by A. R. Wise
“Annie,” said Clyde from below. “Let him go. I’ve got him.”
Annie released David just as a helicopter’s chain gun started to whirl again. The enormous bell had all but covered the hatch that led down. She was trapped in the steeple, and knew this was where she would die. Annie closed her eyes and waited for the pain.
Gunfire roared, drowning out any other remnant of sound, but the helicopter wasn’t aiming at Annie anymore. The realization was at first a relief, and then horrific. If they weren’t focused on Annie, then they were firing on the Rollers below.
Annie took up her rifle, which she’d placed under her when she laid down, and stood up above the destroyed remains of the steeple.
“You’ll have to do better than that to kill me.”
There were two helicopters circling the camp, and they focused their fire on the ground floor of the church, oblivious that the red haired sniper was still very much alive. Annie didn’t need much time to aim, and the sound of her first shot was silenced amid the noise of the helicopters’ gunfire. Her victim was dead before he saw her, and his helicopter spun backward and collided with a building along the street outside of the church.
Annie didn’t spare a second to watch the chopper fall as she aimed at the other one. The pilot saw his friend crash and realized that the sniper was still alive. He pulled back just as Annie took a shot and her bullet struck the nose of the helicopter as it retreated. She ejected the casing and took another shot, hoping to pierce the armor on the bottom of the helicopter as it pulled away. She ejected another, and then recognized the hollow sound the rifle made as she prepared for a third shot; her magazine was empty.
Annie had set up a line of filled magazines along the railing of the steeple when she’d first climbed up there, but the assault from the helicopters had scattered them. She looked down to try and find one, but the floor was cracked and shattered, littered with splintered debris.
The Rollers below refused to let Annie be a target. They fired relentlessly, but the helicopter pilot, a member of Jerald’s dreaded Wolf Pack, was intent on murdering the sniper that had taken out two of his comrades. Annie watched as the helicopter rose and then leveled before adjusting its aim directly at her.
The Rollers cried in fury below as they fired, a symphony of gunfire and voices as Annie stood conductor over them. She refused to cower, and rose up, her arms held out to the side as if daring the pilot to try and kill her. Annie stepped onto the edge of the steeple, only her balance preventing her from tumbling down.
“Take your best shot!”
The chain gun began to spin.
Then one of the Roller’s gunshots found its mark. An explosion rocked the side of the helicopter as a fuel tank was ruptured. Seconds later the helicopter smashed down as the Rollers cheered.
Annie looked at one of the cameras attached to a nearby roof. She knew that Jerald was watching. She smiled as she pointed at the camera and then set her thumb against her neck before slicing it across, letting the general know how much she wanted him dead.
The High Rollers cheered below and pumped their guns in the air, then they started to chant Annie’s name. She looked down at them and saw her mother.
Zack had been able to protect Laura when the helicopter collided with the truck, but the two of them were clearly dazed. Annie looked into her mother’s eyes, concerned at first, but then bewildered by the sadness she saw.
It was as if Laura recognized that Annie would hurt her more than any zombie, soldier, helicopter, or bullet ever could. As the Rollers cheered for the red haired sniper that had saved them by drawing the helicopter’s fire with her brazen display, her mother stared, aghast.
Laura had already lost too much. She couldn’t stand to lose Annie as well.
Chapter Two – Don’t Fall
Ten years after the apocalypse
Annie and Kim are being trained to be Rollers
“Annie, pay attention,” said Kim as she marshaled the crew.
A group of teens were huddled together in a dark, dilapidated house in a once wealthy subdivision. The three-story, antebellum home looked capable of housing a militia, but had probably only been lived in by a small family or retired couple back in the Red Days. The place was relatively untouched except by the slow decay of time. The furniture was still in place, now decorated by dust and cobwebs, and there were magazines on the coffee table baring the gleaming smiles of celebrities and politicians. There was a television mounted on the wall above the mantle, and the fireplace was fake, used only to display candles that had never been burned. The living room was the largest room in the house and rose nearly thirty feet to a cathedral ceiling. The granite fireplace rose to a decorative nook near the ceiling where a cross was placed along with a plastic wreath.
Kim and Annie were the only girls in the group of six teens that were training today. Kim was the leader of the group, though she’d never been assigned as such, her natural authoritarianism wasn’t worth disputing. The four boys were crouched beside her in a circle as Annie stood away from them.
“I am paying attention,” said Annie as she eyed the room.
“No you’re not,” said Kim. “You’re spacing out over there. If you plan on ever being a Roller, then you need to take these trainings seriously. You don’t want to be unprepared when they send us out to train with The Department. Jules will kick your ass every which way if you are.”
Annie sighed as she knelt beside the others. Her paintball gun’s strap slipped off her shoulder as she got down and the weapon fell to the floor. The plastic cap on the container of pellets popped open and the green marbles spilled out onto the wood floor.
The group groaned and shushed her. One of the boys said, “That’s what we get for bringing a baby along.”
