Missing You

Chapter Twelve: It All Goes Wrong

The week before-

Draven and his team took seats on the plane as they were briefed on their mission. As they went through a plan of how to get the mission done, for a brief moment he thought of Nina. Jinx snapped his fingers in front of his face, “Shadow, you with us man?”

He nodded, “I’m here.”

They continued their plan until they knew it inside and out. After, they were told to get some sleep as they would be parachuting into their target territory in four hours and in the dark. Draven knew that when they said that sleep would probably elude them for a good seventy-two hours. He sat back and put on some music and dozed. Before he knew he was being shaken awake to get ready to do a Halo jump. As he went through the motions of preparing and equipment checking, he was listening to Crowder “Crushing Snakes” and turned up the beat enough that it caught in their headsets. He noticed that everyone was jamming to the song with head nods. He listened to the lyrics and that their mission would be quick, and efficient and they would all get out safely.

Eventually, the back opened, and they saw their transport buggy get released into the night. He was signaled two minutes and got in position. As the music continued to blare as they were getting read to jump, he handed over his bag of identification including his phone to be kept for safety until they returned. He made sure his face covering was on to hide his face and then placed his helmet on. One by one he watched Jinx, Radar and Freak jump, with Freak going backwards with a flip and Radar shouting “Cannon ball!” and drawing his knees to his chest as he jumped. Smirking, Draven got his signal and jumped. The darkness enveloped him as they free fell from the dark sky. As soon as he landed, he rolled and saw that his men were helping rid each other of their gear while one took point as lookout. Quietly, they gathered their items and dislodged their buggy from the crate it was on and preparing it for a night drive.

Checking their comms, they did one more walk thru and weapons check before making their way to their destination in the quiet buggy with Jinx driving with night vision goggles on, as they all did. Some time later, they found their mission location in the middle of the desert and killed the engine. They did some recon on the spot to see how many men were on patrol and in the compound. Splitting up, Draven and Freak took one side, while Jinx and Radar took the other. From what they could see, there were three men on patrol and thermal readings were showing two more inside and one person in a room by themselves. Radar said quietly, “I count three men on patrol, two more inside, and our target in the back room.”

Draven responded just as quietly, “Slowly and quietly take the three on patrol out.”

A few second later, Draven and Freak saw a body drop, then as another went to check on him, he dropped, and just as the third one was going to sound the alarm, he dropped to.

Radar said, “Subjects down.”

Draven then said, “Hold your position.”

They waited a few minutes to see if the two inside noticed. Draven turned to Freak, “Kill their lights and comms.” He nodded and quietly got up from his hiding position and made his way over in the dark. “Cover him lads.” They watched him go to their generator and cut it. Radar then took out the two men that started their way outside quietly and easily. “Move in,” Draven said. Together they all moved towards the small compound and inside.

Being point, Draven moved inside, “Clear,” moving through the first room and to the back room. The lone person in there stood up and held up a hand as Draven flashed a flashlight at him, “Are you Cal Franks?”

“I am.”

Draven looked at Radar and Freak and made a signal as Jinx kept watch, “We are SEALS. We are here to take you home,” looking at his men, “Open the door.” Radar and Freak opened the door and Cal limped out. “Are you okay there, Chief?” asked Radar.

“I twisted my ankle a while back and it’s been causing me some pain.”

“Are you good to run?”

“I’m good. I just want to go home.”

Jinx said quickly, “s**t. We have company. Kiss the booboos later, now is the time to leave gentlemen.”

“Let’s go,” Draven said.

They all quietly made it out of the compound and started making their way back to their buggy. Quietly, they left the compound area with their package in their possession. Radar held him firmly by the upper arm guiding him in the dark. They made it to their extraction point within minutes. Draven made the call to let them know they were ready. He got word back and cursed and threw his comms. “Sonofabitch!” he hissed.

“What’s up, Shadow?” Jinx asked.

“High winds. We won’t get extracted until tomorrow.”

Jinx looked at them, “Well get comfy lads. We are having a camp out.”

Radar looked back at him, “Let me get the marshmallows out for roasting,” which earned a small chuckle from the group.

