Chapter 5 - The Ambush in the Dark
The blinding white light from the spotlight completely ruined my night vision.
I dropped to the floor and dragged Brutus behind the heavy oak dining table.
A barrage of suppressed gunfire instantly shredded the walls of my cabin.
Wood splinters and shattered glass rained down on my back like deadly hail.
They were not trying to arrest me or negotiate a peaceful surrender.
They were executing a coordinated hit to erase me from existence.
Brutus let out a vicious snarl and tried to charge toward the broken window.
I grabbed his harness and pulled him down firmly.
I ordered him to stay down because he was still too weak to fight armed men.
I peeked around the edge of the table and fired three rapid shots toward the spotlight.
The spotlight exploded into sparks and plunged the cabin back into absolute darkness.
I heard the crunching of heavy boots on the gravel outside the front porch.
There were at least six men moving in a tactical formation around my house.
I knew I could not hold them off forever in a wooden cabin that was easily penetrated by bullets.
I crawled toward the kitchen and opened the heavy metal trapdoor hidden under the rug.
It led to an old root cellar that connected to a drainage pipe emptying into the nearby creek.
I pushed Brutus toward the hole and told him to go down first.
He hesitated and looked at me with deep protective instincts shining in his eyes.
I gave the command again and he reluctantly descended into the dark cellar.
Just as I prepared to follow him the front door was kicked completely off its hinges.
Three men in tactical gear poured into the living room with laser sights cutting through the smoke.
I fired blindly from the kitchen and managed to drop the lead point man.
The other two returned heavy fire forcing me to dive headfirst into the cellar.
I pulled the trapdoor shut and locked it from the inside just as bullets slammed into the wood above me.
I turned on my small tactical flashlight and led Brutus through the damp underground tunnel.
We waded through knee-deep freezing water until we reached the exit pipe at the creek.
I pushed the iron grate open and we scrambled out into the freezing night air.
We ran into the dense forest relying solely on the moonlight cutting through the trees.
I could hear dogs barking aggressively in the distance back near the cabin.
They had brought their own tracking hounds to hunt us down.
I stopped near a thick cluster of pine trees and checked my rifle magazine.
I only had twelve rounds left and Brutus was starting to limp heavily on his injured leg.
We were vastly outnumbered and running out of time.
Then a dark figure dropped silently from the branches directly above me.
A heavy hand clamped over my mouth and a cold knife pressed tightly against my throat.
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I prepared to fight for my life when a familiar voice whispered in my ear.
The man told me to stay perfectly quiet if I wanted to live through the night.
