“Ya think?” I whispered back as I got my sniper rifle ready. Not that I intended to shoot, but the scope was working better than my limited eyesight on its own. Through the scope, the picture below didn’t look much better. A woman and one of the younger men were kneeling down next to the shot man, who was busy clutching his chest as he was bleeding out. The woman was shouting something at the soldiers, but cut off when one of them backhanded her across the face, while one of the other soldiers put a gun to the young man’s head. They pulled the woman back to her feet and started dragging her off to one of the vehicles, then did the same with the second, younger woman that had remained standing next to the cars. No explanation required to realize what was going on.
“What are we going to do?” I asked, expecting Nate to offer up a good tactical assessment of our options next.
Instead, he just gave me a blank stare. “We’re not going to do anything.” When he saw the shocked look on my face, he shook his head. “They are twenty against the two of us. This is suicide.”
“We don’t have to gun them all down,” I objected. “But we can’t just do nothing! Nate, that could be me down there! That would have been me if not for your fucking suicide pact!” When he actually had the gal to look surprised, I scoffed. “Thought I wouldn’t find the stash of candy you keep in the dashboard and any of your packs? I have eyes, and I’m not completely oblivious. Now’s not the time to hash that out, but don’t think that’s settled yet. It was no coincidence that Bailey had a chocolate bar with him that he could use to insta-convert. Whatever. We need to do something. If anything, we can’t let them drag the girls off on principle.”
“And what are you suggesting? You are aware that the moment we start gunning the soldiers down, they will execute the other traders?”
“Not if we give them a better incentive to run,” I pointed out. “Just think about it. Sure, in a fair fight we’d be dead within moments, but this is no fair fight. Wasn’t it you who told me that a sniper easily equals ten men in the field? Two of us, twenty of them. Easy peasy.” Of course I wasn’t that naive, but seeing the soldiers drag the girl into the back of the same car they’d stashed the woman in just made my blood boil.
Nate was still hesitating, likely considering just how useful I could be in my current state, which unnerved me. Run, I maybe couldn’t all too well. But shoot?
More to prove to myself than him that I wasn’t completely useless, I got one of the guarding soldiers in my scope and pulled the trigger. Even with the helmet he was wearing his head pretty much exploded as the bullet tore into him. A perfect shot if there ever was one.
The scene below erupted in chaos. Soldiers scrambled everywhere, as did the traders after a short delay. Nate cursed under his breath, but his sniper rifle was already out, and he downed two more soldiers while I shot the fourth. The hostage Humvee came to life, but before I could focus on it, Nate shot out the rear tires. A third shot must have hit the engine block from the side because it died as suddenly as it had started up. While he reloaded, I took out another soldier by hitting his thigh, and scared two more under one of the remaining Humvees.
Then everyone had ducked for cover, making my mission a lot harder. Nate tapped me on the shoulder, then signaled me to go right while he pointed at himself and then left, ending the command with a circular motion. I nodded, getting up with a wince. Crouching, not a good idea. I reloaded as I changed position. Shouts rang out between the vehicles as the commander tried to rally his troops, but that effort went up in smoke when Nate took out two more of them from the side, out of cover as they were from his new position. I downed another one, cursing when, again, I only hit the shoulder rather than the head. Someone finally got the bright idea to shoot back, but with their rifles and handguns we were well out of range. One of the traders managed to get a car door open and was shooting at the soldiers within seconds, but his aim wasn’t any good. It served as a great distraction to let me change position again. That left me with a good shot at the commander, but I botched it, missing completely. Swallowing hard to try to ignore the pain racing up my left side, I aimed again, but by then he’d ducked into deeper cover. The next time one of the soldiers shot it was to kill two more of the traders, making me realize that we really were out of time.
