Trail of Tears by Derek Gunn Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t help that it
was dark, or that the rain persisted to fall. But the main problem
was that they were so damn fast. They moved like shadows at a dance
with multiple light sources splashing their images here and there.
As soon as he lined up his weapon and fired a burst they had
already moved. They weren’t as quick as the vampires, thank God,
but they were too quick for him.
    He had two men with him, Grier about thirty
yards on his left and Peterson to the right. He knew that Jackson
was further on to his right, but he hadn’t heard anything from him
for a while. Bloody amateur had been standing up firing from the
hip like he was John fucking Wayne so he probably got what he
deserved. It did leave their flank dangerously exposed though.
    “How the fuck have these people lasted so
long?” He muttered as he sent a hail of bullets in front of where
he thought the thrall was moving and cursed when he saw the figure
swerve away at the last moment and drop below his field of vision.
It disappeared.
    “Shit.”
    This wasn’t getting him anywhere. He’d be
overrun before he knew it if he didn’t shake it up.
    “We have to take it to them,” he called and
hoped Grier and Peterson heard him or he’d get an ass full of lead.
He slithered up over the lip of his hollow and inched his way
forward. He paused every few feet and peered through the darkness,
watching for any movement and then stirred on. He was only thirty
feet from his own hollow when he saw movement twenty feet ahead to
his left and he lay still. It wasn’t really a movement, more a
shift in the curtain of rain. Shit, the bastard was far closer than
he had thought. His heart beat so fast he was certain the thrall
would hear him; the bastards had such good hearing but the figure
continued to move towards Grier’s hollow.
    Every now and then a burst of fire from
Grier and Peterson would make him jump and the sudden flare of
light only served to light up the area immediately around each of
his men, announcing their positions—as if the thralls didn’t
already know where they were. He watched the shadowy figure glide
through the darkness towards Grier. It hugged the ground and moved
silently towards the oblivious man. These things were impossible.
He had trained Grier himself and there was no one he would want
more in a fire fight, but these bastards were able to do more than
blend in, they became the fucking darkness. He was fairly
certain that more of them were already in similar positions around
Peterson and Grier. He eased his XM8 forward and lined up on the
thrall. A quick three round burst stitched across the thrall’s back
and the last round drove up through its skull and ripped the top of
its head off.
    There wasn’t time to gloat; McAteer was
already moving as he saw pools of darkness shift. Jesus, they’re
all around us. Bullets tore into the ground where he had been
only moments before. He continued to roll until he fell into the
hollow he had left only a short time ago. Bullets followed him all
the way and peppered the edge of the depression as he curled into a
ball. The thralls had given their positions away though and
Peterson and Grier were already on it, firing at the flare of their
weapons. The barrage of bullets began to reduce as the thralls were
either hit or dropped out of sight to avoid the stream of fire that
Peterson and Grier laid down. McAteer grabbed at his XM8 and
stitched a line of fire blindly out into the darkness, aiming along
the ground only a few feet from the edge of his hollow. He wasn’t
taking any chances.
    “Fall back to the compound,” he called and
waited for the shouted acknowledgements before he slipped back. He
hated leaving anyone behind; in all the war zones he had been sent
to he had always managed to bring everyone out. They didn’t all
survive but he always brought them home. He hesitated. Jackson and
Delilah could still be alive. He looked over to where they had been
stationed but the darkness was too