“I see buildings,” Mikey shouted as he pointed forward but before I could even look, my attention was diverted by the sound of an approaching military drone. It was gliding directly over us, just above the tree line. Mikey checked his watch. “They’re early.”
That’s what “shut it down” had been code for: Lock on our coordinates via the GPS in Mikey’s smartphone and relay those coordinates to Mikey’s government contacts, who were currently standing by to call in a drone strike if need be. And “shut it down” meant that was the case.
They were supposed to wait until we were clear of the target before the drone started firebombing, but that didn’t appear to be a luxury we could afford at the moment and the drone pilot must have been able to tell because he decided not to wait.
There was a flash of hot yellow light from behind us and then the world was all fire and horrific screams muffled by the heavy thud of falling trees. I have no idea how we cleared those woods alive other than to assume that the drone pilot must have been one damn good shot.
When we returned to the motel to regroup, Mikey pulled me aside to say that I had done a good job for my first day out in the field and that he was proud of me. I had to control my smile so that it didn’t turn into a full-on grin. The fact that my ears were still ringing and all I could smell was burning hair didn’t seem to matter so much anymore.
After that, Mikey announced that he was far too exhausted to drive and we all nodded in agreement, so he booked our rooms for another night. Then the four of us adjourned to our respective beds to pass out, or so I thought…
