" I'm not dead yet."

"To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it." - Confucius


Chapter one: Don't start something you can't finish.


"Alice Fedora Olson." She said sighing as she looked to the Recruiter whose eyes barely glanced at her for a moment before he simply shrugged and retorted with a rather confident malice in his tone "I am sorry but I doubt that you would be successful in the Marine Corps; your height is a factor not to mention your background and other things..." he ended it smiling politely though she clearly was disgruntled she returned the smile with a faker more polite smile leaning down on his desk and giggling softly "So you are afraid this little girl might just be the baddest Marine yet? How about you sign me up and do the paperwork and then when I return from service I kick your ass up and down these floors?" the Recruiter simply grunted and nodded waving her to go home and fill out the paperwork then prepare for hell. Alice nodded and smiled waving at him with the calmness of a Tiger hunting her prey, leaving the local recruitment she began to head to her friends house; Mark. He had been a good-friend to her in the year or two she had known him, making her way down a few blocks and turning down the street she found herself at his apartment door step again just a few weeks since the last time they had talked; she even caught herself looking over herself quickly running her eyes over her black skulled sneakers up her matching dark black jeans then to her green Monster sweater over-covering her pale blue t-shirt. Her hair like normal was in a small ponytail the pale yellow blonde hair not matching her darker personality most presumed however she was not always dark, or mean for that matter. She just did not like dumb-fucks, plain and simple though she kept quiet people assumed she was stupid at times when they their self knew nothing of her; regardless of them she knocked loud only once though wanting a chance to leave quickly if she felt this was a bad idea. She hardly waited longer than a minute before he came down the stairs quickly obviously knowing it was her, he always seemed to be in the best of moods around her she noted as he opened the door smiling with his perfect white teeth, her eyes exploring his blue eyes as he explored her matching almost pale cyan eyes, up his head until she noted his brown short crew-cut hair and then to his attire; a regular blue pair of old jeans and a Gorillaz T-shirt with no shoes. Mark said a bit more excited than he intended looking at her with normal interest curious why she always dressed so dark when she really wasn't such a bad-person that most concluded by looking at her. "Alice, where have you been? You have not stopped by in weeks...or even called? Christ, I thought you just left or something like you tended to do in high-school." Alice grunted and shrugged stepping in without an invite "I was bored of the usual day and decided I needed time alone speaking of which, I joined the Marine corps or will be shortly I have the papers and plan to get into camp as soon as possible then deploy." she said without much care though she had a certain trust with Mark he did not yet always require things to be sugar-coated which....was nice. She supposed walking up the stairs with him listening to what she knew he would say. " What! The fucking Marines? As in Afghanistan? Iraq? Are you frickin' insane?" he knew she was serious but....he did not expect such a drastic change for her knowing when she left he would be left to pidder alone. Sure, he had girls on the side who were involved sexually but Alice was without a doubt the smartest woman he had ever had the pleasure of meeting, how they fit he would not know ."To answer that question? I might be insane but its what I am doing though why do you care? I will return I promise you that Mark. Don't get your panties in a wad.." Alice then sat down on his burgundy couch where Mark then placed himself across from her in a ugly yellow lazy-boy the tv now off and the radio playing some stupid song by Taylor Swift, sheesh lady if you're going to break with every man then please don't get sad about it when you do. Mark sighed and nodded looking at her with concern "When do you think your going ? Regardless though I wish you luck...if you are going then why did you stop to say hello to me? Generally you leave without warning." Alice glared and chuckled afterwards shrugging "Well if you want I can cut this short and go." she stated more than really asked making it clear she would if he kept asking stupid questions. Mark sighed and glared slightly before replying "Fine, what is you are here for then? I mean really Alice, you don't need me to watch any animals tell anyone that you will be unavailable and don't expect me to pay for wherever you live." it bugged Mark that he did not know where Alice really lived but he dared not asked for fear she would cut contact with him as she had been known to do in previous incidents. Alice simply looked over at him and chuckled "Don't worry I just need you to watch my apartment; too many damn thieves out there now." Alice then shrugged and stood not giving him a chance to respond she walked around the glass table between them and kissed Marks cheek winking before moving down the stairs leaving him blushing most likely; heading home by foot she walked with a bit more confidence in her step however...she thought there was a man following her but she thought nothing of it as she moved down the last block she finally turned and sighed looking straight at the man who had amateurly ducked behind a black Ford F 1500 truck saying simply as she pulled her hands out of her pockets knowing that no one was watching which gave her three options a) Hope