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

tightened the grip on my seat and wished I would have said nothing to his comment. I’d only ever been in a helicopter once in my life. It had been a short twenty minute flight out over a pristine lake and mountain side, and then back to the pad. I was sixteen and fearless. I wasn’t sixteen anymore and I damn sure wasn’t fearless.
    Johnny pulled the map and opened it. “I took the marks you put on the map and studied them pretty good. We just need to figure out which area to stop at first, that way I can work out our exfil route,” he stated.
    I did my best not to notice that we were flying through a dark sky and he was more focused on the map then he was the environment in front of us. I took a glance at the map and pointed at the far pen mark. “We need to start at his house. There’s a good chance he could still be there,” I said.
    “Okay, if that’s what you want,” Johnny said and folded the map up and put it away.
    The glow of the burning city slowly faded off to our right. I watched it from a better perspective until only the faint glow could be detected, at which point I turned my attention to Kember. She was sitting in the twin seats behind us watching the world slip by underneath. I wasn’t sure if she was amazed at what she was seeing, or just so frightened that she didn’t know how to react. Either way she was quiet and that gave me time to think ahead at what I would do when we arrived.
    There was a silence in the helicopter that no one dared to break. Only the obvious noises of the turbine running and the blades cutting through the air registered. Johnny and I said nothing more as we both watched the moonless sky slowly pass by, like grains of sand in an hour glass. Hours of build up to a possible demise gave way to what could be hours of sheer boredom.
    I found myself watching Johnny’s hands and feet as he flew us toward the next chapter in our lives. He made it look easy; no doubt years of experience could do that to a person. I thought about the things I had done in my life and wondered if anyone had ever watched me and thought the exact same thing? Wondered in the back of their mind if they could be as good as me someday?
    Of course not, that is unless they had severely low expectations in life. I was a nobody, no one special, nor would I ever be. I bent pipes at a dead-end job for a living. I lived from paycheck-to-paycheck, had no real goals or much of an ambition. I did want to be better though. I just didn’t know how or where to start… I guess that was my excuse for not trying. It’s amazing how we can easily blame others for our own problems, or simply create an excuse that makes us feel better about being worthless.
    “We’re coming up on the drop off point,” Johnny told me. “Probably three minutes or so.”
    I took a quick gander out of the bubble cockpit and saw the lights of the small town emerge through the low hanging clouds. We descended to a lower altitude and swung along the outskirts of the city, doing our best not to attract very much attention. We had no idea what was down there and the unknown was the perfect catalyst to keep us out of range of predators as well as military weapons that could easily have been seized by locals when the shit hit the fan, so to speak.
    “Okay, now remember. When I put this thing down you’re gonna have to haul ass out of the area, because the noise of this bird will attract a lot of attention, quickly ,” he stated.
    “Got it,” I replied and cursed myself for not thinking about that beforehand. It was bad enough that I was going to be weighed down with so much gear, but now I would have to push harder than I had anticipated to keep from becoming a victim. I thanked my lucky stars that my weapon was light and I could carry lots of ammo for it. Had it been something larger with a greater killing range, I would have been limited in the amount of bullets I could carry, further increasing my need to stay undetected. And let’s