Material Witness by Jonathan Maberry

Author:Jonathan Maberry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Thriller
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

-6-

The Safe House

Pine Deep, Pennsylvania

August 16; 6:41 P.M.

I dove for cover behind the couch. It wasn’t a good dive and it wasn’t pretty, but it got me low and out of the line of fire. Then I tried to melt right into the carpet. High-caliber rounds were chewing the couch to splinters and threads. The air above me was filled with thunder. Plaster and chunks of wall lath rained down on me.

The shots seemed to be continuous, so there had to be multiple shooters. They were firing full auto and even with a high-capacity magazine it only takes a couple of seconds to burn through the entire clip.

I shimmied sideways, trying to put the edge of the stone fireplace between me and the shooters. I had my Beretta out, but the barrage was so intense that I couldn’t risk a shot.

Then the sound changed. There were new sounds. The hollow pok-pok-pok of small-arms fire and the rhythmic boom of a shotgun. Those sounds were farther away.

Top and Bunny returning fire.

The automatic gunfire swept away from me and split as the shooters focused on these two new targets. That gave me my moment, and I was up and running, pistol out. There was nothing left of the door except a gaping maw of splintered wood and glass through which the fog rolled like a slow-motion tide. I went through it fast, feeling the splinters claw at my sleeves and thighs. I was firing before I set foot outside.

In combat you see more, process more, and all of it happens fast. That’s a skill set you learn quick or you get killed. As I came out of the house I saw five men standing in a loose shooting line in the turnaround. The fog was thick enough to cover them to mid-thigh. They were dark-skinned. Middle Eastern for sure, though from that distance I couldn’t tell from where. All five of them carried AK-47s with banana clips. Three were facing the garage, firing steadily at it; the other two were standing wide-legged as they leaned back to fire at the second floor.

I emptied my magazine into them. I saw blood puff out in little clouds of red mist as two of them staggered backward and fell, vanishing into the fog. Another one took a round through the cheek. Because he was shouting, the bullet went through both cheeks and left the teeth untouched. He was screaming louder as he wheeled around toward me.

I fired my last two rounds into his chest and my slide locked back.

The remaining shooters opened up on me and I dove behind the armored SUV. Their bullets pinged off of the heavy skin and smoked the window before ricocheting high into the sky.

The shooters wanted me so badly they forgot, in that one fatal instant, about Top and Bunny.

Bunny spun out of the side door to the garage and fired three rounds with the shotgun, catching the left-hand shooter in the chest and face. Top leaned out of the second-floor window and put half a magazine into the last shooter.

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