Annie stopped the flow of pellets and started to gather the loose ones. The others were all older than Annie, but only by a couple of years. There still existed a stark division between herself and the rest of the teens though. Unfortunately, the families that had joined the ranks of the High Rollers had included children of various ages except for Annie’s. There were teens on the verge of adulthood, and children younger than ten, but Annie was the only child in the Rollers that was between eleven and fourteen. Because of this, she had started to become socially distant and rarely spent time with any children except during classes and training outings like the one they were on currently.
“Give her a break, guys,” said Arthur, a handsome boy that was more patient with Annie than any of the others. He helped gather the pellets and Annie smiled in thanks.
“All right, everyone,” said Kim. “Let’s focus. We know Hero’s crew is going to try a full on assault.”
“How do we know that?” asked Vic, a scrawny boy with bad acne and greasy hair. Annie always thought he stank of potatoes.
“Yeah,” said Arthur. “He said they wanted to take it easy today. I got the impression they were going to try and sneak in on us.”
Kim shook her head with a smirk. “That’s what he wants you to think. I’ve known Hero for a long time, and he’s a shitty liar. An old friend of ours taught me how to spot when Hero was lying. That’s how I always beat him at cards.”
“How?” asked Arthur.
“I’m not giving away my secrets,” said Kim, teasing Arthur. The two of them always flirted, and everyone knew they were skirting romance, although they still hadn’t done anything about it.
Annie was annoyed with her sister, like usual. “He gets over confident and starts bragging.” Annie saw Kim’s angry glare and cocked her head to the side and smiled. “Reagan taught me how to win at cards against him too.”
“Oh shit,” said Vic with a grin and a nod. “That’s right, you two knew Reagan. Damn, that must’ve been awesome. Was he as badass as they say?”
“Way more,” said Kim.
“He used to fart a lot,” said Annie, discounting the legend. “Like, all the time. All he ever ate was bacon and steak and eggs. Whenever he too
k a crap the whole camp would get stinked out.”
The group chuckled, except for Kim. “Oh please, you probably barely remember him at all. How old were you? Like five?” She focused back on the task at hand. “Come on, everyone. Are we going to try to win, or are we going to sit here and bullshit all day?”
“Okay,” said Arthur. “Sorry. What’s the plan?”
“We need to stick together,” said Kim. “Let’s find a room that we can cover all the entrances of. We don’t want it to be too small, and we’re going to need to have at least two exit points.”
“What about the basement?” asked Vic. “It has some big window wells that would be pretty easy to cover, and we could get out of them if we needed to.”
Kim thought about it for a minute and then nodded. “That’ll work. We can each cover one entrance and then block off the rest. Let’s head down there and check it out.”
“What about up there?” asked Annie as she pointed to the small nook high above them, over the fireplace where a brass cross was placed.
Everyone looked up and Kim shook her head. “How the hell could anyone get up there? We don’t have a ladder.”
“I could get up there,” said Annie.
“How?” asked Arthur, doubtful but curious.
“I can climb that.”
Kim laughed. “Give me a break. You’re going to get yourself killed. No, you’re coming downstairs with us. Besides, we have no idea how long it’s going to be before Hero and the others attack. You could be up there for hours.”
Annie thought about being in the basement with the others for hours. She would prefer being alone all that time instead. She had to convince Kim to let her try and climb the fireplace, and she knew exactly how to do it. “Just because you know you can’t climb it doesn’t mean no one else could.”
Kim glared at her sister. “Fine, go ahead and try. I bet you can’t make it even halfway up.”
Annie bounded up and eagerly went to the fireplace. “See you guys later.”
“This is a bad idea,” said Arthur.
“You’re going to get hurt,” said Vic. “And then we’re all going to be in trouble.”
“No,” said Kim. “Let her try. Besides, if she’s right and she really can get up there, that would be a hell of a spot to take out anyone that came in here.”
“Fucking hell,” said Arthur. “This has ‘Bad Idea’ written all over it.”
Annie used a table to help her get onto the mantle, and she tested the depth of the space between the stones with her thin fingers as she balanced on the perch. Then she started to get down.
“See,” said Kim. “She can’t climb up there.”
Annie hopped off the mantle and sat on the table that she’d used to climb up a moment before. “Yes I can.” She started to unlace her boots.
The others watched as Annie took her shoes and socks off. She hid them under the couch, not wanting them to draw attention from anyone in Hero’s crew later, and then climbed back onto the mantle. The gaps in the stonework were too small to fit her boot, but her toes fit just fine.
“Holy shit,” said Arthur. “She’s really doing it.”
Annie was emboldened by their surprise as she ascended the precarious rock wall. She was about ten feet up before she dared to look down.
“Okay,” said Kim. “You proved your point. Now get down before you get yourself killed.”
Annie was frozen in fear as she stared down at the others. She felt the blood drain from her face as she closed her eyes. Her heartbeat thundered in her chest and her fingertips felt slick with sweat.
“Shit,” said Vic. “She’s freaking out. Come on down, Annie. We can catch you.”
“No,” said Annie. “I’m fine.”
“No you’re not.” Kim’s tone had changed from that of an annoyed peer to a concerned sister. “Please just come down from there.”
