second-in-command. If there was one hybrid she wanted to kill first, it was him. She popped off one three-round burst at him. She didn’t wait to see what she hit. She just dropped her NVGs back into place and took off running.
Being stealthy wasn’t important now; moving as fast as possible was. She wanted the hybrids to know exactly where she was. And she wanted them to chase her.
Behind her, their growls got louder as they got closer. Their boots pounded the ground as they caught up to her. They were even faster than she thought. At this rate, they’d be on her before she got far enough away from the shelter.
Hating to do it, but knowing she had to slow them down at least a little, Kendra slid to a stop, then turned and lifted her M4. She had maybe fifteen rounds left, at most. She couldn’t afford to waste one of them. She flipped the selector switch to semi and carefully lined up a shot at the first hybrid sprinting toward her. Well, as lined up as she could get it while wearing NVGs. She squeezed the trigger slowly, refusing to let adrenaline get the best of her.
She fired three carefully aimed shots, hitting at least one of them and making all four hybrids slow down. She got another forty or fifty feet before they were on her heels again. Not that she was complaining, but why the hell weren’t they shooting at her? Were they so interested in killing her with their fangs and claws that they’d rather chase her than shoot her? She supposed she should consider herself lucky—until she thought about how painful those fangs and claws were going to feel tearing her flesh.
The chase turned into a crazy game of Red Light, Green Light as she turned around at random to shoot at the creatures. While it slowed them down, the game couldn’t last forever. For one thing, she didn’t have enough ammo. For another, she was getting tired much faster than the hybrids ever would. But she’d put a fair distance between them and Declan—maybe almost a mile. Would it be enough? She could only hope it was at the same time she pushed for more.
Then she heard her pursuers crashing through the jungle from her left and right, and she knew she’d made it as far as she could. They were flanking her in an effort to end the chase.
Kendra sped up, but it wasn’t fast enough at this point. She was so damn tired. Her legs felt wasted while her stomach and chest were one solid cramp of protesting muscles. She didn’t bother to turn and shoot again. She only had a couple rounds left, and she figured she was going to have a chance to use them at close range any second now.
She was so exhausted that it didn’t even elevate her heart rate when a hybrid appeared out of the jungle ahead of her to block her path. She didn’t slow, even as the thing crouched to lunge at her. She simply lifted her M4 and fired everything she had left—two whole rounds—at the second-in-command. Her hands were shaking so much, it was hard to hold her weapon firm, so she wasn’t sure if she hit the thing or not. If she did, it must not have been in a critical area because it didn’t flinch—or stop coming at her.
A fraction of a second later, another hybrid burst into the clearing from her right. She reversed her grip on her weapon. The short barrel was hot as hell in her hand, but she was ready to go down swinging.
Footsteps behind her told her that the other two monsters had arrived. Apparently, she hadn’t hit any of them hard enough to put them down.
Her breathing ragged, Kendra swung her M4 as the hybrid leader in front of her leaped. She braced herself, expecting the hybrid to go for a throat slash and finish her quickly, so she was caught off guard when the thing casually reached out and ripped the weapon from her hand. It followed up with a dismissive shove that sent her sprawling to the ground.
She scrambled around on the dark, wet ground, looking for something to defend herself with, and came up with a rock about the size of her fist. It wasn’t much, but she didn’t have many options. She’d be damned if she’d just let them just rip her apart without fighting back.
She looked up,