Free Divided We Fall by W.J. Lundy Page A

and she put her head against his arm as he coerced his legs back
into motion. He then rose and felt the blood drain from his head as he stood
quickly. Chelsea was correct in taking point; he wasn’t back to 100 percent. There
was no way he could get them out of this alone.
    He could see that
Chelsea had reached his apartment door. She dropped down with her back to the
wall, looked back at him, and then waved him forward before turning to cover
the front. Shane moved Ella to his other side and stepped off in Chelsea’s
direction. When he saw Chelsea lean back against the wall as her rifle came up,
Shane turned hard, forcing Ella into the grass behind him as he brought up his
own weapon and looked into the obscured void where Chelsea aimed.
    Two figures broke
through the smoke. Shane took aim on the second, bringing his thumb to the
selector switch of his rifle before hearing Chelsea whistle at him. He looked
back at her and saw her waving her hand before she shot him a thumbs up. Shane
looked back into the void while the two men came closer, and he recognized the
SEAL team chief and the Marine, Villegas. Shane exhaled and helped Ella back to
her feet. He rushed forward, joining the men in front of the building. Shane
ignored their greetings while he quickly opened the door and rushed Ella
inside. The rest followed him in and secured the door behind them.
    Chelsea moved in
and drew the blinds before turning. “Chief, what’s going on?” she asked.
    Chief Sean Rogers
moved across the room to the corner, dressed head to toe in multicam. He crouched
down and lifted the corner of the blinds so that he could see out. The Marine,
Joey Villegas, pressed his back against the wall near the door, keeping watch
through a tiny window at its top. Joey let his weapon rest at the low ready. Sean,
seeing that Joey was in position, let go of the blinds.
    “We’re under
attack, the COP has been hit on all sides, and our patrols outside the wire
have been ambushed. I bumped into Joey at the barracks. Brad and Brooks are
both missing; we thought they might have come looking for you.”
    Shane looked away
from them and pulled his shirt over his head. He then moved into the back of
the room, facing a small countertop and sink where he kept a jug of bathing
water. He looked in the mirror; as he suspected, the bandage had pulled away
from the wound, the scabs torn and bleeding. He grabbed and peeled away the
bandage before using a gauze pad to clean the wound. He looked over his
shoulder at Sean. “I saw some guys, the ones in black, same as back in South
Carolina.”
    Sean’s chin lifted,
not attempting to hide the shock in his voice. “Where?” Sean asked.
    “They fired on a
vehicle in front of Chelsea’s,” Shane said. “Caught them sneaking up through
the trees behind her place.”
    “Did they see you?”
    Shane clenched his
teeth as he used an alcohol swab to wipe around the outsides of the wound then
dabbed it with an antibiotic cream. “No, I don’t think so, but it sounded like
they did more shooting after we left.”
    Chelsea helped Ella
onto the bed that sat in the center of the room. “Do you think they are here
for—?”
    “Doesn’t matter,”
Sean said. “They hit the walls and blew a big ass hole in both fences. Many Primals
got in; the attacks pulled most of the troops to the outer perimeter. Makes
sense now… the bad guys are trying to get everything away from her.”
    Joey kept his eyes
on the door’s small window. “Explains why it’s turned into a ghost town out
there.”
    Shane finished
applying a new bandage and put on a clean shirt. “I saw trucks loaded for war
headed west; maybe Brad and Brooks went with them. Most of the officers around
here were bugging out in a hurry. One of the people I bumped into out front
said there were troops in contact outside the wire. I was headed back to get
the girls when I spotted that group in the woods. I was planning to get us
toward HQ.”
    Thinking to
himself, Sean