Annie stared up at the ceiling, determined to continue on. As the others pleaded with her to come down, she ascended, each inch a miracle as her fingers and toes ached. The climb was far harder than she’d anticipated, but she made it to the top.
The nook was larger than it looked from the floor, as were the cross and wreath that decorated it. She nearly slipped off the edge as she tried to get a grip on the dusty ledge, but she was able to pull herself up and then gaze down at the others.
The boys cheered, but Kim stood with her arms crossed.
“Told you!” Annie slid the heavy cross to the edge. “Look out below.” She pushed the brass decoration off and it slammed into the floor with enough force to break it in two. Arthur and Vic took the pieces and put them in the corner of the room as Annie tossed off the wreath as well, leaving her a comfortable space to camp.
“Just how do you plan on getting down?” asked Kim.
“I’ll worry about that later.”
Kim was frustrated, but couldn’t do anything about it. She motioned for the others to follow her to the basement as the group left Annie behind. The thirteen-year-old was left to wait for Hero’s attack alone, just the way she liked it.
The day stretched on, and the sunlight that had once flooded the large room had turned from yellow to orange, glinting off the Red Day decorations that littered the room. Pictures, baubles, keepsakes, glasses, and all sorts of other pieces of garbage had once been loving placed in their spots, just like the wreath and cross that Annie had tossed out of her nook. It all seemed so pointless, and Annie struggled to understand a society that once coveted such trash.
She was officially one of the Reds since she had been alive before the apocalypse, but she considered herself a Green. She had few memories of the world before the plague, and the ones she did retain were just as likely dreams as reality. Annie had once tried to explain to her mother a memory she had of escaping the prison in Georgia, but the details seemed impossible and muddled. For most of her life, Annie had insisted that a guardian angel had saved her, and that it must have been her father’s ghost. It was a foolish thing to believe, but it still comforted her.
She was thinking of her father when Hero broke into the house.
Kim had been right; Hero and his men were anything but subtle. They attacked all at once, throwing rocks through the windows and flashing lights into the house from various points. All of the lights were a diversion though, and Annie watched as Hero and two others came in through the front while all of the sound and fury came from the rear of the house.
Annie aimed her gun, but waited to take a shot. Kim was screaming commands from the basement as Hero silently commanded his group with hand signals while creeping through the first floor. They found the entrance to the basement, which was still in Annie’s view, and prepared for an assault. Hero went to one side of the door and then pulled on a gas mask before signaling for his men to do the same. He had a tear gas grenade, and Annie knew she needed to do something before he threw it in the basement.
She aimed at his head and waited for one of the men outside to take a shot. Annie wanted to use their noise to mask her location.
Hero was in her sights, and when the first opportunity presented itself she took her shot. His visor exploded in green paint and he was stunned for a moment before he feigned death. She heard him curse as he slumped to the floor, frustrated with his failure.
Annie took out the rest of his crew one by one, taking advantage of their confusion as she remained invisible high above. Hero lifted his mask and looked around the room in search of his killer. He figured out where the shots were coming from and smiled up at Annie.
“All right,” yelled Hero. “That’s game. We lose.”
“What?” asked one of the men outside. “We’ve got two still standing out here.”
“Come on in and see how long it takes before you’re dead,” said Hero. “We lost. Guns down.”
“Fuck,” said Abe, one of the Rollers that was on Hero’s crew, as he came in from outside. He opened the back door and shrugged as he looked at Hero. “What’s the deal?”<
br />
Hero pointed up at Annie. Abe looked up at the girl that was aiming at him from the nook above the fireplace.
“The little monkey’s a sniper,” said Hero.
Annie waved.
* * *
August 24th, 20 years after the apocalypse
Annie is in the steeple, guarding the Rollers.
“Mom,” said Annie. “Are you okay?” Annie was still in the wrecked steeple overlooking the devastation below. Her mother and Zack had been knocked off the truck, and Dante was no longer in his crow’s nest, after the helicopter had crashed into them.
Laura was being helped up by some of the Rollers, and Zack was insisting he was okay. Annie looked for Dante, but heard his fate before she saw him. Billy announced coldly, “He’s dead.”
Dante, the Roller’s stalwart lookout, had been thrown from his seat and impaled on an iron post near the front of the church. The wrought iron fence that wrapped around the church looked like a decorative embellishment, but the fancy spiked tips had proven deadly. Annie had to lean forward to see him, then grimaced and looked away. The post had pierced Dante’s back and drove through his neck, leaving the man a ragdoll, ripped and bleeding.
“Annie.” Laura’s voice was weak, defeated, and stilted by pain. “Come down. Come down from there.”
“No,” said Billy, taking charge as Laura faltered. “Annie, you stay there and keep an eye out for other helicopters.”
Laura rushed at Billy and slammed her balled fists into his chest. “Shut up. She needs to come down. She’s going to get killed.”
“Laura, settle down.” Billy took Annie’s mother by the arms and held her still. “You’re not thinking straight. Laura, please, I know how hard this must be for you, but you’ve got to calm down and be smart about this. We need her up there.”