The night passed quietly, and the sunrise ushered in the morning. Everyone woke about the same time and made some coffee. They finished the cups of joe and packed up the last of their supplies, and hit the road. The mood was light among the group, more so than it had been for the entire trip. A sense of relief to complete this portion of their mission washed through the group. There would be plenty of time to worry about the next steps as they drove, but for now, they all enjoyed the good vibe.

The RV pulled out of the campgrounds with Bricks at the wheel, and he immediately saw that the road was blocked by several black SUVs and men in suits standing in the road. Bricks counted 7 or 8 men, most carrying assault rifles.

“What the holy heck!?” Bricks shouted as the rest of the team began peering out the window at the blockade. Suddenly Scott’s phone rang, and he answered.

“Hello, Scott.” Ewan’s deep, gravelly voice barked over the line.

“What the hell is this, Ewan? We had a deal.” Scott replied

“I don’t recall being part of any deal, Scott.” Scott thought about the anger he had seen on Ewan’s face as he left the town hall. He never thought Ewan would go over his boss’s head, or maybe he wasn’t, and Siren's deal was worthless from the start.

“Please indulge me for a minute and let me tell you a story, Scott. Growing up, I had a neighbor that had a giant dog. It was one of those big dogs you see with those tiny barrels around its neck rescuing people in the mountains. This thing was truly a giant beast. The old neighbor lady that owned the dog swore up and down it was the gentlest creature on the planet. And she would tell anyone that would listen that it would never hurt a fly. All the neighborhood kids used to play with it, wrestling with the lumbering dog, even going as far as trying to riding it. Now I never got to play with that giant dog; my mom wouldn’t let me. She would say that she could see something in the dog's eyes, something nasty, and she made me promise to never play with it. I obeyed her, but as a kid, it never made any sense to me. I just wanted to play with my friends. Then one day, the dog snapped. I mean, it went mental. Damn near took this kid Billy Gill’s face clean off, he had surgery after surgery for years, and his face still looked like a mess. He took a chunk out of this other kid’s thigh. This dog went mad, the police had to come, and the dog turned and started charging at them, snarling, drool flying from its mouth. The look in the police's eyes was a pure primal terror. At that point, it was hunt or be hunted. They had no choice but to shoot it. The first bullet barely knocked it off stride, and it kept plowing ahead. The second shot stopped it but only for a second. It stammered for a second and then went right back into its charge and let out this guttural howl that sounded more akin to a wolf than a dog. The third shot was to the head, and the dog dropped instantly. You should have seen the look of relief on the police's face when that monster went limp. It was at that point that I understood what my mom had been saying the whole time.” Silence hung on the phone for a few seconds. “You get what I am saying, Scott?” Ewan broke the silence

“You had a messed-up childhood and a crazy mother?”

“No, Scott. I am saying I knew since I met you and your team is nothing but human garbage, and I knew that nothing good would come from you being around. Nothing. We have too much going for us, and I am not going to let you bite Camilla. That day was the day that I learned that you must trust your instincts. Always. That lesson has served me well in life so far. Scott, you are that dog, and I’m going to put you down before you can hurt anyone. I am going to put you all down, and just like that dog, and the world will be better for it.”

“Have you lost your mind, Ewan?! I made a deal with Camilla, and you don’t have the authority to break it! You’re just her Lackey!” Scott screamed into the phone.

“Must be hard to know you’re going to die at the hands of a lackey. Goodbye, Scott.” The phone clicked silently.

“There is a group behind us too. They have us boxed in,” Alexia yelled from the back.

Scott furiously went through his contacts until he found Camila’s number and he hit send. Call failed. Scott looked down at his phone and was greeted with a ‘no service’ message on his phone's screen.

“They are blocking all signals in and out now. Either those vehicles have signal jammers, or they have drones overhead jamming us. I can’t do anything!” Yumi yelled as she frantically hit buttons on her console.

“EVERYONE DOWN!” Bricks yelled from the driver’s seat, and everyone dove to the floor except Yumi. She sat at her console, frozen like a statue.

