No matter how they found out, within the next few hours, a rescue team would be assembled, given their orders, and sent over enemy lines to get me home. I clung to that hope and formulated a plan. All I had to do was find a safe place to hunker down and wait.
The flashes and bombs in the distance were winding down, and I stood on the ridge for a minute, getting my legs back under me, and watched the night sky light up with signs of the battle. I just hoped the dying down of the bombs and rifles firing meant the enemy had been subdued and not the other way around. No matter how many battles I’d been a part of, it always struck me in the gut how powerless we were against the hate in the world around us. At the end of the day, I couldn’t stop any of it. All I could do was protect the people of the country I loved from feeling the wrath of the hostile enemies that sometimes seemed numberless.
My heart raced with every step. Every sound gave me pause. But I forced myself onward, focusing on my goal. To find a safe place to get some rest. I’d need every drop of strength and energy the next day, if I had any hope of survival. I needed to be ready for anything.
After a while, I began walking again, careful to test each footstep before continuing, especially when the terrain beneath my feet was too slick or rocky to fully trust without a visual confirmation of my path. I walked for a few hours and stopped when I figured I’d put another four or five miles between me and the firefight that had died down over the course of my hike. I found a cut out in the side of a rock wall and decided it was as good of a place as any to camp for the remainder of the night.
My emergency pack, which had deployed with my parachute, contained a few MRE’s, a full canteen, basic medical supplies, a flashlight, and a loaded 9 millimeter with an extra clip. I made sure the weapon was cocked and set it on the ground beside me before opening one of the MRE’s.
“Mmm, beef stew,” I mumbled to myself after a quick glance at the brown paper package under the light of the moon. “God knows it’s not from any kind of cow I wanna know about…”
I wasn’t hungry to begin with, and the smell of the quick prepared meal wasn’t doing much to improve my appetite. Still, I knew it was the only chance I might have to eat since there was no way of knowing what the morning would bring. I needed something in my stomach and as much water as I could afford to drink in my system as well.
When I’d choked down the last bite, I sat back, resting against the warm stone set into the side of the mountain. I tipped my head back to look up at the stars and replayed the events of the day, starting with my conversation with Holly. I cringed as I remembered how the call had ended. A pit in my stomach formed as I thought about how worried she must be and wondered what she was thinking. I hated to think of her alone and scared, waiting for me to come back online, to tell her everything was going to be all right.
I sighed, and my last waking thought was the fucked up idea of Aaron having to go and tell Holly that I wasn’t coming home.
At least not alive.
30
Holly
“I still don’t think that was necessary,” I said to Rachel as we walked through the front door of my condo. I was exhausted. A quick glance at the clock on the living room wall showed that it was nearly one o’clock in the morning
“Holly, you heard the nurse at the cafe, your heart rate was maxing out and when the paramedics got there, your blood pressure was going through the roof!” Rachel objected as she gestured at the couch for me to sit down. The ambulance had rushed me to the closest hospital, where I was put through a laundry list of tests and diagnostics, only to rule everything out. In the end, I was given anti-anxiety meds and discharged with the diagnosis that I had suffered a panic attack. “Now, let’s get you settled in here, no more complaining. What can I get for you?”
I sat down where she’d indicated, knowing my best friend well enough to know that she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I don’t need anything except my laptop and the remote control.” I leaned forward to grab the remote from where I left it on the coffee table. Rachel had kept custody of my phone while we were in the emergency room, and I hadn’t been able to find any more information.