All Things Hidden by D.L. Bunch

Author:D.L. Bunch [Bunch, D.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Strigiform Publishing
Published: 2024-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

EVA

August, 2055

The relics of a bygone era punctuated the jagged concrete protrusions littering the street. Broken cars, buses, and bikes twisted along a narrow passage where two of their assailants had appeared. Trae, Coy, and Jess scattered, finding cover behind various rusted vehicles.

Adrenaline coursed through Eva’s veins, and she shot her pistol. The man was fast and seemed to anticipate the move, rolling away and ending across from her.

Daniel leaped, changing direction in mid-air, and fired at their opponent. It winged the other man as he straightened from the ground.

But he kept coming.

Shouts from Trae, Jess, and Coy and barking from Nala alerted her to more fighting outside. She couldn’t focus on that. Another person, a woman this time, entered over a broken wall and took aim at Eva with a riot gun. A hard rubber ball narrowly missed Eva’s leg.

The woman fired again in rapid succession, one of the rounds catching Eva in the arm, numbing it. She ducked down behind a pile of rubble, and at the first chance she got, whipped around and shot at the woman. Bullseye. The woman went down, a bullet in her head.

There were three more rounds in her pistol. Eight in the gun at her ankle and five in the cartridge for her rifle. She should’ve taken a page out of Chet’s book and packed more firepower so she didn’t have to reload.

Daniel wasn’t faring better. The man he faced had a baseball bat and some kind of modified rifle shooting odd-looking projectiles. Were those rocks? They were. Whatever he used for propellant was effective. A hard rubber ball bounced off the wall behind her and rammed her in the back on rebound.

Eva cursed, peeked around the broken cement, and fired a shot at a filthy man holding one of the strange projectile weapons. Her round took him in the gut but it didn’t slow him down. A cold frisson of shock wormed its way through her. These people acted like they were Shielded.

Their opponents kept streaming into the surrounding cavernous remains of old office buildings and leftover humanity like a relentless tide. Three more voices? No, four. Dammit. She raced to another pile.

Trae, Coy, and Jess needed help.

Barking, a nasty yip, and then silence from Nala. Her heart plummeted. Not the dog.

The three teenage soldiers were trapped by advancing hostiles in rags, their hair in ratty knots—more projectile weapons with no normal gun in sight.

They wanted to capture them all alive.

Eva’s heart stuttered. If they were captured, it meant…God, it meant so much.

“Headshots only, everyone, they’re Shielded!” Daniel yelled from back where she started, confirming what she’d already figured out. A grunt, groan, and crash as somebody went down. Daniel, or one of the hostiles? Not now, just move forward.

She sprinted to the next pile of rubble, making her way towards the teenagers. They were well-armed and well-trained, but this was their first actual all-out fight, and somebody needed to back them up. She almost wished for the super-strength from the meteorite, except without the psychopathic rage.

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