The Tiger's Eye

The escape

Lynn's POV
      I heard Mike on the radio "King, talk to me. Are you up? What's going on?" I keyed my mic as I heard shouts in the distance, I saw a river the only concealment I'd have in time I radioed "HQ, Hold" as I slipped into the river hearing the shouts get louder as the words became distinguished "The trail leads this way!", "Find him!", and "We're getting a bonus for this!" Were some of them as I heard rustling and submerged holding my breath. I saw the mask step onto the bank above me, my eyes widened as he looked around as I slowly pulled out my knife, my lungs started to burn as the sun reflected off my knife's blade which caught the mask's attention he looked down as I burst from the water stabbing him in the stomach before stabbing him in the throat. I looked up from the corpse as I pulled out my 1911 and aimed at the bushes where I heard the movement, a mask walked out seeming shocked at the blood covered apparition in front of him, he recoiled freezing not even trying to lift his rifle as I let his friend's corpse slide off my blade.
     I pulled down my half mask with my left hand showing my sinister smile as I spoke "You should've stayed home" as I fired 4 times dropping him.
     I holstered my pistol before cleaning off my blade sheathing it before I started running again as I heard more shouts of "Over there!", "Get him!" And finally "Bring me his fucking head!" I keyed my mic "HQ, 2 masks down. I've marked my position, I'm moving now, I've got masks hot on my trail. Do I have an ISR support?" Mike replied "It's almost on station, 2 mikes out. Just last two more minutes and we can give you god's view. You're still in the game right?" I replied simply "Yes, I'm not sure I want to get extracted" Harry asked "Why not?" I replied with as much hatred as my body could muster "I want to kill them all, I want to torture and destroy them. I want to reflect the pain they've placed upon me, I want to make them a message to any terrorists that when I come for them they'll beg for the Devil cause he'll give them the mercy I will not"
Harry asked "you want to destroy the masks that badly?" I replied angrily huffing as I felt my internal temperature sky rocket with each second "I do, I want to tear them limb from limb. I'll kill them all" just as I lifted my m16 and turned as I heard barking and muttering "Fucking dogs, of course" a mask and his dog came bursting through the shrubbery infront of me as I smiled with malicious delight, I get to tear another worthless mask from this planet. I squeezed the trigger watching my rounds impact the mask's mask shattering it and taking the left half of his face, his dog rushed forward at its new found freedom from his master's grip only for me to shift my aim and send another burst. The dog fell to the ground whining but my heart held no compassion for it, it was a mask dog and I hold no mercy for masks. I turned and disappeared into the jungle as the masks shouted directions to each other to where they thought I was, I heard Harry "You make it back to base and I'll give you all the masks you can handle, you're welcome to kill as many as you can"
      I keyed my mic "I'll be at the LZ waiting" as I started running with renewed vigor, I needed to make it out of this jungle alive so I could make the mask's know pain. I heard more movement behind me as I pulled out an frag and threw it back, my anger got the better of me as I turned and started charging down the sound of the mask group. I reloaded my 1911 and pulled my knife from its sheathe, I caught the closest mask off guard as I burst through the thick jungle landing on him stabbing him several times before we hit the ground I lifted my pistol as I threw my knife at the mask to my left and fired into the two masks on my right. The mask my knife had implanted itself in was crawling away as I stood and walked over using my foot to flip him over, his face was glowing with fear as I smiled in delight pulling out my pistol's magazine seeing it had 4 rounds left. I crouched and ripped my blade from his shoulder before lifting my pistol and putting a .45 acp round in each of his knee caps turning them to powder as I shifted my aim and fired the last two rounds into his groin.
     I heard the scream and walked into the jungle again as I sheathed my knife and reloaded before I started jogging away as I heard masks sounding horrified at the condition of the last mask. I kept running as the masks started hunting me with new fervor, I pulled a claymore from my pouch and strapped a frag to the front of it before sitting up the trigger wire and jogging away again, it wasn't much more than 15 seconds when I heard the colossal detonation and scream of pain. I didn't turn but kept running as I reached the base of the mountain, now I had to make my way up the pillar which would take 30-45 minutes, I radioed "HQ, I'm beginning my assent. I'll be at the top in 30, over" Mike replied "Affirmative, We've got you on ISR. Make it back to us kid" I replied setting up a claymore at the base of the mountain path "I'll try, I make no promises. I want to kill these bastards"
      He spoke sternly "You will, on the next mission. Don't let your anger kill you" I didn't reply as I set up more traps until I reached the top. I started setting up defenses since I knew the masks would be tracking me up the mountain, luckily I had studied the maps and knew there was only one trail up here. It's why we picked it as an LZ. I was halfway through digging a foxhole when Mike came over comms "We're counting 40 tangos amassing at the bottom of the mountain. The evac chopper is 20 minutes out" I lifted my m16 and peaked over the edge of the mountain seeing the masks below me. I loaded my HE 40mm and sent it down at the group, I watched the detonation and the group scatter as I started firing down the pillar of stone that was the mountain. They returned fire but it was difficult for them since the sun was at my back, I smiled now they knew were I was, now I could make them pay. I continued firing at any mask that dare try to cross the open ground before sliding my 203 tub forward and tilting my barrel towards the sky letting the spent shell slid out.