The cascading rhythm of guns firing began, followed by the sound of glass shattering from all sides. Scott looked up from the floor and saw Yumi sitting there rooted in place and began to stand up, but he simultaneously heard and felt a bullet whiz by his head impacting into the seat above him. Stuffing from the seat flew into the air and floated down like snow. The shot forced Scott back down to the ground, but he quickly regrouped and pushed to his feet when he saw Alexia charge past him and leap towards Yumi. Alexia reached Yumi, grabbed the frightened girl, and threw her down to the floor in one fluid motion. Yumi let out a whimper as she impacted the ground, and Alexia turned to dive back. At some point in her pivot, Scott noticed something change in the momentum of Alexia’s body, and she screamed and fell to the ground. Her scream was drowned out by the melody of bullets flying into the vehicle. The shots were finding a home in furniture, appliances, and anything that happened to be in its way. Scott pushed himself to his hands and knees and crawled towards Alexia. He could feel the heat of bullets passing near him, and he felt one clip his shoulder. It felt like a hot bee sting and froze him in place for a split second as his hand instinctively reached to touch the wound. His hand came back from the injury warm and bloody, but he pushed through, making it to Alexia.

“SCREW THIS!!” Bricks yelled from the front. The hulking behemoth stood tall in the cab of the RV. His giant body now made entirely of stone, he looked right at the shooters and let out a booming roar.

Bullets hit him furiously, and pieces of his body chipped off, sending debris flying everywhere. He hefted his rocky body down in the driver’s seat and slammed his stone foot on the gas. To his surprise, the RV sprang to life, the engine working furiously to meet the demand placed on it by the stone foot. Gas rushed through the engine, and it shot forward. Brick saw the soldiers in the front begin to dive out of the way as the RV plowed onward, hellbent on getting clear of the barricade.

“HANG ON!” Bricks had shouted just seconds before the RV plowed through the SUV blockade. He had positioned the RV so that he could ram the front and rear end of two different SUV’s and the RV acted like a wedge, easily parting the two vehicles. The only option was to hit the third SUV dead center. Thankfully the RV was moving fast enough to force the SUV back a few feet, and Bricks could line it up to hit the front fender on the second impact. The SUV went spinning off the road. The maneuver by Bricks caused the RV to veer slightly off the road, and as Bricks tried to correct it, the back tires lost grip in the soft dirt just off the road. For a brief and scary moment, Bricks thought he would lose control, but the back tires finally caught traction, and it slingshot the RV back onto the road. Bricks launched the recreational missile at a group of soldiers holding rifles trained on him. They fired a few shots but quickly jumped out of the way and piled into SUVs to give pursuit.

“You ok, Alexia?” Scott asked, laying next to her on the floor.

“It’s just my thigh. I’ll be fine. Give me the sniper rifle! Someone is going to pay for this!” Alexia grunted through obvious pain. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, dulling her pain and feeding her anger.

Scott jumped up and headed straight for the compartment where the team stored its weapons. Scott handed Alexia the sniper rifle, and she limped to the back of the RV and looked out of the window. He passed an assault rifle to Vanessa, who took it with a nod and followed Alexia to the back bedroom. Scott grabbed three handguns. He tucked one in his belt, and he handed one of the others to Yumi.

“Hopefully, you won’t need this, but better safe than sorry. “Scott forced the gun into Yumi’s hand. Yumi accepted it but still sat there on the floor, motionless with a blank stare.

“I see drones! I am going to take those suckers down, try and keep it steady, Bricks!” Alexia shouted from a prone position on the bed in the RV’s back bedroom. She was aiming the sniper rifle out of the window and into the sky. Blood flowed out of her thigh, but she did not have time to think about that right now.

“I will do my best, but I am not sure how much longer this tin can is going to stay moving.” Smoke had begun to pour out of the engine.

Alexia placed the first of the two drones she spotted directly in the rifle's sight and squeezed the trigger. She watched through the scope as the bullet struck the drone, and it hitched in midair, and smoke began to exit its body. The drone quickly began a downward path towards the earth. Alexia fluidly moved her sights to the second drone before the first had hit the ground. Vanessa lay on the bed next to Alexia, spraying rounds towards the caravan of SUVs racing towards them. The quick rhythmic ping of bullets hitting the vehicles filled the normally quiet road. The lead Symphony quieted for few minutes as Vanessa had to change clips. Men began to hang out of the SUV’s windows and fire rounds at the back bedroom window. Pieces of the blanket they were lying on began exploding into the air, falling around the two women on the bed. Alexia never moved a muscle as she found her mark in the sky and slowly squeezed the trigger and watched as the bullet hit the drone dead center. Instead of hitching, this one was immediately thrown backward and then began a nosedive towards the earth. With no time to celebrate her hit’s Alexia quickly moved her sites to the caravan of black vehicles behind the RV. She could see several SUVs gaining ground on them rapidly, each with men hanging out of both sides of the vehicle firing shots at them.

