Brandon
We were hiking down. I'm not sure what direction. East, west, north or south, I had no idea. I just knew that we were heading away from the ski resort.
I felt Big Luke pull on the back of my plate carrier. We dropped back out of ear shot from the others. He had a question for me.
"Hey, how much of that conversation did you here?" he asked.
I smiled to myself. "Apparently, you consider them family. She thinks you love her. Then she kissed-."
"Alright, alright. I get it. You got the juicy parts," he cut me off.
"So, let me ask you something. What do you consider David and I?" I asked him.
"You guys are brothers in arms. We ride together, we fight together. Pray to the gods and who ever will listen to not die together. It's bigger than being just a teammate. That's for damn sure," he answered. I was happy with his response. At least he doesn't think that he's babysitting us for Chiron.
We caught up with the others and continued walking. I would never admit it out loud but I was getting a little antsy to see Dasha again. It had been a year since she left. I had always wondered if she decided to stay, how things would be different.
It was foggy this morning. Not normal for summer time. Even when talking to Big Luke, my eyes were scanning around the woods for any possible assailants. I knew my teammates eyes were doing the same thing. Every bush, every tree, was looked behind. I kept the butt of my rifle close to my shoulder in case I needed to use it. I also had the flare gun handy for when I heard the chopper.
"What does that mean?" I heard Brittany ask before I walked right into her. "Hey!"
"Sorry," I replied immediately.
I peeked over her shoulder to see David looking over his shoulder. He was holding up a closed fist, the signal to hold position. He had this look on his face like Really guys? Big Luke walked up behind us and whispered for us to get down. The Strike Team took a knee on the trail and Brittany found a log to sit on. I had to admit, she looked pretty weird in Big Luke's hat and plate carrier over her red bathrobe and David's basketball shoes.
"OK, this is where we are going to have Dasha touch down. Assuming Brandon doesn't convince her to come back to the states with him," whispered David.
"Hey!" I replied in a whisper.
"No, here him out, Brandon. That might not be a bad idea. She's one bad-ass chick and she could be very helpful when the shit hits the fan in NYC," Big Luke suggested.
I though about that for a second. "Just because she came from half a world away, doesn't mean that they aren't her gods too."
"If she wants to come back with us. I would be willing to let her run with us on Strike Team operations. She's had plenty of combat experience and she knows how to fight monsters. We are going to need everything we can muster to win this war," Big Luke explained.
I just nodded as the sat phone was ringing in my utility pouch. I unzipped it and fished it out. The number on the screen was the same as before. I pushed the green button to answer.
"This is Brandon speaking," I said into the receiver.
"Hey, Brandon. It's Dasha. Where are you guys?" I heard Dasha's voice through the phone. "We are about three minutes out."
"I'd say we are less then three clicks from the base of the mountain that the resort is on. There is a big field on the other side of the tree line. We're still a long ways away from town," I explained. "You want me to shoot up the flare now or wait till you get closer?"
"Go ahead and wait two minutes and then shoot the flare. We should be able to see it by then," replied Dasha. "Are you guys OK? Are there any injuries?"
"Not yet but if David keeps giving me shit, I'm going to put him in a coma." I grinned evilly at David.
I heard Dasha laughing on the other end. "I'll see you in a few. In thirty seconds, shoot the flare."
"Sounds good. See you then." she hung up first and then I did the same.
I checked my watch and started to walk out into the clearing. "90 seconds out," I announced. I pulled the flare gun out of my utility pouch and pulled the hammer back. I checked my watch again: 75 seconds. I aimed the flare gun at the heavens and count backwards from 10. on -1 I pulled the trigger and watched as the orange flare ascended into the clouds.
All of a sudden, I heard yelling in German followed by gunshots from fully-automatic rifles. I hit the deck without even thinking about it. I was out in the open without any nearby cover. The dirt was my best bet.
I heard return fire from Big Luke and David. David had switched to his MP7 due to the close quarter engagement. I started to crawl towards my teammates. I had to push up on my helmet to look up briefly and see that everybody had taken cover behind a tree or a log. Brittany in the fetal position behind the same log that she was sitting on. Big Luke was covering her with his M16. David wasn't far away behind a tree.
I decided that I had the perfect opportunity to flank around and thin out the opposition a little bit. I started crawling to the left. I had a countdown clock in my head going, we had like 45 seconds till the chopper showed up. I was really hoping that Dasha's chopper had guns. Maybe big ones like M61 miniguns like KATE had. I finally found a tree to stand up behind towards the left of the opposition. I switched my rifle to full-auto and peeked around the corner to make sure that it was the enemy and not my friends that I was about to open fire on.
I turned out from around the tree and shouldered my rifle. I aimed at each target as I fired short bursts. They started dropping like flies. As some of them turned to face me, Big Luke and David took the opportunity to really lay down some return fire.
I didn't even hear the rotor wings of the chopper over all the gun fire. I didn't even know the Spanish NH90 was there until the M240 mounted in the door opened up through the trees. I recovered from my nearly shitting myself and got my ass behind cover.
"Brandon, come on! Let's go!" I heard Big Luke calling rough the trees over all the gun fire.
I started off on my sprint towards the helicopter. I ran right out in the middle, attempting to outrun bullets. I didn't stop when I reached my friends, I just kept running. Of course, they weren't far behind. We used the covering fire from the small army of Spanish militants that hopped out of the aircraft. I looked back to see the enemy running for the hills.
"Brandon, gimme that M40," Big Luke asked me, standing outside the aircraft. I handed him the rifle off my back.
Big Luke shouldered the rifle and took it off safety. Looking through the scope, he breathed deeply. In and out real slow like he was about to take a shot. He put his finger to the trigger and squeezed off a single round. I looked down range to see the second half of a guy falling flat on his face. Big Luke worked the bolt on the M40 and slung it onto his back.
