A Wing and a Prayer

Inside Gabriel, something died..... He screamed her name once more to the heavens, sobbing as he turned away from her. There was still a chance for Lucifer. Time was running out…. The chemicals were igniting all over the place. Two of the other Italians helped him open the rest of the steel shell and Lucifer was pulled free, the head wound quickly bandaged with a field-dressing. He was unconscious, thankfully, and two of the men supported him between them. “Can you walk?” Grimaldi asked Gabriel, seeing his condition. “Yes... yes I can walk...” “We must hurry....” Grimaldi took charge of the situation, ushering the wounded to the front as the remnants of his force held the rear against the few remaining German troops “Two minutes! Then leave the dynamite and run like hell!” he ordered. Gabriel ran painfully along the corridor with them, hearing the gunfire behind. Minutes later, they heard another loud explosion and then running feet and cries in Italian behind them. He gathered the booby-trap had worked, the dynamite sealing off any pursuit behind them. Breathing hard, he forced himself on. Outside in the Via Catenza, a German soldier listened intently at the entrance to the catacombs. At the first faint sounds of running feet, he whirled abruptly away from the entrance, signaling furiously to the watching officer in the darkened window. Inside the house, the Kommandant chuckled to himself. “On my signal.” As he raised his hand, at either end of the street, twin machine guns were cocked and loaded, and as the weary party containing Gabriel and Lucifer began to exit through the gates of the catacombs, the Kommandant's hand fell..... The night air exploded in a cacophony of screams and death... as the twin machine guns opened fire....