Chapter 1 - The Wall Erupts
The first rounds struck the broken compound wall inches above Sara Mitchell’s head, blasting dust and stone fragments into the sunrise. She folded over Bishop Chen with one arm, keeping her gloved hand pressed against the bandage on his chest while her rifle stayed controlled across her body. Behind them, the Black Hawk dropped hard through the dust, rotor wash tearing at the collapsed mud-brick wall and flattening every loose scrap of cloth, sand, and smoke around them.
Bishop tried to lift his head. Sara pushed him back down with just enough pressure to keep him alive and just enough anger to make him listen. “Don’t move,” she said, though he could barely hear her through the rotor thunder. His breathing was thin and wet, but steady enough to fight for. That was all she needed.
She pressed the radio at her shoulder. “Bishop is alive. I am not leaving him.”
Inside the helicopter doorway, Commander Reaper Cole leaned out through the flying dust, one hand gripping the frame, face tight behind his goggles. “Doc, we cannot risk the bird for two!”
Sara looked up at him. There was no panic in her face. No pleading. Just a cold steadiness Reaper had mistaken for obedience when he left her on the ridge hours earlier. “Then watch the ridge.”
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For one second, Reaper did not understand.
Then Sara reached beside the rubble, dragged Bishop’s heavy Barrett-style rifle into position, and settled behind it like she had been born there.
