Tim fired his rifle and took out the lone gunman with one well-aimed shot while panicked people ran towards the shoreline. Kelly and Caleb had grabbed for their guns, but the excitement was over before they could do anything with them. Samuel had run inside a tent and hid.
“I ain't never seen one a 'em use a gun before,” said Tim. “Couldn't a been an infected. Musta just been a maniac.”
“His eyes were glowing,” Kelly huffed as she lifted Caleb from the ground. She rushed over towards Tim with Caleb trailing right behind her. “I saw them," she said, "we both did.”
“Nonsense,” said Tim. “It can't be. Ya kiddies must be seeing things. Scaring yaselves with ya stories.”
“He was one of the infected,” said Caleb as if it were just a matter of fact. “Doesn't matter what you think, Tim. They're smart, just like Kozz said. We've got to be careful.”
Tim snarled at the way Caleb spoke to him. “Doesn't matter what ya say, boy. What's done is done. The man is dead and we don't need to be worrying about what he was or wasn't.” Tim looked down at Caleb. “Where'd you get that pistol, boy?”
Caleb took a step back and put the gun back in the holster he had under his shirt. “It's mine and that's all you need to know.”
Tim was about to reach forward to grab it, but decided against it. “Then that's all I need to know. Keep it safe.” He walked back towards camp to put things back in order.
Caleb wanted to go and see the body of the man Tim had shot. Kelly tried to convince him otherwise, but he needed to make sure the man was not still alive. They walked over to the bank and found the young man's body covered in blood from a hole in his chest. Caleb thought he saw the man's eyes flicker as they approached, but the body did not move again.
“I only wanted to see if we could help him,” said Caleb. “That's all I want. I just want to save these people like Kozz saved me. I know it's possible. Why can't we just bring them back to normal? Why do we have to kill them all?”
Kelly did not think Caleb was directing his questions specifically at her, but she felt that he needed an answer. “Because sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's too dangerous to try to save someone. If Tim hadn't shot this man he might have run amok in the camp and killed some of us. It's just not possible to save everyone.”
Tears rolled down Caleb's red cheeks. “No. It is possible. Just because it's hard doesn't mean we shouldn't try. If my mom tried harder, maybe my dad would still be here.”
Kelly felt the power of Caleb's emotions and knew he only wanted to do what was right. She looked at the young man lying dead on the pavement and saw Richard's face, but it was only a flash of her fear taking over. It was not him. Kelly knew that if Richard turned into one of the infected she would want to do whatever was possible to bring him back, and then she realized that Caleb felt that way about everyone. “Why should anyone suffer this fate over another?” she asked herself.
They moved away from the dead man. Kelly took the time to rest on the bed of grass and warm herself in the brightening sun. She was falling asleep, thinking of her family back in Quartz, when a far-off explosion ripped her out of her dream. She sat up and saw Caleb standing nearby, looking into the town. She felt rumbles underneath her as more explosions shook the ground. Black smoke lifted into the air, rising above the few low patches of fog that still hung in the streets. She heard shouting and cries coming from the camp and turned to see everyone running around in panic again.
Tim hustled to calm the crowd once more and Kelly went over to help. She wanted to alleviate as much stress from the others as she could, but found it impossible to do so as she suffered through her own terrors. After some time she gave up on her efforts and looked back towards Caleb. The conflicted child was staring into the city.
She walked back towards where Caleb stood near the last patches of dissipating fog and she thought she saw something running in the street.
“Caleb,” she said.
“I know, I saw them too.”
“Them?” she asked, “more than one?”
“Yeah.”
“We need to go,” said Kelly as she grabbed Caleb's hand and started back towards camp. He resisted. “Caleb,” she shouted, “let's go! I promised your mom I would watch out for you.” He let her lead him away, but looked over his shoulder as he ran.
“We can try to help them,” he whispered to himself.
