by Morris, SJ
With the sniper expectedly looking that way, I quickly crawled to another set of trees in the opposite direction. Two more bullets blasted the same area where I had previously thrown the rocks, so I took the chance to move closer to the raised building.
My plan was to flank the men on the deck of the Visitors Center and take the shooter by surprise. The building was built like a treehouse with a central set of stairs leading up to the wrap-around decking. If I could get underneath the deck, I might be able to take out the sniper and the other two shooters. That would even the odds against us a little.
“Come on out! We’ve got you surrounded. There’s nowhere for you to go, dumbass. You’re outgunned and outnumbered so you might as well make this easy on yourself!” a raspy voice from above me yelled out.
“Shut up, you idiot. You’re giving away our position,” another voice whispered harshly.
The floodlights casted shadows through the decking showing me exactly where each of the men was standing above me. There was one about fifty feet to my right, one about sixty feet to my left and two standing almost right above me. The two above me had to be the sniper and his spotter. These two had to be my first targets if my friends had any chance of survival.
Breathing deeply, I focused on the targets above me. I found the best position possible for the shots with my back pressed against the stone wall. I tightened my grip on my Barretta, my palms were sweaty from the adrenaline rush. Killing the infected is easy. Taking out the living because they’re trying to kill you is a whole other ballgame. In the age-old war of good versus evil, good has to win, though, right? Even if it does mean having to kill the living.
I felt a chill go through my body as I took aim at the figures above me. Just because I had to kill these men didn’t mean I had to like it. That’s the difference between them and me. Or at least, that’s what I told myself as I fired two rounds into the shapes above me.
My shots had the desired effect as both men cursed and fell to the floor above me. I fired two more rounds, and their yelling stopped. The other figures on either side of me both rush toward the stairs leading down to me, so I ran for them.
I made it to the steps before my pursuers did, and I hid behind them. I saw the black barrel of an M16 peek over the railing. I positioned myself just underneath it, and when the shadow of the man holding the rifle appeared before me, I took aim at his head and fired again.
My bullet hit its target dead-on, and the now lifeless body of a soldier I once knew from Brigantine’s compound tumbled like a ragdoll down the remainder of the stairs. Three down, one to go... that I know of anyway.
The fourth man appeared to have stopped before coming down the stairs and knew I was underneath the structure. He must be standing flush with the building above me because his outline has disappeared from my sight. Either that or he went inside to get reinforcements. If that was the case, I was screwed. I was now down to my last four bullets in my fifteen-round magazine, so I didn’t have enough ammunition to last in a firefight.
‘Please God, if you’re out there, don’t let this dickwad be getting more guys,’ I pleaded silently in my head.
I decide to move back to where I was previously when I shot the sniper and his spotter. It’s the place I would least expect me to go, so I hoped the soldier thought that too.
I almost shit my pants as a hand slid around my face, covering my mouth, and Lynn whispered into my ear, “Shh, it’s just us. There’s still one guy up there, though.”
Kamil lifted his head past Lynn’s body. He gave me a quick wave and a smile before he sunk back into the wall behind us.
Lynn released her hand from my lips, and I immediately missed the absence of her warm breath in my ear, and the delicate touch of her soft skin on my face as my heart beat faster. I was struck dumb by the intoxicating smell of Lynn’s hair, and the heat from her body pressed tightly against mine. I had to force myself to focus on the task at hand. “Where is he?” I whispered back to her, remembering we were in deep shit at the moment.
Lynn looked me over slowly like she realized the effect she had on me and smiled cunningly. “He ran to the other side of the porch. He’s hiding behind the corner of the building over there to the left.”
“Do you think I can get the M16 from the guy that fell down the stairs? Or do you think he’ll see me?” I asked, wanting to be better armed for the possible firefight to come.
“It’s a gamble, but if you want, give me your gun, and I’ll lay some cover fire for you to quickly grab it.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot you were in the Air Force,” I said, feeling like an idiot for treating her like she was some delicate flower instead of the trained killing machine she was. She was amazing with her sword, but I could imagine she was just as deadly with a gun. I’m sure her Air Force training made sure of that.
“Yeah, and I outrank you, Private First-Class Smith, so don’t forget it again. On three. Ready? One... Two... Three,” she whispered as she ran forward under the cover of the decking while firing at the far corner’s floorboards.
I darted out quickly, unclipped the M16 from the lifeless body tangled at the bottom of the stairs, grabbed the extra magazines from his belt, and raced back to the wall.
Lynn continued to creep around the wall towards the far end where the soldier had been hiding, the 9mm raised. I only heard three shots from the gun while Lynn was covering me, leaving her with one round remaining.
I slapped the wall with my hand, trying subtly to get Lynn’s attention. She pulled her gaze from above her to me angrily. I motioned to her with my hands that she only had one round left in the chamber, and she shook her head as if to say, ‘Tell me something I don’t already know.’
There I go again, not treating her like she knew what she was doing. I suck at this trying to gain favor with women thing.
Lynn disappeared from view, followed by a loud bang. I rushed to where she was standing last, and we bumped into one another rounding the corner.
“Oh, shit! What the hell are you doing, Jimmy?” Lynn murmured.
