Page 82 of Deathless
The four cult leaders had now emerged and were shouting orders. “We’re under attack! Eastern side, eastern side! Take your positions like we taught you!”
“Do it for your daughters!” yelled another woman, raising a rifle in the air before climbing up a ladder to the roof of an RV. Three more followed her, and other groups climbed up more rooftops. Some wore bulletproof vests and had hardened, battle-ready looks in their eyes. Others were wide-eyed with fear, still in their pajamas, holding their rifles like it was an animal about to bite them.
“Some are in the village! They got past the patrol, find them!”
With a quick nod, Devin and I separated, heading for the cover of cars, storage crates, and other items stacked behind the homes. Footsteps quickly crunched after us, loud and telling.
“We know you’re hiding!” The woman fired a warning shot that was close enough to make my ears ring. “Come out, and we may still honor you as a sacrifice.” She fired another shot that shattered the window of the car next to me.
“Could you be any louder?” chastised another woman. “And don’t waste ammo.” The next sound she made was a gasp and then a gurgle.
“Gladys!” cried the first woman. “Oh, Dark Mother, help us!”
I took the opportunity to dart out from my cover, machetes raised and thirsty. It took me a fraction of a second to reach her, and she had no idea until I drew a red line across her throat. She’d been too distracted by Devin’s knife sticking out of her friend’s neck.
“Your Dark Mother is dead,” I told the woman as the last of her life drained away.
“Come on.” Devin slapped my shoulder before she even stopped choking on her blood. “Let’s back up the others.”
We ran together back into the fray. A full-scale battle was waging now, gunfire and shouts ringing in my ears. Women were lined up on the roofs of the homes and RVs, shooting into the woods. It became clear quickly that our side didn’t need much help—the women were being picked off at a brisk pace.
“Damn, Hudson,” Devin muttered. “Leave some for the rest of us.”
“That’s probably Rori and Shadow too,” I mused. All of our best shooters were likely at the front line.
“Smoke them out!” one of the cultist women yelled. “Give them smoke!”
Devin and I braced together, weapons ready. “Oh shit,” I said when I realized what was happening.
The cultists had matches and lighters and they were lighting strips of cloth on fire. Strips of cloth that had been stuffed into glass bottles full of clear liquid.
Devin grabbed my shoulder roughly. “Guns. The two we just killed. We gotta grab their guns and stop them from setting the whole forest on fire.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. We ran back behind the buildings where the two bodies lay. In the mere seconds it took to grab their weapons, the air was filled with the unmistakable smell of burning.
We ran back to the central corridor, and a wall of fire and smoke was already building between the structures and the woods. Shit, they must have set up a perimeter around the whole place. I looked around, noticing the straw laid out in what looked like a border path that seemed to go around all of the buildings. Piles of chopped branches were laid out in several places along the straw path as if they were being gathered for firewood. But these branches were young and freshly cut, which would create lots of smoke if they caught fire.
“Shit,” I said again. These cultists were craftier than anticipated.
The smoke billowed out over the village, making the landscape eerie and unsettling. Also pretty much useless for shooting. My eyes watered painfully and my throat was already feeling the effects.
But over the chaos, I heard motorcycle engines approaching and male voices shouting. Our people had been flushed out of the woods and were heading into the village to finish this up close and personal.
Devin and I stayed low and covered, shooting at dark figures on the rooftops who were now scrambling down to get out of the rising smoke. It was much harder to tell who was friend or foe now, so our shots were cautious, hesitant.
With a deep mechanical roar, two massive, black figures burst out of the smoke from the north end of the village. Shadow and Grudge emerged on their bikes like a pair of henchmen from Hell, coming to take sinners to eternal damnation with them. One look at them and cultists on the ground started running. The two veterans picked them off easily, almost like they were bored.
Once the shock and awe wore off, Devin and I ran out to meet them.
“Anyone hurt?” I asked immediately.
“So far, so good, but we’re on borrowed time until smoke inhalation fucks us.” Shadow’s mismatched eyes roamed everywhere except for us, tracking sound and movement through the smoke. “How are you guys? Okay?”
“Fine,” Devin answered curtly. “Where’s Rori?”
“Not sure. Everyone scattered when the smoke came. Torr should be with her, though.”
Shadow lifted his rifle suddenly, pointing it at one of the rooftops. But the figure hiding in the smoke dropped dead from someone else’s shot before he could fire.