“I need cover!” Alexia shouted

Vanessa had just finished inserting a fresh clip and resumed her volley towards the vehicles trailing them. One vehicle pulled over as its engine was streaming flames, presumably collateral damage from Vanessa’s barrage of missiles.

“How much further is this thing going to last?” Scott questioned Bricks.

“Not too much, buddy. The engine is either going to seize or catch fire soon, like real soon.” Bricks kept his eyes fixed on the road. It was a struggle to see through the cloud of gray-black smoke billowing out of the engine.

“Whatever you need to do for us to lose those goons, it better happen fast.” Bricks shouted to the back of the RV.

“I know, Bricks!” Alexia yelled back and lined up her sights on the lead car’s driver. She knew that due to the distance and the slight tint of the SUV’s windows, it was a blind shot. She pulled the trigger slowly and saw a hole pop into existence in the windshield. The SUV jerked a little to the left but quickly corrected itself. Alexia aimed a little further to the left and squeezed the trigger and again saw a hole abruptly appear on the windshield. This time the vehicle quickly shot across the road and slammed into a guardrail. The vehicle turned almost entirely sideways, blocking the road, and one of the SUVs behind it rammed into its side panel, sending the first SUV tumbling on its side and sliding onto the street. Vanessa saw as one of the men firing out of the window was ejected on impact and sent skidding across the road. After his momentum stopped, his body lay in the street motionless.

The sounds of metal scratching rang out, and sparks flew into the air as the overturned SUV slid across the asphalt. One of the trailing SUVs tried to cut quickly to the left and maintain pursuit, but a moderate incline bordered the left side of the road. The vehicle lost control and came crashing onto its side, skidding onto the street. The two vehicles created a barricade that could not be bypassed. Vanessa continued to fire at the overturned vehicles for good measure until her clip was empty once again. Alexia began to crawl back off the bed, and the shooting pain in her upper left thigh came rushing back to her. She reached her hand to touch the wound, and it came back wet, very wet.

Outside, the sudden roar of an engine pushing itself to the limit began to get louder and louder. The unmistakable sound of a motorcycle engine became clear. Vanessa peered out the back window to see a black sports motorcycle gaining on them quickly. The bike had a driver and a second person on the back. Vanessa promptly went to change her clip again. She inserted the new clip and looked back out the window just in time to see the passenger raise a small sub-machine gun and fire. Vanessa rolled off the bed as bullets began to fill the space she had just evacuated. She felt a sudden pain in her backside and another in her side as she moved off the bed.

“You going to be alright?” Vanessa yelled as she slid down and off the bed. She pushed away the sudden pain she felt, and her eyes focused on the bullet hole in Alexia’s leg.

“Yeah, no time to worry about it now.” Alexia limped quickly, only applying weight to her right leg. Vaness did the same but found she had trouble putting weight on her right side. Her side and butt screamed with pain. The two women made their way to the front and came to Yumi, still sitting on the floor staring into space and shaking.

“No offense, but you got to get yourself together, girl. Like now.” Vanessa reached down to Yumi and shook her.

“I..I….I.” Yumi stammered

“Save it!” Alexia brushed past the dazed girl and joined Scott and Bricks in the cockpit of the smoking RV.

“We have company!” Alexia shouted at the two men

“It’s one motorcycle with two riders,” Vanessa shouted

“I got this!” Bricks glanced in his side-view mirror and saw the motorcycle riding up the side of the RV. The passenger raised his weapon at the RV. Bricks jerked the RV to the left, and it slammed into the motorcycle, ricocheting it off the road. Brick’s glanced back in his mirror, and he could no longer see the bike or its passengers.

“This baby is on her last legs.” Bricks advised

“Perfect! This whole day is going PERFECT!” Alexia slowly lowered her right butt check into the passenger chair, brushing aside Scott to make room.