"So much for making him shit bullets," mentioned David.
"He's dead. That's all that matters. Besides, he was shot while he was running away. That's humiliation enough," replied Big Luke.
I turned around to face the chopper when I was pounded unto a bear hug from Dasha. The hug came around my neck as she pulled me down slightly to her shoulder. It literally felt like my eyeballs would pop out of their sockets. Dasha seemed different than I remembered. Her cherry red hair was even shorter and swooped to her left in the front. She was wearing a different uniform than she was last summer, one like the Spanish guys around her. She had swapped out her twin MP5k's for a more standard G36k which hung off a three point sling on her shoulder. I must have involuntarily returned the hug around her back.
"I know it's only been a year but it feels like ten," she said as she pulled away. She had green eyes. I don't want to say sea green but it was a little lighter than that I guess.
"I can second that," I replied.
Dasha then turned to the rest of my friends and shook hands with them, except Brittany. They just kind of glared at each other through misleading smiles. This made me think back to my grandfather.
We were sitting around the living room one Christmas before my cousin got married to his girlfriend. I was maybe eight at the time. My aunt never liked her. They would do similar things to each other but never actually said anything about it until things really got heated between them. My grandfather saw the look of confusion on my face and leaned in next to me after such an encounter to whisper in my ear: "Don't try to understand woman, son. Woman understand woman... and they hate each other." I stifled a laugh standing there at the base of the helicopter, thinking back to how smart and right my grandfather really was.
We all loaded up in the chopper and headed for the nearest US military base. At one point, one of the Spanish soldiers that was sitting across from Big Luke leaned in and motioned for him to do the same. He started rambling on and on in Spanish and Big Luke just looked at him like he was giving a very detailed speech and he wanted every last word. At the end of his speech, the Spaniard's voice went up like he was asking a question.
Big Luke looked the guy in the eye and started slowly shaking his. "Dude, I have no idea what you just said."
Everybody on the helicopter started laughing, including Big Luke.
"I'm just messing with you, Gringo. But seriously: how did you get such a beautiful woman to be your girlfriend?" asked the same Spaniard in a rough Spanish accent. Brittany was sitting next to Big Luke, holding on to his arm.
"She's not my girlfriend," answered Big Luke. Not yet, I thought to myself.
The Spaniard's face lit up as he looked at Brittany. "Oh! So, Mommasita, have you ever dated a Spanish guy before?"
"Yes, I have. But keep sailing, Columbus. I'm not really looking for anything right now," Brittany responded hugging Big Luke's arm tighter.
Dasha was sitting next to me. She leaned in to whisper. "She is such a whore for him."
Ouch.
"He treats her well. She hasn't had many good relationships with guys," I whispered back.
"Oh, so she's slept around? Told ya: whore," Dasha added before I could say anything more.
"May I change the subject?" I asked, almost begging. If I wanted her to come with me, the last thing I needed on her mind was some girl that she hated... and who was also coming with us.
"If you must."
"Will you come back with me?" I asked her, still in a whisper but David's ears perked up like he heard us all along.
That changed Dasha's mood. She looked at me, shocked at my sudden question. "Why?"
My heart sank at her words. "Because we could use your help against, you know, that one evil dude."
I think she noticed that I got tongue tied. "You mean Kronos?"
"Yeah. Sure. Whatever you say. So, would you want to?"
Her expression turned grim. I might have come on a little too strong. "I don't know, Brandon. I have a good life in Spain. It's safe."
"It won't be if Kronos wins. They have a fucking tank! Big Luke and David told me about it." the tank was the least of our worries, but it was the only reason I could think of to get her to come with us.
"I still don't know." she looked at the floor of the helicopter, debating it with herself.
"You don't smile as much as you used to. Have you thought anymore about that other guy... Your, uh..."
"Fyoder? Don't even bring him up. He was scum. He used me as his under-aged pawn." she didn't really mean what she was saying, no matter how true it was. She used her anger to cover up her other emotions. She still loved her ex-boyfriend, even after everything he did.
"You always deserved better than him," I told her, seeing through her facade. "It was a mistake to ever get involved with him."
"Brandon, you're a smart guy, but you can be so stupid sometimes it's not even funny," she replied, looking at me, no longer whispering so the whole aircraft could hear our conversation. "He pulled me out of Hell on Earth, showed me a life that toughened me up. He helped make me the woman I am today. You should learn the whole story before you go off and tell me what I should have done differently."
She spat the last word at me like venom.
"You just went from first to wide open on that guy," said Big Luke. "I might be a little biased, considering he tried to kill me and all, but I'd be honored to have you as a fourth on our team. This is the summer that it all goes down. We need all the help we can get."
I attempted a grab at her hand. She reluctantly gave in and took it. "Look, I'm sorry for what I said. But the fact of the matter is that I need you to come back state-side with us."
She shook her head and I already knew the answer was no. "Call me when you guys win." she took off my glove and took out a pen. She wrote down a phone number, it wasn't the same as before.
"And what if I don't make it out alive?" I asked.
"Then I don't want to regret not doing this." and she wrenched my head to the side and laid one on me as the helicopter was landing. I didn't close my eyes but she did.
"Get it," David mouthed over her shoulder. I gave him the finger around her back as our tongues were still intertwined. She almost caught me when she pulled away.
"Just don't die on me," she said. Then she pulled me by the side of my collar on my plate carrier so she could whisper in my ear. "I'm not going to make you promise like somebody I know."
When the helicopter touched down, we all climbed out. Big Luke had made a sat phone call sometime on the trip over here to get us a ride to the states. It wasn't until I turned away from the NH90 to see our ride home: a C17 Globemaster.