Page 72 of Dash

The earth shook. The world turned to fire.

Chapter Nineteen

Thena

“Incoming,” Kai reported, casing the sky with his rifle. “Get ready to rumble.”

He’d barely finished his sentence when the drone swooped down from the sky. It was shaped roughly in the form of an airplane but much smaller, yet also much larger than the recreational drones I’d seen. It flew low and fast, crossed on the other side of the burning tree, and slammed into the gap.

The explosion shook the earth beneath me. The blast shot through my body, stealing my breath. The acrid scent of ashes and smoke choked my throat. It smelled as if someone had burned a steak. Or twenty.

For a second, all I could do was stare at the spot where I’d last seen Dash. It now burned like hell on earth. The forest where he’d once hidden was also on fire and the flames were spreading quickly.

“Dash.” My whisper turned into a whimper and my fingers tightened around his cane. “Dash, where are you?”

“Say again?” Kai whisper-shouted into his comms. Whatever information he received, it had him scrambling to his feet. “Come on.” He stuck his hand under my arm and pulled me up to my feet. “We gotta go. Now.”

My feet refused to move. My body felt heavy as lead. My hearing was iffy. Everything felt muted, blurred, distant. I knew I was in shock, but I didn’t have a way to get myself going. Had Tracker Team been destroyed on its first mission? Could anyone be alive after the devastation I’d witnessed? Was Dash dead?

For a woman who’d never been to war, whose brother had died in combat, and who might have just also lost the love of her life, this was too much. I couldn’t stop staring at the fireconsuming my only hope for happiness.

Kai shoved his shoulder into my middle, draped me over his side, and holding me in a fireman’s carry, ran up the hill as if I were nothing but a sack of lettuce. The back of his legs and heels came in and out of my sight as he jumped from one stone to the next.

The only thing I could do was cling to Dash’s cane. It was as if I held his life in my hands and nobody could rip him out of existence for as long as I clutched the cane.

Kai reached the far woods and weaved through the trees, moving in the direction opposite to the fire. My bones rattled and my rib caged bounced on his shoulder, and yet I felt numb everywhere. The sounds of a fierce firefight came from the sky.

From the sky?

This wasn’t over.Oh, my god. Whoever had attacked us was not content with just blowing the team—and his own hires—to pieces. They were hunting us. From up above. More drones?

“Let me down,” I called out. “I can run.”

Kai took cover beneath the canopy of an enormous elm. He swung me down from his shoulder and deposited me on my feet. He grabbed my face between his hands and stared into my eyes. “Are you with me, Goddess?”

“I’m with you.” I planted the cane on the ground and leaned on it to steady my shaking knees. “What do we do now?”

The mechanical whirr of an object flying above us had Kai pushing me further under the canopy. Looking up between the branches, I spotted a small drone hovering somewhere to our left. The flames reflected on small rotors spinning in the air. Kai crossed his finger over his lips, urging me to remain still and silent. If the drone was capable of detecting the explosive booms of my heart we were as good as dead.

Far to our right, the woods rustled and loudly. The sounds of a weapon firing attracted the drone. Someone wasalive and working to lure the drone away from us.

Dash?

Squeezing the cane in my fists, I dared to hope. If anyone had the skills to survive this, it was him.

The drone whirred away, in search of the shooter. I spotted a second drone flying behind the first. Holy shit. There were two of those killers hunting for survivors.

I lifted two fingers in the air. Kai nodded and motioned for me to follow him. We tiptoed in the woods, moving back toward the road while the drones concentrated their fire power on the other side of the hill.

Rat-a-tat. Rat-a-tat.

Who were the drones after? Who had survived? Who hadn’t?

My heart wanted to stop beating, but Dash would’ve hated it if I allowed my fears to take charge and gave up. My bare feet stung at times, but I wasn’t about to slow down. Leaning on Dash’s cane, I forced myself to follow Kai, imitating his every move, treading lightly over the terrain, making as little sound as I could.

Deviating toward the blown-up culvert, we crossed another small stream and, scurrying across the road, went into the woods on the other side. Parked in the densest part of the forest, Kai led me to one of the team’s Suburbans. He threw open the door, reached in the back of the vehicle, and came up with a weapon I’d never seen before, a cross between a rifle and a grenade launcher.

“What is it?” I mouthed.

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