Turncoat: Turncoat Trilogy Book 1

Chapter 20.6

I grabbed my clean rag and ran to the woman. I pressed it against her chest and Nick shook his head. Blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth and her eyes were distant. Nick grabbed me by the collar and threw me behind the bed before roughly shaking Vicki awake and practically dumping her on top of me.

He flattened down next to us as the first volley of rounds ripped through the front of the cabin. At some point military training kicked in and I tried to count rounds but it wasn't happening, there were too many.

Nick seemed to be tapping the floor and whispering to himself as I did my best to keep Vicki from popping her head up. I heard something metal skitter across the floor and gas began to fill the cabin.

I pulled my shirt over my mouth and nose as my eyes began to burn. Apparently tear gas was a favorite tool of various attacking groups. Nick reached into his pocket and withdrew a small device and planted it on the wall. He clicked the top and rolled away, putting a hand to his ear. I barely had enough time to do the same before a deafening explosion ripped through the air.

Next thing i knew Nick was shoving Vicki and I through a newly made hole in the cabin exterior. "Run!" he barked.

I barely heard him but didn't think twice. Grabbing Vicki's arm, I started pulling her along. In a few strides, she was running under her own power. I just ran, I didn't really think about where I was going. Vicki either didn't care why we were running or had grasped the situation, either way, she ran right next to me.

A man popped up out of the bushes in front of us and Vicki vanished from my peripheries. I stopped and looked back to see Vicki laying sprawled on the ground. "Vicki!" I cried and sprinted over to her. I dropped to my knees as I realized she didn't have any blood on her.

She curled into a fetal position, clutching her chest and said something.

"What?" I asked.

"Beanbag," she wheezed clutching her chest.

"Beanbag?" I asked the moment before I felt a gun barrel press against my head.

"Get up, both of you," a man snarled.

I slowly raised my hands and stood up. Vicki groaned and rolled onto her back.

"I said get up," the man snarled kicking Vicki in the leg.

She slowly managed to stand, albeit hunched over and holding her stomach.

"Now walk," he ordered. I started walking and Vicki tagged along, her feet dragged a little, shuffling through the leaf litter as she struggled to stay on her feet. I reached over to take her shoulder and felt the gunbarrel dig into my back.

"Don't touch her, just walk," the man snarled.

We came to a small clearing where I saw Nick on his knees and bleeding profusely from his leg. "Nick!" I cried and managed to strides before the air exploded from my chest as something solid slammed into my back between my shoulders.

I struck the ground and lay there dazed, sucking at the air in a futile effort to replace the precious air that I had lost. My vision went hazy for a moment as darkness threatened to close over me. It dawned on me then what Vicki meant by beanbag. Nonlethal riot ammunition, they wanted us alive.

A hand grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me to my knees as someone clipped my hands behind me. I leaned on Nick heavily, wheezing as eight men stood around us wearing forest camouflage and kevlar but no modern military armor. This wasn't military, these were loyalists. What could they possibly want with us?

One of them walked forward and knelt in front of me. I tried to look intimidating, or at least as intimidating as a slender female who was still getting her breath back could; which based on his unchanging face, wasn't much.

He raised an eyebrow and his hand vanished down my shirt. I shrank away from his warm, sweaty palm as he groped around for a moment. He lifted and gave a sharp tug and I felt a snap behind my neck. My tags!

"Kai didn't tell us there was a dead head traitor in this group," he said with a smile and stood. "Get them in the trucks."

I lunged to my feet and before I could make it two steps towards the man, pain ruptured in the back of my head and I sprawled across the ground. I saw my tags land in a pile in front of my eyes as I lay there.

"You don't deserve those tags," a man snarled in my ear as a bag went over my head.