Inhale The Fire • Reg Slivko

•Chapter Two•

•Bishop's POV•

Once I woke up, which was around lunch time I showered and changed clothes.
There's a shower on this old ship. Shocking I know.

I had on black tall boots, skinny jeans with rips above the knees, a green V-neck and a black and white flannel. I let my hair air dry which sent it to its naturally curly state and pinned the top half back. Just so I'd sweat a little less.

I grabbed my black backpack and shoved my sketch pad for rough drafting the animals I see, my journal for descriptions and daily logs, and a picture of my dad and I inside the pack and zipped it up.
Once I was done I left the room and headed towards the top deck where I heard music playing.

When I got there I saw most of the soldiers dancing and smiled. I walked over to Mason and watched as she took pictures of the shirtless boys flexing. Once she noticed me she turned the camera to me and snapped a shot.

I put my hands up to my face. "No flash photography please." I laughed. I felt hands take my forearms and pull them away from my face. I saw Reg's smiling face and before I knew it he was dragging me towards the other boys where he twirled me around and around while I laughed.

I could hear the clicks of a camera, the spinning of a radio, the laughing of the soldiers and Reg singing along loudly.

•

I put my backpack on both of my shoulders and clicked it across my chest just in case I dropped it during flight.

I saw which helicopter Mason was headed towards and went to the same one. Conrad made room for mason and I sat across from them and Reg and I smiled to each other. He nodded to me and I nodded back.
Let's do this.

Soon the helicopter lifted off of the ground and shook as it did. I gasped and raised one hand to the ceiling to hold on and the other to the side of the chair I sat in. I looked across from me and saw Mason and James giving me a look and I nodded and smiled to let them know I was good.

Once we were in the air and stable I looked below to the see the water that seemed to be still. Probably because of how fast we were moving.
All of the helicopters got into position and we entered the storm.
The copter started shaking and the thunder and lightening rolled.

I shut my eyes tightly and held on as tight as I could and soon we were fine.
The helicopter was sturdy and the sun shown in front of us.
I let out a laugh of disbelief and made eye contact with Reg, who smiled back.

I share smiles with Mason and Conrad as we all take in the beautiful view. There were mountains and plains and a beautiful sun shining over all of it.

Next thing I know, there's a loud boom. I look between mason and James and see a red and orange cloud. It's the seismic charges. The bombs.

One after another they hit the ground below us and explode, creating a loud booming noise and a mushroom cloud.

Then there was another loud boom but it was different from the others.
"Oh shit!" I look towards the front and see a giant shape forming in front of the sun.

"Is that a monkey?" I heard someone ask.
"No. That's an ape. A very very big ape. A prehistoric hominoidea." I shouted over the sound of the helicopter.

That's when the other helicopters started firing at it. Which was a bad idea.
This obviously made the ape angry and it started taking down more copters.

"Hang on!"
"Look out!"
Then a soldier came flying at us and smacked into the front glass. He got sucked into the top of the helicopter and we started malfunctioning.

"Prepare to crash!"

The copter shook violently as I held onto the ceiling as best I could. We were headed towards the ground with speed, buttons were flashing red, buzzers and alarms were going off then everything went black.

•

"Bishop. Bishop!"
"Her head is bleeding. She must've hit her head during the crash."
"She's waking up!"

"Bishop hey, Bishop." A hand was patting my cheek lightly. I opened my eyes fully to see a familiar pair of brown eyes.

"Reg?" I asked and immediately felt a huge pain on my left temple. I groaned and raised my hand only to groan again and pull back my hand to see blood.

My eyes went wide. "Reg!"
"I know it's okay. We can clean you up alright?" I nodded as Reg helped me to stand up only for me to stumble.

"Holy shit I'm really dizzy."
"She may have a concussion." Mason spoke up as she came to support me.

"I need to get into contact with the others and see if they're okay." Reg grabbed the radio from the copter. "Calling all units. Is anybody airborne? I repeat, is anybody airborne?"

"They're all down. Everyone." Conrad says as he walks towards us.
"We are on the south side of the island. If she has a concussion then she needs a water source. Luckily there's one a couple of klicks from here. If we stick to it's banks, we'll make it to the EXFIL site on the north shore." He told us.

"And then what? All our choppers are down." Nieves spoke.
"We'll find a way to signal the ship. They'll send a search party. We just have to make it by the exit window."
"I should be sitting at a desk."

"This means I get to punch Randa." I spoke, mostly to myself.
Holy shit. My picture!
I raced to unlock my bag from across my chest and started digging inside to find that the small frame that held the picture of my and I was cracked but not broken. I smiled in relief and held the picture close to me before putting it back up.

"Are we just not gonna talk about this?" Reg shouted to all of us.

James made his way to Mason and I. "My guess is we're scattered over a 4 to 5 mile radius. We must head north and join anyone we find. Are you two Alright?"

"I don't know how to answer that question right now." Mason said.
"I don't know what that was either.
"All that money they paid you? I hope you're worth it." Mason walked away and Conrad looked to me.

I shrugged. "Get me to some water so I can be a little less dizzy and I'll be just peachy."

"We're really not gonna talk about this? You know this is not normal right? Stuff like this doesn't just happen!" Reg was going insane.

I sighed before I dizzily made my way over to him and placed my hands on his shoulders.
"Reg. I need you to breathe and follow the group alright?"
He tried to speak but I stopped him.
"We're going to get some water and then we'll find something a little bit more relaxing to talk about okay?"
He sighed and nodded.
"Okay great! Let's go before I pass out."