Beginnings

by Sandra R Neeley

  Acker gathered the medals and the photo that had at one time been Nina’s and put them back in the pillowcase, choosing to leave the few items of clothing where they were. He tied the pillow case in a knot and tucked it into his belt. Then he and Findley left the house, met up with the rest of their team as they came in from the perimeter, and together they returned to the helicopter waiting to take them away from the storm.

  When they reached the pasture the helicopter was waiting in, the propellers were already whirling, the lights on the helicopter already flashing, and the winds and rain were becoming hard to navigate through. They lowered their heads, ducked down low and ran toward the helicopter.

  “About damn time,” their pilot snapped as all the men climbed into the helicopter. “Should have left thirty minutes ago!”

  “Thanks for the extra time,” Acker said, sitting back in his seat and watching the rain being driven sideways by the wind as it beat on the windshield of the helicopter.

  “Yeah, yeah. Just remember that when you lose your lunch from all the swaying,” the pilot answered.

  “We good to take off in this?” one of his men asked.

  “Shit, yeah!” the pilot answered. “Flown in much worse. Hope you like rollercoasters though. It’s gonna get sketchy!” the pilot said grinning.

  The helicopter rose into the air, bobbing and wavering with the blasts of the winds beating against them, but it didn’t deter them. The pilot maneuvered the helicopter over the tops of the trees and in the direction of home. He wasn’t even going to try to get back to Florida, he was just going straight to Alliance. They’d made it only about a mile when something was thrown into the main rotor by the driving winds causing the helicopter to start spinning in mid air as the pilot fought to regain control.

  “Fuck!” Findley shouted, watching the trees getting closer to them very quickly.

  “Pull it up, pull it up!” Acker yelled.

  “I’m trying!” the pilot answered.

  “Fuck me!” Benson said as he watched the treetops coming at him through the door he sat beside. The door shattered just as the first tree top slammed into it, then bounced off several more trees, their limbs and trunks breaking and flying through the air as the helicopter made it’s unimpeded descent. Seconds later they impacted with the ground. Bodies were thrown from the wreckage just as it burst into flames and the propellers were broken off and sent spinning into the distance. Despite the raging winds and rain, the flames rose so high into the sky they could be seen for miles.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  “Holy fuck! Look at that shit!” Caul said, pointing toward the flames rising in the distance as they drove the raised interstate across Lake Ponchartrain toward home. They were the only thing you could make out through the driving rain.

  “Must be something pretty big to be burning so strong in this damn rain,” Bryant said, squinting to see through the rain pounding on his windshield.

  “Who knows, man? Maybe it’s a plane or something. You know, with lots of fuel in it,” Caul suggested.

  “You dumb fuck, why would any plane be flying in this? They all grounded,” Bryant answered.

  “Then you explain it,” Caul said.

  “Just somebody’s house or something,” Bryant said.

  “Wonder if anybody died,” Caul answered.

  “Probably not. Everybody evacuated.”

  “That’s true. Nobody would be home right now. Except us. Why the hell didn’t we evacuate?”

  “Cause we not afraid of a piddling ass little storm,” Bryant answered.

  “Least nobody died tonight,” Caul said, still watching the flames.

  “Why you fucking care? You don’t know ‘em anyway,” Bryant snapped.

  Chapter 42

  Lethal lay in his bed, wide awake and waiting for morning so they could be off on their next mission. He didn’t really care where it was, or what he was tasked with doing, as long as it took him away from here. In his mind’s eye he was standing in the entranceway to the medical clinic again, and he turned to look toward Nina where she followed his team and the female assassins they’d just freed and were escorting to the clinic as was protocol. At the last minute he’d decided to place his hand at the female’s back who stood closest to him, just to see if he’d get a reaction from Nina. He knew she watched, he could feel her eyes on them. But she gave no response at all, so he’d dropped his hand from the female the moment they’d stepped inside.

  He clenched his jaws as he fought the desire to sneak down to her home and listen for her voice, lift his face into the air and hope to catch her scent. His cell phone went off and he glanced at the clock beside his bed before reaching for it. 3:00 A.M. Had to be Roscoe or the General. “What?” he said into the phone.

