Page 100 of Darling Wildfire
Another hit and the knife dug into my side.
With a grunt of pain, I went down on one knee. He yanked the knife out and came at me again, hoping to finish me but I lunged up with a growl and tackled him into the bushes. We crashed through the underbrush and rolleddown a slope. He was on top of me as we plunged into the creek.
We’d both lost our guns at this point. All I had was a knife in my boot that I couldn’t reach. He punched me in the face and I inhaled water before I hit him several times. I shoved him off me and scrambled to my knees in the shallows. We both saw the gun on the bank at the same time and lunged for it.
I grabbed his leg and yanked him back into the water. He came up with a rock and tried to take my knee out with it as I passed him. I slipped avoiding it and he went for the gun again.
He came up with it, turned and pulled the trigger.
There were only feet between us and I couldn’t stop in time. The gunshot was deafening and made my ears ring. The only thing that saved me from certain death was at the last second I twisted away, and the bullet cut deeply into my bicep as it grazed me. My momentum took us back into the water as I collided with him.
I heard the gun go off again near my head as we fell.
We thrashed in the water, each attempting to gain the upper hand. He dug his fingers into my side and I folded to my knees where he quickly shoved me onto my back and leveled the gun at my face. There was no way I could move in time and everything slowed as I watched him squeeze the trigger.
The gun clicked.Empty.
I didn’t have time to breathe a sigh of relief. He growled a curse and clubbed me across the face with the gun before tossing it away and shoved my head under the water, holding me there with his hands around my neck. I struggled in an attempt to get him off but my hips were wedged between two larger rocks and I couldn’t get purchase with him sitting on my chest.
My hands closed around a rock and I slashed it across his face, which eased his grip enough for me to break the surface for air. He recovered and shoved me down again. Black started to crowd my vision, and I inhaled a bit of water, making me sputter.
I wasn’t going to go out like this though—on my back in this fucking hellhole. I reached down, fumbling for the knife I’d seen in the man’s boot sheath. Just when I thought I was going to black out, my fingers closed around the hilt.
I yanked it out and blindly stabbed up into his chest under his ribs. I knew I’d missed his heart, so I pulled it out and stabbed him again. He pulled away, and I exploded to the surface.
I didn’t bother with trying to catch my breath. Wheezing and sputtering water, I watched the man crawl towards the shore, blood tinting the water red. I lunged for him, shoving his face into the mud. I straddled his back,grabbed the knife I had in my boot and jammed it with excessive force into the back of his neck.
His body went limp under me and I retched up water. Each cough and gasp of breath was a stab to my chest. I heard static in my ear and yanked out my comms, realizing it was useless now.
I climbed off the body and knelt in the sand on the bank, taking deep breaths to steady my adrenaline and to get my brain to think straight again. My hand went to my side where blood was pouring from the knife wound. My vest was restricting, and I tore it off, tossing it aside so I could breathe easier. My shirt was next, and I looked down at the stab wound.
It seemed deep, and I quickly ripped my shirt and did a quick bandage to slow the bleeding. I used the rest to awkwardly wrap my arm, gripping the fabric in my teeth to tighten the knot.
Shirtless and in only a pair of standard camo pants and boots, I headed up the bank, pausing carefully at the top. The gunfire was off further in the trees and there wasn’t any movement around me so I stood up and did a quick recon of the area. Bodies littered the ground, most of them were the enemy but I came upon the other kid on our team, a bullet through his neck.
I knelt next to him and gently extracted his comms unit and weapons. There were only a few rounds left in the current clip and after looking around the area, I only found one full clip leaving me frustratingly low on ammo. None of the handguns left at the scene had any rounds left in them so I didn’t bother. I shoved my knife back in my boot and put the comms unit in my ear.
Chatter instantly assaulted me from my team and I stumbled to my feet with a growl of pain as I clutched my side. I wiped the rest of the water from my face and took off carefully through the trees.
49
NYX
We’d lost North somewhere back near the creek and I couldn’t see Kane, Preacher or Red nearby.
“North—” I called over comms. “North come in.”
No answer.
Two men appeared out of the trees, too close for guns and I lunged for one while Atlas went after the other. The man landed a solid hit to my jaw sending me stumbling back against a tree and I barely dodged a bullet as he fired nearly point blank. He fired again and the earth near my head exploded.
I have no idea what kind of luck was on my side to avoid a death shot—twice—but I wasn’t complaining. The devil obviously wasn’t ready to see me yet, and I was just fine delivering others to him in my place.
I whipped onto my back and fired, hitting the man in the face. I heard another gun go off and looked over to see Atlas get the upper hand only for a third man to appear out of the trees behind him and level a gun at his head.
Atlas slammed a knife into the man under him. I lunged to my knees and fired over his shoulder just as his eyes rose to meet mine, a feral look in them. He looked over his shoulder as he heard the man fall and I climbed to my feet and ran over. I offered him a hand up.
“Nice shot,” he panted.
