Isolation , Jones, Nathan [top 20 books to read TXT] 📗

both bleeding heavily and caked with dirt. He yanked off his light jacket and wadded it up with the inner lining facing outward, then pressed it against the wound as best he could.

With his other hand he lifted his radio. “Ms. Griegs, we need you about twenty yards west of the scavengers' area. We've got a man with a bullet wound in his side.”

In the confusion he had to shout it again before he got an answer from the nurse. “We've also got a nutcase shooting into our camp,” she snapped. “I'm not going anywhere until you deal with him.”

Nick exchanged a frustrated look with Liza. “Go!” she snapped, grabbing his jacket from him and doing her best to staunch Larry's wounds. “I'll take care of him, you go stop Jay!”

Nick nodded and handed her his radio so she could keep in touch with Griegs, then bolted out from behind the bins in the opposite direction from the one he'd come, darting between tents towards his own tent.

Charlie caught up to him quickly, radio in hand and expression grim. “Tallie?” Nick demanded.

“Val's still hiding with her behind the logs,” his friend assured him. “They'll stay put until things settle down.”

That was probably the best he could hope for, although part of him felt awful about running the other way, even though he knew that was irrational since as a target he'd just be putting her in danger. Besides, the best way to keep his daughter safe was to stop Jay; he'd just have to trust that Val would protect her.

Speaking of the bald maniac, in Charlie's hand the radio abruptly crackled with Jay's long-absent voice, briefly interrupting the hubbub on the airwaves. “You brought this on yourself, Larry!” the man screamed, sounding even more unhinged than usual; he almost sounded like he was crying as he continued. “You chose to side with the people who smashed your family photo, and left the broken shards all over the carpet our children played together on!”

“And that's worth shooting your best friend over?” Liza's furious voice shouted back in a screech of feedback.

“Shut your whore mouth, Coates!” Jay snarled. “His wife is barely weeks in her grave, and you're already shacking up with him?”

There was a brief pause, and when Liza answered guilt had joined grief and fury in her tone. “That's not what's happening! He's my just friend, and the only other person with the stones to stand up to your insanity!”

Nick was about to snatch the radio from Charlie's hands and tell Liza to stop wasting her time, but then he realized that she was doing them all a favor by distracting Jay; the regular crack of the high caliber rifle in the east had become far more sporadic as the bald murderer focused on ranting at her.

That was an opportunity they should take advantage of. Motioning to Charlie, he sped up and began taking more risks darting from cover to cover. In less than a minute, without ever feeling like a bullet had come anywhere close to him, he reached his group's area.

Half a dozen of Denny's fighters were gathered there, even though he'd told them to go to the sentry post. Nick couldn't complain as he rushed to belt his pistol around his waist and sling his rifle over his shoulder.

Then he turned to the others. “Chet and Ben are already out there looking for Jay, and Liza's keeping him occupied arguing with her,” he said. “We'll take the eastern opening in the berm and rush straight for the trees, then spread out and join the search.”

The other fighters nodded, pale and grim. None of them were trained soldiers, and most of them had probably never been shot at before, let alone fired a gun at someone else. But they were here, ready to risk their lives to protect their loved ones. The sight of them bolstered Nick's own resolve.

Turning, he sprinted for the eastern opening with the others close on his heels.

✽✽✽

Ellie flinched, flesh crawling in horror, as an agonized scream from the direction of their attackers reached her ears over the sound of gunfire. It went on for a few seconds before cutting off.

This was a nightmare. She wished she wasn't here, wasn't doing this; how could the people with Jay want to pursue this fight, to face this sort of danger and harm other people? Why couldn't they just leave and not come back, get on with their lives and stop this madness?

At her side Hal had also stopped his methodical firing, looking a bit sick. But the sound of gunfire from the attackers hadn't stopped even after one of their own was injured, so he clenched his jaw and sighted through the scope again, squeezing off another shot.

Ellie grit her teeth and lowered her head to focus back down her rifle's shaking sights, trying to find a target. She was so focused that she almost missed a flash of motion out of the corner of her eye, not far from the barricade. She probably wouldn't have seen it at all if not for the flicker of fire that accompanied it.

Jerking her head in that direction almost hard enough to get whiplash, she spotted a couple of men popping out of hiding to her right, within a stone's throw of the barricade.

Although they weren't holding stones; to her horror she saw that they were carrying lit Molotov cocktails, preparing to hurl them towards the makeshift wall of mostly flammable materials.

They were going to burn down the barricade, leaving the town vulnerable to attack. Even worse, since in many places the barricades incorporated the backs or sides of houses the fires would burn those down too. And the flames could potentially threaten half the town if they spread, like what had happened in Wensbrook.

“Hal!” she screamed, pointing.

Her husband had already noticed it and pivoted, stepping up to her side so he could snap off a shot past her. Ellie would've thought it was impossible for him