Chapter 10 - The Killing Zone
"Get down!" Clara shouted, throwing herself into the snow as a burst of suppressed automatic gunfire chewed through the pine branches directly above their heads.
Wood splinters and frozen needles rained down over them as the automated turret swept the tree line with deadly precision. Leo shielded Elena and Toby with his own body, pressing flat against the icy ground behind a natural rock shelf. The muzzle flashes from the ridge were blinding white stabs in the dark.
"It's calibrated to thermal signatures!" Clara yelled over the deafening chatter of the machine gun. "We have less than thirty seconds before it recalculates our coordinates!"
Vance was laughing—a manic, hysterical sound echoing through the storm. "I told you! You can't outsmart a machine programmed by men who never miss!"
Leo ignored him. He unclipped a heavy tactical smoke grenade from his belt, pulled the pin with his teeth, and hurled it with pinpoint accuracy toward a rocky outcropping ten yards to their left. Thick, billowing white smoke erupted instantly, obscuring their thermal profiles from the turret's optical sensors.
"Move! Now!" Leo roared, grabbing Elena by the arm and hauling her to her feet.
They sprinted through the dense fog of smoke, stumbling over roots and ice until they collapsed into the safety of a deep glacial trench just beneath the summit ridge. Vance stumbled after them, his bound hands making it difficult to maintain balance, tumbling headfirst into the snow beside Leo.
"That was too close," Elena panted, clutching Toby tightly to her chest. The toddler had finally woken up, staring around with wide, bewildered eyes, but remarkably, he didn't cry.
Clara peeked over the edge of the trench, tracking the turret’s erratic sweeps through her monocular.
"The smoke bought us two minutes," Clara said, her voice entirely calm despite the mortal danger. "The relay station bunker is right through that reinforced steel door twenty yards ahead. Vance, get up here and use your thumbprint on the scanner before the turret cycles back to our sector."
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Vance wiped snow from his face, glaring at Clara with pure venom. "Go to hell."
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