this guy was just a pansy and would run away. b) She could kick his ass c) Call the police "Hey Jackass, I know you are there; step out and tell me what you want maybe we can see about it." she acted tough however under the skin she was biting her lip and wondering if her bluff would work. The man slowly moved out from behind the vehicle chuckling as he faced her, from her view he was barely over five nine but substantially taller than her his hair was covered by a black hoodie that had nothing marking it his shoes matching and even pants in black; this man was already on her nerves as he spoke with amusement saying "For a little girl; you talk some big game." he smiled walking to stand little less than five feet from her though she growled out "What do you want meathead? If you want money you will get none from me." then she spread her legs taking a rather obvious defensive stance glaring daring him to raise his fists. The man simply reached for an reached to grab her breasts though he found only air and received a hard roundhouse to the wrist making a horrible cracking sound as he howled in agony Alice glowered looking over at him backed up to the pillar holding the train-railcar above her the loud machine holding probably two-hundred and fifty witness to this crime the man would try to commit by raising a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver firing off at least three bullets at Alice who reacted with enough speed to throw herself over and into the curb the bullet managing to only hit the pillar she screamed and ran forward crashing into his rather large figure her head however aimed for his stomach and her fist the weakest part of any man? His groin; though she managed to hit him she only paralyzed him for a second before she was thrown by his rough cut hands knocking the wind out of her tiny--frame though she was now on her back and the man advancing she grunted "I'm not done with you yet." raising up her leg in a high arc she caught him in the shin before getting up the two now trading blows though eventually he landed one hard right hook to her jaw carrying her off her feet and into the pillar, for once? She might need the police and to Gods credit or some snitch the police sirens rose through the streets as the man grinned and kneeled besides her picking through her stuff and grabbing the hundred or hundred twenty-five she kept in her bag saying before he took off into the night "Don't start something you can't finish it."




Chapter two: Nothing new.


She had been taken to the hospital the following of her knock-out though it would not be until the next day she awoke; strangely enough not in a hospital like she expected or in a jail cell but on Marks couch. Mark however was not where to be found though she sat up noting she was minus her Monster sweater and her jaw hurt like a living hell; turning to the glass table she sighed picking up a hastily written note memorizing it as she read it just about like anything else the girl happened to read the following of the note appeared to be 'Hello there sleepy-head, do not ask how I managed to keep you from ending up in the hospital but your wounds are minor just lay low for a while I don't know about you but this is Chicago; walking out half-cocked like you? You won't last long just do my a favor and go home sign up and leave. Its nothing new.' she mumbled a cuss and stood up walking out of the apartment putting a hole in his dry-wall not sure if she should be angry with herself or Mark. Regardless she went home to begin signing out the papers noting that Mark had dropped her robbed bag at her house instead of his own; curious as that was she did not think about it and filled them out before one o'clock finishing she sighed looking down at her rather dirty clothes peeling them off as she walked towards her bathroom from her bedroom crossing into the tile flooring moving into the shower to relax, feeling the warm water wash away the grim of last night's attack though she knew she had gotten luck if that thief was just a bit gutsy or the police had not been called she would most likely have been raped or murdered. Eventually she stepped out of the shower and dried herself off and choosing a pair of underwear sliding them up she slipped on a bra then proceeded to grab her Recovery Eminem t-shirt ; finally a pair of regular black jeans that hugged her tightly but for once she did not grab a sweater for whatever reason...she picked up a pocket knife and slid it into her right pocket feeling the need for protection that she could not count on by her bare-hands a feeling she hated the most was being defenseless or weak. She hated more than that even despised when someone else was defenseless and someone else picked on them, she knew somewhere someone read her record at least once and would note she had been in more than fifteen fights in one year yet each one had been in defense of a new student or someone being bullied. She walked out of the house and sighed standing on her curb and looking up to her two story teal house for the last time maybe? She hoped that they would not just kick her on the bus without letting her go home to think hard but she was prepared if she was bussed to Boot Camp without a period of silence and thought. Raising her hand she hailed a Cabby who eventually turned at the end of the street making her run down the street to get in and grudgingly the man behind the wheel turned sighing and asking almost in sequence like he was annoyed he had a paying rider. "Where to Miss?" she replied with haste but instead of words she found the paper that stated the address of the Recruitment and showed it to him; her words caught in her throat as he turned around to hit the gas.


Fifteen weeks later...


