Page 53 of Viral Justice

The dirt spoiled his aim and the shot went wide.

She came up inside his reach, thrusting the heel of her hand against his chin. Her blow knocked him back a step. She grabbed the rifle with one hand while the other hammered down on his wrist, breaking it.

She turned, elbowed him in the face and landed a mule kick to his right knee. The crunch of his kneecap shattering sounded oddly loud.

Something hot and wet scored her side. She completed her turn to find he’d drawn a knife with his left hand. He must have landed a hit, but it didn’t feel significant, so she ignored it.

She blocked his next thrust, and the next, then landed a hard punch against his temple.

He went down like a sack of rocks.

She turned and grabbed up the smallest boy with one arm while tugging on the hand of the larger one, and hurried down the street and away from the fight.

Five seconds passed, and no one shouted at them. A couple of men raced by them toward the well.

Ten seconds passed. The sounds of the battle receded and people peered out of doorways and windows to see what was going on.

Fifteen seconds passed. The hospital house was in sight.

A man called out and rushed toward her. Both boys wiggled out of her hold. She let them go and they ran toward the man, calling him father.

“Go, hide,” she said to him. “There are men with guns near the well.” She hurried on two houses further and into the hospital house to follow her own advice.

Except this was no place to hide. Everyone in the entire village knew where to take their sick. It was only a matter of minutes before the men at the well obtained that information and showed up.

Tom was observing the street through a gap in the canvas and his rifle’s scope. “What the fuck?” he asked as soon as she was inside the tent entryway.

“Six armed men showed up at the well right after I got my water. They shot two women, then beat another while asking where the Americans are.”

“We’re blown?”

“Completely. Watch for bogeys. We’ll probably have some incoming sooner rather than later.”

“Fuck.”

She left Tom to his lookout position and found Max in the room he’d taken over for his lab.

“What’s going on?” Max asked her. “I heard gunfire.”

“There’s an armed group looking for Americans.You.They shot a couple of women and some of the locals took exception to that. I killed a couple of the assholes looking for us, but there are more out there, so we’re in trouble.” She looked at the lab equipment he had set up. “We need to leave. Find somewhere defensible to hole up.”

“If we leave now, I’ll have to start all over.”

“If we don’t leave now, we’re all going to die.”

“Well, when you put it that way...” He sighed. “Damned inconvenient of these people to show up now.”

“Should I ask them to reschedule for three days from now?”

He snorted. “I’d love to see the reactions to that question. Did you get some water?”

Not exactly. “I had to leave it behind to save a couple of kids.”

“I’ll accept that answer. Can you help me with this stuff?”

She grabbed his backpack and checked the contents. It looked like he hadn’t taken anything out of it. Good. She put it along the wall a few feet from the door, where it could be grabbed on the run.

The Sandwich was still out, so she got it back into its padded bag and shoved it into one of the duffels. He was fussing with the rest of the equipment. She glanced around, certain there was something she should be doing.

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