by Steven Bird
“Sounds good to me,” Daryl replied.
“Me, too,” affirmed Tyrone. “I’ll take this side, Daryl,” he said, referring to their western flank.
“I’ve got this side, then,” Daryl indicated before turning to face their eastern flank.
Seeing nothing on the thermal up ahead, Jessie handed it off to Daryl, who thoroughly scanned his area as well. “Nothin’ here,” he noted as he passed it off to Tyrone.
“I see… Oh, wait, that’s Q and Carl working their way up the hill,” Tyrone said. “Well… I saw them, but just lost them,” he remarked when they passed behind some trees and terrain as their path of travel winded its way up the mountain.
Just as Tyrone began to hand the thermal back to Jessie, he caught a glimpse of color to the east of Q and Carl’s position, level with their height up the hill and moving toward them.
“Ah, hell,” he said. “I’ve got movement. I don’t think it’s Sam either. It’s way too tall to be him, and it’s working its way toward Q and Carl.”
“Lemme take a look,” Daryl said, reaching for the thermal game tracker.
“That’s definitely not Sam,” Daryl said confidently. “Well, hell, what do we do? If we key up on the radio, we’ll help that bastard zero in on them. I could reach the threat from here with my .45-70 if it weren’t so damn dark. I can barely see my front sight in this.”
Thinking it over for a moment, Daryl said, “Jessie, if you relay the threat to Q, I’ll start pounding the general location of the threat to keep him pinned down while they take evasive action or get into position to fight. I mean… I won’t hit anything, but it’ll turn the tables, at least, taking the surprise out of the equation.”
Scanning the area again with the thermal, Daryl exclaimed, “Damn it, there’s two of them! Call ’em!” he demanded as he raised his big .45-70 lever gun, aiming at the approximate area of the threat. Thinking quickly, Daryl held the thermal onto the barrel of his rifle just ahead of the rear leaf sight. “This will give me a better general idea,” he mumbled as he quietly cycled a round into the chamber with the gun’s oversized lever loop, and said, “Now!”
Picking up the radio and pressing the push-to-talk button, Jessie exclaimed, “Q, you’ve got movement to your right. Here comes the artillery,” just as Daryl let the four-hundred-and-five-grain lead flat point round fly, followed by a steady volley of seven more rounds from the twenty-four-inch barreled reproduction of the venerable Winchester model 1886.
Seeing a muzzle flash from the vicinity of the threats as they fired on Q and Carl’s position, Tyrone joined Daryl in laying down a suppressing and diversionary barrage of fire with his M4 while Jessie kept an eye on possible threats ahead of them.
Upon firing his last round, Daryl put the thermal to his eye and scanned the hillside, “I see Q and Carl on the move. They’re hustling to the east and back down the hill, away from the threat.”
Looking back to the area of the threat, Daryl said, “Well, I’ll be damned. I think we lucked out and accidentally hit one of those bastards. I’ve got one on the ground not moving. The other is retreating to the west. And… he’s gone. Lost him.”
“Are you sure the other one is down?” Jessie asked.
“He, or it, ain’t moving. We’ll know in a few minutes if the image starts to cool.”
Pointing in the direction of Q and Carl’s last known position, Jessie said, “See if you can keep a visual on Q and Carl. We don’t want to engage them by mistake when they come upon us in the dark.”
“I think we should move,” advised Tyrone.
“Come again?” Jessie asked, seeking clarification.
“It’s like the old truism, ‘tracers work both ways’,” Tyrone explained. “If the two we saw aren’t the only ones, the rest of them know where we are now. We lit ourselves up with muzzle flash pretty damn well.”
“Good point,” conceded Jessie. “I’d vote to move toward where we think Q and Carl may be coming from. The sooner we join up with them, the better chance we’ll have of repelling another attack. If we stay separated, it may just make it easier for them to pick us off one at a time.”
