Waters of Lethe, Book 1

57. Head and Heart

A few minutes had passed since we started jogging down the small paved road towards the targeted safe house.

In those few minutes, shots began ringing out.

When they started flying, Jai and I were split up. He'd dropped down behind a parked car, while Audi and I were behind a house.

I could see Jai, back against the trunk of the small car, chest rising and falling quickly. He looked at me several times and mouthed stay there! I could only stare at him in horror every time a bullet slammed into the car, jolting him and I both.

The men ahead of us pushed on, finding safety behind the things they could, trash cans, parked vehicles, houses, when bullets flew.

Audi peeked around the house, looking more distressed than I'd ever seen him.

"Okay," he started. "This is how it's going to go-"

"Don't let anything happen to him," I blurted. "I swear to God, Audi, if you let anything happen to him-"

"Stop! No one's dying on anyone, no one's leaving anyone! We're going to all grow up and get married and have children-"

"Audi!" I yelled. I noticed that he went on a digressive rampage when he was distressed.

"We need to push forward. See that SUV up there?" he asked, pointing around the house for me to see until bullets found their way into the wall beside his hand. Shocks of surprise ran through us from the close call and we again ducked behind the house corner and out of sight.

I nodded, telling him I saw the destination.

The bullets ceased. Audi looked at me. He held up three fingers. Then two. One.

We darted out from around the house, hauling ass to the black SUV. We made it only a millisecond before another round rang out in the neighborhood.

"Why aren't they hitting us?" I asked him as he caught his breath. He stared behind us, watching Jai as he sprinted in our direction, his gun pressed against his chest, safely joining us behind the SUV.

"They're inexperienced. They might even have Enzo behind that rifle," Audi said.

Jai stared at him, breathing hard. "We can't do this."

"You can drop back, if you want," I told him. "We're getting that boy out."

He shook his head. "We need to take whoever the hell is shooting at us out." Then he paused, biting his lip. "Move," he demanded.

Audi and I parted a little so that Jai could crawl under the SUV on his stomach.

A few seconds later, the enemy began firing once more. Jai only shot once, silencing the shooter.

"Wasn't Enzo," he told us as he crawled backwards, joining us again. "Looked like a teenager, though."

My mouth opened slightly, but I forced it close. Audi saw it. I immediately regretted it.

Time for a pep talk.

"Enemy. Do you want to lay down and let them shoot you just because they're a couple of years younger than you? Hell no! You fucking light their asses up! Put an end to them!" he was yelling now, not caring to be quiet. It wasn't like they didn't know we were there.

I nodded vigorously. He was right. Just because I didn't want to shoot them first didn't mean that I should lay down and take it from them. I had to shoot back. I had to take vital shots. No extremity shots.

Head or heart.

Shots lit up the street again, this time more quiet.

"That's us," Audi noticed. Even though the silencers were fastened to our squad's rifles, I still heard them as clearly as if they were the enemy's un-silenced rifles.