Abandoning Nate’s plan, I started down the hill, trying to make myself as small as possible as I used the tall grass and shrubs for cover. Nate continued to keep the soldiers in check, making my endeavor just a little less suicidal. I got my shotgun ready as I approached the shut-down Humvee, quickly ducking when a spray of assault rifle bullets rained down on me. They missed, but some hit the ground close enough that the dust they stirred up tickled my nose. Flattening myself on the ground, I started creeping closer, until I got a good look at the soldier who’d shot at me. He was cowering by the front, looking around the hood of the Humvee, trying to see me.
Gritting my teeth, I waited until he leaned forward a little more. Exploding onto my feet, I shot him twice, then let myself drop to the ground again. Shots rang out from my right, but too slow, all missing me. The soldier slumped over, bloody froth forming at his mouth. After my experience with getting shot with normal bullets, I could hazard a guess how much two slugs in the chest would hurt. He stopped moving in under ten seconds.
I waited for more shots to ring out, but when I heard Nate continue to shoot from across the scene from me, I figured that was my moment. Not even the adrenaline pumping through me could dull the pain radiating from my thigh, but I ignored it as I covered the last remaining feet to the Humvee. I flattened myself against the side next to the rear door, then wrenched it open, my shotgun ready to go off into whoever was guarding the women. Only two scared, bright sets of eyes met mine, both women shrinking back immediately.
“Follow me!” I called out to them, ducking outside again to try to guard their exit. The girl started to cry but the elder women quickly shushed her, pushing her toward me. I cursed when I saw that the reason why they were so slow was that the soldiers had zip-tied their hands behind their backs. I debated for a moment but then dropped my shotgun in favor of cutting the girl free. As soon as she’d shaken off the bonds, I gave her the knife so I could cover them again. Proving that she wasn’t stupid, she quickly freed the woman.
“Can you shoot?” I asked the girl before she could start babbling something.
From the corner of my eye I saw her nod. “Not well, but yeah.”
“Grab the gun from my thigh holster. It’s loaded.” She followed suit. The fact that she had the safety off and was ready to shoot within moments boded well for her continuing survival. While I debated whether I should give the other woman my backup piece, she was already dragging the corpse of the soldier close, pulling his assault rifle out of his limp grip. To the girl she handed his gun, and she in turn put the Beretta back into my holster.
“Thank you—“ the woman started, but a quick jerk of my head silenced her.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” I told her. “You two, try to hide in the grass. There’s a car on the other side of that hill there. If you have to, you can take off with that. Spare keys are below the driver’s seat.” Remembering just what had soaked into the upholstery, I added, “Try not to touch anything directly. Long story.”
The girl looked ready to protest, but the woman gave her a shove toward the meadow. Within moments they had both disappeared. Knowing where they must be, I could follow their trek, but I doubted that to anyone else it would look like more than the wind rustling through the tall grass leaves.
Reloading again, I inched myself along the side of the Humvee until I could glance around the back. Two of the traders were hiding behind the next car, one of them jumping as he noticed me. I quickly ducked back out of sight, but when I checked again, his gun was lowered, and he gave me a quick thumbs-up. He paused, then gave me the go-ahead. I hoped that he had a better idea of what lurked beyond the car than I did.
As soon as I came around the back o
f the Humvee, I pumped three rounds into the soldiers that were crouching at the other side, by a boulder. One other reared up at that, but Nate took him out with—what else—a perfect headshot. I threw myself into cover by the other trader car, trying to ignore the corpse on the road right next to me. The impact jarred my entire body, but that was next to nothing compared to the kickback of the shotgun. Shit, but that hadn’t felt so good. Now was not the time to dwell on it. I had to stay alive to wallow in all my ouchies later. As soon as I could force my muscles to work again, I made sure that I was well hidden by the car.
I didn’t dare get up to glance over the roof, but underneath was a good idea, too. The trader SUV's undercarriage was high enough that I could easily glance underneath it—and make out the position of the three pairs of combat boots a few yards beyond the other side of the car. Reaching for my Beretta, I aimed, then shot in quick succession and continued until the magazine was empty. It was very convenient that the three soldiers dropped deeper into cover when I shot their calves and ankles, and consequently gave me great targets. Two of them ended up dead on the ground, but the third got away, helped by the seconds it took me to get a new magazine out of my cargo pants and into the gun. I tried to do a head count in my mind, but came up blank. We’d definitely evened the odds, but I was sure that there must be a few soldiers still alive, besides the one that had just gotten away. Half-assing a mission like this was really not a good idea—and I was sure that Nate would have a thing or two to say about that later.
