by MacCraw
“Excuse me, lads, I’ll be just a sec”, Kirkley said before walking up to Hannah and sitting down beside her.
“Is there something else that’s been bothering you? Why aren’t you eating?”
“I’m still hungry, but not for food”, Hannah sighed.
“For what, then?”
“Revenge.”
“On who?” Kirkley asked. “The dogs?”
“No. That bandit chief.”
“You bashed his face in with a fucking brick”, Kirkley remarked. “What more revenge could you want?”
“I… I don’t know”, Hannah replied.
“That’s the thing about a lust for a death-based vengeance”, Kirkley explained. “You kill one person, but you still want more. It’s like this leak in your heart that you can’t patch up, and every death you cause creates more blood that leaks out onto your soul. And believe me, that twat is almost certainly suffering in the Void, where his soul has been claimed by the Spirit of Fright to use in his army of dog soldiers. Riley’s in a better place, probably doing what he used to prior to this giant handful of shit being flung at a titanic fan. Just remember that revenge based on killing usually makes you feel worse in the long run, even if it provides short term comfort. Seriously though, you should get some food. We’re going to have to get moving after everybody’s eaten and gotten a couple of hours of rest.”
…
After she had filled her stomach with reviving food, Hannah had fallen into a deep slumber alongside the majority of her allies, though she was the only one having some turbulent dreams.
Hannah found herself in an apartment building, entirely different than the one that she was sleeping in. The suspicious thing was that there wasn’t a hint of danger, and even more frightening was that Hannah could hear traffic and horns and chatter. Hannah walked up to the window, opened the blinds, and shrieked in a mixture of joy and shock.
There was light. The sun was out. And there was a functioning society basking under its glow. Lines of heavy Scottish traffic, clusters of people patrolling up and down the streets, and the occasional plane or helicopter passing over. Hannah tried to speak, but every noise emitted from her throat came out as a dry squawk. But that reaction was minor compared to the shock she was about to receive.
“Wanna play some Xbox?” a beautifully familiar voice asked.
Hannah turned around to see her freckled, scruffy little brother standing behind her with a video game controller and a soda bottle. Tears immediately ran down Hannah’s cheeks as she clutched Riley in her arms, squeezing him to the point where breathing became difficult.
“I thought you were dead”, she sniffed, pressing his face into her chest.
“Hey, when I was on the shitter, I thought I was gonna go up like a Christmas tree on a bonfire”, Riley laughed, though his voice was being suppressed by a pair of obvious reasons.
“I love you, Riley”, Hannah cried.
The lighting suddenly darkened. “Goddamnit”, Riley sighed, “Guess my roomy didn’t pay the ‘lectric bill.”
Hannah became increasingly concerned, and stopped smothering Riley to run and look out the window. The sky had darkened, and it was now in an indefinite solar eclipse. People panicked and ran around in a terrified frenzy. Some people ended up sprinting across the road, and got a predictable death of becoming roadkill. The drivers who didn’t run down the pedestrians panicked themselves, and crashed destructively.
“By Su’s spirit”, Hannah moaned, sweating in fear, “Riley, what the fuck is happening?!”
She didn’t hear a response from her little brother, but slowly heard a crunching, popping and tearing noise. Hannah very slowly turned around to see a massive wolf man standing in front of her, slowly snarling and growling as it twitched its fingers and bore its teeth. Before Hannah could move a muscle, the creature smacked her with the strength of a truck, and sent her flying out the window. Hannah shrieked in terror as she went plummeting to her death several dozen stories below, but the nightmare ended before her gruesome death.
…
“Die, die, die!”
“Fuck off!”
“Stand baaack!”
Those were the shouts and hollers that Hannah heard before she heard a gigantic, booming blast of buzzing bullets at point-blank range. The blazing gunfire deafened Hannah, and made her ears ring and echo with the sounds of the frenzied firepower.
“Come on, sunshine, fucking shift it!” Logan growled, quickly hauling Hannah up.
“What the hell’s going on, you pushy bastard?!”
“Guys, pack your bags, now!” Kirkley roared as he, Poet and Pack fought back a wolf that was trying to break down the door.