  “We’ve got a chopper down. Can your team go on search and rescue?” Roscoe asked.

  “Yes. We’re on it,” he said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “Whose team?” Lethal asked.

  There was a hesitation. “Acker’s. He’s with ‘em.”

  “Aw, fuck me,” Lethal cursed, standing up. “This is going to tear her apart.”

  “I know. The quicker you get there, the quicker we find out what the situation is,” Roscoe said.

  “Where?” Lethal asked. “They have a squad with them? Were they on mission to free another squad?”

  “No. It was an unsanctioned operation. They were in Louisiana. There’s a hurricane moving through there now. You’ll fly as close as you can, then drive in the rest of the way. We have vehicles waiting for you a couple hours away, and a couple of locals from the area to lead you in. They went down in the Maurepaus Swamp and Wetlands.”

  “Why the fuck didn’t they take vehicles instead of flying in?” Lethal asked.

  “They were supposed to get out before the hurricane got so close.”

  “Motherfucker!” Lethal cursed again, thinking of Nina and how bad this was going to hurt her. He didn’t particularly want her with Acker, but he did want her happy. And Acker did that for her. Plus the man had freed him and his entire squad.

  He flipped on his light to find his uniform and found his entire squad standing there in his doorway waiting to see what he was cursing about. “We’ll be out of here in five,” Lethal said into the phone on seeing all his males waiting for confirmation they were headed out.

  “Smitty’s already getting your helicopter ready. You do not fly in, Lethal. You only get so close, then drive the rest of the way. Could be power lines down or any kind of debris. You drive in, and you be fucking careful!” Roscoe ordered.

  “Got it,” Lethal answered before ending the call. He turned his attention to Valor, Scorn, Steel and Feral who stood just inside his bedroom. “Get your gear. There’s a chopper down. We’re going on search and rescue, or retrieval.”

  “Who’s missing?” Two asked from his bed across the room from Lethal’s.

  Lethal looked over at Two who still shared their house and Lethal’s bedroom with him. “Acker’s team.”

  Two’s face dropped.

  “We gotta hurry,” Valor said. “They saved us.”

  “I know,” Lethal said.

  “What about Nina?” Two asked quietly after the others had gone to their rooms to get ready.

  “Don’t say a word to her, Two. We don’t know anything for sure yet. I’m planning to bring him home to her,” Lethal said.

  Two nodded as Lethal got dressed and pulled on his boots.

  “Where were they? Is it close by?” Two asked.

  “Louisiana,” Lethal answered, while checking his weapons and slipping them into the holsters he always wore.

  “Hey, isn’t that where Nina’s from?” Two asked.

  Lethal stopped what he was doing to look over at Two. “Is she? How would you know that?” Lethal asked.

  “I talk to her. She tells me stuff.”

  Lethal finished getting ready, wondering what had Acker on an unsanctioned operation in the same place Nina was from right
before a hurricane. The rest of the team was coming out of their rooms at the same time he was leaving his. “Not a word, Two,” he paused to say just before they left the house.

  “I know,” Two said, thinking of Nina and how hurt she’d be if she lost Acker.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  Lethal suppressed a snarl as they all piled out of the black SUV’s they’d been riding in for the last hour. He was tired of all the staggered travel and ready to get to the downed helicopter and its occupants. He looked around at the gray light just peeking over the horizon of the still windy, wet trees, and the air boat waiting at the boat dock for them. Several very old, very weathered old men stood at the ready, waiting for them to board so they could get out to the site.

  “Ya’ll readeh?” one of them called out in his thick Cajun accent.

  “How long ‘til we get there?” Lethal asked.

  “Depends on how long ya’ll stand ‘dere,” he answered with a wry grin as the wind tossed his rain soaked hair around his face and the brim of his dingy dripping baseball cap.

