Page 98 of Darling Wildfire
“I like the sound of that, boss.”
Now, I stood staring at the double doors about to step foot into another game and the stakes were higher than ever. I could feel Nyx’s nervous energy vibrating next to me but when I looked over at him, he was focused. The doors opened, and we stepped out into the awaiting arena. I immediately went to stare at the map on the wall. Atlas passed me a comms unit while I studied the crude drawing.
“This is going to be a close quarters game,” I said.
Nearly the entire map was a low-lying forest area with a few platforms concealed in trees. There was a large stream that ran diagonally through the map and a cluster of buildings scattered here and there. A road wound through the trees with no visible destination.
“What’s the play?” One of the newbies asked.
I’d stopped trying to remember their names. Two of them looked young, but the other was eyeing me critically. He was older than me, maybe in his forties, bald, with a gruesome scar cutting through his eye and across the side of his mouth, drawing it down into a perpetual frown.
“First priority is always fire power and ammo,” I said. “You three take up the rear guard. Target will most likely be in one of these platforms. No heroics—we work together—we all get back alive.”
The two young soldiers nodded but I could see the fire in their eyes for adventure and blood and knew we probably wouldn’t be coming back with them in tow. The other one I wasn’t sure about. He looked like he’d seen some shit and possibly had potential to not be an idiot.
I led the way quickly through the forest and we picked up a few .45s, a sniper rifle and an AR. Once we’d finally outfitted everyone with firepower, we’d made it deep into the map and were coming up on the first platform. When it came into view, I had the team spread out and drop behind cover.
“You and you—” I said, pointing to the kids. “Up top.”
They eagerly jumped up and hurried to the ladder built into the trunk of the tree.
“Ammo cache,” one reported over comms.
“Load up,” I said.
They returned to the ground, and we distributed the ammo then continued on. When we got to the second tree house, the kids went up again.
“There’s a cage, but it’s empty,” one of them said.
I motioned for the group to hold and climbed up into the perch. I walked over to the cage and noticed a set of bloody handcuffs, a piece of duct tape and a blindfold sitting nearby.
“Did someone take her already?”
I’d already briefed them about how the target was a woman. Apparently, Vetticus found it amusing not to tell anyone what we were hunting for. Shock value for the viewers no doubt.
“No—the lock is picked, not shot.”
I pulled a strand of red hair sitting on the cage door. The target was Red again from the looks of it. I looked around the ground and saw a few drops of blood leading back to the door.
“Come on,” I said.
I dropped to the ground and looked around the base.
“Our target is on foot this time,” I said.
“She escaped?” Preacher asked.
“Appears so.”
“She went that way,” the scarred man said.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Kane.”
“Are you a tracker?”
“Something like that,” he said.