      I continued to fire as my claymore at the base of trail detonated, I smiled as I saw some Masks trying to crawl away after they got their senses back from my 203 strike. I aimed and sent bursts into them killing them as Mike spoke over radio "28 masks moving up the trail, chopper is 16 mikes out. You're doing great mate, keep going and stay kickin. This is piss easy, just breathe" I replied as I fell back to my foxhole "I'm gonna keep shooting until I run out of ammo, and then I'm gonna stab them until my blade goes dull. Whatever I have to do, I'll kill them all" he replied "I know but we need you alive" I leveled my M16 at the choke point they would have to come through to get up to me. I waited and waited listening to the screams of pain and the echo of claymore detonations as I pulled my sash of grenades off and put them on the ground next to my foxhole. I waited with malicious excitement, the moment a mask walked into my sight I was going to make him regret donning the uniform.
I heard Mike "The chopper is on stance in 3" I growled in anger "I'm not going to play with my toys am I?" Mike replied "I'm afraid not, they're only 3/4 of the way up. Your traps are doing a hell of a job" I sighed "Remind me never to set up traps again, I wanted to tear them apart" he replied with a chuckle "I'm afraid I can't do that mate" I rolled my eyes as the chopping of helicopter blades echoed through the valley. I stayed in my foxhole until I heard the door gunner "Sir, we need to go!" I climbed out and sat on the floor of the helicopter, watching as we pulled away from the mountain. The masks appeared on the top and set off the final claymore as they started shooting at us, I didn't shoot back instead lifting my hand and giving them the bird as the door gunner started shooting, I sat still watching tracers zip past me barely missing as I continued to flip them off until they turned to small specks and the tracer storm failed.
     As the adrenaline wore off I felt a burning pain in my flank, I looked down and saw bright red flesh from where a round skimmed my arm. I simply wrapped a torn piece of my uniform around the wound and pulled out Sarah's journal reading through it. I felt the pit in my stomach grow as I read the words "I hope he forgives me soon, I miss his childish antics. I miss his humor, I miss him" I kept reading, inside were letters to everyone. Her and Jackson got into a fight about her trying to earn my forgiveness, her mother wished her safe, she was excited for her birthday. I sighed I forgot about her birthday, I wanted to stop but kept reading, she had written about asking Manfred and Zao about me, trying to get a feel for if she was doing the right thing... they'd told her I was warming up to her again. I smiled sadly to myself, I got to the last entry 2 hours later, she had written about having a bad feeling about the mission, she talked about wanting to tell me about her feeling but figuring I'd dismiss it she kept it to herself.
      I closed my eyes and squeezed them shut as hard as I could hoping, praying it was all a bad dream and I wasn't here alone. I spoke to myself "you should've told me, you dumbass you should've made me listen. You'd still be alive if you did" I heard the crew chief next to me talking on our comms "King, can you hear me?" I looked over my eyes red from crying, my face streaked by tears and blood from cuts and scrapes "yeah.... yeah I hear you" he sighed and spoke "I'm sorry for your loss, i couldn't imagine going through what you're going through" I looked down seeing the gashes and tears in my uniform from the jungle tearing at me and the masks trying to kill me, there were bullet holes, cuts, tears, blood stains, everything. I nodding deciding not to speak, I didn't want the pain to show, I didn't want just how weak I was to show. I closed my eyes and was plagued by memories with the team, my family, I felt my heart crack with each beat until I felt nothing, I didn't feel sad, or happy, or even alive, I only felt anger and hatre, I was pissed at the world for taking the few people I cared about from me, I was pissed at the masks for killing them and I was furious with myself for not protecting them and I hated all three of us for the fact it happened. I hated the masks for their actions, I hated the world for leaving me alive and I hated myself, I promised them we'd be together when we reached the end.... now I'm alone, I have no one and that means, I have nothing to lose.