Freak looked at Cal, “Let’s get a look at your ankle.” The others set up a perimeter and started watch. “Who are you that these people had you?” he asked.

Cal looked at him in the dark but still couldn’t see their faces with their face coverings on, “My dad is an arms dealer. They thought by taking me, he’d give them a large stock of weapons for me in exchange.”

“Fuckers,” wrapping his ankle, “How’d they get you?”

“I was backpacking in Milan. I went to the men’s room and when I stood at the stall, someone came up behind me and injected me with something. I came to in that cell.”

Radar said, “How’d you hurt your ankle again?” picking up on his story.

“Oh, I uh, tried to escape one day and tripped over my own two feet,” he said with a laugh.

Draven went to stand next to Jinx, and said quietly, “I don’t trust him. Keep a close eye on him. Have Radar check him for tracking.”

“Sir,” and went to whisper to Radar. Radar nodded and took out a small handheld device and went over to Cal and started scanning him.

“What are you doing?” Cal asked.

“Checking your temperature,” and continued to scan him. As he found something, he informed Draven. Draven went over, “Who’s your dad?”

“Caleb Franks. From Jackknife International.”

Draven knew to ask a coded question for confirmation, “What was the name of your childhood dog?”

“Fluffy,” he said without hesitation, “Because he had such a fluffy tail,” looking at the other men in hopes they would believe him. “Why are you asking me all these questions?”

Draven then made a signal and Radar and Freak held him down as Jinx took out his K-Bar knife and cut out the transponder hidden in his cuff of his pants. He looked it over, “It’s model que, kay, ex, two, they know where we are.”

“Fuck.”

“We have about five minutes before they show,” Jinx said.

“Cuff him, he’s still coming with us. Load up, we need to get to a new extraction point. Leave the transponder here. Let’s go.”

“What the hell is going on you guys?” Cal asked as Radar cuffed him and Freak held him immobile. They started dragging him roughly back to the buggy as he kept asking question after question. Eventually, they got him seated and buckled him. “My father is going to hear about this.”

Draven turned and used his hand forcibly on his throat as he pinned him against the metal head plate and growled, “Shut the f**k up. You aren’t Cal Franks because his childhood dog was not called Fluffy,” and turned to Radar, “Gag and blind him,” and turned back around, “Let’s get out of this f*****g s**t hole.”

Jinx put the buggy back in gear and started driving where Radar told him to go. Sure enough, just as they left, they could hear the engines of a few SUVs approaching.

“They won’t see us right now but come morning, they are going to be able to find us, boss,” Jinx said to Draven.

“I know. Just keep going. We need as much space between them and us.”

“You got it.”

They drove as fast as they could in the dark until they ran out of gas and then rigged it to explode at the right time. Grabbing their hostage, they started walking to a new extraction point. By morning, Draven got on the comms and provided an update on their situation and location. They were given a new extraction point but as they approached, they realized they already had company. Draven and Freak both took out a few men as they commandeered their truck and got in and out before anyone noticed. Draven got on the comms again for another extraction point. As a location was being given, they got a tail with bullets being sprayed at them.

“Return fire!” he shouted.

Both Radar and Jinx started opening fire to get the tail off of them. But for the one tail, there were four other vehicles behind them. As Freak started fish tailing, “I f*****g hate the dessert!” he hissed. Draven moved half his body out of the truck and fired a grenade that caused the lead car to flip and the others to crash into each other. That ended that fight. Draven got on the comms again and asked for another extraction point. When they arrived, they waited and kept an eye out for any hostiles in the area. An hour passed and no extraction.

Draven got on the comms and when it didn’t respond, he checked it out to see that it had gained a bullet and it had drained the battery. Throwing it, he muttered all sorts of curses. Jinx looked at him as he paced, “We are in the open. We need to get cover.”

Just as he said that a whole new parade of vehicles found their way over to them and a new fight was on. They took cover against a small cave and kept the fire fight going as long as they could.

“Weapons check,” Draven said to them.

Radar went first, “One claymore, one mag, ten bullets, and handgun left.”

Freak went, “One claymore, one grenade, one mag, five bullets and handgun.”

Jinx went, “One grenade, one mag, one bullet, handgun.”

Draven said, “One mag, seven bullets, handgun.”