Hannah was briefly panicked as rounds continued to pound, but she pulled herself together and helped Connor, Logan and Kylie stuff their sleeping bags, can openers, spare magazines, and unopened cans of food into their backpacks.
“Throw me a charge!” Kirkley yelled. Hannah tossed him a fragmentation grenade, which he yanked the pin out of with his teeth. Kirkley threw the primed grenade through the hole in the door, and it bounced off of the adjacent walls to the feet of the dog soldier. The grenade went off with a loud blast, and everybody fell back. Nobody had time to slowly rise up and stretch; they had to immediately spring up and run from their attacker, who by now had probably alerted the rest of the pack to their food supply.
“Covering fire!” Pack bellowed as he fired in a vertical burst that went from the ground up to the ceiling, with a good amount of the bullets nailing his target. The wolf man hissed angrily as it stood back on its feet, and flared its soulless black eyes and slimy white fangs at the ex-soldier with the machine gun.
“Door! Connor, get your arse up here, mate!”
Connor shoved Logan out of the way and started bashing the door handle with his club. With a few heavy strikes, the locked door handle clanked and dented, and Connor began repeatedly kicking it with his combat boots. The handle was completely obliterated and fell through the other side of the door. The door flew opened with another mighty kick, and everybody began pouring into the room.
“Logan, give me some help here, mate!” hollered Pack. Logan ran up to the front as the rest of the party made their escape into the room.
As Logan and Pack kept the dog soldier and its pack mates at bay, Kirkley opened up the window at the end of the room, and urged everybody to head through. Though the gunfire kept the creatures at bay, Pack and Logan kept backing up, and by the time they got through the doorway, they slammed the damaged door shut to give themselves a firing port to use to buy their friends more time to escape. Unfortunately, due to the size and placement of the rather minor breach in the door, only one of the two men with MP5 submachine guns could fire through the hole at the same time. This didn’t seem to bother the wolf soldiers, who punched holes of their own through the flimsy door.
“Shiv it!”
While keeping one hand on his gun, Pack probed around the side of Logan’s thigh-mounted holster until his hand reached the smooth grip of Logan’s bowie knife, which he yanked out of the holster. Pack dove the massive blade of the bowie knife into the large, muscular hand of the dog soldier, which roared in pain as Pack twisted and turned the knife around. Eventually the knife snapped in half, with a large trail of wolf blood following it, and the handle plummeted to the floor and hit with a loud ding.
“Captain, we need to move, mate!” Connor shouted.
Logan and Connor had successfully bought both their teammates and themselves enough time to head down the fire escape. As everybody ran down the road through the concrete jungle, more of the bandits decided to show up, though the stances and facial expressions they had indicated that they weren’t lying in wait, and had probably been on a patrol. Hell, they might have been oblivious to the fact that their leader had been killed. The bandits were unable to process any of this, for a swift cyclone of bullets slaughtered them all. As Kirkley’s group passed over the corpses, Hannah and Kylie picke
d up rifles off of some of the dead bodies and began firing on the wolf soldiers who were sprinting towards their exposed prey.
“Aim for the feet, Yank!” Hannah hollered.
“Right!” Kylie nodded, taking aim at the swollen feet of the dog soldiers.
The two girls fired at the feet of their attackers, and the bullets had overwhelming effectiveness on the dogs. The creatures dropped to the ground, and since they had been bolting at full speed on their hind legs towards their food, the falls could very well have broken bones.
“Dogs. More like pussies”, Hannah smirked after she and her team had made it around the corner and into a vacant lot.
“No foolin’”, Kylie remarked.
“Alright, what’s our next course of action, sir?” Pack asked, looking towards Kirkley.
“Against my better judgment, I elect that we get out of Glasgow”, Kirkley responded. “We tried camping in that one little town, but it didn’t exactly end well, so we should just push to get through Glasgow and down to London, before searching for a ship to transport us to Italy. Or at least to the mainland.”
“Just one question, Kirk”, Hannah added, “Where the fuck are we?”
Kirkley froze up and remained speechless for a moment, realizing that they were lost in Glasgow.
“…We’re lost, aren’t we?” Connor sarcastically remarked.