“Sounds good to me,” agreed Daryl as he handed the thermal game tracker back to Jessie so he could reload his rifle. Loading one round and then racking it out of the magazine tube and into the chamber with the rifle’s lever, Daryl loaded eight more rounds in the magazine tube for a total of nine rounds on tap. “She doesn’t hold as many as one of them fancy AR’s or AK’s of yours, but each shot means something.”
With a chuckle, Jessie shrugged, “I wouldn’t call an AK fancy. They are forties technology and all. And trust me, I envy you right now. I love a good lever gun. As a matter of fact, I was carrying a Marlin .30-30 when this all started a few days ago. And that .45-70 of yours… well, one of its cousins saved my bacon a few months back. You’ve got your mind in the right place if you ask me.”
“I guess I should have read that about you from that ol’ Colt on your side,” Daryl remarked, complimenting Jessie’s choice of sidearm.
Interrupting with a chuckle, Tyrone said, “You two guys can keep the bromance going later. Let’s get on with the task at hand.”
“Right on,” Daryl said. “What do you think?”
Looking to Jessie, Tyrone reached out his hand and asked, “Can I see the radio Q gave you?”
“Sure,” Jessie said, fishing it out of his pocket and handing it to him.
Attempting to reach Q and Carl via the hand-held unit’s vibratory alert, Tyrone waited patiently for a moment before attempting a second time. “C’mon, guys,” he muttered.
“Nothing?” Daryl asked quietly.
“Nope, let’s move. We don’t want to risk keying up with voice just yet. Let’s get moving. We can’t keep sitting here waiting for… um, them, to find us. I’ll lead,” Tyrone asserted, looking at Jessie. “No offense, but I know all the signals they may use.”
“None taken,” Jessie replied.
~~~~
Shivering and sweating profusely from what Nate was now sure was a fairly serious infection, he rested across several closely-spaced branches of the tree, looking down at the tattered remains of the coyote had fallen victim to the ravenous hunger of its own pack.
Damn, that’s a rough way to go. Those mongrels rip you apart, gut first, while one of them holds your face in the dirt with his teeth. It’s like they don’t even try to kill their prey like a big cat. They merely hold it down while they eat. Sick.
Although Nate had seen the remains of sheep that had fallen victim to coyote attacks back at their homesteads, Nate had never seen them in action. Before now, he could only surmise what had happened based on the remains and on the trauma to the sheep’s nose and face. He now knew that trauma was a result of being pinned down by teeth while being eaten alive.
Oh, thank God that wasn’t me down there.
Flipping his night vision on and looking around, he couldn’t see any sign of coyotes remaining in the area, but knew if he struggled to climb down the tree in his condition to retrieve his weapon, he’d never get back up to safety. He was growing weaker by the minute. He’d lost a lot of blood, and now infection was setting in. Add to that the hunger and thirst that was taking its toll on him, and he felt the best course of action he could take at this point was simply to stay where he was and hope for the best.
Hearing a thundering boom off in the distance, up the hill and toward the ridge behind him, Nate perked up and quickly turned his head in the direction of the sounds. He could hear a large caliber rifle firing away, thump after thump, followed by the steady cadence of the supersonic cracks from a smaller, high-velocity round.
“What the…?” he mumbled as he attempted to make sense of it all. Almost as soon as it had started, the gunfire ceased. Something’s going down, but what? Is it more of those UF guys getting a run for their money with those monsters from the cave, or… is it the cavalry? Ah, no need to get my hopes up. Just hang on. That’s all I ne
ed to focus on for now. Not dying, and not falling out of this tree.
~~~~
Moving in bounds, Tyrone, Jessie, and Daryl stopped momentarily for Tyrone to scan the area with the game tracker. “We don’t have a lot of battery life left, guys. I hope… Wait, I’ve got two on the move. The way they’re bounding and moving, I’m gonna put my money on them being Q and Carl.”
Attempting the vibratory alert yet again, Tyrone patiently hoped for a response, to no avail. “We’ve got to assume they’ve lost comms, or aren’t in a position to reply.”
