“Oh, shit,” Lucas “Huck” Finn muttered, using every trick he’d learned as a U.S. Army Ranger--particularly those in Jump school--to guide his parachute toward the drop zone he instinctively knew he was going to miss. Call it a sixth sense, a premonition, a damned psychic moment, hell he didn’t give a damn.
He just knew he was screwed.
And on a friggin’ training mission at that, one he was running point. Because he’d been thinking about his father again, a man he’d never even met. Why? Who knew? Curiosity? Closure? He didn’t have any idea, but he couldn’t deny the faceless parent had been on his mind a lot in recent months. He’d even begun making inquiries, trying to find out the identity of the man. No luck yet, but the PI he’d hired assured him that it was only a matter of time.
Cheeks burning, he hit the call button on the radio. “I’m north of the DZ,” he said tightly.
“North, sir?”
Bloody hell. “I’ve overshot the drop zone,” he clarified, mortification making his voice gruff. Two-hundred plus drops, HALO training--High Altitude, Low Opening--almost a decade of experience and, while he’d had some pretty scary things happen while stealthily floating through the skies for Uncle Sam, this was the first time in years he’d scuttled a training exercise. He’d landed in an eight-by-eight square of beach at high-tide between two rocky outcroppings amid enemy fire and still stuck the landing, for Pete’s sake. He swore again and struggled with the lines to pull himself back on target.
In vain, he knew. Still...
“You’re going to be in the trees, Major,” Dennis Jenkins told him, as if he didn’t know. Even if it wasn’t nearing midnight and even if he didn’t know every inch of Fort Benning, GA like the back of his hand, it was hard to miss the looming shadows of the tree tops reaching up from the ground like ragged fingers trying to catch him.
The last damn thing any paratrooper wanted to do was land in a tree--too many chances for injury--but in this case, given the rocky terrain, steep hills and valleys on this particular stretch of ground, something told him he’d be better off kissing an oak tree than landing on uncertain terra firma.
“I’m coming in,” Huck told him as the earth loomed ever closer.
“You want me to send a crew?”
“Hell, yeah. I don’t want to walk out of here, dammit.” He could cut himself free and get out of the tree, but hoofing it several miles back to the heart of the base in the dark was unnecessary. Doable, of course, but unnecessary.
“Roger that,” Jenkin’s said.
Huck tripped the switch on his flash light illuminating the bit of air right above his feet, trying to gauge the best place to come in.
Unfortunately there wasn’t one.
Trees, trees and more trees.
He swore again, worked the lines to slow his descent and drew his legs up in an attempt to keep them out of harms way. He felt the first branch scrape his thigh, a second scratch his face as he plunged into skinny pine tree. Soft wood, weak branches, he thought dimly as his parachute finally snagged and took hold, momentarily jerking him upward again, pushing the breath from his lungs.
Before he could take stock of the situation, he heard an ominous crack and was free-falling once more. His flashlight swung in an illuminated beam through the forest as he plunged downward. He felt his right arm break as he tumbled from branch to branch, a stinging sensation in his side--no doubt a puncture wound--then a horrible mind-blowing, gut-wrenching pain so intense it made his mind go white then black and then back to gray, and then another ominous crack as his knee struck another limb and bent at an unnatural angle.
Huck suddenly stopped falling, hovered upside down roughly ten feet from the ground. He could hear the hum of the jeep motor powering on in the distance. Under ordinary circumstances he would have pulled his knife and sliced the lines, but considering the extent of his injuries he knew better.
So much for walking out of here, he thought with bitter irony, struggling to stay conscious. His world faded in and out of focus and his strained, breathless curses turned the air blue around him. Given the stupid mistake he’d just made, he knew he would be lucky to ever walk again.
Years wasted, he thought fighting the pain, panic and blackness threatening to consume him.
Career over.
And with that thought...nothing.