation. It'll take about forty-five minutes to reach the landing zone, so double-check your gear or rest up while you can."

Closing my eyes, I was nearly asleep when Chambers nudged me in the side and startled me to full alertness.

"You okay?" the young woman asked me.

"I'm good," I said into the mic. "Just tired, SWAT Team Alpha had a massive drug bust today, and Mat got hit."

"He gonna be okay?" Captain Marini asked as he listened into the conversation. "Mat's a good kid, and I've been trying to get him trained up and into STARS, but Wesker wouldn't hear of it."

"It didn't hit an artery," I replied. "He'll need some stitches and physical therapy and he should be right as rain in a few months."

"Fuck!" Edward yelled as we felt the chopper lurch. "Engine failure, we're going down! I'm gonna have to make an emergency landing!"

The Chopper seemed to level out under the expert piloting of Edward before the rear rotor struck a tree and sent us spiraling out of control.

"Brace for impact!" Dewey yelled as the chopper hit the ground and everything in my vision went black.

"I can't get him to wake up, Captain," Chambers told Captain Marini. "I think he's got a concussion and he definitely will have some whiplash to deal with."

"Will smelling salts work?" The captain asked.

"I already tried those, Captain," Rebecca replied. "But he didn't wake up. If he doesn't wake up to smelling salts, and he's still breathing then it may be better to just leave him here with Edward while he tries to get the Chopper working again."

Enrico Marini paused in thought for a minute and looked at the members of his team. "Alright, I want those MPs secured in body bags before we do anything else," He told the four members of Bravo team. "Then, the four of us will investigate our surroundings while Edward stays behind with Mark and tries to get the chopper's radio working again," Enrico looked at each of the members of his team. "We'll stay in pairs that way we don't get ambushed by something we can't handle, and we'll try and stay in touch via the shortwave radios."

"What do we do if we lose radio contact with each other though?" Rebecca asked. "Do we get closer then?"

"That shouldn't be an issue for now," the captain said as he shook his head. "And if Dewey gets the chopper's radio back up we should be able to communicate over long distances with each other."

"I'll do my best, captain," Edward said with a frown. "But I'm not making any promises though."

–

–

"Ugh," I shook my head as I slowly woke up. "Anyone catch the plates on that truck?"

"Fraid not," Edward said with a smile as he helped me sit up. "You took a pretty nasty hit to the head and we couldn't wake you up."

"Well, I could have told you that just from the headache," I said sarcastically as I got to my feet and began collecting my gear. "Where'd the rest of the team go?"

"They're checking out the local area," Edward replied. "I got picked to stay and try to get our chopper's radio working again and to stay with you until you woke up."

"What's wrong with the radio?" I asked as I grabbed some of the migraine relief pills I had been using for about a year now.

"Call me crazy, but I honestly think that someone cut the wires on it," Edward said in response. "It's a little too perfectly done to have been an accident."

"Well, got any extra wires in your pack?" I asked as I began to go through all of my kit to see if I had anything that we could use for a cable splice. "I've got electrical tape, but that's it aside from medical supplies and ammunition."

"I don't have anything that would help patch the radio together," Edward said as he scratched the back of his head. "But there might be something we can pull from the Humvee that's wrecked out there."

"Let's go see what we can pull off that might be useful," I agreed as I grabbed my pack, slung it on my back, and then slung my rifle around beside it. "We might not be able to reach HQ with a patch, but we should be able to connect to the rest of Bravo team."

"We just need something four inches in length, considering it's just a temp patch we shouldn't be worried about the diameter, just about getting it to work in the first place."

The two of us left the wrecked chopper and raised our rifles to low ready, not sure what exactly we would find aside from the jeep and not wanting to be caught off-guard.

"What's that noise?" I asked as we neared the wrecked military vehicle.

"There wasn't any noise earlier," Edward said with a frown. "Just two dead MPs who we bagged up and laid out behind the wreck."

"That's where I'm hearing the sound come from," I said as I raised my rifle and pointed it in that direction. "On point," I said to the other man.

"Following," Edward replied as he put one hand on the back of my vest and drew his MP5K before turning to cover the rear.

"You said that the MPs were dead?" I said as I watched the body bags begin to move and one of the zippers break.

"Yeah," Edward said as he came around to see what I was seeing. "They were definitely dead."

"Well, either they're a part of the drugged-up cannibal cult, or they're something else entirely," I raised my rifle and fired into the head of one of the MPs and watched it stop moving entirely. "I'm not going to wait and find out."

A shot rang in my ear for a second as I turned and saw Edward lower a smoking pistol.

"I'm not getting killed by something freaky in the mountains," Edward said as he holstered his pistol again. "Let's finish salvaging this wreck and see if we can link up with the others. I don't think these woods are all that safe."