the heavy weapon dragging at my shoulder socket. “I thought you were dead.”
“—I’m sorry I left you.”
She shook her head, her green skin eerily aglow in the temple lights of her helmet. “You should be, but it was an order.”
“Still.”
She shushed me. “No time for regrets, right? Let’s figure out a way home.”
I swallowed and pulled up the holographic display of the area, tapping buttons to force it to reset and take into account the current destruction and blocked paths. It added the last known locations of the enemy strikers in orange and the remaining pockets of our own team in blue. More blue dots would have been great.
“Do we try to lay down cover or do we retreat and save ourselves?” she twisted my arm, making the display shift and change.
“You really have to ask?”
“Just wanted to make sure you weren’t chickening out.” She nudged my shoulder with hers, still her jovial self, even in the midst of such dire odds. Beneath our feet, the building rumbled and I switched the view over; still seven minutes. While the calculations were supposed to be accurate to within a microsecond, I wasn’t willing to bet our lives on them. One thing to be on the ground, quite another to be in the building when it toppled. Plus I wanted us far enough away that it wouldn’t land on us.
I pointed at the team closest to us, six dots huddled in the base of another crumbled apartment building. “Let’s see if we can raise this team and tell them we’re coming. If we can get with them that gives us better odds to pick up the solo before he’s surrounded.” I dragged a line from the cluster of dots to the lone one a half mile from us. “We grab everyone in time, we can double-time it to that farthest extraction point.”
“Let’s go.” She spun on her heel and started down the stairs, her foot hitting the last tread as it fell away beneath her feet. I dove toward her, my fingers sliding off her pack as we tumbled into air and the building collapsed five minutes too early. My attempt to yell for her only filled my lungs with concrete dust and soot from last night’s airstrikes. The searing pain and coughing fit made me wish I’d have chosen the helmet and it’s protection. Fransín didn’t answer and the darkness swallowed us whole.
“Fransín. Fran.” I couldn’t lose her, better I die here than go on without her. I should have defied orders and stayed with her instead of splitting our team in two. More of us would be alive if we’d have done what we’d trained for instead of following the commander’s last minute panicked choice. Fransín had remained cool-headed and deliberate and she’d take tonight’s deaths personally. As would I. We’d trained too long to let a single death go. We would not die here tonight, not another body count among hundreds.
I landed hard on my back and rubble crashed on every side, landing heavy on my shin and pinning me in place. A shock of pain raced along every nerve in my leg and I clenched my teeth, struggling to free myself but the rebar had driven through the muscle of my calf and I’d have to find something to lever it off my body. “Fransín! Answer me!” I needed to know she was okay. I lifted my arm and pulled up the building’s new footprint. Neither of our blue dots showed beneath the flickering readout.
Another massive concrete pillar fell away from the floor above and toppled toward me. I curled on my side and covered my head, hoping against hope that somehow one of the other teams had broken free and were coming for us. They’d have been alerted on their devices the moment the building started to go. Maybe the damage to my readout caused our monitors to fail, but the other teams would see us, they had to. We couldn’t die down here. And why the hell wasn’t Fran answering? A million scenarios rushed to my imagination, her cracked helmet forcing poison air into her lungs, a massive pillar slowly crushing her lungs so she
“—I’m sorry I left you.”
She shook her head, her green skin eerily aglow in the temple lights of her helmet. “You should be, but it was an order.”
“Still.”
She shushed me. “No time for regrets, right? Let’s figure out a way home.”
I swallowed and pulled up the holographic display of the area, tapping buttons to force it to reset and take into account the current destruction and blocked paths. It added the last known locations of the enemy strikers in orange and the remaining pockets of our own team in blue. More blue dots would have been great.
“Do we try to lay down cover or do we retreat and save ourselves?” she twisted my arm, making the display shift and change.
“You really have to ask?”
“Just wanted to make sure you weren’t chickening out.” She nudged my shoulder with hers, still her jovial self, even in the midst of such dire odds. Beneath our feet, the building rumbled and I switched the view over; still seven minutes. While the calculations were supposed to be accurate to within a microsecond, I wasn’t willing to bet our lives on them. One thing to be on the ground, quite another to be in the building when it toppled. Plus I wanted us far enough away that it wouldn’t land on us.
I pointed at the team closest to us, six dots huddled in the base of another crumbled apartment building. “Let’s see if we can raise this team and tell them we’re coming. If we can get with them that gives us better odds to pick up the solo before he’s surrounded.” I dragged a line from the cluster of dots to the lone one a half mile from us. “We grab everyone in time, we can double-time it to that farthest extraction point.”
“Let’s go.” She spun on her heel and started down the stairs, her foot hitting the last tread as it fell away beneath her feet. I dove toward her, my fingers sliding off her pack as we tumbled into air and the building collapsed five minutes too early. My attempt to yell for her only filled my lungs with concrete dust and soot from last night’s airstrikes. The searing pain and coughing fit made me wish I’d have chosen the helmet and it’s protection. Fransín didn’t answer and the darkness swallowed us whole.
“Fransín. Fran.” I couldn’t lose her, better I die here than go on without her. I should have defied orders and stayed with her instead of splitting our team in two. More of us would be alive if we’d have done what we’d trained for instead of following the commander’s last minute panicked choice. Fransín had remained cool-headed and deliberate and she’d take tonight’s deaths personally. As would I. We’d trained too long to let a single death go. We would not die here tonight, not another body count among hundreds.
I landed hard on my back and rubble crashed on every side, landing heavy on my shin and pinning me in place. A shock of pain raced along every nerve in my leg and I clenched my teeth, struggling to free myself but the rebar had driven through the muscle of my calf and I’d have to find something to lever it off my body. “Fransín! Answer me!” I needed to know she was okay. I lifted my arm and pulled up the building’s new footprint. Neither of our blue dots showed beneath the flickering readout.
Another massive concrete pillar fell away from the floor above and toppled toward me. I curled on my side and covered my head, hoping against hope that somehow one of the other teams had broken free and were coming for us. They’d have been alerted on their devices the moment the building started to go. Maybe the damage to my readout caused our monitors to fail, but the other teams would see us, they had to. We couldn’t die down here. And why the hell wasn’t Fran answering? A million scenarios rushed to my imagination, her cracked helmet forcing poison air into her lungs, a massive pillar slowly crushing her lungs so she
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