Page 57 of Hollow Code
"Front door is open. Engine’s running, and he’s got a cell phone pressed to his…shit, do you hear that?" Scout asked.
"Sounds like a chopper headed this way," Neve said. ""Gideon, tell me you're done."
"Two more minutes, and everyone stop talking to me."
Zadie reached for the ladder, and her ribs screamed. Her knee nearly buckled on the second rung. She bit down on her lip and did her best to ignore the pain shooting up and down her leg, but at least that sensation reminded her she was alive. She hit the ground harder than she’d intended, stumbled, and caught herself on the transformer base.
She was going to feel all of this tomorrow. Every bruise, every impact, every place where concrete, steel, and gravel had made themselves known.
"Isaac just jumped into his vehicle, backed up, and took a turn that wasn’t a road. He’s headed northeast, which doesn’t make sense," Scout said.
"There’s a clearing over there," Wynn said. "I can see it from my position."
"Not sure they can land a helicopter over there," Gideon cut in. "But it’s a decent place to come in pretty damn low. The good news is I’m done."
"Everyone head in, and let’s get the hell out of here before we meet anyone else," Neve said.
Zadie didn’t need to be told twice. She ran off, and each time her foot touched the ground, she winced.
Less than a minute later, she was back with her team. Coulter stood at the base of the relay tower. He had his rifle across his chest, and the gauze on his left arm had a fresh spot of red bleeding through.
Neve stood next to him, rifle ready, body still alert.
Gideon crouched, stuffing wires and his laptop into his bag.
"Tell me you got what you needed," Zadie said.
"I got something." Gideon stood, adjusting his bag’s strap.
"Then, let's go." She turned toward the west, took a step, and moaned a little louder than she had wanted to.
Gideon came up alongside her. "You’re hurt."
"It’s not bad."
"You’re limping."
She shrugged.
"Make sure you let Wynn and Darwin take a look at it."
She couldn’t help it. She smiled. It was nice to have someone care about her. Not that the rest of the team wouldn’t have said the same thing, they just wouldn’t have said in the same tone.
"Chopper’s getting closer." Coulter pointed toward the sky. "I don’t want to find out if there are more enhanced soldiers, or if they’re just here to pick up bodies."
She moved a little faster, her heart still hammering in her chest.
They cleared the fence in a staggered line—Scout first, then Neve and Coulter, then Zadie with Gideon's hand on her elbow. Wynn brought up the rear, scanning behind them with her rifle raised.
They staged the SxS vehicles a kilometer out and tucked them under a canopy of cedar where the logging road dead-ended into dense timber. Three machines. Two seats each. Scout had picked the spot because the tree cover was thick enough to hide them from the air, and the road was firm enough to move fast when they needed to.
The chopper's rhythm had increased in volume. Not directly overhead, but the sound carried through the valley like a drumbeat.
"Scout, take the lead. You know these roads better than the rest of us," Neve said.
"Know is generous," Scout said as she and Wynn climbed into their SxS. "I've studied the map."
"Close enough. Zadie and Gideon you take middle. Coulter and I will take up the rear."
