They both immediately fired, almost exactly at the same time.

Patrick collapsed. The girl shuddered, then went still. Blood spouted from the holes that had been torn through their heads.

"What the hell!" I yelled out, mindlessly banging my cuffed hands against the seat in front of me. "What the hell are you doing?" I was suddenly sobbing. I couldn't believe what I'd seen.

I'd never thought that even Jason could do anything like this. Patrick and the girl lay dead in gathering pools of blood at the rangers' feet.

"You got clean-up this time," Jason said to the corporal. "Bag 'em and bury 'em."

The corporal stayed behind with a pair of body bags. Jason drove us out of town, following the highway to the west and toward the mountains.

I couldn't stop crying. I felt like I was going to break in half. I'd been through more than I could handle. Bryce was silent, riding with his head pressed against the window. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. It looked like he'd kind of shut down. Shawn sat beside Jason with his gaze fixed forward. If it weren't for his combat helmet it would have looked like he was just working some desk job.

"Holy Hell." Jason was driving us past a dairy farm in the middle of a broad hay field, and now he craned his neck to look out the window.

I kept wondering where Ian was. I knew he wouldn't put up with any of this new Home Guard ranger cowboy crap, and I was worried about what they'd done with him.

There were only four men now that the corporal had stayed behind. I decided that if I got another chance, I'd run.

Jason pulled to the side of the road.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I do believe we have a cluster."

"Cluster? Where?" One of the rangers, the youngest of them, peered out the window. "I haven't seen one yet. Where is it?"

"Out past that tree, Private. Right there." Jason brought the vehicle to a stop. "See it?"

There was a low mass of . . . something . . . in the field, just beyond the dairy barn, partially obscured by an idle swather.

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