Unwilling to Back Down (Survival of the Fittest Book 2)

by Shawn Keys

  Dazz’s fingers came off the keyboard. “Internet is down, too. Either the cable is cut or they managed to kill the service.”

  Kyle clenched his teeth. “Which means they know where we are.” He turned back to the camera. “I have no idea if I’m still broadcasting. That won’t last for much longer. They’re killing our communications one by one, and we haven’t heard any demands from any negotiators for me to stand down. They haven’t even tried talking. They’re coming to kill me. We knew this was going to happen. We didn’t care. It was that important for you to hear all this. I’m not important. In the end, I’m just one guy who got into these people’s faces. Now, it’s up to all of you. Demand answers! Demand accountability. We’ve always asked for that throughout our history. Maybe we forgot because of Persterim. I get it. It’s scary shit, to think of our species going out like that. But it’s time to get past all that. We need to solve this. To do that, we need to start by finding the bastards responsible for it and stopping them. Now.”

  In the distance, he heard the approaching sound of helicopter blades slashing the air. He reached to the side of his chair and grabbed hold of his LWRC. Stepping away from the camera, he said, “Leave it running. People can hear it until they manage to kill the feed. Can you see them?” Kyle picked a window and looked out. One of the good things about the ranch was that it had wide-open views. No forest to speak of for a half-mile in every direction. It was nearing sunset. Everything on the ground was shadows, while the west-facing sides of buildings and trees were light up brilliantly with rich yellow light.

  Dazz called out, “Black SUVs coming down the road! Looks like four! Maybe five. Can’t see through the dark and the dust they’re kicking up.”

  Kyle said, “Get Musk_Ox out of the truck!”

  The big man must have heard him over the live feed, because he immediately abandoned his post in the broadcasting truck and ran for the porch. He got out just in time.

  From high in the sky, a Blackhawk dove from a high angle in a fairly sharp combat move. Banking hard, a heavy machinegun blasted away, cutting the top of the truck to pieces. They weren’t aiming to break the vehicle itself. Rather, the focus of the fire was on the satellite dish propped on the top along with the antennae and other processing computers concealed in the back. The gunner’s whole goal was to stop the live stream. It didn’t take long. The truck wasn’t built to take that kind of punishment, and Musk_Ox had been running the whole thing by himself. The set-up was fragile and didn’t take much damage before it failed. Smoke rose from a dozen holes in the truck’s sides. A small flame licked from inside the smoldering ruins of the production compartment as a heated tracer round melted a random component and caused a short-circuit.

  Hoping the truck wouldn’t explode while he stood at the window nearest to it, Kyle smashed the glass and then fired up at the helicopter. Using the muzzle flashes of the gunner as an aiming point, he fired at the man instead of the helicopter. Bad enough to have something in the air, but that machine gun could tear apart the whole house in a way they didn’t want to deal with. Strafing the cargo area, he saw the gunner jerk a little in place, then stop shooting. There was scrambling inside the aircraft, which then banked away and fled the immediate area. Kyle didn’t think he had done any serious damage to the helo itself, knowing it would be back.

  He called over to Dazz, “Those SUVs still coming?”

  “Yes! Not in range yet!”

  Kyle looked down the hallway leading to the back of the ranch house. “Jackie! Are there more coming from your direction?” The back of the lot didn’t have a road, but the land wasn’t that rough. Rugged vehicles like the FDPC SUVs might be able to drive over them.

  “Two more!” called out the DOJ agent. “They just ran into a creek bed they can’t cross, but they’re pouring out. Looks like… six agents, approaching from back here!”

  Kyle nodded, knowing he didn’t have to tell her what to do. She had told him she would defend herself according to whatever rules governed her professional life. He figured if nothing else, once they started shooting, Jackie would have no problem shooting back.

  He went to the front, joining Dazz and Musk_Ox. He told the big man, “Can you shoot?”

  He gave an unhappy frown. “Not really. Won’t get anyone killed, but not sure I can hit anything further than that tree out there.”

  “You could head down to the basement and help Soo-Yun, or grab that hunting rifle there and do what you can. Your choice, but Jackie’s all alone back there,” Kyle said.