I forced myself up into a crouch so I could holster the gun again and reload my shotgun. Across from me, I saw one of the traders check back from behind the other car. I quickly signaled him to duck back into cover, but not quickly enough before shots rang out. None hit him from what I could tell, but they gave me a good idea where more of the soldiers were hiding. I didn’t think, just let my body act as I sprinted out from behind the car and over to one of the Humvees, a barrage of rifle shots following me. As soon as I’d caught my breath again, I inched to the back of the vehicle and around it. I didn’t have clear sight of the soldier that had taken cover behind a bolder, but he made the mistake of rearing up when he saw movement. That was all it took to make him eat lead.
Apparently my stunt seemed to have instilled some confidence in the traders because when the soldiers tried firing at them again, they shot back. Not very successfully, but it was enough of a diversion that I could get closer to the soldiers that were hiding behind the last Humvee. I killed one of them and Nate took care of the other.
And then it was silent in the camp, except for my heavy panting and some barely audible whimpering coming from the ditch where that soldier I’d shot but not killed had disappeared into. I still made sure to cover the entire area first as I made my way over there. Movement across the field jerked my attention around, but it was only Nate who had finally vacated his sniping spot and was coming over to us.
I found the soldier lying on his back, his gun out, but it wavered so much that it was next to useless. He dropped it in favor of raising his arms when he saw me approach, shotgun still at the ready. I kicked away the gun where he’d dropped it and yanked his rifle out of his reach. He still had a knife, but I didn’t expect that to become much of a problem. I had to admit, standing over him, the barrel of my shotgun just a few inches away from his face, made me feel rather vindicated.
I knew that it shouldn’t have, but high on adrenaline as I was, I didn’t care.
“Why are you here?” I asked, my voice hoarse. “What did you intend to do with the women?”
He snapped his jaws shut, looking defiant as hell. I kicked his shot ankle. If not talk, that at least made him scream.
“I asked you a question. Two, actually,” I corrected myself. “What the fuck did you want with the women?”
“Screw you!” he hissed between clenched teeth, making me utter a dramatic sigh.
“Don’t piss me off. You’re not dead yet. And let me tell you, if the past weeks have taught me anything, it’s to be less squeamish about a lot of things. Answer the damn question.”
Of course he didn’t, so I had to kick him again. He screamed, I asked, he spat at me. I considered shooting him in the knee when the two traders showed up next to me. Behind them, the woman and the girl were just coming back out of the field, both still looking scared as hell but no longer panicking. It was only when I turned back to the soldier that I noticed the venomous glare one of the traders was taxing him with.
“You fucking asshole killed my brother!” he shouted, delivering a much harder kick than I would have. The resulting scream didn’t exactly make me want to stop, but it got me rethinking my methodology. It was then that finally the connection clicked inside my head—this wasn’t just any soldier following orders, but the commander who had shot the first trader. Any sympathy I had still left for him skipped merrily toward the horizon.
Leaning closer, I smiled into his face, knowing damn well that it could, at best, be a grimace. “How about I let them have a go at you first before I ask you again? They look like they have something to work out with you. Can’t fault them. Last time someone shot one of my guys, I ended up mowing several of you lowlifes over with my car.”
I had no idea what about that statement tipped the guy off, but suddenly his eyes were huge as saucers, and he all but forgot about sneering up at the traders. “It’s you,” he mumbled, his lips barely moving. “But that’s impossible! You’re dead! I heard that status report myself. You’re dead!”
Shifting my weight off my aching hip, I snorted. “Well, guess the reports about my demise have been exaggerated, because I’m very much alive, aren’t I? You know who I am? Then you know what I’m capable of. And should I get too squeamish, you know what the people that I run with are capable of.”
