Alexa ran. Her boots crushed dry leaves and twigs as she rushed through the forest. The ground shook violently, her pursuer was getting closer. She bounced forward on the patches of moss; knees almost buckled as she rushed over big patches of stones strewn across the path. Her breath was fast and superficial. Light, it felt as if her chest would burst, her lungs protested with every breath. She darted from side to side to prevent the hunter from blasting her to pieces. She threw her chest forward, forcing her legs to keep up. After running for what seemed like hours, she wanted to double up. Not yet, she couldn't give up now! She flew past the huge oak that indicated that the zone was near. She slowed down a little when she saw the clearing ahead of her. 

She turned, trees snapped behind her as dry tinder, bushes protested loudly as they were flattened by her heavy pursuer. The ground shook more violent with every step he closed in on her. She needed to find the dispell. And fast! She scanned the open space in the forest as she ran along the side. Had she taken a wrong turn? Panicked, she slowed to walking speed. If she was wrong, she had to cross the clearing fast. If she was right, stepping into the clearing would be fatal. Another heavy shock ran through the ground, her teeth chattered from the impact. It must have been the wrong clearing. 

She lifted here foot to step onto the clearing. 

"There!" A faint call from the other side of the clearing. 

Dimitars head floated above a thornbush on the other side. His hand shot up and he pointed at a small cluster of flowers, a lilac blossom standing out amongst the others. Despite her predicament, anger flared up, but Alexa dashed towards the flowers and tore the small flower from the ground.

The clearing turned into a gaping hole, ten paces across and at least twice as deep. She shivered, anger forgotten for the moment. Had she taken the step, her neck would have snapped or her spine would have shattered from the fall. A plank in front of her crossed the pit. It shook with the steps of her pursuer and bend down every step she took, but it held. The sudden silence indicated her pursuer had closed in on her. 

She flew over the plank, not caring how far it bend down. An explosive burst of light passed her by hairs. Fear gave her the strength and courage to leap towards the edge of the gap. She barely made it and dove forward into the low bushes along the clearing. . She hit the ground hard, but she started crawling forward as fast as she could. A blast of sticks, smoldering leafs and dust around her. She pressed herself against the ground and redoubled her efforts, scraping her knees and elbows. 

A flash of light illuminated the clearing accompanied with a loud bang that rung in Alexa's ears. Had they managed to do it? He heard pounded in her chest. Adrenaline gave her the strength to push herself to her knees, it took her effort to get up. She grasped for air, but managed to turn around slowly. Her heart skipped a beat. Unbelievable! The hunter lay inside the smooth pit. One leg flailed the air, the other dug itself deeper and deeper into the muddy ground on the bottom of the hole. Its metal arms groped around to catch a handheld to no avail. It worked! It had actually worked. Her knees buckled and she let herself fall to the ground. She felt as if her legs deflated like a balloon. She grasped for air, tried to inhale and exhale deeply to transfer as much oxygen to her muscles as possible. They couldn't stay for long, but she felt she would not be able to move for days. 

Unwilling to move, her heart pounded with exhaustion and excitement. They finally caught a metal bastard with a repeated strategy. The rumors may be true, obscure the machines vision and it might not be able to find any counter-measure. 

As she laid down, her heard pounding in her chest and her lungs struggling for breath, she could hear her companions stepping out of the bushes surrounding the gap. Heard some of them climbing down the hole to dispatch of the collossus. Would this change the war for the better? 

A small explosion followed by a big hollow boom indicated they detonated a small explosive to destroy the assumed power supply of the metal skeleton. After her crazy, desperate sprint, the ground felt soft as velvet. She wasn't even bothered with sticks and stones pressing their shape into her flesh. 

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A bald figure entered her vision. An eagle holding a skull tattooed on the right side of his head. 

"We told you it would be on the left side." he said. "You look awful."

He bend down and plucked some twigs from her hair.

She shrugged. "Left, right..  it's all the same sometimes."

She turned her head and their eyes met and she sighed again. 

"Thank you." she said, " I decided I miscalculated. If you weren't there.."

There was no need to say more. The magical illusion was necessary to trick the machine into the clearing, into the carefully prepared hole. This was their first attempt to purposely bait one of the hunters. 

"But I was. Had it followed closer on your tail, we would have had a whole lot of other issues."

Dimitar pinched his eyes as he regarded her.

"Did it hit you?"  he asked. "Or did you decide that you've done enough?" 

She suppressed a shiver as she recalled the two shots that had barely missed her. Hunters were deadly accurate, she'd been far too lucky. She couldn't count to be that lucky again. Despite her heavily protesting muscles, she got up. A round path had been cut from the clearing behind her to at least ten steps before her.. The dispatched hunter was one of the newest types, with an arsenal of weapons that seemed to rely on concentrated light, rather than the earlier projectile weapons. 

"I'm fine" she said, steadying her breath. "Next time, the bait will choose the dispell. We risk losing this advantage. let's hurry."

Dimitar nodded, then slapped her on the back and Alexa's knees almost buckled again. 

"We'd better take this time to salvage what we can. We haven't laid our hands on one of these new guns before."

"Yes, but hurry up!"  

Joining the squad, they surrounded and slapped her on the back, most of them wearing smiles of relief. The last few days had been grim and the squad had expected to die as they tried to reproduce a previously used tactic. Their opponents learned fast and  never fell for the same thing twice. Up to now.  She shared their happiness, but also knew that this was not the time celebrate.

According to their resources, the flash and bang were pertinent for succes and diminished chances the hunters would be able to respond. The next time would be dangerous again as it was likely their enemies would find a counter-measure to their maneuver. For now, they could head back to the tower with a sense of achievement.  

"Dimi, Mihail and Ani, you take off the guns and that new looking front piece." Alexa ordered. "Take everything else you haven't seen before. The rest will carry it to the transporters as fast as we can." 

She didn't like ordering her friends around, but the high council had given her command despite her protests.The council had hinted her aversion of commanding had earned her the station. Despite the reasons the council had given, she could not let her friends die on her account. Hence the reason she had been the decoy herself. She realized that her promotion was the result of severe losses of manpower in the battles against the machines. Realized she was young and unexperienced, that she had been lucky this time. What would happen to the squad if she had been hit?

The squad dismantled the Hunter quickly. She ordered the heavy parts to be equally divided among the two carriers she commanded. She wondered what good it would be to bring the parts to the tower. Their adversaries technology was always steps ahead. Would the salvaged parts provide more insight into their technology? Or would it just put them in front of another mystery? The different squads always tried to salvage as much as they could, but she hadn't seen many new insight recently. They were pressed too hard by the machines and barely had time to research the part. let alone produce new equipment that could be used. Still, the parts were taken and transported, who knew what weaknesses they would expose.

She turned to Velislava as the men got to work. " A small flower, really? Do you want me to get killed?"