Alice had during her time of Boot Camp made a few dozen friends and even more acquaintances the hellish conditions of the training had cleaned out her ego-shell and replaced the angry exterior and calm interior with something else? She definitely did not regret joining the United States Air Force as a recruit she met her own challenges. Regardless she looked to her co-pilot for the green-light and to the back where the fire-team of four Marines sat in the back geared up for a search and rescue of a squad pinned down in Kunduz; an ugly little city with the population maybe in the fifty to sixty thousand region the mission was to simply bring out the dead or wounded and wait for command to get off their arses and send some real-support it made Alice sick to her stomach that all they could do in the majority of her missions was pull out the dead or dying and hope who they left behind could be saved by the reinforcements bound to come hours to days even weeks later. Though as far as upper-command was concerned it was "Shut up and do your damn job." to quote an conversation she overheard of a concerned marine, she threw away these thoughts to ponder them later; right now she had a job to do. Taking off she heard the marines chatting in back grimly about how they expected to find nothing but rotting corpse; because Kunduz had became such a battleground the missions to bring out the dead were suicidal in their opinion it would be less costly to just let the bodies stay where they drop.
She simply kept her thoughts silent and personal turning to her co-pilot Marcus she grumbled out "Taking bets if we get shot this time?" she chuckled out though Marcus with seriousness replied in a grim tone like the Marines "Alice, I hope for your sake we don't." Alice had only flown four missions of Search and Rescue however Marcus was a thirty to forty-five mssion veteran who had opted to stay in the Air Force until he died essentially as he had no life back home but a house full of painful memories and some money with a regular five to nine job. His wife had died to the real bitch Breast Cancer and his only child had been shot in a drug-deal gone bad, the poor sap had not even been dealing but walking through the neighborhood with some friends when a stray 9mm bullet capped his head; dead instantly at least Marcus said but really Alice knew he would have liked to see his boy one more time before he passed. Alice sighed and focused on the controls of the HH-60 Pave Hawk, a beautiful flying machine in her opinion though she would love to play with an Osprey however never fly one into combat as they had a substantial rate for people not making it back. The Hawk as Alice liked to call it took off as normal as the other missions though she felt a tingling in her stomach...fear? She did not know but she was intimidated by the way everyone acted around Kunduz, the missions she had previously done were in Kabul and Herat which were little missions nothing like an open war-zone as Kunduz was apparently; they were already halfway there when she heard the sounds of combat. One of the Marines looked out the side window and whistled seeing a crashed helicopter that was still burning and pointed it to the others around him; Alice bit her lip and tried to concentrate on the vehicle that she was controlling with Marcus as back-up. Upon arriving at the city she was met with an horrible sight on one of the buildings was sprayed on "Fuck the Americans." and on one farther down she barely made out in what looked like blood in apparently Arabic or something mildly close "????? ?????" which loosely translated to "Kill them all" Marcus only stared at the mission objective that came up as they flew barely eighty feet above the buildings or less by her count trying hard not to let her attention go; nearing the drop-zone she called out to the Marines "ETA: One minute, gear up." she wished she had some radio-contact with the marines on the ground pinned or worse but the contact had been severed at 9:00 PM local time when presumably a rocket had hit the group or something loud and big enough to occupy them. Before they even hit the Extraction Point there was the sound of gunfire which was somewhat of a good sign; but it made Alice physically ill at first like always though she hunkered down mentally and continued flipping a few more switches, preparing to quickly get the dead or dying in and out of there with minimal damage when possible. The E.P. was the rooftop of an hotel ran by some more trusted citizens; however as the squad had been forced to seek refuge in the building waiting for Extraction a few dozen terrorists or more set up out front firing in. At least a dozen or so civilians had been wounded and a few less killed however the terrorists did not cease and continued firing despite the Marines firing more round into them than the terrorists probably had. How the two groups still could be shooting Alice had no idea. Her job was not to worry about that though it was to get the wounded out and the dead home; she arrived and grunted pulling the Hawk down to the roof just a few inches above the ground, she made a point of never touching down.
