Chapter 3 - SHADOWS OF THE VALLEYOut from the dense brush burst a huge, rogue bull elephant—his left tusk broken, his eyes burning with red rage.
This was Goliath, a legendary elephant known throughout the reserve for his extreme hostility toward motor vehicles ever since poachers had killed his herd years ago. The sound of gunshots and heavy diesel fumes had drawn him straight to the clearing.
Victor froze, his grip on Emily loosening for a split second.
"Run!" one of the mercenaries screamed, dropping his rifle and sprinting for the truck.
Goliath didn't hesitate. He charged at forty miles per hour, his trunk raised high as he let out a trumpet call that sounded like a war horn. He hit the poachers' pickup truck sideways, flipping the three-ton vehicle into the air as if it were a toy car. The truck slammed onto its roof with a metallic crunch, crushing the poacher's supply crates and catching fire instantly.
The chaos gave Emily the opening she needed. She stomped her heel hard onto Victor’s foot. Victor shrieked, dropping the knife. Emily grabbed a fallen machete from the ground and sprinted straight toward Sultan.
With desperate strength, she slashed through the ropes and steel nets holding the big lion down.
"Go, Sultan! Go!" she screamed.
The moment the netting loosened, Sultan exploded into action. With a majestic leap, he lunged at the two mercenaries who had been shocking him. The men scrambled in terror, diving into the burning brush as the lion pride regrouped, surrounding the clearing like an army of apex predators.
Victor, covered in dirt and bleeding from a gash on his forehead, crawled out from the smoke. He realized his entire team was scattered, his truck was destroyed, and Goliath was smashing what was left of their gear into scrap metal.
Glaring at Emily with pure venom, Victor grabbed a hidden satellite radio from his vest pocket.
"Base Alpha!" Victor screamed into the radio. "Trigger the fail-safe! Burn the whole sector down! Burn it ALL!"
Emily’s eyes widened in horror. Fail-safe?
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Before she could process what he meant, a series of muffled explosions echoed from three miles away. Thick, black smoke began to billow into the sky, encircling the entire sector of the reserve. The poachers hadn't just come to harvest animals—they had rigged the dry, drought-stricken forest with incendiary charges to cover their escape route.
A wall of wildfire was rapidly spreading, sweeping across the dry grass directly toward them.
