The air was thick, the area covered in a red shade completely covering everything up in red. I sit there fidgeting, my right leg bouncing up and down. I fiddle with the safety switch of my M4 rifle. I couldn’t focus. All I see are my fellow squadmates, also fidgeting with their legs and toying with their rifles.

  Suddenly the red shade is changed with green and a voice booms out, coming from the pilot. “Approaching the LZ, prepare to jump now!” The pilot we nicknamed Quaker screamed out of the speakers and almost immediately our jumpmaster got up and began ordering our squad.

  “Alpha squad up first! Bravo squad, you’ll deploy in about 4 clicks away from here!” everyone got up ahead of me and finally I got up, adjusting my gear “Alright let's move!” The Jumpmaster was cut off as something ripped through the fuselage ripping through the Jumpmaster and 2 of my other mates.

  “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! We're going down!” Quaker yelled through the speakers. The rest of us flopping around like balls in a pinball machine. The hole where the fuselage was torn started pulling some of my other squad mates out one by one until it was me who was sucked out.

  The helicopter was spinning out of control but behind it was our target. An abandoned city now made an enemy base, Pitukhgrad. The giant skyscrapers are now abandoned, the glass all taken out or destroyed, and some abandoned weaponry still left on the roof of the buildings. I could feel the air whizzing past me.

  I pull my reserve chute and I get tugged back, the air now going at a slower pace around me. One of my squadmates flew past me before also pulling his chute and another trooper pulled his own chute open. The heli in front of us was heading to crash towards a forest not far from the city. The helicopter crashes in the forest and the bits of it fly out.

  A piece of the rear rotor flew up and stabbed my squadmate who just pulled his chute on my left. The tree branches were getting closer and I crashed into them, my chute eventually getting stuck on a branch but not before I hit my head on a branch and passed out.

  It was maybe an hour later after the crash and freefall and I slowly woke up to the sounds of people talking, Russian.

  I looked below and saw some Zlayan troopers, I could count 2. “Slushay, vse, chto ya znayu, eto to, chto my dolzhny nayti vyzhivshikh posle krusheniya vertoleta i ubit' ikh, eto dolzhno byt' legko.”

  This came from the taller of the two and I couldn’t understand Russian much but I know they are scouting for any of us that survived. I reached for my bayonet knife and began slicing at my chute that's been tangled.

  I manage to cut one before suddenly snapping and I fall onto a bush. The sound attracted the two “chert voz'mi, eto bylo?!” the shorter one yelled. “yebat', bystro razdelyayemsya! YA proveryu zdes', ty tam!” .

  I could see the flashlight of one of them approaching my bush but I couldn’t find the other one “Ehh.. Get out of bush! Now!” the Zlayan soldier ordered in broken horrible english. I slowly got up, my hands were up, my weapon gone, I dropped my M4 back in the helicopter

  “Good. Komandir, u menya plennik Chto ya dolzhen delat'?” I could hear another voice on the radio responding “Ponyal.” The soldier raised his rifle and I shut my eyes, preparing for the worst until I heard a gunshot and I forced my eyes open.

  The Zlayan trooper falls on the ground clutching his chest. And the other Zlayan trooper ran out his weapon fixed on my chest and a muzzle flash from the dark bushes appeared and a tracer whizzed by and snapped through the trooper’s head.

  “Flash!” Some voice yelled out “Thunder!” I responded quickly “Finn!?” A voice yelled my name “Yeah! It's me!” and a silhouette appears out of the bushes then another then another until there's 5 of them and the one in front runs up to me.

  “Jesus Christ we thought you were gone!” A grin appears on my face “Same to you, Slip” The Second Lieutenant looks around my body “You got any weapons on ya?” I pat myself around “No I dropped my rifle back at the crash and my pistol fell out somewhere.”

  Slip grabs the dead Zlayan’s soldiers AK and grabs some magazines from the body. “Here you got around 4 mags.” the other 4 troopers are now closer to me

  “Where are the others?” I asked, Slip and the others exchanging looks “Unsure we saw Henderson hanging with a piece of the rear rotor lodged in him and Burke is pretty much dead from those Zlayan devils.”

