by Aaron Guerra
They came rushing out of the store as Kim nearly tackled Tristan down to the road with tears in her eyes. The two OPC members held each other for a brief moment before looking back to see how close the others were. Velski sort of gave off a jealous look that Cindy caught for that mere second.
“Is he your boyfriend, Kim?” Cindy asked. Tristan waved his hand around while shaking his head.
“Oh no! We were together for awhile when this stuff happened. Hey, where’s Susan?” Tristan asked Kim. He had a huge smile on his face when he looked over to the students exiting the bus. But Susan didn’t come out like he thought she would have. “Wait…where is she?” he asked again.
Kim looked away as her voice became a little shaky when she tried to speak.
“Susan…didn’t make it. Her lifeless body fell out of a tree when I found her. I think she shot herself…before that giant monstrosity destroyed her,” she had told him. Tristan got up to walk away from the terrible news he just received from her.
“This can’t be happening! She was just a kid! What exactly happened when you two left?!” he asked. Kim stood up straight while staring directly at him.
“We hid in a house near by when we were attacked. Susan and I escaped the place when those things came barging at the door. But then I made the stupidest decision to split up. She was all alone up in a tree with a gun,” Kim said as her fists closed tightly. Cindy quickly walked in between the two to cut them off.
“I was told by our leader that you know what will happen if we don’t make it to the extraction point. Am I right about that?” she asked them.
Velski and Tristan nodded when they both turned to face the army of creatures walking down the road. Tristan placed a hand on Velski’s shoulder to comfort the woman.
“If we don’t make it when they arrive, we’re all going to be taken out with this place. Does anyone have any plans on this problem of ours?” Tristan had asked everyone that was there.
Matthew came up to the group with his black bangs covering most of his eyes. His companion stood beside him with her smile slowly appearing.
“We have just one idea, but if it doesn’t work, we’ll be dead anyway,” he said. Tristan was interested in what they had to say.
“Alright, let’s hear it. What do we need to do?” he asked him. The man turned to point at the large bus with his smile slowly fading away.
“We use the bus to drive through them all,” Matthew said.
Velski went over to the bus to check it out for herself while Tristan and Matthew discussed this little plan some more.
“If I recall, there’s a metal gate at the entrance of the park. If we can drive the bus through the entrance, the bus can block off the unwanted creatures from entering. It does seem risky though, but if that’s all we have to go with than we might as well just do it. We’re running out of time as well,” Tristan said. Velski inspected the damage to the bus while the students near by stared at her.
“Are you from around here?” Sophie had asked as she carefully went up to the woman in black.
“No. Russia is my homeland. I was assigned to work with the US for this special mission,” said Velski. Sophie looked at the woman with some interest when some other students lifted their weapons up.
“We have company!” the students had said. Velski turned around to see a dog come out of an alleyway.
“Dog? It’s still alive?” A student by the name of Chuck had said as he went over to the hound. He wanted to see if it was injured in anyway. “He looks fine to me! We should bring him along with us!” Chuck happily said. Velski started to run to him but it was too late.
The dog’s head had split open with long black spikes coming out. The student was impaled from behind as his blood spilled out onto the sidewalk. Velski grabbed her gun and aimed it at the creature that was trying to hide behind the student’s body. Sophie ran over to the other students to urge them to return to the bus. The others quickly rushed to Velski’s side to see the black creature’s substance devour the boy’s body.
“What is going on?” said Cindy. Marilyn was able to let out a single shot before Velski could stop her.
“NO!” Velski shouted. The loud gunshot caught the attention of all the dead people that were down the road. Everyone turned their attention back to the strange alien that was pushing itself into the student’s pale body.
“This is just like what happened to the scientist back at the CDC!” Cindy had told them. Everyone brought their weapons up and began to shoot at the creature before it could merge with the lifeless body. The green blood splattered along the sidewalk with the pale corpse falling back down to the road. “Alright, we know now that if any of those things tries to get in your body. You will possibly turn into some super beast to spread more of this shit to other places. They’re the carriers of the alien life form,” she said. Cindy had pointed to the dead alien on the road as it’s body finally stopped squirming.
A revival suddenly came rushing out of the alleyway with it’s sights set on Kim. Tristan was going to jump in the way to save his friend, but something took the thing down first. The body twitched a few times on the road as it’s brains slid out from the large hole in it’s head.
“What the hell just happened? Did anyone take a shot?!” Tristan said while holding his weapon close. Everyone looked around until a single man with a rifle came out from behind a car.
“Freddy?!” Cindy said as she ran over to hug the man tightly. Four more people came out from the side of a building nearby.
“Glad to see you’re still alive Kim,” Christine said with a smile.
Sarah was holding onto a little girl‘s hand as she came into view. Though Kim immediately brought her gun up when she saw Valerie near the little girl.
“What the hell is she doing here?! She was going to kill me and Tristan at the police station awhile ago!” she said while holding the weapon up. The little girl looked up at Valerie, then to the one that was aiming the gun at her.
