I somehow get up. I’m on my feet before I even realize what happened. My heart pounds in my chest, beating so hard I think it’s going to throw me off balance from the force of it. In my underwear, covered in scratches and bruises I don’t remember getting, my arms bound behind my back, I run outside.
The night lights up again. The flare falling from the sky is blinding. I hear shouting and can’t make out the words. The first pops of gunfire ring out to my left, and more come in answer, echoing off the mountains.
The thumping of a helicopter roars overhead and I land on my ass in the dirt, get up again, run. I need to get my hands free and get the hell out of here. I run in the general direction of the tent where they held Melissa.
It’s not her fault. I can’t just leave her to this, or that other woman. I see the tent and run around the corner toward it, and straight into a cluster of fighters. They spin around with their rifles in hand and aim them right at me.
Time doesn’t exactly slow. It’s like it was running fast, and now it’s at the real speed. I can count the stitches on their gloves and the hairs on their fingers. I see the bones in their hands lever as they tighten on the triggers.
This is how I die. Spared from violation only to be shot down like an animal, left to rot in the dirt because my captors don’t have time to abuse me.
A roar behind my head makes my ears ring, and the world goes silent. These little puffs of dirt rake across the ground, and when they hit the cluster of fighters they turn from puffs of dirt to splashes of red. I never understood until this moment how delicate the human body is. The impacts are like smashing a melon.
There’s a spotlight on me. A helicopter slides from side to side overhead, shining a light so bright it makes the sun look like a candle. I scream in stupid animal panic, run through the flaps into the tent and throw myself down.
Melissa has spit out her gag and is sobbing hysterically, praying and cursing and begging for help. She calls out for her mother, for God, even for Brad. More gunfire rips overhead. That gun on the helicopter shoots so fast it sounds like one noise, a steady roar.
Another explosion shakes the dirt.
This is just a tent. They can’t know we’re in here. When I look out through the flaps I see my worst fear. Bullets rake the tent across the path and it collapses on itself, folding in like a house of cards.
Then Brad bursts in, half his face covered in slick blood and sweat. His eyes stand out too white and too wide, and there’s a wet spot on his khakis.
“Shut up and do what I say.”
I do the exact opposite of that. I kick at him as he draws closer, my boot catching him in the leg.
“You stupid twat, that’s the Phoenix Guard out there. They catch us and we’re fucked.”
I just stare at him.
“You mean you’re fucked if you’re caught with us.”
He blinks. “No time. You want to live, you come with me. Otherwise, I gotta get rid of the evidence.”
He shakes a gas can at me. Liquid sloshes in the bottom.
My breath catches. He wouldn’t.
His eyes say he would.
“Fine.”
If he can buy me another ten minutes, I’ll take it. There has to be a chance we can still get away.
He pulls me up and throws a blanket around me. It slips off and he pulls it tighter, and cuts the cords tying Melissa and Danielle’s ankles. Melissa springs to her feet, but Danielle won’t move.
“Burn me,” she croaks. “You fucking bastard.”
“Get up, you stupid bitch,” he snarls, dragging her to her feet.
She finally gets up and he shoves her forward.
“Head toward the rear of the camp. There’s an old goat track that leads into the mountains. If we can get out of sight and get some cover, we can wait it out, maybe recover a vehicle and head back for Solkovia.”
“Where you kill us and dump our bodies,” I say.
“If I wanted to kill you, I’d have done it already. Are you that stupid?”
“If I was that smart I wouldn’t be here, dealing with you, motherfucker.”
“Just fucking move or I swear to God I will blow your brains out myself. Stay low and stay close to the edge of the tents.”
He jabs my back with his pistol and I push Melissa forward. We end up herding Danielle alone, flanking her and bumping her along when she tries to stop. As she walks, her eyes fade more and more until she looks completely burnt out, staring at nothing. She stumbles and falls when another explosion rocks the camp.
There are more of them on the ground now. I can hear shots and see people running. Another helicopter whips overhead, spins, and comes back around, raking the ground with gunfire. Flares and explosions light the night like a thunderstorm, raging wildly overhead.
Brad points toward a twisting, narrow path behind the general’s tent that slopes sharply up into the mountains. Danielle isn’t going to make it on bare feet, but I don’t think Brad cares all that much. He shoves us forward hard.
“Come on, we’re almost there.”