Page 116 of Malachi
“From here we’re on foot. We need to hurry,” I urged, jumping out of the car door and heading straight into the forest.
“Hey, hold up,” Agent Driscoll called, pulling me back by my shoulder as I slipped in through the trees. “Let us lead.”
“You don’t know where you’re going,” I argued, shrugging him off and continuing on.
“You’re unarmed,” he argued.
“Then arm me, or let me be, but we are going. Now.” I spat back at him.
“Let him go. Eyes sharp, folks! We have seven hostiles out here, possibly armed,” he called out.
“One is for sure armed,” Ollie interjected.
“You heard him. Let’s move out!”
With that, we were off.
My mind stayed focused on the task at hand, finding the landmarks automatically as we raced through the trees.
As we neared the hollow tree, my senses kicked into overdrive, my hunter’s instincts taking over. Agent Driscoll was right with me. He moved up just in front of me as I slowed, his hand raised in the air in a fist.
As we stepped out into the clearing, bile rose in my throat, threatening to overspill.
Unconscious bodies lay scattered across the open field.
My eyes scanned each of them.
One.
Two.
Three of them.
None of them were women. As I watched, one of them groaned quietly and twitched. From my perspective, it looked like someone had struck him with a blunt object; red stained the back of his head.
Beside me, Ollie threw up, doubling over.
“It’s not them,” I murmured with a shaky inhale.
“I know,” he groaned, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “It looks like they put up a fight, at least.”
I nodded my agreement, hoping against hope that they werestillputting up a fight.
“Let’s go,” Agent Driscoll instructed, nodding at me once. I had to stay focused. Focused on finding them.
We hadn’t made it another ten yards into the woods on the other side of the clearing when I heard it.
Groans. Grunts. Yelps of pain.
“Talia,” Zeke breathed out behind me, taking a step past me without thinking. My arm shot out, stopping him in his tracks.
“That is my wife and child,” he hissed out, his eyes leveling at me.
“We are unarmed and surrounded by professionals. Take a second, brother,” I reminded him in a hushed whisper.
As we neared, the scene before me filled me with terror.
Delilah, Ruth, and Naomi were there, actively fighting two Elders. Naomi was wielding a hefty-looking tree branch, swinging it down on the back of an elder who had Delilah under him, trying to punch her. The other man in the fray was my father. He had Ruth backed up against a tree, one hand around her throat, the other cocked back, about to smash into her face.
