There was no point in arguing. “Put me down.” I felt him hesitate, his muscles tensing. “I’ll run to the exit. This way our hands are free.”
Someone pushing open a door in the hallway cinched his decision. He set me on my feet, raised his rifle, and let off two rounds. The sound of the bullets hitting the man’s chest was going to play as the soundtrack of my dreams for months, I just knew it. The wet thud was awful, but I kept my promise and I ran.
I edged past the body in the hallway, feeling sorry for the man who’d died in his boxer briefs and nothing else. There was no room for those kinds of feelings, though. He was our enemy. He’d been a part of numerous attacks on locals and the U.S. Military. He had blood on his hands, the blood of my friends.
More doors were opening and I was running with my own rifle up by the time men began stepping out. They were unprepared, so we managed to rush past them and out the door before they could return to their rooms for their own weapons.
The cool night air hit me in the face as I bolted out the door. I made a beeline to the east. My lungs and muscles were having a contest to see which could scream louder. I was out of shape, not having worked out in so long, but it was amazing what you could accomplish when you were running for your life.
“Colby!”
I looked back over my shoulder, surprised to see I had some distance on Arsen. He must have slowed to take care of some of the men from the hall. Probably helping the others through. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Rafe and Sig back out of the door, guns firing as they went.
Looking down at my watch, I groaned. There were only a few minutes left. Not caring what attention it drew, I cupped my hands over my mouth and screamed, “Run!”
They must have heard me because they let their rifles drop on their slings and began running as hard as they could toward us.
“We have to go, Little Warrior,” Arsen said, catching up to me.
I turned and started jogging off into the night. We only got a few steps away before his grip on my backpack jerked me off my feet. My cry was strangled as he flung me through the air before setting me on my feet again. I glared at him over my shoulder.
“There’s a trap up that way. Let me lead.”
Sparing a glance over my shoulder while he got in front of me, I saw the others reaching the area where the light bled out and darkness overtook it.
Before I could say anything a deafening boom split the night air. A fireball belched from the building and I watched in amazement as the building began to crumble in on itself. Guilt and horror rose within me. I knew it was imperative that this part of our plan worked, otherwise we’d be overrun and killed. But my death toll had just risen by more tonight than I would’ve ever expected.
There were only a handful of men who were racing across the sand toward us. I’d done my job, and even though it was the opposite of what I was trained to do, I’d helped save lives tonight. I’d saved lives by taking them. This wasn’t like in the alley, where I’d killed in self-defense. The hypocrisy of that was what I was having a hard time with.
“Time to go,” Arsen grunted at me, pulling me from my trance.
I turned toward him and nodded. We raced, zig zagging through the desert until we got to the edge of the dunes. He grabbed my arm and shoved me in front of him.
Scrambling up the loose sand that made up the huge hills, I tried to keep a quick pace. It was hard to do when the sand would collapse beneath my feet.
A hand planted itself on my ass as I got stuck near the top and shoved. I toppled over onto the top of the dune. The world spun as I fell. Sand, stars, sand, stars. A punishing grip grabbing my arm.
I hadn’t been prepared for Arsen’s help or his strength and I’d lost my balance when he’d given me a boost. It’d caused me to start rolling down the hill. He’d managed to catch me as I rolled past him, thankfully. I wasn’t sure I had the endurance to climb it a second time.
With him helping me, I made it to the top. I ignored my wheezing breaths and settled onto my belly in the sand. Positioning my rifle against my shoulder, I stared into the optics and swept the area.
I paused when I found Rafe and Sig, who were stopping only long enough to return fire when our enemies got too close.
“We have to keep going, Colby,” Arsen told me.
“Fuck that. I’m not leaving them,” I snapped. “We’re protected here.”
He didn’t bother to argue, just sighed, then set up beside me.
I waited for Rafe and Sig to run out of the view of my scope and when the next man ran into my crosshairs, I pulled the trigger.
The sound was deafening, but I kept shooting. Slowly, we picked off the men who’d made it out of the building. We waited there, watching for more people to emerge as Rafe and Sig caught up to us.
They were breathing hard, and Rafe glared at us as he came up over the ridge. “You weren’t supposed to stop.”
“You tell her that next time,” Arsen responded with a shrug. “Besides, I don’t want my traps to go to waste.” As if to answer him, a scream filled the air. Arsen smiled.
Rafe didn’t bother to chastise me. We settled in and waited. No one else came out of the destroyed building. Rafe and Arsen went down to finish off the men who’d been caught in their traps. The bear traps they’d planted would have snapped their ankles and I didn’t want to even think about how painful it was.
I kept my eyes glued to the building until the others returned. Sig left to find the camels. Our job was done.
“Do you think we got him?” I asked as we walked toward the west and where we’d meet up with Sig.
“No telling,” Arsen said.
“My intelligence said that he’d be there tonight, but who knows,” Rafe added. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
Sig and the camels came out of the darkness and smoke like wraiths. We loaded up and lit out of there like our asses were on fire.
We’d killed everyone within the compound, but who knew if Roj had more crews spread out in different areas. Either way, we killed a sizable amount of his force and took out one of his weapons caches. We’d hightail it back to our safe house and wait for news of Roj’s death.