Fuck, I hated it when these guys were right. I sounded like a fucking baby back here, whining because my life wasn’t falling in line like I thought it would. If I kept going like this, Brooke would just walk out of my life for sounding like a girl.
✯✯✯✯✯
My boots crunched in the snow as I wound through the trees with the other guys. We were doing our best not to leave behind any tracks, but the snow had hardened and every footprint was crystal clear. We just had to get in and out as quickly as possible. The camp in the distance looked exactly as I thought it would. It was filled with metal shacks that looked like they had been slapped together with spare parts, and the barbed wire fencing around the place was mangled with sharp, jagged edges everywhere. It was going to be a fucking nightmare to get through.
“Hold up,” Derek’s voice came over coms. I stopped immediately, my gun up as I searched for the threat. Derek was standing off to my left, inching forward and staring at the ground. I watched his careful movements and caught on to what he was looking for when the moonlight landed just right and showed off a very thin wire running between two trees. I scanned the area in front of me, crouching down to get a better look. At this angle, I could see the wires spread out between trees all in front of me. They had this whole place wired to explode.
“Everyone seeing this?” Ice asked.
“Yeah,” I grunted.
“Mark it as you go. Proceed with caution,” Ice said.
I moved forward again, this time really watching my footing. It took at least ten minutes longer to reach the fence, but it was worth it to mark our path so we didn’t get blown up on the way out. The fence had junk piled all around it, old machinery that they probably used in the summer for planting crops. Sharp blades stuck up in the air and discs from a plow were all exposed. I carefully moved around them and over to my position near a tree.
The camp was pretty quiet at this time of night, but there were still a few men moving around the property, armed like they were ready for battle. The best intelligence said that our girl was in the shed just ten feet from the fence, which was why we had come in this way. I moved forward to the weakest spot in the fence and pulled the bolt cutters out and got to work. I was about halfway through when someone let out a cheery whistle. I quickly shuffled back against a nearby tree and flattened myself against it as best I could. Footsteps crunched nearby, growing closer with every step. He would be right up on me in seconds. If he didn’t see me, I could let him continue on his path, but if he did see me, I would have to take him out. I couldn’t take the chance that he wouldn’t keep his mouth shut.
He moved past me and just when I thought I was in the clear, he spun toward me, raising his weapon. I flung myself at him and covered his mouth as I shoved the weapon to the side. It fell into the snow, but the man was growing louder by the second. I spun behind him and put him in a choke hold until he finally stopped struggling and fell to the ground silently. I hauled him up against the tree, hiding him from the camp as much as possible.
“All clear,” I let everyone know. I moved back to the fence and finished cutting the hole, then ripped it back for us to get through. “Ready to move.”
Hunter and Derek were by my side in seconds, moving through the fence with me toward the shed.
“Setting up cameras,” Ice informed us.
We made our way behind the shed and waited for a group of five men to walk past. I knew we had to take them out, but it would be better to not give away our positions just yet. If we could let them run around, trying to figure out where we were, it would give us just a little more time to get to Rebecca and back through the fence.
“We’ve got one hostile moving east along the fence line,” Hunter whispered. “We’ve got ten seconds before our cover’s blown.”
Derek slipped around the corner of the shed and moved for the door while I covered him. When he made his way inside, I felt Hunter tap my shoulder, signaling that he was covering me. I followed Derek, but only made it as far as right inside the door when I heard someone shouting about the fence. Derek was shining his flashlight around to the many faces of women and children that were shoved in the tiny space.
“Rebecca Woods,” Derek whispered. A small woman stood, shoving a kid behind her.
“That’s me.”
“We’re here to get you out. Let’s move.”
She stood still for a moment. “I can’t.”
Gunfire erupted outside. We didn’t have time to debate this.
“We need to move now, or you won’t be leaving.”
“I can’t leave my son.”
The small boy peeked out from behind her and Derek nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”
The gunfire grew outside and the yelling was almost too loud for us to hear each other.
“Who…who are you?” she asked as we moved for the door.
“Derek. Your father sent us.”
I held my finger to my mouth as I slowly opened the door. I motioned forward, but Derek’s hand on my shoulder stopped me.
“I can’t just leave them,” Rebecca trembled. “I can’t just…”
“We’re working on getting everyone out,” Derek said reassuringly, “but we’re here today for you. Trust us.”
She nodded slightly, gripping her son closer to her. “Pick him up,” I commanded. “We’re going to have to run for it.”
She did as I asked, and I slid the door open just a crack to look outside again. The noise was deafening, and men were running around shooting at random. I had no doubt that by now Ice’s team had set up a defensive position to get us out. We slid back out of the shed the way we had come and to the back side of the shed. I had a good line of sight to the fence, and it was pretty clear that it was a run for it kind of situation.
“I’ll cover you,” I said to Derek.
