Increased Cost Savings and Revenue

Chad Maycumber

Ms. Camp

SRC 9th

2/4/2011 2011

        “Johnson! Johnson!” echoed the sergeant in an attempt to wake me from my deep sleep. As I drifted back into reality the pounding of the helicopter blades flushed into my ears.

        “Johnson are you ready?” yelled Sergeant Brown over the helicopter.

        Quickly glancing down at my weapon and inspecting the body, I glanced back up and responded with a confident, “Yes.”

        “Well yo-” Before Brown could finish the helicopter pilot turned around and yelled “ETA 5 minutes.”

        “The two compounds are heavily guarded and we should be taking heavy resistance,” preached Brown to the rest of the squad,

        I glanced out the window to see the second black hawk swooping left, positioning itself to land on the top of the second building.

        Brown continued over the constant beating of the blades, “We need to be quick and clean, capture the hostages before dawn and report to the landing zone three miles east of the buildings perimeter where we will meet with delta squad bravo at the rendezvous point.”

        Just as our helicopter started to move itself in position for the drop off, I glanced over to see the progress of delta squad bravo, a fire ball arose from the rooftop of the compound. Shrapnel from the adjacent helicopter soared between the two buildings and pinged off the side of our helicopter. “Get us on the ground,” I yelled at the pilot, but it was too late, small arms fire erupted from all sides cutting through the helicopters thin metal covering sheltering the engine and destroying the engine leaving the bird in a wild spin.

        Corporal Jefferson began to pray “God please get me out of this situa-” but before he could finish a bullet quickly sliced through his skull and his motionless body flopped to the floor of the aircraft.

        Before I could react the helicopter took a violent jolt to the right and my body was thrown out of the aircraft onto the top of a building landing with a thud. I stood up and an instinctively scanned the area for my rifle which was just about a foot from where I landed on the rooftop. I quickly picked up my rifle and headed for the left side of the building where I might be able to see the crash site and hopefully pinpoint the location of the rest of my squad. I immediately peered over the metal railing at the edge of the building and saw the thick smoke of the downed helicopter and the ferocious flames lighting the nearby street. Tears rolled down my cheeks becoming black from the soot left on my face. They were dead, I told myself as despair flooded my body, collecting myself and after I regained hope I rapidly made for the door of the roof. The cold stone touched the flesh of my arms as I positioned myself to breach the entrance. I swiftly and powerfully kicked in the door and checked the corners of the room. It was clear. The maintenance stairs were just in front of me and I quickly made my way down them. After swiftly descending the stairs I made my way down to what looked like a lobby. As I peered through the door two men were conversing.

        “ما رأيك هو التقدم المحرز في جمع القمامة في مروحية,” said one of the men

        The other replied with “لا أعرف ولكن أعتقد أنها ينبغي أن يتم قريبا.”

        The language class they made me take during delta school was really coming in handy; I quickly realized that they were talking about the downed helicopter. My emotions began to flare and without hesitation I busted open the door to the lobby. Both men raised their Ak-47’s but before they could get a shot off I quickly dispatched both targets with two shots to the body of each man. I ran to the main door passing by the bodies of my dead enemies and into the dark street in front of the hotel. Most of the streetlights weren’t working so I was fairly safe from detection. The cold grip of my rifle shifted in my hands as I sprinted across the street to the neighboring building. I think that the helicopter is about 10 blocks away from my current location. I glance down at my watch and stared as 3:59 turns to 4:00, I realized I was running out of time, the fear of the sun rising filled my mind.