Page 63 of Painless
“Drone! Three o’clock!” Slick raised his rifle in the air and fired off a shot. A choking, sputtering sound like a dying engine roared above us until a white object crashed into the street ahead of us.
“Wait, wait, wait!” I screamed at my guys who started running toward it.
My instincts were right. The crashed aircraft exploded, sending burned metal and melted plastic flying in all directions.
“Nice shot, bro.” I clapped Slick’s shoulder. “Be careful where you’re shooting, though. Make sure no one’s close by or under. That goes for all of you.”
They gave me an affirmative and we kept moving. My eyes strained through the smoke that never seemed to clear up. White drones camouflaged well against this bullshit. Fucking Tash thought of everything.
I saw no signs of Gunner, so he and his guys still had to be at the front lines. My stomach clamped with worry, but I couldn’t get to him just yet. I had to make sure no one in the residential areas was still out, possibly hurt and unable to move.
Keeping my head ducked low, I crept along the sidewalk toward my own house. Another blast sent my ears ringing, and I covered my head and face against a shower of dirt and rocks. The grenade had gone off in the small hill beyond the retaining wall next to me.
I scanned the smoke-filled sky, listening for the telltale buzzing of the drone through my ringing ears. Only by chance, I saw it as it swerved to head in another direction, and took it down with two shots. The white aircraft didn’t explode on impact, which told me these things were only carrying one grenade at a time.
“Jandro!”
Two dark figures ran toward me, their features so obscured by the smoke that I didn’t recognize them until they were right next to me.
“What the ever-loving fuck is going on?” Reaper roared behind his mask.
Hades hunkered down close to his side, an extension of his human master. Shadow loomed over all of us, his hair pulled back so the mask could seal to his face. The big guy’s odd-colored eyes focused skyward.
Another blast went off and the three of us crouched low on the other side of the retaining wall. Shadow raised his rifle and fired off one shot, picking off the drone I had no idea was there.
“You can see through this shit?” I asked him.
“Not well,” he admitted. “I can make out rough shapes in the smoke, though.”
“I want his fucking head.” Reaper was practically frothing at the mouth, rage in his eyes like I’d never seen before. “Tash is right outside our walls, I just fucking know it. He’s sitting back and smiling. I want to hear him scream.”
“Bro, take a breath.” I clapped hard on Reaper’s shoulder to get his attention. “We’re blind right now. We’ve got to stay calm and get our people out of the way of these blasts. Then we can go after him.”
Hades barked suddenly and took off running, his black fur becoming little more than a shadow in the smoke.
“Someone’s in trouble. Mari!” Reaper bellowed.
“Stay back.” I shoved a hand against his chest. “I just came from there. I’ll get her. You two keep picking off these drones, and sweep the residential areas.”
I took off after Hades before he could argue. Reaper wasn’t in a good state of mind right then. His obsession with bringing Tash down got in the way of his rational thinking. If he saw Mari in trouble, he’d positively lose it.
A blast knocked me to my knees. Hard asphalt bit into my palms, but the harrowing scream up ahead made the sting feel like nothing.
“Mari!”
I hurried to get my feet underneath me, but felt like I was moving through sludge, no matter what.
Dark shapes lay motionless on the ground up ahead and I still couldn’t move fast enough.Not her,I begged whatever powers were listening.Please not her.
“Jandro, help!”
Her voice. Raspy and full of terror, but it was hers.
I dropped to the ground, only seeing her. “Why aren’t you at the clubhouse? I told you to stay there!”
“It’s Dallas!” Mari sobbed. “He blocked the blast from hitting them. Help me, I can’t move him.”
Only then did my gaze drop to the motionless figure on the ground. The cries underneath the limp body were barely discernible through the ringing in my ears. Together, Mari and I turned him over, rolling Dallas off of his two hysterically sobbing children underneath.
