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

to hit anything with such hasty shooting, but one of the arsonists cried out and staggered, the firebomb dropping from his hand to fall at his feet.

At which point things got very bad for him and his buddy.

The Molotov shattered in a spray of burning liquid, splashing over the legs of the two would-be arsonists. They both screamed horribly and his buddy dropped his own firebomb, further engulfing them in flames as they leapt desperately out of the growing fireball.

Ellie watched the scene with a sort of sick horror as one rolled on the ground and batted at the flames, his screams enough to fuel a lifetime of nightmares. The other seemed to be in a full panic, making no attempt to put out the flames covering half his body as he staggered away in a random direction.

Perhaps it was justice that those people were meeting the fate they would've happily condemned so many innocent people to, but she wouldn't have wished that on anyone.

At her side Hal had snatched up his radio and jammed it to his mouth. “Jay's people are along the barricades with Molotovs!” he screamed into it, drowning out what sounded like a shouting match between Jay and a furious woman; Liza, maybe?

Hal was about to say more, then he abruptly cursed and dropped the radio to free his hand so he could lift his hunting rifle again, fumbling to pull the trigger. He cursed again when he realized the chamber was empty, and as he frantically worked the bolt Ellie followed his gaze to see another pair with Molotovs popping up farther west, closer to the southwest corner of the barricade.

“Here!” she snapped, yanking his rifle out of his hands and shoving her AR-15 at him.

He gratefully snatched it up and turned, lifting it and popping off half a dozen shots at the arsonists in less than two seconds. He barely seemed to be aiming, and it took her a second to realize he was just trying to spook them and make them duck for cover before they could throw their deadly projectiles.

He failed: both men had already raised their firebombs, and even as she watched in horror they flung them, one towards the southwest corner and the other towards a spot on the barricades twenty feet closer to her and Hal.

Both hit with a roar of explosion and licking flames, tearing cries of alarm from the throats of a dozen people along the south and east barricades. Along with screams from a woman who'd been in the southwest sentry post. She leapt from the barricade onto the ground below, rolling and frantically slapping at her burning arm and leg.

Ellie crouched for the radio so she could call for firefighters to put out the flames like they'd drilled for, as well as a doctor to help that poor woman. But someone else beat her to the punch, yelling into the radio so loudly that every other word came in a burst of feedback. It took her a second to realize he wasn't talking about their fires at all, but flames along the northern barricade.

She raised the radio and added her own voice to the confusion. “We also need firefighters at the southwest corner!” she yelled, trying to get a word in edgewise. “And a doctor! And would somebody please shoot the maniacs throwing firebombs at our walls?”

✽✽✽

Nick was halfway between the berm and the forest ahead, bolting for safety among the trees, when nearby Charlie's exploded with shouted warnings, then screams and cries for help in at least two places.

Those screams were loud enough he heard them in the distance as well, the loudest coming from the barricade a few hundred yards to his left. He also caught a lurid orange glow out of the corner of his eye, visible even in daylight, and stumbled as he looked that way and saw the barricade on fire in at least three different places along the east and southeast barricades.

He cursed, starting to turn that way, but the sharp crack of gunfire from the trees ahead reminded him that he was being an idiot, and he weaved desperately as he scrambled the final twenty or so yards to safety.

At one point he could've sworn a bullet passed close enough he could feel the wind of its passage, but somehow in spite of his moment of hesitation he wasn't hit.

Trust Jay to plan a three-pronged attack that completely hid his real objective. First he'd drawn all eyes to the main camp by having his Zolos-immune dupes attack there. Then he'd pinned down Denny's Zolos survivors who hadn't gone to help with that attack by sniping at the survivors' camp, also drawing more of Denny's patrols away from Stanberry to deal with him.

All so his people could try to burn down the barricade, and possibly the rest of Stanberry as well.

Charlie had reached the trees by now, but Nick still heard Ben's voice back to him over his friend's radio, the young man struggling to be heard amidst the screams and cries for help. “Jay's running! He's down from his sniper's perch in the tree and making his getaway.” Between Ben's shouts Nick heard a succession of crashing sounds as the young man rushed in pursuit.

“Go!” Nick yelled, waving his people on as he ran the last few feet to the nearest tree. “Fan out! Don't let him get away this time!”

He caught up to and passed Charlie as they crashed through the underbrush, clutching his rifle ready. Jay running meant Jay not shooting at them, and he wanted to keep it that way by pursuing him hard.

Maybe it was careless, but he was seeing things through a red haze at the moment.

Jay had shot a man not three feet from Tallie. He could've hit her. Everything the man had done, all the suffering he'd caused, and now this . . .

He wasn't getting away this time.

From the cracking of branches and pounding of footfalls around Nick, he