Siren In The Sky // Bradley Bradshaw

Chapter 13

"Siren! Wake up!"

It's cold. My clothes are damp and clinging to my skin. Someone's shaking my arm.

"Please, Selene. I need you to wake up. We gotta get out of here."

Where is here? I try to move but a searing pain in my thigh shoots down my leg. My eyes snap open and I inhale quickly. There's snow everywhere. Regina is in front of me babbling about how she thought she had lost me and thank goodness I woke up. But I can't focus on the words. I can only focus on the snow. The shimmering white reflects the sun, making the valley we landed in irritatingly bright on my pounding head. But I prefer that to the red snow that surrounds me. 

Why is the snow red? My eyes follow the trail until it reaches my leg. "Oh my god," I gasp out, cutting Striker off. Things start to make sense. The missile. The plane going down. I remember screaming for her to eject as the very object we were in was falling apart around us. I remember being hit with a piece of debris and passing out. The numbness I felt is fading as I become more and more conscious of my surroundings. 

I can feel my heart beat throb in my entire left leg. I swallow down the urge to be sick not just from the pain but the sheer sight of it. A piece of metal from the plane is sticking through my thigh. The gash is hard to assess because of the significant amount of blood drowning my entire pants leg. Oh my god. The blood. I frantically look around. The red snow. All of it, surrounding me, is my blood. 

I'm hyperventilating, my hands ripping off my helmet so I can get more oxygen. There's too much. I've lost too much blood. Regina is trying to say something to me but I can't hear her over the ringing in my ears. Tears spring to my eyes partly from both pain and panic. I only look away from my leg to see Regina rip part of her sleeve off and tie it around my thigh. She grabs both my arms and makes me look at her. "That will hold the bleeding. I know you're scared but we can't stay here. There are still bandits in the air, and we're exposed. We gotta start moving, okay." My breathing starts to calm down and I let out a weak, "okay." 

Regina gives me a small smile. "Alright, I'm going to help you up now." I only nod as she stands and hooks her arms under my armpits. Blinding white hot pain resounds through my body. I grit my teeth and scream into them as Regina manages to pull me onto my feet. Each step is excruciating and I grip my helmet in my hand for dear life. The two of us are shivering, the wind and light snowfall very different than the sunny Fightertown, USA we're used to. With my arm over her shoulder, Regina and I slowly try to make it out of the clearing and towards the forest. 

"Do you hear that?" Striker whispers. We stop and listen. There's a noise, barely traceable under the howling air, and it's getting louder. Then we see it. The enemy helicopter hovering in the distance and it's coming straight for us. "Run!" I exclaim. We turn and run as fast as we can toward a fallen tree. I watch as Striker sprints and I try to keep up, but I'm falling behind. She makes it over the tree and is screaming at me to hurry. My leg feels like it's about to give out but with one look over my shoulder at the helicopter's guns being deployed I push harder. The sound of bullets firing begins echoing and I feel them hot on my tail before I throw myself over the tree. 

I cry out as I land roughly, the metal shifting in my leg. But that doesn't matter now. The helicopter makes its way closer, preparing to round the tree and fire. Striker is trying to stand me up, but it's no use. We don't have enough time. I grab her hand. "Go," I grunt out, looking her in the eye. Her frantic eyes look up at the helicopter and back down. Shaking her head she sobs, "No! I can't!" "Yes, you can," I say calmly. "Go." She looks uncertain, but I push her in the direction of the forest. "Tell him I love him!" I call out. She looks back with tear-filled eyes and nods, running for the tree line. 

I grunt as I use the tree as an anchor and hoist myself to stand. The helicopter reappears, facing me. I put all my weight on my right leg, staring the guns down. A tear drips down my cheek as I recognize that this is my end. Honey eyes flash in my mind, making my chest go warm. 

Forgive me, Bradley. 

The guns begin to turn on when suddenly the entire helicopter bursts into flames. My eyes go wide as I stumble back. What the hell? Striker runs back out from the treeline where she was watching. We both turn our heads to the sky and see two F18s whizz by. I don't even have time to process it because I helplessly watch as they both fly right in front of enemy SAMS. The missiles launch, hitting both aircrafts. "NO!" I scream, watching as they both fall in the direction of the forest. It doesn't take a genius to guess who's flying those planes, and I'm not ready for either of them to die.

I see parachutes deploy, but I'm far from at ease. "Let's go!" I tug on Regina's arm and we make our way to the trees as quickly as possible. I'm limping horribly, and our pace isn't anywhere near fast. The two of us blindly trudge in the general direction we saw them go down, hoping that they're okay. Seeing two figures running in the distance, I recognize them immediately. "Over here!" Regina yells. I see their faces looking relieved, probably mirroring my own. 

"Thank god," Bradley rasps out and pulls me into his arms. Placing a long kiss on my lips I melt. I didn't think I was ever going to do that again. "Are you alright?" I ask. "Yeah, I'm-" I don't even let him finish, shoving him to the ground. "What the hell?" he asks, sitting up. "WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?" I shout. "DIDN'T WE AGREE NOT TO DO ANYTHING STUPID?!" 

Bradley pushes himself back to his feet, towering over me. "YOU DID SOMETHING STUPID FIRST! BECAUSE OF THAT, I HAD TO COME DOWN HERE AND SAVE YOUR ASS!" 

 I scoff at Bradley's words. "SAVE MY ASS? I SAVED YOUR ASS FIRST MR. 'I RAN OUT OF FLARES'." 

Regina and my dad are standing to the side, arms crossed and amused expressions on their faces as they watch us argue. My glare fixes on Maverick. "This was your idea, wasn't it?" I accuse, pointing my finger at him. "I didn't tell him to come, but I didn't stop him-" Maverick stopped talking when his eyes trailed down, noticing my leg. His entire face turns a ghostly white. "no," he whispers. In my peripheral vision, I notice Bradley look down as well. 

My dad comes and grabs my arm. "Let's sit you down. You shouldn't be standing." Bradley grabs my other one and they lower me so I lean against a tree. Sitting down, they both see just how bad it is. From my tumble the metal moved, making the gash in my leg wider and another round of intense bleeding to emit. "Why didn't you say something when we got here?" Bradley scolds but sounds more worried than angry. I shrug and keep my gaze on the branches above me, I don't want to look at it. 

The adrenaline of almost dying and then them almost dying is wearing off, making the pain return full force. For their sakes, I try to hide the winces as they redo the tourniquet Striker made. However, I can't help the sharp intake of breath when they have to peel the fabric away from the torn skin. I start feeling really weak all of a sudden. It feels like a wave of utter exhaustion sweeps over me as the leaves around me blur. I kind of zone out and hear the other three speaking to each other in hushed tones.

"She's lost too much blood. We've got to get back to the carrier, and fast."

"How? There's 4 of us and all of our planes are destroyed."

"I have an idea."