Page 86 of Viral Justice

Ali led her toward the old hospital. The tents and village felt even quieter than before. There were very few voices talking. Coughing was almost the only noise she could hear.

They left the last of the tents behind and passed the first house. It boasted a tall back wall of stone, with no windows until twelve feet up.

As she and the woman passed the wall, men with covered faces rushed them.

Chapter Twenty

Aman grabbed Ali frombehind, wrapping his arms around her, trapping her arms against her body. Another man was reaching for her legs when she bent over, forcing some space between her and the man behind. Then she elbowed him hard in the kidney at the same time as she stomped on the top of his foot.

His hold faltered as the second man grabbed her legs. Her arms were free now and she punched him in the throat. When the man who’d grabbed her from behind tried to catch her again she turned, kneed him in the balls, then punched him in the throat too.

The other woman screamed as two men tried to carry her away, kicking and punching for all she was worth.

You go, girl.

Distant shouts in Arabic told Ali she didn’t have much time before the four kidnappers were going to have help. And while she’d love the chance to beat the shit out of every single man who arrived thinking he could cart a woman off, she wasn’t alone.

She pulled out two knives hidden inside her sleeves in arm sheaths, one for each hand, and launched herself at the two men carrying the woman off. She flowed toward them like she was riding a wave, stabbed the one who had the woman’s feet in the neck. He went down and Ali avoided his flailing legs as she moved without pause after the other one.

He tried to block her by yanking the woman around, using her as a shield.

Ali went one way then dove the other, ducking low and coming up to puncture his femoral artery in his right leg.

He fell and dropped the woman at the same time.

She didn’t stop screaming, but she did scramble to her feet and kick the man frantically trying to stem the flow of blood from his leg a few times.

Another man, this one armed with a gun, came around the wall and Ali threw one of her knives at him. It took him in the throat and he flopped onto the ground like a dead fish on ice.

Ali tugged at the woman’s arm and managed to get her moving back into the tents before more men arrived.

The other woman clutched at Ali, thanking her repeatedly. Ali found herself in the awkward position of having to shush her so as to not attract more attention from the wrong people.

Speaking of which, the five or six people she’d found better be enough, because it was obvious the militants were going to be looking for her.

They took the long way around to the abandoned hospital, adding a solid fifteen minutes to the time it should have taken to reach it. Time well spent if it saved them from being attacked.

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