Page 60 of Deathless
“Hopefully better than us.” The worst thing about a shootout like this, where we were outnumbered five to one, was that it was time-consuming. I had no doubt we’d win. We were the better shots for sure, but there were simply more bullets flying towardus than away. We had to be careful as we decreased that number and gained the upper hand.
So far we’d dropped three of the women shooting at us. Only seven more to go. I could tell they weren’t particularly experienced or skilled, but they had more than a rudimentary introduction to guns.
“Did you hear that?” I could barely hear it over the ringing in my ears, but there was some new sound in the air.
“Yeah.” Devin cast a worried glance toward where I saw movement earlier. “Sounded like a car starting.”
Not even a minute later, a Jeep shot out from where it had been hidden on the far side of the house. There were two women inside, the driver white-knuckling the steering wheel as she drove onto the main road, heading away from the safe houses.
“Fuck!” I trained my gun on the tires, firing at those increasingly smaller targets as they got further away.
Bark and splinters exploded near my ear and I ducked on instinct, covering my eyes. Our shooters had taken advantage of the distraction.
“We have to go after them.” Devin grabbed my shirt at the back of my neck to lift my head up. “You alright?”
I blinked several times. “Yeah.” Probably got some splinters in my cheek and ear canal but my eyes were fine.
“We gotta run for the bikes,” he said. “You with me?”
“Yeah, I’ll cover you. On three. Ready?”
We counted together, then I sprang out from behind the tree, running as fast as I could while returning fire. One more woman dropped.
Devin reached the motorcycles, starting mine and then his own while I blocked their line of sight to him.
“I got you, let’s go!” he hollered.
Putting all my trust in him, I turned my back to our attackers to mount my motorcycle. All I saw was a flash of metal catching the sunlight before three more dropped dead.
He was already tearing off down the road, and I leaned down over my handlebars, accelerating hard to catch up. We were still being shot at, and I wouldn’t put it past them to climb into another vehicle and pursue us.
As chaotic as everything was right then, we had to keep our eye on the prize in front of us.
I caught up to Devin, slightly behind and flanking him. We were driving through the dust cloud kicked up by the Jeep ahead of us, our targets a dark silhouette just on the other side.
“You shoot their tires!” Devin yelled. “I’ll cover us from the back.”
I nodded and sped up to get ahead of him. Dust and gravel were killing my eyes but I needed them. I didn’t dare blink as I came within twenty yards of the Jeep’s bumper. Driving the bike with one hand, I raised my firing arm and tried my best to take careful aim. I could not afford to fuck this up. They could not get away.
The car started swerving just as I fired. Yeah it sucked for my aim, but that would be a boon if they rolled that damn Jeep for us. Even better if they went into a ravine or something.
I kept steady, following their movement with my eyes and my gun. When a clear shot lined up for me, I didn’t hesitate. I fired.
And heard the click of an empty magazine.
“Fuck!” I roared. I needed two hands to reload and didn’t feel confident about going hands-free on the bike. Reloading would take a split second though, and I fuckingneededthese shots.
In the moment I lifted my hand away to reach into my pocket, a cry of pain had me wrenching around to look behind me. Devin was nearly facedown on his dashboard, clutching his shoulder, which was wet and stained with dark blood.
That was all it took for me to lose control of the motorcycle. Not thinking about anything else, I tried to turn my whole body. I forgot I was driving a vehicle at all and tried torunto the man who drew me out of the darkness, who showed me what it was like to be human again.
The ground hit me hard with a full-body slap. My back, my chest, my ass. I got hit all over as I went rolling. Eventually I stopped, but the world kept spinning. Still, I forced myself up, knowing we were still being shot at.
“Devin!” I called, scanning the wobbly landscape for any sign of him as I fought to get my feet under me.
A massive dark shape zoomed past me, kicking up a massive cloud of dust. Another car?
“Devin!” I spun around helplessly, a sitting duck for our attackers, but no way in hell could I function in this fucked up place without him.
