Page 93 of Leading Conviction
“Prep for immediate exfil!” Eagle commanded through the mic for everyone to evacuate the premises.
“They can’t hear you,” Hawk countered. “The headsets are fucked.”
Hawk turned around toward the helo and made the signal with hand gestures before taking point. Eagle and Jaybird flanked him on each side, creating a wedge formation that protected each of their sixes.
“Fuck!” Jaybird ducked into Eagle and away from a man aiming at his face. “Itrainedyou, motherfucker!”
Eagle turned to look at Jaybird kneeling on the ground, holding his hand to his head. When Jaybird brought it away to look at it, Eagle’s eyes widened at the sight of the bullet-sized hole ripped through his friend’s helmet.
“You okay?” he yelled over the mayhem.
Jaybird’s tan face paled, but Eagle couldn’t tell whether that was from shock, pain, or impending death. Before Eagle could ask him anything else, Hawk snatched Jaybird by the vest helping him upright on his feet.
“Move, brother. We’ve got to go. You can do this,” Hawk encouraged him, borderline dragging the man back into the formation that would keep them all alive.
Jaybird nodded, his face still stunned and his eyes blinking as he obviously tried to get back in the zone. Once he flanked Hawk’s other side, they moved in unison again, with Hawk vigilant on point. Rounds cracked and zipped past them as they returned fire on the enemy positions. The bird’s rotors whipped the air, calling to them, encouraging them to move faster, a beacon of hope. They were so close now, only a few more yards.
Snap.
White-hot pain tore through Eagle’s upper thigh. The scent of earthy dust and the stench of metallic death and burning bodies filled his nostrils as he gasped in agony. His rifle trembled in his hands, but dropping out of the formation meant death for him or his friends. He limped with his teammates, trying to keep up, but the formation began to break apart with his labored movements.
Hawk turned to look at him and his teeth gritted while his eyes flared with concern.
“Keep going!” Hawk yelled at Jaybird before turning back to Eagle.
In one fluid and practiced motion, Hawk’s rifle dropped from his hands as his right hand drew his service pistol and his left slid under Eagle’s shoulders to give him extra leverage to move.
Once again, Eagle watched the world move in slow motion. His heartbeat pounded in his ears as a friendly leapt out from behind a beat-up car, his gun aimed right at Hawk’s chest.
No.
Without thinking about anything other than saving the life of a brother, Eagle shoved Hawk aside, knocking him out of the way and to the ground. But with a bad leg and his momentum used to push Hawk, Eagle was exposed.
The gunman fired.
Eagle grunted as punch after punch blasted into the steel ballistic plate and Kevlar fiber in his tactical rig. A stabbing pain bloomed outward from his lower stomach and through his spine. He groaned and collapsed onto Hawk.
A spray of fire from the helo cut the man down with a single shriek.
Eagle lay prone, unable to move from his position, forcing Hawk to scoot out from underneath him.
“L-leave me,” he ordered Hawk.
“The fuck I will,” Hawk growled before grabbing Eagle by the collar of his vest and dragging him toward escape. Jaybird continued to lay down fire. Blood poured down the left side of his head, but otherwise, he looked unharmed through Eagle’s hazy vision.
“What the fuck were you thinking?!” Hawk shouted as he fired his pistol, haphazardly shooting to keep a clear path toward the helo. His normally deep voice was pitched higher than Eagle had ever heard it.
His lips cracked open to respond, but only a cough emerged, spraying blood out of his mouth.
Huh, so much for the General’s invincible vests. Guess one of those rounds got through the steel and Kevlar.
He coughed again and looked down at the blood painting his hand.
Into the lungs apparently.
“Shit!” Devil yelled above him as he appeared in his vision.
“Hurry, we have to get him to the bird,” Hawk commanded, already assuming his position as their leader.
