“Yeah,” Prakash said.
“You’re married?” Vic asked.
“No,” Ava said. “Roommates. We live two blocks from here.”
“Maybe we can go and stay there,” Eddie said to Marcus.
“What the fuck is with you people?” Prakash said. “We didn’t offer shit.”
“Can’t go back there anyway,” Ava said.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s being taken over,” Prakash said.
“Yep,” Ava said. “Our building is doneso! We barely got out alive.”
“Fuck,” Ali said.
The Hoppers bangs had now begun to cave the metal gate in.
“I don’t know how long this will hold,” Eddie said.
“We gotta head to the George Washington Bridge,” Nadine said. “Right now. There’s no turning back.”
“Why, is downtown fucked?” Ava said.
Ali nodded.
“It’s only four blocks away,” Prakash said.
“They’re getting in!” Nasim shouted. The gate buckled and folded as Hoppers pried their way into the bodega.
“The back!” Prakash said.
Four Hoppers were in the market. Then Nasim shot one. The other smacked Eddie to the ground.
The Hopper reached up to smack Eddie and Marcus blew its arm off. Finished it off by shooting it in the head.
The survivors retreated through the back hallway.
Nasim fired his shotgun. It was out of bullets. He pulled out a handgun from the waistband of his jeans. He kept firing.
“Bounce,” Nasim said to Ali and Marcus. He nodded at Javier. “We got this.”
They all poured down the long hallway running to the back exit.
A Hopper blasted open the door to a stockroom located on the side of the hallway. It knocked down Mrs. Randle.
“Sweetheart!” Mr. Randle said as he ran back to save his wife. The Hopper bashed her skull into the ground until her head split open. Then the other five Hoppers that came in through the window in the stockroom jumped on Mr. Randle.
Ali looked back down the hallway and saw the Hoppers kill the Randles as he waited for Nasim and Javier.
“Come on,” Marcus said to Ali.
“We gotta wait for them,” Ali said. He shot two of the Hoppers that killed the Randles.
Then Nasim appeared down the hallway. He and Javier were still firing at the Hoppers in the market. They backed into the hallway and ran down.
Javier fell over and Nasim knelt down to pick him up. Javier started coughing up blood. His eyes turned purple. Without hesitation, Nasim put his handgun to his forehead and killed him.
“Naz!” Ali shouted with everyone now out of the bodega and in the back alley.
Nadine looked on pensively as she waited for her son and husband to emerge from the exit.
“Ali,” Marcus shouted as he fired down the hallway.
Nasim was now cornered by four Hoppers in each direction in the hallway. His gun ran out of bullets.
“Go!” Nasim said.
“No!” Ali shouted.
Marcus grabbed his son.
“Lock the door,” Nasim shouted at them.
Marcus, carrying Ali, came out of the back exit. Marcus soon locked the door. “Help me,” he said to Vic.
Together they pushed a dumpster in front of the door.
In the hallway, Nasim stared at the eight hoppers. He stroked his beard one last time. And dove at the four in front of him, punching and swinging.
The group in the alley could hear his groans and shouts from where they stood.
“Which way?”
Eddie said.
“Here,” Ava said.
Everyone followed as they ran into the street. People were still going in every direction.
The George Washington Bridge was now in their sights. Home free.
Chapter Twelve
The group sprinted onto the George Washington Bridge. They were about five blocks away. Slowly Hoppers began to pursue, but they were already way ahead of them.
They didn’t know what they would do when they got to the other side. But most of the group didn’t actually believe they’d make it this far.
Halfway through the bridge a bright light shined from the other side and made everyone freeze.
“Stop!” a man’s voice said over a loudspeaker.
There were two trucks on the other side of the bridge facing them with their high beams on. Six men in black uniforms stood next to the car with weapons drawn at the group.
“Put your guns down and raise your hands!” the man on the loudspeaker said again.
The group did nothing.
“We’re trying to get across!” Eddie said.
“There is no crossing the bridge,” the man on the loudspeaker said.
Ali looked back as the Hoppers closed in. “Hurry, they’re coming.”
Prakash looked at the group. “What are they gonna do, kill us?”
The Hoppers were now on the bridge swinging on the sides. The bridge shook.
The group moved forward.
The loudspeaker man got louder, “Do not move any—”
A machine gun went off behind the loudspeaker man. One of the men fired in the air as a warning shot.
The gunshot startled Nadine as she thought they were getting fired upon. She dove in front of Ali and slipped off the side of the bridge.
“Mom!” Ali said.
Ali lunged after her trying to grab her hand as the Hoppers swung on the bridge. Now off-balance, he fell off the side of the bridge himself.
A shocked Marcus saw his wife and son go off the side of the bridge into the fog. He leapt off the bridge as if it was a diving board. He knifed through the clouds as the group and men in black uniforms looked on in awe.
What had just happened? was the collective thought of every human on the bridge.
Then they all heard a large whooping sound as Marcus emerged from the fog beneath them on the side of the bridge holding Ali with a stern face and large brown wings flapping behind him.
Nobody said a word until the Hoppers attacked everyone, the group and the men in black uniforms. Everyone fired their weapons.
Marcus placed Ali back on the bridge. The Hoppers came in every direction. Two of the men in black uniforms got grabbed and dropped off the bridge by the Hoppers.
“Move forward,” Eddie shouted. Marcus flew off and knocked Hoppers that were climbing up the side of the bridge.
The group advanced across the bridge past the men in uniform as they were now preoccupied with the Hoppers. As they ran past the truck Jesse looked inside and saw explosives.
Everyone was on the other side of the bridge.
The Hoppers still gave chase as they killed the last two men in black suits.
Jesse knelt down on the side of the bridge and placed both of his hands on the ground. The bridge lit on fire.
“What the fuck just happened?” Vic said.
Jesse stared at his hands. He couldn’t believe how he just did that.
The two trucks caught on fire and the bridge exploded. It collapsed into the Hudson and the rest of the pursuing Hoppers went with it.
“Mom?” Ali said as his father flew down by his side and hugged him tight.
“We gotta go,” Espi said.
The group ran off into the night.
Thank You
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About the Author
C.A. Huggins is the author of the the acclaimed novel Labor Pains, the story collection Flights of U
n-Fancy, and other works. He is a graduate of The College of New Jersey with a degree in English literature.
For more information
@C_A_Huggins
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www.cahuggins.com
[email protected]
Also by C.A. Huggins
Labor Pains
Flights of Un-Fancy
Boombox Days
Scattered Screams: (The Disruption, Book One) Page 13