Read LZR-1143: Redemption for Free Online Page B

gates of hell.
    Our weapons waited in the chopper, and we turned once more as the general stopped walking, raising his voice to be heard over the slowly increasing rotor blades.
    “I was never one to put much stock in the usefulness of celebrities, Mr. McKnight. But I will say this—I think you might be able to pull this off. I wish you both well, and may God be with you both. Stay safe, and no pressure or anything, but… we’re all counting on you. We need to figure out how to beat this thing, and get back on our feet, and that means beating what’s inside you right now.”
    He raised his hand and made a rotating gesture and the blades spun faster as the pilots responded to his order by spooling up the turbines.
    “Godspeed!” he said, not turning around as he walked away into the mist, disappearing before he reached the access door.
    We quickly strapped into the seats and donned the internal headsets over our balaclavas. Our two escorts, a pair of Rangers named Clifton and Rhodes—I wasn’t even sure which was which—sat on either side of the cabin. The smaller of the two men—Clifton, I thought—smiled largely and extended his hand.
    “Glad to meet you, sir. Seen all your movies, and heard about some of your recent shit. Pleased to be in on this shit with you.” He blew a bubble in the chewing gum in his mouth, and licked the residue from his thick beard.
    “Even if you are crazier than honey skivvies at a bee farm.”
    A what? In a where?
    I needed to get out more.
    The large man, also sporting a thick beard, simply stared at us as the helo rose slowly from the roof, fog split by the blades and then quickly merging back together as we tilted forward with a lurch and moved toward what I could only assume was the river.
    It was surreal, the sense of floating through white clouds with nothing above or below, when the whole time we knew exactly what awaited us below. Millions of creatures, bent on ripping the flesh from our bones and moving on to the next human being until no more of us were left.
    My thoughts drifted to Ky, and I wished for her safety, and her sanity. We were all she knew, and now, just because of a fit of teenage acting out, she had missed seeing us off. I resigned myself to the fact that we would probably never see her again, but I felt comfortable in her safety. If anything in the world would survive, it was the building behind us.
    As we passed a certain point over what was likely the river, we could see a faint glow of red and orange on the right hand side of the helicopter, and we knew it was the still-spewing gas pouring from the 14th Street bridge. Somewhere ahead of us was another still-burning fire, casting light and heat on a larger area on the other side of the river.
    Beside me, Kate watched the pilots, grim faced and concentrated, as they stared at a heads-up display that gave them a readout of altitude and velocity. A GPS unit gave precise coordinates as they sought to locate a small landing spot on an abandoned island in the middle of a river covered in fog. I leaned back against the hard seat back and thanked god for the taxes I had paid to train these guys.
    The chopper lurched once, then again, harder. The pilots moved their hands quickly on the controls and I looked to the sides, frantically, then back to Kate, who was audibly cursing softly under her breath. My eyes fell on the large man across from me who had not moved, nor spoken. Slowly, one eyelid came down and back up again in a slow-motion wink. Then he smiled.
    “Done this before, have you?” I asked.
    He just smiled and closed his eyes, as if sleeping.
    “We were rotated back from Afghanistan right after this shit happened, man,” the slightly feral soldier said loudly, popping another bubble. “We’ve been in two helo crashes together. One pretty bad. Ain’t no thing, a run in the fog. Kinda relaxing actually.”
    “You see these things there? In Afghanistan?”
    He nodded, leaning forward.
    “Just once.