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Bree stayed low and tight while hustling behind a small shack. The tiny structure could have been a ring toss or some other kind of scam to get kids to throw dollar bills at nearly impossible games.
Pausing at the corner, Bree peeked at the men by the pirate ship.
They hadn’t moved.
Huxx slid in beside her. “All clear.”
“Moving.” Bree pushed away from the wall and ran to the next attraction. Though she constantly focused on her conditioning, the strain of moving in such a low crouch burned her quads. It wasn’t a common movement.
Rather than approach the entrance to the roller coaster, Bree turned east and hopped a low fence. She passed through a cluster of trees and slowed as she approached the run-down ride.
Once-white pillars had darkened from age and filth. Wood planks were missing from the weave of supports crisscrossing skyward. Several sections of the track had collapsed, their broken remnants splintered on the ground.
Tall grass covered the area around the attraction, standing waist high.
Bree plunged into the grass, Huxx following close behind. She inspected the area for a good vantage point to cover the others as they approached the Ferris wheel. Climbing to the top of the ride would give her the best shot, but it would also make her a sitting duck if they discovered her position.
And even if the men Smith hired were only half as good as she expected, then they would most certainly locate her after the second or third shot.
A train of four cars rested a quarter of the way up the first incline, the chain used to pull them rusted in place from years of neglect. Bree guessed the cars to be a solid thirty feet off the ground. High enough for her to get a good angle on the action, but not so far up that she wouldn’t be able to climb down in a hurry.
Bree knelt in the tall grass and pointed at the train of cars. “That’ll do.”
“I’ll cover you. When we fire, I’ll take the guy on the left. You get the asshole on the right.” Huxx moved to the edge of the overgrown lawn and watched in the direction of the guards they’d left behind. He keyed his mic. “We’re moving into position.”
“Ready,” Tate said.
“Good to go,” Drew replied. “Two more hostiles by us.”
Bree ran to the roller coaster and stopped underneath the track. She glanced around, didn’t see anyone nearby. If someone saw her climbing up, they’d have an easy session of target practice. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and looked up at a horizontal post above her head.
Ascending the supports wouldn’t be easy, but the angle of the track wouldn’t allow her to quickly run up it. She could use the chain to slowly pull her way up, but she would be exposed for anyone looking at the coaster to see. If she climbed up from underneath, the supports would at least offer her a modicum of cover.
She jumped up and grabbed hold of the horizontal wooden beam. Her feet dangled momentarily as she pulled herself up and hooked an elbow over the support. Pull-ups had never been her strong suit, particularly not when she had several pounds of gear strapped to her, but she managed to heave herself up easier than expected.
After swinging a leg over, Bree reached out to a post running vertically up to the track and pulled herself to a standing position. She glanced around again.
The area appeared clear.
The rest of the climb was easier as supports crisscrossed each other to the track above. She pulled herself along the angled beams as rapidly as possible, doing her best to stay close to the vertical support so it would hide a portion of her body.
She didn’t know if that would actually help, but it made her feel more concealed.
In less than a minute, Bree grabbed hold of a railing that ran alongside the track and pulled herself over. Sweat soaked through her ski mask and the back of her shirt.
Bree slid into the last car and took the rifle off her shoulder. It took a few seconds for her to get the bipod set up on the back of the car and her eye up to the scope. Huxx glanced back at her. She stuck a thumb in the air, signaling to Huxx that she was ready.
The new vantage point gave a clear line of sight to the base of the Ferris wheel. From that angle, she could see that several cars were missing, along with an entire section of the wooden slats.
A few more rides were visible, all of them dwarfed by the monstrous size of the Ferris wheel. Its long shadow fell over a building beyond it. The sun had nearly set behind Bree. The angle of the dying light would give her a distinct advantage when the shooting began. Smith’s men would struggle to spot her against the glare. Every handful of seconds the setting sun bought her would allow her to crack off another round.
Strategy at its finest. Even if it hadn’t been intentional, she’d have to tell Tate to kiss her ass if they made it out of this.
Bree aimed at the building bathed in the shadow of the Ferris wheel. The paint on the side, like most of the other structures in Woodsland, had cracked and peeled. The walls were made of cinderblock. A metal door sat in the middle of the side facing Bree’s direction.
It appeared much newer than the rest of the structure.
She swung the rifle back at the two men by the pirate ship.
She grabbed her mic, whispered, “Ready.”
Tate said, “Engage in three... two...”