Meg swiveled her head to follow the sight of her best friend tackle Arkdone to the ground, his dark muzzle buried deep into the monster’s throat. She saw the look in Maze’s eyes and knew what would come next. A primal ferocious growl preceded a vicious ripping sound.
Arkdone, who had been screaming and beating the carnivore at his throat stopped his struggle instantly. His arms and legs flopped to the ground. In the silence that followed, only a sickening gurgling could be heard coming from the lifeless body beneath the coydog.
Maze stood panting through the flesh, still warm as it dangled from his dark mouth.
“Maze,” Meg whispered, her functioning arm outstretched, reaching for the comfort of her coydog’s thick fur.
Maze spat the poisoned meat from his mouth and whined as he licked his muzzle. Two leaps and he was crouching atop his Meg protectively. He gnashed his bloodstained teeth at everyone.
“Well, that was unexpected.” Williams looked from the lifeless body of Senator Donovan Arkdone back to the wild dog crouching protectively over his daughter.
With the scent of coppery blood hanging heavy in the morning air, a surge of hunger for more violence rippled through the onlookers.
Violence begets violence.
The bloodlust was too much. Knuckles whitened as weapons began to shift back to deadly firing positions. Collectively, soldiers rolled their weight to the balls of their feet and began weaving ever so slightly, cobra-like, from side to side.
Meg’s senses were alive.
She fought instinct and forced herself to release her grip on the flesh around the blade. Knowing she only had a matter of seconds, she reached to one of the Velcro pockets of her cargo pants and yanked out a package.
Her hands trembled as she ripped it open with her teeth and laid it beside her. She was only half listening to Williams as he began his rant.
“Well, this changes things, doesn’t it?” he was saying. “I mean, technically, you won, but who am I to worry about technicalities? I’d rather hoped you’d been killed just then.” He frowned disapprovingly at Arkdone’s lifeless body. “The idiot couldn’t even do that properly.”
Williams continued his dialogue oblivious of the surrounding mob ripe with violence. The soldiers leaned in toward the center attraction—Meg and Maze.
The redheaded male soldier shook with barely hinged, primal aggression. Tendons on either side of his neck protruded serpent-like.
“I mean, after all, you’ve made your choice, my dear. I’ve tried time and again to persuade you to think beyond your plastic loyalty to that woman.” He had been pacing, eyes searching the ground as though he’d dropped something of value. He glanced, unseeing toward Meg. “Such a waste.”
Meg knew she had to hurry. She could feel the warmth of her blood slipping down her side. Gripping the handle of the blade she took a deep breath and wrenched the five-inch blade out. As the blade exited, so did a gush of blood.
With a shaking hand, Meg grabbed the package and emptied the emergency blood clotting powder into the oozing wound. It wasn’t designed to treat wounds as deep as hers, but it was all she had and she prayed to God that it would buy her enough time.
“Well, Meg, time to die.” Williams stopped pacing and looked directly into the animal eyes of Kerry Braden. “Company Leader Braden.”
“Sir, yes sir,” Kerry barked.
“Would you be so kind as to clean up the late Senator Arkdone’s mess?”
“With pleasure, sir.”
Kerry stepped forward and raised his gun.
Maze’s barks were ear piercing. A coiled spring ready to snap, he carefully stepped over Meg and positioned himself between her and the greasy, black barrel of the gun.
A surge of strength gripped Meg.
No!
She pushed her thoughts like projectiles directly into the soldier’s mind.
“Drop it.”
Kerry’s hand flew open as though shocked, the gun tumbling to the ground.
Meg closed her eyes briefly, recovering from the effort of forcing her will on the soldier.
“What are you doing, Braden?” Williams boomed.
“Sir, I—” The expression on Braden’s face confirmed his confusion. Just as he leaned down to retrieve the weapon, a distinct whoosh of a bullet made it jump out of reach.
“Hasn’t there been enough death?” Meg spoke directly to Williams.
“Not nearly,” he hissed.
Stomach churning thumps of bullets penetrating skin had the crowd scattering for cover.
Meg felt them long before she saw them. Her family had arrived.
Now she could see proof of it as body after body crumpled to the ground. Their surprise attack allowed perfect kill-shots.
73 A Time to Live, a Time to Die
“We should have found them by now,” Margo worried.
“Not if they camped in the clearing on the other side of the woods,” Alik’s eyes searched the horizon.
“That must be what they did,” Farrow chimed in from the back of the truck.
“Any sign of the wolf?” Rhett asked.
“Coydog,” Margo and Alik corrected simultaneously.