Animus and his men moved out from behind the van and toward Chris. He aimed for Animus, who passed in behind a tree, and Chris lost his shot.
The police sirens were so loud it sounded like the area was surrounded, but Chris hadn’t spotted a single officer or vehicle.
In Chris’s peripheral vision, Xander’s men continued to advance. Defending two flanks against so many combatants seemed impossible, but Chris spotted a beefy guy with an AK and took a shot. His aim was to the right and struck the man in the shoulder, spinning him. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but maybe it was enough to put him out of action, at least for now.
A violent torrent of gunfire rang out from both Animus’s and Xander’s directions, causing the air around Chris to buzz and crackle as the projectiles zipped by. One bullet slammed the tree so close to his face he felt the shock wave in his teeth.
“Infidel,” he said, using Hannah’s call sign, “we can’t hold them off much longer. You and Sunshine stand by to fall back.”
“Roger,” Hannah said.
Sonny grunted.
A round clipped the wool in Chris’s suit, grazing his flesh.
“Fall back,” Chris said. He fired three rapid shots in Animus’s direction and then three in Xander’s, trying to keep their heads down until Hannah and Sonny could find protected positions to the rear. Then he swung back to Animus and delivered three more shots.
All the enemy bullets seemed focused on Chris now, and the air burst next to his skin. When he heard Hannah and Sonny’s weapons open fire — that was his signal — he wasted no time turning and running.
The water seemed deeper now, slowly pushing him toward Hannah and Sonny. It was better than being pushed backward, but each time he lifted a leg to move, the water sapped his movement and energy, causing him to decelerate. With bullets blistering the space around him, his upper body frantically tried to move faster than his legs could carry him, and he fell. A shit storm of lead blasted above, barely missing him. He desperately longed for Mother Ocean to wrap her cloak around him for protection.
Hannah and Sonny raised the bang of their firepower, giving Chris a moment’s break from the onslaught. He hopped to his feet and retreated to a spot behind their position. He used a tree for cover and blasted at Xander and his men. Hannah and Sonny took that as their cue to get up and hurry to the rear. The purpose of the leapfrog was to break contact with the enemy, but the bad guys were gaining on Chris’s crew, regardless.
Both Xander’s and Animus’s men had converged in the park and seemed hell-bent on annihilating Chris, Hannah, Sonny, and anyone else still alive in the park.
“Give up now, Chris, and I’ll let you live!” Xander called.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Hannah and Sonny fired at Xander, so Chris rose to his feet again and retreated in their direction. His lungs burned from the exertion, and he’d strained for oxygen so much he thought he’d puke. Sloshing through the water as he ran, his M4 was out of ammo, and he changed magazines. A tree stood in his path, and he veered around, the tree taking a bullet-pummeling from the enemy.
Once Chris was past Hannah and Sonny’s position, the firing around the trio became too grave for him to remain standing, even with a tree for cover, so Chris dropped down on a knee in the water, peeked around the tree, and returned fire. Bullets struck the liquid surrounding him. He was only moments away from being overrun. The streets, sidewalks, and park were littered with bodies. A man with a broken ankle ran away, his ankle flopping, and he fell repeatedly trying to flee the area.
As Chris’s teammates raced to the rear, and with no help in sight, he felt alone in what were surely his final moments.
Lord, where are You?
He busted caps in Xander’s and Animus’s directions.
If it’s my time to go, I’ll go, but please help the others.
A voice called out on a megaphone from Xander’s direction, but it was a garbled mess, and Chris couldn’t understand what was said. Gunshots rang out behind Xander’s crew. Then Chris distinguished one word from the megaphone. “Police!”
Xander’s gang broke off firing at Chris and his team and redirected at the police, who must’ve been behind Xander.
Chris took his cue to escape to a more secure location. He turned and quickly splashed through the water toward Hannah and Sonny. The water level continued to rise as he joined his friends in the southern end of the park. Farther south, outside the park, and across the street was a row of cheaply made twentieth-century buildings.
Chris caught his breath. “Let’s give the police a hand.”
“Done,” Sonny said.
While Xander and his men duked it out with the police, Chris fired at the back of a man who looked like one of the Albanian thugs Chris encountered in Athens. Maybe he was Talos. Chris exhaled, and in the calm, quiet pause between emptying his lungs and filling them up again, he eased the slack out of his trigger. Then the satisfying recoil pushed against his shoulder. Talos arched his back, but he didn’t go down. Chris took a second shot. This time, Talos fell with a splash.
The rain came down so thick and heavy that seeing with the naked eye became a challenge, and discriminating targets with his red dot was becoming impossible, so he hit the quick release on his scope, removed it, stuck it in his pocket, and flipped up his iron sights. As he did that, two more tangos went down. It wasn’t clear whether Hannah and Sonny had nailed them or if the police had done them a favor, but bad guys down was a good thing.
Chris lined up his iron sights and snuffed another of Xander’s men, and the momentum of the firefight began to shift in his team’s favor. As the trio’s weapons spit bullets, the empty metal casings of the spent cartridges flew out the ejection ports, making plopping sounds in the water around them. As a pastor, maybe he should have felt guilt at killing so many, but his life and the lives of those around him were in danger. And as an experienced frogman, he couldn’t kill enough of Xander’s clan. Not until every last one of them was dead.
The beefy guy Chris had shot in the shoulder earlier came into his field of vision. This time, Chris had more time to focus—pop! — and beefy guy went down and stayed there.
The precipitation continued as Chris and his teammates knocked out the enemy one by one. Three more tangos splashed down, reducing Xander and Animus’s men to roughly a dozen combined. The success boosted Chris’s concentration, and he squeezed the trigger with calm gusto. Hannah and Sonny seemed jacked up, too. The change in momentum had to have a demoralizing effect on Xander and Animus, but they didn’t show it.
The gunshots from the police side subsided, and the enemies turned on Chris, Hannah, and Sonny. In spite of Chris’s team whittling down their numbers, Xander, Animus, and their men still outnumbered Chris’s crew. They held their ground, but the enemies used trees for cover as they advanced, steadily closing the gap between them.
“This doesn’t look good,” Hannah said.
She was right. Behind them was a blocky twentieth-century building, an obstacle to their retreat. They could try to slip through one of the doors, but once inside, their movements would be constricted, and if the indoor shops were crowded, a gunfight would cause more civilian casualties. “Infidel and Sunshine, fall back around the west side of the building behind us. I’ll cover.”
They both bounded over the low fence surrounding the park and disappeared to the rear. The flooding water knocked over some parked bicycles nearby, and Chris let them float right on past as he focused on the enemy.