  “What about the Captain and the others?” Slip grabbed his map and opened it up. He points in the center of Pitukhgrad. “Probably here in the center of the city and Bravo squad is holding in front of the city.

  We're just finding any other survivors before linking up with them.” I swung the strap of the ak over my shoulder “Should we get going then?”

  Slip ruffled up the paper back into his pocket and nodded and the squad followed after him. We walked through the dense forest. Eventually we passed the dead bodies of Henderson and Burke that Slip mentioned and it was horrific.

  Henderson had the piece of the rear rotor lodge in his stomach and passed out the back. Burke wasn’t too far away but his body was still strung up on the tangled trees but his body had bullet holes in him.

  The smell was awful coming from the both of them. Eventually some birds got on Burke and started picking apart his skin. I could only hold my breath until we eventually got far enough from the bodies.

  Finally we reached the end of the forest, the moon shining and illuminating the city walls. “Up there, Ramirez is planting ropes on the walls with some others.” Slip said as he walked forward towards Ramirez and his squad. “Who does Ramirez still have?” I asked while joining Slip and the others.

  “Not much, he said he had about a squad of 11 including him so that makes it around 17.” I nodded before heading closer to Ramirez. “Glad you found Finn, Slip.”

  Slip nodded “Found this idiot having a playdate with 2 Zlayan troops.” Ramirez smacked my back “Man who taught you to be playing with the enemy?”

  I chuckled a little. “No one sir, the bus driver dropped me off at the wrong station.” Ramirez chuckled and Slip snickered “Well pick a partner. We're climbing over this wall and heading into the city.”

  I hit Slip on the shoulder and he looks at me and I flash him a grin and he nods. “Finn’s with me.” Slip said to Ramirez almost way too excited. Ramirez nods before heading near the wall and he sets his gear up.

  Slip grabs a grapple hook and so do the others and at the same time we all fired away. The ropes flew and finally they landed on the walls. I pulled my rope, tight, and secure. I grabbed my carabiner and clipped on to the rope and with the order from Ramirez we began to ascend the walls.

  The air now felt like a small breeze, unlike an hour ago. It felt cold and it slightly pushed me but nevertheless I climbed over the wall. I was the first over the wall, then Slip, then Ramirez, then one soldier whom we called Rhea, and the rest.

  The city was silent and only paper flew by as we walked through the street. Ramirez raised his fist and everyone stopped in their tracks. He signaled to the right side and everyone quietly moved up to the buildings on the right.

  The stores and restaurants that used to have people and children running around in them laid burned and gone. I could hear something down the street, voices. Zlayan voices. They sounded angry and they were definitely speaking to each other.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  I moved up closer to Ramirez “Zlayan troops over there?” I asked quietly and it felt like I had a lump in my throat. Ramirez nods “Yeah I can hear some of them but there could be more.” He turns to the squad.

  “Slip, take 5 men with you and move up and the rest of us will approach from the rear.” Slip nodded and listed off 5 people “Rhea, Higgins, Peterson, Kick, and Finn.” I wasn’t surprised seeing as I and Slip served for 4 years with Red team. Ramirez agrees with the options and he turns to 2 other troopers.

  “I want you two up in that building.” Ramirez points to a building overlooking the entire street “and provide overwatch. Give us some cover fire if you need to.” The 2 soldiers nod “Well what are you waiting for, get on out there.”

  The 2 soldiers run off and breach the building whilst me and Slip and co begin making our way down the street. Ramirez went behind us and took a left in an alley disappearing with the other 7 troopers. The tension was thick and I could feel my sweat dripping down my head.

  Slip takes a shattered mirror piece and he puts it out to take a look down the street. “How many?” Higgins asked.

  “Probably 16. I can see the Captain and 7 more of our men.” Slip throws the piece of the mirror back down and cocks his rifle. Slip digs into his pocket and takes out a suppressor “You’ll need this.”

  He hands me the suppressor and I fix it on the barrel of my AK. “Red 0-3 to Red 0-2. We have 16 hostiles and 8 of our boys down the street. What should we do?”

