Return fire from the camp continued to snap past the corner of the cabin at different heights off the ground, many of them passing well over her head. She got the impression that the hostile gunfire wasn’t well aimed. More of a quantity-over-quality situation—though equally deadly if you got caught out in the open at the wrong moment. They’d managed to advance only one set of cabins since the shooting started, the team miraculously suffering nothing more than a few grazing hits like Emily’s. Only sheer luck had prevented another casualty, a reality not lost on Rich. He halted them to reassess the situation.

She fired another series of shots toward a different muzzle blast, pulling back from the corner as a long string of bullets stitched through the gap and slapped into the thick wood cabins around her. Devin remained exposed on the other side of the gap, firing several two-shot bursts until his magazine ran dry—seemingly oblivious to the string of bullets that splintered the wood right below his rifle barrel.

He glanced in her direction and shook his head before reloading. She peeked around the corner with the rifle and rapidly pressed her trigger, emptying the few rounds left in her magazine. Emily lay behind the wooden stoop several feet in front of Marnie, her body pressed against the bottom of the cabin, only her rifle and part of her head exposed. Emily fired relentlessly, seemingly changing magazines every third time Marnie leaned out to shoot.

“Do you need ammo?” asked Marnie.

Emily had turned to reply when a bullet ricocheted off her helmet, driving her head down. She rolled tight against the cabin and checked her night vision, which looked to be intact. Emily looked up at her.

“I’m down to three mags!”

Marnie patted the magazine pouches attached to her plate carrier, finding that she’d expended only two of her eight spares. She removed two and tossed them next to Emily, who snatched one and reloaded her rifle before stuffing the other in an empty pouch on her vest. She gave Marnie a quick thumbs-up and went back to firing. Marnie reloaded and got ready to stick her head and rifle out again.

“This isn’t going anywhere!” yelled Devin.

“I know!”

“Rich is assessing the situation,” yelled Emily.

How long did it take to assess the fact that the mission was scrubbed? If they didn’t start making their way to the eastern shoreline very soon, they ran the risk of getting squeezed by the mercenary team dropped off by the helicopters. Devin leaned out to fire and was driven back by a torrent of gunfire. Enough was enough. She triggered her radio.

“Rich. This is Marnie. We need to start moving east before we get pinched. We’re not breaking through to the camp.”