Eden (36 page)

Noah orchestrates the retreat in waves, while supplying covering fire as his team descends. He is the last of his wave to make it down the side of the mountain, rappelling at full speed, tethered only by a rope, which he holds with one hand while firing his assault rifle with the other. With everyone now at the base of the mountain, and just seconds before the incoming airstrike, Big Mac reports five KIAs and three wounded from his half, while Noah confirms three dead and two wounded in his. During the exchange, Mac is shot in the back and falls into Noah’s arms. He grabs the big man in a fireman’s carry, and waits for the bombs to drop, so he can take his friend along with the other dead and wounded to the evacuation point, so no one is left behind.

While Noah watches the incoming jets scream through the air, he sounds the retreat. In a cruel twist, what should have been their cover betrays them. A wayward rocket lands close by, killing a dozen from his squadron and injuring countless more in the process. They still need to run through the valley under a hail of enemy bullets and mortar shells. By the time they finally evacuate, forty-two men and women in his command are dead. Of those forty-two, three unfortunate souls are captured during the retreat and summarily tortured and executed, their last moments broadcast to the world, adding further insult to their collective misery.

It would be the single greatest regret of Noah’s life, for which he would never forgive himself. He would have gladly given his life for the sake of theirs, but as it was, he lived on. Of the eight who made it out, he was the only one who did not sustain an injury. The other seven all suffered severe wounds, whether the loss of a limb or an eye, no one walked away without losing something. For Noah, it was his stomach for war and, to a lesser degree, his honor. It was shortly after the failed mission that he decided he would no longer follow orders to send innocent men and women to die when his instincts told him otherwise. He would make it his life’s work to find out what went wrong during the raid and to avenge all the heroes lost that bloody night in Afghanistan.

The wound, while still fresh, feels so long ago, as if in a different life, in another time — which makes all that has happened since he retired all the more maddening. No matter what he does, and no matter how far he runs, death is always chasing him, even as he remains a step ahead. He recalls a fleeting dream he had during the flight of 316, just moments before it crashed. In it, his father handed him a wooden box and asked him if he knew what his deepest regret was.

Noah sees now that the dream was about him and his regret and had absolutely nothing to do with his father. The realization renews the sadness and the pain he still feels over the loss of his hero, Jackson, which continues to haunt him.

He glances toward Mia, slumped over and leaning hard against the glass, dead asleep. Drained of her reserves, she’s now free to rest her beautiful, tortured mind. He extends his arm and eases her back into the seat. He looks to the road ahead, unobstructed as far as his enabled eyes can see. The truck plows through piles of ash, kicking up a maelstrom of smoke and cinder, leaving a trailing wave of dust in its wake. He looks to the side mirror and, through the clouds of ash, the rabid mob continues to give chase by the hundreds, running through the fields and the surrounding woods like a pack of jackals stalking their prey. Their ear-piercing shrills echo in the night.

His gut tells him there is more to this than naked aggression, as proved by their willingness to wait. If they were motivated only by bloodlust, they could have killed them easily when they first entered the town but they didn’t.
Why?
The creatures are a mystery, one that he will continue to ponder as he races the semi from the belly of the beast.

His plan now is to drive out the horde, pulling them farther from the village like the Pied Piper in the night. His greatest hope is that Evelyn and the others are far away from this madness and that their passage to Randall’s will be easier now. He knows of course that this is only a fool’s hope.

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