Rebirth: President Fatah Escapes

He looked down as he felt something heavy on his legs. It was Marina, they"d bound her broken arms together and thrown her into the vehicle they were in right now. Seems they went for capturing them alive anyway.

He could hear them speak to each other, obviously p.i.s.sed about all it took to capture them. Alban couldn"t help but feel a bit good about himself, they"d managed to fend off five military vehicles for over two hours in a rapid chase to the border.

Suddenly, he noticed something was off. He didn"t see Daniel anywhere. He looked out the window and sure enough, there were the other beaten up cars driving beside them. He couldn"t see into them from the left side of the backseat, so he went on and asked his captors.

"What happened to my other teammate? Where is he?"

His captors in the front seat stopped their conversation to share a look, look at him and then burst out laughing. Their laughter poured out for a minute or so, so loud Marina stirred a bit in her sleep.

Alban looked at the two after they"d stopped laughing they"d simply gone back to their conversation. Their blatant disregard of his question angered him.

"Hey! Numbskulls! I asked where my teammate is. Where did you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds take him?!"

"Do you really want to know?" The one seated in the driver"s seat asked, not looking back to Alban.

Alban"s anger simmers down, the man"s voice held none of the mirth and vanity it did whilst he"d been laughing at Alban. Instead, there was a sternness present, easily matched by the man in the driver"s seat, and could be seen in their eyes through the rear-view mirror.

Alban gulped, forcing down the hard lump that"d formed in his throat, "Yes, yes I do. What happened to my friend?"

"The rocket blew off the back of your vehicle, there wasn"t much left of your friend. I"m sorry."

"Not much to be sorry for," the driver pitched in, "The world has gone to s.h.i.t, you Schelarians may not know with the boycott but in the last week? It"s been world war f.u.c.king three!"

The driver sounded very anxious, tense and weighed with a lot of thoughts but so was Alban at the moment, and he"d rather not listen to the wailings of another.

"Hey, take it, easy dude. Poor guy just lost his friend." His partner cautioned and at his words, the driver seemed to middle between an outburst and calming down.

They continued the drive in relative silence. They had nothing else to say to Alban, and he didn"t have any more questions either. It wouldn"t take a genius to know that he and Marina were going to be kept alive, taken care of and interrogated relentlessly until they served no further purpose.

He"d come to accept that. The mission had failed. Daniel was dead, Marina had two broken arms and was probably more messed up on the inside than he could see. There was no out for them. There was no rescue, they were expendable pieces to Schelar, the government would look for other means to win the war, with the army equipped with military-grade weaponry, they wouldn"t be as desperate.

So now, with nothing left to live for, with nothing else, being of matter to him, he could begin immersing himself in self-pity, survivor"s guilt and more depressing and grief-ridden thoughts.

Alban lacked the proper perception of time to tell how long he"d been in trance. But once he"d come to, out of his heavy thoughts, Marina"s head still laid heavy on his lap and the car they were in had begun to slow down.

There was a loud repet.i.tive noise he recognized but was too groggy to pin, his captors had again gotten their mirth back, no trace of the solemn tones they used to p.r.o.nounce Daniel dead. They were chattering on about the noise that seemed to emanate from all around them.

"Ah, finally moving again are you?" the one who sat in the front pa.s.senger"s seat spoke, looking at him through the rear-view mirror, "You hear that?" He asked, pointing upwards, "That"s our ride, we were the first to get our paws on you lot, and as the general promised, we"d be exempted from training for a week and will be put under review for a promotion." He was obviously very happy about his achievements; his legs were restless.

Alban ignored his grinning, looking out the window to peek a look at the chopper that was to permanently seal his fate as a name under casualties. There were two, he noticed, but then he noticed something else and as soon as he did the road in front of them exploded as something crashed into the ground speedily.

The car screeched to a desperate stop, jerking him forward and throwing Marina off his lap and onto the floor of the car.

There are screams all around, everyone shouting out curses and questions. The man in the driver"s made to step out of the car, but his partner stopped him, signalling to the rocket launcher between his feet.

"I don"t know how but these b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s got pa.s.sed the frontlines and are here for them," the panic in their eyes translated into hope for Alban. "They don"t know which car has their prizes, they won"t attack blindly, use the car as a shield."

Alban"s eyes widened, the man was smart, it made sense that they"d chosen to attack their front and not harm any of the vehicles, they were hoping to get in some panic and flush them out!

