Battle Front: Chapter Eleven
It was dark and it was chaotic. Aoshi was crouched alongside two men in his team, the Army captains. They didn't seem to like one another much and yet also seemed to enjoy teasing one another.
Their chopper had been shot down and only through amazing skills was Enishi Yukishiro able to land them safely. Himura hadn't let that one little mishap affect the mission. He had simply included Yukishiro into his field men. And that was how Sagara and Yukishiro ended up flanking Aoshi on either side.
The sound of approaching footsteps broke the silence of the dark corridor. Sagara made a motion with his hands, being the only one with true hand-to-hand combat experience he was the leader of their trio. When the enemy guard came close Sagara stood up in the shadows with a United States Marine Core issue Ka-bar knife in his hand. How an Army officer ended up with a Marine weapon was a mystery.
And then Aoshi watched as the man silently slit the throat of the enemy. He clenched his jaw at the sight of all the blood. He had dedicated his life to saving lives and now he was being forced to watch humanity at its worse, slaying one another. It made his stomach churn.
Enishi must have noticed his discomfort because the next thing he noticed, the white haired pilot had grasped hold of his upper arm and whispered in his ear. "Remember, he's a bad guy."
Aoshi nodded, though he thought it was more likely that the slain enemy was a simple pawn in some madman's scheme to rule the world. He followed Sanosuke down the corridor as they approached the computer information room that they were assigned to infiltrate.
Once more they paused in the shadows as Sanosuke gave another silent order and gestured for Aoshi and Enishi to work together to take out the next guards. Simultaneously the two men put silencers on their Desert Eagle guns. Aoshi took aim for the man's forehead, but at the last moment he was unable to shoot him. He was to preserve life, not destroy it, and his aim was off, his bullet slammed into the wall just blow the man's ear.
However, before the intended victim could shout out a warning Enishi had killed both men, a kill shot to each forehead. Aoshi looked at the helicopter pilot in awed disbelief and horror as he calmly replaced his gun in the waist band of his uniformed trousers. Yukishiro looked back at him with a blank expression.
Sagara urged them to continue, not even pausing at the gruesome scene. Aoshi shook his head to clear his thoughts. He had a duty to his country. He wouldn't hesitate next time. The information room door opened unexpectedly and there stood a man, grenade in hand and a mad gleam in his eyes.
Aoshi raised his gun and shot the man using a perfectly aimed kill-shot. However, none of them had anticipated that the man had already pulled the pin on the grenade.
"Fire in the hole!" Sanosuke shouted turning towards them and knocking both Aoshi and Enishi to the ground under him. A fierce, fiery blast rang out through the tunnel and it felt like an inferno.
Sano rolled off the two other men and began gasping for breath. Aoshi quickly looked him over. The man had some severe burns on his back where the fire had incinerated his uniform jacket. "You'll be all right," Aoshi assured him helping him to his feet.
Sano shook his head and took off his helmet. "Yeah, but I have one killer head ache now with all this ringing in my ears, doc." He grinned, his white teeth flashing through the darkness of his soot covered face.
"Put your helmet back on you fool," Yukishiro hissed making his way towards the information room, gun at the ready. He kicked the body of the grenade launcher out of the way and entered the room.
Sano continued to carry his helmet under his arm as he followed Yukishiro. He ordered Aoshi to watch for intruders. Less than five minutes passed before the two men returned large grins on their faces at having recovered the mission's objective of copying the information from the base's computer.
Aoshi heard the sound of running feet and foreign shouts and urged the men back in the room. He slammed the door shut and locked it. "Alternate escape route," he suggested.
Sano's grin vanished from his face as he replaced his helmet on his head. "Yeah, I would like to return home to the fox in one piece," he muttered. "All right, follow me," he demanded reaching for the ventilation shaft covering.
"That will collapse under our weight," Yukishiro said in irritation.
"It always works in the movies," Sano said staring into the darkness of the shaft.
"If you avoid the weak junctions it might work," Aoshi offered.
There was gun fire at the door. "Or we can face the firing squad," Sano said leading the way. "Hurry up; I studied the blue-prints. This will lead us to the rendezvous point."
Somewhat reluctantly, Enishi agreed. He gestured for Aoshi to go first and Aoshi wasn't one to argue with logic. It didn't take long for the white haired pilot to join them.
"They'll know we went this way. No where else for us to disappear. We'll be sitting ducks," Enishi whispered.
"Then we best haul it," Sano hissed back.
There was daylight waiting at the end of the tunnel. Sano dropped first to the ground, but before Aoshi could join him he shouted back a warning.
"Crap! Stay in there! They're everywhere!"
