Chapter 17 · Roadblock With Teeth

The first Red Hammer soldier came out of the wrecked train with a machine gun.

I saw the muzzle lift through the smoke and shoved Leah flat against the gravel. The burst chewed across the concrete wall where her head had been a second earlier.

"Move!" I yelled. "Everybody off the gate!"

The ruined cars had opened like tin cans. Men in red-plated armor climbed over the twisted doors, boots hitting the tracks, rifles already pointed at Iron Gate. Behind them, more shapes moved in the smoke.

Too many.

Cole fired from behind a stack of sandbags. His rifle cracked twice. One Red Hammer trooper spun and dropped, but the kid stayed up too long, staring at the body.

"Cole! Down!"

He ducked just as rounds punched through the sandbags. Dust blasted into his face.

I grabbed the back of his jacket and dragged him lower. "You trying to get killed?"

"They got through!"

"I noticed. Keep shooting."

"How many?"

"Enough."

That answer got him moving.

Iron Gate had been a farm depot three months ago.