They ran back to camp and Kelly warned the others of what they saw. Tim immediately called his defense team forward and ordered everyone else to hide in their tents. Samuel ran over to join Kelly and Caleb, but Tim shouted at him to go back in his tent and he did as commanded. Tim told Kelly and Caleb to run away as well, but there was no convincing either of them. Tim's defense team gathered and Kelly knew that they were going to need her help. Besides Tim, his team consisted mostly of elderly and injured men who were not fit to make the journey to the surplus warehouse. She did not have much experience using a weapon, but these men were going to need whatever help they could get in the fight. Caleb refused to leave the defense front as well, determined to find a way to save however many infected people he could.
Gunfire crackled from somewhere in the city, the distant sounds bouncing down the concrete and metal ravines of the city streets. Kelly grabbed Caleb's hand. She squeezed hard and was hurting the boy's boney fingers, but he did not care. They heard more than one shot this time. Dozens. Hundreds. Out there somewhere a big fight had started, and for Caleb and Kelly another was about to begin.
Tim split his team into two groups and had them hunker down behind the two strongholds the camp had built along their outer wall. The strongholds were nothing more than larger and denser piles of chairs and tables, but they were going to have to work. Shots were fired from outside the camp. Several infected people with glowing eyes peeked around both sides of the bank building, using the walls for protection.
ticka-ticka-ticka
Laser weapons fired into the camp. Blackened marks were left on the makeshift blockades as the weapons rained down fire upon the campsite. Tim was the first to return fire. His initial shots missed their targets and tore away at the stone structure of the bank building. Other men fired back as well, but the frequency of their shots was low and they had poor aim. Kelly crawled to the side of the blockade and laid flat on her stomach. She stuck her gun through a hole in the wall and fired blindly at her assailants.
ticka-ticka-ticka tew-tew-tew ticka-ticka-ticka
A couple of the infected had fallen, though no one knew or cared who had the lucky shots. Caleb refused to shoot back, and no one took the time to push him into it. He sat and wondered if those that had fallen were still alive.
The wall of furniture held against the first round of blasts, but the laser shots would soon take their toll and begin to penetrate the defenses. A few infected appeared on the roof of the building and fired down at the camp below. The defense team moved closer to their barriers to avoid the attack from above, but the rest of the camp was vulnerable. Shots were fired into the campground. One blast blew through a tent and the two twin sisters ran out screaming. Shots continued to fire and one of the women was taken down. The other sister stopped running and turned back to her fallen twin, dropping to her knees and wailing over her lifeless sibling. Laser fire speckled the landscape in black burn marks. The woman mourned despite the danger, and others evacuated their tents to run for the protection of the rocks down at the shoreline. The elderly and sick moved slowly, and Caleb watched as many of them fell, one by one.
What about them? Caleb asked himself. What about saving them? That's what Tim and Kelly are doing, why aren't you? Caleb wrapped his arms around his knees and pulled them into his chest. He rocked back and forth as the loud gunfire, shouting men, and crying women all mixed together in his mind and made him dizzy. He felt sick from it all. You want to help the infected so bad, but why aren't you helping everyone else? He saw Samuel run out of his tent as several blasts ripped through it. The boy ran towards the sea
but tripped and hit his knee on a rock. Caleb watched as Samuel laid on the ground, rolling in pain. He tried to get up, but he could not put weight on his hurt leg. He started to crawl towards the water, crying for his father. I have to help him.
Caleb stood up and ran for Samuel. Kelly turned around and screamed for him to come back, but he ignored her. Tim saw Caleb run to Samuel and ordered the other men to focus their fire on the rooftop. The defense team blasted away at the infected above. One was hit square in the head and fell forward over the ledge it was perched behind, landing on the hard ground below with a loud crack that was heard over the gunfire. It screamed a deathly wail as light beamed from its eyes. The others on the rooftop were forced to take cover as Caleb made his way to Samuel and did his best to lift his friend off the ground. Samuel cried in pain and his knee had already swollen to the size of a grapefruit. Caleb acted as a crutch for Samuel and dropped him off where the others had taken cover, then he ran back into the camp.