“I heard the shot, and I wanted to make sure you didn’t need backup,” I replied, taking in the sweet smell of her hair even though it was matted with dirt and blood.
“I’m fine. The moron peeked over the railing, and I took the shot. He’s down, and I didn’t see any other men. We should still take it slow up the stairs though, we don’t know what the situation is inside the Center, and the gunfire could attract more soldiers to our position,” Lynn said, readjusting herself between me and the wall, and then sliding the empty 9mm back into my holster. “My, my, Jimmy. Is that your gun… or are you just happy to see me?” she giggled as she slowly hugged the wall back towards where Kamil was still waiting.
Ugh, this woman was going to drive me mad. The worst part was she was enjoying every second of it, and I didn’t even know if she really liked me or if she was just flirting to be nice. ’Priorities, Jimmy!’ I chastised myself. ’Men with guns taking over the Visitors Center – Remember! I reprimanded my inner self.
Kamil looked over at me as I returned to the group and closed his eyes like he was concentrating on something.
“I asked him, “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”
“Shh!” he responded quickly, closing his eyes tighter. “Do you guys hear that? It sounds like... a helicopter!” he yelled, running over to the stairs but still using them as cover.
Lynn and I were right behind him as the sounds became crystal clear. There was a helicopter heading our way.
Lynn gulped, “I haven’t seen a helicopter since this whole mess started. What the hell is one doing here?”
“I don’t know, but we better go find out. Armed men taking over the Visitor’s Center while Troy and Dr. Dodges are supposed to be working together on how to fix this plague is shitty enough. Now we throw a helicopter into the mix, and this has bad news written all over it. Can you guys tell where it’s landing? I can’t see anything through these trees, but it sounds
like it’s over on the other side.”
Lynn crouched down and began sliding against the wall back towards where she shot the last guard. “I can’t tell either, but we need to find out what the hell is going on. Let’s move, boys,” she ordered.
“Yes, ma’am!” I responded.
Chapter 14
Jimmy Smith
We rounded the corner of the building just in time to see a Black Hawk helicopter landing in the clearing behind the property. Heavily armed men jumped out and began scanning the area. I ducked down behind some bushes and motioned for Lynn and Kamil to do the same.
The last thing we needed was to get into a gunfight with a helicopter full of heavily armed mercenaries.
We watched on as at least a half a dozen men outfitted to the gills in tactical gear surrounded two hooded figures and shoved their captives toward the waiting helicopter.
“I’ll give you two guesses as to who’s under those hoods,” I said, shaking my head, wishing we could do something to help.
Lynn let out a heavy sigh. “I’ll bet the rest of my people are either dead or tied up in the bunker in the basement of the Visitors Center if that’s Troy and Dr. Dodges being loaded onto that helicopter.”
“Shit!” Kamil muttered.
“Yeah, shit is right. We don’t have enough firepower here to do much of anything but get ourselves killed if we try to rescue the doctors. We have to help the others who might be alive inside. We only heard that one shot earlier, so maybe the soldiers were just trying to show how serious they were about taking the doctors, and they didn’t actually hurt anyone. One of the guards I shot before, I remember him from Brigantine’s compound, so we might at least know where they’re taking Troy and Stuart. Once they lift off, let’s see what direction they’re headed in and go inside to see who we can find.”
“Sounds like a solid plan, Private First-Class Smith.” Lynn smiled her devilish grin at me again, which I pretended to ignore.
We watched on as the Black Hawk took off after all of the men, including our shrouded friends, piled inside. They were heading southeast it looked like, maybe into the city.
Not wasting any time, I took the lead up the stairs into the Visitors Center, keeping my head on a swivel with my M16 at the ready. The inside of the building was completely trashed. There were random materials everywhere. It looked like this was the main dining area for the people living here, but that a tornado had come through destroying everything. Pots and pans were scattered all over the floor. Canned goods were strewn about mixed with plastic plates and cutlery.
Lynn looked heartbroken. “Look at the mess these guys made. It’s going to take us forever to clean all this up,” she said, picking up a few pots and putting them back on the counter. “The bunker we use for food storage is down those steps,” Lynn said, pointing to a stairwell in the back of the room. “My guess is if anyone’s left alive, they’re down there. It’s where I’d put hostages.”
I scanned the dark hallway leading to the stairs looking for armed gunman, but instead, I found three blocks of C-4 stuck to the wall with a timer embedded into the clay. The timer read eleven minutes and forty-five seconds... Fuck.
“Ugh, guys. I’m going to need your help over here and be quick about it!” I yelled to Kamil and Lynn.
“What now?” Kamil asked, sounding exhausted.
“Do either of you have any idea how to diffuse a bomb?”
Lynn stopped dead in her tracks, looking at me, and then looking at the C-4 on the wall with the numbers ticking down. “Son of a bitch! I don’t know how to diffuse it, but I do know that if we try, it’s more than likely going to go off before the timer is up. We need to get downstairs to see if there’s anyone down there and now! We’ve only got eleven minutes and twenty-nine seconds, so let’s go!” Lynn yelled as she took off down the stairs.
