by Lowry, C. L.
CHAPTER 17
Kyle ran down the stairs, stumbling on the last few steps and luckily regaining his balance. He hoped his eyes didn’t see what he thought they did. He made his way by the stewing vomit on the kitchen floor and stuck his head out the window. He had yet to speak a word and only spent seconds in the window before pulling his head back and turning to the others. “Yo man what the hell is going on?” Marcus asked, wondering while Kyle suddenly became so jittery. He was used to the cool and calm Kyle that could stare in the face of death and not blink.
Kyle didn’t say a word; he just walked out the kitchen door and onto a raised deck. Who the hell would do this? He looked over the ledge and never said a word to the others. Marcus and Candice had to see what Kyle was so worked up about and once they did, they couldn’t stomach the sight. Marcus would have vomited some more, but there was nothing left in his body. Candice hastily ran back inside the house in disbelief to what her eyes just saw.
“What kind of monsters would do this?” Marcus knew he wouldn’t get an answer. Deep down he knew he wasn't referring to the kind of monsters that had claws and razor-sharp fangs. These kind of monsters were human and so prosaic you wouldn’t recognize them for what they truly are until it is entirely too late. Both men stood silently, as their eyes wandered back and forth between the three piles or deceased beasts that filled the alleyway. There had to be over fifty hairy bodies piled on top of each other, rotting away. The smell was ten times worse than the basement and much more potent.
Both men stood on the porch and stared at the numerous bodies that coated the alleyway. Someone had slaughtered beast after beast and left them all in heaps, to decay in the summer heat. It was a complete massacre. Kyle shined his light over the bodies and saw the bullet holes that riddled their hairy flesh. Over fifty bodies and not one appeared to be moving. Some of them still had clothing on and were significantly different in appearance from most. They were more similar to Chloe, right before Kyle put her out of her misery. He dropped his head, thinking about his baby girl and everything she had been through during her last days.
“Umm guys.” Candice’s shaky voice sounded from behind them. Kyle figured she was there to summons them back into the house and away from the man-made cemetery in the back alley. They slowly turned, only to find her standing at the door in tears. A Colt King Cobra was forced against her temple, as the gunman had his arm wrapped around her neck.
“Let her go,” Kyle ordered, raising his gun at the mystery gunman.
“Yall better drop your weapons or this bitch is gon’ get it,” Sam replied. His hand clenched the revolver as his finger danced around the trigger.
“You don’t have to do this man. You can take whatever you want, just let her go,” Marcus suggested.
“I want your fuckin’ guns asshole. Now drop them on the floor and kick them over to me.”
Both men raised their arms, and slowly lowered their firearms to the floor. Neither wanted any harm to come to Candice, so cooperating was their best bet. Marcus was the first to drop his gun and immediately kicked it over to the gunman that was holding his girlfriend hostage. Sam’s eyes followed the pistol as it slid in his direction. BOOM! BOOM! The eyes that followed the pistol had now rolled to the back of Sam’s head as he fell backward. The force of the two headshots sent chunks of brain tissue flying out the back of his head. Sam’s lifeless body hadn’t hit the ground yet before shots were being fired from inside the house. The trio had no other choice but to crouch down under the window to take cover. Kyle was the closest to the door and blindly returned fire. Marcus and Candice were showered with glass as bullets ripped through the kitchen window. Marcus brushed pieces of shattered glass from his clothing and took advantage of the opportunity that presented itself. He stuck his hand up and fired aimlessly into the kitchen.
Shots were ringing out, bullets were whizzing by, and Candice was stuck between two men that could desperately use her help. Her selfish decision not to carry a gun had backfired. The knife she usually possessed was useless in this situation. She covered her ears and looked at Sam’s body, remembering the vow she made never to be a victim again. A vow that was broken once he stepped foot into the home and saw her standing in the kitchen holding a knife. She wished she could grab her knife and drive it right into his chest. Candice’s eyes lit up as she cast an eye over Sam’s body. The Colt revolver was still in his hand. She quickly grabbed the gun and joined Marcus in the kitchen window, placing six shots into the living room.
The additional gunfire was enough to allow Kyle to slip into the kitchen. Once he did, he spotted one of their attackers wounded against the stove. Two to the chest put him down quick, as Kyle continued advancing. The sudden cease-fire let him know that either the group was out of rounds or they were reloading. He figured his two partners were out of ammunition but didn’t know they had entered the home behind him and grabbed the gun off the deceased. Kyle had an angle on the living room and was left unexposed. Marcus stood next to Candice, who was in possession of a pistol they just picked up and had it aimed at the basement. Anyone who emerged from the basement would find themselves on the other end of some hot rounds. The sound of footsteps descending the stairs made Kyle salivate. Sweat covered his brow as he performed a mag-save reload and took aim on the step. Using his sharpshooter aim, he fired as soon as he saw legs. The woman coming down the stairs stood no chance as bullets ripped through her lower body, causing her to tumble down the remaining steps.
