Recon 6

Part 29 Phantom: Rescue (Continued)

She was almost weightless and her breathing shallow. Short and slow breaths, counting barely ten per minute. Ineffective.
I unapologetically stared at her bare body in my arms completely helpless while striding quickly down the hall with Wolf. I wanted Ana to open her eyes and see her savior, me, but I knew when she woke she would demand Kayo.
Yelling started outside the cellar doors. The same word being screamed over and over in Arabic. We had been compromised.
"Hostiles incoming." Wolf whispered over our comms.
Light footsteps approached from beside Wolf and I. Everyone had their weapons raised just waiting for the doors to open. I stepped behind them to give myself cover to protect Ana. I will get her out of here if it was the last thing I fucking did.
"Check the girl!" Someone screamed outside.
The doors flung open and immediate fire rained upon three unfortunate young men. Their bodies rag-dolled down the stairs as their clothes started to stain red.
Merlin went to step over the deceased to ascend the stairs as Hyde pulled him back in line.
I wanted to run out and gun everyone in my way down, but I didn't trust anyone else to keep Ana safe right now.
Hyde knew they would be waiting for us to exit after mowing down even more of their men. What we didn't know is if the convoy had returned or how many were still left.
They held their ground for several minutes before Snowden finally spoke up.
"We can't just fuckin' stand here all day." He snapped under his breath.
Wolf shoved past Snowden climbing the stairs peeking his head out of the open cellar. He waved us on for us to move and go. We rushed and pushed forward as our boots were kicking sand everywhere. I held onto Ana very tightly, keeping pace with everyone else.
"Taking fire!" Merlin screamed as bullets started to whizz past our heads and torsos. We kept running, fearing someone was going to call out they were hit.
The structure was becoming more distant and foreign screams less profound, we didn't have long till we reached the helicopter.
Ana's seemingly lifeless body is the only thing that gave me motivation to push on as hard as I could. I wanted her to be okay. I needed her to be okay.
I was behind everyone else. Hyde started up the chopper the second he jumped inside and everyone followed suit. I diligently got in setting Ana on the floor of the cargo hold.
"Hyde get us out of here now!" Merlin screamed as bullets started to ricochet off the sides of the aircraft. The relentless fuckers had followed us all the way back.
I motioned to Wolf to handle it by all means necessary and snatched a Mylar blanket from the first aid kit mounted on the inner walls of the helicopter. I tore open the plastic wrapping in an animalistic fashion before spreading it out as wide as it would go and gently laying it over Ana's body from her neck to her feet.
I sunk down to my knees and eventually right on my ass, sitting right in front of her. My eyes did not leave the sight of her until Wolf put a hand on my shoulder.
"She is strong soldier. She will get through." His broken English rang out but I wasn't in the mood for comforting words.
I sat there bouncing my elbow on my knee, holding onto hope we would get back to base faster. I didn't want to face Kayo's anger either, like I said I'm in no mood.
A storming headache flooded my vision piercing its way to the back of my skull from my lack of sleep. As I started to rest my head in my hands trying to alleviate the pressure building up in my brain, my name was screamed.
I popped my head up to see Ana's body violently shaking and foaming at the mouth. Her shoulders and torso coming off the ground in tandem as foamy spit coated her mouth and slid down the sides of her face.
"Oh fuck!" I yelled. I jumped up and turned her over on her side as her body involuntarily convulsed.
"Hyde! How much longer!" I yelled forgetting comms were still online.
"Five klicks out." He responded, no emotion tainting his monotone voice.
Ana's convulsing had stopped but her breathing was becoming wheezy. I wanted to rub her back and tell her everything was going to be okay but that ran the risk of my rugged gloves hands running over fresh open and oozing wounds.
I watched her carefully. Looking for any little bit of movement coming from her. Her wheezing was becoming louder and I saw her jaw tighten. Convulsions started again as I held her on her side so she wouldn't choke. I started screaming expletives before Hyde's voice came over comms again.
"Landing now sir." He said.
"Jonesy is standing by with a stretcher." Merlin added.
I felt the jolt of the chopper hit the ground and the cargo hold door became a ramp. I scooped up Ana's convulsing body as Jonesy came at me full sprint.
"Oh my god." He exclaimed seeing the state of her.
He helped me lay her on the stretcher as we fast-walked to medical bay. Jonesy maneuvered the sketcher skillfully around corners and through doors, constantly checking her status.
He wheeled her into the boring white room littered with various medical equipment he thought he might need to help her.
I helped lift her onto the hospital bed carefully setting her down, it seemed her convulsions had stopped for the time being. Her breath was rapid and short. Jonesy tossed the Mylar blanket aside gasping out loud at the horrific sight of her injuries.
"Help me put her in a gown for now." He said giving me a frantic glance. I lightly lifted her arm the same time as Jonesy trying to slide the sleeves of the gown over her and suddenly her arm was jerked away from me.
Ear splitting screams erupted from Ana's mouth as she tried to get up and attack Jonesy.
"Ana! Ana! Calm down! You're safe!" I yelled. It doesn't calm her, it only confuses her and then tries so attack me next. I held her in place and Jonsey injected her immobile arm with assumingely a strong sedative because Ana's eyes rolled back into her head within seconds falling limp in my arms.
We lay her back down, situating her gown when Jonsey pulls medical restraints out of a nearby drawer.
"Is that really necessary?" I questioned. Jonesy glared at me as if I didn't just see her have a full meltdown. I sighed letting him do what he needed to do.
Yelling came from the hallway and I knew exactly who it was.
"Let me fucking see her!" The voice screamed with a loud thud just outside of the door.
Kayo wasn't going down without a fight on this one.