More infected appeared on the roof, all women. They blasted away at the defense team that was huddled in the barricades below. The walls of furniture were smoking heavily from all the laser fire and were beginning to crumble. One of the women on the roof saw Caleb darting across the camp and took aim at him. Caleb ran in and out of tents, searching for anyone who had not made it to the safety of the rocks. The woman on the roof kept shooting with her pistol, but Caleb was too far away to make an accurate shot as he ran to the twin who was crying over her fallen sister. He tried to pull her up from her kneeling position, but she would not budge. Laser blasts landed near Caleb as he tried to get the living twin to run to the shore.
Should I try to shoot back? I won't be able hit anything. The woman next to him screamed as a shot tore through her arm. Doesn't matter, it's my only chance. Caleb pulled out his pistol and aimed it square at the woman on the roof. He fired his gun and she fell on top of one of her murderous friends. Light beamed from her eyes as she was shoved over the rooftop ledge and bounced off of a stone outcropping. That push was all I needed. Caleb was amazed that he had landed a perfect shot from such a distance, but then he saw Kelly aiming at the roof. She turned towards Caleb and he heard her yell “I got her! Run Caleb, I got her!” So he was not an expert marksman, but he had still decided at that moment that killing the infected person was necessary to save a human life. He felt his heart mature in that decision and he decided it was right.
Caleb snapped the woman out of her sorrowful paralysis and she stood up of her own volition, running over to the rocks without needing Caleb's guide. When he was sure there was no one left in the tents Caleb ran back to the outer wall and crawled to the barricade where Kelly was. He pulled out his pistol and started firing alongside her. Tim ordered everyone to keep blasting away at the infected while he ran over to grab furniture from other sections of the wall to throw on their barricades.
Wooden piles were completely burned through by laser blasts, forcing people to move to less fortified locations. The corners of the Blackwater Bank were torn away by gunfire, but very few of the infected had been taken down. The camp found itself in a losing battle and needed to figure out a plan before their defenses fully collapsed.
Infected men and women ran out of the entrance to the warehouse and spread out across the street, taking cover behind destroyed cars and in the doorways of neighboring buildings. Two hid in the warehouse doorway, and another two fired from second-story windows. None of the infected took notice of Kozz as he moved along the side of the warehouse, instead they focused all of their attention and firepower on the saloon across the street. Kozz took advantage of his situation and decided to find a way into the surplus store and sneak up on anything waiting inside.
The mules were scaring themselves into a frenzy and Richard was having trouble controlling them. He led them to the back of the saloon where the sounds of the gunfire blasts were not as deafening and tied the animals to some pipes that stuck out of the ground. Luciele remained at the front of the alley and pulled out her rifle. She lowered herself to the ground and hid from her prey as if she were in a hunting blind. In the other alley Freddy and Daryll hugged the saloon wall to avoid the heavy fire which targeted them. Daryll was the last of the team to find a place to hide, and many of the infected saw where he had run to. Inside the saloon most of the men cowered, but a couple crouched near the entrance and fired back.
Kozz hustled down the side of the warehouse and found a locked back door. He kicked the door handle and it flew off. The door glided open with ease. He could not see a thing inside other than where the front entrance was. Bodies moved about in the dim light at the front of the store, but everything near his location was pitch dark. The noise of gunfire inside the building was like a thousand feet stomping inside a gymnasium. When the infected fired from inside the building the flash of the shots flickered light throughout the warehouse and gave Kozz brief moments to study his surroundings. Doesn't look like any demons are left in here other than the ones up front, the ones trying to kill my friends.
Luciele took her time and followed her prey as it moved behind a destroyed vehicle. Her rifle swayed as the infected man did. He moved from one car to another, almost methodically. Luciele took in a deep breath and held it. The infected man hid behind a vehicle, stood to fire, hid again, and then ran down the road to another vehicle. Luciele pulled the trigger, and the bang from her gunshot squelched all other gunfire in that moment.
