"To Kill A Runner" chapter twelve "Rising Paw" (Cyberpunk Fiction)

“WHO EVER IS SPYING ON US ???!!! YOU ARE DIEING TONIGHT!!! “

The voice of an angry mob shouting out to the woods. The sound of roaring engines and the crackling of the bonfire as a few members of the gang started to take to their motorbikes and drive to the forests edge pointing lights in the direction of the wooded trails in order to find the operators of the drone they had just shot down. Britney began to panic as she took off her now useless VR goggles and dropping her transmitter for her now trashed drone.

“What are we going to do ? Shit!“ she stammered as she tried to stay as silent and still as possible laying on the cold ground.

“Calm down, we can still do this.” Jarome said laying right beside her in the wet autumn leaves. He passed her his fully loaded glock pistol and went back to his rifle sights. “ You have live rounds in there, but I need you to flank and distract from my position. When I start to fire you are going to run to the left staying in the woods, and shoot into the crowd as well. Keep your head down and keep moving. Stay unseen until all the targets are down. That is the only way we both are going to get through this.”

“No, No, My drone had half our ammo on board it” she said continuing to panic.

“Just shut the hell up and take my lead on this one, OK ? “ Jarome said as he squared up the sights on one of the gang members that held a shotgun. “I'm targeting the ones with guns first. On the count of three you move and shoot from angles on the side. You have fifteen rounds, make them count when you have too. “

Staying dead silent in the midst of uncertainty, Jarome looked through his thermal sights and pressed the stock of his rifle hard into his shoulder and pointed the barrel slightly higher than his target. From this range the falling effect would not be much but he wanted to make sure to at least make the few shots into vital organs. Dropping the gang members with firearms first would greatly increase their chances of survival.

“One.... Two....” he exhaled flicking the safety off as he got ready to fire on human beings, and squeezed the trigger “Three”

The burst of the rifle was loud as it fired and the first burst was a direct hit on the targeted man with a shotgun ready to kill. Britney got up and ran as fast as she could, jumping over branches and thorns until she had an angle they didn't expect and she knelt down to take a shot. A 45. caliber bullet in the neck of a man on a motor cycle made his neck artery gush out red blood as his body seized up and he dropped. Breathing heavy she looked at large group of gang members scatter to the woods some running to the direction of Jarome but they soon fell.

Britney looking for another target stepped into the clearing and up to the dying man on his fallen bike. Stepping her boot on his arm and kicking hit revolver out of his hand. Kneeling down and taking more shots at other fleeing gang members. Missing two shots and then hitting one in the leg causing him to fall. Then falling back to the tree line as the hiding gang members started taking shots at her. Dropping to the ground just before a bullet rickashay would have hit her.

Feeling like she was in decent cover she stayed hidden until she felt a knee on her back and a forceful yank on her hair. A split moment to decide before a razor sharp knife made its way closer to cut her throat.and the growling of an animal behind her. Something hit the man that was about to kill her, and she rolled away and lifted her head up to look. A wild dire wolf had torn the throat out of the tattooed biker that was just previously on top of her. She watched in shock as the animal snapped and growled at her and then ran into the clearing.

“Shoot the wolf!!! “ Britney shouted watching it in the light of the bonfire before a tranquilizer dart hit the wolf in the ribs and it slumped down.. Jarome had hit it.

Holding their positions for a minute to make sure the gang members had fled for good they made their way to an unnatural sight. A young brown skinned woman laying with a tranquilizer dart in her rib-cage as they approached the site of what they thought to be the fallen wolf. Dark hair and drowsy green eyes wolf fur receding back into her skin and her teeth looking sharp and like a feral animal. The wolf that they had shot was really this girl.

Jarome held out the trinket given to him by the casino owner and it seemed to calm the young woman and she closed her eyes. hoisting her up on there shoulders they began to bring the shape shiftier back to the parking lot and to there vehicle.