Hot

“Gaaah, shit!” Bro swore as he poured first-aid-kit alcohol on his bleeding knee.  

“How bad is it?” Sis asked.  

“Grazed the bone, but not broken. Hurts like hell.”

“Your shoulder?”

“Sore, the bullet hit the armor,” Bro grimaced while wrapping his knee in gauze. 

But as he spoke the truck jolted as one of the back tires shredded from enemy gunfire. 

“Bro, we’re all used up, can you see Angel’s location yet?”

“Hold up!” he shouted while firing a burst at an enemy vehicle pulling on the side. The shots forced the gunmen back, but not before they let loose a barrage of rounds into the rear of the truck. Bro turned around, “Ah crap, I don’t think Lupita’s gonna make it!”

Both twins gaped behind at the bullet-ridden body of a mannequin strapped in a seatbelt. It wore Lupita’s violet dress. 

“Oh wow, she looks worse than the truck,” Sis said with a chuckle. But as she spoke, a POP! sound exploded from the rear, “Fuck, they hit both tires. We’re losing speed!”

“Hold it together, Sis. We’re close!” 

“Then call that skinny chick, already!”

“Right!” Bro whipped out his phone and dialed a number. 

11:50 am- Old West Town

Donned in tactical clothes and body armor, Angel and her strike team took defensive positions in the three-block wide old-west town. Construction barricades littered the dirt streets to discourage vandals from driving through. Angel’s men used the barricades as cover, while three of them hoisted a large duffle bag onto the top of a fake fountain in the town center. 

“That’s right, put it up high,” Angel commanded, “If the Cowboy and his sister want that money they can climb and get it.” 

“Wait, we're not killing them?” Victor asked. “What did corporate say?” 

“Corporate said give them the money, get the accounts. But corporate isn’t here, so their lives are in my hands, yeah,” she replied. 

“Ten-four, Leader.” 

Victor and another man placed the heavy duffle bag containing one million dollars on top of the fountain. A mousetrap in the middle of the street.

“Hmph!” Angel pouted at the activity with a satisfied grin. Then her phone rang, “Eh?” she glanced at the New York City area code before answering, “Who’s this?”

“Hey, are you out there? Cause we’re coming in hot!" the Cowboy said.

“What are you talking abo-” 

“Angel, look!” one of her men shouted while pointing at a dust cloud in the desert.  

“What's all this?” The Rifle Girl lowered the phone and raised a pair of binoculars. A mile out, the Cowboy's grey Bronco barreled across the desert, pursued by seven cars. “Bloody hell!” She raised the phone to her ear, “I told you not to cross me!”

“No one crossed you, but the Romeros want what you want. So help me shake them or we’re all screwed!” he pleaded. 

Angel gripped the phone with fury. That damn Cowboy was no friend of hers, but the Romeros were the absolute enemy. She took a breath then spoke into the receiver, “Keep driving straight, we’re on the main strip of this old town set. Lead that convoy up the middle. We won’t fire on you...for now.” 

“You won’t regret this.” 

“Pray that I don't!” Click! 

She hung up and barked orders, “Listen up! Twenty plus gunmen in pursuit of the old Bronco. Do not engage the Bronco, but kill everyone else!”

“What formation?” the men yelled back. 

“Containment, gentlemen! Rusty, Toro, up on the roofs. Victor, Tox, the south-west corner, make sure they can’t flank us! Macky, Dutch, on me!”  

“Ten-four, Leader!” The men shouted while taking positions.

As the dust cloud approached the town, Angel locked and loaded her G3 rifle. Her two-man squad took cover behind one of the concrete barricades and aimed at the oncoming vehicles. 

“Conserve ammo, lads. Don’t fire until you can read their plates!” 

“Yes, ma'am!” 

 

 

____These are the types of concrete barriers that litter the street- author*

_____________________________________________________

 

11:53

The dust from the Bronco and the chase vehicles blocked Juan Pablo’s vision. But he spotted the silhouette of the old-west town, a perfect cover. He raised the walkie talkie, “When they get to that town they’re going to jump out of that truck, get ready!” 

But no sooner did he give the order than he noticed something strange as the town grew closer. A black SUV parked in the rear of one of the buildings. And when he looked up, a man scurried across a rooftop. Oh shit!

“It’s an ambush!” Juan pablo shouted into the walkie talkie. 

But it was too late. 

11:54

"FIRE!"

On Angel's command, the strike team unleashed a blizzard of rifle fire at the seven Romero vehicles. The first enemy car spun out of control and flipped three times before landing on its back in front of a barricade. The vehicle behind it slammed into the wreck.

But the remaining five vehicles split left and right. Angel caught their intent.

