Into Summer

Introduction

Introduction

“s**t!” Ronnie yelled. He instinctively put his hand out as his body slammed forward. He gave Robbie a glance, who was struggling with the steering wheel to control the Jeep. The tires smoked when he locked up the brakes. The first shot ricocheted off the hood. The second shattered the windshield.

Ronnie, with his hand on his AR-15, riding shotgun, scanned for a shooter. There were no houses, no buildings of any kind nearby, yet someone had shot at them. There! The puff of smoke from the top of a nearby water tower, then the pain in his right arm, and finally the report of the rifle. Why is he shooting at us?

Ronnie scrambled out of the Jeep, but the pain from his wounded arm slowed him down. Robbie was already out and behind the vehicle yelling at him.

“Get your ass around here dammit!”

“I’m coming!”

Ronnie winced at another sharp pain, this time in his neck. His rifle slipped through his fingers. He grabbed at his throat and went to his knees, then his hands. He tried to crawl around to the back of the Jeep, but his body plowed into the asphalt.