Conflagration

XLIX

The girl had led Bill halfway up the hill when the first gunshot rang out.

The sound was cut by the foliage and at first he failed to grasp what he'd heard. The girl however recognized the sound immediately and when he turned to face her he saw that her eyes had grown wide and hard. He was about to ask her what was wrong when the shot second came. It was immediately followed by the chopping sound of an automatic rifle and by then Bill understood.

They stood and watched the scene unfold, frozen like twin pillars of salt. A cloud of gunsmoke appeared before the shooters like a premonition. It wafted around the front of the big tent and descended upon the group of women standing there. One of them screamed and turned to run and before long the rest followed. Soon the entire campground was infected with their panic. Bill watched as a stream of bodies fled south across the clearing towards the forest beyond.

What followed was this:

The shooters rounded the tent in a long and singular column, walking with calm focus as sparks erupted from their rifle's muzzles. Bullets collided with all objects in their path as swaths of birds fled from the looming woods into the choked sky. Charcoal grills, bicycles, washbuckets, and other paraphernalia of the living was sent scattering. Rounds carved through tents, sending shredded bits of nylon into the air like confetti.

Bill and the girl stood witness as crowd of women ran towards the safety of the woods. In the panic, some had tripped and fell. A handful did not get up quick enough and were stepped on or tripped over. Red pools grew from some of their thrift store t-shirts. Feet trampling over them as others attempted to escape. The trafficker's rifles had an effective firing range of six hundred yards but the farthest woman was only about a third of that distance and without risk of losing their targets the men stood prone and fired liberally. Empty magazines fell onto the Timothy grass and were replaced with another. One man ran out of ammunition completely and picked up a rock and threw it at the scattering crowd, most of whom had made it to cover.

For a moment Bill was lost in the savagery of it all. His focus returned when he noticed that one of the men was looking up at them and pointing. The girl still frozen behind him let out a kind of frightened sigh. Bill turned and shoved her towards the tree line that ran along the hill's ridge. She stumbled and he helped her back to her feet and screamed for her to run. The two were nearly to cover of their own when small pockets of dirt sprung up around their feet. Bill had his hand on her lower back and was pushing her to run faster. Up ahead was a pile of deadfall and behind it was a small divot made during a mudslide. Bill gave her one last shove towards it. As she fell a bullet carved through the meat of her left calf. A celestial pattern of blood painted the tree trunk beside her and she screamed as she landed on the ground. Bill fell beside her.

The land below them was filled with small explosions. Bullets snapped overhead and sent leaves raining down. Bill covered his face with his arm and waited for the firing to stop. When it finally did he lifted his head and looked at the girl. There were bits of shrapnel resting in her hair and against her shirt. She was sitting up with a look of quiet horror on her face, both hands working frantically to clear the blood that was spilling over her shin.

Bill tore off his shirt and crawled over to her.

He yelled for her to stop but she continued swiping at the blood as if she hadn't heard him. He grabbed both of her wrists and struggled as she fought against him, writhing and drooling like a trapped animal. After another moment he swung his knee onto her abdomen and pinned her down as he wrapped his shirt around her leg. The fabric was nearly soaked through by the time he finished the knot. When he turned back towards her he saw that she had grown very still. Both eyes looking forward towards nothing.