  Musk_Ox looked uncertain until Kyle mentioned Jackie. Then, he grabbed up the rifle, gave a firm nod, then headed for the back.

  Kyle smirked. “Weirdest date ever.”

  Dazz snorted. “Get your mind on business.”

  He did. The four SUVs had made the turn into the ranch’s private lane. Once past the gate, they didn’t stay on the gravel road. They spread out, fanning over the lawn and aiming to disembark their loads of agents. Holding back about a hundred feet, the agents used the SUVs as cover. Kyle counted somewhere around fifteen. Maybe not as many as the SUVs could hold, but probably as many agents as they could drum up in that short a time.

  Kyle growled. More will be coming if this drags on. Unless the police get here first. Maybe I should have given away our position to speed that up. He knew why he hadn’t. He was still holding out hope of getting out of there. He didn’t trust being under arrest, not even if he had managed to make himself known to people. If they killed him in custody, it wouldn’t matter if someone got chastised for it later. He’d still be dead. He wasn’t giving himself over to anyone until he was sure the rot had been cleaned out of this whole fucking system.

  Scanning across the lawn, he wondered if they were even going to bother trying to talk.

  Then, he saw the helicopter swoop in. It landed and disembarked a single figure, then took off once more. The lone figure trotted up behind one of the SUVs, took in the ranch, and made a gesture with his hand.

  Kyle wasn’t a tactical expert. He had never been in the military. But he recognized a ‘let him have it’ gesture when he saw one. “Get down!” Following his own advice, he dove to the ground behind makeshift bunker they had created out of every hard piece of metal, wood and cushioning they could find.

  More than a dozen rifles unleashed at them. Bullets ripped through the house. From the other direction, the six in the backyard also fired, hammering the rear of the house and the barricade Jackie had established for her own protection, probably with Musk_Ox joining her now. Splinters and other chips of shrapnel broken free from the furniture beat at them from all sides. A few ricochets came close, but the bulletproof vests they were wearing kept them from causing anything except a few more scratches and cuts and rents in their clothing. The barrage continued for a full two minutes, making Kyle wonder if there was any way to survive that sort of hell.

  Until suddenly, there was a sharp cry of pain among the hail of gunfire.

  Then, another.

  The storm of gunshots wavered outside as the Dawn agents realized they weren’t being picked off from inside the ranch house. The armored SUVs were good protection against any fire Kyle could manage. Not that he could manage anything. He was seriously pinned down.

  But Doug wasn’t. Neither was Rebecca. Or Chloe. Or any of the twelve men and women Doug said he had cobbled together from the surrounding ranches. They were scattered in a wide ring, hunkered down and under cover. They’d been told to hold their fire until the agents started shooting. None of them had been too keen on getting into things if the officials were willing to talk. But if the G-men opened fire and tried to execute Kyle without even trying to coax him out of his hole? Well, they had agreed, that just wouldn’t be right. All of them had been listening to Kyle’s broadcast on radio feeds. They hadn’t been able to see the visuals, but they’d heard what he’d been saying.

  Now, they opened fire on the agents from behind, leaving them exposed and looking in exactly the wrong dir
ection. The ambush was instantly lethal. Six agents out front and another two in the backyard went down immediately, while the rest scrambled for the far side of the SUV. They probably would have killed more, but the rapidly approaching sunset made it difficult to pick out the black clothes of the agents against the shadows and similar color of the trucks.

  The agents crawled away from the snipers, but that brought them into sight of Kyle, Dazz and Jackie… and, for what he could do, Musk_Ox as well. Kyle tried to follow the guy who had gotten out of the helicopter, figured him for someone in charge, and put a half-dozen rounds downrange toward him, trying to take him out first. He was little more than a twisting shadow against the shaded grass, and Kyle couldn’t see if he had managed to pick him off.

