Page 133 of Darling Wildfire
In the next building, I did my normal hand signal to sweep the building, but added the signal to take out the cameras. We shot them out and tore out our comms units, stomping them into the ground.
“Nyx,” I barked.
He turned his back to me, dropping his vest to his elbows. I cut quickly into his shirt, and after feeling for the bump where the tracker was, I dug the knife into his skin. He didn’t flinch, his adrenaline already shielding him from the worst. I dug the tracker out and put it on a slab of concrete at my side.
Atlas was next, and he did the same thing, then Preacher, then Nyx took care of mine. In under a minute, we had our trackers lined up on the concrete slab, all live and still transmitting.
“Go!” I growled.
We sprinted out the door and took off full speed towards the forest. It was a good hundred yards and my blood was pounding in my ears, listening hard for the hum of the drones. We hit the treeline and didn’t stop, plunging into the forest. The footing was thankfully easy, with the trees spaced a foot or two apart with soft pine needles underfoot. I led the line, keeping my eyes peeled for any traps or cameras Vetticus may have placed.
We’d been running for about ten minutes when we finally heard the hum of a drone slowly gaining on us. These were military drones so they were equipped with heat seeking technology, night vision and all the other bells and whistles that made them deadly.
“Atlas,” I barked.
“Three drones incoming,” Atlas called.
We kept running, and I heard his rifle, three shots in quick succession.
“Drones down!” He called.
I looked over my shoulder to make sure he was following before we continued on through the trees. We crashed through a stream, up the bank and continued running on the other side. I was thankful for how fit we wereand how much stamina we all had because I wanted us to run for as long as possible. I wanted to put as much distance as we could between us and the map.
An hour later, I slowed us to a walk to catch our breath.
“Kraven!” A voice rang out through the trees and we immediately took a knee covering each other.
“There,” I muttered. “Off my two.”
A lone drone hovered in the canopy, broadcasting Vetticus’ voice.
“I knew you’d do this to me,” he growled. “I commend you for getting this far, however, this is where it ends. I’m giving you one chance to surrender. None of you will be harmed—” I pulled my trigger before he could finish speaking and we were up and moving before the drone even hit the ground.
A few minutes later, more drones descended on us from above where they’d been hovering out of sight and sound. Bullets cut into the ground around us and we dove for cover. I scrambled behind a tree, bringing my rifle up as soon as my back hit the trunk. I took out two before bullets bit into the bark and one zipped around the tree to get to me. I took it out and turned to help the others.
Afterwards we regrouped.
Nyx had a graze on his arm but Preacher had taken a bullet in his shoulder.
“I’m fine,” he ground out and motioned for us to keep going.
I pushed us into a jog again.
For the next few hours we fought off swarms of drones but by the time the afternoon crept towards evening, we hadn’t seen any for a concerning amount of time and we were nearing exhaustion. To make things worse, I’d started hearing the telltale whisper of rushing water somewhere in front of us that would mask any sound of the drones approaching. I could smell damp earth and hear the pounding of a waterfall when I heard Atlas shout.
“Down!” We dove for the ground as another cluster of drones shot at us. I landed in some bushes and twisted on my back, shooting one down before I scrambled to my feet and took cover behind a small rock outcropping. I leaned out and saw one whip by me and bank as it headed towards Nyx.
We both fired and hit it, sending it crashing into a tree.
“Clear!” Nyx called.
“Preacher is hit!” Atlas called.
I came out to see Atlas supporting Preacher as he clutched at his leg which was bleeding heavily from a bullet wound on the inside of his thigh. I tore off my vest and shirt, shredding it into a bandage. I quickly ripped his pants and wrapped it to try and stop the bleeding.
“Can you make it to the water?” I looked up at him to see his face tight with pain but he nodded curtly.
“Fuck—incoming!” Nyx said. We barely avoided a barrage of bullets.
