ESO SOLDADO

Part Two - DAY OF DAYS

Rene takes a deep breath, picking at his fingers until he freezes as his body throbs, a familiar feeling to him, indicating he picked at his skin too much. He glances down, noting a small amount of blood dripping down his index finger. He brings his finger to his mouth, sucking on it lightly to get it to stop bleeding. As he takes his finger out of his mouth, he decides to stop picking his fingers and grabs his clicker from his pocket. He chews on the inside of his cheek as he begins clicking the clicker while looking around at the others. He closes his eyes after looking around taking deep breaths, hoping to calm his spiking nerves.

Rene opens his eyes after a couple of minutes when he hears a distant explosion, chills rushing down his spine. He looks over at Charlie, who's already looking at him with a nervous look. Rene gives him a small smile with a reassuring nod, hoping to help calm him down. Rene looks back down at his lap, putting his clicker away, beginning to tap his fingers on his leg, his boot tapping repeatedly against the metal of the plane as he hears more explosions getting louder and louder.

The plane shakes as an explosion goes off next to it. Rene's head snaps up, turning to look at Welsh who gives him a reassuring nod. Rene takes a deep breath as he sees the red light turn on, causing Welsh to stand up, hooking himself up to the line. He turns to the men, calling out, "get ready!" Rene grabs his clip, holding it, while he moves, sitting forward in his seat. "Stand up!" Rene stands up, "hook up!" He moves his hand up, clipping himself to the wire in the middle of the plane. "Equipment check!" Rene moves, checking Welsh to make sure he's good to go. As Rene lets his hands fall to his side, he takes a deep breath, just like practice. I've done this a hundred times, what's one more. Rene looks up at Welsh, the two keeping eye contact, as Welsh yells out again, "sound off for equipment check!"

"Ten okay!"

"Nine okay!"

"Eight okay!"

"Seven okay!"

"Six okay!"

"Five okay!"

"Four okay!"

"Three okay!" Rene feels Charlie pat his arm.

Rene looks up at Welsh, the two holding intense eye contact as Rene yells out, "two okay!"

Welsh nods, before calling out, "one okay!"

The plane shakes again, causing Rene to fall over, his weight causing him to not have good balance. Charlie brings an arm out to help steady him and help him stand back up. Rene gulps as he holds his arms up, hoping to steady himself from the shaking. Rene looks out the door, seeing a plane get hit and begin to fall as it catches on fire. He blinks a couple of times, his vision blurring as his breathing picks up. The light turns green, causing Rene's eyes to snap to it and he shakes his head, snapping himself out of his panic. Welsh moves to the door, yelling out over his shoulder, "let's go!" He jumps out of the plane without a second thought, Rene and the others following right behind him.

As Rene hits the ground, he immediately reaches down to down to unclip his parachute and as soon as it's unclipped, he reaches up, taking his helmet off and grabbing his Mae West, taking it off. Rene sets it aside, before grabbing his drop bag, keeping it on as he quickly opens it up, grabbing the receiver and the barrel out.

He glances around as he begins to quickly take the rigger's tape off, his hands shaking as he looks around, not wanting to stick around to find out who could be hiding in the trees around him. Once he manages to get the tape off, he brings the barrel up and locks it onto the receiver and sets it on his lap as he unclips his M1 from around his torso, reattaching the strap on and sliding it onto his left shoulder.