  First static then a click “Red 0-2 to Red 0-3. Move in with caution.” Slip grabs his radio “Rog’.” “Good luck Slip.” Slip puts the radio near his lips again. “You too Ramirez.”

  And he turns it off and he faces towards us “Get ready to move up, stick to the shadow and I want total silence.” Everyone nods “Good.” Slip moves out into the street and the rest of us follow. We can’t tell much but I can see the Zlayan troopers start executing our captured boys.

  Bang the first one falls, bang the next one falls, bang, bang. The execution stops as I aim my AK at the one shooting our men and his head turns into a red mist. The trigger feels heavy as the recoil is volatile.

  The Zlayan troopers scatter and so does Slip and the others. One Zlayan trooper ran up to me and whacked me on the side of the cheek with the butt of his rifle.

  An explosion of pain erupts on my right cheek as he is standing over me, steadying his rifle. “kakiye-nibud' posledniye slova, svin'ya?” Suddenly a tracer bolt passes through him and out the other and he falls down, dead. I slowly get up and I follow where the tracer came from. It was from the 2 troopers sent to do overwatch.

  I slowly got to my feet and nodded my head at them and another tracer passed me and hit another Zlayan soldier. I continued on and all I could see was pure carnage.

  Higgins was bashing a Zlayan soldier’s brains out, Peterson was dual wielding M9’s firing wildly into the Zlayan troopers, Rhea and Kick were moving the last trooper alive from the execution and the Captain into a small destroyed Cafe.

  At this point the Zlayan soldiers are pushed back to a little sandbag position. There were only 6 of them. Slip patched our Captain up and in the meantime provided cover fire. I ran up to a little mound with Kick and Rhea. “Oi Rhea!” He looks towards me.

  “Try throwing a smoke grenade and push up!” Rhea nodded, his blue eyes looked innocent, almost like a child thrown at war. I shook this thought away as he grabbed his smoke grenade from his vest. The pin is gently in Rhea’s finger and he pulls it as hard as he could.

  He threw the smoke and a few seconds later red smoke popped out of the can. I got up from the mound and began running with Rhea and the others.

  But as soon as I stepped out of the smoke and aimed my AK I saw Ramirez and his group already there. Ramirez and his squad finish off one last crawling Zlayan soldier. Ramirez walks up to him and the trooper flips around, his hands up in the air.

  “pozhaluysta, net, podozhdi! U menya yest' deti, pozhaluysta! Pomiluy!” the trooper yelled but his words fell on deaf ears as Ramirez pointed his pistol towards the trooper's head, and fired off 2 rounds.

  Killing him. The smoke clears up and all of us are around the center of the city. The squad are now relaxing with the time they have right now. Ramirez does a headcount while Me and Slip are sitting on top of heavy crates.

  As Ramirez finished up his headcount he walked over to us “Alright I counted around 20 of us, but we still have around 12 troopers missing.” Slip lights a cigarette.

  “What about the captain, is he doing alright?” Ramirez grabs a cigarette of his own “Yeah, he’s currently bandagin up in that store right there. Should be up and walking in a few moments.”

  I nod and Slip coughs a little as he smokes. “First Lieutenant Ramirez, this is Private Pudding! You have a convoy incoming from th-“ the radio on Ramirez cuts off as an RPG round flies and explodes the building where Overwatch was.

  “Ambush!” Ramirez yelled “Take cover!” Ramirez threw his cigarette down as he ran toward the Cafe, where the Captain was squabbling out of. I looked around and saw our boys running around trying to get into cover as what seemed to be a flak cannon on a truck began to tear us to shreds.

  I dropped down in a small crater with Higgins, as I watched Peterson run past the crater. He didn't last long as a shell hit him in the stomach splitting him in half. His blood sprayed out like a bag of tomato juice. His scream was horrible, guttural, and sounded like he was drowning.

  His organs flew out of his body and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Another trooper ran by and a shell blew his head apart. As his body slumped down I finally snapped back to reality. I slowly got up from my little crater and aimed my AK at the Zlayan gunner’s head.

