Free Day One (Book 2): Choices by Michael Mcdonald

shutting the rear passenger door before moving to the front. I opened the side door and was about to crawl in when I spotted several large groups of soldiers with weapons pointed at us and Andrews standing there amongst them with his arms crossed. I brought my weapon partially up, although the look he held at me was not one of anger for stealing from him, but rather a look someone would give you when letting you barrow their car to go on a trip. I stopped and stared back at him as several soldiers hurried about with their weapons, getting ready to put a swift end to our plan.
    “My son is out there,” I mouthed to him, knowing that he could not hear me.
    He mouthed something in return. Now I’m no expert when it comes to reading lips, nor will I ever admit to being one, but as clear as day I saw him tell me to go . I’m sure of it. So much so that I crawled into the bird and put on my headset.
    “Get us the hell out of here!” I told Johnny, who had apparently not seen Andrews.
    The aircraft whined louder, as the rotor blades cut brutally through the still night air. I could feel the ground float away as Johnny got us airborne and I watched the soldier’s line up to fire, and then suddenly they lowered their weapons and stood down. Johnny could see the same thing, even better since it was unfolding on his side of the aircraft.
    “Why aren’t they shooting at us?” He asked.
    “Who gives a shit? Get us out of here before they do though,” I replied, noticing how weird my voice sounded through the intercom system.
    The MD500 spun right; putting our tail rotor toward Andrews and his soldiers. I grew a bit concerned that one of the soldiers may inadvertently fire at us, causing the rest of them to open up as well. I wasn’t a mechanic, but was certain that with the turbine outlet behind us, the tail and tail rotors as well, if there was ever a spot to bring us down, that would be it. I braced myself and looked over my shoulder to see Kember crying and visually shaken at what was happening. “It’s okay, baby. We’re getting out of here, just hang on,” I told her. She couldn’t hear me of course, so I strained over the seat and attempted to put a headset on her. She wasn’t having it, and in a rage slapped the device out of my hand where it fell to the floorboard and out of my reach.
    Turning around I was confronted with the wall of trees that had separated us in great distance from the falling skyscrapers from earlier. I braced hard and pushed against the floor with my feet as my hands found suitable places to attach permanently.
    “Holy shit, Man! What are you doing?” I shouted.
    “I’ve got this,” Johnny responded.
    “You’re going to fly us right into the ground!”
    Swiftly though, the nose pitched up and the wall of trees disappeared from sight. I looked to Johnny who was smiling at me.
    “I had to drop the nose to gain some speed in case they started shooting at us,” he said.
    The burning city was rushing toward us, but then suddenly drifted away as we gained altitude and fled into the darkened night. Our heading would not take us over the city and I was even further relieved about that.
    “What just happened back there?” Johnny asked me.
    I shook my head. “I don’t quite know.”
    “They didn’t fire a single round at us, which they could have done and ended this little plan in a ball of fire,” he added.
    I looked at him, still braced for some unknown reason, as if I expected a missile to come from nowhere and blow us out of the sky. Of course bracing would no more stop the violent collision with the ground, ending our lives in mere seconds, if we weren’t killed in the initial explosion from the guided missile or rocket.
    “Let’s worry about that later. Right now we need to put as much distance between us and them as possible. They do have another helicopter, remember?”
    Johnny nodded and slid the stick forward. The MD500 responded instantly and we dove toward the earth. I