Writetober Day 13 (Roof)

Day 13

Roof

  “We have to get the roof!”  Corporal Sinclair screamed at the men in the stairwell below him.  “Anchor-Two, this is Gold-tooth One.  What is your ETA?!”  He yelled into the radio on his shoulder as the echo of coughing weapons bounced around that cement walls that encased them.

Static hissed back at Sinclair.

“Reyes!  Get your goddamn ass moving!”  Sinclair shouted in between bursts of his rifle.  He threw his gaze high above him as he quickly counted the landings until rescue.  They better freaking be there!

“Let’s go damnit!  You heard the man!”  Reyes was three flights below Sinclair as he threw a grenade down the spire of stairs.  The men around him didn’t wait for an explosion, they forced their legs to carry them higher.

“Anchor-Two, come in!  What is your ETA?!”  Sinclair’s legs screamed in pain as he climbed the stairs two at a time.  Please.  Please!

Static kicked back through the radio.

“Reyes!  We are OFP.”  Sinclair opened up a hail of bullets at the monstrosities below them.  

“Shit.”  Reyes’s word was to himself as he looked at the men around him that were fighting for their lives.  “You heard him!  Get your asses to the roof and don’t stop shooting!”  Reyes leveled his rifle and ripped three rounds into the closest beast.

Sinclair heaved his heavy legs to the final landing before the roof.  “Anchor-Two!  We have heavy casualties and are facing increasing bogie counts.” 

Static.

Sinclairs heart sank as he watched the deformed and grotesque humans run up the stairs behind his men.  The monsters were barely affected by the lead that impacted their bodies.  Time slowed as he watched Reyes pick up one of the fallen men while releasing rounds of anger into the air behind him.

“Gold-tooth One, be advised ETA three minutes.”

Focus snapped into Sinclair as his training took over.  “ETA three mikes!  Make sure you get home!”  He shouted above the reached creams and gunfire as he clasped the harness of the first man to reach him.  “Get on the roof and begin to form a perimeter.”  Sinclair thrusted open the door and forced the soldier through.

The young corporal stayed on the landing and rained hell down on the creatures below.  He was going to be the last one to leave the stairwell.  As a leader should.  “Reyes, I’m not telling your damn wife I didn’t get you back to her!”  Sinclair watched as his best friend began to slow.

“Shit, don’t tell me!  Tell my legs!”  Reyes dropped to a knee two landings below sinclair.  The remaining soldiers posted around Reyes and held a tight cone for fire down the stairs.

Damnit.  Sinclair ran, he didn’t think about anything other than saving his men.  He blasted past the remaining men that still climbed toward their exit.  “Hold the perimeter on the roof!  You leave when evac gets here!”  Regardless if I am there…  Sinclair bit hard on the thought as he reached Reyes.  “You’re in the gym everyday and this is all you can do?”

“I deserve that.”  Reyes grunted in pain as he stood next to Sinclair.

“The rest of you get topside.”  Sinclair threw Reyes’s arm over his shoulders.  His men listened, they knew what it might have meant, but they listened.

“We doing this?”

“How else would we?”  Sinclair smiled to himself as he reloaded his rifle with anger filled movements.

Reyes ripped a grenade from Sinclairs chest and threw it over their shoulders.  The air punched them in the back as they slowly climbed the stairs.

“We are getting home.”  Sinclair ignored the pain that lanced up his back with every step.

“Yep.”  Reyes removed his side arm and filled the air behind them with death.  The deformed monsters clawed closer as they leapt up the stairs with devilish speed.

One more landing.  Sinclair’s eyes focused on the door that led to the roof.  

“Corporal, we see Anchor-Two.”  Sinclair’s radio coughed to life.

“Good.”  He held the radio open as they trudged the stairs.  “You all get on that bird and leave when it lands.  Copy?”

There was a delay in the response.  Sinclair knew there would be, but he knew his men would listen to him.

“Copy.”  The word was cold, emotionless.

“She’s gonna kill me.”  Reyes’s voice filled with defeat as his pistol locked back with an empty magazine.

“I know, that’s why I’m getting you home.  I need to watch that shit.”  Sinclair could feel the claws of the monstrosities behind them getting closer.  He thrusted his rifle into Reyes’s hands.  “Last mag, make it count.”

“Get some.”  Reyes said the words to himself, but Sinclair was happy to hear them.

The door to the roof grew closer as the death behind them began to tug at their lives.

“I’m going to need you to stop being a baby and fucking run.”  Sinclair neared the final landing.

“Call it.”  Reyes’s eyes were locked on the door to his freedom.

“Go!”  Sinclair ducked beneath his partner’s arm and spun around to face the horde of screeching beasts.  

“Birds here.  Let’s go!”  Reyes held open the door as Sinclair kicked one of the atrocities square in the chest.

The two ran into the daylight that soaked the roof of the building.  

“You sons of bitches.”  Sinclair smirked as he ran past his men that opened fire on the open door behind them.  He threw Reyes into the open door of the helicopter.  “Let’s go!  I am not getting on til you assholes are on!”  Sinclair ripped the rifle from the medic that tended to Reyes and laid down cover fire for his men.

“Command, this is Anchor-Two.  Evac successful, we are bringing the boys home.”

Sinclair forced himself to relax as he heard the pilots voice over the rushing air of the sky they flew in.

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