“Don’t
move!”
Her
tone froze him with his hands splayed out in the dirt. He sensed movement near
his fingers as she slowly drew her weapon.
“Roll
to your right when I start, and come up firing. Targets at ten, two and three.”
Marc
heard the soft pad of paws, more than one, and watched her eyes for the moment
to react.
“Shit.
Two more at 12 o’ clock,” Angela watched the three lanky, gray-and-white
wolves, trying to judge their intentions. When a big black-and-gold animal she
hadn’t seen lunged toward from the shadows, there was only time to react.
Angela
fired, a bit wildly on the first few shots, and one of the rounds caught the
wolf in mid-leap, slamming into its chest. It landed on the ground with a hard
thud as Marc rolled and hit his feet, began to fire.
“Watch
your six!” he warned, immediately sure they were pack-hunting. He put them back
to back as the brittle stalks around them swayed with barely seen movement. The
sky had begun to darken as they worked out, but neither had worried, used to
being in the dark, but this time they had let dangerous predators get close.
Suddenly,
they were under attack, moving eyes gleaming at them through the dusk-tinted
rows. They fired at the same time, dropping two wolves that had jumped from
opposite sides.
A
dark shadow appeared at her hip, and Angela stopped herself from shooting as
she recognized Dog. Her eyes narrowed on a stocky white wolf running in and out
of the distant, yellow stalks. Before she could take aim on the leader, another
shadow streaked past her.
“Damn
it!” Again, she kept herself from firing by only a hair. “Dog just went to my
right, chasing the white one.”
Marc
nodded, turning them to face another duel attack meant to separate. They came
in low, lunging for legs, and both shots killed, but two more hungry hunters
jumped at Angela, coming fast.
“Duck!”
she shouted, firing. She got the low animal in the chest as the other went
sailing overhead, and she heard Marc take care of it as more and more eyes
shined mercilessly in the dimness. Wolves were now streaming through the corn
like rats.
Making
sure they stayed tightly against each other, Marc moved them in half circles,
firing and kicking at those not hungry enough to lunge, but still bold enough
to snap. He could feel Angela doing the same behind him, her grunts and shots
mirroring his.
Flames
rose up behind them suddenly, Marc catching a tall shadow from the corner of
his eye as he turned, shot a leaping wolf in the chest, turned, and killed a
snapping wolf going for Angie’s leg.
More
fire erupted, along with the pungent smell of gasoline as full darkness fell
over them, and some of the wolves hesitated, but not those hungry frontrunners.
Angela
jerked forward, stiff-arming a determined predator in the throat. Her gun was
empty and she knew by the silence behind her that Marc's was too. Drooling, fur
bushed up, the wolves moved closer with hungry eyes.
Angela
fumbled for the speed loader on her belt, and Marc turned them again, slamming
his in as two more wolves lunged. He caught one in the neck, blood spraying,
and shoved them backwards in time to let the second animal go sailing by.
“Incoming!”
Reloaded,
Angela shot the wolf as it hit the hard ground and fired at eyes in the air,
then the flames were between her and the corn as Marc rotated them again. Shadows
lunged, coming through gaps in the wall of fire, and she picked them off,
assuming Brady’s silent gun meant he was reloading.
Marc
stared intently at the hulking man intently, the 3/4 circle of flames
discouraging many of the animals. The newcomer was gigantic, eight by five it
seemed like, and yet he was light on his feet as he poured the last of the
gasoline to close the gaps.
“Stay
inside,” the big man instructed gruffly without turning, voice heavy under his
furs and hood.
Before
Marc could say anything, Angela spun around, six shots gone. She gasped in
surprise at the big man, but just like Marc, her fingers didn’t stop. She had
to be ready when he turned them again.
“On
your right, woman!”
She
slammed the clip home and fired without looking, almost able to hear the
slobbering jaws about to clamp down on her ankle. A heavy body thudded to the
ground.
“Dog!
Guard her!” Marc shouted, firing.
The
wolf appeared at her side, bloody muzzle snarling viciously at two more animals
trying to sneak through a thin gap in the fire wall.
"This
is Safe Haven Refugee Camp. Can anyone hear me?
Hello?
Is anyone out there?"
The Survivors
*Free on all
retailers