“Yeah, we’re lost”, Logan sighed.
“Well what the hell are we supposed to do?” Pack questioned. “We can’t move without knowing where we’re going. We could be going around in circles, or we could head the wrong goddamn way, or-“
“Take it easy, big man”, Kirkley sighed, patting Pack on the shoulder, “We’ll think of something. Any ideas?”
“No compass, no star to guide us, no information kiosk; we don’t really have a lot of options”, Hannah commented.
“We could try going to the top of one of those skyscrapers and get a better lay of the land”, suggested Kylie.
“Good idea, but it’d take too long”, Kirkley replied.
“So we’re slashing and blasting through this concrete jungle blindly.”
“I guess that’s what it’ll be, then”, Kirkley sighed. “Anyways, it won’t be long until the army of dog soldiers tracks us here. We’d better make haste, lest we want to be kibble.”
…
Glasgow was a goliath. It seemed even larger than it was, and in what Kirkley described as a concrete jungle, all buildings looked identical. Still, despite all of the uniformity of the buildings, and carnage in the streets, it was a fantastic voyage, and strolling through the labyrinth cluttered with capsized cars, crashed helicopters and planes, and massive structural damage.
“So, how exactly did all of this happen?” Kylie asked with rousing curiosity as she surveyed the desecrated city.
“You mean the eclipse and the dog soldiers being let off of their leashes, or all of this shit around here?” Kirkley questioned.
“The stuff here”, said Kylie. “Were the pilots of these choppers and planes not drug tested or something?”
“I don’t know, to be honest”, Kirkley replied. “My guess is that when the eclipse began, it must’ve seriously blinded the pilots, both mentally and visually. The sudden loss of sunlight would scare the shit out of anybody. Sky goes out, visibility dampens. Visibility dampens, and the pilots can’t steer. Well, they can, but they smash their shit into the buildings.”
“Like in 9/11”, Kylie deduced.
“In what?”
“9/11, that event in 2001, where murderous terrorists committed mass murder by crashing civilian airliners loaded with people into skyscrapers loaded with more people”, explained Kylie. “Out here in the UK, don’t y’all here about foreign news?”
“Sometimes, but most of us don’t pay much attention to it”, Logan remarked.
“Speaking of the Americans”, Hannah said, “Where the hell are they? Can’t they get up off of their big, fat, lardy asses and help us?”
“They pretty much destroyed themselves and everybody around them during the Drone Wars”, Kylie groaned, rolling her eyes. “That’s why I left the country, and in pretty damn fine timing, too, for the California Resistance carpet-bombed the East Coast in an attempt to take out our beloved former-45th President and first Emperor of the United American Empire. And to think that it all began of an election fraud and foreign interference.”
“Fucking American idiots”, Hannah scoffed.
“Hey”, Kylie said in aggravation, clenching her fist, “My family and friends were in the U.S. when it got demolished.”
“So?”
“So, everybody I loved got incinerated. Try and show some respect for something.”
“I’ll think about it”, Hannah sarcastically muttered.
Kylie finally lost it. Her optimistic, mellow-as-a-mushroom personality was usurped by her anger for Hannah’s disrespect for Kylie’s lost ones, and this anger burst out as an angry smack in the jaw. Hannah snarled in rage, and kicked upwards, striking Kylie between the legs. Although it wasn’t as painful as it would be if Kylie were the opposite sex, it still caused great agony. Hannah lunged towards her downed adversary, but Kirkley stopped Hannah.
“What in the wet sack of Su and Sat is the matter with you two?!” Kirkley roared. “Are you more interested in working together to survive, or killing each other on personal matters that nobody could honestly care about less? Hannah, stop being a total twatter. Kylie, lose the attitude! Last goddamn warning.”
“’Last warning?’” Hannah scoffed, “Who the hell put you in charge?”
“Nobody”, Kirkley replied. “People make suggestions, and I execute those suggestions. It’s my leadership, and everyone else’s creativity and clear-thinking that keeps us alive, and if you want to stay on this team, and stay alive, you will abide by those morals.”
