Chapter 19

A myriad of alarms began to sound and the control button pads littered all over the helicopter's cock-pit began to blink red lights.

Deloria and the other crew began to panic and calls on the pilot to take proper control of the machine but the pilot too was preoccupied with a frantic punching of the buttons before him, blabbing some strange terminologies and turning the steering, all in a bid to stabilize the gunship to normalcy proved worthless.

Already, severe damage has been inflicted on its tail, throwing the main body off-balance as it dances violently mid-air, tossing its crew up and down and side-ways, even in their strife to maintain calmness, and then, finally, the helicopter went into hiatus before embarking on a mad descent to earth, crashing into a crocodile-infested lake with the force of an asteroid from outer space.

Sadly, the fallen helicopter did not float on top of the water but sank until it vanishes from the surface, producing bubbles at the spot of the crash.

In a dramatic resurgence, Major Constantine ejected himself from the water in a heroic feat with a loud gasp and struggled for a while to keep himself afloat before swimming to the river bank where he stayed and regain consciousness.

There were no serious injuries, only minor bruises on his forehead and a shredded sleeve. He was happy to have cheated death, but then, he realized that he was not the only one on the ill-fated chopper.

Swiftly, he set out on a rescue mission, plunging back into the water to search for Deloria but something terrible scared him out of it again; a massive sixteen-foot crocodile by his reckoning, pranced on an unidentified body with its razor-sharp teeth until it squeezes the remaining life out of it. Major Sebastien Constantine watched in horror as the beast devours its victim. He lets out a lame cry for help, and then out of nowhere, from a little distance from him, pops out Deloria's head from the water and began to struggle to keep herself above it. At first, Major Constantine feared that Deloria was the one being dismantled by the reptile, but his fears were unfounded. He swam across to her rapidly and help keep her afloat but did not stay long before pulling her out of the dangerous waters to safety.

Peril appears to have been subsisted but something menacing was waiting to collect their lives from them: the freezing temperatures. But as it appears, that was secondary, as his main concern was how to treat the multiple injuries sustained by Deloria.

"Are you alright?" He asked,

"How will I be alright when am grappling with pains on my thighs?"

"It is clear then that you cannot make it on your feet to Mrs Doherty's"

"no, I'll be fine."

"This way," he said. He held her on her waist for support and trod, one step at a time. He noticed she was shivering but have no remedy for that for now. They followed an unbeaten path in the forest that led them to the foot of the man that nearly killed Deloria in the cabin, who stood in their way in a camouflage uniform and had his face painted.

"Well well well!" It yells, "look where you've ended up after all the cowardly marathon race, right before my glorious presence, isn't that a divine arrangement?" Asked the notorious villain who trolls them bitterly. He kicked Major Constantine on his ass repeatedly. "Cant you defend yourself, soldier? It makes me feels like I was a bully." Constantine did not answer him immediately but was busy calculating how to bail himself from the behemoth.

"I will take a pound of flesh from you when time permits me." Said, Major Constantine.

The hulk, full of scorn for him, lets out a crackling roar. While he was still at it, he felt a rough tap on his shoulder from behind him.

"What do you want from me, bitch?" Asked the titan grudgingly.

"See what beautiful surprise I have for you." "Surprise? I hate to be surprised."

When finally he turned to see why she was tugging at his garment, Deloria drilled into his eye a sharp rib bone from the remains of a shark.

It took the behemoth some seconds to realize something foreign has been implanted into his eyeball. He rubs the spot with his fat hand and pulled out the object with a terrifying shriek and fell to the ground and wreathe in agony.

Deloria and Constantine made a clean escape to Mrs Doherty's dwelling only to find out that parts of the house have also been vandalized by the militia group and a significant portion of their cattle rustled away.

They led themselves into the house and found the couple nursing a gunshot wound on their dog. Doherty was full of sympathy at the dire condition the lovers found themselves in and deserted their K-9 to attend to them.

Mrs Doherty, first of all, prepared their wounds with a rich first aid took-kit.

"We heard it when they bombed your aircraft and thought you have been dead by now, but either of us to refused to go to the scene."

"That was the best decision you will take in this kind of situation," said Deloria, "you would have been dead by now if you did."

"Come along with me," said Mrs Doherty. She took them to the bathroom where they had a hot shower and a change of warm clothing. After that, Deloria settles at the fireplace for a coffee and invited Constantine to do the same but he told her not to worry about him.

He walks to the hanger and pulls off a heavy overall coat belonging to Mr Grocery and wears it. "Me Grocery," he said, " can I relieve you of that?" "You mean the gun?" "Yes, Mr Grocery." "Sure! But not this one."

Mr Grocery took him to an underground bunker to mini-armoury stuff with the sixties state of the art vintage guns: there was then double barrel pump action, Dane gun, AK-47s and a host of others.

"What do you think, Major?"

Constantine whistles at Mr Grocery's gun collection. "This is more than enough to fight a whole cavalry of army." Major Constantine grabs the double-barrel pump action gun and trains it at a deer's head hanged on the bunker's wall.

"A bunker buster," said Mr Grocery. "With this, you rest assured of not only downing aggressive humans but also capable of killing an aircraft carrier!"

"Sounds like Armageddon to me, Mr Grocery; I'll have it." "You have my blessings, Major."

