But he wasn’t a quitter.
He took the lead, using a machete from his pack to cut his way through the branches.Vines tangled around them and it was slow going.Almost a foot of water covered the ground, turning it into shoe-sucking mud.
Everything smelled like a combination of refuse and rot, and sweat trickled down his back from the already humid day.
Mila cried, “Ah!”He turned as her arms flailed and then she fell to the ground with a plop.She grimaced, half her body submerged.
Shit.Dobby offered her a hand.
“My foot is stuck.”
He dug the mud away until her foot came free and hauled her to her feet.In the distance he heard the familiar whump whump of a helicopter.They still had a hundred metres until they were in the clear.
It was going to be tight.
Mila’s shoes weren’t made for this kind of terrain.He shifted his backpack off.“Get on.”He crouched with his back to her.
“You don’t have—”
“Do it!”
She huffed but jumped on, wrapping her legs around his waist.
His body stirred but he ignored the sensation and grabbed his backpack, charging ahead.The chopper would stop to pick up the others first.
Even as he thought that, the tone of the helicopter changed.
He was confident the helicopter would see them amongst the debris, but there were still too many branches to get an easy lift.
He grunted as he sank almost knee deep in mud and leaf litter.Before he had to ask, Mila climbed off.
Dobby yanked at his leg but the suction was strong.
Fuck this mission.
Mila pulled the leaf litter away, so they could see what they were working with.
The rotor blade tone changed again.Lift off.His radio squawked.“Incoming.Where are you?”
“We’re almost there.”
The helicopter cleared the hill, but it wouldn’t be able to get a line down.
“You’ve got two bogies incoming,” Radar’s voice came back.He barely heard him over the noise of the helicopter.
“Tell me.”Dobby tugged harder.
“Two motorbikes heading around the bay over all the debris from the village.They’re going fast.”
Mila dug at the mud around his leg.
“Can you get a line down?”Dobby asked.
“Negative.”
The helicopter hovered right above them, close enough for him to see Radar’s and Joker’s concerned faces as they peered out.
Damn it.He jerked his foot up and finally it popped.He shifted to the edge of the tree line and peered through.The two dirt bikes tore around the point of the bay, maybe two hundred metres away.