Radar cursed, “f**k, we aren’t going to make it to morning. We didn’t prepare for a f*****g firefight!”

“Well, lads. We are either going home with our shields, or on it,” Draven said.

They looked at each other and knew he was right. The man that identified himself as Cal was laughing in his shoes. Jinx went over to him, “Shut the f**k up,” and hit him square in the jaw with his fist and watched as he fell to his back with a moan. Turning back to them, “This is what we signed up for, brothers. Let’s do it.”

They got in position and with the last of their ammunition, they made a stand. They were able to injure or incapacitated the men and made their way over to one of the covered trucks with the hostage in tow and quickly got out of dodge. Within the confines of the truck, they found a satellite phone and used it to relay their location. As hope was felt that they would be going home soon, it ended just as quickly when they found themselves at a barricade and surrounded. Without any ammunition left, they had no choice but to surrender. With one last look at each other, Draven made a signal and each of them slowly got out of the truck with their hands up.

The leader approached and said in Arabic, “Who’s in charge?”

Draven responded in Arabic, “I am.”

Then Jinx stepped forward, “No, I am.”

And Freak and Radar both stepped forward, “No. We are.”

The man that identified himself as Cal hopped out of the truck trying to get their attention. One of the other men went over to him and shot him point blank in the head. He smirked, and in broken English said, “Welcome to my country,” and then hit Draven with the butt of his automatic rifle and knocked him out. When he came to, he was in a cell in a facility. Sitting up, he realized his face covering was gone as were his gloves and gear. Looking around and sitting up, his team members were in the same cell with him. “How long have I been out?” seeing that they were each roughed up in some way and checking his forehead where he received the hit to find blood.

“A few hours.”

“Where are we?”

Jinx looked at him with a busted lip, “Best we can tell, somewhere outside of Baghdad. So literally, in the middle of nowhere.”

“Y’all okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Who’s the guy that took us?”

“All we know is the lead jefe is the fourth man down from the totem pole trying to prove himself,” said Radar.

“Yeah, I’ve seen him from some other intel missions,” said Jinx.

“Sorry, boss. Settle in. It looks like we are here for a long haul,” said Freak.

Draven groaned, “Fuck.”

“Yup. We are up a creek without a paddle,” said Radar.

Jinx laughed, “Again.”

They moaned, “Shut up.”

An hour later, three men came to their cell and opened the door, “You,” pointing to Jinx, “Let’s go.” The other two men pointed their guns at the others to keep them from charging them. Jinx held up his hands and stood up and did what they said. They pushed him forward and disappeared behind a door. Draven turned to Radar and Freak, “What do we know?” They proceeded to tell him what they saw once they arrived as they were blindfolded until they reached the compound. “Sorry, boss, we are outnumbered and outgunned at the moment,” said Freak.

Almost an hour and a half later, Jinx returned with forming bruises on his face and a finger dislocated. They threw him in the cell and grabbed Freak. Radar checked him out, “Ah, no more worse for the wear.”

“Yeah, but they dislocated my finger,” holding up his ring finger of his right hand.

“Oh, that, ah,” and popped Jinx’s finger back into place and watched as he grunted and pulled his hand to his chest. Radar then used a piece of clothing to tie his fingers together. Jinx then told them that they wanted his name, rank, serial number, who the guys are, and what their mission was. “The same ole same ole. They got nothin’ outta me.”

Another hour and half and Freak returned in the same condition with the same story. Radar was taken next. By the time he returned, the sun had long since set. “What the f**k took you so long honey?” Freak asked as they threw him in.

Radar landed with a thud on his side and laughed, “Sorry honey, traffic,” with a chuckle.

They then grabbed Draven, “Let’s go.” He roughly removed his arms, “I can f*****g walk on my own.”

They pushed him forward and thru the same door his teammates had been thru. (Put on We the Kingdom “Don’t Tread On Me”) As he walked, he tried to keep himself calm. The anxiety was nothing new, but the reality of his situation again in less than a month. He was really regretting taking on this mission. As he walked along a long corridor and then was pushed into a room with a wooden table and a chair. He was roughly pushed into the chair and tied to it. A few moments later the man from their initial encounter walked in. “Well, hello there. How are you? Can I get you some water?”