Thinking the situation over for a moment, Tyrone said, “You two hold up here. I’m gonna get to a position where I can signal them. We don’t want them to head right past us in the darkness. They don’t have one of these fancy thermal toys, and we can’t just announce ourselves given our current predicament.”
“Whatever you guys say,” Jessie replied. “You’re a team. You know each other. I’m just the new guy.”
“I say go for it,” Daryl said in support of Tyrone’s idea.
“I’m gonna have to take the thermal, so I can intercept them. You guys gonna be all right here in the dark, blind?”
“We’ll live,” Daryl answered, patting his friend on the shoulder. “Well, that’s the plan, at least,” he said with a crooked smile.
Nodding, Tyrone looked up at the sky and noted the clouds forming overhead. “Hopefully we won’t lose the moonlight. Well, I’d better get going. Be safe,” he said as he slipped off into the darkness in the direction of the thermal images he assumed to be Q and Carl.
Chapter Twenty
Following the steady sound of trickling water through the twists and turns of the vast, underground cave system, Yuri paused abruptly, startling Britney. “Do you feel breeze?”
“Breeze, I… uh,” she stammered, momentarily confused.
“Shhh, be still, and feel breeze on face.”
“Yes. Yes, I can feel it,” she affirmed, beginning to understand where Yuri was going with this.
“We follow. Find where air enters cave,” he explained, pulling her along.
Approaching a rise in the cave floor leading up to a small opening, Yuri announced, “Up. We climb up,” and he led her to the rock features that lay between them and the opening.
“Here,” he said. “Use both hands. Climb up behind me. Stay close.”
Doing as she was told, Britney felt with her hands and climbed up the strange, limestone formations. She could feel the breeze getting stronger the higher she went. “That’s fresh air,” she said, her excitement beginning to build.
When Yuri reached the top, he climbed through the small opening and turned around, reaching for Britney’s hand, saying, “Here, I help you.”
As Britney reached out into the darkness in search of Yuri’s hand, her heart skipped a beat as a large hand grabbed her around the ankle, jerking her violently down the rock formation she had just struggled to climb.
Britney’s head bounced off the limestone, nearly knocking her unconscious, and she felt her body slide down the damp stone surface, being pulled by one of them in the darkness.
“No!” Yuri shouted as he quickly climbed through the hole and began sliding down the limestone toward Britney and her abductor.
Scurrying to his feet, Yuri saw a figure to his left through the green image of the night vision. The figure drew back and swung a long object at him. Realizing the object was an axe, Yuri dropped and dodged. Barely getting out of the way in time, he felt the blade graze his forehead, causing blood to spill into his uncovered eye.
Leaping toward the figure to mitigate the risk of the axe by getting in close, Yuri tackled him, taking him to the floor. Grasping the axe handle, Yuri forced it to the figure’s neck and began blocking his attacker’s airway by bearing down on the axe with all his weight, while his profusely bleeding head wound dripped onto his opponent’s face, momentarily obscuring the beast’s vision.
He suddenly felt the axe handle lower several more inches into his fur-clad attacker’s throat as it weakened from strangulation. Along with the feeling of movement in the axe handle, Yuri felt the distinctive crunch of the figure’s trachea, and the fight left its body.
Hearing Britney’s screams grow more distant, Yuri stood up, now holding the axe with both hands, and began running through the cavern in pursuit. The water running along the floor of the cave splashed beneath his feet as he ran as hard as he could to her aid.
Hearing Yuri’s charge, the large figure released Britney and turned toward Yuri, raising a weapon of some sort toward him. With no time to act, Yuri swung the axe, connecting with the figure just as a deafening blast erupted from the figure’s weapon.
Staggering backward, Yuri was stunned and overcome with a burning sensation as he felt a warm, wet substance begin to run down his side.
Hearing his attacker thump onto the cave floor, Yuri snapped back into the moment as he saw Britney’s attacker lying still and lifeless. His axe had struck a fatal blow to her abductor’s chest, smashing through his sternum and into his heart.
“Are you okay?” Britney shouted, her ears ringing from the report of the muzzle blast in the tight confines of the cave.
