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disclaimer: this is one of the two chapters that are very similar to actual chapters in The 5th Wave. I feel like this had to be done because these next couple chapters are very important in the story as a whole. I am not trying to take Rick Yancey's work as my own.
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THE SKY WAS DARK aside from the light dusting of snow falling, littering the night with specks of white.
Our helicopter seemed to disrupt the perfectly silent world around us, its' blades cutting into the air with loud screeches.
But perhaps the even louder noise was the thrumming of my heard against my chest. Thump thump thump.
I swallowed and tightened my grip on my machine gun. Holding the gun masked the trembling of my fingers and the nerves spilling from every pore of my body.
The whole situation left a sour taste in my mouth. We were finally going to do it. We were going to fight the Others. But we weren't all going to make it...at least according to Zombie. This mission was suppose to be a symbol of hope, except all I could see was anything but that. At least Nugget wasn't around to see this.
He was safely chained to the bathroom sink back in Barracks 10. I had left the locket Ben gave me when him. I had hoped, and was still hoping, that Nugget thought of it as some kind of promise. We weren't going to die out here and leave him a lone. We would come back to him.
My eyes met Zombie's, who was sitting across the aisle from me. He gave me a small smile and a thumbs up.
Even though I was still mad at him for being an insensitive pessimistic jerk, his smile sent my stomach into somersaults.
I gave him a smile back just as the helicopter began to descend.
Ringer lifted up two fingers and I nodded.
2 minutes.
I tightened the strap on my eyepiece, securing it to make sure it didn't fall off. That was the last thing I needed to happen. That and getting shot of course.
The helicopter began to descend quickly, swarming down to the ground in a matter of seconds. Before I knew what was happening, Zombie and the rest of the squad had already taken their harnesses off and were jumping out of the door.
I unclicked my harness and jumped down the two feet to the ground. Zombie gave the signal to the pilot and then the safety of the helicopter disappeared into the night sky.
Zombie raised two fingers, motioning for us to move forward. We lifted out machine guns up to our chests, pointing them in opposite directions as our feet moved effortlessly across the snow-covered ground.
Eventually, Ringer took the front and Zombie moved to the back, behind me. We didn't say anything as we pressed forward, our only conversation taking form in hand signals.
