Page 50 of Bound in the Dark

The Devil whispered, “I’m coming for you.” I whispered back, “You better bring tequila.”

There was the unmistakable sound of gunfire coming from deeper in the woods. Diana had spent long hours studying the layout of the compound months ago but there wasn’t much information on the dirt roads that ran through the forest at the back of the property so she hoped the path she was on would take her to where she was needed. She would ask for assistance but the updates and chatter on the earpiece had reached an almost constant stream that she had to block out.

Petrov had breached the front gates and was being pulled into the trap that awaited him there. Men were injured but she didn’t know who was where so the names weren’t of much help. The truth was she didn’t have much of a plan except get within visual distance of the firefight.

She had a Tavor X95 assault rifle slung across her back but it wouldn’t do her much good while riding. She was decent on the motorcycle but she couldn’t ride without at least one hand on the handlebars. Even with her rifle's blocky bullpup frame without both hands she wouldn’t hit shit. The chatter in her earpiece cut out.

Had she lost reception?

‘There is a trail coming up on your left, ‘darlin, if you take it you’ll circle behind those gelded sons of milk cows.’ The southern twang surprised her and she slowed.

‘Val?’ Diana saw the turn off on the left and took it.

‘Got it in one. Cami has us on a private channel so I can talk you in. Crash is down and we think dead. From what we can see on the drone, Rubble, Blue, and Crow have them temporarily pinned but may have been injured as well. I’m gonna need you to live up to all that hype and get our boys out of there safe.’

‘What is the situation?’

‘Six assholes with guns shooting at our three who are using the trees as cover.’

Diana dodged a tree branch trying to maintain her speed without losing control. She took a deep breath.

‘That isn’t helpful. Fully automatic or semi? Are they in cover or out in the open? Will I be coming in behind them, in front of them, or to the side? Any chance I could sneak up on them?”

The sound of the gunfire grew significantly louder. She was probably going to come up on them in under a minute. She stopped the bike.

‘What are you doing? You will come in behind them, just drive up and kill them all.’

Val’s voice was full of anger and Diana shook her head slinging her rifle around to the front. The woman had obviously seen too many action flicks if she thought that kind of accuracy was even possible on a motorcycle in anything outside a movie or a practiced and planned stunt.

Keeping her movements slow and smooth she moved forward towards the sound of gunfire. She tuned out the creative and very southern insults that Val was sending her way through the earpiece. In any fight her perception of the world narrowed and broadened in complicated ways.

Short controlled fire that she assumed was the Dark Sons was echoed by wild bursts of fire. Given enough time the enemy would probably run out of ammo since they didn’t seem to be taking any time to aim. But all it would take was a lucky shot to end a life.

After sliding around a tree, Diana paused as the combatants came into view. The scene crystalized like a snapshot in her mind. Six men in a staggered line on the road hunkered down behind their ATVs. They howled like animals as they fired wildly at the tree line in front of them. Three large trees were almost stripped of their bark from the amount of bullets that had been shot into them. She couldn’t see them but guessed that was where the Dark Sons were taking cover.

On the motorcycle she would have only had seconds to try and aim and fire at these men. Her breath evened out as she sighted and aimed at each man. Running through the sequence of fire she intended twice. Air eased out of her lungs and time raced forward as she pulled the trigger rapid fire attempting to double tap each one.

Four of the six men’s heads exploded with the impact of her rounds. Two had moved and only received body shots. She dropped the rifle on it’s sling and pulled her VP9 on muscle memory. Diana glided forward, she was more accurate with a pistol at this range while moving. The first man clutched at his chest completely unaware of her approach and she ended him with one shot to the chest and two to his head.

The second saw her and tried to point his rifle towards her but she shot him in the leg and he crumpled. Twice more she fired and he stopped moving when his brain could no longer send signals to his body. She approached the line of prone men who were wearing Bloody Bones cuts with caution. One by one she made sure they were dead feeling for a pulse even on the ones with parts of their skulls missing.

‘Diana,’ Val’s voice was hesitant, ‘I would like to apologize for any name I may have called you in the heat of the moment. I’m cooler than February morning in the mountains when it comes to medical emergencies but I may not be best suited to gunfights.’

Diana laughed and keyed her mic. ‘That’s okay, Val. I wasn’t listening to you anyway. Can you give me an update on Highdive?’

‘Sure thing, darlin’, give me a minute.’

A man walked towards her from the tree line. He had dark hair and sharp features that did nothing to hide his scowl. The man she thought was named Blue was trying to hide a limp but wasn’t being very successful. He looked over the six dead men his eyes widening.

“You’re Highdive’s Old Lady?”

She nodded, not sure why that was important.

“That was impressive. You saved our asses.” The short compliment was probably the most she would get in the way of thanks. Not that she expected anything more. In her experience military service inhibited a man’s ability to voice much more than curses or commands.

“Anyone else alive?”

“Gears is dead. Rubble is bad but should survive, Crow is stabilizing him.”

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