Slade (New Species #2)(27)

The shock she experienced left her feeling icy cold inside. When she’d become a doctor she’d sworn to save lives but she’d just taken two. It was self-defense! her mind screamed. Self-defense. I had no choice. None.
She forced a few calming breaths through her lips and remembered Bill. What he’d threatened to do to her and how he’d hit her wasn’t something she’d ever forget. Those men were part of Bill’s group and they would have done bad things to her too.
She remembered how all three of those men had only kept her alive to tend to their injured friend. She had no doubt the men she’d shot would have killed her just the way they’d killed Bart. She forced herself to breathe deeply, calmly, and finally regained some control of her shaky emotions. She wanted to cry but Slade’s words came back to her from when they’d heard the gunshots after leaving Bart at the crash site.
“Survive first and then grieve,” she whispered aloud.
Trisha wanted Slade with her so bad it became an ache that painfully wouldn’t subside. She would be safe with him. She knew he’d hold her and say something to make her feel better, distract her from the anguish she suffered. She hoped he was on his way to her instead of more of those men.She glanced at the handgun she’d dropped and pulled her emotions together. Slade would order her to survive and she’d promised him she would do anything, suffer anything, to stay alive until he could rescue her. He wouldn’t want her feeling sorry for herself. He’d expect her to use her head.
Chapter Ten

“Calm down and think,” Trisha muttered aloud. “Great, I’m going to be one of those people who talk to themselves all the time when this is all over.”
She crawled to the backpack to reload the gun. There was a box full of bullets that Slade had salvaged from the camp. She crawled back to the opening on her stomach and gripped the binoculars to study the area in a grid pattern, searching for any movement. She stayed low. Both rifles were at her side and the handgun was placed inches from her hand along with the box of bullets in case she needed them.
Movement caught her attention to her right. She didn’t know the distance but it wasn’t too far. She spotted three men and then a fourth as they marched through the thick trees. They were dressed in camouflage green, similar in style to the men she’d just killed, and worse, they headed directly toward her.
Three of them had long guns in their arms or resting on their shoulders. One of them had holsters at his hips and on his chest to hold handguns. Crap. They were heavily armed. It scared Trisha badly. They weren’t going to be happy when they found their dead friends.
She scanned the area, looking for Slade, but didn’t spot him. Ten minutes later she spied more movement. She stared at the two advancing figures and hope soared. Neither man was Slade though. One of the men had reddish hair while the other one had jet-black but they were dressed in all black clothing and moved quickly.
Slade had told her that his people would come and she prayed they were New Species. They had to be Slade’s men or she was in deep, horrible crap and knew it. Trisha turned her binoculars back toward the area where the four men were.
They had made good progress since she found them a lot closer than they had been. She turned the binoculars back to the two swiftly moving males in all-black gear. It appeared they were headed right for the four hunters. She bit her lip as she tried to estimate if the two possible New Species would reach the four before they made it to where she hid. The chances were good.
The four men coming her way were definitely going to be able to find her. The two dead bodies sprawled on the ground below her were a good indication of where she hid. She softly cursed and prayed that the New Species would reach her first.
Trisha settled flat, hugged the ground tighter, and shifted her binoculars to watch the progress of both oncoming groups. She prayed the two New Species—if they were New Species—were aware of the four-man hunting party and prayed they’d pick up the scent of those men. They would unless they were upwind. 
She really wished that thought hadn’t come to her. If those two men were New Species trying to save her and Slade, the last thing she wanted was to watch them be surprised by the hunting party. They didn’t appear as well armed as their opponents.
The tension inside Trisha rose so high her hands hurt from gripping the binoculars while she watched them draw closer. They weren’t moving nearly as fast as the two who she gradually became certain were New Species. She could now make out their shoulder-length hair and their uniforms seemed right, although they were too far away still to make out the NSO patches if they sported them over their chests.
The four hunters had nearly reached the dead men below Trisha and she knew she’d lose sight of them soon. She wasn’t about to inch out farther where she could look straight down. They’d be able to glance up and find her too easily. She also didn’t want to give them a target to shoot at or give away her exact location.
The two New Species slowed, not jogging anymore. They stalked slowly toward the hunters, obviously aware of their presence by their cautious behavior. Relief swamped Trisha as she watched the New Species duo make hand signals to each other before they separated. One of them sneaked up behind the hunters while the other one moved to attack from the side.
Voices started to carry up to Trisha until she knew without looking they were scary close. She continued to use the binoculars, hoping she was low enough on the cave floor to make a smaller and harder-to-see target with her chin on the sleeping bag. The four hunters were nearly out of her lens range.
“I know those shots came from this direction,” a man with an accent stated firmly.
“Buck and Joe Billy said they were going to climb to high ground to take a look-see.” The deeper voice had the same Southern accent. “Do you think they killed that two-legged animal?”
“I don’t know,” a new voice without an accent answered. “But they aren’t answering their radio. Look sharp, guys. Those animals have minds the way we do and sure aren’t as easy as shooting elk. Wild animals don’t talk back or carry weapons the way we do.”
“Fucking James,” another man without an accent laughed. “Elk? Come on. Let’s compare them to something at least similar. Maybe they are closer to apes. Those think and walk on two feet, don’t they? For all we know, Joe Billy and Buck are screwing with us. Remember that time last year when they ambushed us just for the hell of it to see if one of us would piss our pants? I’ll bet you twenty bucks they will spring out at us any second.”
“You’re on,” a man without an accent said and laughed.
Trisha moved her binoculars from the four men to where she’d last spotted the two New Species but couldn’t find either of them. She continued to scan until she finally spotted one but was shocked at where she located him.
He jumped from one branch high inside a tree to another branch in the one next to it. The jet-black haired New Species amazed her with his sense of balance and grace. He stopped practically on top of the four hunters who didn’t even realize he watched them from above.
Trisha’s heart raced while she kept her binoculars glued to the black-haired New Species as he jumped again to land in the top branches of the tree directly over the moving hunters. He gripped the trunk and seemed to be studying the men below him. He withdrew a handgun from the holster strapped against his chest. Every fiber of her body told her he would attack.
The black-haired Species suddenly dropped to a lower branch. It was the most graceful thing that Trisha had ever seen. He obviously had done it very quietly because the men below him never glanced up. He stepped down to another lower branch, walking it as though it were a balance beam, and moved with the men. He suddenly jumped out of the tree and landed hard on two of the hunters below him.Trisha gasped but kept her binoculars trained on the three fallen men. She saw movement as the two other hunters spun to look at what had happened behind them. She saw a flash of black and the redheaded New Species seemed to appear out of nowhere as he rushed the two men from behind.
He leaped, tackling them as if he were a football player taking down two rival players. She was close enough to clearly hear the grunts of pain. In seconds the four hunters on the ground lay motionless and the two New Species stood over them silently.
Trisha got a really good look at both men and was assured they were definitely Slade’s men. They had the distinct facial anomalies that most of the New Species had. The black-haired Species had a smaller nose than most and his features were telling. She suddenly had a feeling that he had to be part primate. The redhead had cat eyes similar to Justice North, indicating he had to be feline.
The two men withdrew something from the lower pockets of their pants that resembled thick plastic ties and secured the downed men’s hands behind their backs. When they’d handcuffed all four of their prisoners, they yanked their ankles up and bound them with more white ties until they had them hogtied. The black-haired Species give a thumbs-up sign to his redheaded companion.
One of them laughed and Trisha moved. Her body was sluggish because she’d lain in the same position for too long but she was able to carefully rise to her feet. She leaned out a little, staring down at the men who were about sixty feet from the area where the two dead men lay.