“Name’s Cal,” I said. “The dog’s Bear.”
“You named your dog Bear?”
“Yeah, he—”
Two lights appeared in the western dark. Nat sucked in a breath and held it. I leaned over her, my hands on her arms, my face close to hers. Her eyes were closed. Bear whined and I rubbed his head to calm him down.
The supply truck strained up a hill and then its lights were filling the roadway around us. I had the sick feeling of being a spider in a web. Part of me hoped they’d swerve around us and keep going.
“Almost here,” I whispered in Nat’s ear.
“Showtime.”
The truck was a three-axled monster with a boxy cab. There were two shadowy forms inside. There was no going back now, so all I could do was hope there wasn’t extra security hiding in the rear of the truck. When it was less than fifty feet out, I jumped up and started waving my arms over my head. Bear ran to my side, keeping up a steady stream of barking.
The truck didn’t slow. Thirty feet. Then twenty. What if they had been told to not stop for any reason? My heart pulsed, but then their air brakes squealed and they came to a halt just a few feet ahead of us. Engine rumbling. Headlights beating down at us. There was a pause and then the doors opened and boots hit the ground. Nat was right. It was showtime.
“Thank God!” I exclaimed. “Thank God you stopped. Please help us. I don’t know what’s wrong with her!”
Two soldiers rushed into the pool of light; one had a sleek MP5 rifle and the other was toting a black shotgun. As soon as he saw them, Bear ran up and began prancing around their feet and barking eagerly. For once his instincts were perfect. If he had been a bigger dog, they might have already been shooting, but the last thing the soldiers expected was his tiny whirling excitement. They looked from him to us and back again.
“Back,” one of the soldiers said. “Get back.”
“Bear! Come here! It’s okay. He’s harmless.”
Bear backed off with a yip but stayed between us and the soldiers, dancing around, his claws clicking on the asphalt.
“What are you doing here?”
“We were camping with our dad,” I said as Bear spun. “He said we had to get on Path, but we wanted to go home, so we took the truck, but then she just collapsed on the way back. I don’t know what happened. Please help us!”
“Take the dog and step back from the girl,” the soldier said. “Now!”
I took Bear by his shoulders and pulled him away. “Just help her. Please. Come on, Bear.”
The lead soldier slid his MP5 around behind him. “Keep an eye on the boy, Turner,” he said as he knelt by Nat’s body. Turner put the shotgun on me as his partner eased closer to Nat.
“I don’t know what it is,” I said. “She won’t wake up. She’s had seizures before. Maybe—”
Nat began to whisper, rolling her head back and forth. “I’m sorry… I don’t… the truck just… Dad…”
The lead soldier leaned in to hear her better and that’s when Nat started moving. One hand grabbed his wrist while the other swept Carlos’s handgun out from beneath her. The soldier jerked back, and Nat used the momentum to get both of them standing. She turned his arm behind him, then jammed the gun into his side. Turner pivoted to get a bead on her, but Nat swung her man’s body between them as a shield.
“Put it down or he’s dead!” she ordered. “Do it now!”
Turner hesitated and that was my chance. I sped in on his blind side and ripped the gun out of his hand.
“Okay,” the leader said, his hands up. “Let’s all just take it easy here. You gotta know this ain’t gonna happen, girl. There is an entire outpost right ahead of you. Taking our rig isn’t going to do you a bit of good.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Nat said, stripping his MP5 off over his head. “Now, on your bellies on the side of the road. Move.”
Nat got them down and I pulled out a handful of plastic zip cuffs I had taken off the first sentry. I bound their hands behind them and stepped away. Nat pressed her pistol into the leader’s skull, but I batted the weapon away before she could fire, earning me a deadly look.
“There’s no need,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Nat climbed up into the driver’s side while Bear and I took the passenger seat. She handed me the shotgun.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Get down, Bear.”
Once he was safely in the wheel well, I leaned out the window and fired three blasts into the sky. Boom. Boom. Boom. The shock of it sent a painful jolt through my wrist. Bear yelped at my feet, pushing himself farther into the darkness. Nat angled the MP5 out her window and peeled off a stream of fire. I grabbed the radio mic off the dash and keyed the channel open.
“Den, we are under attack. Repeat — we are under attack.”
I nodded to Nat and she put the truck in gear, accelerating around the corner and onto the straightaway.
One of the Path Humvees had abandoned the checkpoint and was racing toward us. I found myself wishing they’d stop and turn back, but it was too late. There was a flash from the side of the road as Hector fired his RPG. The smoke trail streaked toward the side of the vehicle, but at the last second the driver gunned the engine and swerved. The rocket slammed into the dirt on the other side of the road and went up in a cloud of fire and sand. The Humvee kept coming. The turret gunner was in his place, hands on his weapon.
“What do we do?”
“Keep going,” I said, trying to control the panic in my voice. “As far as they know, we’re on their side.”
Nat laid on the gas, but in the next second I was proved wrong. The gunner in the Humvee leaned into his turret and squeezed off a stream of fire from his .50 cal. The rounds ricocheted off the roadway, chiming against the hood and shattering a headlight. Nat’s side-view mirror exploded in a shower of glass and metal. She clapped a hand on her shoulder with a gasp but urged the truck faster.
The gunner let go another salvo. This time he walked his fire over to us, tearing up the roadway before a string of bullets tore into a corner of our engine block. There was a screech of twisting metal and then I braced myself as the truck went into a spin, pinwheeling down the highway until our back end smashed into the side of the Humvee. The mass of the truck sent the Humvee skidding off the road and we all came to a dead stop. There was broken glass everywhere, and smoke was pouring out of our truck’s ruined engine.
I ducked to check on Bear and found him cowering but unhurt. By the time I was back up, Nat was already diving out of the truck.
“Nat!”
I grabbed the shotgun and followed her. The Humvee was half on the road, half in a ditch. The gunner was slumped over his weapon, unconscious. Nat had her rifle up and was stalking toward the vehicle.
“What are you doing? Nat, let’s go!”
The driver’s-side door flew open and a soldier leapt out, his sidearm out and zeroing in on Nat. I lifted my shotgun, but before I could even get it leveled, Nat squeezed off three rounds. They hit the soldier in the chest and he crumpled onto the road.
There was a clatter as Nat’s rifle hit the asphalt. She stumbled backward and to the ground, her legs sprawled out in front of her. She had gone chalk pale, mouth open, her eyes fixed on the dead soldier bleeding out into the road. He was young. Nineteen or twenty with the broad features and blond hair of a farm boy.
An explosion down the road rocked the ground beneath us. The checkpoint was now engulfed in flames. Black figures circled it, spraying the remaining Humvee with gunfire.
“Nat,” I said, my voice shaking along with the rest of me. “We have to go. Someone must have gotten a com out in the middle of all of this. More will be on the way.”
Nat didn’t respond, didn’t move. She just stared at the boy. His eyes were glassy, lifeless. I dropped the shotgun and grabbed Nat, turning her toward me and shaking her hard by her shoulders.
“We have to move. Now!”
