“We can take them by surprise,” I said, scanning the area around the village for vantage points. “We can shoot long range. We could take out most of them before they even figure out where the shots are coming from.”
Ben started to object. I heard the beginning of a gruff word. But he swallowed it down and accepted the binoculars I passed back to him. He gestured toward a tall tree not far from the cottage where the couple were dragged out. “There.”
I nodded and pointed him to an old pre-Fall abandoned structure with a second floor. “And that might work.”
I could see the internal struggle on Ben’s face until he finally made a decision. He nodded. “Okay. The tree is safer. You’re taking that. Shoot as many as you can. If they start coming after you, you run back to the motor and you don’t stop.”
I was excited. Thrilled. To finally have some way to act. So I wasn’t angry at all as I asked, “Are you actually trying to boss me around?”
“Just give me this at least.” His eyes were glinting with ironic amusement, even though he was also tense and nervous. “I started out as your bodyguard, you know, andit’s hard to fight the urge to throw myself in front of a bullet for you.”
I huffed out of laugh and squeezed his arm. “I’ll be careful. I promise. Now hurry. They’re going to kill that poor man in a minute.”
We both ran in different directions, and I scrambled up the tree with my rifle as quickly as I could. By the time I got a stable position, Ben had already shot the guard kicking the man. I aimed and shot one of the guards holding down the woman.
The guards were shocked. Confused. They aimed their weapons in all directions trying to figure out where the attack was coming from. Before they could make any sense of it, Ben and I took out eight of them.
The woman on the ground had gained her feet by then. She grabbed one of the downed guards’ weapons and shot two more of them as Ben and I took out the remaining ones.
A few minutes later, Ben and I were approaching on foot.
Most of the village was gathered now, but not a single one of them made a move on us.
The woman was kneeling next to the beaten man, who was bloody and unconscious.
“Thank you,” she said as we approached. “I don’t know who you are and why you did that, but we’re forever grateful.”
“Why were they trying to take you?” I asked.
Ben was watching the crowd of villagers, but no one looked suspicious or angry. They didn’t support what the guards were doing here, and they wanted them stopped as much as we did.
“Will has a daughter in another village, and she’s allergic to milk so she needs special food. He was using some of our earnings to get her what she needs, but that meant he was shorting the government’s take.”
Of course it was that. The government would never make public show of rebellion. But if someone was cheating them out of profit…
“They were arresting him. If I hadn’t fought back, they wouldn’t have gotten so violent, but I couldn’t—” Her face twisted. “Everyone knows what happens to people who get arrested. I never would have seen him again.”
“No. You wouldn’t.” I glanced up at the sympathetic, murmuring villagers, and I was suddenly scared for them. “Listen,” I said, thinking quickly. “None of the guards survived this, so their leaders won’t know exactly what happened. Blame us. They found nothing in this village suspicious and were leaving when they were attacked by strangers. No one here was involved.”
I was speaking loudly so everyone would hear. The murmuring shifted into something that sounded relieved, since this story would save them from possible repercussions.
“Describe us however you want, but make sure youstick to the same story. Traveling outlaws did this. No one in the village did.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Bring him inside,” I told her before I looked back at Ben. “Do you think we can move the bodies and clean up the scene here to support the story?”
“Yep. We can do that.”
I didn’t expect anyone from the village to help us, but several of them did. We dragged the bodies farther from the settlement, positioning them on the road in a way that would be believable for an ambush.
“We need to get out of the area,” Ben murmured when we finished. “When they don’t report in, someone will come to check what’s happening here.”
“Yeah. You all should be okay as long as you stick to the same story.”
“We will. No one here sides with the guards—in any situation for any reason.” That was the woman whose brother we saved. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad we could help. Stay safe.”
