Blood Lands (Savage Lands #5)(55)

“Only way we seem to like it.”

There was no turning back. Death was a possibility this way, but if we went back, it was a certainty.

“Stay back, or I will shoot.” A guard jabbed his gun into the temple of the oldest girl, with a toddler on her hip. “It will be your fault these kids die.”

A low, vicious snarl rose from Warwick, crashing goosebumps down my flesh. The Wolf, the Legend who thrived off killing, who could murder someone with one hand, inched closer to the soldiers.

The calls from the ones behind were creeping up fast. We only had moments before they would catch us, and the game would be over. This was our only chance.

We needed a distraction.

In a blink, my hand lifted, pointing to the guard on the end, and fired. Right between the eyes. His frame jolted before it crumbled to the floor, before he had time to realize he was dead.

Screams erupted from the kids, and the guards stood shell-shocked for a moment—it was enough.

Warwick and I pounced.

Slipping in, I knocked the arm holding the gun to the girl’s head, before elbowing his face. He stumbled back with a cry while I whirled around, discharging my gun into the man sneaking up behind me.

Blood sprayed over my face, his frame hitting the ground. My lashes dripping with blood, I peered over at Warwick. The two he’d been fighting were already on the ground.

Feeling my eyes on him, he turned with a wicked half-grin.

“Keys?” I turned away, needing to focus on getting out of here. “Check the guards.”

The kids started to pat down each one with precision, going through pockets and taking everything they could find. Scavengers. Shown at a young age how to live in the Savage Lands.

Bang! Bang! Gunshots rang out behind us.

A little boy screamed next to me, his body tumbling to the pavement, curling into a ball, his hand gripping the hole in his stomach.

“Petr!” another boy cried out his name, scrambling to him.

My head bolted up to see dozens of HDF jogging toward us, guns raised, ready to assassinate us all.

“Keep looking for the gate keys,” I ordered the younger ones, tossing guns from the dead guards to the older kids. “Just shoot at them! Don’t stop!”

I didn’t know if they even knew how, but it was the fight to the death right now, and Warwick and I couldn’t cover them all.

The eldest girl took to it without hesitation, lifting her arms and firing at HDF, baring her teeth at them in rage and fury.

The soldiers marched for us, getting so close they wouldn’t miss hitting their target. The sound of heavy cars crunched over the pavement, silhouettes of a tank behind them, the cannon pointed at us. My stomach dropped.

We were going to die.

“Found them!” A little blonde girl, no more than five, sang out, running to the gate. All of them seemed so much older than their years.

“Fucking hurry!” Warwick gritted, his gun clicking, the chamber empty. He tossed it to the side, snatching another from a guard he killed, shooting at the parade edging closer.

Pain suddenly exploded across my chest. My arm went limp, and I dropped my weapon, a cry howling from my throat. Red liquid soaked through my top, a bullet wedging just below my collarbone.

Bang!

The older girl shot at the soldier advancing on us, killing the one who shot me without hesitation. I gaped at the mini badass. I could feel her anger and pain, everything she suffered coming to the surface.

“I did it! It’s open!” The little blonde girl shouted, the gate squealing wide, giving me a breath of hope.

“Go!” Warwick yelled, rushing the kids to move while he and the older girl covered us.

Rushing them out, I stopped at the little boy bent and wailing over the boy who got shot.

“Get up, Petr! Please wake up!”

“Come on, we have to go.” I reached for the kid.

“No!” He clung to Petr. “He needs to wake up! Petr! Petr! Please wake up.” The howls tore at my heart, bile heaving up my throat because I knew Petr was never going to wake up.

There was no time to console or try to explain his friend was dead.

I snatched him up with my good arm, adrenaline dulling any pain. The boy kicked and screamed against me, reaching for his friend. “No, I can’t leave him!”

I knew we couldn’t take him.

This was life or death. And the one in my arms was still alive.

Warwick picked up the older girl like a football, following me through the gate, slamming it on the group scurrying for us now. “Run!”

And we did.

Through the volley of bullets, darkness, and death.

We ran for our lives.





Chapter 15





Feet pounding.

Hearts beating.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever, terror strung like cobwebs as we rushed forward, guards screaming and shooting at us from far behind.

The locked gate had only held them for a minute or two before they broke through, coming after us. There was no way they didn’t already have soldiers heading to head us off down the path. Our escape or capture could be down to seconds.

The route under our feet inclined, bringing us up to the surface. A breeze brushed against my face, and I could smell a hint of diesel fuel and coal, the odor I connected to trains. While Unified Nations went solar, electrical, and eco-friendly, the East went backward, losing the power lines they used to run on and falling back on fossil fuels.