Parallel Wars

My feet pounded on the shaking ground, wind tearing at my face and adrenaline rushing through my veins. The voices behind me were drowned out by the roaring blades flying above me, which I was perfectly fine with. After the initial, “Stop, this is the police!” they had nothing to say. And why should I stop?  A ladder dropped down in front of me, offering a split-second opportunity. I jumped, fingers brushing the rough tips of the rope before my feet gave way beneath me and gravel bit into my palm. I swore under my breath, knowing the foreign police were closing in, and hurried back to my feet.  The ladder was now brushing the ground, nearing a fence that would doubtlessly hinder my efforts of escape. I glanced up, a familiar face in the door of the helicopter, doubtlessly shouting at me though I couldn’t hear a word.  I took off, putting every bit of strength I had into catching the flying ladder. Closing in, but the fence also growing nearer and nearer. Gunshots resounded behind me. Dang, I must be important. What a nice feeling, under different circumstances.  The ladder was only feet from the fence; if it went over the fence, I was done for. I didn’t really want to be done for, not yet. Not this way. Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to move faster and dove for the end of the ladder right as it was nearing the fence.  My hands closed around the rungs, burning as the rope slid across my skin, and I started to lift into the air. I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing only on holding onto those ropes. Something hard collided with my stomach, knocking the breath out of me. I gasped, only barely managing to hold on. Stinging pain shot down my leg as it supposedly crashed into the same thing my stomach had, and it was all I could do to hold onto the ladder.  I should climb. Move. Anything. But I felt frozen as wind rushed around me, my battered body suspended in the air, persistent roaring in ears preventing my thoughts from being heard. It wasn’t until my fingers started to slide that I forced my eyes open. I gaped at the sight of the city growing smaller beneath me, nothing but air and earth to catch me if I fell.  Glancing up, the green body of the helicopter stood out against the blue sky. I shook my head, trying to clear the daze, and hauled myself up the ladder. I flopped into the belly of the helicopter, groaning inaudibly, a face appearing above mine.  She appeared to be yelling something, but I couldn’t hear her over the sound of the helicopter. I smiled wearily up her, bright red lips moving in frantic patterns and auburn hair falling in her face despite the tie attempting to keep it in check.  “We made it, Reese,” I muttered, closing my eyes again. Her hand lightly brushed my cheek before moving up toward my ear, sticking an earbud in.  “Smith! You i***t! Do you have any idea how stupid that was? How wrong that could’ve gone? You could have jeopardized the whole mission. Or… Died. Don’t you ever-”  “Chill. We all lived.” I interrupted her, batting the earpiece away.  She continued yelling, but I closed my eyes. My leg and stomach burned, the adrenaline wearing off left me drained, and I let myself drift off the sound of wind and engines.  When I woke up again, the silence was as deafening as the noise had been. I was in a hospital bed, thankfully no one hovering over me, and my leg throbbing slightly. I shifted, making my stomach and leg twinge, but it wasn’t too bad. I’d been through worse.  I only had about that much time to process my surroundings before the door flew open with a bang.  “Ey Smith!” Lilia, aka Reese, said. Same tone as earlier.  “Hey. Everything going smoothly?”  “Yeah. The intel has helped in making the plan move forward; troops are mobilizing as we speak.”  “Any new missions?”  “No. You’ve been given hospital leave for about a week, not that you’re hurt badly, but after your nicely executed excursion, they think it’s best that you… Rest.”  “Oh, is that what improvising is called now?”  “Improvising? We had what we needed, and you had to go off on your little assassination attempt and risk the whole plan!”  “Well,” I grinned, “It worked, didn’t it?”  “Sure did…” She grinned back for a second, before going back to the same business look. “Seriously though. That was stupid. And that escape was even stupider; your training taught you better. You know how to get on the ladder without getting injured.”  “Or do I?” Lilia rolled her eyes. “Apparently not. Anyways, the superiors are discussing something about you. I don’t know what it is, but they don’t appear pleased, and it might have something to do with your hospital leave. Thought you might want a warning.”  “Oh. Thanks.”  “Yeah. Anyway, I still have work to do, so I’ll see you later. Just thought you could use the update, otherwise, you’ll start improvising again. Stay put.” She walked away, back straight as a board. You’d think she’d grown up a soldier, the way she moved with such purpose and form. Always so composed.  I inspected the scrapes I’d obtained, which were about as bad as I suspected. Just scrapes, not deep at all and no sign of infection. I could be out and on another mission in a day or two, which was bad.  If I had a week, someone had some serious problems to sort out with me…