Chapter 3 - Burning House

Aaron and Sam jumped aside at the very last millisecond to save their lives. Before Aaron could get a grip on his gun and shoot down this girl who wanted to kill him and his friend Sam, the door which Aaron was about to break, blasted apart into pieces. The blast radius was so big the walls on the sides developed huge cracks too. If the Humvee had not absorbed the majority of the blast Aaron and Sam would be lying on the ground, charred and smoking. The broken pieces of wood, had caught fire and much of it were burning on the Humvee.

The lady in black looked at Aaron with determination in her eyes. Aaron had realised that the warning was true and the girl was not a distraction by the Taliban. She was here to help. But why? There was no time for any explanation. The wooden windows, around the alley started to open up, and were quickly occupied by gun barrels. "Sam It's an ambush! Take cover!!" Yelled Aaron. Bullets start pouring from every window. Just barrels visible, who was shooting them, it was hard to say. The lady in black turned the car to make a shield, with the piles of wood burning on the hood made it difficult to look around, but she tried her best.

Aaron and Sam quickly got behind the Humvee. Bullets came from all directions. They were trapped, there was no where to go. Behind them was a burning house and ahead shielding them from a storm of bullets was a Humvee, already damaged with a blast, burning and being constantly hammered with bullets. The lady in black got down from the Humvee and fell on her knees. She was injured her hands were scratched with broken glass and had some burn marks too. "Why did you help us?" asked Aaron while shooting at the windows. "Why did you not listen to me?" asked the lady in black.

"Because he is an idiot," yelled Sam who was also shooting back at the windows. "We had intel that, there is only a single man here, who will not have much gun power," argued Aaron. "It was a setup, the man you came for Yusuf Kazim, had found out about your spy and instead of the regular killing and hanging the spy on poles, he decided to bring you guys in here for some butchering," explained the lady. "I guess his plan is working," joked Sam. "Let's get in the car, that's the only way to escape out from here," said Sahar. 

"No, we cannot, Lieutenant Mike said if the person who sheltered the terrorists walks free, then our mission will be incomplete," said Aaron with determination in his voice and steel in his expression. "He is upstairs, the ground floor is on fire, he is waiting for you to die and walk over your bodies to Pakistan," warned the lady. "I have a plan, Sam you stay here, keep firing and I'll go in the house and finish that bastard Yusuf!" proposed Aaron. "It's not a plan, it's suicide", said Sam. "He is right, how will you walk through this?" Said Sarah pointing to the corridor and stairs that was burning like inferno.

 Aaron opened the door of the Humvee and from the under the sit he took a small bottle of fire extinguisher. The lady in black starred at it, and said, this is a huge hall, you can't put out all the fire with this small can." Aaron had a crazy smile on him, "I don't want to put out the fire of the entire hall, only the fire that falls on me." The lady in black shook her head in disagreement. The bullets were still raining from three sides and the fourth direction was blowing them with black, lung hurting smoke.

 She removed her hijab and gave it to Aaron, "You'll need this." Sarah coughed as she tried to breathe through this mixture of explosive fumes and gun powder. Aaron hesitated, "I can't take this, it's…" The lady said putting the black hijab cloth in Aaron's hand, "You need it, take it." Aaron dipped the cloth in his water bottle, then draped it around his face. He checked his weapon, uncapped the extinguisher and turned towards the lady, the lady with the moon eyes. "What's your name?" Aaron asked in midst of barraging gun fire. "Sarah!" the girl replied with sounds of rifles reloading working as punctuation. "Sarah," Aaron repeated and then leaped into the hellfire.

 "My name is Sam, and I want you to come back alive you son of a bitch!" yelled Sam as an afterthought, hoping Aaron could still him on the upper floors, beyond the fire. The two floors had been engulfed by fire; it was a wooden house of course. Aaron reached the attic and found the man curled up in a corner surrounding himself with buckets of water, in case the fire reached him.

 Which of course they were about to in a few minutes. Even if the fire didn't reach him the house would collapse into itself without the support beams.

Aaron wanted to laugh at this man's stupidity. How can he had ever imagined to leave this place without turning himself into a kebab. But then it was a full proof plan until Sarah helped them. Sam and Aaron were supposed to be dead at the door by the blast and if that was not enough, there were rifles peeking from every window. Yusuf was shocked to see a soldier in the attic, he was too occupied with worrying about the fire, his gun was away from him. Yusuf