Bound by Shadows

Chapter 6

Several hours later, Gabriel’s world was a haze of darkness and disorientation. A sense of urgency tried to permeate his brain, but his mind was a jumbled mess, struggling to piece together the fragments of reality. Faint whispers of consciousness teased him, like distant voices in a foggy dream.

Minutes passed as his senses slowly stirred to life, reaching out to communicate with his bewildered brain. First, a dull throbbing pain pounded relentlessly in his head, like a distant drumbeat that refused to fade. It reverberated through every nerve, making him clench his jaw to suppress the discomfort.

The cool touch of the evening breeze caressed his heated, sweaty skin, causing a full-body shudder to grip him. He could feel the chill seeping into his bones, quivering through his body, making him acutely aware that he was out in the open at the mercy of mother nature. But the where and why he couldn’t fathom yet.

Amidst the chaos in his head, the unmistakable scent of spilled jet fuel invaded his nostrils, adding another layer of discomfort to his senses. It was an acrid, bitter smell that further disoriented him, mingling with the rustle of leaves and the distant murmur of nature surrounding him.

With each passing moment, the barrier between consciousness and unconsciousness blurred. Gabriel could hear the distant echoes of a voice, unknowingly his own, like a faint whisper struggling to break through the fog. His mind grasped at those echoes, trying to make sense of them, yet they remained elusive, teasing him with fragments of meaning.

As the minutes ticked by, the pain in his head intensified, and the sense of urgency tugging at his consciousness also doubled. Gabriel could feel the weight of his body, heavy and uncooperative. Every movement was a colossal effort. He tried to open his eyes, but they resisted, as if reluctant to prove what he had already concluded. He was in trouble.

The pain persisted, and the doctor in him knew he couldn’t remain in this limbo forever. He had to open his eyes and figure out what was happening and how bad it was. He was certain that this was one circumstance where ignorance wasn’t bliss.

Slowly, painstakingly, his eyes fluttered open. Pain immediately flooded his head in relentless waves, but he fought to keep his eyes open. As Gabriel's vision cleared, he found himself in a nightmare of chaos and destruction.

A choked groan escaped his throat. He knew exactly where he was. Or rather, what he was in. The helicopter. That answered half the question of ‘where’ and thankfully, his brain quickly pieced together more information and he knew the ‘why’. The rescue of Danielle Marvick.

Gabriel blinked and turned his head slowly to really take in the damage. “s**t, Lorenzo. We gonna need a new helicopter,” he muttered before succumbing to a coughing fit.

Damn, coughing hurt, and it felt like he was about to huck out a lung and a rib. Gabriel grabbed for the harness and kevlar vest and opened the straps, desperate to get more air into his starved lungs.

When he finally stopped trying to expel his respiratory organs, tears ran down his eyes. He tentatively pressed against his ribs, just to be sure they were still in place. s**t. Gabriel closed his eyes for a second and tried to calm himself.

He was alive, and though his body ached, he reminded himself that as long as he could still breathe, everything would be okay. With that in mind, he opened his eyes to study his situation again.

The once state-of-the-art interior of the helicopter now resembled a war zone. Twisted metal and shattered glass surrounded him, evidence of the violent impact that had ripped through the aircraft.

Branches, like skeletal fingers, protruded from the missing windows, as if the trees themselves had reached out to grasp the helicopter and drag it down to the ground. Man versus nature. Nature had definitely won this round, he thought in a daze. But then he remembered that the trees had a helping hand of bullets.

Recalling the heavy fire that had greeted him on the way to the clearing, Gabriel’s gaze drifted to the control panel, suddenly desperate to get hold of his friends. But one look already told him his situation was worse than he thought. The once crucial link between him and his friends was now a jumble of broken dials and cracked screens.

Still, he reached out to see if anything was still miraculously working. Each movement he made was a painstaking endeavor, as though his body were resisting and begging him to return to unconsciousness, pleading for respite from the agony. But despite the pain, he couldn’t afford to succumb to the darkness that beckoned him. He had to find the strength to push forward, assess the situation, and locate his friends.

After much effort, his fingers touched the controls. He flipped switches and turned dials, but everything looked dead. However, desperation still made him try. He frantically readjusted the broken headphones over his head and tried to make contact with the others. “Lorenzo… Trick, can anyone hear me?” he croaked out, his voice wavering with both pain and hope. “Guys?”

No response came, and a sense of isolation settled over him like a heavy fog. Questions swamped him. Had they made it to safety despite his inability to get them out? There had been a backup plan, he remembered. The Wex brothers were supposed to get them out if anything happened to the helicopter. Had it worked? And if his friends were safe, were they looking for him now?

Gabriel was sure they were looking for him. But he also knew he couldn’t sit around and wait. Definitely not in a mangled helicopter with leaking fuel, just waiting for a spark to blow up and finish the job the bullets had started.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he attempted to release himself from the confines of the twisted metal and debris that encased him. He moved his left leg and immediately regretted it. A shout of pain left his lips before Gabriel slumped back in his mangled seat, heaving heavily and feeling a fresh sheen of sweat break out over his skin.

Gabriel’s eyes darted down and, for the first time, noticed the rip in his trousers. He couldn’t see the injury, but blood had already soaked the material enough to worry him about bleeding out. He needed to get out of the wreckage. Now.

With each movement, pain gnawed at him like a relentless predator. But he ignored the discomfort, driven by a fierce determination to survive and to reunite with his family.

The chilly breeze of a setting sun seemed to pierce through his clothes, making him shiver as he struggled to free himself. Then finally, after what felt like the longest crawl out of a cave, he broke free from the wreckage. Gabriel pushed himself up and stood on unsteady legs, favoring his right. He surveyed the surrounding scene.

The setting sun painted the sky above the tree canopies with hues of pink and orange, but the beauty of it all was lost in the chaos of the crash. His breath hitched as he realized the extent of the damage. It was almost hard to believe he had survived that. And it further emphasized just how f****d he was. This was beyond bad.

Gabriel was stranded in the heart of nowhere, miles away from civilization and his family. The realization sent a chill down his spine. The last time Edward and Trey had been in a somewhat similar situation, they almost hadn’t made it back alive. But at least they had been together. Gabriel was alone, surrounded by nothing but trees. But he couldn’t afford to let fear consume him. He had to act, face the harsh reality, and find a way out of this desperate situation.

Stumbling away from the crumbled debris, pain pulsed through his body, reminding him he needed to take care of himself before he formulated any sort of plan. He looked around the darkening scene, searching for anything useful.

Just then, amidst the wreckage, Gabriel’s eyes caught a glimpse of his bag. It was like a glimmer of hope in the middle of the nightmare. With painstaking effort, he reached for it, his fingers brushing against the familiar texture of the bag’s strap. As he pulled it closer, however, he noticed that it had somehow sprung open during the crash, spilling its contents onto the forest floor.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Gabriel cried out. Couldn’t one thing go right?