Chapter: Where the Devil Roams

They took a right, heading out of Gangster Alley, where a lot of the local gangs had claimed territory, turning it into a war zone.

The Benz surged ahead and rushed through the gangland, not following the trucks.

“Fuck!” Rossy yelled accidentally on the live channel. “Bronco, Two Three, This is Bronco One, loop around and come get us. We’ll follow Silver Dragon,” Rossy hissed.

“Dillon, make sure that gun is live!” Erik’s adrenaline spiked as Bronco Three picked up speed not caring for how rough it got.

“I said that it should be one of us driving,” Rugrat said in the backseat as they bounced up and down, the suspension creaking and complaining.

They raced through the streets. People jumped out of the way of the modified trucks, leaving a trail of dust behind them.

There was a dull noise. Erik’s head snapped to the side with the noise. He looked to Honcho and Rugrat in the truck.

“Sounds like a fucking IED!” Dillon yelled from above. The electric motor of the turret moved as Dillon looked out over the shanty town. “I see smoke!”

“Contact! Silver Dragon and Bronco One have been hit, Silver Dragon took most of the blast, we need immediate assistance!” The sound of gunfire could be heard in the distance and over the radio.

“We’ve got incoming small arms fire!”

“Rugrat, get onto higher, and get some of those QRF helo boys on standby ready to move,” Erik yelled.

“On it, boss!” Rugrat confirmed.

“All call signs, this is Bronco Three, Bronco Two and Three will move to Bronco one’s position. Our aim is not to secure the area but to pull out as fast as possible. Hellfire One will be moving in support, Understood?”

“Bronco Three this is one, Understood!”

“Broncos Three this is two, understood!”

“Paste anything that shoots at us,” Erik reminded everyone.

The trucks turned onto a big road as people were running about.

“West, I got some fuckers running around with guns!” Dillion yelled.

“Don’t shot them until they give it a try!” Erik said, seeing them through his busted ass window.

“Hey fuckers! Over here! Come on, let me fucking shoot you!” Dillion yelled.

Honcho leaned on the horn as the group turned around, one with a machine gun tried firing from the hip.

Dillion’s reply was much louder as he fired up his machine guns a line of tracers leaving messy stains on the wall behind and no more bad guys running around.

They rushed past, the two gunners looking out for anything that might be a threat.

Rugrat was talking into his radio as they went over a small rise. Erik grunted as his head hit the roof of the truck. Rugrat’s hand was on Dillon’s belt, making sure that he wouldn’t go flying out of the turret.

Truck one turned and went down a slim road.

“Contact!” Bronco Two called out. The heavy machine gun let out its deep bassy thuds as a rocket-propelled grenade hit a house, turning it into flying rubble as it exploded.

“Fuck me!” Dillon yelled. The turret moved as he tracked onto target. Tracers made short work of the thrown-together building, punching holes through it with ease.

The trucks continued at their best speed, not slowing down as they fought on.

Rugrat clapped Erik on the shoulder, leaning forward so he was right next to Erik’s ear. “Callsign Hellfire are spinning up, need fifteen!”

Erik tapped Rugrat’s hand, confirming he’d heard him as they veered off their route. The shanty town was coming alive, people running away as the gangs rushed in.

Fuck. They finally turned onto the street that Bronco One and Silver Dragon were on.

Bronco One’s front end was fucked while Silver Dragon was burning away, half torn apart by the explosive that had gone off.

Whatever had been used to make the IED was powerful to the point of reckless. The houses within fifty meters were shrapnel. Bodies lay here and there. People cried out in pain. Their pain was only quieter than the sounds of weapons fire.

The heavy weapons picked up their pace.

“Bronco Two cover us, Bronco Three will move to assit, we’re going to hook up tow ropes and pull it the fuck out of here, how copy over!” Erik said.

“Bronco Three this is two, will move to cover and support as you hook up to Bronco One! Out!”

Erik clapped Honcho on the shoulder.

“Get me nice and close to them, Rugrat get that tow hooked up!”

“Got it!” Honcho said. Rugrat moved around in his seat, hand on the door as rounds sparked off of the truck, Dillion firing back at where the muszzle flashes and whizzes came from.

“Coming up on it!” Honcho yelled, he slammed on his brakes, Erik had to use the grab bar to stop going forward as he pushed the door open and jumped out of the truck, he slammed the door shut and slammed on the door as he rushed for Bronco One.

Rugrat opened the back of Bronco Three and hauled out massive tow ropes, draggin them over to the truck.

Denners was up in the turret on Bronco one, firing and keeping the surrounding attackers’ heads down.

He was the one that had called in the contact report.

He had balls of fucking steel as Erik looked in on the rest of the crew, the driver, Keller was slumed forwards, blood covering him and the wheel.

Erik checked his pulse finding nothing he moved to the back of the truck.

Yoreck was banged up pretty bad.

“Yoreck, stop moving around you fuck!” Erik yelled.

“Doc, Doc that you? Fuck man it hurts!” Yoreck said, in clear pain.

Erik grabbed his collar looking in his eyes.

“Get your fucking shit together, you’re fine alright!” Erik used his command voice.

“Yah, got it!” Yoreck said something switching in his brain as he did his best to stay out of Erik’s way.

