Dan trusts they are ready to cover him as he goes about reloading the Browning and fights the urge to keep looking over his shoulder to the open door, even though every fibre in his body is telling him to. He has to change out the Browning’s ammo as quickly as possible, to get another three hundred rounds into the gun because the forty or fifty rounds remaining on the current belt won’t hold off another sustained attack.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees fleeting movement through the rain but still, he resists turning to confront it, his body racked with fear as he pulls a new belt into the loading mechanism. Gunfire breaks out from either side of him as his team tries to defend. Dan is nearly done, the new belt is in and he grabs the gun’s left grip while at the same time reaching up with his right hand to pull the open-top cover down, locking it into place. And then the same hand finally whips back the side-slide to load the gun.
Dan focuses ready to fire, just as a Rabid launches into the air at him, bullets hitting the Rabid’s body from the right as his team tries to take it down—but they have no effect.
The Rabid is almost on top of Dan, its black pupils fixed on him as its mouth opens and its arms spread ready to envelop him. This time, Dan doesn’t hesitate. He yanks down on the grip, lifting the muzzle of the gun, and pulls the trigger. The Browning bursts into life, sending dozens of 50-cal rounds ripping into the Rabid in mid-flight, stopping it in its tracks. They tear the Rabid apart, its body splitting in two. As it falls, bullets smash into its face and up through its head which explodes, ejecting its contents splattering backwards.
A second Rabid close behind the first is also obliterated from the same burst of bullets, and they both fall onto the ground as a mince of flesh, bone and red-black blood.
Dan is playing catch-up; however, his reloading of the Browning keeps him out of the fray for vital seconds, and a third Rabid, slightly to Dan’s left, is missed by the burst of bullets. He keeps firing and tries to swing the long muzzle of the gun to get the Rabid in its sights, but it doesn’t quite catch up. The Rabid is too quick, the arc of bullets all missing the terrifying creature whose evil dead eyes are fixated on Dan’s position. Continuing to swerve left, the Rabid has done its job, it has drawn Dan’s fire away from the stairwell, its main target; whether this is intentional or not, it looks like a disastrous error.
Dan sees his error as Rabids start to stream out of the door again and terror grips him; they are only meters away from his position. The first Rabid is still swerving left to avoid the fire from the Browning, but if he diverts that salvo of bullets away from it and at the door, it would be on him straight away. Just as Dan is about to divert the Browning at the door and take his chances with the single Rabid, tracer bullets fly over his head, their flashing red and green light directing the hailstorm of bullets that rip into the stream of Rabids in front of him.
The Mini-Gun, firing from the Lynx above, despatches the Rabids that made it out of the stairwell in next to no time. They are all left in a heap of flesh and Josh carries on firing down into the stairwell to make sure. Thank you, Josh, Dan thinks somewhere in the back of his mind, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on it or feel relief; he has got to focus on killing his target. He hears gunfire from his team as they too try to take down the creature, but they all miss; the target is so fast and too far away for them.
“We have the contents of the safe, Captain,” Corporal Simms tells me from below, but I barely register what he says as I look out, watching Dan and his team struggle to keep control of the roof. The coffee table on top of the sideboard feels unsteady under me as I stand on my tiptoes, the top of my head poking out through the hole and the rope gripped in my hand helping to steady me.
“Captain?”
“Ok, let’s move,” I tell him.
“Yes, Sir,” he replies.
I take a higher grip on the rope and pull myself up as a hand pushes my boot to help me on my way. I am eager to get assistance to Dan as quickly as we can. Another bolt of lightning hits, its long fork shooting downwards through the torrents of rain and it’s immediately followed by the obligatory deafening crack of thunder.
Taking a knee next to the hole, I look down the length of my rifle, providing cover for my team as they prepare to move. Across the roof, Dan opens up again with the Browning as another wave of Rabids attacks from the stairwell; even with my limited vision through the rain, I see that he is in trouble. A Rabid is trying to flank him on my side and more are coming at him from the stairwell. I aim at the Rabid flanking him and fire, in hope more than an expectation that I will hit it. I miss and try to aim again, but the creature moves too fast. Above and away to my right, tracer fire rains down from the Lynx’s Mini-gun, I can’t see Josh from my angle, but I know it must be him firing. I desperately hope that it will free Dan to deal with other Rabids.