The four in back slowly exited the vehicle signaling her to take off and circle until they had the wounded; she complied by taking off pulling out and circling looking down into the streets of the urban city seeing one of ugly sights there was at least five or six corpses in the middle of the street between the diner and the hotel there was a grenade or two going off. She continued circling facing Marcus now sighing "So this is Kunduz it is not as bad as I thought at least..."Marcus only grunted and gestured to the roof signaling they needed to circle back, she nodded and moved the Hawk back towards it ignoring the threat of small-arms now firing at them the bullets pinging off the heavy metal Pave-Hawk that now waited on the rooftop the blades creating a shield of dust and sand in the air creating a visible wall around them. She looked at the four Marines and noted one she just called ScarFace as he had a loop like scar around his right cheek that possibly was caused by some kind of brand maybe; was not wearing his left boot and he had apparently lost his M4A1 Carbine, though the other three seemed the same all of them were busy. At least one per Marine was being dragged out as Scarface approached he pulled up a man whom was grunting hard and sobbing gently a piece of shrapnel stuck in the side of his thigh he said "Alice right? Whatever, this is only the first six we have two more down there and they are critical the other five are still kicking and mostly healthy a few scrapes and bruises but these eight are pretty fubared at this point. Rocket came in through the front door as they closed it apparently." he spoke fast as the others came up and loaded in the rest one or two of them clearly dead missing parts of their face and others bleeding like a stuck pig. Alice nodded as Marcus slid out of his seat to tend to the wounded trying to sooth them and apply immediate aid while Scarface and the others ran back down towards the Marines trapped down there though Alice had a immediate sense someone may call it a spiders sense but she jerked up the Hawk as a rocket had been fired from the second or third story window from another building. The rocket would have hit the middle of the Hawk and probably killed them had she not moved with instinctive response; the rocket possibly standard RPG flew straight into the stairwell and into the open door where it exploded in the stairwell the explosion forced her to raise up and fly farther up cursing hard as Marcus nearly flew out the door holding on with his hands as a dead corpse flew out the door and towards the now engulfed building, the explosion must have hit some line or something the fire raging was almost an inferno on the roof in merely a few seconds. Alice reached back extending a hand trying to keep the Hawk level pulling up the older pilot and grunting as he nearly screamed in her ear to move right; following orders as she was used to she jerked to the side as a second RPG fired past the Hawk so close to the blades she was amazed it had not blown through them and exploded. Then again these were generally poorly built launchers though a few might be better, she turned to him grinning softly as they closed the door Marcus ordered her to circle and contact Bravo down at Alphas EP. She nodded moving to the radio checking in looking concerningly at the smoking and flaming building; saying in a bit more adrenaline rushed voice "Bravo you still green?" she waited for almost fifteen seconds eyeing every single building for a third RPG before she got a response. The response was short and staticy as it came out "...Collins is dead we dropped the...KIA...wounded...request immediate heavy-support we need...a platoon..." then the line went dead as another light glared from the diner as a rpg crashed into the second floor of the three story building exploding in another fiery ball the building she knew would collapse and immediately turned to Marcus having him take over calling out to Command for fire-support. Alice moved to the back to check the wounded all but one had succumbed to the wounds and the last one was begging for his Mother; she sat down in the blood gripping his hand and letting him squeeze gently before passing she looked over at Marcus shouting "All KIA Marcus, we need to pull out or something!" she was panicking though the Veteran pilot turned and smacked her returning to command but pointing to the .50 Caliber machine guns to fire on the buildings basically saying to hell with Command rip them a new ass. She rarely had used the rotating gatling like machine guns on swivel mounts but she damn well at this point was angry enough to use it; she took careful aim before firing into them regardless of her helmet it did little for the intense sound of the large caliber machine gun fire, the diner she had began to fire on did not go without a fight. The men inside returned fire with small-arms and the occasional lucky shot pinged close as Marcus circled the hotel that still was blazing. Alice bit her lip as one bullet made it so close that it actually passed into the Hawk and flew into the wall behind her however she then focused her aim on the firing group then moving to where the building the first RPG came from knowing she might get chewed out or even court-martialed for taking out a civic building but she did not let up until the gun stopped working; overheated she got away from the gun now looking out dangerously a man climbed on the roof and even from some ways away Alice knew he had an RPG she went for the gun. But before it could start firing...the rocket launched and this time it was not some little grenade it was a full on rocket; she turned and yelled to Marcus to roll. Though it was too late the missile hit in the propeller of the Hawk with a horrible screech she fell to the side of it against the door of the Hawk as it started to swing out of control a number of alarms and flashing signals going off as Marcus started to report their situation; she giggled softly thinking about how they would probably send another idiot like them in to find only corpses or dying. She did not want to die yet..the helicopter spun like a epileptic person having a seizure swinging from right to left then down and with Marcus fighting for control as the blades had begun to fail completely they literally went on their side crushing the roof of a home and then into a store finally grinding out in a town market. Alice barely had time to think that this would be nothing new for the civilians...


Chapter Three: I'm not dead yet...


