Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV

by Borthwick, Finlay

  Nolan licked his lips, now having picked the man that he was going to take as a hostage in order to trade for Gwen.

  “Nolan!” One of The Bandits called to his superior as he ducked to avoid Rob and Michelle’s increasing rate of fire, “What do you want us to do? We’re just sitting here, dammit!”

  “Circle around the safe zone,” Nolan grumbled, but then followed up this order with a far more aggressive one, “Kill every person who crosses your path, and if you find that Welsh bitch, fucking finish her for Kyle!”

  The bandit nodded, obeying this order.

  “What about Donna?” Another bandit barked out a question.

  Nolan scrunched his face up, “Fucking what of her?!” He bellowed. “If you find her, great! Release her! But don’t go out of your way to save her. Remember, we’re only here to avenge Kyle’s death once and for all!” He proclaimed as he punched the air in a dark form of hope.

  “Understood.” Both bandits declared in unison, accepting what Nolan wanted to be done.

  Whilst evading barrages of bullets, Nolan had followed the road parallel to the alleyway up which Kieran had hidden. Then, he finally saw his prize.

  Still with his grenade bandolier strapped around him, Kieran was scurrying up a small flight of stone stairs and into the semi-detached house to which they lead.

  Nolan grinned maliciously. Raising his new M1 Carbine, he set his course for that exact building.

  “Knock-knock!” Nolan taunted as he barged into the house, “Anybody home?”

  The entire house was silent as he performed a quick glance around the front room. The only noises that could be heard were the gunfights across the safe zone and the desperate cries of death.

  As he complete his glance, Nolan noticed that the door in front of the basement stairs was wide open.

  “I know you’re in here!” He chanted, almost as though he was singing this ominous threat, slowly and prudently treading towards the basement stairs.

  One of the floorboards creaked as he stepped over it.

  Then, he found himself stood at the top of the basement stairs, glaring down them and into the pit beneath.

  With slightly sweaty palms, Nolan shimmied the aim of his carbine around so as to aim the barrel down the stairs as he cautiously descended them one at a time.

  “I know you were shooting at me earlier,” Nolan declared once he was halfway down the steps, “I think you owe me a free shot at the very least because of that—”

  ‘GRAHHHHHH!’

  From out of nowhere, Kieran charged towards the stairs and launched himself down them, sending both him and Nolan into the basement beneath.

  Due to his awful reaction times, Nolan had not been able to turn the barrel of the carbine in a sufficient amount of time.

  “Fuck you! Die!” Kieran berated Nolan as he wrestled with him for control of the firearm.

  “No—You!” Nolan grumbled back at him with clenched teeth as he rolled Kieran over onto the floor and had leverage over him; he tried to force the body of the carbine down onto Kieran’s throat in an attempt to crush his windpipe.

  Realising what Nolan was trying to do, Kieran put all his strength into his hands and forced his enemy up off of him – Now, Kieran was the one who was on top and had the leverage, though he was quickly being overwhelmed.

  Then, an incredible resolve came over him: Kieran realised that if he eliminated Nolan here, then The Bandits would be leaderless, and thus the residents would have a far easier time fending the invaders off.

  As each second passed, Nolan was beginning to overpower Kieran more and more.

  He thought of reaching for his knife, though Kieran knew that if he took just one of his hands off of the carbine, it would give Nolan the opening he needed to overpower and kill him. In turn, this train of thought lead Kieran into realising that, whatever happened, he was going to be dead within the next minute. So, in order to make his death count, he decided on a drastic course of action.

  The carbine was now slipping to one side, as Nolan was slowly bringing Kieran down onto the floor with him.

  Still keeping both of his hands firmly on the firearm, Kieran tucked his head into his chest and clasped his teeth onto the grenade pin on the top grenade on his bandolier. With great oral strength, he pulled the pin out of the grenade and spat it out onto the floor away from him.

  Realising what his nemesis had just done, Nolan’s expression dropped from sheer anger and determination to sheer fright and horror.