Kim appears next to me and as soon as he does, I’m up and running towards Dan’s position. He’s let go of the Browning and has resorted to firing his sidearm at the fucking Rabid which refuses to go down. The creature, seeing its opportunity, has stopped flanking and is going for Dan head-on and is nearly upon him. Now closer to Dan, I slam my anchors on, pull my rifle up, aim—and just as the Rabid jumps at Dan, I shoot.
The Rabid lands on top of Dan, knocking him backwards off his feet, onto his back on the roof and they both go down, water spilling up as they hit the ground. For a second, I think I’ve hit it, but to my horror, it is still moving and attacking Dan who is beneath it, the creature's arms flailing at Dan and then its head goes in to attack.
“NO!” I hear myself shout as I sprint the remaining distance to my mate.
As I reach them, the Rabid’s head is down into Dan’s neck area and he is withering underneath it, his legs and arms kicking, still trying to fight. Without thinking, I immediately jump down on top of the Rabid and push my arm under its neck and pull back as hard as I possibly can. The Rabid resists my pull and I hear cracking sounds from its neck as I continue to pull with all my strength; suddenly, it releases and I’m falling backwards, with the Rabid’s head locked between my arms, falling back with me. The creature whips and bucks its whole body trying to escape my grip. Its strength is astounding, unrelenting, and my wet grip starts to slip.
A dark figure appears above our struggle and moves down on top of us, the figure’s left hand grabs the hair of the Rabid and I see a glint of light from the steel blade before it is plunged into the Rabid’s head. The blade enters the Rabid’s head right next to my right ear, the crack of bone and quench of flesh travelling loudly into my brain as it goes in.
Lance Corporal Kim starts to pull the limp Rabid off me and I quickly push the thing off at the same time. I’m both desperate to get to Dan and yet dreading it. As soon as the weight of the dead Rabid is off me, I scramble on my hands and knees over to Dan who is still on his back where he fell, his arms and legs twitching. I try to take that as a good sign, at least he is still alive, I kid myself.
As soon as I am on my knees over him, I see the damage the fucking evil creature has done to him. His eyes are wide open and desperate, full of fear as he fights to draw breath through his lacerated neck which is pumping out blood. Frantically, I rip open one of my Velcro pockets on my body armour, pull out a field dressing, quickly apply it to the wound and put pressure on.
“Buck, emergency medevac,” I shout into my radio, as shock hits me, making my head spin.
“Delay that order, Wing Commander,” I hear someone say above me and look up to see who the fuck has the balls to try and override my order.
“Who said that?” I bawl at the three men standing around me and Dan.
“I’m sorry, Sir,” Sergeant Dixon says, “we can’t take him with us.”
“I’ll be the judge of that, Sergeant; he is still alive!”
“No Sir, I’m sorry he isn’t; he is infected, and we can’t risk him turning on the helicopter and even if he didn’t, they wouldn’t let us land with him back at base,” Dixon tells me. “We have
the contents of the safe and that is the priority, we need to go, now.”
My head turns back to my friend and I stare at him for a moment, seeing his fight to draw breath has slowed and his eyes flicker as if they want to shut, but he is too scared to let them. I know deep down that Dixon is right, Dan is beyond saving, yet I still try to think of a way to, even as he fades before my very eyes. In the end, all I can do is be with him for his final moments and I take his hand in mine, trying to give him some small amount of comfort. Fleetingly, I feel Dan’s hand lightly squeeze mine before it goes horribly limp and then as more lightning flashes overhead, his eyes stop flickering and his pupils dilate. My head drops and sadness fills me as I know he has gone, the loss hard to take in.
Gunfire erupts above me from the Browning; one of the men has taken up Dan’s position of defending the stairwell.
“Captain, we have to get out of here,” Dixon says.
