Chimera

WEST OF BEIJING

CHINA

DAY 15 + 0900 HRS

The view went from black to blurry as Colonel Dianrong regained consciousness. He instantly coughed and found himself lying on his side. The cables and harness attached inside the helicopter were dangling down from above while dust swept through the open sides of the cabin with the wind.

He tried to push himself away from his seat but realized he was still strapped to it. He also had an immense headache and felt blood dripping over his eyelids. A check with his hand showed he was bleeding from some gash above his eyes. His hands were covered in dust and he saw broken branches and leaves strewn inside the cabin.

As his vision cleared, he saw the smashed cockpit glass up front and the two dead pilots, still strapped in their seats with blood splattered over the instruments and the glass. As his sense of smell started returning, he thought he smelled cordite. He coughed some more as he heard the distant yelling of orders…

The sounds kept becoming louder and louder until he heard boots trampling through the broken tree branches and frantic orders yelled by a young voice. PLA soldiers ran over and started checking inside the cabin. Two of them saw Dianrong alive as the fuselage of the Z-9 rested on its side. They banged on the side-door glass, slid it open and clambered inside before beginning to open Dianrong’s seat harness.

“Sir, we will get you out of here. Don’t worry.” the young PLA Lieutenant said. Dianrong coughed heavily but nodded as the soldiers lifted him and handed his body to other soldiers outside the cabin. They pushed Dianrong out and two of the soldiers helped him walk away from the small ditch inside the flattened forest a few hundred meters from the helipads.

Dianrong saw the dozen Z-9 and Mi-17 helicopters flying overhead now, their whipping noises parting the still lingering cloud of dust that was giving the morning sun a dull-red haze. The air was filled with noises as hundreds of soldiers were running about trying to check for survivors from other helicopters as well.

The two soldiers brought him close to an opening in the forest where he saw a camouflage-painted Z-9 helicopter parked on the grass. He also saw a PLA Major there, organizing the search-and-rescue effort. The Major saw Dianrong being brought to the helicopter and saluted.

“Where’s General Liu?” Dianrong managed to speak as soldiers lowered him on the grass while PLA doctors began checking his wounds. The Major was too busy giving orders and didn’t hear him over the noise.

“Where is he?” Dianrong said again and grabbed the Major by his arm to make him look.

“Who, sir?” the Major asked.

“General Liu.”

The Major was silent for several seconds and then shook his head. The medical officer began cleaning his forehead wound with cotton-padding as Dianrong grasped the news. He turned to the Major again.

“And comrade chairman?” he asked worriedly.

“We haven’t found the comrade chairman’s helicopter yet,” the Major said soberly. “We are looking now. It took us this long just to find you and General Liu out here! Some of the C-M-C members are alive, but in critical condition. We have taken them to the hospital inside the center.”

“How did they know? What happened?” Dianrong said to himself.

“Sir?” the Major asked as he bent down to the Colonel. Dianrong just shook his head as soldiers brought out bodies of the two pilots and General Liu from the crashed Z-9. Liu’s body was riddled with wounds from the crash and his uniform coat made dark by the blood. The Major sighed as they laid his body on the grass near the parked helicopter and then turned to Dianrong sitting now on the floor of the helicopter’s cabin.

“You were extremely lucky to have made it alive, Colonel.”

Dianrong grunted and then nodded. “This is the kind of luck we can all do without, Major. Keep looking for the chairman. And get me back to the center right away. I need to help figure out who is in charge of this country’s military before the Indians hit us with nuclear warheads!”

“What?” the Major said in utter surprise. He hadn’t been told yet about the planned DF-21 strikes when the Indian pre-emptive strike had happened. But Dianrong had put together the pieces to understand that if the Indians had struck here, they must have struck the launch sites as well. There was no way to know for sure if any of the DF-21 missiles had made their way to the targets until he got back at the center. Dianrong realized the Major was still waiting for an answer so he turned to face the surprised look on the young officer’s face.

“Haven’t you heard, Major? This war went nuclear an hour ago.”

JUNWEI KONGJUN

BEIJING

DAY 15 + 0930 HRS