The drone accelerated right for them, veered away at the last second, crashed into the barn and exploded. Another one screeched out of the woods and struck the office.
This was how the cabin fires were ignited. They had dumped the bodies in the cabin at night and had then sent a drone crashing into it. They were both trying to eliminate evidence and test the efficacy of the drones as incendiary devices.
No, that wasn’t right. They weren’t trying to eliminate evidence. They were planting evidence for their purposes and only trying to give the impression of getting rid of it. They were setting up a frame. Colter had fed Mattie the information so she could pass it on. Zemar was the perfect pick. They would point everything at him, Craig and Randal, and by extension, anyone connected to them.
Shana screamed. She and Caesar cowered together.
This was the Crowley farm all over again. She pulled out her Beretta 92FS and grabbed hold of Shana to get her running toward the Suburban.
Another explosion destroyed another animal enclosure. People were now running everywhere trying to save themselves and the animals. Craig was torn between helping her and Shana and helping his people.
Fred, two foxes and the wolf brothers escaped the destruction of their enclosures and fled into the hills. Cleo roared. Caesar, terrified and confused, ran to his mother.
She held on tight to Shana. “Craig, come on!”
The door to an old tool shed crashed open. Men swarmed out and opened fire at both people and animals. One of the men aimed a burst at Cleo and Caesar. Caesar ducked away and fled into the hills. Cleo was struck several times.
She could barely keep Shana from going after Caesar.
Craig got to them as some of the men started throwing grenades. She covered Shana. Craig tried to cover them both as they ran to the Suburban.
An explosion sent them diving for cover. Craig went one way, she and Shana the other. Bullets zipped past them, hitting the Suburban, splintering the fence of the paddock where they had kept the elk.
She rolled up onto her knees, leaned over Shana and with her first two shots took down a man who was aiming at Zemar and Barbara. She shifted a few degrees to her right and took out another standing over Nigel, then a man at Cleo’s pen who was firing into her body. A fusillade of bullets forced her to duck over Shana to cover her.
A bullet grazed her upper right arm, knocking her backward. Dozens hit the ground in front of Shana. She screamed and curled into a tighter ball.
Joan continued firing in the direction of the men until her Beretta was empty. She quickly replaced the magazine with another containing 17 9mm bullets. Before she could fire again, bullets hit the ground between her and Shana, sending debris into her face. She had to cover and fall back.
Shana screamed again when two men grabbed her and carried her away.
Another fusillade of bullets came at her as she started after them. Someone tackled her and carried her back toward the Suburban. She hammered down on the man’s back with her gun and recognized the grunt.
Craig carried her along the driver’s side of the Suburban to the rear. “Have you got any other weapons?”
Barbara screamed from somewhere near the hospital. A short burst of gunfire cut her off.
“They have Shana.”
“We need more firepower.”
“There’s a Mossberg five-hundred and an AR-fifteen in the back.” She handed over the key fob and got up to go after Shana.
He yanked her back down. “You’re wounded.”
“Let go of me.” She twisted away and got up again.
More bullets struck the Suburban.
She took one step to get around to the side to see where the men with Shana were going. She felt the impact against the back of her left thigh and the sharp, burning sting an instant later that sent her falling to her side. As Craig dragged her back behind the Suburban, she caught a glimpse of the men dragging Shana into the tool shed.
The shooting was subsiding.
Craig checked both wounds. “Your arm is just a scratch. The bullet didn’t penetrate your leg, but it left a good sized slice in you. You’re bleeding quite a bit.”
She tried to get up but her left leg wouldn’t support her.
“I need a first aid kit.”
Someone came sprinting up behind them. She turned against the pain spreading through her leg and raised her gun to fire.
Zemar slid down to duck behind the Suburban. “They dug a tunnel. They must have taken Saleha as a hostage, too.” He said to her, “I will get them all back.”
He slipped over to the paddock and snuck along the fence to get behind one of the men. When the man started to turn around, Zemar jumped him, snatched away his rifle and shot him without hesitation. He then ran into the shed.
