Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 117

LOGAN

Forty feet.

That was all they needed to cover before they get to the front yard, and Logan had made dozens of plays from that distance on the football field. We can do this, he said to himself.

"Everyone ready?" Logan asked through the radio. So far, the sniper looked alone. Still, Logan couldn't help but feel nervous, but this was no time to freeze.

He peeked out from behind the tree, having determined where the sniper had positioned on the second-floor window to his left; a little trick between drawing out Deon's head from where he hid so that Logan could take a good look (not an easy job when your head was on the line of fire).

But that means we can take him, Logan thought. If we do this right.

A little flash from the partially opened window just as the sun hit the lens, and then Logan ducked behind the tree before the sniper fired a shot. The bullet hit the pavement ten inches to his right.

"Ready," said Deon. "That got his attention."

"We're ready," Paloma followed. "And that was too close, Logan." She and Edgar hid behind the overturned truck, giving Logan a thumbs up. Not far from them, Monica was comforting Marie behind the Toyota, trying to rub off Darren's blood from her face. At least she had stopped crying now; a determined look replaced it.

"I know, I know. Just gotta make sure he's still up there."

Noodle stood behind Logan, nodding his head. He would have the most important job out of all, and the boy knew it. Logan gave him the M4 carbine, which now hung over his shoulder. He only had the Beretta left.

Logan put the radio over his lips again. "Okay, we're going to do this precisely and without any hesitation from any of you. If we do that, we might get out of this street alive." A little encouragement and a dose of reality should keep everyone on their toes.

The sniper must be wondering what was taking everyone so long, and just as Logan thought of it, he fired another shot right above the overturned truck where Paloma and Edgar were, shooting the tire and then the glass, trying to draw them out into a panic. But out of all the vehicles, they were in the safest spot, and those two knew it.

Fucking idiot. Logan grinned at the opportunity.

"Now!" Logan screamed.

Paloma raised her shirt, tied together with Edgar's Hawaiian shirt, wedged by the end of her baseball bat. Logan tried to look away from those two without their shirts on, especially Paloma, but he had to make sure the sniper caught it. Paloma waved it around like she was moving. From afar, it looked like someone's head was about to jump out of cover and make a run for it.

Please, please, please! Stay alive, stay alive, stay alive!

The sniper fired, and the bullet grazing just above the bat.

Yes!

Logan dashed out of cover, running sideways to the next cover behind a mailbox twelve feet ahead. Deon followed suit a second later, running to the nearby tree across the street just as Edgar dashed out of cover opposite where the sniper had fired and slid behind a van just four feet to his right; specks of dirt hit his foot where the sniper had fired.

That was too close, Logan thought, but Edgar made it.

Deon leaned out of cover and fired a couple of shots at the window; the first bullet hit above the windowpane, but the second shattered the glass. The lens flickered for a split second, turning toward Deon just before he ducked back into cover.