Page 64 of Toy

“Go now.”

She hurried over to the fire. I crept back over to the cabins and hunkered down behind the farthest wall. A few seconds later, Jolie popped off three rounds into the black sky.

I heard a man call out right away. “They’re over there!”

I stepped out from behind the cabin as their pounding footsteps drew closer. Just as I thought, all eight of the guys were veering off to their left, running in the direction of the fire. Perfect.

With calm precision, I aimed my pistol at the group and fired off several rounds, ignoring the dull ache in my thumb as I used my left hand to steady my grip. The men fell one by one, slumping on each other as they landed. Only the last one realized what was happening, and he figured it out far too late. He whipped around and aimed a pistol at me, but before he could pull the trigger, a bullet from my own gun sliced into his chest. He crumpled to the ground and landed right on top of one of the others.

“It’s okay,” I called out to Jolie. “You can come back to me now.”

She dashed over and stared at the bloodied pile of cultists. “Holy shit. You actually got all of them!”

I shrugged one shoulder. “They made it a little too easy.”

“How are we going to kill the rest?” she asked, brows knitting. “There’s got to be at least eighty or ninety left, right?”

“I’d say so.”

“I don’t like those odds,” she said, shaking her head. “Even with your guns… two against eighty isn’t good. Not unless you have a pile of grenades, and I’m assuming you don’t.”

I smiled. “We’ll be fine. We just need to be smarter than them. Braver, too. Remember, these guys are a pack of cowards. What’s the first thing most of them did when I started shooting?”

“They ran.”

“Exactly. They did the same thing eight years ago when they realized the FBI was about to show up and raid the joint. So what do you think they’re going to do now?”

She swallowed thickly. “They’re going to try and escape the valley,” she said with a slow nod of realization. “They’ll leave all the girls and kids here like they did last time.”

“Yup. Unfortunately for them, their plane and helicopter are sitting in a field over there,” I said, pointing behind us. “They can’t get to them without going past the village.”

“Surely they won’t be that stupid. They know we’re here, and they know you have guns.”

“You’re right. They’re not stupid.” I kicked one of the dead men below my feet. “I think these guys were just meant to distract us. There’s probably a side road leading from the mansion to the airfield, bypassing the village entirely. I bet a bunch of them are heading onto it as we speak.”

Jolie held up the binoculars and scanned the mansion. “You’re right,” she murmured. “I can see a few guys heading out a side door on the very right of the building. I didn’t even notice them earlier. I was too busy focusing on the front.”

I hoisted my bag onto my back. “Let’s get a little closer and figure out what we’re dealing with.”

We trudged over to a thick bush about twenty yards ahead. I put my pack down and unzipped the main pocket before pulling out a dismantled MF carbine. As I clipped it all together and loaded up the extended magazine, Jolie stared down at me with raised eyebrows. “What the hell is that?”

“Assault rifle. It’s got a six hundred yard range with a high-capacity magazine, and it fires at a rate of eight hundred rounds per minute,” I said with a tight grin.

“Holy shit. You actually know how to use that thing?” she said, eyes wide with incredulity.

“I’m no expert, but Beck gave me a few lessons over the last few days. She figured I should know the basics in case she couldn’t be around for some reason,” I explained.

“Wait, Beck’s here?” Jolie asked, brows shooting up again.

I shook my head. “She hurt her foot, so she couldn’t make it through the pass. We’re on our own.”

Jolie’s shoulders slumped. “Damn. She’ll be okay, right?”

“Yeah. We’ll go back for her later.” I lay the rifle on a high, flat rock to the right of the bush, keeping a careful grip on it with my uninjured hand. “Now, I need you to do something for me.”

“What?”

I pointed east. “It’s too dark for me to see properly, and I don’t have a scope. Wouldn’t know how to use one even if I did,” I said. “So I need you to look through those binoculars again and help me figure out exactly where to aim this thing before I start firing. I’d rather not shoot blindly, because that would give more of them a chance to run away.”

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