Free Viper (Second Wave Book 1) by Mikayla Lane Page A

feeling
useless and curious as to what she was doing.
    Lara panted slightly as she jumped
down the last few feet from the ladder. She was exhausted, and it was starting
to show. Just a few more hours, she thought, and one way or another, this
chapter in her book of bad days would be over.  
    Lara looked up at Viper and sighed.
Walking past him, she said, “Yes, you can be my pack mule. It’ll save me some
time.”
    Viper wasn’t sure what a pack mule was,
but he knew by the tone of her voice it was going to be something physical.
Even though his head hurt like hell, he welcomed the chance to do something,
anything to help her.
    He knew he was right when he
entered the kitchen area, and she handed him a bunch of light-weight, squishy
bags. When his arms were full, she led him outside and placed each bag on the
ground at his feet.
    “Now, all I want you to do is hand
each bag up here to me, two at a time.” Lara said before climbing the ladder. As
Lara leaned down from the roof, Viper handed her the awkward bags.
    Once all the squishy bags were on
the back side of the roof, Lara had him carry weapons. He had no idea the woman
had so many weapons and clips. There were at least half a dozen rifles on the
roof, not including the eight or ten still in the cabin.
    She had full, spare clips for every
weapon by the dozens. There were bows, arrows, knives of all sizes and even
something Lara had called a baseball bat. Viper had to admit he really liked
the swing of it, but the effort had caused his head to swim so fast that he
almost hit the floor.
    The not so distant sound of gunfire
had both of them jerking their heads to the forest. They listened intently to
the sounds around them, desperately trying to judge the distance between the
sound and the cabin.
    “Get inside! Now!” Lara said
hoarsely, her panic rising before a cold blankness settled over her mind and
body.
    Viper headed into the cabin and
waited for Lara to come inside with him. Several minutes later, Lara finally
came in the door and Viper breathed a sigh of relief that was short lived.
    “I need you to lock this door
behind me when I leave. Like this.” Lara took Viper’s hand in hers and showed
him how to use the dead bolt on the door and lay the board across it.
    “Where are you going?” Viper asked,
scared that she might do something reckless. Keeping hold of her hand, he tried
to read her energy. He was surprised when he didn’t feel anything. It was like
she had completely shut herself down emotionally.
    “I’m going on the roof. We have a
better chance if I’m up there. Now, when I go outside, I’m going to close the
shutters on the windows. There will be a small slit in each shutter that is big
enough for you to shoot through.”
    “It doesn’t matter if you can see
what you’re shooting at, I just need the distraction, so I can pick them off as
I can.” Lara said leading Viper to the kitchen.
    Viper looked on in surprise when it
looked like she peeled the floor up. All he could make out was a blurry black
hole in the floor.
    “This is your emergency escape. I’m
going to leave it open so don’t come in the kitchen unless you need to get out.
Close this behind you when you get inside. There is a ladder leading down, or
it’s a short enough drop for you to jump.”
    “Once you’re inside, then head down
the tunnel until you reach the door. It will lead you about twenty yards behind
the house. It’s not far, but it may give you the time you need. Especially if
they don’t find the tunnel.” Lara said evenly, watching his face to make sure
he was listening.
    Viper reached out to Lara and tried
to grab her, but she moved out of his reach. He let his arm drop to his side,
and wished he could see her face.
    “Lara please, you must stay in here
with me. With the gunfire they’ve been shooting off all day, my brother will be
close on their trail. We just need to hold them off until Dread gets here. We
can do that from in here.” Viper