Cut and Run 2 - Sticks and Stones

beside him.
    “You kind of wonder what the squirrels think when they’re being blown through the air to the next tree,” Ty posed, trying not to snicker as he spoke. Zane smothered another laugh with his hand. “It’s all fun and games ’til somebody throws a grenade,” Ty recited sorrowfully. Zane snorted and used both hands to cover the sound.
    “We’re all gonna die,” Deuce decided with a quiet groan.
    After a few more moments of quiet snickering, Zane rolled up on his side and laid one hand on Ty’s chest. “What if we threw stones or something and set them off?” Somehow he was serious again. Deuce narrowed his eyes at him.
    “Yeah, Zane, let’s make them all fall at once,” Ty responded, his voice full of sarcasm. “That shouldn’t leave a crater,” he muttered.
    “You mean to tell me you can’t hit one so it falls without hitting the others?” Zane prodded.
    “Never bring stones to a grenade fight,” Ty advised sagely.
    “I’m serious,” Zane whispered.
    Ty turned his head to look at Zane warily. “I’d have to get closer,” he finally decided with a sigh. “It’s not the aiming; it’s the line of sight in the woods. Trees are too dense.”
    “How big a rock do you want?” Zane asked seriously as Deuce’s eyes swung between them.
    “You’re going to throw stones at grenades,” Deuce said. “And hit them.”
    Zane shrugged. “I’ve got better than average aim. Maybe if we set several off, they’d go ahead and come looking earlier, not expecting us to be ready for them.”
    Ty nodded. “Or,” he said emphatically, “we could just lay here, take a nice little rest as shit explodes a safe distance away and then shoot them as they come over the rise,” he offered with a flick of his finger that mimicked pulling a trigger.
    “You are definitely having flashbacks,” Deuce told him wryly. Ty nodded, unapologetic as he admitted it.
    “That’s a good idea too,” Zane agreed without commenting further. “They’d be easy targets, even between the trees.”
    “Are you two seriously discussing shooting people?” Deuce asked, appalled by the nonchalance.
    Ty turned his head to look at his brother with a frown. “Is that bad?” he asked with complete sincerity.
    Deuce looked at Zane, who had the same expression on his face. “Yeah,” Deuce concluded. “It is, Ty.” Zane shrugged helplessly, though he didn’t look particularly remorseful either.
    Ty sighed heavily and raised his head just enough to look past his feet. “Dad,” he hissed. After a moment, he tried again. “Hey, Dad!” he said in a harsh whisper.
    There was no answer. Either Earl was too far away to hear them or he was ignoring them because he could hear them.
    Ty sighed again and rolled, shifting his body into Zane’s without comment as he slid around to his belly. “I’ll be right back,” he told them in annoyance before carefully slithering into the thick underbrush.
    Zane swore colorfully under his breath. “We shouldn’t be here,” he tacked on to the end of it.
    Deuce agreed with a firm nod as he looked over at where his dad and brother probably were. In Deuce’s professional opinion, Ty needed to get off the mountain, and fast. Ty knew it too. No matter how grounded or well-adjusted or well-trained a man was, when things started exploding, anyone who’d been through battle was going to start losing their grip on their sanity.

    “ D AD,” Ty tried once he was only a few feet away from where he thought Earl had hidden himself.
    “What?” Earl responded in the same low hiss.
    “Do we ambush, or do we go on the offensive?” Ty asked quietly as he pulled himself toward where Earl hid and hunched beside him, their backs to the same tree and their shoulders together.
    Earl was silent for a moment. “I don’t know,” he finally answered. “Too many unknowns now.”
    “We’ve got to think of them,” Ty said without pity, edging a shoulder in Deuce and Zane’s direction.
    Again, Earl was silent. Ty waited unhappily, holding his breath. He glanced over his shoulder to see Zane staring in their general direction impassively.
    Finally, Earl answered. “Yeah,” he said in a low voice. “We go for help.”
    Ty deflated, his eyes closing as he breathed a sigh of relief. Another grenade went off, much closer to Zane and Deuce than the others had been, almost like it had been lobbed at them. Ty jerked his head and saw Zane pulling at Deuce and scrambling for new cover, putting