They cart away large cartridges of ammunition in a duffel bag and thrusts themselves up the staircase and then to then to the living room where Mrs Doherty and Deloria sips coffee. Deloria has now fully recovered and is back to her boisterous self and raring to go.

"Am going with you," she said sternly. "No, you are not; stay behind and look after Mrs Doherty and have more from the cup of beverage to keep you warm. "No, Major," replied Deloria, almost screaming, "remember who I am! Me Grocery is the one who needs to stay behind and look after his wife."

Constantine stood his ground but Deloria refused to budge either. He was left with no choice but to grant her wishes. He moved closer to Mr Grocery and tells him, "I think am going to need that too," sticking his finger to the AK-47 he clamped to his chest. "You can go with the whole arsenal if you want, Major."

Me Grocery was then relieved from his weapon by Deloria who in turn inspected to make sure it's in good working condition. "If you are ready, I am ready too," she said but Constantine declined to speak to her. She moved closer to ask him why he was not talking to her and caught him eyeing a basket of sandwiches sitting invitingly on the dining table. Without saying a word, he walks up to it and snatched a handful from it and walks out with Deloria behind him.

"Hey, Major!" Doherty hurried after him to the outdoors and recommends that they use the horses for optimal mobility. "That would be kind of you, Mrs Doherty. Now, where are the horses?" "Come with me, I will take you to where they are kept."

She led them to a gigantic mill house down the lane and unlocked a towering door carved from an Oak tree. "There they are."

Five brown healthy-looking horses amidst a well-arranged stack of hay on one side and scores of huge wine kegs amassed at the far corner.

"Kay and Kodak are loyal boys," said Mrs Doherty while decorating them with the riding gears, "others are wild and not suitable for a mission like this. You may now have a test ride, guys."

"There is no time for a test ride; we are in a state of war," said Deloria as she saddles the horse and spurred her away. Before he follows suit, Major Constantine told Doherty when he was a teen, he used to be a good boy, that was before joining the military force, and that his friends used to take advantage of his simplicity for a weakness to cause discomfort in his life. Then one day, his father called him aside and said to him, "Son, if you continue this way, you will continue to be a pushover for the bullies, and that I may not last in the game of life. Next time anyone hits you, even if it were a play, whack them back with a blinding blow. And guess what, Mrs Doherty? It worked. Now I am saying this on your behalf: those bandits who mistook you for a doormat will realize how mistaken they were. Expect to see us in the evening time. If we did not return by that time, do not panic; we may be taking the fight to their doorsteps. You too should remain vigilant. Mrs Doherty watches them in admiration as the horses away with them into the forest.

They retraced their steps back to the scene of the helicopter wreckage with the least amount of caution. "We must locate and kill all of them today or they eliminate us, one after the other." Said Major Constantine while inspecting the bloody bone stuck into the giant's eye socket. He is supposed to be lying in the state right here but I wonder what went wrong. "They shouldn't be far away from here," said Deloria.

They wandered into the rolling hills and emerged at a point where they could see the rooftops of the holiday homes with no one at sight. They started to descent the sloppy hill that connects to a highway at a dangerous bend that they almost ran into an on-coming SUV conveying a family of five. The driver slammed in the breaks and hollered, "if you are heading to the settlement, you better turn and return to where you are coming from." Constantine waived at the youngsters watching him in awe and then said to their father, "we have a date with the nasty fellers, it is so important that we didn't want to miss." The man behind the wheel peered at Constantine with a terror-ridden face and then checked at the weapon in his hands and laughs. "If you think you are the boss here because you hold my great grandfather's kind of gun, then I will advise you to have a rethink because there are new bullies in town with tones of clouts that call the shots out there."

Deloria glanced at Constantine and whispered to him, "this man does not know who he is talking to. Thank you sir for the information; go ahead and we shall be right behind you." "You are most welcome, Miss!" said the 37 years old father of four and drove off.

While he drives, he peeps through his rear mirror and saw that Longoria and Constantine we're bulldozing their way up the settlement he warned them not to go.

"They will not go farther before they meet with their untimely death," said the man to his wife. They haven't gone a quarter of a mile when they heard a fierce gun exchange. "Honey, did you that? Haven't I predicted this moment?" "You did predict this moment, Nostradamus," said his jeering wife.

The macabre scene at the serene settlement is like a war scene; littered with corpses, with their brains blown out. The two lovers went from one cabin to the other, ransacking them in a special operation to flush out criminals. The house next to major Constantine's Chalet proved difficult to go in as rebels have taken charge of it.

They came under fire as they approached its vicinity, and a fatal gun duel ensued. Within five minutes of the encounter, eighteen casualties were recorded at the other camp, making the remaining few retreats into the forest.

The duo did not stop there, they gave the fleeing remnants a good chase until a significant number of them were gunned down. They are not happy that their mentor was not among their kill. "With him alive, they will have a good chance of regrouping and come back, even more, deadlier than before. Let's get back to base and lay in wait, maybe luck will run out of him and resurface, then, we can finish what we've not been able to accomplish." "Good thoughts, Longoria.

They were about to lock lips in merry-making when Major Constantine and his horse were abruptly brought down by shrapnels from a powerful mortar.