Page 2 of Gator's Gambit
“Yeah?”
“Let Bear take a look at that shoulder, yeah?”
“Yes, sir. Will do.”
“Knight out.”
Reaching out to check Hot Sauce’s pulse, it takes me a second to find it. It’s thready and weak. The fight around me is vicious and, as another explosion hits, I use my body to shield his, hissing as a piece of shrapnel catches me in the back this time.
I switch back to the main channel looking for an update on Bear’s progress from Knight. “Digit,” I hear him yell. “Position.” Digit gives his position, and Knight replies, “Stay where youare. I’m coming to you. We need to figure a way out of this clusterfuck.”
Figuring Knight’s hands are full enough, I switch back to channel two and wait it out.
Crouched over my fallen colleague, I have no idea how much time passes before Bear and Hot Sauce’s teammate, Phantom, get to us.
“Knight says to give you a quick check. So let’s see it, brother.”
“Hot Sauce needs you more.”
“Yeah, but the longer you jabber, the longer it’ll take me to get to him.”
“Fine. Right shoulder took a hit, it’s nothing serious.”
“I’ll be the judge of that. Now let’s see it.”
Baring my teeth at the big guy, I show him my shoulder.
“Hmm, nasty, but you’ll live. Get it seen to as soon as we land, okay?” he says. “I’ll patch you up as soon as I’ve taken care of our guy here.”
Bear, so named because the sucker’s huge, kneels beside Hot Sauce to check for a pulse, his gentleness belying his size.
“Knight, we’ve got some injuries here. They’re manageable. But Hot Sauce is down. He’s pretty bad. We’re going to have to stretcher him out,” Bear says.
“Shit. Sit rep.”
“Pulse is pretty weak, thready, so I’m guessing something’s going on inside – possible internal bleeding. I’m gonna patch him up as best I can under the circumstances, but he needs medical attention I can’t give him. We’re going to have to try and get him out, sooner rather than later.”
“Fuck. Ok – damn it – stand by …” Knight’s quiet for what feels like forever, then, “All right men, listen up. Everyone, extraction point has been established on the other side of thecity. Bird’s roughly thirty out, and it’ll probably take us pretty much that long to make it to that point. Let’s get moving.”
The fuckers attacking us redouble their efforts when they realize we’re drawing back, probably thinking they’re winning. While there have been a number of injuries, thankfully Hot Sauce’s seems to be the only critical one. Determined to get him to the extraction point, we fight our way back to the outskirts of the city.
The team leaders call a halt to our retreat.
“All in, gentlemen. We finish this here,” Wolf instructs. “Take the fuckers out so we can get the hell out of here and go home.”
Giving it our all, we go balls to the wall, throwing pretty much everything we have at them in an attempt to take the enemy out.
My shoulder is screaming and dawn is just breaking when everything goes silent. All enemy fire ceases. We wait them out for a few minutes, but all remains quiet. We’re given the order to get our asses moving to the extraction point as quickly as possible, so we do just that, as fast as we can manage with our wounded.
Spotting our transport in the clearing as arranged, I heave a massive sigh of relief that’s echoed by everyone around me. There’s always a fear that our extraction is cancelled due to the danger to the chopper teams. We reach the nearest one, and Dutch, Lucky and I hop onboard.
Kansas, Cookie, and Bear lift Hot Sauce’s stretcher up for us to load him up and strap him in. Once they join us, our bird takes off and a cheer goes up as we clear the danger zone and head for the aircraft carrier waiting for us nearby.
“Anyone have a clue what the fuck happened back there?” I hear Wolf ask.
“Those assholes just seemed to peel out of thin air. Last sweep we did, there was nothing – not a sign of movement. Not even so much as a breeze to rustle the leaves,” Phantom replies.
“Smacks of a setup, if you ask me,” Mozart adds.
