A few moments had passed when she heard the sound of more gunfire coming from the back of the house. Bullets ripped through the remainder of the front windows spraying out into the small field in front of the house. Whoever was back there knew someone was inside the cabin.
Helen opened the door a little wider, shouldered the bow and quiver, and slipped out into the cold air, making her way back around behind the shed. Her eyes darted back and forth in the darkness, making sure there was no other danger lurking in the shadows. She retreated back into the darkness of the forest, taking cover behind a pine tree before moving further towards the rear of the house. One thing her few friends didn’t know about her was that Helen’s father had taught her everything he knew about hunting when she was a child. She knew to be careful as she moved through the woods, making sure she didn’t step on any twigs or too many dry leaves. Exposed roots and soft dirt was the best thing to walk on. But in the middle of December, leaves and sticks were everywhere. Even as she snuck through the shadows, she kept the bow ready, still electing to go with stealth over the convenience of a handgun. As long as there were more of them than her and Joe, she needed to be as silent as possible.
The men she was hunting must not have had the same training because she heard a short snapping sound about thirty feet away inside the trees. Helen crouched down, peering through the trunks. To her right, she had a clear view of the back yard. Even with the cloudy sky, the full moon provided a little backlight. No one was on the lawn, meaning whoever had just been shooting had retreated into the woods.
She stayed low, keeping the bow horizontal with an arrow notched. She heard the sound of some leaves rustling from the same direction as before. The noise caused her to draw back the bowstring instinctively. Sure enough, one of the assailants was squatting behind a thick oak tree about thirty feet away. The man’s face was painted black. He was gripping a small sub-machine gun, but she couldn’t tell the make, not that it mattered. She drew the string back farther and took aim, putting the center of the man’s chest in her sights.
The arrow flew true, through the tree trunks and undergrowth, striking the man just below the throat. He let out a groan and gripped the shaft as he fell over sideways. The noise drew the attention of the other two men hiding in the forest, and they immediately opened fire, spraying a barrage of rounds around the vicinity. Helen had ducked behind a pine tree’s narrow trunk as soon as she’d loosed the last arrow, only risking a peak around the bark to ensure the man had gone down. She pressed her body tightly against the tree as the metal rounds thudded into the wood around her. A few struck one she was leaning into, but the wood was too thick for almost any bullet to penetrate.
After a few seconds, the attackers must have run out of ammunition again because there was a pause in the assault. Helen heard the familiar sound of one of the Springfield’s firing from near the house. She risked a glance over and saw the flash from the end of the barrel as Joe popped off six shots.
Inside the cabin, Joe kept under cover until the men outside had stopped firing into the cabin. He thought he had heard the sound of someone grunting, followed by another stream of gunfire. Only this time, the bullets weren’t coming his way. It could mean only one thing: the men were firing at his wife.
Angrily, Joe raised up from his hiding spot and, aided by the low flashes of gunpowder from the enemy guns, spotted both of the remaining men as the launched a volley of hot metal into the woods near the shed.
He quickly lifted up his weapon and popped off three shots into the closest man to what he assumed was Helen’s position. The second attacker was trying to reload his weapon, a mistake given the fact that he was in a wide open space between trees. Joe fired three successive shots, landing two in the man’s chest and one in the abdomen. The target staggered backwards for a moment before falling lifelessly to the ground.
“All clear, Helen,” he shouted out the window. “That’s all of them.”
Helen heard Joe’s voice, and was about to come out of her hiding place when she saw something troubling coming down the driveway. She couldn’t tell the make or model, but three SUVs were rolling towards the cabin. And they looked like they were in a hurry.
“Joe, we may have more company,” she yelled back, staying hidden in the shadows.
“Emily said she was sending support. Maybe that’s them.”
Helen shook her head, still leaning against the tree. “I don’t think they could get here that fast. They’re still fifteen minutes out, at best. And that’s if they are coming in through the air. We could be looking at longer, Joe.” There was an air of resignation in her voice. “Joe?”
“Yeah?”
“If we don’t get out of this alive, you know I love you, right?”
There was a pause as the SUVs drew closer, the sound of tires on gravel starting to fill the air.
“Yeah, honey. I know. And I love you too. But don’t say any of that goodbye, crap. We’ll be fine.”
She smiled in the darkness. Helen couldn’t say what she wanted to. She knew she was okay at the moment. But she worried about her husband. She’d been training her whole life, since she was a little girl, exactly for something like this. If she wanted, Helen could run deeper into the woods and stay hidden until the trouble passed or until Emily’s team arrived. But she couldn’t leave Joe. She would stick it out with him no matter what.
“You might want to get the AR back out Joe, pick a few of them off as they get out. That should even the numbers.”
“Roger that,” he answered.
Helen moved stealthily through the darkness of the trees, getting into a position where she could be most effective with a frontal assault. The three SUVs were nearly at the end of the driveway. She hoped Joe was in position, but she knew he would be. Joe was the most dependable man she’d ever met. She could count on him for anything. And if he said he was doing something, he always kept his word. That was one of the reasons she loved him so much. Though, she regretted not telling him everything about her past. Maybe someday she could disclose everything, about what she had done before they were married.
The SUVs came to a stop in front of the house and the doors opened quickly. She notched another arrow and drew back the string on her bow, raising it slowly to line up the driver of the nearest vehicle. Suddenly, a twig snapped behind her. She started to turn around but a gloved hand wrapped around her mouth as a gun barrel was pressed to her head.
“Drop the bow, now,” the gruff voice ordered. “And tell whoever is in the house to drop their weapon.” She obeyed halfway, dropping the bow onto the ground. But she didn’t say anything.
The barrel pressed deeper into the side of her head, causing her to wince slightly. She cursed herself under her breath for being so careless. They’d killed eight men. Which meant there must have been nine.
“Don’t feel like talking? Fine,” the man gripped her face tightly, almost to the point where it felt like he might break her jaw. He forced her out from her hiding place in the woods as he called out to Joe. “Whoever is in the house needs to drop their weapons and come out with their hands up, or I will splatter this woman’s brains all over the lawn. And bring the sample you stole, too.”
Chapter 46
The sun had risen early in western Armenia. Sunlight poured through the cracks of the building, giving a little more illumination to the otherwise dark sanctuary.