Brothers

Chapter 12

The only thing I could hear was ringing. No dogs barking, not guns being fired nor the shouting of men.

It took a minute before the ringing stopped and the noise of everything slowly came back.

As I slowly opened my eyes, the bright explosion erupted again making me quickly shut my eyes. After the bright light fades away, I opened my eyes once again and took in my surroundings.

The rooftop of the buildings were caved in from the quake of the ground that the bombs made.

Another bomb erupted, lighting up the night sky as dirt fell on my face like rain.

I looked to my left to see a body ten yards away. It was laying motionless next to the wall, besides her was a dog, laying down but was nudging, encouraging, her to get up.

Mariah.

"Mariah!" I hollered at her. I couldn't see her face so I hope nothing hit her head.

"Mariah!" I yelled louder as another bomb fell raining more debris on us. I rolled onto my stomach and crawled to her, staying low to the ground. 

When I got about ten feet from her, Dante picked his head up and started to growl. A warning, to stay away, but as I looked closer, there was blood coming from his right shoulder. He wouldn't get very far, but his size and teeth can still kill or seriously wound you.

"Easy boy. It's just me." I said gently, slowly crawling towards them.

His growling died down until it stopped completely.

He's loyal, that's for sure. I thought.

When I got to them, a sigh of relief escaped my lips.

She had blood trickling down her temple and into her hair. She had a three inch cut going across her forehead. Apart from the cut on her forehead she seemed fine, just unconscious, but sometimes, there's more than to what meets the eye.

Still laying on my stomach, I crawled towards her head. Gently lifting her head with my one hand, I took the other and started to feel for anything. 

She moaned when my hand slid over a large bump that was on the back of her head.

"Sh. It's going to be okay." I whispered gently, my hand running along her head for more injuries.

I just hope that she doesn't have a concussion.

Another bomb fell and more shots rang out.

I cursed under my breath.

We have to get out of here.

I looked around only to see buildings on fire as more collapsed to a pile of stone. I couldn't see anyone running around.

They must be I the center of the city. I thought, turning my attention back to the fallen soldier, who was trying to come back into the state of conscious.

"Come on, Mariah." I encouraged. "We have to move and find somewhere safe to be."

She moaned again and squeezed her eyes shut before trying to open them.

"John?" she mumbled, squeezing her eyes shut again. She brought her hand to her face only to quickly retract it to find blood on her fingers.

"Come on. We have to go." I said urgently. "What is the safest place you know that we can go to?"

"Um. The prison. Underground." she got out. 

"Where we put Mendoza and Ali?"

She nodded.

"Doesn't Jones know where that is?" I asked, looking over my shoulder.

"No." she shook her head. "The Sergeant didn't want him to know for some reason. He only showed me and my squad."

"Okay." I said, sounding suspicious of why the Sergeant wouldn't trust the Lieutenant. "Let's go. Can you walk?" I looked at her as she turned her head to look at me.

"I think so." she mumbled, trying to sit up.

"Okay. Try to keep it easy. I don't know where anybody is." I went to kneel beside her to help her.

She cursed under her breath which makes me snap my head towards her.

"What? What is it?" I asked only to find her looking at Dante, who was standing next to her with his leg lifted a couple inches from the ground. Blood was streaming down his leg and was dripping rapidly to the ground, pooling around him. 

"We have to bandage him up before he bleeds to death." she said, quickly taking her backpack.

"We can do that when we get to the prison." I said urgently, trying to get her to stand up, but stopped when she gave me a harsh glare.

"No. By the time we get there, he'll die." she said harshly, digging through her bag for bandages. "Besides, if we don't wrap him up, then he'll leave a blood trail that will lead Jones right to the prison." she looked at me. "So I'm going to wrap his leg up as best as I can until we get underground and while I'm doing this, you can watch and make sure that no one will come near us."

"Okay. But hurry. You can correct the bandage  once we get there." I said, standing. I heard her unwrap the bandage as she tells Dante to lay down.

My eyes dart around the perimeter until they fell on my rifle about twenty yards away.

I kneeled down so I didn't have to raise my voice, not taking my eyes off the gun.

"I'm going to get my rifle. Watch my back." I see her nod out of the corner of my eye.

"Be careful."

I nodded and looked around before dropping to my stomach.

As I crawled to my gun, I stopped every couple of yards to look around to see if anyone was there.

Lucky for me, I reached the rifle without any interruptions.

Instead of crawling back to Mariah, I went to a crouch and ran back with my head low.

"Are we ready to go?" I asked, looking around as more shots rang out.

"Yeah." she said, shoving the remaining bandages in the bag and zipping it up. "Help me up."

I went down to one knee to wrap my arm around her lower back as she drapes her arm around my neck to help hoist her up.

"Can you walk?" I asked, once she got to her feet.

She shook her head.

"No. I think I landed on my leg wrong." she said, putting some weight on her left leg, only to spring it back up with a wince. "I can walk on it, but we have to go slow."

I shook my head.

"We don't have time, and by the sound of the shouting's, we have to go through the city to get to the prison." I looked at her. "Can you shoot?"

"Of course." she reached down to her leg to grab the pistol that rested peacefully in its holster.

"Will Dante be okay?" I asked, looking down at the dog, who stood besides Mariah, holding his leg up. The blood seeping through the bandage.

"He will once we get underground."

"I hope you're right." I murmured. "Let's go."