“Agh,” she yelled as she hit the floor. She had a clear view of Marcus and pulled the trigger, with her gun pointed at his head. CLICK. She ran upstairs to reclaim the ammunition the group left behind but failed to realize her pistol magazine was empty. Kyle had left the duffel bag he filled upstairs, and she came down with it. She rummaged through the bag, snagging rounds that matched her gun. The woman dropped the magazine of the useless weapon and attempted to crawl and reload, as blood flooded from her leg wounds. Her jaws clenched as pain seared through her body. The pain was nothing compared to the burning sensation she felt in her shoulder as two bullets ripped through her skin. “Agh shit,” she yelled out, dropping the gun and rounds as she fell back. She could do nothing but lay still on the floor and stare at the ceiling, hoping the next shot would send her to her maker.
“Don’t shoot,” a voice yelled out from the living room.
Kyle knew it was only a matter of time before this would happen and glad it wasn’t his lips that had to speak those words. He dropped the magazine from his rifle and checked the remaining rounds. That’s at least twelve rounds. He reinserted the magazine and yelled out, “Show yourself.” Kyle looked at Marcus, pointed two fingers at his eyes and then one at the basement door.
“I got it,” Marcus said as he readjusted his aim from the target he sent two shots through, back to the basement door. In the back of his mind, he knew that someone coming up would have had the drop on them for a brief second. He left himself a mental note because it was not a mistake he wanted to make again.
“Show yourself, and you better have your fuckin’ hands up,” Kyle order as he slowly surfaced from his point of cover. His aim was locked in on a young man who was shaking like a tambourine. He could not have been older than twenty-one and was frail too.
“Please don’t kill me,” the boy begged.
“Who the fuck are you and why are you here?” Kyle asked as he stuck his rifle in the boy’s face.
“Ummm, Ummm,” the boy stuttered.
“Don’t tell him shit,” cough, cough. A violent cough coming from the woman’s mouth contained a mixture of saliva and blood. “If you say anything Dale is going to rip your little head off dumbass.”
“Dale? Who is Dale?” Kyle asked the boy before being interrupted again by the wounded woman.
“Dale is the devil, and he should be coming in here at any second to kill your ass.”
TAT! TAT! TAT! TAT! TAT! TAT! TAT!
Kyle recognized the unique sound of an AK-47 bein
g fired and immediately dove on the ground. Thinking help had arrived the boy ran towards the front door, which was slightly ajar. From the prone position, Kyle sent a single shot through the boy’s right calf, dropping him immediately. The gunfire outside continued and was accompanied by coughing and loud laughter from the woman. “Oh you assholes are about to get it,” she said while laughing, knowing the other members of her group were right outside.
The sound of tires screeching off seemed to silence the war outside. Kyle looked around; noticing the chaos they created inside the house had not been added to. AK rounds would have surely ripped through the house like paper, but they didn’t. Something didn’t sit right with Kyle, and he wanted answers. “Listen, you are going to tell me everything I need to know or you are going to end up like your friends.” The boy looked around at the three bodies that were not moving, including the arrogant woman who was no longer laughing or coughing. Tears began to fall from his eyes as he began to speak.
“Ok, my name is Kenny and when all this shit went down with the government and stuff, I was recruited by my best friend’s dad. Mr. Benny had found a bunch of people that hated what the government did to us and planned to take over the little that was left behind. The group is called THE ASSOCIATION and is ran by some scary dude name Micah. I think Micah started The Association, but he has a bunch of guys by his side. One of those guys is Dale, and he is our leader. Dale is the one that brought us here a week ago.”
“So you are the monsters that slaughtered those beasts out back.”
The boy hung his head down in shame. “Yes, yes we did. It was part of some experiment Dale was in charge of. See the gas that the military was dropping changes people into those monsters. We found that out through the tests. If you breathe in the gas, it will kill you and then change you into one of those creatures. We also found out that the creatures are attracted to the gas. We dropped some canisters in the back of the house and watched as those creatures showed up by the dozens.”
“So what was the point in killing them?”
“Because Dale wants them all dead. He wants the human race to be superior, and we don’t want those things around.”
“So if your job was to kill those things, why did you come back?”
“We don’t kill them all. Some of them we take alive for testing. We were coming back for the two beasts we chained up.”
“Two? There’s only one down there.”
“Yeah, the other one is across the street.”
Kyle hopped up and grabbed the boy by his collar. If the group had also secured a house across the street, that would explain why the gunfire stopped. They could be conducting surveillance and planning another attack on the group. If they were, Kyle didn’t plan on sticking around to find out. He had Marcus tie the boy up in the basement while he gathered the weapons from the deceased. They were now carrying around three bags full of ammunition and weaponry but were running low on food and supplies. Kyle knew they had a long journey ahead of them.
CHAPTER 18
“What the fuck you mean you were ambushed?” Micah asked. His voice sounded more like a roar of a lion inside the large room.