“Get gun,” Yuri said, wincing in pain.
Quickly picking the gun up off the floor of the cave, Britney handed it to Yuri, who immediately identified it as a sawed-off Mossberg 500 pump shotgun.
“Hurry. We go now,” Yuri grunted through the pain as he reached out in the darkness and took Britney’s hand.
Pulling her back toward the source of the breeze, Yuri stopped at the body of the figure he had strangled to death with the axe. He started to bend over to inspect the figure, but the pain in his side was too great.
“Search body for weapons, and take optics from head,” he instructed, tugging her hand in the direction of the corpse.
Doing as Yuri had asked, Britney knelt down and began feeling around. She was startled at first by the fur that covered the man from head to toe. It felt as if he was a beast of some sort, more than a man. Opening what seemed to be the front of a fur coat, she felt around and located the man’s belt. Running her hands around the belt, she located a large, fixed-blade knife in a sheath. She drew the knife from the sheath and placed it on the ground beside the man.
Continuing her search, feeling her way up the dead man’s body, she reached his face and was started by his open mouth, and wet, blood-soaked beard. She had no idea the blood was from Yuri’s gaping head wound, and simply assumed it was the blood of Yuri’s victim.
Reaching the top of this head, Britney removed the headband that held a monocular optic to the man’s right eye and handed it to Yuri.
“No. You put on,” Yuri urged.
Placing it over her head, Britney found it to be too loose because it had been adjusted for a much a larger person.
“Let me help,” Yuri said softly as he assisted her in snugging it tight, then wiped his blood from the lens.
“I can see!” she exclaimed, excited by her first visions since being brought into the cave. Looking down, she flinched from the ominous sight of the large, bearded man whose face was completely covered in blood.
“Come,” Yuri said. “You carry knife. Let’s go.”
Releasing her hand because she could now see on her own, Yuri led her back to the small opening, where they both climbed up and through, into another chamber, deeper in the cave.
“Breeze is coming from this way,” he noted as he slid down the limestone slope leading down into approximately two feet of cold water below.
“Is not deep. Come,” he said, urging Britney to follow him as she slid down beside him.
Leading her through the tightening confines of the passage, Yuri stopped when he felt the breeze blowing down from above. Looking up, he saw a crevasse that was barely large enough for the two of them to squeeze through and explained, “There. We climb through. Hopefully, it lead to surface.”
Struggling through the pain, Yuri began f
eeling weakened and dizzy from the combined loss of blood and trauma from his wounds. He wasn’t sure if he was going to make it, unable to take the time to survey the extent of his injuries, but he knew he couldn’t stop until Britney was free from her underground hell.
Boosting herself up to the opening above, Britney climbed feverishly as dirt and debris fell onto Yuri beneath her.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
“Is nothing,” he replied, attempting to smile.
Once she had climbed several more feet, Yuri heard her say the beautiful words, “Stars! I see stars!”
“Go! Climb free. I follow,” he insisted, struggling through the horrific pain of his side and his throbbing head wound.
Once Britney was outside the cave, she reached down and took Yuri by the hand, pulling, trying her best to help him reach the freedom and the fresh air of the surface above.
Crawling free of the opening between the rocks, Yuri surveyed their surroundings, and he heard Britney begin to cry tears of joy. Seeing the relief and pure elation on her face, he looked up and said in his native language, “Спасибо господин.”
“What does that mean?” she asked softly.
“Thank you, Lord,” he replied.
Chapter Twenty-One
Working their way through the darkness of the woods, Q looked up at the sky and saw that the moon was about to be obscured by a broken layer of clouds that was starting to form.
“Great,” he grumbled. “That’s the only light we have.”
“We’ll be okay,” Carl responded. “How about we try to reach the others with the radio. We need to link back up in a bad way. I don’t like being separated out there.”
“Good idea,” Q conceded, reaching for the radio. “Ah, hell,” he grumbled as he felt around his belt where the radio had previously been clipped.