Draven kept his mouth shut.

“What’s your name?”

The man kept talking and trying to get him to talk, but Draven never said a word and actually tuned him out. He thought about everything else except answering his questions, including Nina and the life they would have when he got home. Eventually, things turned physical with his guards taking turns punching him wherever it landed. Then when he actually got sleepy, the man grabbed Draven by his jaw and said, “You’ll talk eventually. Put him back in with the others.”

Draven was pushed back into his cell with his team. He relayed what he knew, and they settled in for the night with Draven taking first watch. When the sun rose, the captures were back and threw them one plate of eggs and a jar of water. In broken English one said, “Sorry, we ate your toast,” laughing putting the last piece of bread in his mouth that was overgrown with a scraggly beard and had pieces of food sticking to it and walked out.

The eggs and water stayed there on the spot they landed until they came to get one of them to start all over again. And that is how their first week of captivity went. They threw them some sort of breakfast, waited an hour and then the interrogations started again. The men eventually started eating the breakfast and drinking the water. A few times each of them took turns eating the entire contents of the plate to see if they could throw up on their interrogators as a small payback. It worked a few times which just earned them a little longer interrogation and beating.

They did their best in captivity trying to keep their morale up with limited stories in case they were listening and small pranks on the guards. They made sure to try to keep each other healthy and render first aid when it was needed, even with their limited supplies. Each day they collected intel and at the end of the night with the last interrogation, they shared what they had learned but in their own coded language.

One night when their captures had heard of an American assault on a hostile territory some miles away, they had retaliated by going into the cell and targeting Draven because he was closest to the door. They were able to hold the others off from aiding him by pointing automatic rifles at them. They helplessly watched as they punched him until he was bleeding from his nose and mouth and then threw him on the ground when they were satisfied. As they walked away and slammed their cell door, Draven started laughing.

One of them turned around pointing his rifle at him, “You have something to say infidel?”

Draven drew himself up to his bars and started singing, “What do we do with a drunken sailor? What do we do with a drunken sailor? What do we do with a drunken sailor? Early in the morning!” They spat on the ground and turned to walk out. Freak, Radar, and Jinx all started singing with him as they had laughed at what he had started, “Way hay up she rises! Way hay up she rises! Way hay up she rises! Early in the morning!” The captures gave disgusted looks at them and walked out.

Draven sat down against the bars and breathed as he wiped at the blood on his face. “You okay over there, sir?” asked Freak. He waved at them as he waited for his body to calm from his attack.

One night after a pretty brutal day of interrogation, they each had a missing tooth from a forcible tooth pulling, Draven saw that they were losing hope. Each of them took a corner of their cell. He started to sing softly, “There I was on death row . . . guilty in the first degree . . . son of god hanging on a hill . . . hell was my destiny . . .” Slowly Jinx started to quietly join him from his place laying on the hard ground, “The crowd was shouting crucify . . . could’ve come from these lips of mine . . . the dirty shame was killing me . . . it would take a miracle to wash me clean . . .” Radar joined in as did Freak, “Then I read the red letters . . . and the ground began to shake . . . the prison walls started falling . . . and I became a free man that day.”

As they quietly sang Crowder “Red Letters”, he felt different. He felt slightly at peace as he came to terms with what Wesley had told him in his dream. When they stopped, they were quiet. Draven looked at them, “When I die here-” They argued with him that he wasn’t going to die. He looked at them, “Lads, we’ve been here for three weeks. Help isn’t coming. So, when they kill me, and you guys get the f**k out of here, tell my girl I love her. I will always love her. Whether it is in this life or the next.”

Jinx sat up, “We aren’t going to tell her s**t. Because you are going to get out of here to tell her yourself. We are all going to get out the hell of this f*****g hell hole.”

Three weeks after Helen and Draven’s sisters visited. Nina wasn’t feeling well one day as she got up to begin her routine. She just figured her sugars were off and went about her day. Later on that night as she dressed for her social dance club, she started feeling cramps like she was going to start her cycle. Grabbing a few small necessities, she drove herself to the club and parked. Resting a few minutes as the cramping was getting worse, she finally got out of the Jeep and walked in. She greeted everyone and immediately Jay and Piper noticed that she didn’t look well.

