Thumper

Written by Arthur Browne

Artwork by Jason Boninger

It’s dark, but I expected that. It is always dark before they open their eyes. I can feel cold metal under his back, and it is vibrating. I hear a familiar, high-pitched whine of turbines, and the thumping of rotor blades. Then a voice came through the headphones I can feel over our ears.

“Get ready back there, Jinty, we are coming up on the LZ.” The young man began to stir. He was so tired. He hadn’t slept at all in the last two days.

Okay, kid, you’re tired. I can feel that. Now open your eyes so I can tell where we are.

“I’m ready, Lieutenant,” Jinty muttered into the helmet’s mic. God, I’m not ready for this at all. I’m tired and I’m scared. I don’t want to get shot at again.

I feel your pain, kid. And you should be scared. You are going to die today. The kid’s eyes pop open and I can see the interior of the Thumper, as well known to me as a lover’s body.

“Three minutes to the LZ,” came the voice of the Lieutenant, this time over a loudspeaker. “Combat troops get ready for a hot landing.”

I check out the condition of the Thumper as the kid scrambles to his feet. Seems as if the ship is well maintained, not that it is going to make any difference to me and the kid. The kid swivels his head and I get to check out the troopers lined up and ready to charge out of the aircraft when it comes down in the LZ. I recognize some of the troopers. I have seen those faces before. So I know maybe some of them are going to die today too, because at some time, I died right along with them. Or I watched them die.

“One minute,” announced the pilot. Oh shit oh shit Jinty began to repeat over and over in his mind like a calming mantra.

That’s hardly annoying.

The Thumper bucked in the air with an accompanying roar as the gunner released a volley of rockets at some target on the ground. Oh shit oh shit oh shit Jinty was chanting inside his head. This is going to be a hot one. He grabbed hold of one of the safety loops and closed his eyes.

Don’t do that, I complained to no one in particular. Now I can’t see a fucking thing.

Something small and deadly and moving very fast came up from the ground below and punched right through the heavy armor on the belly of the Thumper. Fragments of both the projectile and the ship itself splashed around the troop compartment. One of the fragments ripped into Jinty’s hand where it hung in the safety strap.

Ouch, that fucking hurt.

“Ouch, that fucking hurt,” Jinty blurted. He opened his eyes and looked at the wound. Oh god… that looks bad.

I took the opportunity to examine the wound. Yeah, it hurts. But it is just a scratch, kid. Trust me, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Or felt it.

More rounds struck the ship even as the pilot announced they were taking fire. He went on to say they were ten seconds from touchdown. Jinty pressed himself to the side of the Thumper’s troop bay to give the troopers room to disembark. The troopers shifted their weapons and pressed closer to the door-ramp. They could all feel the Thumper slowing and tipping back, flaring to land.

Okay, let’s get this over with.

The hatch on the side of the Thumper dropped, turning into a ramp. The troopers scrambled out. No one was firing at the aircraft at the moment. Jinty waited until the troopers had cleared the bay and fanned out in the field, dropping to cover the surrounding jungle. The pilot’s voice came through Jinty’s headphones. “Help the medics get the wounded on board, Jinty.”

The kid’s eyes scanned the open field so I could see the teams of stretcher-bearers approaching. He dashed out to help and I felt the hot, steamy air, smelled smoke, heard screams of pain even over the throbbing turboprops of the Thumper. Sure, I whined at the universe at large, we might as well die doing something useful.

A large artillery round screamed in and landed close to the struggling stretcher teams. Some of them were sent flying along with the wounded they were carrying. Jinty ran faster and knelt beside a pile of writhing men. He glanced at the patient they had been carrying.

You can’t help that one, kid.

Jinty grabbed one of the stretcher-bearers under each arm and began to drag him backwards towards the Thumper. One of the guy’s legs remained behind.

You’re alright kid, I admitted. I could feel his chest heaving and his muscles straining. It was my chest and my muscles too, at least for a little while .The sweat was making my eyes sting, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. They weren’t really my eyes.  I stopped paying attention and just sort of daydreamed. The truth is I was a little bored. Waiting to die again can be like that.

Jinty got the wounded man into the Thumper and he and one of the medics sprayed the torn and bleeding stump with some med-foam.

I had nothing to do, even though I had to do everything that the kid did. I was just along for the ride, so to speak. I continued to daydream. No, I take that back. I was picturing all the ways that death could find us that day. And I had a lot of experience with my old friend Death. Would it be mercifully quick or something drawn-out and accompanied by searing agony? I guess you could call that daynightmaring.

They laid the wounded medic on the deck out of the way because other teams had been bringing in a steady stream of stretcher cases. Jinty and the medics got the stretchers secured. There was room for four walking wounded to join them. The craft was now fully loaded. Another artillery round landed and shrapnel clattered against the Thumper’s armor as a hot wind filled the troop bay with dust and shredded grass. Jinty ducked and closed his eyes briefly.

That ain’t gonna help you today, kid.

“We’re ready, Lieutenant,” Jinty shouted into his helmet mic. The turbines spun up and the rotors began to howl even as the side door-ramp began to lift. The nose of the Thumper tipped up first as the craft began to lift. Jinty grabbed a safety loop as the Thumper tilted to veer into a steep, climbing turn. He glanced around at the bloody cargo. As soon as we get out of range I can help some of these guys, he thought hopefully.

That’s a nice thought, kid, I granted. Maybe we will even make it back to base, but I sincerely doubted it.

The surface to air missiles came in a swarm. The gunner deployed bait-drones and other countermeasures. He even shot one missile down using the helmet-slaved auto canon, an almost impossible feat. The pilot tried to dive for the ground, but that didn’t help either. Two missiles got through. One shredded the starboard engine. Another slammed into the troop bay by the tail. The Thumper nosed over and fell towards the jungle 500 feet below. Jinty began to scream along with the wounded who hadn’t been killed in the blast, but the screaming didn’t last for long.