(CH10) From Soldier's Rifle, To Dragon's Wing's (Book 1)
There are many things we don't know about in the mysterious world of the military, Project Draco is one of them. I was recruted into this project against my own will at the age of 14. My life went from normal to dodging bullets everyday of my life. You could say that I know death personally. But when you have wings, scales, talons, and can breath fire, you already have a target on your head It's just a matter of time. This is the story of my life, as a Project Draco recruet............as a dragon.
"How could this day possibly get any worse." I silently thought to myself as the Black hawk lifted off carrying our new found ally along with it. The two members of our squad that we hadn't taken with us, Chad Malmberg and Scott Montoya, ran over to my side and started to talk with the others.
Scott was 5'11, although the smallest member of our human fire team, could lay you out faster than you could ask 'what happened'. Scott was the scout sniper for our human team and was the best I had seen in any human sniper. Chad on the other hand was a 6'4 monster. If he wanted to, he could probably put up a great fight against a dragon.
Chad was the SAW specialist for our human fire team, though Ive never seen him in action, all of his past squad mates have said he was the best. "So, Where to now Taro." Carson asked. I looked from the helo to him, "How much gas do we have left?" I asked. Carson then jumped into the truck and started it. "About 13 miles worth, maybe less." he replied.
"We've got no choice but to continue onto our backup EXFIL outside of Hyderabad." I said to everyone. "The faster we get out, the better." Everyone then started to pile into the truck, humans in the cab, dragons in the back.
Firedrake then approached my side. "So, what do we do with these?" he said as he lifted and opened his paw, only to revile Tyson's blood covered Dog tags. I stared at them for a moment as my memories of him started to come back to me. How he went from the annoying green dragon, to one of the finest soldiers I have ever seen.
"Keep them, we will give him a proper ceremony when we get back home." I replied after some thought. He nodded to me and put them into a pouch on his chest before entering the truck, I soon followed.
We drove for maybe 14 miles before the truck sputtered to a stop, about half a mile out of Hyderabad. "Well, looks like were walking from here." Aaron said sarcastically as he exited the truck. After the humans got out, I exited the truck and started to look around.
"Taro, you better call in another EVAC bird in, or we'll be in a world of crap when we get there." Blitz said to me. I nodded to him before speaking into my headset. "Base this is Talon, do you read me?" "Copy Talon. What do you need." A voice said. "Were currently about 7 miles from our EVAC point. I'm Requesting a V-22 EVAC bird." I replied to the man.
There was a long silence before the man answered. "No can do Talon, the area is to hot. We recommend you find a safe place to dig in for the night. The EVAC will be sent tomorrow at 1200 hours." I clenched my paws before replied. "Copy, Talon out."
"Great, now we have to spend another night in this Hell." Sam yelled to no one in particular. "Keep it down Sam!" Faline said to him. "We don't want to give ourselves away any more than we already have." I had just noticed it, but it was about 4:00 in the afternoon, meaning that we had about an hour and a half to find a place to rest.
"We better get moving, its getting late." I said to everyone. They nodded in agreement before we started to walk into the city of Hyderabad. As we walked deeper and deeper into the city, I quickly realized that it was silent. There were no vehicles moving, no people on the streets, nothing. Then it hit me, this was the Sabbath day.
"Where is everyone?" Firedrake asked quietly. "It's the Sabbath in this country, there probably inside there homes worshiping." I replied. "That's fine by me." Carson said. We walked about 5 miles into the city before going up a hill that over looked what appeared to be a large town square.
There were buildings on the hill, which we used as cover to move from place to place. At the top of the hill was a Mosque that had its doors open and appeared to be empty. We were about 25 yards away from the Mosque when we came to stop behind a large house, out of view of the town Square.
There was what seemed to be the foundation of a home that had been blown up in the gap between us and the Mosque. I leaned around the corner of the building to get a good look at the square. 'Something's not right?' I thought to myself. That's when I noticed a large 7 story building on the other side of the square.
The building had a clear view of us, but was a good 700 yards away from us. I scanned over it before turning to the others. "OK, we move one at a time, but make it fast." I said to them. "Ill go first." Carson said before sprinting out between the large gap and safely making it to the other side. Next was Blitz, followed by Aaron, Faline, Chad, and Scott.
"I'm next." I said before sprinting out into the open. I made it safely to the other side and turned to the others. Firedrake then sprinted to my side before turning to face Sam. "When he gets over here, be ready to breach the Mosque." I said pointing to the wall we were leaning against. Firedrake nodded as Sam started to run.
As he reached the halfway point, he suddenly yelled before collapsing onto his back. After he collapsed, the faint sound of a sniper rifle could be heard over the silence. "SAM!" I yelled as Firedrake slammed me into the wall and pinned me to the ground. "TARO STAY DOWN!" Firedrake yelled to me, but my attention was locked onto the unmoving body of my brother.
