Free Camp Zero (Book 2): State of Shock by Jack Hunt

on top of Luke, practically crushing him. I thought the soldiers had managed to circle around the back. It was only when I looked up that I saw the silhouette of a group coming down the hill. They weren’t soldiers. They were firing round after round in rapid succession. There had to have been at least twenty of them. We remained still not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.
    “Get off, you idiot,” Luke was saying. I stayed on top. Knowing him, he would have stood up and got his noggin blown off. From around the corner of the boulder I saw the soldiers retreating. Billy scrambled up and gazed at the figures fanning out in a line across the hillside. Slowly but surely several approached and I saw Corey among them.
    “Corey?”
    “Sam.”
    He scrambled, dirt giving way below his boots, and then pulled me up.
    “Hey, give me a hand,” Luke said.
    “Ah, get up yourself,” Corey said.
    “I’ve been shot in the leg.”
    “Serves you right,” Billy added giving him a kick in the other.
    “Who are these people, Corey?”
    Corey twisted towards two others, the rest of them were moving down the hillside driving the soldiers back.
    “Sam. This is Hank.”
    “Pleased to meet you,” He reached out a hand and I shook it. He nearly crushed mine with his strong grip. From what I could make out in the darkness, Hank looked as though he had been bred in the mountains. He had long hair, a beard and a cigar hanging out of his mouth.
    “Who are you?”
    “Answers later. Right now let’s get the hell out of here.”
    “I won’t argue with that.”
    Two of his men hoisted Luke up and carried him. Once we reached the outcrop of rock where we had been spying on the town we saw more of them. Another ten were monitoring the others.
    “Gus, Rico, tell the others to pull back.”
    As we slowly made our way back into the forest, I badgered them for answers about who they were but he remained vague. He kept telling us that he would explain everything once we were out of the hot zone.
    Under the light of the moon, I noticed that they were all dressed in regular clothing except for him. That’s when I saw a partially torn badge on Hank’s arm. Some of them had hoods up and I couldn’t see their faces. They took us deep into the forest. We must have been walking for at least an hour before I saw a few small fires in the distance. They had set up a campground. There was no protection around it. Except for men and women in various places looking out with guns.
    A couple of kids jumped down from the trees above, laughed and rushed back towards the camp. Hank said something to them and they burst into laughter.
    “Mind your step.”
    He put his hand on me and I stopped. A piece of wire was tied around a tree and it passed in front of us, just off the ground.
    “What is that?”
    “One of the many ways for us to make sure that they don’t get near us before we can act.”
    As we got closer, I saw two figures in a hole. A piece of what looked like a door was held above them with a thick log supporting it. Dark eyes looked out. A guy was smoking a cigarette. Both of them were armed with AK45s.
    Luke groaned as the two men carried him. He glanced over a few times and gave me his usual scowl. He and I were going to have words once they had pulled that bullet out. I felt a wave of nausea and tiredness.
    “You okay?”
    “Yeah, just…” I touched my arm and Hank took a look.
    “It’s just a graze. Don’t worry; we’ll take care of that. You’re safe here.”
    “Why are you helping us?”
    “Because your girlfriend asked nicely,” he then chuckled.
    “Girlfriend?”
    He motioned with his head towards Ally. That was the first time anyone had referred to her that way.
    “She’s not my girlfriend.”
    “No? She seemed pretty worried about you when we showed up.”
    My brow knit together as I remembered back to her saying something about seeing someone. “You were in the forest?”
    “We saw you long before you arrived. All