Page 74 of Obey

“He’s in the fucking grass,” Boar shouts to his men. “Stop standing around like fucking idiots and go get him!”

That’s good. He thinks there’s only one of us. Knives shoots again, drawing everybody toward his position.

Why hadn’t we done something like this the first time?

I keep sneaking through the grass, and I’m feeling triumphant—until one of the Gators says, “Boss, two sets of bootprints! There’s more than one guy!”

Fuck. I glance at the ground underneath me, and I realize the dirt is just moist enough to keep the indentations where I’ve stepped.

The Gators fan out in a wider pattern, and I take a shot before I lose them in the darkness.

I get a guy in the knee, blood and bone exploding forth. The guy cries out and falls to the ground. One of his friends starts going for him, but Boar shouts, “Fucking leave him! Don’t make yourself a target!”

I can’t imagine leaving one of my men, but I guess they realize they’re outmaneuvered, if not outnumbered. I try to shoot again, but I’m out of shells, and I fumble with the shotgun to reload it.

It gives them time to start closing in, though, and I look for Knives to try to get an idea of where he’s at so I know how to cover him.

I’m not leaving him alone again.

I can’t see him, though, and I don’t like being in the dark in the middle of fucking nowhere. I can’t risk shooting aimlessly and hitting him instead.

I’d hoped the fire would distract them more, but Boar has an ironclad command of his men.

Some of the men come my way, too, and I realize I’ve got a problem. They’re a lot faster than I am since they aren’t making an effort to stay hidden. I finish reloading just as a guy gets dangerously close to me.

It’s Tommy, I realize.

“Come out, you fucking rat,” Tommy shouts, casting his gaze around. He hasn’t spotted me yet.

I unsheath the knife, and when Tommy is nearly on top of me, I thrust the knife into his belly.

He screams and drops to the ground. I drag the knife higher. He stares at me, blood gurgling out of his mouth and eyes wide.

“This is for Jim,” I whisper.

He makes a panicked sound.

I slash his throat.

It’s a satisfying feeling.

He’s just lucky Jim is alive—and that I didn’t have time to do worse.

The only problem is that now, they’re able to pinpoint my location. I scramble to move, but now Boar is the one closing in on me.

I haven’t heard Knives’s gun go off again, and I don’t know where he is.

There’s a part of me, a tiny part, that wonders if he just left.

I quickly quash that nasty little thought. He wouldn’t. Even if we were still at odds, he would never do that.

“Didn’t get enough the first time?” Boar sneers as he gets a look at my face. The shadows cast by the fire makes his expression even nastier.

We’re standing close together now, and his men are starting to get closer too as they follow their boss’s lead.

“What can I say? I’m a glutton for punishment.” I hold up the shotgun, trying not to grimace. I’ve only got two bullets left, and I doubt I can get him with the knife. “And I got most of your men.”

It’s true, too. Boar has only four guys with him now, including Pyre. Between the fire and the bullets, the majority of them are down. Maybe not dead, but out of the picture.

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