“You lie! Big sister would never do that!” the little girl had said. Valerie had looked away from Kim to see that Tristan was in a uniform like the others.
“So you ended up joining them too?” she had asked him while ignoring Kim’s question. Everyone besides Valerie, Sarah and the high school students were wearing the OPC standard uniform.
Kim took a step closer with the gun still aiming at Valerie’s head.
“Don’t ignore me! I want to know why the hell you’re still alive! Where is the other psychotic bitch? Crystal was it?” she had asked the woman. Tristan came over to stand in her way as his arms spread out wide.
“That’s enough. She’s changed her ways since the last time you saw her,” he had told her. Christine and Cindy stood beside Kim while Freddy watched from the school bus. Matthew stomped his foot on the road a few times to catch their attention.
“I hate to break up the reunion but, that army of flesh eating dead dudes are coming over here now. Are we going with the plan or will we just wait until that missile arrives?” he told the lot. Sarah looked at Matthew with a puzzled look on her face.
“What missile? What are you talking about?” she had asked him. Marilyn placed her arm around his waist while facing the woman they first met the other morning.
“If we don’t escape with the rescue team. The missile that is on it’s way will wipe us out along with the town,” said Marilyn.
Sarah placed a hand to her face with the sounds of the hungry monsters getting closer.
“Alright, what’s this plan of yours?” she asked him. Tristan and Matthew stood in front of the woman while attempting to explain the fast version of their escape plan.
“So you see, if we can drive through the entrance of the gate. We can than seal it off so the others can’t enter the park!” the two men had said at the same time. The officer went over to the bus where some familiar faces were hiding inside.
“Weren’t you kids at the cafeteria the other day? Wait!” she had asked before su
ddenly stopping herself. Someone was missing. She quickly hopped out of the bus to face the other survivors that were on the road. “Where is Roxanne?” she asked them. Kim went over to her with a sad look upon her face. “Kim, where is Roxanne? She was with you guys wasn’t she?!” she had asked again.
Cindy moved the college girl to the side to stand face to face with the officer.
“I’m sorry, but your friend was killed at the mall,” she had said to her. Sarah became angered when she received the news about the science teacher.
“Who? Who did it?! What did it?!” she had yelled out. Kim brought out the large hunting knife.
“Her name was Mary. She was with those students that are in the bus right now. They captured us and took our weapons away within the mall,” Kim explained. Christine noticed the dried blood left on the handle of the knife.
“She used my knife on your teacher friend?” she said in disgust. Kim turned to face the owner of the blade.
“Yes, but I ended the girls life when I got my hands on this. She was the first life I’ve ever taken…” Kim said in a low tone. Sarah glared at the students on the bus with her fists tightening up.
“If they helped with her death, then why the hell are they even here? Shouldn’t they be left to defend themselves on their own?!” she had said out of anger. Cindy pushed the officer back with a light shove.
“Don’t forget your place! You are an officer of the law! You’re suppose to serve and protect the people in this town!” Cindy had said to her face. Sarah had reached down into her pocket to pull out the badge that she had kept all this time.
“This doesn’t mean anything anymore! The police have been destroyed!” said Sarah. She threw the badge to the crowd of flesh eaters with all of her strength. “I’m not a cop. Not anymore,” she said with her blond bangs covering some of her eyes.
Freddy and Kim got in between the two that were having the argument.
“You two just cool it. I have an idea to draw most of those things away from the entrance. But that means the two that are busy with the distraction might not make it out alive if something goes wrong,” Freddy had explained. Sarah went over to retrieve her weapon while staring at the students in the bus. She knew they were just doing what they thought was right at the time to survive, but they were still little monsters to her.
“I volunteer to be the distraction. Nothing here for me anyways if something happens. I’m sure everyone here has family out there somewhere,” Sarah said. Kim tried to grab her hand to stop her, but the woman just shrugged her off. Everyone watched as the lonesome ex-officer walked over to the horde of creatures by herself. Cindy went to the bus to start it up when she noticed that Freddy went over to join Sarah.
“What the heck is that moron doing?” she had asked herself.
The snarling rotting bodies brought their arms up when they saw two of the living come closer.
“You sure you want to do this? Don’t you have a mother or father waiting for you?” Sarah asked the man that was beside her. Freddy moved his hand up to his vest to remove a necklace that had two wedding rings around it.
“They are always with me,” he said to her. Sarah did the same to pull out a necklace with a locket hanging at the end. The item opened up to reveal a happy couple smiling together.
“That makes us the same then,” she said. Sarah held out her hand while staring up at the man to formally introduce herself. “The name is Sarah, Sarah Parson,” she said with a brief smile. The tall man turned to face the attractive woman with his hand taking hers.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Sarah Parson. My name is Freddy Nakamura. My father was from Kyoto while my mother was born in California,” he said.
