We Did It! Didn't we?
“Evac team is at the stairwell, surrounding teams find a fallen and stand by them. Once the evac team is outside you will cover them to the 20-meter mark, then pick up your fallen and retreat to the front gates where we have cars waiting.” Matteo’s comforting voice comes through my ears. The inside of the house is empty, the front doors come into view which are wide open and there’s still men firing shots but at a lot less of a rapid rate. Most people are hiding behind objects and structures now, only poking their heads out to fire.
“Evac team is approaching the front doors. Surrounding teams prepare to cover.”
Luciano exits first and holds his hand up to the rest of us to wait. He grabs a gun from a guard by the door, steps out and three shots fire in his direction. Stepping back just in time as more shots fire out, this time not at him.
“Maybe we should go out the back door.” Tony says to me. It’s risky either way, out the front we have men and cars waiting at the end of the driveway. We have no eyes out the back and none of our guys, and no cars, and we would have to make it through the woods.
“No, our team needs the assistance of our guys, we won’t make it through the bushland like this.” He nods at me.
“Ready on three”, Matteo says. And I repeat the countdown out loud for Luciano.
“Go go go!”
It's a mad dash, Jeremy and Hays are slowed down by the bodies they’re carrying. Luciano holds himself well but stays together with the group as we turn our backs to each other and form a circle to watch from every angle. We move together fluidly, Gregorys head has cleared enough for him to stand on his own next to Tony and I. I see one guard poke his head out behind a car and quickly throw a dagger at his dumb face. Gregory shoots another, from behind the side of the building. Our men surrounding us stay crouched, most are close to a body of another one of our men.
“Five more meters, everyone prepare to retreat.” Matteo says. One, two, three, I count in my head. Just as we hit five meters, “retreat!” and everyone stands and grabs a body, running towards us. I spot Jeremy’s father with one guy around his shoulders and neck and another he’s dragging under his arms, walking backwards swiftly as possible. I see a guard in front of him emerge from the pillar he was hiding behind and he points his gun straight at Jeremy’s father. Fuck, no. I’m out of knives at his point, the dart won't hit that far. I make a split second decision and split from the group, running as fast as I can.
“Ariana! No!” Tony yells and causes the guard to look at me. He moves his gun just as I barrel into him with my shoulder. BANG! Another shot rings out. I grab his ugly head with two hands, straddling his body and with all my strength I start slamming his head onto the ground until I hear the unmissable crunch of skull and then the mushing sound of his brain turning into minced meat.
“He’s dead Honey, we’ve got to go!” Tony pulls me back. I look over to see Jeremy’s day offloading one guy to Gregory and we run to catch up to them and make it down the driveway where we all pile into vans and cars waiting.
We did it!
I don’t even register who else is in our car until its flying down the road in a convoy.
“Fucking hell, honey, please don’t ever do anything like that ever again.” Tony says, kissing my forehead and pulling me close to him.
“A thankyou for saving our damsel in distress asses, would do just fine, Tony.”
He chuckles and I register Luciano’s Nonno in the front seat. He looks at me through the rearview mirror, smiling at first and then scrunching his eyebrows together.
“She’s bleeding. Did you get shot?”
“What?!” Gregory says from my other side and turns me toward him. I look down and yep, that would be a lot of blood…fuck. The adrenaline must of prevented me from feeling it.
“Lay her down, we need to see where the blood is coming from!” Gregory says as Tony starts pulling off my shirt and laying my head in his lap.
“FUCK!” Tony curses out. One of the guards from the front seat hands his shirt to Gregory who tears in and starts wrapping it around my waist with Tony’s help. Everything’s getting a little blurry now…maybe I should just rest my eyes for a second.
“Honey, honey, hey, Ariana, you’ve got to keep your eyes open for me. Come on now!” He’s squeezing my hand and I’m attempting to squeeze back but my body is starting to feel really warm everywhere. “The baby, Tony..” I whisper out before I close my eyes and fall into the realm of nothing.
Luciano.
I jump into the car with Jeremy, Luca, Hays and Ramen. I notice the driver to be one of my Nonno’s cousins. What the hell is this old guy doing? He should be retired. Luca wakes up once we’re on the road. Ramen should be out for a few hours with the drugs.
“Where’s Ariana?” Luca mumbles, holding his head.
“I saw her get into the car behind us with your dad and Tony. She’s safe.”
“We all made it out?”
“We did. Our girl saved us.”
“I helped! And by the way you own me one for carrying your naked ass out over my shoulder like that. You weight a bloody ton!” Jeremy says.
“Thank you, brother…I might consider letting you off the hook for allowing Ariana to go in there like that.” He pales slightly.
“There’s no telling that woman…you should know that!”
“Hey where are we going?” I ask the driver.
“To your Nonno’s, that’s where the base has been set up. They’ve got doctors waiting to treat the wounded and he’ll want to talk to you to discuss what’s happened.”
I nod and watch as the roads become familiar, eventually opening up to my Nonno’s large driveway. There’s ten men on the gates who check the car and mark off who’s inside before they let us through.
“Luciano! Luca!” Thank heavens you’re alright! Where’s Ariana and Tony?” My Nonna says as she checks us over.
“They were in the car behind us. That should be them there.” I say looking down the driveway at the next car passing the gate. The car doesn’t slow but actually drives quicker and squids on the gravel as it pulls up in front of us. Nonno jumps out and runs to the back door. When it opens, I see Gregory passing Ariana out to Nonno. He lifts he effortlessly and starts running side. She's not wearing a shirt, just a drab of material wrapped around her waist and bloody covers her stomach. One of my men get out of the front of the car and I see he must have given his shirt to her.
“What happened?!” I ask Nonno frantically, but he doesn’t stop. I turn around to see Luca’s mother embracing Gregory and ask him what’s going on. Tony rounds the car and starts up the stairs.
“What happened?!” He stops for a second. “She got shot.” Madre gasps beside me and I put my arm around her to steady her buckling knees.
"Luciano, she's pregnant."
"I know, Madre, I know..." I say, placing a kiss on her temple and leading her inside.