The sun shone a bright beige ray of light down toward a torn and sooty inverted United States banner, hanging on a worn flagpole inside a multistory building. The overall stillness of the area, being only disturbed by the audible wavering of the flag in the wind. And far into the distance were two skyscrapers, both of them being ravaged from months of constant punishment from the sandstorms they have been receiving.
But the odd serenity of the area was soon violated by a UH-60 Black Hawk that quickly roared past it.
“I can’t shake this guy, Walker!” the pilot of the UH-60 screamed.
A sudden barrage of gunfire emanated from within the tactical transport helicopter.
“Hit the brakes and keep her steady!” The man presumed to be Walker ordered the pilot.
All of a sudden, a MH-6 Little Bird swiftly bypassed the flagpole, hot on the trail of the Black Hawk.
“Are you out of your mind?!” the pilot exclaimed.
The Little Bird then fired two AIM-9 Sidewinders intended for the Black Hawk, only to have them miss and detonate onto an already ruined skyscraper.
“Trust me,” Walker assured the pilot.
Doing what the man told him to, the pilot decelerated the helicopter, stabilizing it so it would be easier to fire upon the enemy helicopter. Another volley of 7.62 millimeter caliber rounds were discharged from inside the transport helicopter, penetrating the Little Bird’s armor and causing its rear engine to burst into flames and smoke. But it was still not enough to knock the pursuer out of the sky.
Even with its already heavily damaged interior, the Little Bird kept on chasing its target. This proved fatal for its lone occupant when one last burst from the mounted M134 Minigun from the interior of the Black Hawk finished off its pursuer. The Little Bird’s rear engine exploded causing it to fly out of control and hurtle into the depths of the desert ruined city.
“Got him,” Walker announced, his fingers still itching to push the minigun’s twin gray buttons.
“Wasn’t the last of ‘em!” said one of the occupiers of the Black Hawk.
“I see ‘em!”
A new wave of enemy Little Birds came into Walker’s view, prompting him to fire the nearest hostile contact.
After being peppered by Walker’s minigun, the first Little Bird escaped the hail storm by steering itself away from the Black Hawk. Walker then pointed the mounted gun at his new target, another enemy chopper.
The hostile Little Bird was sprayed by countless amount of lead from Walker’s minigun as it flew over a sand filled swimming pool on the roof of a multistory building. A daunting scream was then heard when one of the helicopter’s occupants was shot off from his seat and into the unfathomable sands below. Fearing for his doom, the Little Bird’s pilot attempted to direct the chopper away from the threat, but not before its engine blew up causing the helicopter to crash into a building not far ahead from the Black Hawk.
A similar event happened when the first Little Bird returned into Walker’s field of view, wining Walker another kill.
It was not the last of them though when a third chopper came into Walker’s view. He unloaded another spray of ammunition into the hostile bird. Startling screams were heard from the Little Bird before it collided right into a tower crane. The crane then plunged into the building next to it, initiating it to scrape large chunks of concrete and glass off a nearby structure, creating an enormous amount of smoke.
“Holy shit!” the occupier shouted enthusiastically.
Suddenly, another hostile Little Bird came out through the smoke, nearly crashing into the Black Hawk but not before steering off away from it.
“That was too close, Walker! Take this guy out!” the Black Hawk pilot bawled.
Doing what he is best at, he turned his mounted gun toward the pursuer and fired up the minigun once again.
The chasing chopper tumbled its demise into a sand filled building after it was set ablaze by Walker’s minigun.
“Jesus, how many of ‘em are there?!”
“Doesn’t matter, just keep it steady!”
After two more birds were taken down from the sky, the other occupant of the Black Hawk spotted a sandstorm heading toward them. “Oh shit! That what I think it is?”
“Yup, sandstorm, closin’ fast!” The pilot confirmed.
“So get us out of here!” Walker commanded.
“Not with these guys on our ass!”
“Then take us in,” he said coldly.
Walker then spotted another Little Bird flying behind the office buildings through theirs windows as the transport helicopter was flying next to the structures. Walker sent out another hail of bullets, easily breaching through nearly all the stainless glass windows. The enemy helicopter then reached to the end of the last office buildings almost simultaneously as the Black Hawk.
Adrenaline surged inside every part of Walker’s body, the world seemed to slow down for him. The Little Bird flew closer and closer to the Black Hawk as it steer out of control, Walker’s determination to shoot down it become more and more firm. And luck would have it, the Little Bird crashed right into a tower crane.
The world for Walker rapidly returned back to its original state. But then his eyes then set upon the enormous chestnut colored sandstorm they were heading.
“Hold on!” the pilot warned the crew.
The Black Hawk began to shake but stable enough to fly through the sandstorm. But the transport helicopter crew’s luck was about to turn when a damaged Little Bird was dwindling toward the Black Hawk.
“Oh SHIT!” was Walker’s last words before the Little Bird crashed into them.
Walker's vision suddenly turned into darkness and the loud noises of the world began to fade.
In the first days there was no fear.
Sandstorms had come before,
The damage had been minimal,
This would be no different
But the storm did not stop
Whole days would pass without seeing the sun
We were told to remain clam,
That all was well
And like fools, we listened.
We sat silently as the first plane went down,
We watched calmly as sand stripped paint from our homes,
We waited patiently as our world fell down around us,
And how was our virtue repaid?
Abandonment.
We had toiled, keeping Dubai alive through the storm
But our bosses, owners, leaders…
Those who draped themselves with entitlement had fled the city
And with them, our hope for escape.
Then he came, without reason or reward
Konrad and his Dammed 33rd
We were not their families, and this was not their home
And still they cared for us.
We were gathered together, those who were left,
Us and our protectors
They led us away from our homes, believing all was well
Because a fool is quick to hope and slow to learn…
The storm came upon us without warning or mercy
I cannot tell you what happened,
All I saw was the storm,
All I heard was its roar
Somehow, we made it back to the city
To shelter away from those we left dead and buried by the storm.
Now, we are all refugees,
Us and the Damned
Our identities and ideals, stripped away by the storm, like flesh from the bone,
And with them,
Our hope for escape.
These are the last days,
Fear is all we know.
