Sara Ashland called from behind the first team.
Zeb flashed a quick look.
The team stopped. One man flicked a glance back. The second turned his head at an angle.
That was the only distraction Zeb needed.
‘Down!’ he roared at the girl, and his HK chattered.
He unslung the second one with his left hand, and triggered it, too.
Twin streams of lead, racing through the forest, thudding into flesh and wood, extracting screams from the men and ripping out branches and leaves.
He ran out, ducked over their fallen bodies and grabbed spare magazines from them.
Fired into the body of one man who was still alive.
Grabbed the girl’s hand as she rose from behind a tree.
And fled.
Northeast. In the direction of Erilyn. Away from the dead men.
He heard shouts in the distance: the rest of the terrorists. The sounds grew distant and then faded as he urged the girl to go faster, while looking back occasionally to check for pursuers.
They ran hard for half an hour, after which she started flagging.
He started looking for shelter, something that would hide them, where they could rest.
They passed an abandoned hut someone had constructed in a small clearing.
Saw her questioning look but ignored it.
No huts. That will be the first place they look.
They slowed to a walk. And then he saw it, a few seconds before she did.
They were on a downward slope, firs and pines extending down the hill ahead of them.
But at some point there had been a landslide at this spot, and boulders, some of them chest-high, had rolled down to where a grove of trees stopped them at the bottom.
The rocks, with rotting trees piled up against them, formed a natural alcove.
.
He reloaded his HKs automatically, his eyes sectoring the possible hide.
It looked good.
He approached it cautiously and spotted a small opening between two rocks. He had to crouch to go through it and then crawl beneath a trunk, but once inside, the space became wider and higher. A natural cave. Not fully enclosed, but good enough to shelter the girl.
She followed him inside, a tight squeeze.
‘Will we spend the night here?’
‘No. Just a few hours.’
‘Why?’
‘Food. We need something to eat.’
‘Hunting? I’ll come with you.’
He thought of arguing but didn’t. She’ll be safer with me.
He rolled beneath the rotting trunk and crawled outside again.
His jacket caught on the boulder’s rough surface, his rifles clanking. He freed his outerwear and was rising, then froze.
An HK was pointed straight at him.
Two inches away from his neck.