  Ironically, Kieran was now the one malignantly smirking down at him.

  With petrified eyes, Nolan squealed out in desperation, “Wait!”

  From outside, it was just an ordinary semi-detached house. Much like the others along the street – and throughout the entire safe zone in fact – it was abandoned, dirty and covered in an overgrowth of nature.

  ‘BOOM!’

  Within seconds, it had suddenly become nothing more than burning rubble and thick black smoke…

  The explosion had been heard across the entire safe zone. Everybody, residents and bandits alike, ceased their fighting as they all turned to face the direction of the explosion.

  “Annie? What the hell was that?” Elliot asked his sister in fear; they were both shooting down at bandits from one of the recently erected watch towers. Naturally, however, Annabelle was a far better shot than Elliot.

  “Holy shit.” Annabelle gasped as she noticed the bold and smouldering smoke and flames in the distance.

  “What is it? What do you see?” Elliot desperately questioned her.

  “It’s one of the houses—Some crazy fucker has just gone and blown one of them up!” Annabelle exclaimed.

  “Nolan! Come in, Nolan!” The bandit who had earlier asked Nolan for orders was now desperately trying to reach him via the radio. “Dammit!” He cursed upon Nolan not answering after several tries.

  “Isn’t he answering?” The bandit who had asked about Donna questioned his ally.

  “No… I think—I think he was in that explosion.”

  And with that realisation, The Bandits were now indeed, as Kieran had hoped, very much leaderless…

  Chapter 20: One Bullet

  Just as quickly as it had stopped, the skirmishing had kicked back up again.

  Rob and Michelle, desperate to avenge Nate, were among the first to resume fire.

  “Look at him!” Michelle nodded down to Nate’s corpse, which was still rotting away next to them behind the upturned car.

  “We’ll bury him after!” Rob reassured her as he maintained his shoot-and-duck strategy. “Please, Michelle, I am begging you—Stay with me right now!” He pleaded with her desperately as The Bandits’ shooting rather oddly became more scattered and seemingly without order.

  “Of course, Rob. I’m right here!” She reassured him as she shimmied down towards the upside-down boot of the vehicle and peered up over it in order to return fire.

  Gwen was taking cover behind one of the large oak trees outside of the hotel, wanting to guard the few terrified residents who were stranded inside, and were too scared to have ran to the armoury in the time which they were given.

  Although a few straggling bandits had came her way, which she had dealt with, not many bandits appeared to be coming this way across the safe zone.

  “Annabelle, Elliot, are you two okay?” She radioed out on the open frequency to ensure that her kids were not involved in the rather loud explosion that had just occurred.

  “We’re fine, mum.” Annabelle responded. “I’m with Elliot right now. We heard the explosion, and we’re looking at it right—Well, I’m look at it right now, I mean. It was one of the houses along the estate road.”

  Gwen was baffled by her daughter’s observation, “One of the houses? Why? What caused it?”

  “We don’t know yet, but I don’t think now’s the right time to find it.” Annabelle countered, with gunfire audible in the distance both through her end of the channel and around Gwen’s location as we
ll.

  “Alright, keep safe,” Gwen acknowledge Annabelle’s concerns, “I’ll come and find you once we’ve driven these assholes back.”

  Speaking of those ‘assholes,’ another bandit had come running around the corner, appearing to be fleeing from someone.

  Without showing any mercy, Gwen stepped out from behind the tree and blasted him with her suppressed shotgun; the same peculiar weapon that Nikola had been examining earlier on in the armoury.

  Following on from the lone bandit, Adela had come running along with a pistol; she was sweaty and out of breath, clearly having been hell bent on killing that one man.

  “Adela!” Gwen called out to her and flagged her down, “Get inside the hotel! What are you doing out there, you crazy woman?” She was surprised to see that Adela was not hiding with Tia.

  Adela stumbled towards Gwen, wiping her sweaty forehead as she did so.

  “My God, what’s happened to you? Why are you looking so—Feverish?” Gwen stuttered when she could not think of the right word.

