Page 31 of See You Soon
I would carry the poor girl, but I can't risk all of our safety by doing that. I have to keep my rifle in my hand and watch Rooker's six and hers, in case more threats catch us off guard.
"Call in the green berets. We've got Redd, she's going to need assistance immediately. We still have to get Damon Hawk. Do you have eyes on him?" I call out to Kane. I'm guiding Redd toward the hole we just blasted through the wall. Rooker watches her get closer and a team of seven green berets enter through the entrance we created. Another special operator carries her off her feet and she's crying into his shoulder. I'm feeling accomplished in this rapid moment looking at her be whisked away to safety but then I feel my adrenaline pulling at me because I know the job is unfinished.
"Fuck Danny, they've moved Hawk away from the room. They're taking him downstairs. I don't have eyes on him anymore. You might get contact from them." Kane urgently informs me. I turn around immediately and so does Rooker. He also hears Kane's voice in his ear.
Green Berets surround the torture room and we're all pointing our rifles at the only door to the room. Rooker and I are the closest ones to the front of the door and I can feel something is wrong. There's no movement, no sounds of footsteps. I thought Kane said they were coming downstairs.
Suddenly, a grenade is thrown at the entrance of the door. Rooker and I quickly move away, turning our backs toward the impact.
"Grenade!" Rooker shouts and everyone is scrambling to get the fuck out of here. We're able to get to a good distance away but then we feel it. The explosion from the grenade shakes us in our bones. Rooker, the green berets, and I are able to survive the devastating impact, smoke everywhere but my God, it doesn't mean it fucking hurts.
One green beret shouts as chaos starts to ensue.
“We’re taking fire!” He shouts.
Bullets are coming through the floor, straight at us.From underneath the ground.Spraying everywhere.
What the fuck?
* * *
We had to abort the rescue mission. The area became too hot and we lost our sights on Damon Hawk. Monsters had hand-built a tunnel underneath the building and we were taking fire from underground as well as our surroundings outside the building. There was no way to finish the mission and it infuriated me to my core. Fire burning inside of me and I was about to boil over. My thoughts swirl around Damon and it stings knowing that he's going to keep getting tortured. We had to leave a soldier behind when we were so close.
I'm breathing heavily as my head rests back to the wall of the cabin. Everyone’s quiet and the morale low, knowing the job was left unfinished. Every man in the cabin tense as we sit in the dark cabin of the Chinook going back to base. I run my hands through my beard.I need a fucking cigarette.
We're all high in the sky and all I want to do is force the pilot to take me back to the village so I can reap more souls to hell.
"Danny... you're hit, man. Don't you feel it?" Kane asks me as he looks at my shoulder, toward my back. His voice is full of worry and I'm trying to feel any pain signaling to my brain where the injury is… but nothing.
"Where?"
"It looks like there's a hole through your shoulder from when the grenade went off. You must have gotten hit with shrapnel. You're bleeding through your uniform bro, all over."
If I'm hit that bad, I know the higher-ups are going to make me stand down until I can fully recover. Meaning I can't finish the mission with my team until I'm healed.
"Fuck."
Chapter13
ari
"Ari, did you get the I.V. set up in room 3?" Doctor Diaz asks behind one of the nurses' desks in the Emergency Room of the Army Hospital. I'm three months in and I've learned so much. I've saved and helped so many of our military men and women and I feel like I'm destined to do this for the rest of my life.
"Oh, no sorry, I was just finishing giving medications to the patient in room nine. I'll do that right now doctor." Dr. Diaz half smiles at me before looking back down at his clipboard, writing.
Tonight is extremely busy. A training exercise went wrong and we have a lot of military men from all branches coming in with horrible injuries.
I grab the IV supplies before heading into the room. I grab the patient's chart and get information before I step in. The doors in the ER to each room are glass see-through doors. I stand there in front of them reading the doctor's directions. Then I look up to see the patient's last name on the top right of the paper and it looks familiar.
Mitchell, S.
"Ari Cakes? Is that you?"
Shane. His voice makes me freeze.
My heart drops and my legs almost go weak underneath me. My abusive ex-boyfriend is here.What did I do to be God's least favorite human?I look up from the chart and I feel like I can't breathe for a second. Hatred pours into my heart, and I take in a deep breath before I walk over next to him.
I try not to make eye contact and keep it professional as I always do with other patients. As if he wasn't someone I deeply cared about once. As if I didn't don't know him personally. Like he's somebody I used to know.