Jay looked at her, “Babes, are you sure you shouldn’t be home getting some rest? You look awful.”

“It’s just my cycle.”

Piper nodded, “Ugh, that is the worse. When you are trying to have fun and those cramps from hell rear their ugly head.”

Jay looked at her, “Well, let me get you something to drink. Maybe it’ll help.”

A few moments later as everyone else started to arrive, Jay came to the table with Conner and handed her a Stella Artois. Conner hugged her, “You okay? You look like shit.”

Nina hit his arm playfully, “Thanks for the words of encouragement.”

He held his hands up in surrender, “I’m just saying.”

“Come on, let’s dance guys,”

An eighty’s ballad started, Nelson “(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection”. They warmed up with partners to the song. On a turn, Nina lost her footing and rammed her hip into a table. Wincing, she held it and got back into step and continued to dance. After, she sat down to rest a few minutes and songs. As she nursed her beer, Conner had told them that a newcomer was coming to the group, and to her unfortunate surprise, he approached her. What surprised her was that the newcomer was none other than Michael “Fish” Locke as he had found his way into her social dance group. Conner told him about the dancing after running into him at the shared commissary, and he decided to join. He sat down next to Nina, “Hey, Nina. How are you doing tonight?”

She looked at his brown eyes, “Feeling off.”

“Ugh, I hate days like that.”

“Will, you excuse me? I need to run to the lady’s room,” wanting to avoid him.

Once she was in the safe haven of the restroom, she went to a stall and to her small surprise, she had gotten her cycle. What was a little alarming to her was that for the first day, it was a little heavy, which was an oddity for her. After fixing herself the way she needed to and checking her tender hip, she finally left the restroom. When she rejoined the table, she sipped at her beer and enjoyed the talk with the girls and ignored Michael’s comments or come ons, as she was not interested. Her thoughts, her heart, belonged to Draven.

As David Nail “Red Light” started, Fish took his chance and asked Nina to dance. She refused at first saying that she wasn’t feeling well. He turned to another of the girls and took her out on the dance floor. Occasionally, he would look over at Nina to see if she was watching him. His frustration grew when he realized that her attentions were always elsewhere.

As another song began, he went back to Nina to ask her to dance again as “Out of Reach” by Gabrielle played in the speakers. Smiling, he held his hand out, “Come on. You haven’t had one dance with me tonight.”

Against her better judgement, she gave him her hand and he took it as he led her out onto the dance floor. As he took frame, she realized all too soon that he was shortening his frame so that he could get closer to her. She was getting very uncomfortable with the way he was moving with her. His tried to take her hand to his chest at one point and she forced their arms back to frame. He again tried pulling her close and slipping a knee between hers, but she quickly put a stop to that. As he tried to pull her closer, she maintained her frame even as he tried to force her against her restraint. Finally, she had enough when he was able to get her a little closer and his hand went from her waist to her buttock. Nearly kneeing him in the balls, she roughly yanked her hands away from him and pushed him, giving him a look of disgust before turning to walk off the dance floor away from him.

He grabbed her arm to try and prevent her from leaving. At the first sign of his touch, her skin crawled with rejection. She turned and landed a punch to his midsection and as he fell to his knees as he wheezed having lost his breath, she pointed at him angrily, “Keep your hands off of me. Do not ever f*****g touch me again if you plan on having children in the future.”

He coughed at her, “You c**k tease!”

She looked at him with complete revulsion, “How could anyone be attracted to you much less flirt with you. And in case your deaf ears and dumb brain didn’t catch on,” she held up her left hand to show off her engagement ring, “I am engaged to be married.”

He slowly got up holding his midsection, “Last I heard, he was on mission and he nor his team had checked in with headquarters in a while. Are you sure he is coming back?”

“If you know what is good for you, you will never mention or talk to me ever again about Draven.”

He smirked, “We’ll see. Won’t we.”

She looked at him, “f**k you,” and turned to walk away. Both Piper and Jay her in the state she was in, and they decided to depart for dinner like they normally do. As Nina neared her Jeep, she felt lightheaded and then darkness.