OOOOOoooooOOOOO
Kaoru looked up in surprise when Megumi dropped the tray of food. They had just started their lunch break in the cafeteria and were enjoying a friendly banter when Megumi just let go of her tray.
"Butterfingers?" Kaoru teased. Her smile vanished as she took in the paled expression on Megumi's face. "Megumi? What's wrong?" She rose to her feet and helped her friend sit down in a chair beside her. "What's going on?"
"Something bad has happened," Megumi whispered. She turned dark, fear-filled eyes upon Kaoru. "Something has happened to Sano."
Kagome laughed. "Don't be ridiculous! What? Are you suddenly psychic?" She reached for her own tray and pushed her mug of hot tea into Megumi's icy hands. "Drink this and calm yourself down. You're being ridiculous."
Another tray slammed down upon their tabletop. "What's what with her?" Yahiko asked, opening his can of Pepsi and guzzling it down. "She looks like she saw a ghost."
"She thinks something bad happened to Sano," Kaoru explained.
Yahiko began to laugh. "No way, that guy is indestructible. Don't worry, he'll be back annoying you same as usual."
Megumi began to drink the tea and slowly placed it on the table. "I'm sure you're right." She laughed at herself. "I'm just being ridiculous. Don't listen to me."
"No worries, I never listen to you anyway," Yahiko said pushing his tray in front of her. "I'll go get myself some more food you can have my tray."
"Do you have premonitions often?" Kaoru asked gently, concerned.
Megumi shook her head. "No of course not, I'm not psychic." Her voice grew quieter, "However when my mother's parents died I did have a dream the night before about their plane crashing."
Kaoru had no words of comfort for that and so instead she began to pick up Megumi's fallen tray.
oooooOOOOOooooo
"Great, now we're going to be shot at from both ends," Enishi muttered slipping a fresh clip into his gun. "Try not to miss this time," he warned.
"It goes against what I do to kill people," Aoshi answered sharply.
"Right. The hypocritic oath."
"Hippocratic," Aoshi corrected.
"Sagara, you still alive?" Enishi called out.
"Barely," came the reply.
"Great, just flipping terrific. First my chopper gets shot down, then I get stuck working with my girlfriend's ex and now I'm trapped in the middle of an airshaft." Enishi began to shoot down the shaft, a few terrified screams answering his bullets.
"What are you talking about? You're dating Sagara's ex?"
Enishi turned a pair of hostile eyes onto Aoshi. "No, I'm talking about your ex, Kaoru."
Aoshi suddenly felt very capable of shooting his gun. "You're dating Kaoru," he repeated.
"Yes, and if we both get out of here alive we can have a proper gentleman's duel for her honor, savvy?" Enishi shot down the shaft some more before peering over the edge outside. "Sagara's been shot," he observed.
Aoshi looked over the edge and his mind raced with negative scenarios at seeing where Sagara's wound was. It was a gut shot, a slow, painful way to die. "He needs medical attention immediately."
"Fine. You gather him up and I'll go steal an enemy chopper and gather the troops to return to base," Enishi said.
"Looks like the cavalry arrived," Sano said, voice growing groggy.
"Sagara!" the shout of Kenshin Himura cried out worriedly as he crouched beside his fallen man. Enishi and Aoshi slipped out of the shaft and joined him, both assessing Sano's wounds.
"He's been shot multiple times," Enishi announced grimly meeting Aoshi's eyes.
Kenshin hefted Sano's body up and supported his weight. "A couple of Ranger's already secured a new helicopter."
"Good," Enishi said, hurrying ahead, leaving Sano behind with Kenshin and Aoshi.
"You got any pain pills on you Shinomori?" Sano asked, fighting to keep his eyes open.
"No, but we'll fix you soon," Aoshi promised.
Sano nodded and then smiled broadly. "Hey Himura, I got the discs. Mission impossible accomplished. Do I get a medal now?"
"You got yourself shot for being foolish, not for being heroic. Why would you get a medal for that?" Kenshin teased.
"Because I'm going to die," Sano said sadly.
"No, you're not," Aoshi said determinedly standing on Sano's other side to help Himura support his weight.
Sano turned toward Aoshi, blood streaming from his forehead where a bullet had grazed him. "Will you tell the fox that I love her? And you need to take Kaoru back out to the beach. She looked happy there."
And then Captain Sanosuke Sagara lost consciousness. Kenshin and Aoshi increased their pace to the helicopter.
oooooOOOOOooooo
Kaoru's beeper was going wild. She rolled herself out of bed and threw on her scrubs. She quickly brushed her teeth and stumbled into the living room to see Megumi quickly tossing her hair up in a pony tail. "You got paged too?"
"Must be some major emergency," Megumi said rushing towards the door with Kaoru hot on her heels.