Chapter 14 - The Last Stand in the Sky
"Hold on!" Marcus screamed, slamming the flight controls to the left.
The helicopter banked sharply into a steep dive, dropping into a narrow river canyon to break the missile's heat-seeking track. The missile tore through the air fifty feet above them, detonating against the rock wall of the canyon in a massive fireball that lit up the overcast sky.
The shockwave hit the helicopter’s tail rotor, sending the aircraft into a violent spiral.
"I’m losing tail rotor authority!" Marcus shouted, wrestling with the foot pedals and the stick. "We’re going down! Brace for impact!"
The trees at the bottom of the canyon rushed up to meet them. Marcus cut the engine power at the last second to prevent a catastrophic fuel explosion as the helicopter sheared through the tops of pine trees, slamming heavily into a deep snowdrift at the bottom of the ravine.
The world went dark for a moment in a cloud of snow and shattered glass.
When Grant opened his eyes, the cabin was dead quiet except for the quiet ticking of the cooling engine. Snow was blowing through the shattered windshield.
"Clara? Lily?" Grant croaked out, wiping blood from a minor cut on his forehead.
"We're... we're okay," Clara’s voice came from the back. She had cushioned Lily with her own body. Lily was scared, but unharmed.
Emma pushed open the jammed side door, tumbling out into the deep snow and raising her weapon to scan the tree line. "Marcus! How are you?"
Marcus groaned, unbuckling his harness. His left shoulder was dislocated, but he was alive. "I've been better," he muttered, popping his shoulder back into place against the seat frame with a sharp gasp of pain. "We have company coming. They saw us go down."
Grant stepped out into the waist-deep snow, pulling Clara and Lily from the wreckage. In the distance, the low rumble of tracked snow vehicles was approaching fast.
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"They won't stop until we're dead," Clara said, her eyes fixed on the approaching sounds. "Julian's network spans across Europe. They control the local authorities."
"Then we stop running," Grant said, his voice flat and terrifyingly steady. He turned to Marcus and Emma. "How much ammunition do we have left?"