  Lethal hoisted one of the supply bags they’d brought, and walked toward the air boat, tossing it onto the deck, then went back for another. Once all the supply bags were loaded and secured and Lethal and his team were aboard, their local guides fired up the engines and slowly left the dock. No sooner had Lethal thought to himself that it was going to take forever to get there, than they kicked it into high gear and the velocity almost knocked Steel off balance as they skimmed across the top of the water on their way to find, and hopefully extract, Acker and his team. “Ya’ll hol’ on now, yeah! We don’ want ya’ll to be gator food, no!” the old man at the helm chuckled.

  “Anybody else reached the site yet?” Lethal asked.

  “No. Ain’t nobody moving out ‘dere yet. ‘Dis storm got ever’bodeh hunkered down. We’ll be ‘de firs’,” he answered. “Hey, what cha’ll got in ‘dem bags, anyweh?” he asked, shoving his chin toward the pile of bags they’d brought on board with them.

  “First aid supplies for those that need it. Foldable transport baskets for severely injured if there are any. Body bags,” Scorn said.

  “Well, alright, ‘den. Sounds like ya’ll got it covered, yeah,” the man said, turning his face up toward the fresh bout of thunderstorms that had decided to rain down on them. “Dese bans should be ‘bout finishe’. Storm’s far enough north now ‘dat ‘dis is just lef’over.”

  Lethal looked over at the old, weathered face of the man tasked with getting them to the crash site in the middle of the swamp. He was clearly not the least bit unnerved to be out in the remnants of the hurricane. Lethal mimicked the man’s actions by turning his own face up into the downpour. “Well, hell. That takes some of the fun out of it,” Lethal said, his eyes closed as the rain washed down his face and clothes.

  The old man cackled. “I knew I liked you, yeah!” he guffawed.

  Less than an hour later they were grabbing their supplies and jumping off the front of the boat as the old man brought it up as close to the swampy ground as he could. “Ya’ll watch yourselves, yeah. All kinds of critters living out here. You in ‘deir worl’ now and all ‘dis noise disturbed ‘em — let ‘em know where to go for ‘deir next meal. Ya’ll get ya’ll friends and get back here quick as you can,” he warned.

  “Just be here when we get back,” Scorn snapped.

  “Oh, I’m not goin’ nowhere,” he said, taking a seat with his shotgun on his lap. “I’m’a be right here — hunting.”

  Feral took point and followed both the thin diminishing plume of smoke and the homing devices in the downed team’s helmets on the locater he held as he led them closer to the crash site. Lethal was right behind him, and the rest of the team stayed close in line as they made their way through the swamps, mud, and downed trees.

  “Fuck,” Feral said, looking off to his left.

  “Sonofabitch,” Steel said. “Was hoping they’d remained intact and just had a bit of a slam.”

  “Doesn’t look that way,” Valor said, watching two prongs of the propeller sticking up out the muck ten yards to their left.

  Ten minutes later they came upon the impact zone, and most of the remainder of the helicopter. It was charred black and still smoking. One body was easily seen still smoldering in the wreckage as a new round of rain pelted it in the early morning haziness.

  “Holy fuck me,” Scorn said.

  Then they heard it.

  “Over here,” a voice called out weakly. “We’re over here.”

  The males sprinted toward the sound of the voice and as they pushed through a pile of broken and upended trees, they found the survivors. “Alliance!” Valor announced. “Here to take you home.”

  “Never been so happy to see a man in all my life,” one of the survivors said.

  Lethal ripped his helmet off despite the fact that it allowed monitoring of their conversations for later observations, since it impeded his ability to see as clearly as he naturally did. “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “I’m Findley,” the man answered.

  “Findley, I’m Lethal. We’re taking you home,” he said, dropping to his knees beside the man and reaching into the bag he carried. Each of his team went to a different man to treat and provide what aid they could so they could get them out.

  “We know there’s at least one casualty, we’ll be taking him home, too. How many survivors?” Lethal asked as he cut away Findley’s pants leg and applied a tourniquet to the gash in his lower leg, before wrapping it and bracing the injury for travel.

  “Three dead, five alive,” Findley answered.

