Chapter 10 - THE BLOOD HUNT REBORNTHUMP!
A heavy canister shot from the launcher, exploding on the cliff right at the lion's feet. Instantly, a dense cloud of purple gas erupted, blanketing the rock ledge.
The lion let out a distorted, painful roar. He staggered backward, shaking his massive head, but the chemical agent acted instantly. His legs buckled, and his giant body collapsed off the ledge, falling onto the lower embankment with a heavy thud.
"Get the containment cage! Move!" the lead mercenary barked into his headset.
"Stop!" I screamed, pulling out my flare gun and firing directly at the lead mercenary.
The flare exploded in a burst of blinding red light near the squad, forcing two of the guards to dive for cover. Leo tackled another mercenary, wrestling over his weapon in the red-lit chaos.
"Maya! Get the jeep!" Leo yelled, striking the mercenary across the face with a heavy rock.
I sprinted toward the fallen lion. He was semi-conscious, his heavy chest heaving, his golden eyes unfocused as the neurotoxin paralyzed his nervous system.
"I'm not leaving you again," I cried, grabbing his heavy collar belt—a tracking collar we had fitted years ago—and trying to pull him toward the shelter of the rocks. But he was over four hundred pounds of pure muscle; I couldn't move him alone.
Kincaid walked up behind me, stepping on my hand with his heavy boot. Pain shot up my arm, and I gasped, falling onto the dirt.
"Touching," Kincaid sneered, pointing a suppressed handgun down at my head. "A girl and her wild beast. But business is business, Miss Maya. His DNA holds the key to the ultimate biological weapon. And you... you are simply an inconvenient bug."
He placed his finger on the trigger.
BANG!
A heavy wooden spear whizzed through the air, piercing Kincaid's shoulder from fifty yards away!
Kincaid screamed in pain, staggering back as blood soaked through his grey suit jacket.
From the dense brush around the clearing, dozens of local Maasai warriors emerged, holding spears and traditional shields, led by our head ranger, Okeno.
"Protect the sanctuary!" Okeno shouted, his voice echoing across the hills.
"Fall back! Get the target and retreat!" Kincaid ordered frantically, clutching his bleeding shoulder as his mercenaries dragged him toward the armored vehicles.
The mercenaries opened fire, spraying bullets toward the tree line to suppress the rangers. In the smoke and chaos, two guards hooked heavy steel cables around the paralyzed lion, hoisting him into the back of a covered military transport truck.
"MAYA, NO!" Leo screamed as I ran blindly through the dust storm after the truck.
The iron doors slammed shut, locking our lion inside. The convoy accelerated, tearing through the broken fence and vanishing into the vast, dark wilderness of the night.
I collapsed onto my knees in the dirt, clutching my bruised hand, watching the red taillights disappear into the gloom.
Leo ran up, kneeling beside me, breathing heavily. "They took him... Maya, they took him."
I wiped the blood and dirt from my face, my eyes burning with a fierce, cold fury I had never felt before.
"They took him to complete the experiment," I said, my voice dead calm. "Where are they going, Leo?"
Leo looked down at a small GPS tracker screen on his wrist, which was blinking with a faint red signal. "The collar... The tracking signal is still active. They're heading toward the coast. Toward the deep-water harbor."
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"Then get the weapons," I said, standing up. "We're going hunting."
🔥 FACEBOOK HOOK: They stole the lion right in front of her eyes! Now, Maya and Leo embark on a deadly rescue mission to save their majestic protector!
