Storm Girls (The Juniper Wars Book 4) by Aaron Ritchey (best books to read for students TXT) 📕

Rachel paled; she had Tina Machinegun, but she wasn’t going to use it. Marisol appraised her in a heartbeat, snatched the M-16 away, and opened fire. She was aiming for her head, but Rachel stepped back and took every round in her chest. Dropped her.

If Marisol clipped Rachel’s spine, she’d be paralyzed. The Vixxes couldn’t heal spinal cord or brain injuries. She’d die.

Both the sucker hole and the sun were gone. Clouds sealed up the heavens, and the snow returned, the wind, the blizzard, coming to join Marisol in murdering us all.

(iii)

I went for the chalkdrive dangling around Marisol’s arm while she held our family’s assault rifle. But everything was moving so slowly, the snowflakes hung in the air like someone had painted them there, each one.

Both Wren and Dutch fell back, going for their Colt Terminators, matching semi-automatic pistols of cherrywood and polished stainless steel.

Sharlotte tried to wheel around, but her peg leg slipped in the snow. She fell.

Still, I went for the chalkdrive.

I moved so ridiculously slow that I felt animated, a stop-motion doll, my arms, my legs, ticking along, frozen in time.

I wasn’t going to get to her in time. I couldn’t stop her.

Marisol spun on Wren and Dutch. Tina Machinegun was on full auto, and she was going to unload the clip into them.

At the last minute, Wren clutched Dutch to her, and turned her back on Marisol. Bullets pounded into Wren’s back, and she twisted, turned, so even if the bullets shot through her, they wouldn’t hit Dutch.

Wren’s sacrifice gave me the chance I needed. I seized the chain in Marisol’s fist.

She turned, face dead, no emotions, just like the Vixxes we’d fought before.

I was too close for her to get the M-16 around, so she drove the stock into my belly and smashed the wind out of me. I fell into the snow on my knees.

Marisol went to put a round in my head, but a split log sailed over and struck her in the face. Sharlotte had thrown it and thrown it true.

Blood covered Marisol’s face, blinding her for a second, until she fired at Sharlotte. My sister ducked behind the Marilyn, and I slithered under the Stanley’s legs, trying to get away.

I heard a barrage of Colt Terminators, four of them, throwing bullets.

Wren screamed, “Dutch, between the eyes. She’s like a jackerin’ zombie. Only way to kill her is between the eyes!”

And then Tina Machinegun’s grenade blast. Then no more Colt Terminators.

And Rachel? Silence. She wasn’t getting up. Was she too scared? Was she paralyzed? Or was she dead?

The wind blew a blizzard of snow into my face, and I couldn’t see or hear a thing for a minute. I was on the other side of the Marilyn. Sharlotte was by her firebox in the back. Marisol was between the Marilyn and the Audrey.

As for Wren and Dutch? I didn’t hear their guns. Which meant most likely Marisol had taken them down with the grenade blast.

“Cavatica Weller.” Such a calm voice. The little girl’s lilt had vanished.

“Yeah, Marisol. Or is that your real name?”

“My name does not matter. I have disabled Rachel Vixx. Wren Weller and Dutch Malhotra are unconscious. If you do not give me the chalkdrive, I will shoot each of them in the head.”

Snowflakes struck my face like sharp pennies. I dropped to all fours. Between the Marilyn’s legs, I could see the bottom half of Marisol standing over Wren. My sister was sprawled out in the snow next to Dutch.

If I didn’t think up something quick, I was going to have to give the chalkdrive to the monster Marisol had become ’cause I loved my sister, no matter how troublesome.

“How about you just kill Dutch? I hate that guy.” I had to get her talking. I had lost track of Sharlotte. Maybe I could give her time to get at Marisol.

I moved around to the back of the Marilyn, but Sharlotte wasn’t there.

“Hey, Marisol,” I called out. “Who were those people we found burned and dead? Did you even know Eryn Lopez at all?”

Wind. Silence. Then the thing answered me. “Before the ARK neutralized the uncooperative elements in Aspen, ARK intelligence agents were interrogating locals about the nature of Glenwood Springs. We were searching for the Weller Sisters, Peter Pilgram, and Micah Hoyt. We had to ensure we were being told the truth. And I needed a cover story for my infiltration into the Glenwood Springs community. The death of the locals was necessary. It allowed me to ingratiate myself to you until I could confirm you had the chalkdrive. Once I had confirmation of the chalkdrive, I executed on my imperatives.”

I had to keep Marisol distracted. “Even if you do beat us, Marisol, how are you going to get off this mountain alive?”

She didn’t need to answer. She’d been designed to survive. And she was done talking to me. Her next words came out strong and clear. “You have ten seconds, and then I will kill your sister Wren.”

The countdown began a heartbeat later.

“Ten ... Nine ... Eight ...!” Marisol’s mechanical voice was then swallowed up by the wind.

“Five ... Four ... Three ...!”

And I couldn’t stop myself. I had no choice. It was my sister or the world, and like at the Silver Island Casino months before, I chose my sister.

I stepped out. Dutch lay in the snow next to Wren, and Marisol had the assault rifle pressed against the back of Wren’s head. Rachel lay in red snow to my right, unmoving. Dead. Sure, she had to be. Marisol spun from Wren and turned the sights on me.

She wasn’t going to let us go. It was all just a ruse. No matter what I did, she was going to terminate us with extreme prejudice.

Marisol pressed the trigger, but not before the Marilyn’s left arm gun came to life. The Stanley swiveled, and Marisol leapt aside, ducking the barrage of .50 caliber bullets. Sharlotte, up in the Marilyn’s gunner’s roost, shot up the snow, trying to get to the Severin as she