Jeff Hirsch - The Darkest Path

Two soldiers rushed into the pool of light; one had a sleek MP5 rifle and the other was toting a black shotgun. As soon as he saw them, Bear ran up and began prancing around their feet and barking eagerly. For once his instincts were perfect. If he had been a bigger dog, they might have already been shooting, but the last thing the soldiers expected was his tiny whirling excitement. They looked from him to us and back again.

“Back,” one of the soldiers said. “Get back.”

“Bear! Come here! It’s okay. He’s harmless.”

Bear backed off with a yip but stayed between us and the soldiers, dancing around, his claws clicking on the asphalt.

“What are you doing here?”

“We were camping with our dad,” I said as Bear spun. “He said we had to get on Path, but we wanted to go home, so we took the truck, but then she just collapsed on the way back. I don’t know what happened. Please help us!”

“Take the dog and step back from the girl,” the soldier said. “Now!”

I took Bear by his shoulders and pulled him away. “Just help her. Please. Come on, Bear.”

The lead soldier slid his MP5 around behind him. “Keep an eye on the boy, Turner,” he said as he knelt by Nat’s body. Turner put the shotgun on me as his partner eased closer to Nat.

“I don’t know what it is,” I said. “She won’t wake up. She’s had seizures before. Maybe—”

Nat began to whisper, rolling her head back and forth. “I’m sorry… I don’t… the truck just… Dad…”

The lead soldier leaned in to hear her better and that’s when Nat started moving. One hand grabbed his wrist while the other swept Carlos’s handgun out from beneath her. The soldier jerked back, and Nat used the momentum to get both of them standing. She turned his arm behind him, then jammed the gun into his side. Turner pivoted to get a bead on her, but Nat swung her man’s body between them as a shield.

“Put it down or he’s dead!” she ordered. “Do it now!”

Turner hesitated and that was my chance. I sped in on his blind side and ripped the gun out of his hand.

“Okay,” the leader said, his hands up. “Let’s all just take it easy here. You gotta know this ain’t gonna happen, girl. There is an entire outpost right ahead of you. Taking our rig isn’t going to do you a bit of good.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Nat said, stripping his MP5 off over his head. “Now, on your bellies on the side of the road. Move.”

Nat got them down and I pulled out a handful of plastic zip cuffs I had taken off the first sentry. I bound their hands behind them and stepped away. Nat pressed her pistol into the leader’s skull, but I batted the weapon away before she could fire, earning me a deadly look.

“There’s no need,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Nat climbed up into the driver’s side while Bear and I took the passenger seat. She handed me the shotgun.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Get down, Bear.”

Once he was safely in the wheel well, I leaned out the window and fired three blasts into the sky. Boom. Boom. Boom. The shock of it sent a painful jolt through my wrist. Bear yelped at my feet, pushing himself farther into the darkness. Nat angled the MP5 out her window and peeled off a stream of fire. I grabbed the radio mic off the dash and keyed the channel open.

“Den, we are under attack. Repeat — we are under attack.”

I nodded to Nat and she put the truck in gear, accelerating around the corner and onto the straightaway.

One of the Path Humvees had abandoned the checkpoint and was racing toward us. I found myself wishing they’d stop and turn back, but it was too late. There was a flash from the side of the road as Hector fired his RPG. The smoke trail streaked toward the side of the vehicle, but at the last second the driver gunned the engine and swerved. The rocket slammed into the dirt on the other side of the road and went up in a cloud of fire and sand. The Humvee kept coming. The turret gunner was in his place, hands on his weapon.

“What do we do?”

“Keep going,” I said, trying to control the panic in my voice. “As far as they know, we’re on their side.”

Nat laid on the gas, but in the next second I was proved wrong. The gunner in the Humvee leaned into his turret and squeezed off a stream of fire from his .50 cal. The rounds ricocheted off the roadway, chiming against the hood and shattering a headlight. Nat’s side-view mirror exploded in a shower of glass and metal. She clapped a hand on her shoulder with a gasp but urged the truck faster.

The gunner let go another salvo. This time he walked his fire over to us, tearing up the roadway before a string of bullets tore into a corner of our engine block. There was a screech of twisting metal and then I braced myself as the truck went into a spin, pinwheeling down the highway until our back end smashed into the side of the Humvee. The mass of the truck sent the Humvee skidding off the road and we all came to a dead stop. There was broken glass everywhere, and smoke was pouring out of our truck’s ruined engine.

I ducked to check on Bear and found him cowering but unhurt. By the time I was back up, Nat was already diving out of the truck.

“Nat!”

I grabbed the shotgun and followed her. The Humvee was half on the road, half in a ditch. The gunner was slumped over his weapon, unconscious. Nat had her rifle up and was stalking toward the vehicle.

“What are you doing? Nat, let’s go!”

The driver’s-side door flew open and a soldier leapt out, his sidearm out and zeroing in on Nat. I lifted my shotgun, but before I could even get it leveled, Nat squeezed off three rounds. They hit the soldier in the chest and he crumpled onto the road.

There was a clatter as Nat’s rifle hit the asphalt. She stumbled backward and to the ground, her legs sprawled out in front of her. She had gone chalk pale, mouth open, her eyes fixed on the dead soldier bleeding out into the road. He was young. Nineteen or twenty with the broad features and blond hair of a farm boy.

An explosion down the road rocked the ground beneath us. The checkpoint was now engulfed in flames. Black figures circled it, spraying the remaining Humvee with gunfire.

“Nat,” I said, my voice shaking along with the rest of me. “We have to go. Someone must have gotten a com out in the middle of all of this. More will be on the way.”

Nat didn’t respond, didn’t move. She just stared at the boy. His eyes were glassy, lifeless. I dropped the shotgun and grabbed Nat, turning her toward me and shaking her hard by her shoulders.

“We have to move. Now!”

Nat pushed me away and rolled over onto her hands. Her back heaved and she vomited into the roadway. When she was done I helped her up and we went around the truck to get Bear. He jumped into my arms, shaking, and I held him tight.

“Come on,” I said to Nat. “We’ll meet up with the others and walk across the border.”

Nat was bent over her knees. She shook her head. “No, we need what’s in the truck.”

“Nat—”

“I’m not doing all of this for nothing!”

Down the road, Carlos and the others were already on their way back to us. The fire raged behind them, lighting up the sky for nearly a mile. Even if no one got a signal out, the Path was going to see the fire and send help. We didn’t have much time and certainly couldn’t afford to walk out.

“Start unloading,” I said. “Fast.”

I left Bear with Nat and ran into the dark toward Wade’s truck. When I got there, the hazards were still going, flashing yellow in the ditch. I got in and cranked the engine, but then it was like my brain locked down. I sat there, my hands on the wheel, the engine idling. My fingers were ice-cold. I kept seeing that dead soldier’s eyes, blank as a doll’s.