Erik checked him, he had cuts here and there his left arm was fucked up and he had a scalp bleed.

“Your chest hurt?” Erik asked, pushing on it.

Yoreck let out a scream making Erik wince.

“Sorry dude, Erik said, he wasn’t too bad, but he wasn’t in a good way, he didn’t know what was going on inside Yoreck but he didn’t like it.

“Stay here alright,” Erik said, looking at Yoreck.

“Got it, got it, sorry man,” Yoreck said.

“You’re all good don’t worry about it,” Erik rushed over to Rossy who was riding shotgun.

Rossy was slumped in his seat, his face pale as his legs were covered in mangled metal.

“Fuck,” Erik spat, he tore off his bag and started to pull out tourniquets, he wrapped them around Rossy’s leg knowing that they would need to be amputated anyway.

He started treating Rossy as best as he could, setting up an Ive and trying to get some more liquids into him.

“Hellfire Hell fire, this is Bronco Three, how copy?”

“Bronco three this is hellfire one, you are reading loud and clear over,”

“Hellfire, I have one Pri-Alpha, One Pri-Charlie and one Pri-Foxtrot, understood over,” Erik said, rounds pinged off of the side of the truck as he pushed in closer to Rossy.

He put the bag of saline up in the truck as he grabbed his rifle.

“Bronco Three this is Hellfire One, One Pri Alpha, One Pri Charlie one Pri Foxtrot, over,”

Erik brought his rifle u;p and fired on where the rounds hitting near him was coming from.

Denners rotated his gun over and fired on the postion, following Erik’s tracer’s in.

“Hellfire that is correct! What’s your ETA over” Erik said, lowering his rifle and working on Rossy again.

“Bronco Three our ETA is ten minutes over,”

“Understood, Bronco Three out.”

“Rugrat how them ropes going?” Erik yelled over the truck.

“First one’s on, hooking up the second!” Rugrat yelled back.

“Rossy, dude I need you man, come on talk to me,” Erik said as he did a more thorough check of Rossy, finding blood pumping out form his upper thigh.

Erik pulled out another tourniquet and strapped it around Rossy’s upper thigh tightening it as much as possible while squeezing on the bag of saline.

Rossy’s body slumped as Erik’s fingers moved for Rossy’s neck, not finding a pulse.

He pulled out a field resuscitator, ripping off the different pads and putting it on Rossy.

“Please stand back!” The machine said, Erik hit the accept button as Rosy’s boddy was shocked, making him jump.

“No pulse detected,” The machine’s voice yelled out as it tried to shock Rossy once again.

“No pulse detected,” the machine mercilessly declared.

Erik grabbed his rifle and fired on thje attackers around them, hoping to get Rugrat more cover.

“We’re hooked up!” Rugrat yelled.

Erik was about to reply when he heard a buzzing noise.

He looked around before seeing a drone rushing towards him with an IED strapped onto it. Erik fired at the drone, trying to take it out, it swerved one of it’s motors or something was hit as it skidded across the ground.

“No pulse detected.

The explosive on the Drone went off as Erik was tossed backward, he screamed out as his legs and arm were shredded.

He tried to move his left arm and found that it wouldn’t respond to him properly as it was becoming harder to move and he was quickly turning cold.

“Fuck!” Erik yelled out.

“Honcho we’re all hooked up, drive forwards!” Rugrat yelled.

“Rugrat!” Erik yelled out fear starting to take over as he forced himself to breathe and moved to grab tourniquest for his legs.

“West!” Rugrat yelled.

“Over here!” Erik tried to yell but his voice cracked and it was hard for him to do anything that didn’t elicit pain.

He was putting on his first tourniquet trying to get it tighter and tighter.

Rugrat came into view, he checked the area, firing on a few of the positions around the truck.

Honcho revved the engine on Bronco three, pulling the tow lines tight.

“No pulse detected,” the resuscitation machine zapped Rossy again.

“Pulse detected!”

Rugrat quickly grabbed Erik’s vest.

Erik could swear that he saw a blue circle above him and Rugrat a blue flame appeared in the sky above them, splitting into two and shooting into Erik and Rugrat.

Rugrat didn’t seem to even notice as he pulled Erik back to Bronco three. Erik screamed with the pain of his broken limbs dragging against the ground.

“No pulse detected, attempting to resuscitate,” The machine attached to Rossy continued as Rugrat pulled Erik into Bronco Three.

“Get us the fuck out of here Honcho!” Rugrat yelled as he pulled out gear from the back of the truck and started to patch Erik up.

Honcho fired up the truck, rocking Bronco One before hauling it forward. The tires rubbed on the ground as Bronco one was pulled out of the blast zone. Bronco Three strained against the extra weight but continued to pull Bronco one out of the crater it was in. The trucks moved as fast as possible, firing on the buildings to either side as they moved around the corners getting out of gangster alley.

“Bronco Three this is Hellfire one, we are three minutes from your location over,” Erik was feeling out of it from the pain as Rugrat stuck him with morphine and got on the radio reporting the situation, moving Rossy from a Pri-Alpha to a Pri-Foxtrot.

Erik didn’t remember much as they drove through the streets, the stop off in a park as they loaded him up on one of the Hellfire helos and he shot off towards the hospital.

It was just a flash of memories as he didn’t want to or try to take everything that was going on, in.