Almost soon as she’d closed her eyes, the final approach alarm began to chime all around her. 

It drowned out every other sound on the aircraft, save for rotors above, making great cover for anyone trying to sneak around… as Fives discovered when a hand suddenly found itself clasped over her shoulder.

“Almost there. Get up and come with me, the helicopter’s systems can handle everything from here.” He said with a mischievous smile, turning to lead her into the cargo bay.

She may have recognized the expression on his face, but she was far from sure what exactly it meant coming from him.

She wondered if it had something to do with the way he was wearing his pack on his chest instead of his back.

Fives shook her head and stepped behind him, ducking under the hatch-frame and into the cargo bay. It was almost empty, save for one pallet of supplies still secured to the floor.

The Captain barely even acknowledged it, walking right past the stack of useless electronics and rations to the line of seats behind them. He grabbed two multi-strapped packs from a rack on the wall above the seats and handed one to Fives, buckling the other onto himself and pulling the straps tight.

She mimicked him, fastening the belly and leg straps loosely so that she could still move comfortably. He shook his head and stepped up to her, knelt down, and tightened them all as much as his strength allowed.

“You are going to need all the security you can get out of those! If they are loose, you might just slip right out…” he said menacingly, wagging a teasing finger in front of her face as he rose back to his feet.

“What do you mean? What is it for?” she tilted her head down and threw her arms out, gesturing at it all.

“You really don’t know? You’ve never seen these before?” his mouth stretched into a wide grin as he pulled an old and worn pair of motorcycle goggles over his head. He walked over to the wall separating the cargo bay and the cockpit and smacked a large button next to the door, setting off a much louder alarm.

She shrugged and began tugging on the small cords dangling from the shoulder straps—before he grabbed her hands quickly and shook his head.

“Not yet! Don’t touch those!” he shook his head with amusement. “Come on, we will miss our landing zone if we don’t hurry!” He was shouting now. He pulled her towards the back of the helicopter, the alarm growing louder as a bright red glow began to permeate the entire cargo bay.

Then the cargo ramp started to lower.

“What?! Why is it opening, we haven’t landed yet!” she yelled over the howling wind. His only response was to pull her closer to it, peering over the edge like a predator on a cliff.

The red-stained tatters of his right sleeve whipped around wildly. He must have cut it off to treat the wound he sustained earlier, where a thick bandage now wrapped around his lower bicep. A dark stain had started to show through it.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Hah, I almost forgot!” he turned back towards Fives, handing her a small comms plug that fit snugly in her ear. He grabbed his MSI and tapped at the screen, syncing the device in his ear with hers. “Can you hear me?” his voice was clear now, no longer muffled by the cacophony around them. Fives nodded and the Captain smiled again. 

“Grit your teeth and wait for the shock! Gravity will do all of the work!” he shouted into the mic, grabbing her by the her pack’s shoulder-straps and walking backwards to guide her onto the ramp.

Fives’ eyes went wide as the realization finally struck her.

“We’re jumping?!” she yelled in disbelief, wriggling in his grasp. He nodded, a sadistic twinkle in his eyes. “I’ve never done this! I’m not programmed for it!”

“You don’t need to be! I’ll be with you the whole time!” he lied enthusiastically. Before they continued further, he took one hand from her straps and reached down to tap at the MSI, now strapped snugly to his thigh. He didn’t even need to look at it, as if he knew how to navigate the device through muscle memory alone.

A second later his hand was back at her shoulder, pulling her along down the ramp as the rhythmic pounding of electric guitar started crashing into her ear like small concussive detonations.

“Here it comes, Fives! Get ready for the whiplash!” the Captain shouted, barely audible over the wind and music in her ears. He brought her to the very edge of the ramp, his heels hanging over. Her stomach flipped and she felt some sort of vertigo swim through her head.

The Captain only smiled wider. Fives shivered with anticipation.

“You’ll be okay! Hold on tight!” he yelled one final time, shaking her hard.

He cranked the volume on the music as the intro broke and leaned back into the void, pulling Fives on top of him into a tandem free fall as the frantic riffs and pounding drums deafened them both.

He was laughing like a madman, keeping his eyes on her as they fell from the sky to the thunderous sound of heavy metal.

Fives’ mind started to close up, her vision tunneling in on the Captain’s gleeful face and blocking out the encroaching ground beyond him. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, holding on for dear life.

And then, something amazing happened.

The terror that had seized her evaporated. Her grip loosened, and she could feel herself begin to smile as the music reverberated down through her metal bones.

A voice joined the music, as powerful and commanding as the instruments behind it, and it empowered her as though she were part of the song herself.

Her field of vision opened again and she could see the wispy evening clouds all around and below them, could feel their coolness on her skin as the pair roared through them.

A rush incomparable to anything she’d ever experienced coursed through her circuitry, and by the way the Captain stared proudly up at her—it showed on her face.

The ground was getting closer, sure enough. They broke through the last smoky layer of gray clouds giving her a clear view of the scattered treetops below.

“DO YOU TRUST ME?” The Captain screamed as loudly as his lungs would allow, just loud enough to be heard over the wind and music.

Fives nodded once.

“LET GO!” he commanded her. She hesitated, but he insisted with a hard squeeze on her shoulders.

She relented and spread her arms out wide, letting the gap between them grow to the length of the Captain’s arms.

With an inaudible grunt, he yanked the cord on her shoulder strap and released her pilot chute—then let go of her completely.

Her main chute deployed almost immediately, ripping her away from him and leaving her suspended in the air.

The ground was so close now, a thousand meters at most— but still he failed to pull his own chute, careening through the sky like a missile as he flipped onto his stomach and leaned head-first down towards the dirt.

At the last possible second, barely eight hundred feet from the ground by Fives’ guess, she saw his pilot deploy and drag out the larger main chute.

They were over a field of wildflowers, she could see now, bordered on three sides by a forest and by a road on one.

The song eventually faded out, but the energy coursing throughout her body did not.

All the way to the ground her mind only held one question: When were they going to do this again?