  His head stuck out like a sore thumb on the white truck carrying the flak cannon. I aimed and exhaled until my body relaxed, then I pulled the trigger. One shot was all it took as his head snapped back and he fell.

  The driver of the truck spotted me and started firing wildly towards my direction. Higgins, who was next to me, got his head full of lead, as tracers passed his head and body and out. He fell backwards and landed with a thud behind me. I ducked down and I waited for the driver’s ammo to run out. Then I heard a click.

  I got up and shot the driver in the head 3 times. The driver fell to the ground dead and some of my squadmates began running over to the truck for cover as more trucks began moving down the street towards us. 4 people surrounded the truck, Kick was one of them.

  Kick tried to use the turret until. The truck exploded and the explosion caused me to fly back into the crater and land on my back. My 4 squadmates on the truck weren’t so lucky. Their body parts laid the street in a dark red color as a fire started from the truck's remains.

  Kick was sent flying and he was impaled on a piece of rubble that was sticking out. One trooper started screaming in pain, I could see him crawling, his legs gone, his upper torso being lit aflame, and his helmet lost.

  “Help! Put it out!! It burns!” He yelled, but eventually his cries stopped or either drowned out as he succumbed to his injuries. I could hear something ringing in my ears as I approached the building everyone else was in.

  A trooper stumbled in front of me, the right side of his face burned. Slip managed to get out unscathed, Ramirez walked out with the Captain. “Incoming!”

  A trooper yelled running from the street but turned to a bloody red mist similar to Peterson by a truck similar to last time. “Fuck they got Lewis!”

  One trooper yelled running behind cover. “Get the Captain outta here!” Slip yelled to Ramirez, and Ramirez nodded.

  Suddenly a shell pierces through the Captain’s chest, then another, and another.

  His blood sprayed everywhere and some got on Ramirez. The flak cannon started moving towards my direction and I dove and flopped around into the crater again.

  Slip ran into my crater too but he still had his calm demeanor and he took a quick look at Higgin’s body. He took Higgin’s dog tag and took it close. “Fucking Zlayan animals.” Slip whispered.

  He pulled a grenade out and he took out a pistol. “Do me a favor and distract that gunner for me!” Slip yelled as the sound of the Flak cannon made it hard for me to hear.

  “Got it!” I yelled immediately and I fixed myself on the slope of the crater and I readied my AK. I switched it to full auto and took the suppressor out.

  I glanced over to Slip, he’s right next to me and the grenade on his left hand and he exhaled. The air from his breath was visible due to the cold air around us.

  “Now!” He yelled and I immediately squeezed the trigger, firing towards the truck’s direction. Slip ran out of the crater dodging the shells of the flak cannon and he managed to throw a grenade underneath the truck.

  Slip ran for it as dove into cover behind some boxes. I duck down as the truck explodes, I could see remnants of the truck flying out in a ball of flames. At long last it was over. The air calmed down a little bit.

  I could hear Ramirez’s voice “Finn! Slip! You okay?!” It took a little while to respond but I managed to. “I’m okay!” Slip followed suit “Same here!”

  I got up and crawled out of the crater and flopped out. I stared into the beautiful moon and its light. Ramirez runs up to me and kneels down.

  “Are you sure you're okay?” I snickered, “I’m fine and thanks for asking.” He gives me his hand and I take it and he pulls me up. “I’m gonna have Cosmo do a headcount and body count of who’s dead.”

  I nod “Yeah, and you should probably check Pudding and Floyd back in the building, just in case y’know.” He nodded “Yeah, probably gonna send Donaldson and Briggs over there to grab their dog tags.”

  I grab a cigarette and I find a comfortable box to sit on “How about the Captain?” Ramirez lights his cigarette “Dead. Didn’t survive a second after that.”

  His helmet still had traces of the Captain’s blood on him. “Shit. What now?” Ramirez raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” I coughed and straightened up “I mean what's our goal now? We have no captain, no way of getting out of here, and we have limited ammunition.” Ramirez looked down. “I don’t know.”