Page 57 of Freedom Fighters
“Again!” Carmen called.
He wiped at his foreheadwith the sleeve of his teeshirt, then bent and picked up the trunk once more.
Carmen threw her entire bodyweight into dragging the thing backward. It moved a few inches.
“Again,” she called and heaved.
A few more inches. But itwasmoving.
In her mind, a mental clock ticked down. She pulled on the tree in a rhythmic tugging, taking small steps back as it moved.
Finally, Archie was a paceaway from the rail and most of the foliage was hanging over the side of the track. The trunk, a good eight inches through the middle, straddled the two rails.
Archie looked up and dropped the trunk. “Take cover!” He headed for the trees.
Carmen leapt over the rails and ran after him. She stopped at the edge of the tree line and unslung the rifle. There was a tree with a fork in it at almostthe perfect height. She settled the barrel of the rifle into the fork and bent and took aim.
“What are you doing?” Archie demanded.
“If I can take out the driver, I can slow the train,” Carmen muttered.
“He doesn’t have dead man controls,” Archie shot back. “Killing him means there’s no one there to apply the brakes. Come and get under cover. Look, the guards on the top of the cars have seenyou.”
She looked at the train as it curved around the bend. The tree had been seen. The guards had been monitoring their flanks. Now they turned to face the front of the car. A rifle cracked. It came nowhere near her.
A shout sounded from within the trees, barely audible over the noise of the train. It had come from farther along the track. Figures stepped out from the trees and ran alongsidethe train. From among them, she spotted Garrett, who was half a head taller than anyone else in the camp.
The guards saw them, too. They moved back to their positions where they could protect the side of the train, pulling their rifles around to aim downward. Garrett and his men would be far too easy to pick off.
Carmen bent and focused along her sights, her heart squeezing. She aimed carefullyand let off a round.
One of the guards on the roof threw up his arms. His rifle toppled over the side as he fell backward. The other guards all jerked around to see where the threat was coming from. Then they all hunkered down, hugging the roof of the car.
The driver of the train was close enough to see the tree across the tracks was too substantial to drive over. The engine brakes came on andthe wheels bit into the tracks, squealing.
Garrett hooked a hand over the big door handle and hauled himself up onto the lip of the door, then leaned down to haul up the others. He ducked when a guard shot at him. As the guard didn’t want to lift his head high and expose himself to Carmen’s line of sight, the shot went wide.
Carmen tracked the guard with the rifle. As he moved into her sights,she fired again. The guard flinched and ducked back down. She had missed.
The train slowed. Three Resistance members clung to the side of the car and Garrett fumbled with the door, trying to open it.
Another guard, a braver one, lifted himself up onto his knees and leaned over the edge, taking careful aim.
At Garrett.
Carmen barely aimed. She jerked the tip of the rifle the fraction of aninch necessary to line up with the guard. She pulled the trigger compulsively. Once, twice, three times. She should have taken the time to squeeze it. She knew that, yet the knowledge was far away. More immediate was the danger to Garrett.
The train had slowed to a walk and would stop in a few seconds, about six feet short of the tree. The guard who aimed for Garrett jerked sideways. She hadn’thit him but she had distracted him.
Something slammed into her shoulder, sending her staggering backward. Her knees grew weak. Heat and icy coldness tore through her, stealing her breath and her strength.
She fell back on her butt. Her left arm wouldn’t work.
“Carmen!” Garrett’s voice, sounding strained.
Carmen lifted her right hand to her shoulder and touched it. Agony flared, sending anotherwave of cold through her.
There was a lot of shouting, over by the train. The train had halted.
