by Erin R Flynn
But once that was done, James had been razzing me over how I looked like an action star wearing a skirt, fluffy sweater, and boots as I killed baddies. It turned out he had a sniper rifle he was excited to get a chance to use for hunting that night too, so when I’d seen how tall the hotel was, I’d offered him a contest to see who could hit targets further away.
And we had ample targets. Darius hadn’t been kidding that the corrupted scented me or my scent was stronger to them. They were gathering in windows of buildings in the direction I was as long as it wasn’t the same side as the sun. So we’d come to the top of the tall building to settle some things. Honestly, I was fine with losing because it was fun and we needed the fun.
Which was why I threw out the craziest whatever I knew would burn James to even suggest. The guy was military trained, former Navy Seal, and badass sniper from what Vance had warned me. So yeah, I was probably going to lose, but I would have made him the breakfast anyways. He was just stuck on me being a princess and actually doing something menial such as making breakfast.
I liked it, so whatever, but people were placing bets and having fun. Just to keep things fair, Trisha was paired with me on a range scope and Darius with James.
“Ladies first,” he purred when we were ready.
“Oh no, age before beauty, of course,” I threw right back.
“Brat,” he grumbled. He settled in, and Darius confirmed what they were targeting. James took in a slow breath and let it out before getting in his quiet place. Then he pulled the trigger.
“Got him,” Darius confirmed. “Head shot eight hundred and two meters away.”
“I thought I’d be nice,” James teased me. “Let’s see what you got, Princess.”
“She’s only been using the damn thing a few weeks,” Darius grumbled.
“Yeah, so I was nice.”
“I don’t need people to be nice or give me handicaps because I’m a princess or have fucking tits,” I bitched under my breath, Trisha snorting. I stretched my neck and then completely changed direction, already having picked my target and the nice big windows that gave a great vantage from a further range. I told her the coordinates, and she flinched.
She confirmed them and barely breathed “good luck” to me.
I went to my quiet place and locked on, pulling the trigger and wanting to squeal when I saw the hole in the glass and corrupted down.
“Got him,” she chuckled. “Head shot two thousand and fourteen meters. Fuck, that’s over half the distance of the longest sniper shot ever confirmed.” She burst out laughing. “You’re getting rusty, Brother.”
“Where? I want to see where,” he growled, coming over to us.
I rolled away and let him move into my spot. “That tower I’m locked on, top floor, far right window. They’re eating him, but you can see the hole and they’re eating a guy without some of his head.”
“You are awesome,” Darius praised, plucking me off the roof and kissing me deeply. “Team Sniper Princess is our new name.”
“No, but we can get t-shirts like that,” I chuckled, smiling wider when James cursed under his breath.
“I could hit that,” he bitched as he stood.
“Yeah, but you didn’t because you assumed the young wittle princess couldn’t possibly get near that,” I taunted him. “And don’t give me shit about being nice. You went for the easy shot, figuring there was no way I could keep up.” I did a little victory dance. “I’ll pick a hot pink leash and maybe a diamond collar for you, my pretty kitty.”
He paled. “Shit, you’ll seriously do it, won’t you?”
“No because I figured I’d lose and it sounded fun to razz you, but I didn’t think you’d do such a basic shot. I mean, come on, half a mile? I’m almost insulted.”
“There aren’t a lot of people who can make that shot,” he reminded me. “You’ve had no training.”
“I haven’t, but I survived the apocalypse on my own, teaching myself. Have a bit of faith in a girl, like for real, dude. You keep giving me smirks and probably picturing I almost blew off my hand when using grenades. I’m not playing paintball. I’ve been in the thick of shit alone.”
He sat with that a moment but then nodded. “In my defense, it’s not you being female. Trisha keeps up with me all the time.”
“It’s you have a hang-up with princesses. I get it. Have you even met any?”
“Fuck no,” he snorted, proving my point.