Reluctantly, succumbing to the inevitable, I release Dan’s hand, which drops to his side as I push up off the soaking roof to stand. I pause, looking down at him knowing I have a ghastly decision to make; do I make sure Dan doesn’t turn into one of these heinous creatures and put a bullet in his head or do I leave him here on the roof? Is there any chance that a cure will be found to turn the dead back to life, and is Corporal Simms carrying the answer on his back in the holdall containing the contents of Sir Malcolm’s safe? My gut tells me that it is near impossible and that as much as it pains me to accept, Dan is dead. Even if a cure is found, it is a long way off and I know that Dan, who loved life and lived it to the full, wouldn’t forgive me if I left him here on this godforsaken roof to turn into pure evil. My hand is already on my Glock as if it is telling me what I have to do, and I pull the pistol out.
“Do you want me to do it?” Dixon asks from beside me.
“No,” I tell him after a pause, “I’ll do it for him.”
Dixon raises his rifle and moves off, joining Simms and Kim, leaving me alone with Dan. His dead eyes still stare up to me and at the sky beyond. I bend down, pushing them closed, and then move around so I am standing behind his head. I raise the pistol, aiming at the top of his head.
“Rest easy mate,” I tell Dan and I fire a single bullet.
Chapter 16
Turning to leave my friend where he lies, the loss weighs heavily on me, as Dan is the second real friend I’ve lost in action and I still haven’t got over the first, Rick, and that was years ago. I feel bile trying to rise up in my stomach as nausea and grief threaten to take hold of me, I have to force them back and get my head back on point. Josh is flying above me and Emily and Catherine are waiting for us to return, I’ve got to focus on them for now; there will be time to grieve later. The mission is eighty percent complete but losing concentration and taking your eye off the ball for the last twenty percent, when you think you’re in the home run, is a fatal error to make. This mission isn’t over yet.
“Alders, receiving, over,” I say into my radio.
“Receiving,” he responds from above.
“Make your approach, let's get out of here, over,” I order.
“Inbound, over and out.”
Immediately, Alders breaks from his position and the Lynx starts to manoeuvre down towards the Helipad.
“Josh, receiving, over.”
“Receiving.”
“Keep covering that stairwell; the helicopter landing is going to rile them up so be ready and hold the position until it takes off and can replace you, understood, over?”
“Understood,” Josh replies.
Watts has taken Dan’s position on the Browning, while Dixon and Kim are close by with their rifles also aimed at the door and I cover the rear with my rifle aimed at the hole, down into the building.
“First team, prepare for evac; that includes you, Simms, look after that holdall,” I order. “Downey, you’re with us, Kim, you go with the first team.” Downey is a medic; always keep a medic close by.
Alders lands the first Lynx cautiously, which considering the high winds and torrential rain, is understandable; he handles it well. The first five men quickly embark onto the Lynx and seeing Simms get on with the holdall is a relief. As soon as they are all onboard, Alders powers the Lynx’s engines and steadily takes off.
Watts constantly has to fire bursts from the Browning throughout the landing and take-off into the stairwell, he seems to be controlling the attacks. One Rabid escapes its fire but is quickly taken down by the other men. When the second Lynx lands, the Browning won’t be covering our Evac; we will hold position until it’s on the pad and then make a break for it, trusting that Alice has us covered when Alders’ Lynx is in position.
Alders’ Lynx rises into the murky forbidding sky that constantly has flashes of lightning running through it both near to our position and further out, over the city. Hell of a time for a savage storm like this to hit, I think to myself—right in the middle of our mission and Operation Denial that has tens of thousands of troops on the ground, trying to save the city. I discipline myself as I think that at least our mission is nearly done, we aren’t home and dry yet.
Alders’ Lynx nears its new covering position above us, and I see Alice preparing in the open hold, getting ready to provide cover for our Evac. As it closes in, Buck gives way, surrendering his position to Alders and then he starts to make his descent down to the Helipad, away to our right.
“Alice, receiving, over.”
“Receiving, Captain,” she answers.
