Ever Hayes - Redemption

I pointed toward the tree. All of a sudden I heard dogs barking a hundred yards or so uphill from us. There was some crashing in the brush, more barking, and a thundering gunshot echoed down the valley. Then another. Everyone started moving around us at once. A great deal of yelling ensued, and all the soldiers around the two fires closest to us were wide-awake now—most of them standing—guns ready. We froze, and I waited for Lazzo to tell me what had happened. Finally he heard one of the men call out that a couple of deer had run through the troop line and into the clearing. The snipers had taken them out.

We stayed crouched where we were for another hour as everyone settled back in, but I was anything but settled now. The snipers had reinstated my fear of crossing that clearing. They were definitely lying in wait and could see just fine in the dark. Great .

I crawled toward Flynn’s tree and stood up behind it. Two of the soldiers around the nearby fire were facing my direction, but they were talking to each other. I reached above my head and grabbed a thick branch, slowly lifting my feet off the ground. I pulled myself up with my arms—my feet against the bark for extra traction—until I could swing a leg over the branch I held onto. I lay still until I was certain I hadn’t drawn any attention and then continued my ascent into the thick branches until I reached Flynn.

“Hey,” I whispered.

“Hey.”

I put my hand on her arm. “We’re going to be okay, you hear me?” She took my hand and squeezed it. “Listen to me, Flynn. I need you to slowly stand up and stretch out. Get as loose as possible, but be careful not to break any branches or make any noise. Okay?”

“Okay.”

I helped her stand and waited until she felt like she was ready to move. I was just below her about halfway down the tree when there was a loud crack above me and a large branch fell down, hitting me in the head as it passed. As Flynn crashed down against me and slipped past, I grabbed her forearm. She seized onto my shoulder and belt and clung tightly to me as I struggled to maintain my own foothold and hold onto her at the same time. I don’t know how she didn’t scream. I think I would have in her shoes.

The branch crashed down in the middle of the men below us—two of whom had just lain back down. Now they were all awake and upright. Two of them reached for their flashlights. With all my strength I swung Flynn around to another branch and told her to hug the tree. I swung myself around her, covering her as best I could. One flashlight came on and shone up in our direction. The other four men were looking up into the tree too. Another flashlight came on. Then, suddenly, several gunshots rang out behind us, and four of the men fell to the ground. Lazzo . He took off through the brush, drawing gunfire from the other soldiers around us. They began pursuing him—including the last soldier beneath us—leaving Flynn and me alone. Lazzo was trying to lead the soldiers away from us, and it appeared to be working. Up and down the line of campfires, men were running toward the sound of the shots, giving us a way out. Lazzo was moving as quickly as he could, but the men and dogs were going to catch him soon. There was no way he’d make it out of this. He’d given himself up for us.

“Flynn, we’ve gotta go.” I dropped through the branches, and she scurried down behind me. We hit the ground, grabbed the bow and quiver near my tree, as well as the pack Lazzo had left there, and raced for the clearing. I grabbed Flynn’s arm before we broke free from the trees. “We need to crawl. Stay as low as possible.”

“Is this really the only way? Aren’t the snipers watching this still?”

I nodded. “Probably, but we don’t have a choice. Sorry.”

“We could try to go around—stay inside the tree line, head south and cross downhill.”

“Flynn, that’s where Lazzo went. We’d be walking right into all the soldiers and dogs. There is no other way.” I was saying the words aloud as much for myself as for her. This is the last thing I want to do right now .

We began inching across the clearing. I was hoping we’d be lucky enough that they might not see us, but they’d seen and shot the deer—I figured it was only a matter of time. We hugged the ground and used every available rock and stump for cover along the way. A giant boulder sat about halfway across the clearing, and we made it safely to that. As we huddled there to catch our breath, I turned to Flynn. “If you hear a gunshot, just run, okay?”

She nodded. “Hayley, what’s going to happen to Lazzo?”

“He’s dead,” I replied, listening carefully for any sounds of danger nearby.

“So, you’re free?”

I nodded but contradicted myself. “I was never really a prisoner. Okay, so I was a little. But he was a good man who was coerced into making a desperate move to try to save his family. I understand why he did what he did.” A vision of Sam falling over the edge of the boat flashed through my mind. “He didn’t know what else to do.” Flynn remained silent. I hoped the hurt in my voice expressed the feelings I couldn’t. “If I’m honest with myself, I think I’d have done the same to save my family… if I truly believed I had no other choice.”

We heard a few more gunshots—some even sounded like they came from up the mountain. There was some yelling nearby and one more gunshot. Then silence. The soldiers would be coming back soon. “Ready?” I looked Flynn in the eyes.

“Right behind you,” she replied.

We began crawling again toward the looming tree line. We were no more than twenty yards from cover when one more loud gunshot echoed through the clearing from up the hill. I flinched but felt nothing, and I didn’t hear the bullet hit anywhere near us. I glanced back at Flynn. “You okay?”

“Yes.”

We scrambled forward faster. How could they have missed us? We were barely moving. How did we get so lucky?

Luck had nothing to do with it.

The snipers were still on the hill above the clearing, but they were dead. Blake, Keena, and I had been running east along the ridgeline when we heard the first two gunshots and saw the flashes about a mile ahead of us on a higher ridgeline. That was the first sign we’d seen of the paratroopers that had fallen from the sky. But what the heck are they shooting at? We’re up here.

My best guess was they’d taken up a perch over an open valley, hoping to catch the three of us passing below. But someone else had crossed into their line of fire, potentially even multiple subjects, and the snipers had taken them out. People? Animals? There was no way of knowing from here. Has to be people. You’d have to be stupid to give away your location for animals . Now, they’d essentially put neon signs on themselves, taking the challenge out of this high-stakes game of hide-and-seek. Well, most of the challenge.

As we approached the snipers, Blake handed me Keena’s rifle. With the night scope I could make out four snipers set up in the rocks and focused in on the valley below. As I was about to turn and indicate that number to Blake and Keena, a slight movement to the left caught my eye. Someone sat up from behind a rock and appeared to be talking to one of the snipers.

“Blake, there are at least five guys—perhaps more.”

“Danny, we’ve got a rifle, a handgun, and a knife.” Blake left the comparative imbalance unmentioned.

“I know.” I looked around. “Blake, this isn’t the kind of stuff I’ve trained you in. Hand-to-hand combat I mean. Keena, I’m sure you’ve got sufficient training, but I think I need to go in alone.” I handed Blake the rifle. “I’ll take the night-vision goggles. You watch through the rifle. Any shot you fire will echo through the valley like a cannon. But if I raise my left hand, you shoot any of those guys you can. Got it?”