She awoke with a grumble laying under Marcus who was not breathing; his heavy body must have protected her from the prying eyes of some terrorists as they were circling the Hawk that had fallen and crashed; on its side the only way in was the now doors which required someone to climb or through the glass however that was blocked by bodies from the wounded so they probably were shouting at each other to find a way in. The radio was blaring in her Hawk but like the arabic shouting she had no clue what they were saying her first guess was she had a concussion at minimum; she felt slowly to Marcus and found at least three sharp objects in his back possibly knives or broken glass who knew..but he was certainly dead...she could not wait here she knew and picked up the radio whispering coughing hard and longer than she wanted to knowing any sound really could give her away and cause them to grenade her "...Marcus is KIA two of the bodies are MIA the rest are KIA...the squad is possibly KIA I am surrounded by the sounds of it..." she then waited for Commands response.
She did not wait long as the Command was looking forward to scrapping her Hawk for whatever they could get it for and certainly had no intentions of letting a terrorist get their grubby hands on it. She also knew that when her usefulness was up they would leave her to dry until someone could come to her rescue though if she could just find a gun she could take a few down and maybe escape herself "Support inbound, hold your position don't attract attention. Danger close air-strike inbound ETA thirty-seconds take cover." Command then went silent and Alice grabbed Marcus's handgun from his chest holster; a Desert Eagle quite a beautiful handgun however it was splattered with blood from Marcus she whispered a prayer for the man who had saved her. Crawling up the side she stood; moving the door open loudly she grunted crawling out and over she fell with a thump, she had roughly fifteen seconds now the first man in rags really screamed in surprise more than anything as she shot him square in the forehead snapping his head back in less than a second. She then began sprinting ignoring the sounds of outraged Arabic voices finding a home she busted in the front door then slammed it shut grunting as a woman stood up shouting however in those last five seconds Alice shouted "Get down!" pointing the gun at the woman and her three children before pushing a table to the door and diving to the ground the people following suit as the planes came over dropping the bombs like their job called for. The first strike was a loud and annoying sound right before the bombs hit she closed her eyes; the bombing blew in the windows as they were hardly fifty-yards away from the crash, the following bombing continued for almost a entire five-minutes then it went silent. She stood muttering a sorry for the family and then pulled up her radio attached to her suit and called to command her back to the wall gun leveled at the family "Command, I'm still kicking wheres my Evac?" She sighed checking her radio then the family for what felt like hours; though the response was weak it was clear..."We have a compan... bound to you...r position; ETA roughly... thirty to fifty minutes. Squad Delta... is on the way VIA air and will... arrive in five minutes howeve...r Charlie... is on the way as well; the fire-team will arrive by HUMVEE... in fifteen minutes. Get to the market and wait... for them; we have picked up a large force of tangos moving your way." she was going to be on her own for a bit but she might not die today. She wondered what they would do for the Marines whom had died or might be in the process of it by the hotel that had gone into an inferno. She tried to apologize to the family and left; standing in front of the door she looked at what was left of the Hawk those Fighter pilots really knew how to level the enemy. Where had been nearly sixty men trying to get into the helicopter was now a rubble of dead bodies missing limbs and blood. A gruesome sight but a common one in war, Alice quickly picked up a mildly intact Ak-47 and took a few clips then holstered Marcus's desert eagle in her side holster where had previously been a M9 that she lost in the crash. She proceeded to the market semi-limping the adrenaline leaving her systems showed that she was definitely in pain, her combat helmet was gone and showed her semi-long black hair that was quite ragged at this point; she clearly was American but when you see a pilot of sorts limping towards the town square with a bloody Ak-47? Most people don't want to fuck with the person. Even if they are American. She slowly made it past one of the merchants and put the Ak-47 up to the air firing a few shots; which in hindsight was probably a bad idea with the number of tangos on the way if command was correct. She then shouted "Get out of here!" then knowing not all of them knew english she tried her best shouting out "???? ?? ???!" however she might also have said instead of get out of here that her Mother was on fire. She was not too fluent in Arabic. The market proceeded to clear out rather quickly as she emptied out an entire clip off, then reloaded now down to two clips extra not including the current one. Looking down at her cracked wrist-watch she counted three minutes and twenty five seconds until the Delta squad arrived; though the tangos she heard and saw first coming down the south road. The market was a centerpiece of the hell city of Kunduz where there was four roads; north, south, east and west where each one had apartments lining up perfectly creating the center. The south road she counted twenty or more on foot with two or three home-armored jeeps with .50 caliber machineguns on the back their voices shouting in Arabic as if they knew she was waiting for an EVAC it was true what Scarface said before they left..."They never let someone get out of Kunduz without a fight. One