Read Day One (Book 2): Choices for Free Online Page B

nine hundred pounds of equipment that was probably going to weigh me down and get me killed, the faint thump of something in the sky called my attention. I looked, expecting to see another of the pencil shaped skyscrapers falling to earth in a cloud of dusty debris, but instead my eyes caught something much smaller growing closer.
    The air seemed to cower under the constant barrage of the approaching object, and within a few seconds I could see that it was a smaller helicopter than the one that currently sat on the flight line. It was shiny black with a bulbous nose, steep skids on either side and stubby tail with twin fins near the tail rotor.
    It approached and began to sink in altitude, as it slowed for landing. It swung sideways at the final moments, giving me a perfect picture of how big the aircraft was and sat down smoothly a hundred feet from the Huey. The rotors continued to turn, the turbine engine continued to bellow a rhythmic whine as hot exhaust fumes were forced out of the turbine nozzle just behind the main rotor blades. It was beautiful and I found myself, even under the strain from all my new gear, smiling at the sight before me.
    “That one, right there,” a voice stated to me and I turned my head from the helicopter to see Johnny standing a few feet away.
    “Come again,” I said.
    “That’s the one we’ll barrow,” he told me.
    “I thought you decided against the plan?” I asked snidely, although I was excited underneath that he had changed his mind.
    “I had issues with the Huey, and then when you told me Andrews was on to us, everything else just seemed to fall apart,” he told me as he watched the MD500D begin to wind down.
    “Issues with the Huey?” I asked.
    He nodded. “It takes two people to fly that damn thing, and with you having no flight experience, that would add to my tasks. But that bird right there can be flown easily by one person and is large enough for our stuff, us, and your son.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Three.
     
    The day wound out slowly. I went through the gear I had been issued and made sure I knew how to put everything on and made some small alterations. The last thing I needed was to be in a bad situation and have my gear betray me. We would already be risking so much just getting away from the base in one piece, so if we even managed that, I needed to ensure that there were no more hiccups to slow us down or even kill us.
    “I’ve gone over the layout of this place several hundreds of times and the only real threats I see to us when we take off, is in two separate locations,” Johnny said.
    “What threats are those?” I asked, looking up from trying to get the drop leg holster exactly where I wanted it to be.
    “Near the flight line there’s a machine gun nest with a fifty. If that thing comes up on us when we are taking off or already airborne… we’re toast,” he stated.
    “Then we’ll have to see to it that it doesn’t come up on us,” I replied. “What amount of flight training do you have exactly?”
    Johnny looked at me and smiled. “I use to test those things as they came off the production line in Texas. So, I’m more than familiar with their operation and what they are capable of doing, if we need to get that crazy.” He took a deep breath of the fresh air and looked toward the flight line. We had chosen to go through the gear outside and away from the security camera is our room. This way we could speak freely and not have to worry about someone watching us and hearing what we had decided to go through with.
    “My turn,” Johnny stated. “You are aware that if that fifty comes up on us, we are dead, right? There’s no going back, no asking for a second chance. They will throw everything they have at us in order to stop us… you need to know that.”
    “I’m aware of the risks,” I told him. “I would say that I even have more to lose than you, but that would be a lie. This is my son we are going