Lance Corporal Kim starts to pull the limp Rabid off me and I quickly push the thing off at the same time. I’m both desperate to get to Dan and yet dreading it. As soon as the weight of the dead Rabid is off me, I scramble on my hands and knees over to Dan who is still on his back where he fell, his arms and legs twitching. I try to take that as a good sign, at least he is still alive, I kid myself.
As soon as I am on my knees over him, I see the damage the fucking evil creature has done to him. His eyes are wide open and desperate, full of fear as he fights to draw breath through his lacerated neck which is pumping out blood. Frantically, I rip open one of my Velcro pockets on my body armour, pull out a field dressing, quickly apply it to the wound and put pressure on.
“Buck, emergency medevac,” I shout into my radio, as shock hits me, making my head spin.
“Delay that order, Wing Commander,” I hear someone say above me and look up to see who the fuck has the balls to try and override my order.
“Who said that?” I bawl at the three men standing around me and Dan.
“I’m sorry, Sir,” Sergeant Dixon says, “we can’t take him with us.”
“I’ll be the judge of that, Sergeant; he is still alive!”
“No Sir, I’m sorry he isn’t; he is infected, and we can’t risk him turning on the helicopter and even if he didn’t, they wouldn’t let us land with him back at base,” Dixon tells me. “We have the contents of the safe and that is the priority, we need to go, now.”
My head turns back to my friend and I stare at him for a moment, seeing his fight to draw breath has slowed and his eyes flicker as if they want to shut, but he is too scared to let them. I know deep down that Dixon is right, Dan is beyond saving, yet I still try to think of a way to, even as he fades before my very eyes. In the end, all I can do is be with him for his final moments and I take his hand in mine, trying to give him some small amount of comfort. Fleetingly, I feel Dan’s hand lightly squeeze mine before it goes horribly limp and then as more lightning flashes overhead, his eyes stop flickering and his pupils dilate. My head drops and sadness fills me as I know he has gone, the loss hard to take in.
Gunfire erupts above me from the Browning; one of the men has taken up Dan’s position of defending the stairwell.
“Captain, we have to get out of here,” Dixon says.
Reluctantly, succumbing to the inevitable, I release Dan’s hand, which drops to his side as I push up off the soaking roof to stand. I pause, looking down at him knowing I have a ghastly decision to make; do I make sure Dan doesn’t turn into one of these heinous creatures and put a bullet in his head or do I leave him here on the roof? Is there any chance that a cure will be found to turn the dead back to life, and is Corporal Simms carrying the answer on his back in the holdall containing the contents of Sir Malcolm’s safe? My gut tells me that it is near impossible and that as much as it pains me to accept, Dan is dead. Even if a cure is found, it is a long way off and I know that Dan, who loved life and lived it to the full, wouldn’t forgive me if I left him here on this godforsaken roof to turn into pure evil. My hand is already on my Glock as if it is telling me what I have to do, and I pull the pistol out.
“Do you want me to do it?” Dixon asks from beside me.
“No,” I tell him after a pause, “I’ll do it for him.”
Dixon raises his rifle and moves off, joining Simms and Kim, leaving me alone with Dan. His dead eyes still stare up to me and at the sky beyond. I bend down, pushing them closed, and then move around so I am standing behind his head. I raise the pistol, aiming at the top of his head.
“Rest easy mate,” I tell Dan and I fire a single bullet.
Chapter 16
Turning to leave my friend where he lies, the loss weighs heavily on me, as Dan is the second real friend I’ve lost in action and I still haven’t got over the first, Rick, and that was years ago. I feel bile trying to rise up in my stomach as nausea and grief threaten to take hold of me, I have to force them back and get my head back on point. Josh is flying above me and Emily and Catherine are waiting for us to return, I’ve got to focus on them for now; there will be time to grieve later. The mission is eighty percent complete but losing concentration and taking your eye off the ball for the last twenty percent, when you think you’re in the home run, is a fatal error to make. This mission isn’t over yet.
“Alders, receiving, over,” I say into my radio.
“Receiving,” he responds from above.
“Make your approach, let's get out of here, over,” I order.
“Inbound, over and out.”
Immediately, Alders breaks from his position and the Lynx starts to manoeuvre down towards the Helipad.
“Josh, receiving, over.”
“Receiving.”
“Keep covering that stairwell; the helicopter landing is going to rile them up so be ready and hold the position until it takes off and can