“Well, I hadn’t met any leopard shifters, but I didn’t believe what’s said about them either and took them at face value. Fine, that was fiction, whatever, the point is still the same.”
“Fair enough.” He scratched the sexy scruff on his chin. “Wanna see what else we can shoot in that building?”
“Yeah I do,” I chuckled, getting back to my spot.
So we did. Others joined us, a few with sniper rifles as well, but most hitting targets in closer buildings as I really was a beacon for them. I can’t even imagine how many we got like that but enough to make a good dent. We might only have been a thousand versus the hundred thousand or more Darius was predicting, but we had the weapons and some old vampires who moved fast.
And they were determined to not have me handle even a fraction of that many ghosts tomorrow. Even if I was up to three at a time, it was hard. Well, I wouldn’t get better or stronger unless I pushed it, right?
What really cracked me up was when I found out that the people helping to load extra clips and magazines had made sure to break down all the packaging and discard it into the recycling bins. Nice that some habits didn’t die, but no one was going to be picking that up. Then again, just because so many were dead, people shouldn’t litter.
Part of me thought it was a need to grip onto some normalcy. Or maybe the hope that one day people would live there again and things could go back to what they had been.
Or maybe unicorns were real. Watch, there were unicorn shifters and my snarky ass would totally have to admit I was wrong.
I got a few weird looks as I loaded 9mm rounds into clips as I sat on Jaxon’s thigh. I shrugged. “I used five clips clearing that huge hotel. I need to reload them too for tomorrow’s hunting. Wilson owes me gun cleaning tonight, but we’re just waiting, so why waste the time?”
“You’re the princess?” Jaxon chuckled, kissing the back of my neck now that my hair was up instead of the hot braid they’d done earlier.
“Oh yes, this is so hard and beneath me,” I drawled. “So undignified as opposed to sitting here and looking fragile while others work. I can handle this.” Of course that was the moment where a bullet didn’t load right and flipped out and to the ground. “Ignore that.”
“I saw nothing, Princess,” Tyson said as he sat down and joined us. “I think it’s smart to save space and load all the extra clips before shipping them or storing them for picking up later.”
“We’ve done what we can, but there really are only so many hours, and we’ve covered a lot of ground,” Darius muttered, refilling his own magazines. He preferred the guns when we were clearing buildings so there were no accidents given swords swinging didn’t work well in tight spaces or stairwells. “Not sleeping much helps, but someone feels guilty if we do so much more than her.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, don’t just do nothing because I feel like the weakest link and the young baby.”
“Yes, you are the one we’ve got to carry, love,” Cerdic said with a snort. “That shower I took was because of you. Everything we’ve got is because of you and Team Inez assembled. Sleep when you need it because you more than deserve it.”
“And a foot rub?” I teased him, smiling when asked what sort of lotion I liked best.
“She’s covered,” Jaxon said, reminding me of the spoiling he and Darius had given me.
“They’re on the move,” Kristof warned as the sun was almost set. “They’re moving earlier than normal. Your scent is that strong to them.”
“Yeah, well, tampons helped normally,�
� I grumbled. “I learned that fast as pads seemed to make it worse.”
“That’s weird,” Trisha muttered, scrunching up her nose. “And I turn into an animal.”
“Yes, there are several reasons I’m going to have to turn in my vampire, princess, or woman cards.” I finished the clip and after getting kisses from Jaxon and Darius—Cerdic being a brat and sneaking in for a chaste one—Vance helped me up onto the trailer we were using.
“You did that so you could look up her skirt,” Darius bitched.
“Yeah, and?” Vance chuckled as they took off.
“Asshole,” I grumbled as he joined us. That amused him even more. I ignored him and set up my sniper rifle and the other one I had for closer range and had clips of ten for faster firing. The leopards had the same ones, and we had boxes of full clips ready to go.