Unfortunately for Alban, none of the cars had their men step out. Aside from the continuous chop of the copters, there was silence.

And then, "Ready?"

"Ready."

Alban"s two captors rolled out of the car, kneeling beside it and taking steady aim of the choppers.

"AHHHHH!!" with a war cry they launched their attack, the rockets flying fast and steady at the swerving choppers until,

BOOOM!

One of the choppers had taken down the flying rocket with the mounted guns but another had been hit. Alban"s eyes popped out dangerously as he watched the chopper circle round and round, some men, already on fire opting to jump ship before it inevitably crashed into the ground with a thunderous explosion.

Another deafening sound took his attention, the drilling fire of the last chopper. Now men were hurriedly roping down the chopper, the erratic and merciless fire of the chopper onto the ground around the cars provided some cover fire as Alban"s captors hurriedly jumped back in.
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"s.h.i.t! We"re screwed!" the driver cursed, tossing the unarmed launcher away.

They were out of ammo it seemed.

Alban couldn"t help but smile as he watched his countrymen take to the ground, spreading out and covering the area around them.

"You think you"ve been saved don"t you!?" The driver shouted at him, his mouth was drooling as though his anger was synonymous to the amount of saliva he produced.

He took hold of Alban, setting a gun to his head, "You think you"re saved huh? Punk!"

"Hey, man chill out. Don"t do anything rash," his partner called out, he too looked confused and hopeless. Just like Alban was a few moments ago.

"Shut up!" He unlocked the door beside Alban and nudged him out with the gun, "Get out and kneel!"

Alban complied, not exactly willing to give up his life just yet with so much hope so close by. As he fell to the ground hands bound, he had no other choice but to worm his way into a kneeling position. Not too soon, he felt the handgun placed against his head again, pushing it forward.

The crunching boots of the Schelarian military forces came to a stop. From what Alban could see, their leader had raised his hands. Negotiations. He couldn"t help but sigh at how soft this was. "Just kill them all already!" he thought.

"Get back up in that chopper and go the way you came or else I blow his brains out!" The driver screamed out of the beating rotors of the chopper.

Alban let out a light scoff, "what an outrageous demand."

"Here"s our counter-offer," the captain spoke out, loud, firm and commanding, speaking to all those willing to hear, all those who could listen, "You give us our man and you all get to live long enough to see your families when you get back home."

"I said get back into the chopper or I blow his BRAINS out!" now Alban was really scared for his life, with negotiations with unstable parties, people ended up getting hurt. In this case, he was people. And the way the gun shook in the driver"s hand scared him.

He could see the Captain shift his weight and balance his hands on his waists, "Last chance buddy. You all get to live IF you give us our man."

"And I said, GET ON THE CHO-"

There was a resounding chorus of gunfire. The driver was silent and the pressure of a gun on his head was gone.

Alban looked around to discover that every single one of his captors, the ones in other cars and even the one that had told him Daniel was dead…was now dead.

He looked to the Captain, the man was a young but thoroughly gruff man, he had a strong build further emphasized by the black military garb he wore. His left hand was raised in the air in a fist, he"d given the order.

The Captain lends his hand out to him, which he graciously accepts, dusting off the whole pile of dirt, blood and more that was on him.

"You okay, solider?" The Captain asks. Alban"s only reply is a straight-face, "Right, sorry about that." He says bashfully. Looking around at his men scramble around looking for anyone that may have survived or hidden.

"You are Daniel or Alban."

At the mention of Daniel, Alban"s mood noticeably sours, but the Captain presses on, if only with his demeanour of extreme urgency.

"Alban," he answered.

"Good, you"re the leader. Where is the package?"

Alban"s eyes widen at the question. "The package? s.h.i.t"

"It was in the car, we got hit and tumbled, we woke up with these men." He hurriedly explained.

The Captain"s eyes narrowed and with a huff, he sighed, "We need that package. Come on onboard, you"ll be reporting to the President once we get back."

"Great, another thing for me to worry about, the President? Really?!"

"Your friend is in the chopper, hurry up solider." The Captain screamed, pacing away as the chopper finally touched the ground for them to get in.

Once they did, he took a good look at Marina. They"d laid her on the stretcher and unbound her hands. She still looked horrible. And Alban wondered if she"d live to even see Schelar again.

As they took off, Alban once again entered a trance, thoughts of guilt and hate yet again filled his mind. Marina, Daniel and possibly the package they did it all for.

If they didn"t find it, everything would have been for nought.