“Get down!” Will yelled over
his shoulder. He fired off a six-shot
burst as he dropped prone into the tall grass and out of sight. There was no other cover here—nowhere else to
go.
Oo-kay,
Harriet Ruby, this is no time to lose it your cool.I dove onto my stomach after him, but not
before I took a heavy painful blow to the chest.
“Aii!”My body slammed into the ground hard enough
to knock the wind out of me.The soft
wet earth sent splatters of mud across my goggles.
With all the air whooshed out of my
lungs, I couldn’t breath and lay there gasping for oxygen. I couldn’t think.
Three projectiles whizzed past my head
in rapid succession.
Ohmigod!Time to get out of here. Vision
impaired, I scrambled in the direction I thought Will had gone. My elbows and knees dug into the ground,
dragging my body on my stomach through the wet grass, my automatic weapon
clutched in both hands in front of me.
Zing.
This was no fun at all. Where was he?
My heart pounded against my ribcage. Sharp pain stabbed through me with each breath.
My aching hands knotted around my
rifle.Black dots cavorted in front of
my eyes and everything had fuzzy edges.I sucked in a big gulp of air―and along with it a small bug.
“Aah-ugh!” I tried to spit it out but already the critter
fluttered its winds in my throat.
Coughing, I buried my face against my
arm to muffle the sound. Before I could
stop hacking, a hand grasped my ankle and pulled me into a pit behind a bunker.
“Eek!”I smashed down on top of a warm body. A nice hard, well-muscled body. One I recognized by feel and scent.“You did that on purpose.”
“Shh.” Will waited long enough for both of us to
relish our position, then rolled me off onto my rear end.
I pulled away and sat up, then
collapsed with my back against the dirt wall of the ditch. He studied me for a long moment―although I
couldn’t see his expression through the protective gear―then pulled some sort
of spy instrument out of his backpack and fiddled.
Damn
these grim-faced, efficient, military types. At least today he didn’t have a razor-sharp
crease in his camos. Shaking my head, I
reached up to wipe the grime off my face with my sleeve.“Ow!”
Will crouched behind the bunker,
peering into the tool which now looked like a small periscope. He whipped around.
“You’ve
been hit.” His tight voice conveyed alarm.
Jeez, did he need to lighten up, or
what?
I threw down my automatic
Spyder MR2, pulled off my face mask and helmet, and sent them rattling to the
ground beside the weapon.
“Right.And it hurts like the devil.” I stared down at the damp red stain on the
front of my shirt.
