Chapter 17

I’d no sooner hit the ground than I heard a short staccato burst from the road where I’d left Lisa. Then silence.

I was in a real pickle. The truck was between me and the shooter who was located directly south of me on the hill, about forty yards away. Any way I moved, I was exposed. Lisa was to the northeast of me and about eighty yards from where the shooter was located. Lisa had good cover in the ditch, but no matter which way I wanted to move, I would be in the open.

I noticed a pitchfork lyin’ against the side of the barn and an inklin’ of an idea came to me.

I waited a few moments and then snaked back into the truck and unlatched the door handle and only opened it slightly before wormin’ my way back out the passenger side. I then used the pitchfork to push the driver’s side door open.

Immediately, there were a short burst from the shooter on the hill, and also another from further east on the hillside. There were at least two of them, but the furthest one away really didn’t have a good angle on me.

I was hopin’ that Lisa would answer the shooters fire, and I’d make a dash for the opening in the gulch to the west of me. Lisa, bless her heart, did exactly that.

As I heard her MP7 fire, I sprinted for the gulch opening. I’d almost made it when I first felt a burnin’ in my left leg, and then heard the string of shots from the hillside.

I managed to make it to the gulch and pulled myself behind a large rock.

It were time for some thinkin’. From the way the two shooters were positioned, it looked like they’d expected me to pull up in front of the house trailer. If’n I’d a done that, they would have had us in a perfect cross fire, with no escape. As it were now, Lisa had one of the shooters pinned down and the other didn’t have much of a shot at me. The one furthest from me didn’t have the angle to fire into the ditch at Lisa either.

I quickly checked my left leg. There were quite a bit of blood, but it didn’t feel like I’d been hit too bad. Besides, it weren’t like I had any choice. I’d have to climb the hill on the south side of the gulch to get a shot at either of the shooters.

As I bellied my way up the side of the gulch, I could hear occasional fire from both the hillside and the distinct staccato of Lisa’s MP7. From the change in sound of Lisa’s fire, she were not stayin’ in one spot, but were movin’ towards the barn. It was clear; she was not givin’ away her position by stayin’ in one place.

When I reached the top of the hill and poked my head over the top, there were a couple of large boulders directly in front of me. I wormed my way between them and peeked over the top. At first I couldn’t see the closest shooter, but after a second, he returned fire towards the barn. I could see he was about 40 yards away, lyin’ down. There weren’t no reason to play with this guy, so I put a three round burst from the MP7 into him. He jerked a few times and didn’t move. I couldn’t tell if’n he were dead, and didn’t wanna take any chances and gave him another burst, just for good measure.