  “I’m—Pregnant.” Adela confessed in her deluded state.

  “Really? I was too once upon a time.” Gwen was not as surprised by this confession as she was intent on caring for the expectant mother that she was assisting with getting into the hotel, “We’re gonna get you inside and then get you some water, okay?”

  Adela tried to nod, but instead, she vomited on the ground.

  “Oh God, alright, okay.” Gwen was taken aback slightly by Adela’s throwing up.

  “So—Sorry…” Adela apologised for the mess.

  “It’s alright, sweetie, you’re fine.” Gwen reassured her, adjusting the dial on her radio in order to reach a direct channel to Erica as she did so, “Erica, it’s Adela. I’ve got her here at the hotel… She’s pregnant.” Gwen was obviously unaware that Erica already knew this.

  Erica could be heard sighing on her end, “I’ve got enough injuries to be dealing with over here as it is, dammit!” Lots of screaming of groaning could be heard throughout the hospital over the radio, “Tina and I are quite busy right now. You’re on your own I’m afraid, Gwen!” Although Erica had not intended to come across as so rude, she truly did have a million and one other things to be attending to.

  The Bandits were beginning to lose the attack.

  “Darlene! Come in, Darlene!” Nolan’s righthand man who was still hidden in the brush at the front of the safe zone was desperately radioing around to get a feel for which of his friends were still alive.

  “Isn’t she answering?” The other bandit, who was still returning gunfire, asked.

  The righthand man blanked him. “Pascoe! Are you alive?”

  The walkie-talkie returned static to him.

  “For fuck’s sake!” He raged through the frequency, “Is anybody still fighting out there?”

  The gunfire was becoming quieter and far less frequent now.

  “We need to get out of here!” The other bandit panicked and tried to make a run for the tunnel.

  “No, wait!” The righthand man tried to halt him, but he carried on running nonetheless.

  Though he should have listened to his comrade’s warning, as before he could reach the tunnel, he had been gunned down by a barrage of bullets, leaving an innumerable number of holes in his corpse.

  “God dammit!” The righthand man cursed as he continued with trying to reach his allies, “Please! Just—Just somebody respond!”

  “They’re all dead.” Michelle declared, having snuck up on him with Rob from behind.

  “Alright!” The righthand man dropped his radio and his gun and raised his hands to surrender. “You win, okay? You guys win! Just let me go! I promise, we’ll never come back! Heck—There isn’t anybody who even can come back! I’m the last one, alright?” He had neglected to remember Donna.

  Michelle pretended to think, though she had already decided on a course of action in her mind, “I could do that, or—”

  Without another word, and with a merciless expression, she pulled the trigger on the righthand man and blew his brains out.

  Rob was slightly unnerved by what he had just seen, “Michelle! He had just surrendered!”

  “Yes, but I wasn’t going to take a chance.” She stood by her actions.

  Rob shook his head, “He was alone… Nobody was left to even fight at his side!”

  “This is Michelle, one of the newcomers, I’ve just finished off the last one,” she radioed in, having ignored Rob’s rejections of her, “The fight’s over. They’re all dead.”

  “Copy that, Michelle.” Mac acknowledged over the frequency.

  There was now just one single bandit left alive: Donna.

  With a strong feeling of valour in his heart and his mind, Elliot was able to navigate his own way down the basement stairs, aided by nothing and nobody more than his walking cane.

  Donna watched Elliot with her usual poker face as he stopped walking abruptly at the other end of the basement and turned to face her as best as he could.

  Elliot sighed, and without saying any words himself, he turned on his walkie-talkie for Donna to listen to:

  “They left their minibus behind!” Tina jovially radioed in.

  “Good.” Gwen responded, “We can smelt it down to scraps with the bodies of the fuckers who owned it.”

  Although Donna was very much aware that this meant The Neo-Bandits had lost the fight, she maintained her stern poker face nonetheless, completely aware that Elliot was good at picking up on the emotions around him.