And a lot of people to keep getting us ammo on the ground. The bridge was split, but it was two lanes with a shoulder and a bit extra so they almost got the trailer straight across—which they lifted and moved—but not quite. There were two on each side, one for us facing south and one facing north. It was the best play given the Knik River was pretty wide here.
There was still a bit of ice that wouldn’t help the corrupted who might not opt for the bridge, and I’d never seen any swim, so it was going to be fish in a barrel.
“Holy fuck,” James whispered from down the row.
“What?” I asked, checking my scope when I saw he did.
“I saw a pack coming over that far ridge and was about to fire, but then they just didn’t have heads. Not I blinked and they were dead, but I was watching and heads vanished.”
“I told you Kristof moves faster than air displacement,” I muttered. “I feel the breeze when Jaxon or Darius run with me, but he goes so fast it’s like he’s got wormholes he runs through.” Another pack came over that ridge, and we got to killing. I was glad they were really letting some through instead of trying to get them all.
That wasn’t the smart play, as they could get eaten too. If everyone took some off the top and thinned the packs or numbers, we’d do better and all be safer. I wasn’t trying to hit all I saw, quickly moving onto the next group and nailing one so the others got distracted, but more kept coming and others would get them.
That was how a team worked.
And we were now a very large team. We wouldn’t always be, so why not enjoy it while we had the people?
“Corrupted in a barrel,” someone joked as they started reaching the open area before the bridge.
Lots of them reached that area. The gunfire was deafening, but I ignored it as best as I could, focusing faurther down the highway that I could see clearly since we’d left some lights to help. They’d probably get taken out, but it had been the only option we had given it had just been the new moon and there wasn’t a lot of light at night.
“This might have been a bad idea,” Wilson worried when more and more came pouring out of the forest like rats fleeing a sewer or an old building on fire.
Actually, worse than that. Way worse.
“Have faith, Cousin,” Trisha said easily. “They’ve not even gotten close to the bridge yet. They’re so busy eating each other that we’re still taking them out.”
“Sniper help north!” someone bellowed.
I flipped around as I saw James do the same. We were on the wrong trailer to help the north, but we were aiming down the line, and that was elevated so the angle still worked.
“Holy fuck,” James whispered.
I swallowed loudly, feeling the same at what I saw in the scope. Wilson might be right in the end, but I wasn’t about to go down without giving it my everything. I switched to the other rifle, knowing I was still able to shoot far enough with it to give them the help they needed and I was faster.
I sat on my right foot with my knee touching the ground while my other foot was flat on the trailer as I took aim way down the highway. Several went down further back as I fired and thinned what they had coming in. I saw a strip get taken out as well and hoped I didn’t hit whoever was there as I reloaded and kept firing.
“Inez, Trisha, Vance with me!” James bellowed, tossing down his rifle and sliding along the trailer towards me. He grabbed me around the waist and dropped to the ground, setting me on my feet and pulling me with him. “Thank fuck I’m a paranoid man. Trisha, with her.”
“Got it,” she said as we rounded the other trailer focused on the north. She moved next to a wicked looking heavy machine gun with ammunition belts loaded and a lot more next to it. They were on tripods resting on bags of sand at the right height to kneel by. “You fire; I’ll feed and reload. Thin the packs and work further down like you were.”
So apparently we were playing with military grade weapons after all.
Almost made it worth feeling like I might pee myself in fear at just how many corrupted had come and were still coming. That estimate of a hundred thousand might end up having been a lowball.
How many fucking people had fled to Alaska thinking it was safe?
“Focus on the other bridge,” James ordered the shooters on top of the trailer we were now in front of. Good, that made sense if we were handling this direction and side so the other side didn’t get overrun or corrupted just opted for that way.
She nodded when I was ready, and I didn’t waste a second, looking down the scope and pulling the trigger. The kick was more for sure, as the bullets were also bigger and rapid fire, but we were doing way more damage. Which was probably why we hadn’t started with it. I was tearing up the road when I missed hitting a corrupted.