“Listen, all I know is we went back to get those creatures we tied up and once we pulled up, we started getting shot at.”
“By who?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know where it came from. Bodies just started dropping, and we got out of there. Me, Rob and Benny.”
“I sent you out on that mission with seven other people. You’re tellin’ me that you couldn’t battle it out?”
“We did battle it out, but some people split up, and we were outnumbered.”
“Outnumbered? Since all this shit started, we haven’t run into a group larger than five. So how the hell was a group of more than ten able to form without us knowing?”
Dale made very little eye contact with Micah, knowing he wasn’t being truthful about the events that took place. His pride wouldn’t allow him to admit he made a mistake and left his group stranded once things got a little hot. He didn’t return one shot or give any orders for his people to take cover. The only thing he did was worry about himself and his two henchmen, leaving the others to fend for themselves. “Listen all I know is that somebody was waiting for us when we got back there. Those creatures might still be in the houses. Give me twenty able-body men and women and let me go back to retrieve the creatures and anyone that may have survived.”
“Twenty more people Dale? How many more lives do you want to lose? Since we formed The Association, there have been fifty of our people that have gone out into this new world and have not returned. Fifty-seven now since you came bearing this bad news. We are losing more people than we are gaining.”
“But we have close to a thousand people here —”
“— and we need to continue growing. We need to build up The Association, so we are the most powerful force in the country. This will be our land. Since the moment we took you in, your job was to recruit people and convince them to join us. It has been three months since the chaos, and I have yet to see you bring anyone in; you just come back telling me how many lives we are losing. I know there are other groups that have formed and will form, so you need to let me know if you are an asset to The Association or a liability.”
“I’m definitely an asset, and you know that.”
Micah reached on the table and grabbed a fifty caliber Desert Eagle. He raised the gun and pointed it directly between Dale’s eyes. “This is your last chance so if you fuck this up, don’t bother coming back.”
Dale was never one to back down or be intimidated, but he saw how Micah’s finger slid around the trigger. He also saw the small group of men standing behind Micah, waiting to finish what he started. Although Dale had a powerful position within The Association, he was now being humiliated in front his peers and Micah would eventually have to pay for the blatant disrespect he displayed. I’m going to slit your fuckin’ throat, he thought as he looked into the eyes of his leader. “I won’t let you down sir,” Dale muttered, knowing he would have rather said what was on his mind.
“Ok, so this is what’s going to happen. I am not giving you twenty men. Shit, I’m not even giving you ten. You, Benny and Rob are going to go back to that block you ran from and you are going to bring back my beasts, my guns and the vehicles you took. If you don’t, I will personally put a bullet in all of your heads.” Micah extended his arm and used his pistol to forcefully nudged Dale’s head back. “Now get the fuck out of here.” Micah didn’t know it, but he signed his own death certificate. Dale was not a man to be underestimated. Unlike Micah, Dale knew there were small pockets within the city where groups were forming and they wreaked havoc on those groups. They raped, tortured and murdered all in the name of The Association. So regardless of the outcome, The Association would have to deal with those consequences one day.
Dale walked out the room, slamming the door behind him. He walked down the stairs of the old high school, which had been converted into the headquarters for The Association. Benny and Rob were waiting for him in the Mercury, hoping he would come out with good news.
“So are we going back there?” Benny asked eagerly as Dale approached.
Dale looked around at the members of the organization. Each group served a purpose, whether it was harvesting food, collecting supplies, assisting the few doctors that joined the group or experimenting with the animals. In his opinion, there was no need to expand. The more people, the more problems, he thought. Little did he know, he would eventually become a problem himself. Dale knew what his assignments were, but he didn’t feel the need to bring more people into the group for nothing. A spot in The Association had to be earned, in his eyes. Unfortunately, Micah was willing to give out free memberships to the most ruthless organization of the new world, just to expand. Dale wanted that top spot, and he planned to take it.
“Yo man, are we going back or not?”
“Yeah, but we’re out,” Dale replied as h
e entered the vehicle.
“Out, what you mean we’re out?” Rob inquired.
“That motherfucker Micah, said he wants us to go back to get his guns, the trucks, and those fuckin’ creatures. He said if we do not deliver, he is going to kill us. I told yall about him since the beginning. I knew this would happen.”
Benny slammed his fists on the vehicle’s dashboard. “We don’t answer to him. We work for Adina, and she knew what the plans were from the beginning.”
“Man, who the fuck you think she’s gon’ stand by? Us or her man?”
“I’m sure she won’t just let him kick us out of the organization we helped build,” Rob said. “Our families are here. What will happen to them?” He could not imagine the possibility of experiencing the type of pain they had inflicted on many innocent families. Killing the fathers in front of their young children, raping mothers and daughters, and releasing the chemical gas into houses just to watch a family suffer through the painful transformation into beasts. The men did some of the most unthinkable acts one could imagine and would now have to face the same fate as the innocent families they tortured.