Elias checked fields of fire with the rifle snug to his shoulder, sighting across the pad, through the gate, and into the trees beyond.
He didn't look at her, but Sera knew he had counted the rounds in three guns and the magazines in two vests by sound. He tucked himself behind the short wall of the scale house and rested the barrel on a chipped sill.
Sera hopped down and walked the line once, checking the little things no one ever wanted to admit mattered. Small things like pebbles that would roll under a heel, a patch of oil slick enough to break balance, a pile of mouse droppings that would stink when kicked and give away position.
She didn't know why she sometimes fixated on the small things, or why they always screamed 'danger' in her head. Instead of trying to justify her actions, she simply toed those aside. Luci tracked her left hip and kept his shoulder against her side like a heartbeat.