  Even the helicopter wasn’t safe. It lingered above and might have been able to help pick out the snipers now that they started shooting. But it wasn’t very well armored. Blackhawks were meant to be used in open combat for exactly that reason, learned so well by the military during certain operations in Africa. A couple of the snipers turned their guns on the circling bird. Their shots harrowed the one person still in the cargo area whenever he tried to get behind the machinegun, never quite managing to pick him off but keeping him from lending that heavy weapon to the fight. Eventually, to stop from being shot out of the air, the aircraft aimed its nose to the north and cleared the area.

  Knowing they were going to be cut to pieces if they stayed, the rest of the agents turned for the ranch house and charged toward it. The SUVs would be death traps. They had already been hit by dozens of bullets, puncturing their tires and looking to disable them through their armor. The agents didn’t even know how many shooters were out there in the grass, so they went to take the last bit of cover that might give them a chance.

  Kyle concentrated, firing again and again as he tried to take them all down before they could get in close. But they were in body armor and moved like their lives depended on it. Three of them made it to the porch and got through the screen door.

  Swiveling, Kyle aimed right through the wall and unloaded the rest of his magazine in a blind, sweeping spray. Dazz did the same. Behind him, he could hear Jackie and Musk_Ox shooting with equal speed, a last-ditch effort to protect their nest.

  Kyle hit one at least, but another smashed through the front door and charged down on him. Another went through the window in a diving leap. Behind Kyle, the backdoor smashed open, wood splintering. A large shadow blocked out the last remnants of the day’s light. Jackie’s service pistol roared in a rapid, staccato burst of shots. That agent collapsed with a groan, but another was right behind him. Using the dead man’s fall as cover, the second agent leaped onto Jackie and grappled her to the ground, fighting for control of the pistol.

  That was all Kyle had time to notice. The two who had come through the front were suddenly in his face. The one who had gone through the window heaved himself up off the ground, only to be met by Dazz and her own hastily drawn pistol. She fired into him three times, but her training was basic, defaulting to ‘center mass’ as the target. Whatever managed to penetrate the vest, it wasn’t enough to stop him. Breathing raggedly, the agent reached out to glom onto the petite woman and crush her fast. Dazz punched him in the face, then tried to drive a knee into his groin. He blocked both, then hurled her into one of the nearby sofas. She screamed in agony as her shoulder injury was reopened.

  Kyle’s own side ached as he heaved himself up from his crouched firing position. He went for his own sidearm but didn’t even get it free from the holster before the agent hit him with his shoulder, driving Kyle back again the far wall hard enough to break the drywall.

  Ignoring the flash of fire that swelled inside as another rib cracked under the strain, Kyle rose one arm high and drove a brutal elbow strike down on that man’s spine. Snarling in pain and anger, the agent responded with a pummeling blow with his fists into Kyle’s midsection. He hadn’t realized Kyle was wearing an impact vest, cursing now as he did some damage to his own hands with the heavy punches. Despite that, they weren’t kitten kisses. Kyle felt each one, but was fortunately spared any more harm to his ribs.

  Instead of being crippled by pain from the strikes, Kyle was given a small window of opportunity to turn the tide. He jutted his knee up, catching the agent on the chin. Lashing out with a side-kick, Kyle spent most of the kick’s energy trying to shove the man away, rather than pummel his gut. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake, trying to beat on him through the protective vest the agent was wearing. The force of the kick launched the guy back across the room, where he stumbled a little on the debris. That gave Kyle enough time to quick draw his pistol. Rattling off a quick burst of shots, the agent went down on his ass. With a cold snarl, Kyle took careful aim and put a last bullet deliberately through his head, making sure the agent was finished.

  Dazz’s cry of pain reminded him the fight wasn’t over.

  He turned toward her at the same time that the agent trying to strangle her heard the gunfire and realized he was in danger. The agent spun to face Kyle, snapping out a quick slap to knock Kyle’s pistol off target. Kyle responded with a sharp downward kick, trying to snap the guy’s knee. It missed, and the two men tangled into an awkward grapple as both fought for control of the gun. A flash of steel caught Kyle’s eye. He suddenly released the pistol, surprising the agent, who immediately grabbed for the weapon. Kyle grasped the hilt of the knife he saw strapped to the agent’s leg. Pulling it free, he jabbed it up into the man’s belly. Cutting sideways, he opened a grievous wound, spilling the agent’s guts. Strength fled from the man’s arms. Kyle twisted the guy’s arm that was holding the gun, pried the weapon free, then fired point-blank into the side of the man’s head to end his misery.

