Just as we crest the hill the earth erupts with a deafening blast, hitting the driver side rear quarter panel, throwing the vehicle into a violent spin.Fuck, we just got hit by an IED.As wecome to a stop, I’m disoriented. All I can hear is muffled sounds drowned out by a horrible high-pitched ringing.
Looking around I see my squad thankfully moving, just as dazed and confused as I am. Peering out through the shattered windshield, I can just make out the town.
Regaining my bearings I key the radio, “Alpha Team to Base, Alpha Team to Base.” Before I can finish my transmission I hear the repeated pinging of metal on metal and a distant popping noise.
Fuck, we are taking fire.
“Chad… CHAD,” I yell looking back at him. “SNAP OUT OF IT AND GET ON THE FIFTY CAL.” Over the radio someone replies. “Go Alpha Team.”
“Base, we have been hit by an IED, about two hundred meters from Daman, and are taking fire, we need immediate evac,” I yell into the radio, throwing the mic.
“Miguel, Robin, Christopher—get out there and fuck these bastards up!” I roar, beating on my door trying to get it open.
The radio crackles again,“Base copies. Black Hawks enroute, ten Mike.” I throw my door open, then jump out and yell, “Black Hawk’s ten Mike’s out.”
As soon as the last word leaves my mouth, it feels like I get hit by a truck as I take a round to my chestplate.
“You good, Evander?” Miguel yells.
“God damn, that fucking hurt. I’m good, lets fuck the bastards up.”
Staggering to my feet all I can hear is the deafening sound of the fifty caliber unloading, and the fainter sounds of my squad’s M4s, as they unleash hell. Robin yells with a high pitched scream.Fuck, she’s hit.
I run to the other side of the Hummer as bullets whiz pastme. She’s on the ground, groaning. I kneel beside her, then yell for Christopher. As I look her over to see where she got hit, Chris drops to my side.
“She took a round to the shoulder, it’s a through and through,” I tell him, and he nods.
He pulls the quick clot out of his bag before looking at her. “This is going to hurt like hell,” he warns, as he packs it into the wound. She lets out a blood-chilling scream before passing out as a result of the pain.
“Miguel, get over here!” I scream as loud as I can. He runs around the back of the vehicle and slides to us. “She took a round in the shoulder. Christopher stopped the bleeding, you two get her to the back of the Hummer,” I command. When there’s an alarming patch of silence I realise the fifty cal has stopped, I look over to Chad.
“Fuck, we’re out!” Chad yells at me. Just then a searing, burning pain hits my right leg. I glance down at the bullet wound that’s seeping blood and pouring down my thigh.Son of a bitch, I’m hit. I quickly pull the tourniquet from my pouch and apply it, clenching my teeth, to stop my roar of pain.
It will do for now.
I take a deep breath, then turn towards the distant gunshots. They are shooting at us from a building right on the edge of town, no more than a hundred yards away. I reach into the Hummer, grab my FN SCAR, and hit the dirt. My leg throbs, but I ignore it as I take another deep breath, trying to calm my nerves.
I look through my scope.
BANG.
The rifle recoils into my shoulder and through my scope I watchthe red mist as my bullet finds its mark. Adjusting and taking another deep breath, I fire again.
BANG.
Another round finds its mark. Something in the distance pulls my attention.Thank-fucking-God.
Standing up with a wince, I yell, “Black Hawks are almost here, cover Robin at the rear, Chad and I will cover the front.”
I’m thrown forward as a bullet smashes into my backplate. It feels like someone hit me in the back with a sledgehammer. I crumple to the ground from the force of the impact and the pain. The whooshing sound of the helicopter brings a sigh of relief from my lips. Not much longer now.
I yell out to my guys, “Get her the hell out of here and over the ridge… GO!”
I switch the rifle from single to full auto and unload the entire magazine at the building we are taking fire from. As I throw another magazine into the rifle, a searing pain hits my chest. I look down as blood pours through my body armor.
I just took a hit to my left lung. Chad looks back at me and starts to move in my direction.
“Ge–t the he–ll out of h–ere… NOW,” I scream, gasping for air. He gives me a look of discontent, but listens.