Sarah shook his hand before turning her attention to one of the creatures that had lunged itself at them. Sarah pushed the man away before bringing her leg over to the monster’s head. She brought it up high enough to smack against one of the rotting heads. The body fell to it’s side with the black blood spilling out of the open neck that was forced open from the hit. Freddy turned around to see that the bus was heading their way while it picked up some more speed.
“What the hell are they doing?! This wasn’t part of the plan!” he said in surprise. As the bus drove by, Sarah noticed who it was that was driving it.
“Those brats hijacked the damn thing,” she said to herself.
They watched as the bus collided with the hungry fiends that blocked their way. Without them being the distraction to divide their attention, the blockade was too thick for them to drive through. It didn’t take long for the bus to be tipped over to the side with the sounds of the high school students screaming out for help. Freddy couldn’t help but watch what was happening in front of them. The creatures were pulling the bodies out to feast upon in a grizzly manner.
Velski and the others came over to Sarah as Cindy was being carried by Matthew. She had a stab wound inflicted to the side of her stomach.
“I take it one of them surprised her from behind when she went inside the bus?” Sarah asked. Kim watched as the students that were just devoured became one with the reanimated. They stood there as their veins turned black with blood leaking out of their eyes. Sarah pointed to them while staring at the group beside her.
“They’re about to change into those revivals with the aliens inside being active. We need to come up with something quick before our luck runs out,” Sarah said to the others. Velski looked up at the sky when the sounds of their saviors were coming closer to that section of the town.
“Time out. They’re already here,” Velski said in a defeated tone. Only two helicopters that were black with wide bodies to carry a good amount of people inside each of them could be seen. There was originally suppose to be five of them, but only two were coming. Something was already odd about one of them when they got closer.
“Oh no…” Kim whispered to herself. They couldn’t help but watch as one of the helicopter’s started to spin out of control before crashing into another one in midair. The explosion shook the area with the destruction landing down on the street they were on.
“What happened?! Why did it spin out of control?!” Valerie said as her body began to shake from the fear of no possible escape. The little girl was crying beside her leg while holding onto her. Marilyn and Matthew couldn’t believe what they just witnessed.
“That…That was our only way out!” Marilyn had yelled.
The damaged walkie-talkie on Cindy’s belt started to go off with a familiar voice coming from it.
“This is Christian Blake from the OPC,” he said through the device. The man was breathing heavily from what the people could hear. “I have something urgent to tell you if any of you are still alive out there,” Blake said. Sarah grabbed the device from wounded soldier’s belt before speaking into it.
“This is Officer Sarah Parson with the Little Bow Police Department. What is this urgent news you need to share? We’re all stranded here because your helicopters wrecked into each other,” she had explained to him. The man was coughing from his side of the walkie-talkie before he spoke again.
“We couldn’t contain it…” he said while holding in some coughs. Everyone had a confused expression on their face when the man said it like that.
“Couldn’t contain what?” Sarah asked. The man could be heard screaming out in pain while the familiar sounds of the flesh eating bastards escaped from the walkie-talkie.
“Freddy! Where is the OPC Headquarters located?” Sarah had asked him. Christine pointed towards north with her eyes filled with tears from the loss of her mentor.
“This branch of the OPC is located in Travis, Texas. Nearly forty miles from here if my memory serves right,” he said. Velski pulled Christine into her arms to comfort her during this dark time. Tristan was glaring at the turned over bus. He was able to see the mutated bodies of the student’s finally taking their first steps in their direction.
“We need to know what it was that they kept contained. We can�
��t let what happened here happen anywhere else,” said Tristan.
Sarah turned to face the ten remaining survivors that stood in front of her with the look of defeat in their eyes. Cindy was being carried by Matthew while Christine seemed to be out of it. Little Susan was being held by Valerie on the road with the tears rolling down their faces. Tristan and Freddy were aiming over at the new threat that was walking towards them from the turned over school bus. Marilyn and Kim watched as the fire continued to dance along the wreckage of the helicopters.
Velski handed her machine gun over to Sarah before heading over to Freddy and Tristan.
“Guys! We need to think of a way out of here before we run out of time. Now, who here knows of any transportation out of here?” Sarah had asked them. Marilyn turned back to face the ex-police officer with a smile slowly growing on her face again.
“There’s a helicopter at the hospital. The keys were left inside when we left that place. It can probably fit about five people in it though,” Marilyn said sadly. Christine’s color came back when she heard about the spare helicopter.
“Is…Is it undamaged?” the soldier had asked her. Marilyn faced her as her own hands rested on her hips.
“Some of those things were scratching at the door on the side, but I think it should still be in working order,” Marilyn happily said. The soldier went over to Cindy to check on her wound.
“How far is it to the hospital from here?” she asked. Kim followed Christine as she kept an eye on the five mutated humanoid monsters.
“It’s about a mile from here. We can probably make it in time if we start running now,” Sarah had told them as she started to jog in the direction of the hospital.
Chapter 10