Sadly, my grandstanding was rewarded with yet more spittle flying, but no real answer. “You fucking cunt won’t get a single word out of me!” He went on like that, but I chose to ignore him, instead looking over to Nate. He was still out of earshot, but the grim expression on his features I could clearly see, sunshiny glare or not.
A shot coming from right next to me scared the crap out of me, and when I looked down at the soldier, he was dead, the left side of his head decidedly decimated. The trader who’d shot him stood there, panting, rage slowly leaking from his posture. Shock, followed by horror, crossed his face, and was still there when he looked at me.
“I’m sorry, but he shot my brother,” he whispered, his gun hand already starting to shake. I could have chewed him up now, but didn’t really see the sense in it. It wasn’t like I’d planned on leaving that asshole alive.
“It’s okay,” I said, letting my own weapon slide to my side. “You two okay?”
They both nodded. The women joined them, both staring at the corpse in front of us with revulsion for the most part. The elder woman softly touched the shooter’s shoulder, and at her silent prompting he let her divest him of the gun. “I had to,” he explained to her, his gaze latching onto her face. “He shot Bill!”
She didn’t quite manage a smile, but her grim nod held the compassion and sympathy that he needed. “I know. You did the right thing.” She then turned to me, a flicker of unease crossing her face. “Thank you. If you hadn’t showed up when you did…”
Nate cleared his throat behind my shoulder, alerting me to his presence without startling me. I quickly glanced at him but he ignored me, instead stepping up to the corpse. A muscle jumped in his cheek, making his disdain obvious—but from what I could tell it wasn’t because I hadn’t gotten any answers out of the soldier. He would likely have jeered about my interrogation techniques—or lack thereof—if that had been the case.
“Recognize him?” I asked, going for the next possible point that might bring that frown to his forehead.
A curt nod confirmed my guess. “Max Hillson. They called him ‘Mad Max’ in basic training.” His eyes flitted from the corpse to me. “One of Bucky’s flunkies.”<
br />
Now that tidbit made me feel almost sorry that I hadn’t shot him in the face, and certainly rue that he’d died in a lot less pain than I could have inflicted on him.
“Was he there at—“
“Yes,” Nate confirmed. That kind of answered one of my questions. Whatever they’d planned to do with Gussy had likely been the same reason why they’d tried to take the trader women. It also opened up a new avenue of questions, mostly about why they’d been after me. I didn’t need to check the necks of the traders to know that all of them only had a single mark, and neither the girl nor the woman looked like the kind who would socialize much with the likes of us, unless they couldn’t help it. Maybe it really had just been coincidence. But that still didn’t explain why they were collecting them. As much as I was ready to accuse any asshole of wanting to gang rape the lot of us, the methods of acquisition seemed a little extreme for that.
The woman shifted uncomfortably. “You… knew him?”
I looked at her, but Nate was quicker to reply. “Last time we met the people he was with were directly responsible for the death of two of our friends. That, and several others we were with at the time. Trust me when I say that there’s no love lost between us.”
Nate turned back to the corpse and started going through his pockets before he pulled him over. I was confused for a moment before I realized that he was checking his neck. No mark at all. The look he gave me made it plain that there should have been three. I tried to remember if I’d seen any marks on any of the soldiers at the factory, but I honestly hadn’t paid any attention to that.
None of those here had any, it turned out. We checked. We also picked up their weapons and remaining ammo. The traders didn’t go anywhere near them, but then they had their own dead to take care of. Four—half of their group. I watched them from afar, not sure whether I should intrude or not. Nate did a quick check on the Humvees, but returned to me with a shake of his head. No information, no further valuables. I was surprised when he started dousing the vehicles in diesel. There would likely never be any new ones produced. When he saw me looking, Nate shrugged. “Whoever sent them will send a new round to investigate. The least we can do is leave nothing for them to repurpose.”
Resurgence: Green Fields book 5 Page 8