“Emile!” Alek protested. “What happened to the ‘no guns in the cottage’ rule?”
Emile grinned at him, “That’s why I grabbed the smallest one that I could find.”
Alek sighed, “Alright fine, but just—Keep it in your pants, okay?”
Emile initially chortled at this remark, but then, after it replayed in his mind, his guilty conscience interpreted it as a double entendre and sent a reflexive jolt down his spine.
‘Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock!’
The second visitor of the day to the cottage had a far more hurried and urgent knocking, however.
“I’ll get it this time.” Alek strolled over towards the door; Emile was now feeling too much guilt in his mind to even react to this.
Alek opened the door.
“Oh!” It was Rajan, who had been caught by surprise, “Hello there! I—Um, well, to be honest, I wasn’t aware that anybody lived here. I was only knocking to make sure!”
“…I’m sorry, who are you?” Alek did not recognise the shocked face on his doorstep.
“Of course! Where are my manners?” Rajan shook his head at his own impoliteness, “I’m Rajan, part of the new group that arrived recently.
Alek’s face flooded with realisation, “Oh right! Yes, I know of you. You’re the one in charge, right?”
“Oh please,” Rajan played down this question, “I hardly think of myself as a leader.” In truth, and in ego, however, Rajan very much did believe that his moral stance put him in charge of the rest of his group.
“Is there—Is there anything I can help you with?” Alek asked, still not entirely sure of why a newcomer had come this far out into the safe zone.
“I come seeking refuge!” Rajan was enthusiastically honest.
“Alright then, well, you’d better come in.” Alek stepped aside to permit him passage.
“I—Wait, really?” Rajan was surprised at how co-operative Alek was being.
“Yes, really,” Alek affirmed, “It’s okay. We don’t want to fight and die the people outside either.”
As Rajan stepped in, he questioned Alek’s choice of words, “We?”
“Yes, Emile and I.” Alek nodded over to the window where his fiancé was stood and introduced him.
“Oh, forgive me! I didn’t see you there!” Rajan commented in jest at how still Emile was being as he rested against the window ledge.
“Nice to meet you too.” Emile languidly stated.
Rajan looked back and forth between the two cottage residents, “Are you two… Brothers?” He guessed.
Alek laughed, “No, no. We’re engaged.”
“Engaged?” Rajan further enquired, “How so? Like a phone line?” He clearly didn’t understand what Alek was getting at.
“He means that we’re boyfriends and we’re getting married.” Emile intervened and declared the entire truth to spare Rajan from further embarrassing himself.
“Oh… Oh!” Rajan slapped himself as he realised his mistake, “I do apologise!”
“It’s alright, don’t sweat it.” As Alek forgave Rajan for his mistake, a new thought was turning over in his mind: Did he really look like he could be related to his fiancé?
“Just so you know,” Rajan began, “I’m not armed. You can search me if you wish, but I assure you, I am quite opposed to violence.”
Alek nodded at him appreciatively, “No need, I believe you.” He was already rather fond of this new friend of his.
“I don’t think I caught your name?” Rajan asked, realising that Alek had only introduced Emile.
“It’s Alek, sorry.” He introduced himself, and now he was the one apologising for lack of manners, “Pleasure to meet you.” He offered his hand out for a shake.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Alek.” Rajan gratefully accepted Alek’s handshake.
Emile had resumed staring at the window, though he was not looking outside. Instead, he was gazing deep into his own guilty-looking reflection; whatever happened now, it would change the rest of both his life and his relationship with Alek forevermore…
Chapter 19: Recrudescence
As the sun began to set on that day, people were beginning to depart from the main gate, believing that the threat of danger was decreasing. Mac and Dawn, however, stood firm to the spot. The only other person who remained at their side by the time the sun had completely gone down was Rylie.
“This is Cora, we’re activating the lights.” As she had done at this time every single evening, Cora announced over the open frequency the activation of the lights within the safe zone.