"SAM, SAM, GET UP!!!" I yelled to him, but he didn't move. My chest was pounding with anger, the only person I had left in my life was lying helpless 10 yards away from me, either dying or already dead.
His body then started to move. "SAM!" I yelled in joy as he started to reach into a pocket on his chest. "Sam, stay down. Well get you!" Carson yelled as Scott disappeared through a door a door just a few feet behind us.
Sam then removed his hand from his pocket with a letter tucked tightly into his grip. "Sam, Stay Down!" Carson ordered. "Jack.....m....mom...t..told....me.....to...g...give ...this...to...you...if...I...e...ever...found...you." Sam stated weekly as he started to lift himself off of the ground.
Blood was sent flying onto the wall beside Sam as the sniper fired another round into his body. Everything became silent as Sam once again collapsed never to move again. I starred at his body before screaming out, "SSSSSSAAAAMMMMM, NOOOOOOOOO!" I then attempted to knock Firedrake off of me, but failed. Firedrake looked at me, then to Sam's lifeless body before yelling out, "I'M SICK OF THIS."
He then let me go, stepped out into the open and fired 2 rounds of his 105mm into the 7 story building. I stood up and started to walk towards Sam's body, but before I reached it, Faline caught me and pulled me into the Mosque. "Stay here!" she ordered before closing the door, leaving me and Scott, who was laying on his stomach with his sniper rifle pointing out of a window at the building. 'This cant be happening.' I said to myself before breaking down in tears.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FALINES POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Stay here!" I ordered Taro before closing the door to the Mosque and walking to Firedrakes side. Firedrake had his gaze locked onto the burning building, and the others were moving Sam's body behind cover. "How many more." Firedrake said to me. "What?" I replied. "How many more comrades must we lose before its our turn." he replied with his gaze still locked onto the building.
I didn't answer, instead I walked over to Blitz who had started to dig a hole for Sam's body. "Who's Jack?" Blitz said after a long silence. I thought for a moment before replying, "I'm not sure." I watched him dig a bit longer before going to help the others with Sam.
I looked his body over, trying to find the bullet holes. I found one in his left leg, about halfway up his shin. The other was through his left arm and into his chest. Aaron and Carson were removing his gear from his body, scavenging anything they could. Chad was sitting cross-legged against the Mosque reading the blood covered letter Sam had been holding.
"Who's Jack?" I asked after a few moments of watching them. Aaron stopped and looked over to Firedrake who appeared by my side. "Jack, is Taro's real name." Firedrake said as he snatched the letter away from Chad, who gave Firedrake an evil look.
"He should be the only one to read this, got it!" Firedrake said to all of us. He then handed it to me. "What should I do with this?" I asked in a confused tone. "Take it to him, while we handle the body. Afterwards, we'll dig in here for the night." Firedrake said as he turned from me to the others.
I looked at the letter before walking to the door. I stopped and took a deep breath in before entering the empty Mosque. Neither Scott nor Taro were anywhere to be seen. I stood for a moment in confusion before the movement of a tail caught my attention.
I looked toward the rafters to see Taro. He was laying on a rafter looking at the burning building through a large hole in the roof. His tail was hanging off the side of the rafter, swaying slowly. I walked toward him before gracefully jumping onto the rafter beside his.
"Where's Scott?" I asked. Taro silently nodded toward his right. I glanced toward that direction to see Scott laying on his stomach in a storage area with his weapon pointed out of a ventilation hole. I then laid down beside Taro and watched the building slowly start to fall to pieces.
After a long while of silence, I spoke, "Taro I know about Sam." Taro sat for a moment before standing and ,jumping off the rafter onto the ground. I followed him landing beside him. "What does it matter to you?" Taro asked in an angry tone.
I stayed silent for a moment, choosing my words carefully. "Well, he was my teammate, that's how it matters." I replied. He then spun around to face me. 'He was my brother, not my teammate, there's a difference!" he yelled at me. "Not in my book." I replied.
He then lay down and put his paws onto his head. "What now?" he said as a tear started to role down his face. "They told me to give this to you." I said, sliding the letter over to him. He moved his paws from his head and starred at it before opening it.
He read for a moment then closed his eyes. "What am i going to do now Faline." Taro said sadly. "What do you mean?" I asked him as I lay down beside him. "Ive got no one left to fight for." Taro stated as he averted his gaze from mine.
I starred at him for a moment, then moved closer to him. I then slid my head underneath his and replied in a loving tone, "You've got me." I felt him smile before he lay his head down and closed his eyes. I lay my head across his neck as he lifted his wing and put it around me. We lay for a moment as I felt Taro's body relax, he had fallen asleep. I moved my head towards his and licked the back of his head before saying to him "I love you Taro."
He then tucked his head around me before smiling. I smiled at him before laying my head around his and quickly falling asleep.