“Do you think we should head back?” Ness asked quietly an hour or so later.
“Shut up,” Wyatt responded quickly. “There’s movement in the camp.” Ness strained her eyes but couldn’t see anything.
“Does Eddie have a dog?” Wyatt whispered.
“Not that I know of. Why?”
“Because he has one with him now,” Wyatt turned his head and then heard the dog bark from the vantage point.
“Shit,” Wyatt refocused and saw the German Shepherd storming down the embankment and straight for them. He knew that if he fired, the gun would echo, but from this distance, Eddie would know their exact location. He had no choice. Wyatt aimed and fired, but because the scope was set at 700 yards and the dog was much closer than that, the bullet skimmed over the top of it. However, the gunshot scared it off and the dog took off in another direction. Wyatt aimed back at the vantage point and could see Eddie kneeling on the boulder aiming his crossbow directly at them.
“Move!” Wyatt shoved Ness out of the way, the moment Eddie fired, and the bolt tore through Wyatt’s right shoulder. He screamed out in pain. Ness grabbed the rifle to locate Eddie and saw him jumping off the boulder. She fired, but the bullet went above his head. Eddie disappeared around the back to reload his weapon.
“We have to move, Ness,” Wyatt said, getting up. He touched the bolt in his shoulder, and it was bleeding profusely; he didn’t know what damage it caused, so he decided to leave it inside without pulling it out and causing more damage.
“Give me one of the sidearms,” Wyatt said, grabbing one of the Sig Sauers. “Let’s get deeper into the woods. If he comes past the cabin, we can kill him with the blast.”
Ness nodded, and they quickly moved deeper into the woods but still within eyeshot of the cabin. Come on, Eddie. Just run past the cabin, Ness focused ahead of her. But there was no movement on the embankment or anywhere near the cabin.
Crunch—twigs snapped behind Wyatt. He swung around with his gun ready and saw the white teeth of the snarling German Shepherd. It attacked, and Wyatt pulled the trigger. The bullet hit him between the eyes, and the dog fell to the ground without a whimper. Wyatt’s ears were ringing from the gunshot, but he could still hear the shrill whistle of a bolt flying through the air. Wyatt ducked and the bolt hit the tree behind him.
“Where is he?” Wyatt screamed. “I don’t know,” Ness said as she scanned the surroundings with the rifle scope and could see movement behind the old work cabin.
Ness aimed and fired. She heard a scream on the other side of the cabin. The bullet must have hit something on Eddie’s body. Ness reloaded and fired again, but everything was quiet. They moved down into the woods and toward the creek. They’d be able to see the front of the cabin from there.
“Where is he?” Wyatt whispered. “I don’t know,” Ness responded and started walking beside the creek to get a better view around the work cabin. There was no sign of Eddie anywhere. “I’m going to head up there. You cover me,” Ness said. She could see that Wyatt was going very pale from the blood loss from his shoulder. She walked up toward where she believed she’d shot Eddie and looked around the area. She could see the bullet holes where she shot through, but there wasn't any blood. He screamed to draw us out of hiding.
Eddie screamed and launched himself from his hiding place as he smashed his body against Ness’. Her body slammed into the side of the cabin, and she fell to the ground. Wyatt pulled the trigger from where he was, and even though he was shooting with his left hand, he was a reasonably good shot. The bullet exploded out of the gun and penetrated Eddie’s right shoulder.
“Yeah, it hurts, doesn’t it? You son of a bitch!” Wyatt screamed as he ran up from the creek and toward Ness, who was still on the ground. Eddie saw him running toward him, and he took off straight for the cabin. Wyatt saw where he was running, and he pulled the detonator from his pocket and jumped on top of Ness to protect her body from the explosion. He saw Eddie run through the front door, and Wyatt pushed the detonator.
Everything was white as they were thrown from the blast of the plastic explosives. Wyatt landed on his back, and Ness rolled toward the creek. Wyatt blinked several times, but his eyes were still blurry. “I’m alive,” he said but couldn’t hear his voice: the ringing was too loud. “Ness!” Wyatt called out.
He crawled away from the fire. He turned himself over and could see that she was lying face down in the creek. Wyatt forced himself to his knees and crawled toward her limp body. He pulled her out and rolled her over. She sputtered as he held her, but she was alive. Wyatt turned his head toward the flames and felt very lightheaded. He laid his head down on the dirt as he still cradled Ness. The darkness came for him, and he gladly embraced it.
“Wyatt? Wyatt? Hello, Wyatt?” he could hear beeping next to him. He felt clean, and he was lying on a relatively comfortable mattress. He blinked several times and could see Ness sitting next to him, holding his hand.
“Where are we?” Wyatt asked.
“We’re in the hospital, the cops want to talk to us about what happened.”
“Yeah, sure,” Wyatt struggled to right himself in bed.
