Lion, Tiger, Bear | 251 Far above, Bea looked through her scope; nothing. Cant see ’em. Alice slapped her back. Grab the ammo, theyre down in the village! Bea twisted the front section of her optics while on the move, readjusting for shorter range. Theres Gwafa! She reloaded with loose rounds. Alice kneeled. Enemy, left! She aimed through her optics at the oncoming rider flanking them from behind a small hill, shooting from the hip with his Enfield. Two notches down.. .thats it. She squeezed off a round and it found its quarry. Bullets whined through the air; one grazed Alices cheek. Shite! Bea stood behind her back to back, dispatching the second man in a calm manner, cycling another round into the chamber as a rider jumped them from a grassy rise behind. Bea shot the horses underbelly and the rider plummeted in front of Alice, who then shot him through the head at point-blank range. Bea grabbed the reins and calmed the beautiful beast. Nice shot, Drumm. Ea-a-a-a-sy boy! Gwafa helped Bernie up the hill. How many are left? asked Bernie, bleeding badly. Alice guessed. Two, three I think. Damned if I know. Gwafa spied a rider heading back to the village. He fired bursts of three rounds, but at three hundred-fifty yards it was almost impossible. Breathing heavily and in shock, Bernie said: Down the horsedo it! Gwafa hit the horse and the man fell. As he ran, Gwafa emptied the remaining eight rounds into him with one burst. A dust cloud formed over the body. Bea scurried up onto a big rock and pointed. There he is! Raving marauder bastard! The man rode at full gallop back towards the village, slapping his reins on either side of the horse repeatedly as his crimson Keffiyeh took flight. Alice came up beside her. She looked through her scope. Three-seventy-five… four hundred.. .four twenty-five… You can do it, whispered Gwafa. Cant see himwhere is he? Bea twisted her optics for range, then again for 700 yards. Resting the gun on a rock, she calmed herself, breathing slowly. Her friend Roxanne from the SS school grabbed her hair. Come on, make it good, Hazelnut, or that goddess bitch Freya will bite your nipples off .. .five fifty.. .six hundred… Bea waited for the space between her heartbeats, Kirkaldys hot breath down