“I’ll go first,” Hunter said. “I’ll get to the pump over there.” I followed where he pointed to the pump across from us. If he could make it there, we could cover Derek, Rebecca, and her kid, and get them safely through the fence. I nodded and took up my position. Hunter made it across with hardly anyone noticing. I took out one man, but in the frenzy, nobody noticed him lying on the ground.
“Good to go,” I said to Derek.
He stepped out, dragging Rebecca behind him and then shoving her forward for the fence. I focused on the threats around us, taking out anyone that turned our way.
“Rocco, you’re up,” Hunter said.
“Ten-four,” I answered, slipping backwards into the darkness with my gun still pointing at any threats. I moved through the fence quickly and got into a position to cover Hunter so he could make his way back through.
“Move, Pappy!”
I opened fire, careful to avoid hitting my teammate as he moved in front of me, low and fast. He was just through the fence and had shoved the wires back into place when I turned and made a run for it.
“On your six,” Ice warned us. I spun around and fired at the two men that approached behind us. One got off a lucky shot, hitting me in the vest. I stumbled backwards, but my foot caught on something on the ground and I fell down. A sharp, agonizing pain shredded my side as I fell the rest of the way to the ground. I could hardly take a breath as I stared up into the darkness of the trees that surrounded me. I tried to shake it off and stand up, but when I tried to move, it felt like my body was being ripped in two.
“Don’t move,” Hunter said, crouching down beside me. I could tell, whatever it was, it was fucking bad. His face said it all, and his body was so tight that I knew I was fucked.
“Get out of here,” I said, not wanting to be the reason that he got killed.
“Shut the fuck up,” he growled, but he still wasn’t moving toward stopping bleeding or trying to fix whatever the fuck had happened. He was just fucking staring at me. I lifted my head slightly, the pain increasing tenfold as I looked down at my abdomen.
“Fuck,” I groaned, flopping my head back against the ground. “That’s r
eally fucking bad.”
“No shit. Ice, come in.”
“Yeah.”
“We’re in a bit of a pickle over here. Rocco went and got himself impaled with a piece of farm equipment.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Afraid not.”
“Chris, you cover Derek and get them the fuck out of here. We’ll follow when we get Rocco clear.”
“On it,” Chris said.
“Fuck,” Hunter stared at me. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I was thinking,” I panted, “that this would be… a good way to get…some sympathy fucking.”
I winced when speaking just that much caused ripping pain soaring through my body.
“Don’t fucking talk,” Hunter growled. Footsteps behind us had him spinning around and firing at someone that was approaching. I could feel my gun under my fingertips and latched onto it as tight as I could. Ice and Jules appeared above me, their faces ghostly pale as they looked me over.
“How do you want to do this?” Ice asked.
I could barely feel anything, not even the cold from the ground underneath me. Everything was going blissfully numb.
“Normally, I would say leave it in, but that’s not exactly an option.”
They could leave me here and I would slowly bleed out, but I didn’t want to fucking die in a shit hole like this. I’d rather take my chances on the road than stay here and wait for death to come. Besides, any chance was better than no chance.
“Just lift me off,” I panted out.
“You’ll fucking bleed out,” Hunter snapped.
“Pack it with snow,” I said, staring him in the eyes.
“We should call it in.”
“You know…I won’t make it that long.”
We were out in the middle of nowhere. By the time anyone found us, I would probably be dead. But Hunter was a medic. At least if we made it back to the SUV, he could try and patch me up.
“Alright, we’ll lift on the count of three. We have to move all at once and don’t fucking stop until he’s off and laying flat on the ground,” Hunter said.
I felt their hands shifting below me and blackness started to creep in. They started to lift and I clenched my teeth hard against the pain, trying my best not to scream in fucking agony and draw attention to us. I stopped moving suddenly and Hunter swore.
“The fucking vest is stuck. Ice, can you cut it off?”
“Hold on.” I felt my weight shift just before blinding pain tore across my abdomen. My heart raced out of control as I tried to control the pain, to contort it into something that didn’t make me want to yell out in misery.
“I can’t fucking get it.”
“Okay, we’re going to slowly lower him back down,” Hunter said, staring down at me. I nodded, knowing this was going to hurt even fucking more than the first time. Every time they moved me, it was like they were ripping at the wound, which they essentially were. When I was finally back on the ground, I was panting so hard that I was close to hyperventilating. I prayed to pass out, but my body was screaming at me to stay awake. I felt the fabric of the vest being ripped to shreds and tried once again to control the pain. Every time I got my heart rate up was another liter of blood that would be spilled on the ground.
“Alright, let’s do this again.”
I felt the metal sliding against my insides as they lifted me once again. My head lolled to the side as the pain became overwhelming, but just before I felt like passing out, I saw someone sneaking up behind Hunter. I lifted my gun and fired off three shots. The figure dropped to the ground, and then so did my gun.
✯✯✯✯✯
I woke to someone pressing against my side and slowly blinked, like my eyelids wouldn’t move any faster. Sounds slowly filtered back in, bringing with it the sound of gunfire. Hunter was above me, cursing as he shoved snow at me. I rolled my head to the side and saw Jules and Ice firing at someone in the distance.