Kamil and I followed her. I set my watch to go off in eleven minutes as we descended. That gave us a fifteen-second buffer to know if we were really fucked or not.
We made it to the lowest floor, and Lynn had already started cutting the ropes of all of the survivors she found in the pantry room. She yelled for me to check the other three rooms in the building, and I did as I was instructed.
The first two were empty of people but stocked full of supplies. It made my chest hurt to know that in a matter of minutes, all of these stockpiled supplies that could be very useful to the existence of everyone here were about to go up in a huge fireball.
The third area I checked had another bomb stuck to the door and a group of about ten women and children inside. All of them were bound with their wrists behind their backs and hoods over their faces.
Whoever it was that did this didn’t want anyone knowing who they were or what they were doing. I was surprised, especially since they were planning on blowing the whole building sky-high with everyone in it, but who am I to question the leaders of a crazy government conspiracy ring hellbent on ending the human race?
I quickly cut everyone free and rushed them all up the stairs. I met Lynn and Kamil, and we confirmed we had checked everywhere for survivors.
“Did anyone see Dr. Nasser?” I questioned.
Lynn looked completely defeated. “No,” she sighed. “There’s an office upstairs. It’s like a lookout where you can see around the entire Visitors Center. Maybe she’s up there.”
“I’ll go, you get everyone as far away from the building as possible. I don’t know how big the blast is going to be, but I know there’s C-4 planted in at least two locations, so I guess it’s going to be one hell of an explosion,” I said, checking my watch. Four minutes and thirty-five seconds.
Kamil slapped my shoulder and clutched his side as he ran towards the front doors. By the looks of it, he was in a great deal of pain. I had no idea how he was still upright. The growing red bloodstain on his shirt indicated all of the action and running this evening had definitely split his stitches.
Lynn looked at me longingly. “Be careful up there and be quick about it, would ya,” she demanded as she grabbed my face and kissed me intensely.
I looked down at my watch and told her, “Hey, if I’m not out of here in four minutes, don’t wait for me. Just get everyone down to the gates. Hopefully, they hold because this explosion is going to attract every shuffling meat bag right to us. If the gates don’t hold, you’re going to have to find a way to get everyone back to the cabin ASAP before the undead show up.”
“Thank you, Jimmy,” Lynn responded as she took off running.
I took the stairs three at a time, trying to not waste any time, but my body was tired and hungry, so my energy was zapped. I think the only thing that kept me going at this moment was sheer adrenaline. I huffed and puffed, but I made it upstairs with three minutes to spare.
Dr. Nasser was duct-taped to an office chair with the tape covering her eyes and mouth as well. I cut her hands free first, and she pulled the tape away from her eyes as I cut her feet loose. I reached up to her mouth, and Dr. Nasser pulled away, covering her mouth with her hands, groaning through the tape and shaking her head anxiously. She pointed to the back of the office door that, well, what do you know? It had yet another brick of C-4 stuck to it with another timer that was now down to just under two minutes.
“Is there anyone else up here with you?” I asked, not wanting to leave anyone behind.
Dr. Nasser vehemently shook her head no as she ran for the stairs. Hell, you didn’t have to tell me twice. I followed her jumping down the steps now four and five at a time as we rushed to get out before the entire building exploded.
I looked at my watch as we reached the front doors, pushing them open quickly, and we ran down the front steps to the grass walkway. Twenty-six seconds is what was left on my watch. It was going to be close, but Dr. Nasser and I ran as fast as we possibly could through the trees and tall grasses that surrounded the property.
I saw Lynn, Kamil, and the others all waiting by the front fence illuminated only by the light of the moon when
I felt it. The air behind me felt like it was sucking me back for a fraction of a second before I was being thrown through the air with a flash of hot heat on my back, followed by a deafening boom that fractured the previously quiet night.
I was thrown hard into the grass as bits and pieces of glass and metal shrapnel rained down around us. My thoughts after the explosion were for everyone else’s safety, so I clawed at the ground, trying to stabilize myself enough to stand when my watch began to beep, and another blast hit me. This one seemed to shake the very ground we were standing on, like an earthquake. I guess the first explosion was the one in the crow’s nest, and the second was the one underground. Either way, the last thing I remember was almost standing and then being pushed back to the trembling ground by a massive fireball erupting from the center of where the Visitors Center once stood. When I fell backward this time, everything went black.
I woke up dazed, my head spinning. It was still night, but my surroundings were illuminated by a bright orange glowing fire roaring out of the earth where the Wawayanda State Park Visitors Center once stood. I looked at my watch that was still beeping. The face was cracked, but overall the timepiece had survived. I pushed the button on the side to stop the timer from going off.
I pushed myself up with my hands, spitting out dirt and grass from my mouth that I had inadvertently chomped on when I was thrown to the ground face-first by the second explosion.
I looked around, and Dr. Nasser was lying a few feet away from me, her mouth still covered with the silver tape but no apparent life-threatening injuries I could see. I crawled over to her and began picking at the corners of the tape, attempting to remove it. If I were knocked unconscious, I’d want my mouth to breathe through. Do unto others, right? As I picked, she started coming too and almost punched me in the face, flailing her arms and pushing me away.