Page 34 of Guarded By Them

A figure was crouched beside the bushes. Son of a bitch. Who was that? Were there more of them? They appeared to be covering the front door, perhaps expecting us to make an escape. That was where the car was parked, and we were miles from anywhere. We could take off on foot, but it was dark, and none of us knew these forests. Getting lost among the trees could kill us as surely as a bullet, though our deaths would take a lot longer.

It was better that we were on the offensive rather than the defensive. I wasn’t going to hide away inside the cabin and wait for them to come to us. Right now, they didn’t even know that we were all awake, and probably thought we were still sleeping in our beds. That gave us an advantage, and we needed to take it before it was too late.

“Let’s try the back,” I whispered to the others.

“You should stay in the house,” I hissed at Rue. “It’s safer.”

She shook her head. “No way. I’m staying with you guys.”

If we left her here while we all went outside, there was a chance someone might sneak in and just snatch her while we weren’t looking. “Okay, fine,” I relented. “But stay close.”

She stared up at me, her blue eyes wide and frightened, and she nodded. I didn’t think she was planning on going anywhere alone.

Even though he was the least mobile out of all of us, Ryan was by far the best shot, and he led the way. I was right behind him, ready to cover him. Rue’s small frame was pressed to my back, and Dillon covered her from behind.

Our vehicle was right out front. That was another sloppy mistake. We should have parked the car around the back or side of the cabin, hiding it from the view from the road, but also giving us access to it from both the front and back.

We paused just before the back door, our spines pressed against the wall.

Ryan counted us down, ready to move.

One... two... three... he mouthed and then pointed forward.

I leaned past him and threw open the door.

We stepped out into the night air. The sky was growing pale above us, signaling the start of sunrise. Insects fluttered around a light positioned beside the back door. An owl hooted mournfully somewhere in the distance.

The crack of a gunshot shattered through the stillness.

We ducked back down, each of us instinctively covering Rue as much as possible.

Movement darted through the moonlit bushes near the other building.

“There!” I pointed.

Ryan fired back. I heard an ouff and a thud as someone fell.

But that didn’t mean the man was dead, and I was sure there were at least two of them, if not more.

Whoever the guy Ryan had just shot was with would have heard the gunshots. He’d know we were armed, though he’d probably assume that anyway. Who were these men? Who had they been sent by, and were there more coming? I needed to grill Timmo and find out who he’d been talking to, but there wasn’t time now.

Moving as one, we crept around the side of the house.

A bullet hit the wood right beside my head. “Fuck!”

Rue let out a scream.

That had been close.

I returned fire in the direction the gunfire had come from. There were flashes of light in the darkness as whoever it was shot back.

Beside me, Dillon gave a yell. He jerked backward, hit the wall of the cabin behind us, and slumped to the ground.

“Dillon!” Rue cried.

I spotted movement, darting between the cover of the bushes, and lifted the gun and fired. A cry and a heavy thud followed. I’d hit the son of a bitch.

Shit, Dillon had been hurt. Blood oozed from a gunshot wound on his thigh, a black smear in the poor light.

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