Cut Scene #3
“What’s that sound?”
The once beautiful castle was in ruins, the side sections completely collapsed into a pile of unrecognizable rubble. Smoke hung heavily over the settling stone and the bodies they hadn’t been able to pull out without heavy machinery to move the stones.
It hadn’t taken long to dig out once a moved board had allowed a tiny hint of daylight in, letting them see which pieces to move and which to leave alone. Then, they’d cleared a larger entrance, added supports to it, and gone back for the rest of their men. Twelve had gone inside. Only seven walked out.
Becky’s ears weren’t ringing like the rest of them, and she stood up. “Does anyone else hear that?”
The fear in her expression had the hair on Neil’s neck standing up.
Seth was trying not to look at the bodies of the men they’d dug out, his hearing uneven, distorted. It had only been three hours since the explosion, and he was hoping time would straighten it out.
Seth glanced at the bodies and flinched away. Adrian would send a truck, and then the hunt would go on, minus five very good friends. It wasn’t right. Rick should have already been…
“Fire.”
Seth had no trouble hearing the single word. In fact, as soon as she said it, it began repeating in his mind like a swinging bell.
Becky’s throat closed up, and she had to force her mouth open to scream, “Fire!”
An instant later, Seth had a hand under her arm, dragging her away from the flowers she’d been weaving.
None of the men spoke as they fled, it wasn’t necessary. Becky clamped her lips together to keep from screaming again as the fire line approached their campsite. It came from three sides, clearly set, and hatred warred with fear for the top place in each of their hearts.
With half as many men, the truck Rick hadn’t taken held them all, and they spun away from the destroyed Castle and their fallen comrades. They had to go—now!
Rick stared at the fire in fascination through his binoculars. It had only taken a few Molotov cocktails to start, but was now an uncontrollable inferno that would destroy everything in its wake. There was no way the hunting party would avoid it, and in the smoky mess, he planned to be there to finish what the explosion had started. He wasn’t satisfied with a few of them anymore. It was now all or nothing.