Specimen

Lights flicker on the control panel as alarms go off all around me. The display shows an incoming missile.

“Hold on!” I veer left and then lower us rapidly. Riley grips her seat and closes her eyes, and I’m sure she’s holding in a scream. I pull up again, and she places one hand on her stomach.

Please don’t puke.

The missile flies past us, but another is fast approaching. Behind that is a third and fourth. I can’t dodge them all. The final one clips the rotor, and we go into a spin. I pull at the collective, and gain a little altitude, but the cyclic is nearly useless.

I look over the side. The wall is just below us, and I can see several soldiers arming missile launchers on the top. I only need a hundred and fifty feet for us to land on the far side of the river, but I’ve got to get more altitude.

I fight with the controls as another barrage of missiles comes from below. We gain a hundred feet and then two hundred. We’re almost high enough when one of the blades is hit with a massive explosion.

There’s a fire above and behind me. The controls burn in my hands. I’m not sure we’re far enough over the border, and I’m out of time.

Reaching over the seat, I grab hold of Riley and tear the harness off of her. I hear another explosion, louder this time. Riley grips her medical bag to her chest and screams, but I keep my focus. Pulling her over on top of me, I kick at the door. It flies open, and I push us both out of it.

The helicopter explodes as we fall through the air, sending burning debris all around us. I keep a tight grip on Riley with one hand and take a firm grasp on the parachute cord with the other.

We continue to fall.

“Galen! Galen! We’re still falling! Pull the cord!”

“It’s okay.” I try to keep my voice calm to reassure her, but it doesn’t work. I can feel her shaking in my arms. “Just a little farther.”

We’re spinning, but I keep my focus on our distance to the ground. The longer we fall, the less likely anyone is to notice us. I also need to make sure we drift enough after the chute opens to be on the opposite side of the river.

Three…two…one…

I grab the cord and give it a quick yank. The chute opens, and I wrap both arms around Riley as the inertial force hits us. Riley’s panting and digging her fingers into my arm, but that’s good. She’s conscious and alive.

I glance down. There’s very little time to try to steer the chute to keep us from landing on something hard, but we make it over the river easily and land with a thud in some shrubs. I jump to my feet with Riley still wrapped in my arms.

“Are you all right?” I ask her.

Her cheek is bleeding from a long scrape, likely from the bushes.

“A little bruised, maybe,” Riley says. “I’m okay.”

“You’re bleeding.” I reach up and wipe a smear of blood from her face. “It’s not deep.”

“I’ve got some first aid supplies in my bag,” she says.

“Later,” I tell her. “We have to move. Now.”

“I need to catch my brea

th,” Riley says. “I thought we were going to die!”

“There’s no time for that.” I urge her with my words and a hand on her back. “Do I need to carry you?”

Riley shakes her head.

“Let’s move.” I take her hand and keep my pace slow so she can keep up.

Looking into the data from my original capture, the internal clock in my implant tells me that seven hours and twelve minutes had passed between the time I was netted in the woods and when I woke up strapped to a platform. However, I have no idea what transpired during that time. The information on my return is too scrambled to make sense of it.

The map inside my head shows me the route to Martinsberg. I wish I had a better recollection of my capture so I would know if that’s where I had been taken, but Martinsberg and its new tech facility is the most logical place to find Errol Spat.

On foot, the journey will take a little under eleven hours, assuming Riley can keep up a fast pace. I could make the trip without pause, but Riley can’t. Unwilling to have her out in the open overnight, I alter the course to Martinsberg, bringing us near the smaller city of Haprin. We should at least be able to find shelter there, rest, and get going again before dawn.