Well, surviving was more important.
We made huge dents in the numbers, James having the same idea as I did and firing into the masses gathering at the end of the other bridge to help them out too. I mean, the machine guns had to fire insane numbers and fast.
“Help on the south side!” someone yelled down to us.
“Go!” James ordered us.
I let go of the machine gun, and Trisha expertly lifted it, nodding at what I needed to grab for ammo. I did, hurrying after her as we went around both trailers and moved in front of the one I’d started with. Setting down the ammo, I dropped to the ground, and she placed the machine gun right in front of me. I was loaded and started firing immediately.
Yeah, it was that bad on that side too.
Fuck.
I felt her leave but then come back with some sandbags and more ammo. It wasn’t about comfort or poor me was lying on the highway. No, that was fine for a sniper rifle, but to use the machine gun I was sort of half in a pushup and that wasn’t conducive to being as accurate as possible.
The second I need more ammo, I situated the sandbags as she reloaded me. It was much better, and I was making more progress, swallowing my worry that I could be hitting Jaxon, Darius, Cerdic, or even Kristoff. Shit, some of the other nobles had gone with them too, right? The young one was with us, as he wasn’t any faster than I was so, yeah, we’d get eaten too easily then.
“Flares!” I shouted as loud as I could. The last of the lights had been taken out, and all I saw were bodies and lots of them, so it was hard to tell which were still moving on their own or being shot. A few heartbeats later the first large road flare landed on the highway. I didn’t think the flare gun would do that much, but then I saw a second flare coming from yards and yards away.
Shit, was one of the guys lobbing them in from wherever they were fighting? I was so going to shoot one of the men I loved, and then I would die inside.
I mean, I’d already shot Darius… Twice, but that was before I’d known him. And this was way different given how big the gun was.
And the big bullets.
The flares helped, and I could see there weren’t more coming into the visible areas. There could still be more in the surrounding woods, but it was a good sign, so I stopped firing, giving Trisha a nod to look in the scope.
“Thank fuck,” she muttered as she stood. She waved for me to follow, a
nd we found about the same on James’s side.
“And you laughed at my grenade launcher idea,” I yelled when he stopped firing.
Vance burst out laughing, and I knew it wasn’t that funny, more relieved laughing like we were still alive and could laugh. I knew that feeling too well even if I’d never been where I was currently sitting.
The gunfire slowed until it was a few rounds now and again picking those off that were still able to move. I wiggled my fingers in my ears, thinking I wouldn’t get that echo out for a while.
“Cease fire!” James called officially. “Five with handguns with me to check them all.” I stood, and he waved me off. “No, your scent is too much. You stay here. I’m already getting punched for sure.”
“What does that mean?” I asked Trisha. She shrugged, so I opted for at least getting back on top of the trailer so I was at the sniper rifle and could see more.
But there weren’t any left to shoot. Yeah, there were a bunch they finished with the handguns, but otherwise we’d gotten them all.
Now I just had to wait and worry about the others. They didn’t leave me hanging long, Kristof appearing in front of the trailer I was on, and I was so relieved to see he was fine I even met his gaze.
“We’ll have more tomorrow that started coming from Fairbanks when we arrived, as your scent carried on the wind or something, but I can tell they’re coming. They’re still too far out, and we cleared all of the ones near us,” he told me. “What did you want to ask me about? I meant to check earlier, but I thought to ask before you sleep.”
“Oh, I was going to ask what you thought about having them take the gift to Ireland, but you already weighed in,” I said as I sat up. “Did you throw in the flares?”
“Yes, I was carrying them, and when I heard you I tossed them to the highway from a very safe distance.”
“Glad I didn’t shoot you and you’re not hurt. How bad was it on your side?”
He shrugged. “We let through maybe half. No, probably closer to a third. The woods and highway around the bend are littered with bodies. The other nobles will check they’re fully dead and are clearing the road so we can get back to camp.”