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ATLAS

The next morning, the rain hadn’t let up at all but the grey of dawn was a welcome sight. I carefully extracted myself from my hide, stretching stiff muscles and working a kink out of my neck. This had all been a lot easier when I was younger but I didn’t have time to think about the discomfort. I made it to the guardhouse mid morning. My plan was to raid the weapons and then pick them off from the treeline, but as I was exiting the structure, I heard the men approaching through the trees.

I grabbed a few of the rifles I’d found and leaned them against the wall under the two windows, then I posted up at one and started picking them off. That was working until they got smart and circled the cabin. A group of them rushed the door. I dropped the first few with my rifle before I had to use my knife.

I slammed it into one man’s chest, getting a sharp hit to my side by another. A third shoved me against the wall and I blocked his knife just in time, redirecting it into his buddy. I fought my way viciously out of the guardhouse, grabbing the last man standing to use as a shield. I stumbled out of the shack with him in front of me, a knife pressed to his neck. I looked around for any enemies in the trees but no bullets came.

“You’re dead—”

the man rasped.

“Shut up,”

I muttered.

I made the treeline and quickly slit his throat, disappearing into the trees before he’d even hit the ground.

A few minutes later, I emerged from a particularly dense part of the forest to see the lake sitting dark and ominous ahead of me. I didn’t have time to admire the view before a weight slammed into me and I pitched forward, tangling with my attacker as we slid down a small slope.

I lost my pack and my rifle in the fall but came up with my knife and immediately got the upper hand. But he was better than the others had been and quickly dislodged me. We broke apart and circled each other, looking for a weakness.

We clashed again and rolled through the mud, ending on the edge of a large drop. Pain blossomed at my side and then the man was on top, his knife pressing down towards my neck. The pain just served to piss me off and I let the rage take over—I wasn’t going to die here. I lunged up and let the fire fuel me through the next few moves. I gained the upper hand only to feel the ground give way at my feet.

We fell together down a steep drop.

I hit trees and rocks on the way down, each one feeling like a punch to my body. When I finally came to a stop, I lay on my back gasping for air before pushing myself to my side. Looking for my enemy, I dipped my head in relief when I saw him impaled by a broken tree, still twitching in death but no longer a threat.

I stood up and stumbled as my body acclimated, and my breath returned. I looked up. My pack and my rifle were somewhere up there but there was no way I could climb back up. I muttered a curse and wiped the mud off of my face as best I could. At least I still had my knife and a handgun with one extra clip. It would have to be enough.

The rain was still coming down, but it wasn’t as intense as before and the clouds didn’t seem as heavy. I hoped that meant rescue was only a few hours away although I had a trek still to reach the clearing where the helo would pick me up. I debated just swimming across the lake but quickly decided against that as I would be exposed and the weather was not exactly prime for a dip in the cold alpine water. I raided the body of the man but didn’t come up with anything besides a few clips of ammo that were the wrong caliber. I cleaned my knife, made sure my gun was in easy reach and headed off into the trees keeping the water on my right.

For the rest of the day I put every bit of my skills into play. I created false trails, set up traps and basically wreaked havoc on my pursuers. By the end of the day though, I was hungry, exhausted and still hadn’t heard from North. The rain had stayed steady all day and to make things worse, the temperature had dropped. As the forest darkened, I knew I would be spending another night under the trees.

I was about to find a place to hole up for the night when pain slammed into me. I went down on one knee as a knife was pulled out of my side.

“All this commotion over one fucker.”

The man kicked me all the way down to kneel in front of him. He wiped his knife with my blood on my shirt and pressed it to my neck. He ripped my comms unit out and disarmed me, tossing the gun to his partner who emerged from the trees. Ten more men quickly surrounded us.

“One guy taking out almost half of our team,”

his partner said with a shake of his head. “I’d recruit you if I didn’t have to kill you.”

“Not interested anyway,” I panted.

“Yeah, you’ll be wishing you had that choice soon,”

he sneered.

Zip ties were pulled tightly around my wrists, restraining them behind me. They yanked me to my feet and dragged me away.