Chapter 10 - 10 (2/2)

I didn't stop the medics as they began to comb over him, no hair left unchecked. They didn't try to strip him, probably on the man's orders too. He didn't like seeing Kian without his clothes on, despite the few times the old man and I had been n.a.k.e.d in a few saunas in the past months discussing missions. The joy in the situation was the medics had to play charades with Kian over to the roar of the ospreys. It got to the point that he just stared at them blankly. Defeated over his inability to understand the medics.

A few seconds later, the old General joined us. He stood in front of us, looked to me with a scowl before he looked to Kian. He still held the bloodied HK416 by the handguard as he held his arms up as the Medics felt him down, and boy, Dad did not look happy about that. He reached out and gingerly took the rifle from Kian. The kid looked confused before he took one of the medic's rifles and switched them; handing the clean rifle to Kian.

He leaned in and said something. It was loud enough for Kian to hear from what I could see. Our dad pointed to the rear osprey on the closest row. Once he was done, Kian bolted away like a scared rabbit and quickly boarded it. Dad only looked at me and gestured to follow like you would to a dog. His callused demeanor sucked whatever joy had been festering from being able to get out of this newly opened shit hole.

He turned and walked back to his bird as Kian's osprey took off and left with one of the SAGS escorting it. I watched it go for a moment then entered to see an almost loaded osprey. On the right-hand side, there were enough open seats for all of my team, not just the ones that had survived. When we sat, he only filled half of them. An even shittier situation was that I had to sit next to ole' grumpy. I felt the cabin shudder and the familiar gut sinking motion of lift-off.

I took my helmet off and rested it on my lap. The cool air that assaulted my matted head was godly, and again, Dad couldn't give me a moment of bliss.

”Private channel!” He yelled by my ear. I held back the urge to frown and simply put my helmet back on. My headset was apart of my kevlar helmet. It was a new design to limit the number of things that had to be thrown on in a rush. At this moment, I wished that they had been separate pieces.

I brought up my OTAD, flicked through a few menus and found the channel my dad was on. It wasn't hard. Our family only had one private channel that him and I used exclusively with the hardest, and expensive, encryptions.

[”What?”] I said coldly into the microphone.

[”What happened to Kian?”] He asked just as coldly.

[”My guy died, fell on him, and bled on him. Why didn't you bring Kian with us?”] I asked back.