BAM!
The man's head received a new hole right between his eyes and he collapsed to the ground. His body twitched and strained as the light burst from his orifices and he screamed a guttural cry of anguish and defeat. Richard ran back down the alley and almost tripped over Luciele, not expecting to find her where she was. He saw the dozen or more faces with glowing eyes firing weapons in his general direction and whipped out the gun Tim had given him. In the second-story window of the warehouse was a woman firing a semi-automatic laser rifle at the saloon. Her body jerked with each shot fired and she waved the weapon around like a lunatic. Richard raised his blaster and fired unskillfully at the woman, not even hitting the building he was aiming at. The woman took notice of his attempts and directed her fire at Richard and Luciele. They both jumped against the saloon wall as a torrent of laser fire blistered the opposite side of the alley.
An infected woman ran from her cover at the warehouse entrance and made her way to a vehicle just outside one of the alleys. Freddy watched the woman run across the street and could not believe his eyes.
“Emelia,” he whispered.
“What was that?” asked Daryll.
“Emelia!” Freddy shouted her name and ran towards the infected woman. Daryll tried to grab Freddy by the collar, but he missed and lurched back as laser fire singed the back of his hand. Freddy's injured arm fell out of its sling as he ran, but he took no notice. “Emelia!” he shouted again. “My Emelia! It's me! It's Freddy! Your Freddy!” He screamed in pain as laser fire tore several shots into his right leg, but he limped onward and around the vehicle where the infected woman waited for him.
“Oh no,” said Luciele. She watched Freddy emerge from the other side of the building and heard his heartbreaking cries.
“He's going to get himself killed!” said Richard.
“My Emelia!” cried Freddy as he approached the infected woman. “Samuel and I were so scared, so alone without you. Wait 'til he finds out that you're back!”
The woman's glowing, solemn eyes rested on Freddy. She watched him without emotion, her body stiff and her face as blank as a board. Freddy rounded the side of the vehicle and raised his arms to wrap around her. She watched his hands rise and then she raised hers to attack, jolting forward with her fingers wrapped tightly around his thin neck.
Foomph!
The infected woman, Freddy's former Emelia, let go her death grip and dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Her eyes blazed with white fire, and she screamed in such a way that it brought Freddy to his knees. Daryll's rifle
blast had taken out the back half of her skull and destroyed the creature she had become. Freddy kneeled over his wife's fallen body and put his good arm under her, pulling her to his chest. He held her up with the one arm and cried into her remaining ear.
Crossfire whipped across the street, and Daryll knew he had to get Freddy to safety. He leaped behind the vehicle during a momentary break in fire and raced towards his companion. In the middle of the street Freddy held his Emelia close to his heart and was hit in his side by a blast. Daryll tried to pull Freddy away, but he shrugged off the man who had shot his wife and remained where he was. Another blast hit Freddy in the chest and he still did not move. The infected in the buildings nearby took notice of the men in the street and focused their fire. Daryll made one last effort to pull Freddy away before running from the onslaught of blasts that targeted their location. Freddy was hit several more times in his back and chest before a shot blasted into the back of his skull and he collapsed over Emelia's fallen body.
Inside the warehouse Kozz skulked towards the front of the building. The total darkness made for easy cover, but it forced him to take his time walking around the pallets of materials and piles of supplies that had been ransacked and thrown all about the floor. Only once did he trip over what could have been a heavy sack or a fallen body, not taking the time to find out which one it was. He counted the number of infected he perceived to be in the building. Seven from what he could see, but he felt like there had to be more. Three were up on the grating at the second floor windows, and four were taking turns at the doorway in the front entrance. Firing Red would give away his location, and Caleb still had his knife. Kozz had to find something else in the warehouse to use as a weapon.
Frostarc Page 15