  A split second later, a tremendous bellow of fury reverberated through the house, and the last living agent came flying backward out of the corridor. His back hammered with bone-crunching force against the front, exterior wall. The wall buckled, though it stopped the victim of the throw from sailing outward into the night.

  Somehow, the crippled man, who must be the agent who had come in the back Kyle guessed, hadn’t been killed from the throw. His limbs jerked as he struggled to get free of the wall.

  Kyle didn’t give him the chance. He used the last few bullets in his pistol to end him before he could get to his feet.

  From the corridor, Musk_Ox stalked into sight, breathing hard through his nose, making him resemble his namesake animal all the more. “This fucker hurt Jackie.”

  Kyle nodded, sagging a little in his own fresh pain. “Call down. Get Soo-Yun up here. I think it’s over.”

  He went to yell down the stairs, while Dazz slid down from the sofa, looking weak but alive. She staggered over to him and croaked, “Want me to call the others in?”

  Kyle choked around the rawness in his own throat, “Yeah. Check the other agents as they come. But we need to get the fuck out of here. Find keys. We’re going to take a couple SUVs. Might let us slip by a few of them.” He fumbled for his pocket. “Need to talk to Megan. Need to know if they got away. Need to know if the broadcast was enough.”

  * * *

  The light was so low that Dirk could barely see. The tree cover was blocking out the moon. The only illumination came from the small fires burning in three different snowmobiles from the shots they had taken. They hadn’t exploded or anything quite so dramatic as that, but sparks and heat had managed to make some of the leaking gas and oil catch fire.

  Two more agents had gone down as shots were traded back and forth. The sharpshooter he was hunting had taken them both out. The sniper was careful, shifting back and forth behind the hidden berm.

  Dirk growled into his microphone to Team 10, “Further out! I need you to flush her out! Make her careless.”

  Then, he kicked the soldier next to him. “Ready a flare. We’re going to light them up.”

  The agent looked at him like he was crazy. The illumination would light them up as well.
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  Dirk scowled at him. It was a promise that the choice was between obeying and dying.

  The soldier of Dawn swallowed hard, then prepped his flare pistol to shoot.

  * * *

  Claire let out a sob of pain as Lily yanked free the three-inch splinter that had pierced her hip. The nurse pressed a hand over her mouth, muffling the cry as best she could. “You need to keep quiet! They’ll hear!”

  Claire gave a jerky nod, clamping her mouth shut and squeezing her eyes shut to block out the pain as Lily crushed a gauze pad against the blood seeping out of the wound.

  Lily whispered, “Keep pressure on it! I’ll wrap it best I can!”

  Not far off, Danielle let out her own cry as a bullet zipped in from an oblique angle on their right flank. It caught her right arm in a spot that she thought was behind cover. Striking right between the two bones in her forearm, a spurt of blood trailed behind Danielle as she fell back from the outcrop they were defending and collapsed into the bottom of the bowl.

  Claire clutched the bandage on her hip, immediately gesturing toward the fallen woman, “Go! I got this! Get her first!” A primal desperation clung to her words; the sort of fear common to most people as she saw a pregnant woman being hurt with the helpless child inside. It went a little further for her, and Lily responded with a similar haste. For them, this wasn’t just any woman and her child. This was one of their lovers, and the child was one they all intended to love and raise as a single family. It was their child, which made the primitive, protective instinct twice as strong.

  While Lily slid along the snow to Danielle’s side, Laura braced her back against a tree, counting in her mind. She thought she had an accurate number of agents that were out there, and the math wasn’t looking good next to their dwindling ammunition. The shot that had come in from the side wasn’t a good sign. It meant they were circling. She wasn’t sure they could get all the way around the sides. The terrain got pretty rocky to either side of them. But even if they got far enough to the flanks, they’d be able to shoot down the berm instead of around it. That would be the end of them.