American to them is worth millions of their own people for information."she grunted thinking about what they would do if they caught her and tortured her...she did not know everything they would want so they would kill her regardless even if she did know? The recovery rate of POWs are slim. She took up aim from behind the meat-stand and then flicked it to semi-automatic watching them approach; as they reached the fifteen yard meter of coming out into the center area from the confined area of the roads she fired.Her first shot caught the slow-driving man of the first jeep in front square in the forehead causing him to swerve into the men at his side nearly running over three or five of them he did manage to crush one under his jeep crashing into the building laying over the horn it blared loudly, the gunner began to fire wildly into the buildings across not sure where the shot came from the others firing where he fired; Alice took a breath then let out a spray of nearly five bullets the first catching the gunner in the throat which resulted in fountain of blood. Then after that two caught the passengers in the shoulders going straight out and snapping their spine leaving them paralyzed while the last two hit the men up front who avoided the first jeep-swerve in the chest though it did not seem immediately lethal as the return fire nearly tore her stand apart. The clock was ticking and the Helio could be heard approaching but she dove to another stand laying down firing under the lamb stand she nicked a man's throat then switched to automatic firing an entire clip out into them; she heard screams the jeeps firing back and more men approaching from the east she thought; reloading she shouted out "Hey fuckers! Put down the guns and fight this girl like a man would." she grunted as one of the bullets flying into her stand tore right past her heel burning some of it but mostly just grazing. Before she knew it she was down with a minute or so left most of the market rattled with bullets the terrorists stopped firing and started to reload from both east and north; she was reloaded and waiting. They slowly advanced until she was literally surrounded by three jeeps in total left over and roughly forty-five men around her though she did not time it one second to early or late, jumping from cover where the blood from sheep meat and other animals covered it with merchandise she sprayed down three or more rolled and busted into the front apartments door going up the stairs the jeeps had turned to fire into the windows of the three story apartment building with men following her in she grunted going into one of the apartment rooms she found herself with two men whose nosed looks like they had been doing coke and OD'd. Regardless she went in closing the door quietly and went into the bathroom; the main room was a simple ugly rug with a twenty inch tv, brown old couch the two were on with a glass table. A kitchen was to the right and the bathroom to the left which she had gone into composed of a weak wooden door; a ugly rusted shower with a matching toilet and sink the floor covered in old and dried blood she bit her lip wondering what could have gone on in here...then she hit the switch falling to the ground breathing hard hearing men thundering through the apartment building at random spraying into rooms and the occasional screams of civilians. She with the time she had she quickly checked her ankle awkwardly bending it to get a good look at it; the bullet had burned right through her pant leg past the socks and burned deeply into the flesh not enough to reach her bone or really catch her flesh but enough to cause a throbbing pain. Grunting as she stood up to check her ammo, somehow she had lost nearly half of her last clip without realizing it. Alice slowly opened the door looking at the two OD'd men and the flickering tv in front of them but she dismissed them sneaking out the door seeing the hallway clear she checked her watch then realized...she had been in there for thirty-seconds over the five minute marker. Right as she was about to try and radio Command she felt the building shake and heard the blades of a helicopter descending by the sounds of it there were two Buzzards one landing the other presumably flying still firing rockets as the force was shaking the entire building; Buzzards as they happened to be called were actually AH-6 Little Bird however useable by the Army; she had no idea why the were called it but they could hold up to six soldiers total three on each side. The terrorists in the building were hurrying to windows trying to fire at the birds or run up the stairs to stop the dropped off men or women, though by the sounds the Little Birds twins gatling guns were busy at work. She herself caught one man leaning out the window firing towards the Bird swinging around expertly as the soldiers returned fire with their small-arms and grenade launchers, she had been one step to close when a grenade from the attacking Bird hit the wall next to the terrorist exploding it inwards sending her on her back cussing a storm however the man at the window firing an AK-47 at the Bird was not as lucky...he was blown clearly apart with the impact and shrapnel of the exploding wall. Her ears were ringing as the rockets continued she wandered up the stairs the walls exploding around her men screaming and dying; bullets flying one man ran towards her with his AK-47 bayoneted he aimed for her stomach but a Soldier whom presumably came from the roof came down the stairs and around the corner just in time to lunge into him knocking them to the wall and down. The Soldier restrained the man yelling into his face before headbutting him knocking him unconscious...Alice simply walked to them and shot the man square in the face spraying the Soldier in the face with marrow and blood clicking the trigger again she realized she was out of ammo and dropped her gun, not hearing the man