Caliber

Derek Jones Kane

Rescue from the caves in the Iraqi mountains

"Why do you want her! she's just a baby!" Dj Kane yelled at his captors, blood dripped into his right eye from a gash on across his forehead and eye. Running down the side of his face and onto his bare chest, which was already riddled in cuts and covered in blood and sweat. The man that was holding the knife that had just sliced the skin bent down to get in his face.

"Mr. Sniper, we don't want her, we simply want what she knows, but we can't get to her because you put a bullet in my friends head that knew where they took her. So now the only person that has that information is you." The man waved the knife in Dj's face, Dj just sneered, his green eyes flashed with anger and hatred as he spat in the mans face getting blood in his eyes.

"I enjoyed putting a bullet in your friends fucking eyeball!" That comment got Dj a well placed punch in the side of his head. The man knelt in front of Dj and patted his cheek roughly,

"Oh, Mr. Sniper we have already been at this for well over a year, how long do you think you have till you break?"

"Kiss. My. American. Ass!" Dj hissed and a man that was standing to the side walked up and grabbed Dj by the hair on top of his head and held a knife to his throat.

"If I get the chance, I will rip your godforshaken heart out of your fucking chest!" Dj yelled in the mans face.

"Scalp him" The man that was kneeling stood up and walked to the door, the knife bit into the back of Dj's skull and a pain filled scream filled the cave. Dj tried to get the man away from his head, but only made the cut worse, he was at the end of believing that he'd be rescued. he had lost that hope months ago, but he was damned if he went out their way, he wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of it. His vision was going in and out and his sanity, what was left of it, was slipping. He heard yelling and shooting, but he couldn't decifer it from the guys that were beating on him or from the ringing in his head.

Suddenly the guy that was trying to remove his scalp from his skull was kicked back, knocking the chair that Dj was sitting on over. Dj landing on the dirt with a thud, almost made him pass out from the pain, he felt his hands break free of the ropes that were binding him. This was his chance, Dj breathed as deep as much as he could and mustered all the strangth he had left to turn into the man that had freed and lifted him up. Dj grabbed the mans side arm, and pushed away.

"Kane! No!" Dj didn't reckonize the voice just pointed the pistol to his chest and pulled the trigger. He landed back in the dirt, his vision blurring. He could hear his breath wheezing in and out of his throat, feel the new warmth of the blood seeping out of the new wound. His vision cleared enough that he saw Duke kneel down by his side.

Now I can go home, Derek thought as his vision went black.

Duke knelt by his battered best friend, he had fought tooth and nail, ran to ground every lead he had to find Derek. Only to find him in this shit hole, broken. He was alive and Duke thanked God that he had found him in time. Well now the clock was ticking against him, a clock that he was just granted. Duke mumbled a prayer of thanks, then grabbed his walkie out of his pack.

"Target found, Sargent Kane inbound to extraction point, evac by helicopter pronto." Duke lifted Dj onto his shoulders and hoofed it out of there, stepping over the bodies of the enemy as they ran towards the exit.

"I didn't come all the way over here to just take a corps back to the states asshole, I came here to save your ass so you better have not killed yourself Kane. Just so you know, I'm going to kick your ass when you recover." Duke muttered to the past out man on his shoulder, he blinked as they stepped out into the sun, but quickly got his bearings and ran towards the extraction point, the helicopter shooting the last of the tangos as it landed. Duke handed Dj to the medic team and they loaded up into the helicopter.

"ETA to base twenty minutes sir!" The pilot yelled over the sound of the blades of the helicopter and Duke nodded as he looked over to where the medics were fighting to keep Dj alive. When Dj got captured he thought that he would never see him again. They had become friends fast while in boot camp and the higher ups discovered that him and Dj made a badass team and had paired them up.

Granted you had to have balls the size of a van to be in the private sector that they were in. Dj's sister was worried when the both of them went dark and when Duke resurfaced without Dj she went from being worried to full on panick attack. Duke couldn't really blame her, he was her damn twin brother and the only one left of their family. Duke looked at Dj's bloody face and prayed that he would make it, but he was also worried that if he did make it he would have so many mental scars that he would have to deal with. That it would be like they never rescued him.

"Will he make it!" Duke shouted to the medics and one turned towards him,

"We have him stable! But he will have to have surgery as soon as we get to the bases hospital, he collapsed one of his lungs when the bullet went into his chest! And the wounds that he sustained will have to be cleaned and stitched up! the worst wounds are the lung, the gash on the front and back of his head! If we dont get the gash on the back of his head cleaned and stitched up it'll lead to infection and that might kill him despite all the work we've done to save him! Is Kerria on base?!" The medic shouted to Duke

"Yes, she is!"

"You will have to keep her from seeing him in this state! All it will do is worry her more and give her nightmares! We're at the base now! When we land go find her and keep her away! Are you injured sir?!"

"Nothing that I can't patch up myself! Keep focused on Kane!"

"Yes sir!" The medic shouted as they landed and they rushed Dj out and into the hospital, Duke ran to find Kerria before she could find the medics and follow them. He spotted her just as she left the bases door and he ran to intercept her before she could see anymore Dj's injuries

"Kerria, lets go this way"

"I want to see Dj"

"No, no you don't love, he's in bad shape, they will come and get us when they can." Duke steered her the other way. And led her to the lounge where she could wait to hear the news on her brother. Duke leaned down towards Kerria, as they walked away she looked back only to see her twins dirty arm hanging off the gurney with blood running down his forearm and off his fingers. Tears sprang and filled her eyes and she turned back around and leaned on Duke.

"I thought that you didn't want the military to know that you two are siblings?"

"I think that they figured it out already Duke....... was it bad when you found him?"

"It wasn't good, my dear" Duke said as he looked out the window, he wished that he had found Dj sooner. Maybe he could have spared him some the pain that he saw in Dj's eyes, maybe he wouldn't have tried to kill himself. Kerria touched Dukes arm and brought him out his thoughts.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up, you found him and brought him home to us."

"Did I? Or did I leave a piece of him in the damn cave? I don't know if he'll be the same Dj that we knew when he wakes up," Duke said as put his head in his hands.

I'm going to need therapy.