“Motherfucker.” I can’t run and apparently I’m not going to get very far on wheels either. I slap the steering wheel.
I’m not dying like this. Here. Tonight.
I push my dying vehicle on, crawling out of the camp. All I need is enough distance to get me close to the jungle. It will be much harder to find me there.
Then I can die in peace. Or be found. Whichever comes first.
A round pierces my calf. They aren’t going to quit. Do they think she’s with me?
I laugh but end up clutching my side and groaning instead.
They’re making a mess of me, so I’m going to do the same.
I give her as much as I can and drive her into the building. Men scatter. Wood splinters. The airbag pops in my face. I shoot it with the pistol to deflate it. And assess just how deep the shit I am in is.
Six armed men surround the vehicle.
It’s deep.
I contemplate picking up the rifle, but the moment I do, they’re going to shoot me, and those survival odds aren’t great.
Are my odds any better if I surrender?
No…but if they are messing with me, and dealing with their dead, then Ash has extra minutes, and that’s all that matters.
I swallow, knowing that no matter what I do, I’m pretty well fucked. It’s only a matter of timing.
If that guard hadn’t glanced down and looked at me.
If I’d been faster.
Or uninjured.
If we’d waited for him to check on us…
None of those ifs change anything.
“Sorry, Ash.” I draw in a breath. “Sorry, Colt.”
I never told either of them how I felt. That is my biggest mistake.
I lift both hands to show they are empty.
CHAPTER15
Colton
Honestly,it’s pouring, and darker than Satan’s butthole even with the night vision goggles on—which I’m assuming is darker than the rest of him. I might be wrong. But it feels like the kind of night where we’re all going to find out whose number has been drawn and is about to be collected.
I’m saturated seconds after leaving the vehicle.
Sure we could’ve waited until morning. After all, who’d be dumb enough to go out in this weather? It’s a one in a hundred-year storm or something.
If the rain, or mud, doesn’t get us, something else will.
Hopefully even the spiders and snakes are taking the night off. After the initial saturation, and adaptation to the drumming of rain to the tree canopy, I settle into a quiet rhythm with each pace taking us deeper into the jungle.
This part can’t be rushed.