Due to the southern solar farm being out of action, only the northern side of the safe zone would light up each night now, powered by the solar farm on its’ own side.
“God, I hate this fucking tunnel.” Mac comically remarked to Dawn and Rylie.
“Yeah, me too.” Rylie agreed.
“I kind of like the dark, actually.” Dawn rebutted.
Both Mac and Rylie gasped at her in unison, “What??” Although this was partly because they were themselves quite afraid of the dark and foreboding tunnel behind the gate, they were also surprised that the mother who had lost her son was so fearless.
“If you can walk into it and live,” Dawn explained, “Then you know there’s nothing to be afraid of. But if there is, then you’re dead before you can even realise that.” Although it sounded like she was speaking from experience, neither Mac nor Rylie felt brave enough to ask her why she thought this, afraid that it may trigger memories of her son.
Back in the armoury, Marianne was still stroking her newly acquired revolver. All the murmurs and inserting of magazines around her had been completely fazed out by the adrenaline pounding in her ears.
“Don’t come up these stairs for anything, okay? You’ll be safe down here, Tia, I promise.” Adela had escorted her sister down into the armoury, which was going to be locked up once everybody who was willing to fight had armed themselves.
At the mention of Tia’s name, Marianne had zoned back into reality; the next few moments for her happened in slow motion. As she menacingly turned around, holding the revolver firmly at her side, she fixated her eyes on young Tia who was cowering down beneath an empty rifle rack, completely terrified.
“But sis, why aren’t you staying with me?” Tia frightfully asked Adela.
Her sister sighed, “I have to fight for the future, Tia. I have to fight for—For any other little boys and girls that would be born.” She cryptically referred to her pregnancy without flat-out stating this fact to Tia.
Still feeling the extent of every little thing that happened between one heartbeat and the next, Marianne began striding over towards Tia.
“As soon as we win,” Adela told her with confidence, “I’ll come back for you. I promise. I will never leave you behind, okay?”
Slightly sobbing, Tia nodded and trusted in her sister.
“Look after her, will you?” Adela softly asked two other residents who were staying in hiding as well; they both nodded without a shadow of a doubt in their minds.
After Adela had ascended out of the armoury, Marianne loomed over Tia, “You…” She addressed her with stern eyes.
“Marianne?” The terrified Tia asked, “Is—Is everything alright?”
Marianne’s grip on her revolver began to loosen as her second thoughts regained control of her conscience. But then, she remembered Emile’s threat.
“I will go back in there and tell Alek that you knew I cheated on him all along. Do I make myself clear?” His ominous words replayed through her head several times.
“Marianne? What’s wrong?” Tia prompted her once more, watching as she continued to stare down at her.
As Marianne slowly lifted her revolver, still pointing it downwards, she pressed open the six-chamber cylinder and loaded in a single bullet before gently snapping the cylinder back into place in the firearm.
Tia’s lips began to quiver, afraid of what exactly Marianne was playing at
it.
Now that all the fighters had departed from the armoury, the doors thumped shut behind them, leaving all the residents who were unwilling to fight safely tucked away inside in the darkness.
As Marianne’s pupils dilated in adjustment to the sudden lack of light, she fixated back on Tia, “I only loaded one bullet into this revolver…”
TWELVE HOURS LATER…
The sun was quickly rising over the city again.
Whilst Rylie had succumbed to the desire of sleep and was currently resting underneath a nearby tree, Mac and Dawn had been awake the whole night keeping watch. As such, they were both extremely tired by now.
“Mac I—I can’t do this anymore.” Dawn professed lethargically.
“Go wake Rylie up,” Mac requested as he yawned deeply, “I’ll take the morning shift with them.”
Dawn shook her head and refuted, “You—You need to sleep as well.”
“No…Not yet.” Mac’s eyes were bloodshot, but he would very soon be wide awake again.
Having woken up and smelt the ashes bright and early, Rob and Michelle were trekking towards the gate.
