1016: Chapter One Thousand and One: Mourn 1016: Chapter One Thousand and One: Mourn Five minutes isn’t particularly long, but in combat, it feels like an eternity.
The civil war in Syria had been ongoing, but nighttime operations were unfamiliar for both sides.
If it were a large-scale battle, the situation might devolve into chaos after dark.
However, for Gao Yang and his special ops team, it was quite challenging for the Rebel Army to locate them in the darkness.
For Gao Yang, the hardest part wasn’t the attack itself, but the stench emanating from his body.
He had been repeatedly warned not to get the Skunk Bomb liquid on himself, otherwise, it would be disastrous.
The smell of a Skunk Bomb could last for five years.
It wasn’t too bad if it got on clothes, as throwing them away would suffice.
But if it got on the skin, one might as well smell bad unless they could shed their skin.
Though the stench wouldn’t linger on the skin for five dramatic years, thanks to skin metabolism, smelling bad for a year and half wasn’t out of the question.
Even with scrubbing layers of skin off during baths, one could still stink for three months.
Gao Yang was careful not to get the Skunk Bomb liquid on himself, but he hadn’t anticipated that even the evaporating gases could leave a stench, overwhelming even through a gas mask.
The Skunk Bomb was primarily designed to disperse crowds, but the military also recognized their value.
Deploying one in an enclosed space could make it unbearable for anyone to remain.
Gao Yang indeed witnessed the potency of the Skunk Bomb, which was extremely effective at forcing people out of buildings and could even be used as a disabling weapon.
Gao Yang was now worried that exposure to the evaporating fumes might leave a long-lasting stench.
Besides worrying about his guns and night vision devices, many irreplaceable pieces of equipment could become recognizably foul-smelling from a distance, which was problematic.
People around him were shooting, shifting positions after each shot.
With the continuous aerial support from helicopters, though the enemies were numerous, Gao Yang and his team weren’t particularly endangered.
Gao Yang was still concerned about the situation inside the building, and after a moment, he softly said, “Second group!
How’s the situation on your end?”
“The enemy keeps attacking; their grenades haven’t stopped.
No issues for now, we can still hold them off, but goddamn, hurry up, we’re running out of ammo!”
Gao Yang then said, “Fork, report your status.”
“We’re almost done, just one last point.
Two minutes, at most two minutes—oh F**k!”
Gao Yang tensed up, “What happened?”
“Nothing, just tripped.”
After another minute, Rafael urgently said, “All done, let’s evacuate!”
Gao Yang breathed a sigh of relief, and shouted, “Covering fire for the retreat!
Night Demon Three, come down for extraction.”
During the retreat, the biggest threat was the residential building.
Although the enemies on top of the building were shooting randomly, a stray bullet could still be deadly.
Therefore, they needed to suppress the fire from the residential building during the evacuation.
Gao Yang urgently commanded, “Everyone, suppress the residential building!”
Gao’s Shotgun, loaded with high-explosive shells, had a range of two hundred meters, sufficient to reach the residential building.
Gao shifted his shotgun toward the windows where he saw muzzle flashes and fired a high-explosive shell.
Other team members also adjusted their weaponry and quickly managed to suppress any further shooting from the building.
Just then, as the team evacuated the target building and shot toward the large building, they rapidly moved out.
The helicopter had landed; Gao Yang waved his hands, directing everyone to move toward the aircraft, while he and the others suppressing the residential building’s fire turned their guns toward the target building to prevent enemy escapes.
After confirming everyone had evacuated, Gao Yang urgently ordered, “Night Demon One, Night Demon Four, suppress the entrance of the target building.
Don’t conserve ammunition.
Don’t let anyone escape.”
Gao intended to initiate the explosion after they boarded the helicopter, but before he could finish, Rafael shouted, “No need, they won’t get a chance.
Detonate!”
Gao Yang felt something wrong, and almost immediately, he heard a thunderous boom, and the building, which they’d just been fighting in, collapsed entirely.
No debris was flying about, only a strong vibration underfoot.
In an instant, a four-story building was reduced to rubble through controlled demolition, focusing the force where needed without waste, yielding excellent results.
Dust clouds filled the air; after a brief moment of shock, Gao Yang turned and sprinted towards the helicopter and ran into its cabin, immediately yelling, “Take off!”
Night Demon Three slowly lifted off, gaining speed as it ascended.
As the helicopter rapidly gained altitude, Rafael raised his fist, shaking it vigorously and shouted with exhilaration, “Yeah!
Thrilling!”
Gao Yang didn’t feel thrilled, though.