“We gotta move,” Hunter shouted.
“I’ll walk,” I said shakily.
“You can’t fucking walk. There’s no way you’ll make it, and you’ll bleed out from the exertion.”
“I’ll bleed out either way,” I said. “Just give me some fucking morphine.”
“It’ll slow your heart rate.”
“Just fucking do it,” I bit out.
“Fine, but you only walk until we’re past the trip wires. After that, we’ll make a stretcher and carry you out.”
“Fine,” I bit out, needing the relief more than the fight. He nodded and dug through his pack, pulling out the morphine pen. I felt him yanking at the side of my pants before stabbing me in the hip with the pen. The relief wasn’t what I had hoped, but at least it would slow my heartbeat enough to hopefully keep me from bleeding out all over the fucking ground. We hadn’t made it that far from camp, and I knew that as much as I wanted to lie here for a while, we had to get moving. My hand moved to my side and I felt the stickiness of blood seeping from my side, though it had probably slowed considerably. I could see that Hunter had done as I said and packed me with snow.
“Don’t touch it,” he said, kneeling beside me and patting some more snow against me. I flinched, but didn’t make a sound.
“Let’s move,” I snapped.
“Let me check and make sure-”
“We either stay here and have you check my fucking side, but get shot up by those assholes, or we move now and still have a fucking chance of getting out of here.”
“Stubborn bastard,” Hunter grumbled, stuffing just a little more snow around my wound. “Ready?”
I nodded and bit back a scream as he and Jules helped me sit up and then hauled me to my feet. The instant I put weight on my bad side, I almost passed out. The pain was intense and I knew I didn’t have long to make it to the next point. My whole body shook and a cold sweat swept over my body. They half carried me through the maze of trip wires. I marked them off in my mind, counting down every time I saw the markers on the ground. Red dripped from my body and covered the snow as we moved. It was starting to look like a massacre out here. My feet moved sluggishly and I was practically lifted over every trip wire.
“Get your asses moving,” I heard Derek say over coms. I shook my head, trying to figure out why Derek was telling us to move faster. “You’ve got twenty men coming at you fast.”
I couldn’t lift my head and look if I wanted to. I listened hard and that was when I realized that Hunter, Jules, and I weren’t alone. Ice had been with us, and he must be covering us. I heard them firing behind us, but the blood pounding in my ears was blocking out most sounds. I almost flung out my earpiece, just to get some relief, but right now, that was my only clue as to what was happening around me.
“Down!” Derek shouted. I felt my body drop to the ground as Hunter and Jules tossed me to the ground, and then Hunter was covering me with his body. I wanted to fucking move and be helpful, but I couldn’t do a damn thing right now. I saw bright lights flash from above us and shifted to see that the bright lights were actually gunfire. Two figures stood at the top of the hill firing back at the camp. Hunter was over me, protecting me from any bullets, and Ice and Jules were scattered in the trees returning fire. I watched Hunter shouting something, and then I saw him pull a grenade and lob it downhill.
Hunter slid his hands under me at the same time that Jules and Ice did, and lifted me up onto something; I was guessing a stretcher they had made out of branches and leaves. The movement was so fucking painful that I almost passed out again. I could hear gunfire again in the distance, but I had no fucking clue how far away it was. They were scrambling to get me out of here, but when they lifted me, the jostling was enough to make me wish for death. The pain was so deep that I prayed for God to end it now.
There were several explosions that rocked the dark sky, and then I was being hauled up with Hunter and Jules running up the hill. The pain was all I could think about, but I was aware that they were running, so we must be pas
t the trip wires at this point.
“You doing okay, big guy?” Hunter shouted as we ran.
“Fuck, tell me it’s not that bad,” I panted. Nobody ever called you big guy unless it was really fucking bad. I felt the sky spinning above me and then everything went black.
✯✯✯✯✯
Jostling was the first thing I felt. Pain in my side was the second thing. I forced my eyes open to see Hunter leaning over me with Jules on the other side, shining a flashlight down on my stomach.
“Shit, just hold it in place,” Hunter shouted.
“I’m trying, man.” Jules swore and shifted the flashlight to his mouth so he could use both hands. I noticed they were both covered in blood. My blood. I tried to stay awake, but I kept drifting in and out, only waking when I felt lots of pressure on my side. I felt completely drained, not even able to lift my fucking hand. It was chaos all around me as Hunter worked with Jules to keep me patched up, but I could feel myself slowly slipping away, and I knew I didn’t have much time.
There were so many fucking things I would have changed about my life had I known this was the way it would end. Well, had I known it would be like this once I got out of the military. I would have taken fewer jobs and spent more time with my daughter. I wouldn’t have been so fucking scared when I met Brooke. I would have made sure that Evie had someone that would love her when I was gone.
“Hun…” I tried to swallow past the cotton feel in my mouth, but it was impossible. Hunter’s eyes locked with mine and he leaned forward.
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