shout at her to put her hands up. Though he then forcibly helped her to the roof where the Ah-6 had landed was five other Soldiers all waving her to take a position behind the parapet. The one she presumed was a field-medic started checking her vitals; she pointed to her ears signaling she was having a hard time hearing right now. She mumbled out her face feeling numb as the Doc' went over her forehead checking out to see a few dozen scars and a blotch of blood on her forehead where the man had sprayed out his blood when he had been hit by the grenade-launcher. "Doc', how long until the company arrives?" as she asked the AH-6 flew around firing its last two rockets into the north entrance where the four armored jeeps coming in exploded in a ball of fiery smoke, the Doc' saw this and chuckled "I don't think we will need them; but less than twenty some minutes..." she chuckled back and nodded as the AH-6's continued circling the constant sounds of gatling guns tearing apart people, vehicles and buildings was a horrible sound. But after almost another five minutes of pure gun-fire the Doc' green lighted her to get up and move around; Alice smiled standing besides them as two were watching the door and three firing from the roof where constant runnings of soldiers kept coming from the four-ways; the soldiers on the roof shouting jeers and insults. Though before anyone could radio in they saw a man climbing out the top of one apartment across from them with six men also carrying a RPG however the first one now behind the others had a piece of serious hardware. A laser-guided rocket launcher, Alice turned her radio on first screaming literally as the soldiers picked up their guns to fire on them "RPGS north apartment tops!" though before she even finished her sentence the RPG's launched, everything seemed to go slow-motion she grabbed the Doc' and pulled him towards the door the soldiers all at the parapet firing towards the RPG group the door left unguarded; they dove down the stairs the Doc' grunting shouting as the first rpg spiraled from the launcher it headed for the parapet on impact it killed at least two of the soldiers, knocking the ground below them out it sent all but one towards the ground three stories down. The surviving member managed to send off another bullet before the second rocket propelled grenade came flying in catching him square in the chest; the poor bastard didn't even get the honor of blowing up instead it carried him all the way off the other side of the roof dropping him on the ground like his comrades the impact killing him right after the impact; there was explosion. The impact must have bounced the grenade causing explosion. They would never find his corpse or a dog-tag after that hell she thought to herself. Then from what she could see from the stairwell door was that the other two rockets crashed into the AH-6 that had just blown up the most recent jeeps and used it rockets; the one that had dropped off the soldiers they just blasted, the one with six soldiers still on it managed to pull up dodging the the one aimed for it however it did get the signal they had more ammo not to mention...he saw the laser-guided missile and knew he would not survive. The pilot veered far off right launching all six of his last rockets; right dead center into the group of RPGs though the launcher had fired he still flew over the apartment to the east letting the men jump from the Little Bird however one got stuck by his hand and was suspended as the Bird spun not noticing literally ripping his hand from his forearm causing a massive scream, Alice was glad she could not see the sight. The rocket efficiently as designed completely obliterated their targets; the RPG group was nothing but smoldering piles of shit and the front of the building collapsing blocked off the south entrance for the almost constant wave of tangos screaming as they ran into the Market. She assumed the bird explodes as she had heard an explosion presumably from the rocket launcher. Her hearing and vision were slightly blurred but she rolled off the Doc' coughing as she asked carefully measuring her words "Hey Doc' what's your name? I want to know in case that shet happens to us." Doc' chuckled and shrugged still pretty adrenalized he stood up leaning on the wall looking out at the destroyed roof and parapet where the soldiers had been simply saying "Daryl. Alice right?" he smiled and Alice nodded curiously asking as she checked the M4A1 carbine she had gotten from the soldier whom helped her to the roof she had two "So Daryl, you got a plan? Those Charlie boys aren't going to be happy if all they come to help is courses. You know how to use one of these?" she slowly gave him a Makarov pistol she picked off a dead-soldier; handing it to him with three clips. The Mak' was a small russian pistol but it would stop the average idiot chest or higher. Daryl nodded and simply pointed to the windows; saying quietly "Alice, I can hit those fuckers in the head from here. You take the floor above me and I'll watch the stair-well, anyone who isn't Charlie that comes up those stairs I will send back down the stairs with more than they came with." Alice quickly moved towards the stairs saluting him honored to be possibly dying with this man. She knew not if they would make it but he was pretty brave to volunteer to block a main-stream path to her; a would be sniper with this M4A1. Moving to the window she rolled up the cracked window; looking out she saw the squad pinned on the other roof like they had been firing from the parapet two guarding the door; however they had a light-machine gunner firing into the almost constant wave of armored jeeps and even foot-soldiers some pouring out into the apartments firing from windows; she tried to signal the group on her side that she was a friendly then proceed firing into the other apartment windows where tangos were hiding and firing at them from hidden