"They're trying to surround us in the town! Victor, take your guys and counter them on the west. Toro, Rusty, go east!"

"Ten-four, Leader!"

With her men moving to intercept the enemy circling, Angel, Macky, and Dutch rushed forward to engage the two crashed vehicles. 

Four Romero gunmen emerged from the cars and immediately opened fire on Angel’s team. 

“Covering fire!” The Rifle Girl shouted as she leaped behind a barricade and hurled rifle-rounds at the enemy. The Romeros all ducked behind one vehicle. The fast-moving Angel maneuvered from barricade to barricade drawing the enemy’s fire. Meanwhile, Dutch and Macky edged from the right. The result was a massacre as the four cartel-men were surrounded and torn to pieces by the squad.  

“Clear on the right!” Macky yelled out, his rifle aimed at two dead cartel men.

“Clear left! Check that flipped car, make sure no one’s moving!” Angel ordered while advancing with her weapon raised. On her word, Macky and Dutch opened fire on the upside down car. A brutal insurance to guarantee no surprise gunmen later. 

“Eight down, Leader,” Dutch said. 

“It’s a start, but we’re not done yet. Guys, on me!” Angel growled as she ran toward the east of the town. That’s where three of the cartel vehicles drove to surround them.

Good Run 

Before the shooting started, Sis raced the broken Bronco up the middle of the town. The entrance to, and the street itself, were littered with the slab-concrete-barricades intended to stop people like her from dashing through the movie-set. But none of that mattered as the huntress tore through the block, crashing the truck into more than one concrete-blockade. But after losing control, the truck careened into a town store-front, and came to a dead stop when the engine died. 

“Ah buddy, the truck’s done!” Sis lamented as she kicked open the driver’s side door and glanced up at the white smoke pouring out of the engine. 

“She had a good run,” Bro said, patting the dashboard. “Gather weapons and let’s get to the roof before those cartel guys show up.”

“Or Angel!” 

“Yeah, her too!”

Sis, pistol in holster, strapped her shotgun around her back and readied her SCAR 17. But Bro, moving slow with injury, only secured his MSR-10 and sidearm. 

“Oh! Bro, I got you, we-” 

Before Sis could say another word the crackle of an AK forced the twins to the ground.

“Ai, these dudes, man!” Sis bitched as she and Bro crawled for cover in front of the truck. When she peeked out she spotted four men firing from a car in the street. “Bro, they’re pinning us down until more arrive, we gotta split!”

“I know!” Bro's face grimaced. 

“Ah,” Sis muttered while firing suppression bursts at the enemy to stop any advance. But they couldn’t stay there. She had to get her brother off the ground. “Come on,” she grunted, lifting him to his good leg. Checking out the false store, she noticed a back area with a door. “Bro, you’re gonna have to man up and put weight on that leg!”

“I can hobble!”

“Good, I’ll cover you! Buddy moving!” she shouted and opened fire on the four men outside, while running to a different spot in the store for cover. While she engaged, Bro hobbled to the back and took position. 

“Buddy Set!” Bro yelled out from cover in the back and opened fire on the enemy. 

“Moving!” she yelled back and ran to him while he covered her. 

Reload

The twins exchanged gunfire with the enemy while fleeing to the rear of the false-store. Once there, Sis kicked open an exit door. This led to another block with no enemy in sight.

“Bro, across the street. That building has a balcony. We reach the roof, we get the high ground.”

Bro nodded, but spotted something further up the road. A fountain in the middle of the street. And on the top of that fountain. “You're kidding me, Sis look. That's a duffle bag.” He pointed down the block. 

“What?” She squinted in the distance, “Bro, no, that’s a trap. That bitch, Angel wouldn’t!”

 “I think she would.”

As the two shuffled across the dirt street, an enemy car flew around the corner and raced behind them. 

“Bro, go!” Sis spun and opened fire from the middle of the street. 

“Sis!” Bro raised his rifle to help but he needed to get to cover first. As he hustled, the pursuing car split between the twins before skidding to a stop behind a concrete barricade. At the same time, Four AK-47 wielding men hopped out and unleashed rifle-round hell on the twins. 

“Fuck!” Bro shouted and dove through the window of a building, pinned down by fire. Crawling on his gut he shielded his eyes from the wood and led shrapnel tearing through the walls of the structure. But more importantly, “Sis?” he yelped, raising his head enough to glance outside, “Ah, hell!”

On the other end of the block, Sis fired her weapon from behind a barricade. The enemy hunkered between the twins and kept up a volley of rifle shots, keeping them apart. Two fired on Sis to the right, two fired at Bro on the left. And with a wounded leg, he couldn’t run to her location without catching a bullet. The twins we're on their own. 

Bro reloaded his rifle.  

...