Suddenly there was an explosion up the south side of the dam. What the hell? A minute later I saw a helicopter lift off from the general area of the last explosion. It was coming down the valley towards us. Shit!
I glanced at my watch. I had exactly one minute until Danny was supposed to meet me. I knew he wouldn’t be there. But I also knew I wasn’t going anywhere until I found him. The helicopter was hovering over the destroyed bridge. Probably looking for Danny too. Six minutes later, I saw a pile of sticks float up against the falls, and then a body tumbled over the rocks in the gap I’d come through. Danny!
I ran down to the water and flipped him over. He was breathing, but barely. He must have been floating face up most of the time. How did the helicopter not see him? He had been shot at least two times. I pulled him out of the water and tried to get him to talk to me. I could see his mouth moving but couldn’t make out what he was saying. “What?” I put my ear down next to his mouth.
“You should be gone,” he whispered.
“Screw that. No way I was leaving you.”
He mouthed something else, but I didn’t listen this time. Another large explosion up by the former bridge had caught my attention. I stood up and peered over the wall of debris. I could see a half dozen soldiers coming down the river fully armed and carefully searching the water. They’d be here in a minute. I had to move Danny, but I couldn’t pull him out of the water without being seen. There was only one option. I glanced at the waterfall pouring over the gap in the dam, and I dragged Danny under that waterfall with me. I lowered him as deep as I could into the water to where his face was still above the surface, flattening myself against the rock wall—underwater—as recessed as I could. With my left arm I held the Springfield—safety off—ready to fire if needed.
I watched through a tiny gap in the waterfall as two men passed by on my left. I couldn’t afford to turn my head to the right, but I assumed a couple more were on that side. I could hear the soldiers talking to each other across the river—confirming my assumption—but I didn’t understand a word. I heard another voice coming from above the falls. My body ached, and Danny was shaking terribly, but I fought to stay still. “Come on, Danny,” I whispered in his ear. “Keep fighting, but stay calm. Please.”
Suddenly there was a gunshot and a giant splash in front of us as a man fell off the dam into the water. He pretty much landed directly in Danny’s lap. Another gunshot followed immediately, and there was another large splash to my right. I tried to get a glimpse of what was going on but could only tell that someone was firing at these Qi Jia soldiers.
The two men to my left were now crouching down a few feet from me, peering over the wall of debris toward the gunfire. Surely the two men to my right were doing the same. Another gunshot was followed by a scream to my right. One of the men to my right fired several shots back this time. As did the men on my left. I wanted to help whoever was attacking these men. I wanted to take out the guys I could see on my left, but I knew a single shot from me would draw fire from my blind spot on the right. That would be certain death for us. I had to stay patient. I squeezed Danny tightly and waited.
A couple more minutes passed, and I slowly rotated my head to the right. There was still a man there, and my slight movement caught his attention. I saw him peer closer into the water and then start to swing his gun as he realized what he was seeing. I let go of Danny and switched the gun from my left to right hand in one motion, squeezing three shots off into the man’s head before he even pointed his rifle at me. I then shoved off from the wall of debris, spinning around toward the two men on my left, firing the rest of my clip in their direction. I knew for certain I hit one of the men in the back with two of my shots, but the other man fell as the result of a gunshot from a large figure hidden behind a tree to my right. Eddie. How the hell did he get down here so fast?
Then Eddie was in the water, picking Danny up and carrying him up the hill toward the road. I raced up after them and found Flynn and Blake in a gunfight beside the road with a handful of soldiers on the other side of the river. Ava was huddled beside Blake. She had a gun but wasn’t using it. She sure had changed a lot since the bunker.
“We must go,” Eddie shouted at Blake.
“We can’t,” Blake hollered back. “There’s still three or four guys over there keeping us from the truck.”
“Reload, now,” Eddie ordered. “Then when I say go, you start shooting. You cover me, and I’ll get Danny to the truck. I’ll move the truck away from gunfire and you come to me.”
“Okay,” Blake agreed.
“Ready?”
“Yes,” Flynn replied, and Blake nodded.
“Go,” Eddie shouted.
Blake and Flynn alternated rounds, buying Eddie the ten or so seconds he needed to scamper up the ditch and toss Danny into the back seat of a Humvee. I scurried in with Danny as Eddie slid behind the wheel. He jammed the truck in reverse and spun us through the dirt out of the line of fire. A minute later, Blake was running toward us with Ava holding his hand and Flynn a few steps behind him. Eddie spun the Humvee around, and I threw open the door. Blake scrambled in and climbed up the turret, cocking the big gun in case we needed it. Flynn hopped into the passenger seat beside Eddie, and Ava slid in beside Danny, lifting his head onto her lap.
“Find his gunshots,” Eddie hollered back at us as he drove.
“How did you know he was shot?” I yelled back.
“We watched him get shot,” Flynn replied. “Craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“What do you mean?”
“After the third arrow missed, Blake was trying to get in a position to take a shot at the dynamite himself, but there wasn’t anywhere he could find where he wouldn’t be seen.”
I glanced at Ava to see if she’d give me any kind of look for missing those shots. She didn’t. “So?” I asked Flynn, who had stopped her story.
“Well, Eddie decided he needed to do something so he told us to follow him to the parking lot on the south side of the dam. We had to take out six guys, and Eddie blew up the one helicopter, but he got the other pilot to fly us down.”
“That was you two?” That’s how they got down so quickly.
“Us three.” Flynn nodded towards Ava. “She saved my life. There was a guy about to shoot me and she killed him.”
Ah. Now it made sense. She’s never killed anyone before. I remembered exactly how that first time felt—during the chemical attacks—the day I met Sam. I remember throwing up. Twice. “Really?”
Flynn nodded. “Anyway, when those last three trucks crossed the bridge, Blake figured he had to move, and he was about to, and then Danny stands up out of the water on the other side of the bridge and blew the thing from about fifty feet away. The explosion slammed him into the river so hard, and then the soldiers that were around started shooting at him.”
Eddie yelled, “Hold on” as he swerved suddenly and turned onto a gravel road.
Flynn glanced out the window and then continued. “So… Eddie, Blake, and I tried to pick them off with the sniper rifles we’d picked up, but there were too many soldiers and too many people firing at him. We knew they had to have hit him.”
The big gun above us suddenly boomed. Thwump, thwump, thwump, thwump. Hot shell cartridges dropped onto the floor beside us, still smoking. We winced and covered our ears as Blake continued to fire at something behind us. When the shooting stopped for a second, I hollered up at him. “We being followed?”