Primary Valor, Jack Mars [black female authors .txt] 📗

“Stone,” the man said. “I didn’teven see you there. I nearly walked right into you. I’d say you blend in withthe darkness pretty good.”

Ed?

“Ed,” he said. The sound came outalmost like a gasp.

Ed nodded. “Who else? I dropped inhere to rescue you guys. But we have to go. There are some soldiers coming upthe hill. The first ones are almost here. We don’t know what they want, but Idon’t want to stick around and find out.”

Ed peered inside the plane.

“Where is everybody else? BuzzMac?”

Luke shook his head. “Dead.”

Ed made a sound. “Ah. That hurts. Bowles?”

“Also dead. He killed Buzz, then Ikilled him.”

Ed looked at him. “He did what?”

“It’s a long story, man.”

Ed nodded. “We’ll worry about itlater. How are you guys? We have a bit of a hike ahead of us to the extractionpoint.”

“The girl seems okay. I got shotin the shoulder. Did something to my ankle. It’s hard to walk. I don’t know. I’mnot saying leave me behind, but…”

Ed looked past him.

“Are you Charlotte?”

“Yes.”

Ed smiled. “It’s a pleasure tomeet you, darling. If you haven’t noticed, a bunch of grown men are fightingover you.”

Suddenly, voices were RIGHT THERE,down the hill, just below them. Flashlights moved in the near distance. Somethinghad changed, something in the mists that had been muffling those voicesshifted, and now they were here.

The soldiers were close.

Ed stepped inside the plane andleaned against the wall. He looked out into the darkness at the approachinglights.

“I’m going to lay down somecovering fire,” he said, very quietly. The gentle, almost sing-songy way hesaid it suggested he was speaking to the girl, not to Luke.

“And when I start shooting, you runstraight out of here and across those woods, away from me. Get as far away fromme as you can. Just run straight ahead, as straight as you can go. Don’t worryabout me. I will catch up.”

Ed was already pointing the gundownhill.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Charlotte said. Her voicewas barely above a whisper.

“I’m going to run, too,” Lukesaid. “My ankle is bad.”

Ed nodded. “On the count of three.Okay? One… Two…”

He crouched low in the raggedhole, making himself a smaller target.

“Three.”

* * *

They were running through thejungle, staying low, moving fast.

Charlotte was holding hands withLuke Stone, who was running faster than her, pulling her along. He was gruntingas he ran. Her own breaths were loud gasps. Her throat was raw from breathingso hard.

She slipped in the mud, fell, andslid along as he dragged her. She found her feet, one step, two step, and thenwas up and running again, right alongside him.

The big black man was behind themsomewhere. Ed. His name was Ed. She couldn’t turn to look. But she heard burstsof gunfire and flashes of light back there. The gunfire was very loud, angryblats, like farts. Her shoulders hunched every time it happened.

“Big gun! Get down! Get down!”

Luke pulled her to the ground. Hedove and she fell after him, sliding through mud. Machine gun fire came fromoff to their left. The shots went flying just over their heads. She thought shecould feel the wind from them. She didn’t know if that was real.

Luke was crawling like a worm now.He dragged her behind him. She started crawling like he was, her face and bellypressed to the wet ground. Luke started moving faster and faster. Now she wascrawling faster than she ever had in her life, faster than she ever thought waspossible.

Her breaths came like: “Huh, huh,huh, huh, huh.”

It was raining, and they werecrawling through the rain. Above their heads, the wind was blowing, and thetrees were swaying.

BOOOM!

A huge explosion erupted behindthem. The noise was so loud, it was impossible. She screamed and covered herears. Light turned night into day, for a long second, like a giant flashbulbpopping. Images of trees, like people reaching to the skies, were imprinted onher eyes.

“Wait… Wait…”

BOOOM!

Another explosion.

Somewhere, men were screaming now.

Then Ed was there, crawlingalongside them in the dark.

“That’ll keep ’em for a minute,”he said. “Let’s go.”

Luke yanked her to her feet. Theywere up and running again. She was stumbling along behind him now, gasping forbreath, barreling through the darkness, the lights from the explosions still inher eyes.

Luke was limping as he ran. Everystep he took, his body lurched to the left. He was running like a monster froma movie, or from a nightmare.

Ed was just ahead of them. Heseemed to be screaming into his chest.

“Do you have my location? Beaconis on! Repeat: Infrared beacon is on. Approaching clear-cut, south and west ofthe crash site. Bringing out survivors. Need immediate extraction. Do you havemy location?”

A voice crackled.

“Uh… roger that, Ed. We see you. Yourlocation is very hot at this moment. They are right behind you.”

“I’m in my location! I know howhot it is. Just get us out of here.”

“Roger. Coming in. First pass issuppressing fire. Second pass is extraction. Cluster your people in a bunch aroundthat infrared signal, and eat dirt for about sixty seconds. We’ll try to missyou.”

“Roger that,” Ed said.

He leapt over the top of a ridgeof dirt and disappeared on the other side. Charlotte and Luke were five stepsbehind him. They scrambled over the same ridge. It was a steep embankment. Theyfell and slid down to the bottom.

Ed was there, on his side.

“Wait here,” he said. “Stay down.”

Charlotte looked up. She couldhear the sound of a helicopter approaching. A dark shadow was in the sky, movingfast, coming toward them. On the other side of the ridge, guns started firing. Amissile went up, like a Fourth of July firework. Then another one went up.

A machine gun on board thehelicopter started firing. The shots lit up the night, printing on her eyesagain. They flew like Roman candles above her head, dozens of them.

The sound was metallic. DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH.

The helicopter whizzed by, rightover them.

“Up!” Ed said. “Up! Let’s go.”

* * *

Luke lay in the ditch.

The girl was trying to pull him tohis feet. They were a team now, he supposed. But getting to this point had hurthis ankle. A lot.

“You go. You can run faster thanme. Stay with Ed.”

Her eyes were wide and horrified.“What are you going to do?”

“I’m coming. Don’t worry.