“Go!” he said, stepping to the ground.
More gunfire poured out of the building. The girl stepped on the accelerator and the truck jerked away from the dock.
Terrell glanced back at the now perforated door, knowing members of the security team would come charging through it at any moment. He aimed his rifle at it and let off several warning shots, in hopes of delaying them for a few more seconds, and then took off running after the truck.
He reached the vehicle right before it cleared the covered area. He jumped onto the rear bumper, and could see those he’d rescued huddled together in the back, their eyes wide with fear. He wanted to say something to comfort them, but no words came.
As the truck turned for the main road, he saw the shipping dolly give way and the door fly open. He didn’t bother aiming when he fired off three more shots as the dock disappeared from view.
Turning onto the main road, the truck started to pick up speed, so Terrell hopped off while he still could and ducked behind an abandoned VW van at the side of the road. He watched the truck race away, and then turned his attention back to the warehouse, hardly believing what he had done.
The gunfire was now coming from the loading dock area. Evie had her binoculars trained on the entrance, but so far had seen nothing.
She snapped up her radio. “Everyone stand by.”
A truck rumbled out of the dock area, the same one they’d seen go in and out several times, always with a male driver. This time, the driver was a young woman, her face tense and scared.
As the truck took a right turn onto the main road, an armed man hopped off the back and ran behind a van like he was trying to hide from anyone still at the survival station.
She couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing.
“Evie,” Alonzo said, slapping her arm. “In the back of the truck.”
She swung her binoculars around and looked inside the vehicle’s cargo area. There were people there, fifteen or more. Old and young, men and women, and none dressed in Project Eden uniforms.
For a second, she simply stared, unable to move as she realized what was going on.
“Go,” she said to Alonzo. “Follow them. Take Gage with you. Those are survivors. They’re escaping!”
Terrell knew the Project would never let the detainees escape unchallenged, so he would have to try to stop them.
He had no idea how many shots he had left. He would have to make the remaining bullets count.
Yeah, and then what?
And then…well, he would deal with then when it came.
He had expected to see security rush out of the loading dock, but instead a Jeep came racing along the back of the warehouse.
As it turned onto the main road, Terrell took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. His bullet pierced the windshield and entered the driver’s head. With a sudden swerve to the right, the Jeep jumped the curb and plowed head on into the side of a plumbing supply building.
While the men in front were clearly dead, the two in back pulled themselves from the wreckage and staggered to the sidewalk. Terrell recognized them as two of the men usually tasked with watching the holding areas, but he didn’t know their names.
The one in the lead raised his rifle and scanned the street.
It would have been an easy shot for Terrell, but he hesitated. Taking out the Jeep that could have easily caught up to the truck was one thing. Shooting an injured man standing still was something else altogether.
Terrell crept back behind the van so that he wouldn’t be seen, but as he stepped over the curb, his foot slipped on a patch of ice and he instinctively slapped his hand against the vehicle to steady himself. The man in the street whirled around at the whap of metal. He pulled his trigger and held it down, burning through the whole magazine.
The vehicle shuddered under the barrage. Terrell wasn’t sure at what point the bullets struck him, but it didn’t matter. He deserved it.
With what strength he had left, he pulled himself out from behind the van.
“You?” the security guard said, surprised.
The man’s expression transitioned into one of pure fury. He clicked a new magazine into place, raised his rifle, and aimed it at Terrell’s head.
Go ahead, Terrell thought.
The blast from two shots filled the street. But neither hit Terrell. Instead, the guards dropped to the ground.
Evie watched in near disbelief as the guy who’d hopped off the back of the truck took out a Jeep full of soldiers with a single shot.
When the two guards who’d survived climbed out, she expected the man behind the van to shoot them, too. Instead, one of the soldiers shot first, strafing the van until his rifle clicked empty.
Evie missed the next few seconds as she reached back for her rifle. When she looked at the road again, the man had crawled out from the van’s protection, his clothes covered with blood. The soldier in the street had just finished reloading his rifle and was bringing it up to shoot again.
Evie aimed her weapon and squeezed the trigger, taking out the soldier, then quickly moved the barrel and eliminated his partner.
She picked up her radio. “Everyone, now!”
Before she could even get to her feet, explosions started going off all around the perimeter of the survival station. She pulled out her own remote and set off her charges. The first was a hundred yards down the street, in a car parked next to the warehouse. The concussion ripped a whole in the side of the building.
Her second bomb was the one she was most proud of. She had been able to place it outside the loading dock area. When it went off, the entire covering collapsed, rendering the dock inaccessible and blocking the access road that the Jeep had used along the back of the building.
As she made her way off the roof and down to the street, more bombs went off, some merely adding to the chaos, some doing actual damage to the building. Explosions were timed to continue for the next hour, with the occasional lull built in to achieve the maximum amount of terror.
She stopped when she reached the sidewalk and checked to make sure the street was clear. Then, keeping low, she headed down the block. In the gutter, she found the man who’d been hiding behind the van, lying on his back and blinking at the sky.
She knelt beside him and said softly, “Hi.”
With much effort, he turned his head enough to see her. “Who…who are…you?”
“A friend.”
“I don’t…remember you.”
One look at his wounds told her all she needed to know. “What happened in there?”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I…couldn’t do it…any…more. I know I broke…the promise…but we…we were…”
“Don’t worry about the promise. I don’t care about that. Who were those people in the truck?”
He closed his eyes for a moment. “I couldn’t kill anyone else…I just couldn’t. I’m sorry. But can’t you…let this group go?”
She smiled. “You have my word. No one will harm them.”
He looked at her as if unsure he could believe her. “You’re just saying…that.”
“I’m not.”
Whether she convinced him or not, she would never know. He exhaled a breath and never drew in another.
She stayed with him for another few seconds out of respect for what he’d done, and then hurried back to grab her things and get out of there.
34
Ben leapt as he neared the fence, grabbed the top, and pulled himself up and over.
No yells for him to stop. No bullets hitting the ground around him.
He’d been right. For the moment, no one was watching.
He examined the back of the fence, found the latches holding the two sections together, and unhooked them.
As soon as the wall parted, he said, “Jilly, now!”
She climbed out of the hole and sprinted over to him.
“Stay here until everyone is through,” he said. “The instant the last person comes out, close the gate.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Figure out where we go from here.”