Page 27 of Training Rain
“Are you hurt?” she asked.
“No. You?”
“Miraculously, we’re okay. How the hell are we going to get out of here? I think I just blew up the four wheeler.”
“You most definitely did. Good job. Come on, we have work to do. Those bastards got away. I saw them loading into a couple of big four-seat ATVs. They’ll try to track us and with all this snow, it won’t be hard to do.”
He’d barely gotten the words out when they heard the sound of an engine, and it was getting closer. The forest stretched out for a few miles but it was an advantage to them to be on foot since the large all-terrain would have to pick its way through the heavily treed area.
Slinging her pack over her shoulders, she took off at a run, following Jess. Yas stayed close at her heels. The trees were topped with heavy snow that in the bright sun dropped in large clumps from time to time. A stream, which had probably gurgled happily in the other seasons, was stilled by the months of below-freezing temperatures.
Rain looked for options to aid in their escape. She was not panicked. That was perhaps the biggest surprise of all. A few weeks ago she had been living a quiet life in Nevada and in the past week she had done things she could not have imagined in her previous life. Yet, now she could see that all the grueling training and mental focus Jess had tortured her with had been for a purpose. In only the past twenty-four hours she had nearly hyperventilated with fear, made love to Jess, decided to continue her training, shot a man and blown up a cabin.
She was running for her life and all in all, she felt great. If she’d had the breath to spare, she would have laughed.
Jess grabbed her hand and they jumped into the gully cut by the stream.
She watched silently as his eyes narrowed in the direction of the approaching vehicle. A wad of snow fell in the space followed by a loud cracking.
Her heart pounded as she watched as a long-dead oak crash to the ground, blocking the path. The ATV had to swerve and ram a smaller tree to avoid colliding with the newly felled tree.
“Did you do that?”
He nodded and grabbed her hand. “Come on, that won’t hold them long.”
As soon as they climbed up the opposite bank of the creek bed, gunfire followed them. They split up to draw off the fire. The gunmen were shooting at Jess and she was free to run forward without much darting. As soon as they were out of range they heard the engine gunning behind them. She could hear them gaining on them in spite of their full run and the thick forest.
Jess ran toward her and pulled her behind a trunk large enough to give them both cover. He pulled the rifle off his shoulder as he spoke. “Listen,cher, we can’t outrun them. They’re already gaining on us.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I didn’t want you to have to do this, but we’re going to have to fight.”
Her heart raced with excitement and she leveled her shotgun in the direction where the enemy would approach. It was clear to her now that these men were not after her, but they definitely wanted to kill Jess. She could not let that happen. “What do I do?”
“Wait for my signal and then fire.” Staying low he crawled away.
“What’s the signal?” She heard a quiver of panic in her own voice.
He stopped and turned back toward her. Mischief lit his eyes. “You’ll know it when you see it.”
Two seconds later he disappeared into the backdrop of snow and trees.
Yas whimpered and she sent the dog a message to be still. Immediately he fell into a resting position and put his head on his paws.
The engine drew closer. The crunching of leaves and dead tree limbs broke the silence. The enemy was getting close. Her finger rested near the trigger and she found herself wishing she’d trained with a rifle. The shotgun would not be as accurate but it would allow for a wide spread of buckshot.
If only she could still her racing heart, but that wasn’t going to happen as the green ATV came into view. Where had the other vehicle gone? Was it going to roar in from behind them? Jess had said to wait for his signal. They were getting too close. She could almost make the shot. Just a little closer and she could take out the man in the passenger side. Jess’s order made her hold her position but she put her finger over the trigger.
Where’s the signal?
So close. They were in range and the angle was right. A shot rang out. The ATV hobbled. Another shot. Both tires on the passenger side must have been shot out in quick succession because the ATV started to tumble away from her. She couldn’t get the shot.
“Damn.”
The vehicle was upended and the men started to emerge. Rain opened fire. Blood spread across the neck and chest of the front-seat passenger. No time to think, she took a second shot just as she heard the rifle fire off to her right. She hoped that was Jess and not the men from the other ATV. She took a second shot. A second man crumbled to the forest floor.
Reloading distracted her from the silence that followed. It was the loudest of her life.
