“What happens after the shooting?”
“Hopefully they’re all dead and you son and his friends are all still alive.”
“Let me rephrase that. If something goes wrong where do we meet? We never plan this far ahead.”
“Good point. If things fall apart fall back to the hospital. We don’t want them to get that no matter what.”
The four of us loaded up with everything we felt we would need. Al thought it best we each take enough supplies that if we had to abandon all our plans we each had enough essentials to last two days. We decided worst case scenario we would try to all make it to the front gate and rendezvous there. I didn’t say anything but I could tell Al felt the same way I did. We would be damn lucky if our plan worked. We had so little time there was nothing else we could do though.
Gina and I took the trucks around the back of the hospital and parked them behind the utility shed at the back of the lot. If things went completely south we hoped that maybe we could get back here and get them before they were discovered. We ran as fast as we could back to where Cindy and Al waited just inside the tree line surrounding the field. When we came upon them they were locked in an embrace kissing one another. I knew they heard us coming but that didn’t stop them. Gina and I stood there like a couple of idiots waiting for them to stop. After what seemed like several minutes Gina must have decided that looked pretty good. She grabbed me in a bear hug and ‘laid one on me’.
“When you two are finished,” Al said. “We need to get finished here.”
“You’re a real prick Al,” Gina laughed.
“That hurts me.”
“I’d have to agree with that,” I said.
“They’re right you know,” Cindy added.
Al shrugged, “Sometimes the truth is a horrible thing. Let’s move out.”
Not too far from where we started out Al had Gina take a position in the woods. Next he dropped Cindy off. We went quite a bit further before he stopped.
“You stay here. I’m going back the way we came. I want to be close to the girls if something goes wrong.”
“What are the chances that this is going to work?”
“You mean they get off the helicopter, we shoot them all, and none of us die?”
“Yeah I guess.”
“Slim to none.”
“That’s what I figured.”
Al started to walk away. “It’s a good place to start though. I’d feel better if we had some kind of explosion planned though.”
“Tell you what. I’ll toss out a grenade half way through the shooting.”
“I’m in charge of all the pyrotechnics.”
Al disappeared from sight a few seconds later and I was left alone to ponder our chances of success. It seemed a shame that we’d come so far only to have one or all of us killed before I got a chance to see my son again.
It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of a helicopter in the distance. I don’t know much about military aircraft but I could see that this was a fairly large helicopter. I’d seen bigger ones on TV before but this one was big enough. There could be a hell of a lot more guys on there than I originally thought. They came in low and passed over the hospital a few times. Then circled the field we had assumed they would land in. Instead of landing the chopper moved higher into the sky. Making it nearly impossible to see through the trees.
My radio squawked static then I heard a familiar voice. Al was right. They had radios just like ours.
“I see from your vehicles out back of the hospital you decided to stay and wait for us. I tried the hospital phone and got no answer. I’m assuming the four of you are outside somewhere. Please come out into the open so we can see you.”
I stood just inside the tree line and watched where I had last seen Al. He stayed in the woods and maintained radio silence. The girls were following Al’s lead so I stayed put. After a short minute the General came back on the radio.
“Kindly direct your attention to the courtyard in front of the hospital.”
I still couldn’t see the helicopter but knew it was hovering somewhere close by. Something flashed into view for a second and impacted the ground in front of the hospital. I wasn’t positive but was pretty sure it was a body.
“I want to be clear and am growing weary of dealing with you people. You forced me to do this. That was Sargent Adams. Corporal Flowers will be next. Followed by Captain Downs. You have fifteen seconds to show yourselves.”
I immediately came out of the woods, followed by Gina and Cindy. Al was nowhere to be seen.
“There is one more of you. Where is he at?” Over the noise from the helicopter I could hear an argument raging in the background. “Times more than up.”
From where I stood I could see the side door of the chopper pulled back. Al wasn’t coming out. I had to do something. I grabbed my radio. “Al was sick. You know that. We thought he was getting better but he turned a few hours ago. I had to shoot him. He’s dead.”
“If I find out you’re lying you’ll all die.”
I was sure that’s what he had planned anyway. The helicopter came down and landed in the clearing. Gina, Cindy, and I laid down our rifles and made our way towards the chopper.
There you go that’s it for Book 5. As you can tell the story doesn’t end here. There’s at least one more installment. At the very least I need to kill General Simmons. I don’t think things will end that easily.
Do me one last favor. If you have a few minutes take a minute and leave a review on Amazon. Good, bad, somewhere in the middle, either way let me know what you thought.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Dead Life (Book 5) Page 16