She peeked under the Suburban, but could only see legs and feet. She estimated three men went after Zemar.
A few seconds after the men entered the shed, gunfire started that indicated an intense firefight.
Craig grabbed her and started dragging her toward the paddock. He whispered, “They’re coming this way.”
Helping with her good leg as much as she could, they snuck along the paddock to the northwest corner and ducked behind the hedge running along the north side just before three camouflaged men passed the Suburban. Their guns were still smoking.
Craig pressed down on her leg as he peaked out through the hedge.
“What do you see?”
“They’ve killed all the animals that didn’t get away. They got Nigel and Barbara, that I can see, but I don’t know if they’re only wounded or. . . .” He ducked back. “How much ammo have you got left?”
“Two magazines, thirty-four rounds in total.”
He peeked out from their hiding spot again. “It looks like they’re leaving. Stay here.” He put her hand on her wound to replace his. “Press as hard as you can."
Crouching down, he ran along the north side of the hedge past the burning barn toward the hospital.
Pressing against the hot, wet pain at the back of her leg, she dragged herself to the hedge and peeked out. Two militia men lay on the ground near the shed. Zemar must have killed them to get in. There was the one he’d killed by the paddock fence and two of the three men she had downed. Men from the attacking unit recovered the bodies and carried them back into the shed.
They had dug a tunnel to the Harding farm. True believers and maniacs were just points close together at the extreme end of the insanity continuum; one with purpose, one with no purpose at all. They had Shana in that tunnel, possibly Lily Wiley, Donny Nguyen and Saleha as well. Her best hope was they were all being held hostage as insurance against a failed mission, whatever that mission was supposed to be.
They had dug a fucking tunnel!
She couldn’t see Barbara, but she could see Nigel on the ground near Cleo’s enclosure. He was lying on his back. His blue T-shirt had dark stains down the front of it. Cleo had been cut to pieces.
A burst of automatic weapons fire came from near the hospital, followed by several more bursts and shouting.
Had they spotted Craig? Had they hit him?
She aimed her Beretta through the hedge.
“Harry!” She reached into the back pocket of her trousers and pulled out her phone. “Shit.”
She had been struck twice. The bottom quarter of her phone had been shot away.
She felt her arm; no significant pain or bleeding. She felt the wound on her leg; a diagonal slice three inches long about eight inches above the back of her knee. It felt wet, but had sealed a bit. The bleeding had stopped. It stung when she touched it. Her leg tingled with pain and trembled.
The barn was fully ablaze. She had to veer wide of it as she crawled toward the hospital. The radiating heat made the back of her leg sting. It jerked of its own accord and sent her over onto her back. Above her, the rising smoke from the fire swirled away, di
spersed by the downdraft from one of the surveillance drones. Colter was watching the mission. Could he see her through the smoke? Did his drone have infrared capabilities?
The barn fire would mask her heat signature from it.
After first aiming her Beretta up at something she couldn’t see to shoot at, she rolled back onto her side and started crawling again. At the end of the hedge, about thirty yards of concrete parking lot lay between her and the hospital. She needed to get up. Dragging herself across that distance would be too much like an earthworm trying to get across a highway.
There were no bodies, human or animal, between her and the hospital entrance. Whatever they had been shooting at, it hadn’t likely been Craig.
She took another quick peek through the hedge, had to wipe her eyes when a swirling gust sent smoke into her face, but saw no militia men in the area. She checked the entrance to the hospital and saw no one. Just as she was about to get up, Craig looked out the window beside the entrance door. He spotted her and pointed to Cleo’s enclosure.
Three of Colter’s men were bringing Doug Lancaster and two other members of the staff closer to Craig. Barbara Nyland lay at to the door used to get the large animals into the hospital.
Craig held up what appeared to be a pistol when she looked back at him.
She rose to her knees and signaled for him to wait for her to get into a better position, but they both had to duck back when the men stopped near the entrance.
The trio forced their three captives to kneel and placed guns to the backs of their heads. One of the men raised a machete.
That’s when Craig came sprinting out of the hospital with two dart guns aimed at Colter’s trio.