The Hunt

Chapter 46: Hanna

My sneakers scrape on the pavement as I sprint across the lot. Bullets hit the ground where my feet were milliseconds ago, and I can hear Javaar screaming at the top of his lungs for me to run.

I dive behind a tank and press my body against the cold metal, sucking in the night air and pulling out a small knife from my pocket.

The gate is two more vehicles away. I peek out from behind the tank, and see Javaar firing like a madman from behind an SUV, trying to hold back the soldiers.

I grip the stone in my pocket with my left hand, and then push off from the tank to dart to the next car. When I scramble behind the final truck, I'm right next to the chain link gate.

The metal rattles as I begin cutting at it rapidly. Gunshots and the flashing red of the alarm urge me to work even faster.

I risk a glance back and see Javaar as he makes eye contact with me. He waves a signal I don't understand, but suddenly, he's abandoning his post and careening towards me, still shooting.

I kick and rip at the gashes I've made in the fence and finally get a decent sized opening, right as Javaar hits the chains.

"Go!" he screams, his eyes dancing with fire beneath the sweat and blood on his face.

I crawl through the hole and Javaar follows, only after he's shot a few more soldiers down.

My muscles are screaming. My face presses on the grass and the dirt, and I can't seem to get up. Why can't I get up?

Javaar tears me from the earthy ground and we're running again, across a field now. I can see the highway that leads away from the military section of Surga, towards the actual city. The sky has opened up stars and city lights in the distance, and a huge moon that gleams down on us as we hurtle onward. Bullets rip at the weeds and unearth dirt.

The grass starts to quiver and then sway, and above us a helicopter is hovering. What is happening?! I crouch in the tall grasses as wind flattens my hoodie to my body. The chopper is veering and bobbing in the air, and now I'm doubting the pilot's credibility.

Javaar grabs my wrist and scurries towards the legs of the helicopter. I hold onto the side of the opening and heave myself inside. All of a sudden the whole chopper is lifting back up. Javaar jumps and barely clamps his hands around mine, and I struggle to hoist him up while the helicopter rocks.

Collapsing and leaning back against the steel shell of the military chopper, Javaar and I catch our breath.

"Where did you find this guy again?" I gesture to the old man who looks like he's having a seizure while he's flying.

"His name is Bill. Ex-airforce pilot, institutionalized when his schizophrenia got too severe. He was the only pilot I could get that was crazy enough to steal a military chopper and help an exile escape. I mean sure he's half deaf and it looks like his heart is gonna give out any minute, but it doesn't mean he isn't a good pilot."

I stare at Javaar with wide eyes, "Are you kidding me?!"

"I'm absolutely certain at least one of Bill's personalities can get us out of here."

I hit Javaar on the shoulder and he cries out.

"You think this is funny?! I almost died out there! You just killed dozens of Surga's bravest soldiers!"

"Bravest soldiers?! Do you know what those soldiers do to people like me? To my people? I doubt you'd still be calling them brave if you saw what happens outside of your little kiddy-squad."

Before Javaar can continue, Bill is swerving the helicopter downwards. The sharp decline tilts us towards the opening, and I cling to the side desperately. Below us is the wall, and on one side are the large concrete buildings I grew up in. On the other is the dark canopy of the forest.

As we get closer to the ground, Javaar reloads his AK and starts firing at soldiers by the wall. The side of the chopper deflects oncoming bullets with a ping! and I brace for landing.

In the bare no-man's land right outside of the boundary, guards are lined up aiming for the treeline. Javaar salutes Bill and then hurtles himself off the helicopter onto the dirt ground. I grip the stone in my pocket and follow.

With a thud, we're scrambling on the ground and running for the forest. The chopper is shielding us from the soldier's bullets, but now Bill is flying away. Javaar twists around and sprays bullets as he runs, but I haven't even touched my gun.

Suddenly, Javaar is diving behind the cover of tree trunks, and I roll into the bushes.

We're out of range now, and I can start to see soldiers on the other side of the no-man's land giving up.

Javaar looks over to me with his cat-like eyes, and grins widely. Adrenaline is still pumping through my veins, and the horror of what I just did is still gripping my mind. But for a brief moment, I forget all of that, and triumph like I've never felt rises up inside of me. Rebellious triumph. Criminal, juvenile triumph.

He starts to giggle, and then I'm laughing with him. It's an exhausted, slightly terrified laugh, but a laugh all the same.

"We did it!" he exclaims.

When he gets no response from me, he jumps up and spreads his arms.

"We did it!"

He lets out a howl into the night, a victorious scream to match his fiery eyes. He turns to the line of soldiers and flips them off, howling with laughter.

Looking at the towering wall, the enormity of what I just did hits me.

"What have I gotten myself into," I lean my head against a tree.

The forest ahead of me looks ominous as ever, but this time, I have no gun, no team, no MBT. Every time I've gone into these woods, nothing good has happened. Either people get killed or missions go awry, and this place haunts me in my nightmares. I can practically smell the death in this forest. But now I've thrown myself out into it with no thought as to how I'm getting back, and everything that's safe and comfortable is behind me. I have no home to go back to. It's just me and the crazy psycho kid that's howling at the moon.

He turns to me and grins even wider, looking around at the trees and the darkness.

"Home sweet home!"