Men Go to War in Search of Something

Part 3

Mason just stared at the sight in front of her. There was a monkey, or a gorilla or something.

But it wasn't a normal monkey.

It was huge, big as a building, maybe taller. The helicopters remained in combat formation, flying closer and closer to the...thing. They started to circle it and Mason snapped out of her haze.

"What are you doing!?" She yelled to Slipko. He didn't respond.

And they started to fire. Mason knew right away that was a bad idea. Fire at the thing that just literally tore a helicopter out of the sky. Real smart.

The thing took down another helicopter with one punch of it's fist. At some point she had ended up moving to the center of the helicopter, and she realized James had done the same. He started yelling at Slipko.

"Pull out now! Pull out!!" He was still close to Mason, but she was freaking out to much to relish it.

"I don't take orders from you," Slipko told him, sounding mad.

They continued to fire and she heard James curse in a multitude of languages. And it wasn't under his breath either. At least four more helicopters went down, and then Slipko seemed to have a change of heart.

"Hang on!" He told them, right before a soldier came flying through the air, hitting the windshield of the helicopter and bouncing off over the top. His body must have interfered with the blades because suddenly red lights were flashing and an alarm was going off. The helicopter started to spin and Slipko yelled again, "Prepare to crash!"

They stopped spinning and just started to free fall after that. Mason threw her hands up to protect her head and felt herself get pulled roughly against something. Then the helicopter went down.

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When Mason opened her eyes she found herself against the front of the helicopter, wedged behind a seat. They seemed to have crashed nose first. Mason tried to move and froze.

She was wrapped in James's arms.

He seemed to have pulled her against his chest and thrown his arms around her spine. It was an awkward position to say the least.

As if reading her mind James's eyes snapped open at that moment and darted around, eventually meeting hers. They both began to untangle themselves at the same time. James got out first, and then extended his hand. Hesitant, Mason took it. He pulled her up too hard though and they stood up face to face, much closer than Mason was comfortable with. Their noses were almost touching, and Mason saw his eyes flit down once to his lips. She felt herself moving closer for just a millisecond, and then the haze was broken.

"You guys good?"

They jumped apart faster than Mason would have thought possible. They both turned and she saw Slipko standing there. He looked between the two of them and just kinda gave Mason a look. She walked away clearing her throat. Slipko smirked.

"We're alright," she heard James say.

Mason pried her bag from where it was in the helicopter and checked her camera for any damage. She looked up and saw James walking back from where he had been looking through the binoculars. Gary was trying to contact the other helicopters with something he had pulled from the wreck.

"Calling all units, is anybody airborne? I repeat, is anybody airborne?"

"They're all down," James told the group, a bit out of breath, "Every one of them. There's a river a couple of clicks from here. If we stick to its banks we'll make it to the extract site on the North shore." He began walking towards Mason but turned around when Nieves spoke.