“We will wait for your go-ahead and feel free to have a test fire,” I tell her, knowing she hasn’t used the door gun yet.
“Received, stand by.”
Watts’ firing of the Browning has slowed right down and I’m not sure if I should be relieved or alarmed by this. My gut tells me that it should be alarmed and that the Rabids are biding their time, waiting for the opportunity to strike.
We hold our position patiently, waiting for Buck to make his landing, knowing he has his work cut out for him with the atrocious weather conditions. Suddenly, Alice opens up with her door gun above and she hits the mark immediately, the tracer fire going straight through the open door and into the stairwell below. And my confidence unwittingly grows.
“Downey cover the rear,” I order as Buck’s Lynx gets close.
He takes up my position and I get up and move closer to the Helipad to watch Buck’s descent and get ready to get my team on board. The Lynx descends slowly and steadily as Buck constantly makes corrections to the descent, as the wind tries to blow the Lynx off course. It is nevertheless coming down nicely, sideways towards the Helipad.
Directly above the Lynx, the sky flashes and as if in slow motion, a lightning bolt forks all the way down and strikes the middle of the Lynx’s rotors. Shock and panic take over my body as the power of the rotors fails, grinding to a halt almost instantly and the helicopter drops like a stone from about ten meters up.
“Josh!” I shout as I break into a sprint towards the falling helicopter as if I can help him somehow. The bottom of the Lynx hits the side of the helipad, crushing and twisting its metal frame upwards. And for a second, I think it is going to stick there, miraculously held in place by the twisted metal frame. The left side of the helicopter is in mid-air though, and it starts to list over; it is going to plummet over the side of the building with Josh on board.
My feet hit the steps of the helipad as the Lynx approaches the point of no return, its list speeding up as it horribly tilts away from me. Suddenly the helicopter jolts as part of its fuselage breaks away from the helipad’s frame; it is about to drop.
“Jump, Josh,” I shout at the top of my voice in a frenzy, even though I can’t see him.
My heart stops as I see Josh at the hold door, pulling himself up on its frame, his face grimaced in panic. “Jump!” I shout again. The Lynx shudders constantly as parts of the metal frame break and the helicopter starts to fall away from the building. Fucking jump Josh, it's now or never I think to myself as
the helicopter goes into free fall.
Josh manages to get onto his feet just as the Lynx slips from its perch and he falls forward, out of the hold door, not managing a jump as the helicopter plummets out of sight and down the seven floors to the ground below. There is a sound of glass smashing as the Lynx tears into the side of the building, pulling windows and glass with it on its way down before it crashes into the tarmac below.
At first, I think my eyes are deceiving me when I see Josh clinging onto a part of the helipad’s mangled frame that has been bent out from the mainframe by the force of the crash and the Lynx’s fall. I scramble across the broken frame to get to him and pull him to safety, the remnants of the frame creaking as I go, as if it will give way and follow the helicopter’s drop.
“Grab my hand,” I tell Josh as I reach out to him.
Josh’s chest is on top of the fragments of jutting-out steel and his hands grip to them as his legs dangle in mid-air below. He looks too frightened to move and his head keeps looking down at the remains of the Lynx below, where an orange glow is building from a fire taking hold of the wreckage. It is only a matter of time before the fire spreads to one of the fuel tanks and when that happens, the jet fuel will explode, taking the other fuel tanks with it.
Josh is right over the wreckage; he has to get out of the path of the fireball that will inevitably rise up when the fuel ignites.
“Josh, look at me,” I say calmly, “Josh?”
He does eventually look at me. “Take my hand, let’s get you off there.”
Josh’s right hand relaxes slightly and then he quickly releases the steel and grabs my outreached hand. “Good lad,” I tell him and start to pull him up and over to me, from his precarious position. His left hand pulls himself to help me and his legs and feet soon start to help too as they get higher, reaching the steel.
We both climb across the mangled part of the pad.
“What happened?” Josh manages to say, bent over and shaken as we reach the undamaged part of the helipad.
Capital Falling Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 42