  “You lost.” Elliot boldly declared. “How does that feel?” He asked in gloat.

  Donna’s face wavered to neither anger nor comfort, though Elliot could feel her trembling heartbeat through the vibrations in the floor.

  “Somehow, neither my mother nor Annabelle know that you’re down here,” Elliot noted, “Because if they did, you’d be brains out on the floor right now.”

  And even after hearing this, Donna was unresponsive.

  “If we were on opposite sides of the battlefield, I’d have killed you myself without a second thought,” Elliot gravely revealed to her, but his expression then lightened up, “But I’m not gonna kill an unarmed woman who we’ve already captured.” He reached into his pocket to produce a small knife, “The score’s settled. Gwen’s husband is dead. Kyle is dead. Nate is dead. Nolan is dead – We leave it at that, okay?” He levelled with Donna as he cut her free of her ties.

  Now, her expression finally wavered; she looked at Elliot in befuddlement over the fact that she was still alive after all of her taunting.

  “There’s a back exit just past the cottage,” Elliot slipped his knife away as he told Donna this information, “If you’re sly, you can slip out unnoticed and that’ll be the end of this.”

  Without needing to be told twice, Donna jumped to her feet and dashed towards the stairs. As she put her foot on the first step, however, she halted momentarily, and turned back to face Elliot, “Thank you.” She told him a humane level.

  Before Elliot could turn back to face Donna and tell her that she was welcome, she had already scurried off up into the house above.

  Alek and Emile had remained untouched in their cottage throughout the entire ordeal, along with their new friend Rajan.

  “Well, looks like that’s it then.” Alek remarked, having heard the announcement over his walkie-talkie.

  “Yeah, I guess so.” Emile candidly agreed, though his battle was still very much going on at this minute.

  “Well, I enjoyed riding it out with you guys.” Rajan nodded appreciatively to the couple.

  Before Emile could respond this gratitude, however, his walkie-talkie – and only his – began to buzz away.

  “Emile—Are you there?” It was Marianne, her voice sounding rather shaky.

  “Is that Marianne?” Alek asked, recognising her voice.

  “Uh, yeah. It is.” Emile stood frozen to the spot, for although he was expecting this call, he was unsure of how to go about answeri
ng it in such a way that it would not arouse suspicion.

  “Well, where is she?” Alek further asked, not submitting to memory the fact that Marianne was addressing only Emile and not the open frequency.

  “I’ll ask,” Emile declared as he pulled the radio up to his mouth, “Marianne? Where are you?” To keep things as simplistic and secretive as possible, he jumped straight to the location question rather than ease in with asking her how she was doing.

  “I’m at the pizza place near the old school,” she answered, revealing herself to be in a rather peculiar location, seeing as not many residents would wander through this rather neglected area of the safe zone, “I need your help with something.” She cryptically requested.

  “I’m on my way.” Emile affirmed immediately as he tucked his Glock 26 tighter into his trousers, fearfully believing that Marianne had taken drastic action to get rid of Tia.

  “Be safe, babe.” Alek nodded to his fiancé.

  Emile nodded back to him in kind, “Always.” He departed from the cottage with a fake smile that not even Alek could see through.

  The bodies were piling up in the hospital. Although Erica was reluctant to the corpses being brought into her infirmary, she knew that a count needed to be carried out.

  Whilst Sandra and Rylie were surveying the faces of the deceased, Cora was in charge of radioing around to see that everybody who had not been in touch was okay.

  “Helena, is it?” Cora was reading from a list, and therefore, had erroneously assumed that the name of the newcomer ‘Yelena’ had been misspelt.

  “Uh—It’s Yelena,” She corrected Cora from over the radio, “But yes, I’m okay. I’ve got Vivi and Maylene with me too. We’re all alright.”

  Ignoring the fact that she had mistaken Yelena’s name, Cora crossed the three aforementioned monikers off of her list.

  Now, all of the people whose names had been written down were accounted for – Except for just one.