angles. Though she slowly turned to fire on the apartments she saw the HUMVEE burst out from the back-alleys that rounded an apartment, one man gunning on the .50 caliber machine gun they drifted hard into the center of the market where most stands were busted or blown apart; the smell of tar and burning flesh not to mention death hung heavily in the air as the gunner spun like a spider; constantly changing targets never seeming to need to reload. The soldiers began reloading checking wounds and their surroundings as they let the HUMVEE do their work; holding off a dozen or more soldiers at a time though when they had to reload they started pulling back into the alley, the light-machine gunners took aim into the passageways not including the one blocked by the AH-6 rocket results...but nothing was coming. Alice was looking over at the soldiers trying to signal to them as the HUMVEE was pulled back out of sight; Daryl came up the stairs reloading with a splotch of blood on his uniform saying "Alice, we need to regroup with Charlie and what's left of Delta..." Alice nodded and sighed moving from the window back to the wall signaling him to move down the stairs though they stopped half-way...Alice pushed him against the wall gently holding her hand over his mouth"..Listen..." the sounds she was trying to pin-point was silence...and then a sudden dozen rustling she swore under her breath turning to Daryl "We need to contact Command; I don't think thats more soldiers..." she flicked on her radio that was attached to her suit at this time; though they moved back up the stairs to the window. Daryl leaned against the window looking at the hall with his Makarov raised while Alice was sitting on the next floors steps not far from him maybe five to ten yards somewhere like that "Command, its Alice. At-least half of Delta squad is KIA the others pinned on a roof; both AH-6's are done." she ended the message with that her eyes looking at Daryl smiling slightly as he did an impression of the Officers back at base filling out a cross-word and drinking coffee. She giggled lightly and shrugged nodding agreeing that was probably what was taking so long. Though she looked past his head and noticed something moving; large and bulky. Right before the entire world flew around her; there had been a sudden blast the entire wall where Daryl had been standing completely vaporized; himself included she was blown up the stairs with the force of the explosion and her hearing went completely out her vision blurred and even left her at one point; her body was thrown up the stairs and into the wall, she had definitely lost consciousness for some time. Though she eventually awoke grunting as she looked down at herself; back to the wall slumped with her head down she could have passed for dead. Though she examined her self she grunted in pain just looking though she was completely numb right now she had a piece of glass shattered into her thigh and a few dozen smaller shards covering her chest with even a piece of the wall that had busted and stuck into her shoulder like a missile. She was definitely beat up but she grunted standing with a groan of pain and a hell-fire of protest from her body that had decided to un-numb to make her stop moving. She heard the faint buzz of a voice and choose to ignore them stumbling down the stairs she fell and barely managed to stop from falling onto a vertical jagged piece of the wall but she lain next to it looking out the now completely destroyed wall where Daryl had been sitting not long ago. Where he had been was nothing now; she looked out and noticed the cause of the explosion; there was a T-72 Russian tank in the market. The HUMVEE was exploded to by the looks of it the rumble was flipped upside down an inferno of fire on top of it and a corpses arm hanging out of the passenger side window. She groggily looked over at the other apartment where Delta or what was left had been. Like the top of their building it was completely gone and most of that apartment was imploded. The tank seemed to be dormant at this time; but she limped into another room and simply crashed on the ground biting her lip hard to avoid screaming; she slowly had regained her hearing but not much else of her senses she felt that she had only so much time until more insurgents poured in. "C-command..." she choked out waiting for commands response she slowly began to pull out a shard of glass, which as presumed caused a shooting of pain to sprout in her body protesting her actions. She bit her lip hard refusing to give into her body and follow through with the removal; after what felt like an eternity of fiery-pain she managed to withdraw the glass that was covered in blood, though no blood squirted from pulling it. Which would mean she had not struck an artery, grunting as she got a weak-response from command she sighed listening to the Officers word's "What the Saint Nick is going on down there? We lost contact with Delta, Charlie and the field medic is down. Both AH-6's are gone not to mention the oringal squad you had been sent for is now completely confirmed as KIA besides Johnson, who they are leading to your market as we speak. Company is less than ten minutes from arrival yet we won't be in time our drones cannot take a shot and our planes will just kill you and him both..." Alice giggled out slightly insane induced clearly by pain "I wanted to join the Marines...yet I join the Air Force and still end up dead..." she slowly stood up taking her radio and saying as she unhooked it "Come get me, I'm not dead yet..." she then threw it at the wall shattering it on impact; then devoting the last of her strength she moved over to the blood-stained couch tore blankets off the floor that had been flown around due to the soldiers and tank-round, taking them she wrapped what she could around the wounds left the glass in and was unconscious before she even knew it.


(To be continued)