Hannah’s face was reddened, and she felt like she was about to cry. She was conflicted, for she felt that her choice of words had lead her down a path with no turning back, and she felt like the survivors were ganging up on her, but she was terrified of the thought of being forever lost alone in Glasgow, the new hunting grounds of a pack of voracious monsters. Still, Hannah bit her lip and stood by her foolish, suicidal decision.
“Then screw you, Kirkley. I’m going solo”, Hannah scoffed.
“Just remember, we’re a team, and we need each other”, Kirkley admonished.
“I don’t. I just need determination and ammunition.”
“Here”, said Kylie, gently handing a couple of 5.56 magazines to the girl who she had just fought with. “You’ll need these.”
“Thanks, I guess”, Hannah groaned, rolling her eyes as she snatched the magazines from her enemy.
“Well, good luck, Hannah”, Kirkley sighed, nodding to the deserter. “Just remember, if you need us, we will be there for you. Fire some shots and we’ll haul ass to assist you.”
“I get it”, Hannah growled. “No more mushy goodbyes, get out of my fucking face before I rip yours off.”
Kirkley was hurt by Hannah’s coldhearted words, but he emotionally cobbled himself back together and gestured for the rest of his allies to keep moving on. Hannah stood in the middle of the street with her arms crossed, watching the rest of her friends walk away.
…
After entering another deserted apartment, Hannah had experienced an emotional meltdown an hour after parting ways with the rest of the team, and was even contemplating suicide. As she hyperventilated and wept, she quickly slid her rifle away from herself to prevent her from pulling the trigger and ending her life. She had never been alone before, and without her friends to protect her and assist her in the apocalypse, she felt so vulnerable. Being in a single dark bedroom with dim lighting and nothing but a door sheltering her from the hostile elements that lurked out beyond, it reminded her of her malicious father. As a child, Hannah was afraid of a hypothetical monster that dwelled beneath her bed and waited for her to fall asleep so i
t could maul her, so she would reluctantly cry for her father. Her father would show up, enraged, at 2 in the morning, and demanded to know where the “monster” was. Hannah’s vivid imagination rigged her into believing that, under the cover of darkness, the monster would bolt from beneath the bed and into the closet. Her father was easily infuriated by this, and after checking both hiding spots, he would blow a fuse and beat her – or worse. When she was sober, which rarely occurred, Hannah’s mother would tell her daughter that there were no real monsters, but Hannah knew that statement was a big lie because she lived with monsters.
Hannah’s emotional pain has so much crushing force that it actually made her sick, and she had vomited at least once, and was feeling like she was going to blow chunks a second time. Her unfair treatment of Kylie was one of the most difficult things to come to terms with, and Hannah had finally acknowledged how cruel and vile she was. And it hurt. She could do nothing but stop and think about how Riley would not approve of her actions, and she even sought redemption for her behavior. Hannah’s first thought was to address her sins towards the survivors whom she once held in high regard as brothers in arms.
“Kirkley, I’m sorry for provoking you”, Hannah muttered. “I’m sorry that I challenged your obviously-superior leadership skills, and attempted to slash our family asunder. Kylie, I’m sorry for holding you in such low regard, and for treating you like bandit scum. It was wrong, and you’ve got the heart and soul of Su. And Riley… I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”
Hannah’s deep thought process was interrupted in a horrifically suspenseful fashion when she heard a light, but firm, knock on the door.
“Alright, who the hell is it?” Hannah groaned, frustrated by whoever was polluting her emotional creek.
Hannah’s sullen eyes widened in fear as she heard a slow, painful scraping of sharpened claws grinding on the other side of the door as the wolf slowly snarled and tapped on the door that separated predator from prey. In a panic, Hannah desperately searched high and low for her L85, only to come up short. Her attention was redirected at the door, which was smashed open by a muscular fist that needed an extremely potent spa treatment. Hannah shrieked in terror as the dog soldier flung the door open and slowly walked into the room. Hannah wouldn’t dare turn around to fling herself out the window, for she knew that the moment she turned away from the beast, it would lunge and go in for the kill. Hannah shivered in terror as she waited for the creature to finish her off, but when she heard a thick Scottish accent bellow “GET DOWN!”, Hannah felt like her fate was about to be determined by the flip of a coin.