“No, no big man, I am not,” Shin responded.
Shaw yelled, “Sarge!” And a second later Shin saw Priest running toward him.
“Fuck Shin, this is no time to take a nap.” He turned to Shaw, “See if you can find Doc.” Shaw got up and started off, “Or Dr. Costa,” Priest called after him.
“Got it,” Shaw called back.
Priest looked back at Shin, “Sargent, I am not well. I will not survive here.”
“What are you talking about? We going to get you out of here and you’ll be all right.” Shin showed Priest his arm. A bite mark was evidently clear.
“No, I will not. I am bitten and you need to send me away before I turn. Do not let my tranquility be tainted by that. Please, Sargent.”
Priest pulled his pistol with such speed; it was almost a blur. He fired a round into Shin’s forehead before he knew what was happening. Priest shot up to his feet. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he was yelling when Shaw and Doc ran up. “He’s gone,” Priest said. Shaw turned to Doc, “He was bitten and wasn’t long before he turned.”
“Shit.” Doc’s eyes dropped to the ground.
“We gotta find everyone else and reassess,” Priest said. All three left to find the rest of the team.
Webb came to himself and stumbled toward the downed Pave Hawk. The aircraft was a mangled mess and Webb called out but did not receive any replies. The bird was still laying on its side, so he had to scramble up and on top to gain access to the cabin. He peered in the open side, searching for whoever was still in the aircraft. He could see a pair of legs underneath the helicopter with a massive pool of blood on the pavement.
Webb jumped down into the aircraft to see who it was, but once he got nearer, he saw the BDU pants and black boots. The tension went out of his body for the time being. The clothes identified the last ISIS prisoner they had taken, but Webb wasn’t shedding any tears for that piece of shit. It upset Webb that they didn’t get the chance to torment the fucker and then have the joy of killing him themselves.
Webb looked toward the cockpit and saw the side of Doug slumped over in his seat, so he made his way over to him. With his initial assessment, Doug looked okay, but as he got closer, he saw Doug had a huge wound on the left side of his head.
Webb put his fingers on Doug’s neck to check for a pulse. He pulled his hand back as there was no pulse. “Fuck,” he mumbled under his breath. He closed Doug’s eyes, which were still open, and said a small prayer over him. He called out to see if anyone was left in the aircraft, when he heard a muffled voice coming from the back of the helicopter. “Call out,” he yelled, trying to locate where the voice was coming from.
“Here,” came a voice. Webb followed the sound and under some supply boxes and gear bags and found Lia. She looked a little frazzled, but otherwise okay. Webb keyed his comms, “I got Lia. She is okay.”
“Shaw and myself found Shin, but he didn’t make it,” Priest’s voice turned a noticeable down turn.
Webb responded, “Shit. Okay. Doug didn’t make it either. We need to find Allison, Neville, Izzy and the doctors.
Lia and Webb heard a voice, “Get this shit off of me!” It was coming farther back toward the tail section. He and Lia moved MRE cases, load out bags and other items. As they removed things, a pretty tanned face in a scowl appeared. Izzy’s features softened when her eyes saw Webb’s face.
“We got you. We got you,” Webb reassured her. “Anything broken? Are you hurt?”
“I don’t think so,” she answered him. They extracted her from the wreckage and she immediately grabbed Webb and hugged him. She held on for dear life and he stroked her hair as he hugged her back and reassured her.
Lia saw Priest come through some smoke and flames. She ran to him and embraced him just as Izzy did Webb. Priest had no problem reciprocating the squeeze. He really cared for her and he was at a place in his life where he couldn’t care less what anyone thought. Lia pulled back with tears in her eyes and kissed him urgently. He felt the passion, fear and reassurance in her kiss. She pulled back again and looked at him.
“Well, hello,” he stuttered. They both laughed at one another.
“Let’s go find Allison,” she said. They called out for her. Shaw had already begun frantically looking for her and was yelling her name when he heard a noise in front of him. He couldn’t see but made out a figure moving on the ground. As he approached slowly, he noticed Allison’s long hair.
Making his way toward her, another figure jumped on him from his right. Trying to get to Allison to see if she was all right, Shaw raged on this fuck. He used the infected man’s momentum to grab him underneath the armpit and slammed him to the ground, head first. The man’s head hit the pavement with a sickening crack, followed by a wet splat sound. The rest of the infected body followed his head in, slamming to the pavement. He no longer had any resemblance of a head after Shaw was done. He ran to Allison and saw that she had a sizeable piece of debris laying on top of her. She was conscious and was in pain.
“Hey babe. I knew you would find me,” she said as she looked up at him.
He had concern in his eyes, “Don’t worry babe, I will get you out of here.” He yelled for help with Webb and Izzy showing up a second later.
“Pull her out when I lift this up,” he said.
“You can’t lift that by yourself,” Webb said.
“I need your strength to pull her out. Now just do it.” Webb and Izzy both nodded. That big son of a bitch lifted that piece of debris with a grunt. Webb and Izzy grabbed Allison under her armpits and pulled her out from underneath. She let out a small scream when they pulled on her. Shaw slammed the piece of debris on the ground and ran over to where Allison was. “How is she?” he asked. Izzy had her shirt pulled up, checking her abdomen and ribs.
“I’m checking her over now.” Webb turned to Shaw, “Let her work. We still need to find Neville.”