  Lethal looked at the man closely and noticed the blue lips, the trembling of his body. He was going into shock, not to mention probably freezing cold from weathering the hurricane beneath the very trees they’d likely brought down when they crashed. He reached into his bag again and pulled out a small, folded, foil looking pouch. He tore it open and shook it out into a mylar first aid thermal blanket. He tucked it around the man who gratefully accepted it and held it tightly around his body, gripping the edges of it against his chest.

  “Who are the dead?” Lethal asked, hoping against hope that Acker wasn’t one of them.

  “Pilot, Benson, and our team leader — Acker. Benson died before we hit the ground. He’s still in the chopper. Tree came through the door and took him out. Pilot and Acker both died after we managed to pull them out of the flames. Neither regained consciousness.”

  “So fucking sorry to hear that,” Lethal said, his thoughts with Nina and Acker.

  Findley nodded and it was easy to tell that he was struggling with it. “We saved you, now you’re saving us. Ironic, huh?” Findley finally managed to say after getting himself under a bit more control.

  “Good thing you saved us, or who’d have come after you?” Lethal said.

  Findley gave a slight nod, but didn’t even attempt any type of smile. Nothing about his existence was as it had been a few hours before. Every fucking thing had changed. He not only lost his team leader, he’d lost two of his best friends.

  “It’s going to be alright. You’ll get through this,” Lethal said, turning to reach into his bag for the basket to assemble so he could lay Findley in it.

  Lethal looked up and took a second to locate each of his males and those they treated. “Status!” he shouted. “Time before departure!”

  “Couple minutes,” Scorn answered.

  “Ready to go now,” Feral shouted back.

  “Almost ready,” Steel answered.

  “I’m ready,” Valor said.

  “Two of us can carry two baskets, one male in front with a basket in each hand, one male in the back with a basket in each hand. Four of us can carry out four. One stays behind with the least injured, and to guard the casualties. We’ll be back shortly.”

  “I’ll stay,” Valor said.

  “Alright, let’s get the baskets loaded,” Feral said.

  Moments later Valor watched as his team left his
view headed back in the direction they’d come in, with four of the survivors being carried between them. He looked over at the man they’d left behind. He was sitting up, leaning against a tree and drinking a bottle of water as he silently waited for the rescue team to come back for him.

  “What’s your name?” Valor asked.

  “Morrison,” the man answered.

  “We can take you in a basket, too, if you need assistance getting out of here,” Valor said.

  “Think I can walk,” Morrison answered. “I’ll try, anyway.”

  “We can help with that, too,” Valor said. Moments went by with no communication and Valor walking around the site making sure that there was nothing left they needed to salvage. Satisfied that anything of use at all had burned up in the fire following the crash, he went back to where Morrison waited. “Any idea what caused the crash?” Valor asked.

  The man shook his head slowly, but then began to speak. “Something hit the rotor, pilot lost control and we started to spin. Next thing I know the trees are coming at us fast, Benson was killed before we even made impact — tree took him out, then we hit the ground. Everybody but Acker, the pilot, and Benson were thrown clear. Which was a godsend, because then the damn thing exploded in flames. Me and Findley pulled the pilot and Acker from the wreckage. I don’t think either one even knew we got them out; they were both pretty banged up and burned. Me and Findley got some burns trying to get to them, but nothing too serious.”

  “You know what hit the rotor?” Valor asked.

  The man shrugged. “Flying in a hurricane — could have been any kind of debris.” He tossed the empty water bottle away from himself and just sat there.

  “Here, have another water. I have some energy bars, too, if you’re hungry,” Valor said, walking over and handing them to him.

  The man nodded and took both from Valor, but didn’t say anything.

  Valor assembled one of the remaining baskets. Then he took a body bag out of one of the bags they’d brought with them and lifted the pilot’s body, placing it in the bag and zipping the bag closed before moving the bag to the basket. Then he opened another bag and moved toward Acker’s body. He looked down at the man who had been so alive, so in control when he’d freed their team from captivity. “Rest in peace, my friend,” he said softly. He lifted Acker’s body and placed it inside the bag. He zipped it closed around him and lifted it to take back to the basket, but realized he’d stepped on something. Valor set Acker’s body down, then squatted down to look at what had fallen from Acker’s clothes when he’d lifted his body.