I heard some girls screaming and yelling. I looked back and noticed one had stumbled and fallen.
“Fuck, come on!” I yelled. I spotted another thug and filled him with lead, his body exploding with red.
I turned and went back, pushing the other girls forward along the path. I grabbed the fallen girl by the arm and lifted her up. The girls that had been helping her along were both dead.
I didn’t have time to help them. I threw the girl over my shoulder, grunting under her weight, and then stood. I moved, gun up, following Emma and the girls.
It was total chaos. I fired my weapon, but I wasn’t sure if I hit anything as bullets continued to rain down around us. We followed the path, running like hell, and soon enough the sound of clattering gunfire began to recede into the distance.
We weren’t safe yet, not by a long shot. The thugs were likely coming after us. I caught up to the main group and moved through them, carrying the girl on my shoulder. Emma nodded at me as I took over the lead and continued down along the path.
The forest was deep and dark. The only light we had was from the half-full moon up above us. We were lucky that it was a clear night at least as we picked our way along the path. It was narrow and barely used, but I was able to follow its twists and turns through the thickets and the pines.
We ran that way for maybe fifteen minutes before I finally burst out into a clearing. I stood there for a second, looking around.
There was no fucking van. There were only more trees, some bushes, and grass.
“Fuck!” I yelled. “There should be a van here.”
“There,” Emma said, pointing.
It was just a large mount of bushes and branches, but as I moved closer, I could see a headlight peeking out from the front.
I put the girl down gently on the grass and then started clearing the brush off. “Help me,” I called out.
The girls joined in. We had the vehicle uncovered in another minute.
It wasn’t a fucking van. It was a fucking small school bus.
“Get in,” I growled and tore the door open. The girls quickly piled in, carrying those that were hurt or couldn’t get in themselves.
Emma got on last, and I started up the steps. Suddenly gunfire erupted from the trees.
“Fuck,” I grunted, returning fire. I retreated into the bus, sitting in the driver’s seat. I found the key already in the ignition.
I turned it and the bus roared to life. I fired a few more shots out the window and then floored it.
I heard men yelling in the tree line, but I didn’t care. “Stay down!” I yelled at the girls as more bullets hit the bus.
Up ahead was a break in the trees. I noticed two ruts in the ground, and knew that this must have been an old dirt path at some point. I hit the path going thirty and flew out between the trees, driving wildly. I put the high beams on and tore down the path, not letting up on the gas one bit.
After ten more minutes of driving down the bumpy, winding track, I burst out of the tree line. I had to slam on the brakes as we skidded out onto a paved road.
The bus stopped there, engine running. I stood up. “Who’s hurt?” I called out.
Several girls raised their hands. I looked at Emma. “Take the wheel. Just drive for a while. We’ll figure out the rest.”
Emma nodded and got into the driver’s seat. I went to the back of the bus and started helping the girls as best I could.
My heart was hammering in my chest. I couldn’t believe we had made it. From my count, we had lost three girls, which was a fucking miracle. Many more of them were shot, but only one of them was in any serious danger.
I wasn’t a surgeon or a doctor, but I had training in battlefield first aid. I tied off bandages, stopped bleeding, did what I could.
We’d risked a lot to help these girls. I wasn’t about to let them bleed out in the back of some fucking bus.
I glanced up at Emma, and she caught my eye in the big mirror. I grinned at her and nodded. She smiled and nodded back.
I was fucking proud of her. That was for sure. She’d kept her shit together and done exactly what she’d needed to do. She was smart and fast and didn’t hesitate, even under fire, even when things looked dire.
I briefly wondered how the fighters back at the farmhouse were doing. I guessed most of them were trying to escape at this point, and I hoped they survived.
But more likely, they had sacrificed their lives to get these girls to safety. That alone spoke volumes about the Spiders. Maybe I hadn’t trusted them before, but I couldn’t deny their good intentions anymore.
And somehow they’d roped me into their fucking game. It was never my intention to save fucking lives. I was still a killer, still trained to murder men for a living, and yet there I was trying to keep a bunch of terrified girls alive.