The Genesis Plague - Michael Byrnes [100]
The truck accelerated.
‘He’s going for it,’ Meat said.
‘Pull ahead and drop down on the other side,’ Jason said.
Meat pushed forward on the cyclic and eased down on the collective. The Blackhawk swooped low over the truck on a direct path for the bridge.
Below the bridge, Jason suddenly noticed activity - Arab men scurrying out from under the trusses … with weapons. Jason screamed, ‘Pull up!’
Through his night-vision lenses, Meat saw an RPG tube aimed directly at him. ‘Oh fuck,’ he gasped. He pulled the cyclic hard to the left. At close range, the chopper was hopelessly caught in the gunner’s sight. In anticipation of being hit, he decreased altitude.
The grenade launched in under a second, and the gunner - whether by luck or design - anticipated the chopper’s movement.
The mortar struck high behind the cabin with the mast and rotors taking the brunt of the explosion. Hot metal shot through the cabin.
The Blackhawk listed hard to the left and through the cracked windshield Jason saw the moonlit horizon tilt like a seesaw. Then the chopper’s nose dropped precipitously and the ground came into view - not even ten metres below.
The ensuing freefall happened so fast, Jason had no time to brace for impact. In an instant, there came a deafening crunch of metal and shattering glass. Jason’s head whipped forward. For a good ten seconds, his eyes saw nothing but white.
The chopper had come to a standstill at a thirty-degree forward pitch so that the harness dug into his ribs. Knifing pain radiated across his chest. A warm, wet sensation came over his feet and legs, which he immediately assumed to be his own blood. When his vision finally came into focus, however, Jason was surprised to see that he was actually submerged in water up to his shins.
The chopper’s entire front end had crumpled into a wall of gritty earth.
Over his right shoulder he saw the glowing moon. The landscape he could see was cleaved by a wide irrigation canal - reduced to a stream, thanks to Iraq’s recurring drought - with steep embankments that snaked through the fields covering the plain. The water flowing through the canal churned around the downed Blackhawk.
‘Fuck,’ Meat groaned, rubbing his neck. ‘Are we dead yet?’
‘We will be if we don’t keep moving,’ Jason said. He tried to think how far the chopper had flown from the bridge. ‘They’re going to come for us.’ He unclipped his helmet and tossed it into the shallow pool that covered the floor, worked the harness buckles next.
Meat did the same.
‘Camel?’ Jason called out. ‘Jam? You guys okay?’
No answer.
Jason slid off his seat and peered into the rear to check on them. What he saw was horrifying. Both men were hanging limply from their harnesses. Camel’s helmet had been blown clear off, along with half his skull. A foot-long metal rod speared through the top of Jam’s helmet and out through his face. Behind them, the fuselage had been punched open by the obliterated transmission.
Feeling his knees starting to wobble, Jason fought to remain focused, called upon his training to override the threatening emotional storm. You won’t survive unless you keep it together. He closed his eyes for a moment and cycled a deep breath.
‘Jesus, Google,’ Meat said, distraught. He gestured the sign of the cross. ‘This is fucking awful. How could this happen?’
Overwhelmed, Jason didn’t have an answer for him.
The distant sound of a roaring truck engine echoed through the canal, gaining in intensity.
‘Now what?’ Meat said.
Jason reached around his seat and grabbed the M-16s stowed there. He tossed one to Meat.
‘Now we make them pay for this.’
57
Jason and Meat climbed the embankment and low-crawled into a dense barley field that bordered the canal. Fifteen seconds later a lone pickup truck made a slow approach through the canal, heading straight for the bright flames shooting up from the fallen Blackhawk.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ Meat whispered, craning his head up and peeking out through the wispy stalks. ‘These guys look like kids.’
Scanning the enemy, Jason counted five men - the