“Michelle! Rob! Wait up!” Nate called out as he caught up with his two friends.
“Nate? What the hell are you doing up here?” Michelle questioned him.
“Yeah, shouldn’t you be down in the armoury with Vivi and Yelena?” Rob further questioned of him.
“They’re my friends,” Nate answered, “I’m up here because of them. I want to fight for them both.”
Michelle and Rob looked at each other and grinned.
“Alright kid,” Rob put his arm around Nate’s shoulder, “Stick with us, and you’ll save those lovely ladies in no time.”
Complying with Mac’s request, Dawn had indeed gone to take a nap underneath the nearby tree, swapping places with Rylie.
“Mac,” Rylie addressed him as they noticed his bloodshot eyes, “You should go get your head down as well. I’ll summon you if anything changes.”
“No—I’m staying.” Mac bluntly refuted, again letting out a huge yawn as he did so.
But then, a mechanical noise resonated out from around the corner of the tunnel on the other side of the gate, causing Mac to now fully awake.
“We’ve got incoming!” Rylie carelessly yelled out to the rest of the fighters, who all raised their weapons in preparation.
“Rylie! What the hell?” Mac groaned to them.
“What?” Rylie rebutted as they primed their own rifle, “Better to be alert, aware and alive than disarmed and dead, right?”
“Yes, but we don’t what’s coming around the corner!” Mac was not entirely convinced that this would be the beginning of The Bandits’ attack.
Ignoring Mac’s concerns, Rylie rested the barrel of their rifle through the gate bars.
Quickly thereafter, a minibus came zooming into view from around the corner.
‘PEW! PEW!’
Rylie fired two shots at the oncoming vehicle.
“Rylie, stop!” Mac put his hand on Rylie’s shoulder, causing them to cease firing.
Seconds later, the minibus had stopped halfway up the tunnel. There were two bullet holes in the windshield, though the driver could very clearly be seen to be alive and well in the front seat.
Hearing the motor rumbling out through the tunnel, Michelle, Rob, Nate, Sandra, and Kieran all traced their weapons on the gate as well.
The side door of the minibus aggressively slid open as Nolan jumped out and marched onwards towards the gate.
“Did you seriously just shoot my fucking van?!” He bellowed out aggressively towards Rylie, who was still firmly resting their rifle through the gate bars.
“No,” Rylie retorted, “I shot your fucking minibus. There’s a difference.”
Upon hearing this quip, Nolan’s aggressive expression lightened up into an eerie scowl, “Very funny. Very funny indeed—I’ll be sure to write that joke down as your epitaph.”
“And I’ll be sure to write your mislabelling of your own vehicle as yours.” Rylie was equally as cocky.
In another life, if things were not as tense as they were here, there could’ve been great and humorous chemistry between Nolan and Rylie.
“Let me tell you all how this is gonna go,” Nolan spoke louder this time, addressing the crowd that was growing around the other side of the gate, “Originally, the plan was to bust your gate down and kill every single one of you and make your abandoned territory a part of Kyle’s lands.” He admitted to the plan that everyone was expecting. “But now, I only want one thing from you: Gwen.”
Baffled and uneased, all of the fighters at the gate looked to and from each other.
“What do you want with her?” Mac questioned back.
“She’s the one who killed Kyle.” Nolan revealed, causing several of the fighters to gasp, for this was not well-known information. “You bring her to this gate, we’ll execute her, and then our paths never have to cross again, what do you think of that?”
Mac laughed this request off, “Why on earth would we bow to your demands when you can fit your entire force in a fucking minibus?”
Rylie snickered as well, as Mac’s pointed this fact out.
“Well, you’ve got me there,” Nolan professed, “All of The Bandits that are still alive can indeed fit on this bus,” he pointed to the vehicle behind him, “But do you know what else we’ve got room for?”
Mac tittered with a raised brow, playing right into Nolan’s little game, feeling completely unthreatened by him, “No idea. What else?”
