a hard pill to swallow for Eyes.
He rounded the top of the large tree and began his way around this group when he heard a sound his brain refused to comprehend. Braking, he turned back to where he’d left his last two team members.
A man was swiftly moving forward, where he’d just sent a grenade at Morph and Sleep. Eyes could hope like hell they’d gotten out of there first, but it had happened too quick. There was little possibility they’d escaped. How in the hell had he missed this man? Shock was quickly replaced with white-hot rage.
Eyes covered the distance between him and the enemy with the speed of a cheetah, and the man had zero chance of escape as Eyes took him out. He didn’t pause as he rushed back to where his men had been.
He rushed through the bushes, his nightmare coming to life as he stumbled onto the body that was torn apart. It was Morph, though he was barely recognizable. Eyes checked for life, knowing there wasn’t a chance.
Even though their team was the best, they were surrounded on all sides by an enemy firing in every direction. They didn’t care if they hit friend or foe. Sadly, they were losing the battle no matter what pep talk he’d been giving himself just a few moments ago.
He pushed down all emotion at another loss and studied the scene, quickly determining by the blast pattern that Sleep must’ve been sent over the cliff. He was sure Morph had given his life to save Sleep. All of them would do the same.
He looked over the edge, his night vision not able to pierce deep enough to see the bottom, making Eyes aware it was a long drop to the bottom. It was almost surely a death sentence.
Eyes got to work, grabbing Morph’s extra ammo, then pulling him into the bushes, hiding him so these monsters couldn’t mutilate his body further. These assholes wouldn’t use his brother’s body for their propaganda to terrorize the world with the horrific things they were willing to do to those who crossed them.
Though he was moving quickly, the time he’d taken had allowed the enemy to merge from the forest and close in on Eyes’s location.
He immediately put a new plan into motion, running to the man he’d just eliminated and grabbing his grenades. Pulling the pins, Eyes launched them toward the closest insurgents and ran with all he had in the opposite direction before they hit the ground.
As the two grenades detonated, a barrage of gunfire exploded behind Eyes. He kept moving forward, not even flinching when a few grenades exploded behind and to the side of him. They were throwing all they had at him, missing so far. He wasn’t trying to keep quiet any longer, just moving at full speed ahead.
They had no idea where he was, they were just blindly firing in all directions. If he made it out alive it would be a miracle, but he was determined to get back. He needed to let the families of his brothers know they’d died heroes.
As he surged forward he noted the treetops to the right of him were gaining in elevation. He was moving downward. Soon he’d be able to get to the bottom of the cliff, then change direction, and gain more distance from the men trying to take him out.
There was a river down there, and that was his surest escape route. He kept following the path he was on, jumping over fallen logs, rushing through the bushes tugging at his skin and clothes, and keeping his ears out for a possible ambush.
He made it to the bottom of the hill as dawn began to break. Dammit! He’d be a sitting duck in the light. He turned, seeing two insurgents near the waterfall, then heard a noise to his left. He couldn’t make out much more than shapes at this point, but guns began firing again in all directions.
Fear wasn’t a remote factor. Eyes flashed through all scenarios in a matter of seconds as he ran through a mental checklist of what he needed to do next. He’d either live — or he wouldn’t. It was that simple.
He quickly took out the two men near the waterfall, his long shots hitting with deadly accuracy. Then he turned to take out the one closest to him, but before he could fire, a multitude of shots rang from above him. He ducked behind a large tree, then sent