Read Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (Book 4): Walking In The Shadow Of Death for Free Online Page A

group, then ordered the rest of them to go loud with
their rifles. They watched the others move off to the northeast until they lost
sight of them. Brad removed his suppressor as did the others. Parker slung the
M203 over his back and lifted his SAW. At once they opened fire on the mass of
primals that were slowly moving down and out of the trees.
    With the loud report of the rifles,
the entire mob put its focus on Sean and his team. They continued firing until
the last of the third wave had been put down. Then quickly they ran back
towards the aircraft.  As Sean had requested, all of their bags had been
dropped on the ground. Sean found his familiar ruck with his large scoped rifle
strapped to the top. Sean hoisted the bag onto his shoulders then turned to
help the others.
    “Quickly! Let’s get ready to move.
As soon as the next wave breaks the trees we’ll lead them away and into the far
side of the clearing,” Sean instructed.
    Brad found his bag, grabbed the
straps, and made some adjustments so that they would still fit his shoulders
over his heavy poncho. He removed the leggings and strapped those to the top of
the ruck. Cold wouldn’t be as much of a factor with them moving on the trail.
The bag was heavy with supplies. They had decided long ago to always keep their
rucks stuffed with rations and ammo in case they had to bug out in a hurry.
Brad lifted the bag up and onto his back. He looked and saw the rest of the men
appeared ready to move. He walked away from the plane and found Sean farther
out, facing the tree line where the waves had been appearing.
    “We’re ready to roll,” Brad said.
    Sean turned to face the men waiting
in the cold. “Daniel, I want you and your brother to run point. Let’s hold our fire
and avoid shooting unless we have to. The plan is to get them to follow us,
then we will try and lose them in the trees. Parker, you stay back by me with
that SAW. If things go sideways we will be counting on you to cut an exit
hole.”
    “How far we got to go, Chief?”
asked Daniel.
    “I figure if we move west for a
good few hours that should do it. Then we can break north and loop back around.
The boy showed me the location of a cabin, looks like maybe a day and a half’s
walk. There should be a river north of here, the map says if we follow it we
should see the cabin.”
    “Day and a half? Shit, then we got
to spend another night outside?” Parker asked.
    Daniel nodded and pointed at the
far tree line, “Here they come, Chief.”
    “Okay. Devil dogs, lead the way.
Stay west until I say otherwise. As long as these things keep that slow pace we
should be able to stay ahead of them. Keep your eyes sharp boys; if we wander
into another mob and get surrounded, it could really mess up our day.”
    “Ha!” Hahn laughed. “My day is
already ruined.”
    The brothers moved out, slowly
scouting a path into the western tree line. Hahn walked behind them, then Brad,
with Sean and Parker taking up the rear. It was in their nature to move
quickly, but Sean had to remind them to slow their pace. They wanted to keep
the mob in sight to ensure they led them away from the other team.
    As they entered the tall pine
forest the temperatures dropped even more. Most of the sunlight was blocked out
from reaching the ground by the tall canopy of pine trees. There was also less
snow. In several areas the ground was covered in large beds of pine needles and
broken branches. Brad could see the Villegases out ahead; they were walking on
line with each other about ten meters apart. Hahn was just ahead of him. Every
few minutes Hahn would turn and look back at Brad with a worried expression.
    As they moved deeper into the
forest, they could hear the primals behind them, crashing through the trees.
There must have been hundreds of them now. Their moans carried over the wind
and they seemed to reverberate and echo back against the pines all around them.
Brad had to consciously will his legs not to run. He wanted nothing