“Big, big, guns.” Nolan sneered malevolently as he stepped aside, revealing another bandit stood behind him who had a bazooka over their shoulder.
Unexpectedly, Mac and Rylie’s faces quickly flooded with fear.
“Everybody run!” Mac declared as he fled from the gate flailing his arms about desperately.
As the fighters all noticed the bazooka wielder through the gate, they too scattered and meandered in various directions to avoid the upcoming explosion.
“Blow it open!!” Nolan bellowed his order to his subordinate.
Instantly conforming, the bandit pulled the trigger on the bazooka and sent the rocket within hurtling towards the gate…
Almost instantly, a safe zone-wide gunfight had broken out as The Bandits poured in past the blown-off-its’-hinges front gate.
Rob, Michelle, and Nate had taken cover behind an upturned car – the vehicle being this way due to the recent storm – down the street which led directly into the tunnel.
They would take turns at leaning over the underside of the boot and the underside of the bonnet as they returned fire at the attackers.
“God dammit!” Rob exclaimed. “I swear there’s more of those fuckers than would fit on that minibus.” He was absolutely right, for many of The Bandits had actually been lagging behind the vehicle as a sort of ‘second wave’ to throw the safe zone residents off.
“I can’t get a shot!” Nate professed, for each time that he tried to peer up over the underside of the bonnet, a bullet ricocheted off of the cover.
“We’ve just got to bide our time, okay?” Michelle calmed her two comrades, “We’re not the only ones fighting these assholes, remember? They’ll get distracted soon enough and then we’ll have our chance to shoot back at them efficiently!”
Taking a deep and impatient breath, Nate took a chance. “Motherfuckers--!”
As he jumped out from behind the underside of the bonnet and proclaimed this expletive, a bullet had instantly ripped through his head before he could curse any further.
“Nate!” Michelle gasped in horror as she watched her ally’s corpse fall backwards onto the ground with a fresh bullet in his head.
“There’s nothing we can do for him, ‘Chelle!” Rob tried to multitask between comforting her and returning fire at The Neo-Bandits from around the back of the car.
Although Michelle had seen people die before, and had even killed some of them herself, it h
ad been a while since she had lost someone close to her, in both a literal and figurative sense alike.
“Michelle, look at me!” Rob forced her to focus on him, “I need you to stay with me, right here in this moment… If you don’t, then we’re both gonna end up dead right alongside him, okay?” Although this seemed like a rather heartless thing to say about Nate, it was also something that was very much said in the heat of the moment.
Michelle reluctantly nodded, understanding that there would be time to grieve for their deceased friend later.
Nolan, with several other bandits, were firing away into the safe zone from behind the cover of several trees and bushes just next to the entrance to the tunnel.
“I think I killed the kid!” One of The Bandits proudly proclaimed; he was the one who had been shooting at the car which Rob, Michelle, and Nate were hidden behind.
“Good!” Nolan was impressed. “Now kill the other two as well!” But he was also restless and a difficult leader to please indeed.
‘BANG! BANG!’
Peering out from an alleyway, Kieran took several well-aimed shots towards The Bandits that were hiding in the bushes and firing down the street.
Due to being distracted by gunfire from multiple directions, however, The Bandits were unable to pinpoint where Kieran was firing at them from.
‘BANG! BANG!’
That being said, The Bandits were so well hidden and covered by the brush that Kieran had not managed to get a shot in on any of them.
‘BANG! CLICK--!’
He had reached the end of his last magazine.
“Dammit!” He cursed as threw the pistol away from him. The force of this hurl had caused the three grenades on Kieran’s bandolier to rattle against each other.
He then reached down the alleyway which was hiding in.
Unknown to Kieran, however, Nolan had noticed the pistol being mysteriously lobbed out from the distant alleyway. With the weapon having drawn his attention over there, he watched as Kieran scurried away back down the cranny.
Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV Page 18