It was the only thought I managed before I had to take care of henchman number two. It was that or be killed myself. I swept the rifle downward at the other man. He was rolled onto his side, clutching his bleeding thigh, trying to maneuver away from me. If he managed to get away he could end up killing one of my brothers. I couldn’t allow that to happen.
Once again, I brought the butt of the rifle up over my head and then swung it down on the injured man’s head. Two strokes from the rifle and his head was as unrecognizable as his friend. It wasn’t a pretty way to dispatch a man, but it fucking worked.
Letting the rifle drop to the ground, I pulled my pistol and crept around the truck. Something heavy landed on top of me, causing me to drop the gun and hit the ground hard under the weight. A couple of blows to my side told me that someone had jumped on me.
Where the fuck did he come from?
That wasn’t really important right now. The blows to my back and the kidney shot were a bit more of a concern. I grunted in pain as it radiated up from my lower back. Fucker had one arm wrapped around my neck, with the other he was throwing wild but hard enough punches. Hard enough to fucking hurt. And to piss me off. I rolled forward, slamming him into the concrete floor.
This didn’t improve my situation all that much. He stopped throwing punches, but now he was trying to wrap his legs around me. My vision was already getting fuzzy around theedges as he squeezed his arm against my neck harder. He was going to choke me out in a few more seconds. That was instant death. He’d shoot me and run off to hunt everyone else.
I don’t have time for this shit.
I grabbed his arm with my left hand, trying to let some air back into my body. The floating specks behind my eyes eased up a little as some oxygen got to my brain. With my right hand, I fumbled in my pocket and took out my knife. A spring loaded folding knife. Basically a switch blade. I thumbed the button and felt the familiar click as it sprang open.
I couldn’t tell his legs from mine right now, so stabbing blindly in that direction was out. Instead I leaned my head to the left and drove the knife straight back behind me. Instantly the grip around my arm loosened, and the screaming started. Despite the ringing still going on in my ears, I could hear this guy just fine. His voice only slightly blended in with the buzzing inside my head that wouldn’t chill the fuck out. Between the loud machines before and all the gunfire surrounding me, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fucking hear again after this.
Scrambling to my feet I turned in time to see my handiwork. Fucker must have known what I was going to do, because he had brought his hand up to block the knife. It didn’t work. My knife went through his hand and into his eye. His hand was literally pinned to his eyeball. I made a face of disgust. I’d seen a lot during my deployments, but that didn’t mean I didn’t ever get grossed out. Only Relay and Drifter could look at a disgusting situation like that and have no reaction.
“Oh man, he should get that looked at.” Bolo appeared behind me. He passed me his pistol.
Okay. And Bolo apparently. Fucking weirdo.
“Really? Looked at?” I raised the pistol up, reading to move forward.
“What? You don’t like puns?”
“A little on the nose, isn’t it?” I said, smirking at his joke. Together we crept forward. The shooting had died down. Kilo was on my left. Further down, at the other end of the loading dock, I could see gunshots where Ruck and Relay were closing in from the far side. Drifter darted past as he moved from one shelving unit to a stack of barrels. I didn’t see Hype, but knew he was around. If any of us were down Drifter would be with them.
A group of men, four or five, made a run for it across the bay and through the doors we’d come through, back to the cattle holding area. We held our fire for fear of overshooting and hitting Ruck and Relay.
“I guess they don’t want to get sandwiched,” Kilo said.
“You keep sweeping toward Ruck and the others. Bolo and I will go after them.” Kilo nodded and kept going. Bolo and I headed for the doors.
He posted up against the door and grabbed the handle. I stood just outside of where it would swing open, leveled my pistol in front of me, and crouched low. Then I gave him a nod. Simultaneously, he pulled the door open and I took a side step to the right, keeping my body out of the doorway, but my gun was trained on the opening.
There was a dickhead behind the door. As soon as it opened he started firing. The shots whizzed by my left side and over my head. Three shots from my pistol and he went down.
I swept the opening and it was clear, so we crept in.
Shit.They were hiding among the cows. More than that, I was hit with the sudden realization that after this fire fight I would have to answer to a higher power. If even one of my stray bullets hit one of these cows, Light would kill me. Didn’t matter that she didn’t know about them yet. She’d find out. My brothers couldn’t keep shit to themselves when they told a story.
My knife was still stuck in some fucker’s eye, so all I had was this gun. That wasn’t going to work in tight quarters with theanimals snorting, stamping, and panicking from all the noise.Fuck!I motioned to Bolo to draw his knife. He looked at me like I was insane. I bit my lip angrily and motioned again, and my eyes screamed,hurry the fuck up!
He rolled his own eyes and drew his knife. I pointed to the right side of the stalls and he moved that way. I took the left. Jumping over the railing, I started to move through the oversized corral and in between the cows. “Nice cow, quiet cow, don’t freak out and trample me to death,” I muttered.
They were not happy. I didn’t know much about cows, that was Warrant and Toxic’s world, but I knew what an angry and distressed noise sounded like. Against all reason, I moved closer to the angry cows. I had my trigger finger indexed across the pistol’s slide. With no knife, I had to be extra deliberate about where I pointed the gun. I also needed to keep these guys from seeing me. If they emptied a mag, the cows would get hit, and I’d be in trouble.
“The shit we do for women…” I huffed.
Crouching low again, I used the cows to block my approach.
Do I move in front of them or behind? Horses kick you if you go behind them, right? Do cows kick like horses?
So many useless animal facts were suddenly not so useless. Should’ve paid more attention when Warrant spoke about this shit. I decided to move behind them. Some had horns and a kick seemed favorable to being gored.
The angry moos were getting louder. I had to be closing in. I tried looking under the cow in front of me but all I saw was udders and hooves.