He didn’t know if it was psychological, but he still felt particularly stinky.
Gao Yang struggled to suppress the surge of nausea, but just then, Rafael, after his initial shout, swayed twice, slapped his chest vigorously, and finally leaned forward, collapsing.
Gao Yang screamed, “NO!”
“Don’t!”
A group of people screamed, but it was too late; Rafael removed his gas mask and then hurled vomit everywhere.
“Oh, shit!”
Sitting opposite Rafael, Alcohol cursed and finally pulled off his own mask before throwing up a storm.
Gao Yang couldn’t help it either; he ripped off his mask and turned to vomit messily towards the tail cabin door.
After removing his mask and vomiting, Rafael gasped for breath.
After taking a deep breath, he sprang up from his seat like a cat that had its tail stepped on, banged his head heavily against the aircraft’s cabin wall, then quickly put his gas mask back on while clutching his head with one hand.
Gao Yang understood what Rafael was feeling now.
It was an experience he had never had before, an extremely intense rotten smell that went straight to the brain, enough to cause a brain short circuit and thought cessation.
It was the kind of stench that could make people run out of gun-and-bullet-riddled shelters or even jump right out of an airplane that was hundreds of meters high, just to escape the smell.
After another bout of violent vomiting, Gao Yang quickly secured his mask and screamed, “Open the hatch!
Open the side door.”
Gao Yang couldn’t understand why it was so stinky.
Gao Yang decided he would never use this tactic of killing a thousand enemies and harming themselves by 999 again.
The enemy might have lost their lives, but they also got relief, while they—God knows how long they would have to endure the stench.
Gao Yang started to panic because he felt it shouldn’t be like this.
He knew liquids would evaporate and even molecules in the air could make people smell, he knew that when he got the skunk bombs.
But Destin, who provided him the skunk bombs, had never mentioned that skunk bombs were this powerful.
Once Rafael started, the entire cabin became unbearable because everyone was vomiting.
Red Feather, sitting next to Rafael, suddenly stood up, staggered a few steps against the wall, and said weakly, “It’s Fork, it’s the smell on Fork!”
Gao Yang weakly asked, “Fork, what happened?”
Rafael, with a crying tone, said, “I fell down in the corridor where you threw the skunk bombs; I think I must have gotten something on me.”
The agony was indescribable, unbearable.
The plane finally landed.
The moment the tail cabin door opened, the people inside rolled and crawled out.
It was another great victory, the tarmac was full of people waiting to greet them, but when Gao Yang was the first to rush out, followed by others, running out like a pack of skunks, the smiling crowd coming towards them stopped dead in their tracks, then scattered even faster.
When the helicopter’s rotors blew the stench from the cabin around, the scene was truly beautiful.
“Carry the stink three miles downwind,” was not an exaggeration.
Gao Yang and the others quickly scattered and lay down, starting to vomit violently.
After the rotors stopped spinning, Jacklan and the other two crew members jumped down from the plane, covering their noses as if they had been electrocuted, then sprinted away.
Standing more than thirty meters away from Gao Yang, covering his nose, Gilanor shouted, “What the hell is happening!”
Gao Yang, having nothing left to throw up but still feeling tumultuous inside, weakly said, “Water, get us water, and a shower or something, bring a fire truck over, no foam, just water, if there isn’t any then go get it, wash us down, hurry, we’re about to stink ourselves to death.”
After Gao Yang finished speaking, he realized that the stench had actually faded quite a bit.
The skunk bombs hadn’t polluted him just through the air, so leaving the cabin, leaving the source of the stench Rafael, things were actually much better.
Gao Yang turned his head to look at Rafael, only to see Rafael lying on the ground, one hand stretching forward with the mask, the other on his forehead, face down, shoulders heaving, God knows what he was doing.
Gao Yang, worried Rafael might pass out, let alone suffocate from vomiting, fastened his mask and hurried to Rafael, flipping him over, only to see Rafael tear-stained.
Rafael was crying.
Rafael was sobbing.
Gao Yang sighed deeply.
With a helpless face and tears streaming, Rafael looked at Gao Yang, his face smeared with paint, but still full of sorrow he said, “Why is it always me?
In New York, I got sprayed in the face by a skunk; here, I’m covered in it.
Why?
Why is it only me?
Why is it always me?”
Gao Yang sighed and said, “Fork.”
“What?”
“Strip off your clothes and give me your gear, go wash up.
Maybe it will help, hopefully, it works, um, sorry brother, I don’t know what to say, take care.” (To be continued.
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