The gunner of the Chinook immediately turned his mini-gun left towards the incoming projectile. The pilot had just started to close the door to the back of the chinook, and the men in the back raised their guns to attempt to take the rocket down with gunfire.
The gunner had opened fire on the missile, but none of the bullets seemed to hit. Instead, the bullets flew around the missile, and had hit the man who had shot the weapon. The next thing to release was our weapons. Both Mark and I had raised our weapons and fired with hazy, unfocused bullets. Again, none of those bullets seemed to hit their mark as the RPG slammed itself into the back rotor of the Chinook.
“We’re hit! I say again, we are hit by enemy RPG! We’re going down!” I hear the pilot yell from the cockpit into his transceiver. Not even a second later, the red emergency lights began to flash uncontrollably. I saw the pilot try to stable the helicopter, but to no avail. We started spinning and we were bound to crash at any moment. The fear was evident in everyone’s eyes.
We were spinning so fast it was hard to see where in the sky we were. I looked back to Mark with eyes wide, and he looked at me with the same expression
Fear
A new sound flared through the helo, and I guessed it indicated we were getting very close to the ground. I saw the Pilot look back and yell “Brace!” over and over again. Instinct took over and I shielded myself over Marks body, that’s when everything turned black.
I woke up with a breath of fresh air, eyes wide, and looking around violently. My vision was again hazy as I looked around, trying to get a sense of where I was. I immediately found Mark lying on the ground unconscious. I rushed over to him to see if he had any open wounds, and thankfully, he didn’t.
What shocked me more was the demolished remains of the Chinook we were in what felt like seconds ago? I rushed back up and stumbled over to the bird, and checked the cockpit for the pilots. Using my hand to clear off the dust that gathered on the wide window, I found that there was no body there. The pilots were gone.
Dumbfounded, I ran around back to the open hatch, hoping to see the other Marines in there. My hope was shattered in seconds as I saw nobody. I went to gather supplies inside the Chinook, but a faint grunt stopped me in my tracks.
I snapped my head backwards and saw Mark, struggling to push himself up. I ran over to him and sat him up against a nearby tree. His eyes shot open and he grabbed me by my vest, pulling me in close to him.
He looked straight into my eyes, “How the fuck are we alive, Brandon?” I pulled his arms from me and sat back and put my elbows on my knees, trying to take everything in. I ignored Mark and looked around us. We were surrounded in a forest. From what I could tell, it was a huge ass forest.
“Brandon,” Mark yelled, getting me back to attention. “What happened? Where is everyone else?” He said, stretching out his muscles again, starting to get feeling back.
“Well, you may not believe me until you see for yourself, but I went and checked the Chinook, and found no traces of any of our fellow Marines. Also, I don’t know how we’re alive. Shouldn’t be, really. Crashing a helicopter isn’t something you really come out of crystal clear, you know.”
“Well then what the fuck do we do now?” He said, gathering himself up to his feet now.
“Honestly, I think were SOL on this one. We have a helicopter with plenty o’ guns in it, plus our own. There is also survival kits that are still intact in there too. When we get them, I would like to think that we make a small and suitable camp.”
“Alright, that sounds like a good idea to me, let’s do it,” He got up and stood in front of the Chinook. “There is one thing that needs to be done though. I’ll get started taking out the survival shit.”
Without further ado, I went to gather all the weapons scattered inside the Chinook.
About an hour later, I had gathered every weapon I found out in a small patch of earth. Next to it, was the survival gear that Mark had found. I found a small notebook and pencil and wrote down what was on the ground.
2x M4A1
4x M4A1 Magazines
1x RDS Sight
3x Blocks of C4
2x Medical Kits
1x .338 Lapua Round Cartridge
1x M249 SAW with 1 drum mag.
8x Grenades
2x Flash Grenades
I put the small pencil in the loop and folded over the notepad. I heard Mark walking over to me and I looked up.
“Hey can I borrow two sticks of C4? This is what I was talking about earlier.” He said. Rubbing my hand on my chin, I walked over to the C4 on the ground. I took two slabs of C4 and handed them to Mark.
“If you really think you need it, then sure. Take it” And with that, Mark first went to the tarp that held all our supplies, picked it up, and slowly dragged a good distance away from the fallen chinook. He snatched up the two slabs of C4 and walked calmly over to the Chinook.
“Uh, you know what you’re doin’, right?”
“Fuck yes I do. Before I became you’re spotter, I was an EOD bomb specialist. Defused bombs in Afghanistan. While defusing one, I set off the timer and ran like hell. Got caught in the afterblast, and knocked me out pretty good. Decided that was not to my liking, and moved to being a spotter.”
“Huh. I’ve was an ARMY Ranger, but as soon as I knew I qualified, I went straight to sniper boot camp. I guess I just love the feeling of helping my fellow Marines out on the field,” Mark went back to doing what he was doing, and I put my hands on my hips and turned around.
I looked back to Mark to see him crouching over something. Looking back in front of me, I slowly walked out into the thick woods that surrounded our little patch of land. Minutes of walking later, I got the same results. Endless forests, from what I could tell.
I turned around to walk back to camp and then a loud explosion rocked the earth. I looked up and saw the black smoke and flames and immediately sprinted back to Mark.
When I got there, the whole Chinook was blown to smithereens! Nothing was salvageable anymore from that thing. Not even if you tried.
Rustling from behind caught my attention and I whipped backwards, looking for the source. Mark came out seconds later, coughing up a little smoke.
“The fucked happened here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He told me with a slight smirk on his face. He dusted himself off and looked over to the gear lying on the ground. “Yeah I blew that up because if we die, the enemy won’t be able to use anything valuable in the bird. And don’t worry, I found some walkie-talkies and a few extra pairs of combat clothing”
“Alright, makes sense to me,” I looked up into the darkening sky,” it’s getting dark, Mark. We should probably get going and setup a small camp somewhere. Take as many things as you can carry, we may or may not be coming back for the rest” I said. “Also, keep your ghillie suit on during the night. We’ll get them clean tomorrow.” Mark nodded in agreement.
I took the sniper mag, one M4, two M4 mags, the RDS sight, the last block of C4, both flashbangs, and the medical kits. Mark took the other M4 and mags, the SAW, and the 8 grenades and hooked them onto his belt.
It was really starting to get dark now, and we were ready to head out. Mark and I stood side by side, gun in hand, and walked on into the darkness.