The Grey Ones

by Candra Baguley

Chapter 17

  I creep up onto the main level, careful not to draw attention to myself. My eyes shift to the broken window in search for Allie. Some of the looters are huddled in a circle, laughing and playfully nudging one another. They holler, “Woot” and “Yeah”, while a girl screams from the center. Whatever is going on in the middle can’t be good.

  “Stay here and keep watch.” Travis whispers. His eyes shift out the window for a millisecond before ducking behind the swinging doors, leading back into the kitchen.

  My eyes stay glued on the looters, waiting for a break in their circle. The girl’s frightened screams repeats, “No! Stop it”, followed by an eruption of laughter from the group. Closed fists, my fingernails bite into my palms. Every ounce of me wants to run out there and start shooting, but I know that I can’t. One of the men shift their body weight to the side, leaving an opening just big enough to peek through. My body becomes tense when I find her hazel eyes staring in my direction. It’s Lilly. Her head turns away as she fights back against the two men that are attempting to hold her down.

  “Travis, we need to get out there now!” I say in loud whisper.

  Tears well up in my eyes when another looter drops down and begins to help hold down her flailing legs. With her body pinned against the asphalt, one of the men rips the front of her shirt, revealing her black bra. My stomach lurches and my head begins to spin as I watch everything unfold. She keeps screaming and thrashing around like a fish out of water. There are too many of them for her to get loose. She needs help.

  “Travis, let’s go!” I say louder than before.

  Her screams become louder, and more terrified. The men surrounding her don’t seem bothered. If anything, they seem to take pleasure with the view of her squirming. Even the girl from the bridge squeals in delight as she watches with a bottle of liquor in hand.

  “Hold her head still!” She demands.

  I recognize the man she called “Kawika” as he races to Lilly’s shoulders. He drops down on his knees and grabs both sides of her head. His hands hold it still; forcing her to stare up at the sky. The looter girl steps on the far side of her head and stares down. There’s something about her smile that makes her seem evil. When Lilly cries out, “Please, stop the-” the girl begins pouring the clear liquid down her throat. As Lilly coughs and chokes on the drink, the looters erupt in laughter again.

  The doors swing open, bumping my side. Travis steps through the doors, in front of me. He’s wearing a pair of military grade goggles; ones that combine night vision with thermal imaging. After the Grey Ones first attacked, he went to a military base in search of help, but found no one. No one alive that is. He ended up taking weapons and supplies from the base before coming back to our bunker.

  In one hand, he has a smoke grenade. In the other, is another pair of goggles. “Wear these.” He says, extending the hand out that’s holding the large black goggles.

  After I strap them around my head, Travis motions for me to follow him to the broken windows. From the middle of the circle, Lilly screams at the top of her lungs while one of the looters tugs her pants down to her ankles.

  At the sight of this, Travis’s knuckles turn white as they clench around the smoke grenade. With his eyes narrowed in on the looters hurting Lilly, he drops the weapons bag to the floor. They don’t hear the thud sound of the bag hitting the ground. He pulls the sniper rifle from his back. His jaw clenches shut as he positions it on the windowpane.

  “What’re you doing?” I ask.

  The shards of glass crunch underneath his knee when he kneels down. As he stares through the scope at the group he says, “Change of plans. I’m going to cover you from here.”

  I peer back out the window frame to where Lilly is being held down on the black asphalt. Her hazel eyes lock with mine as she sobs uncontrollably. Before anyone catches her looking at us she rolls her head back to the other side. While they argue over who “gets her first”, my heart sinks into the pit of my stomach. I can barely breathe as my hands begin to shake. We’re running out of time. I need to get out there.

  “Okay,” I reply. I tug the goggles down, over my eyes. When I push a button on the side, the thermal imaging turns their bodies red-orange. My eyes scan the group. They don’t step until I set my sights on the best path to Lilly. With eyes still locked on her, I say, “Let’s do this.”

  Travis throws the canister like a football. As it flies through the air, a trail of white smoke emits from inside. When it bounces off the pavement, next to the looters, the dense smoke instantaneously fills the street.

  My heart pounds against my chest while adrenaline rushes through my veins. Ready to fight, I run out the front entrance into the war zone. My body disappears into the smoke by the time Travis shoots the first confused looter in front of me. The bullet pierces right between his light brown eyes before his body drops to the ground.

  I wrap my fingers around the handle of a dagger in my thigh holster. With my hand gripped on it, I slide it out. The looters are blinded by the smoke, confused by what’s going on. They begin shooting erratically through the street; unknowingly killing their own in the process.

  When I reach a looter facing the opposite direction, I jump on his back. My legs wrap around his waist as I thrust the blade into his thick neck. Blood seeps out rapidly, giving him hardly any time to process what has happened. His legs buckle, forcing him to his knees. I push off his back as he grabs at the gushing wound on his neck. When he falls onto his round belly, I leap over him.

  The remaining looters continue to shoot blindly while two hold down Lilly. I crouch low and move past the enemies that are dropping around me like flies. The fresh corpses all have one thing in common. A hole from bullets that have pierced into the center of each of their foreheads.

  By the time I reach Lilly, there’s only one guy trying to hold her down. The other man is laying in a pool of his own blood from a gunshot wound to the face. As the remaining looter presses the metal barrel against her forehead I creep up behind him.

  “Time to die, bitch.” He says with a chilling laugh.

  Before he can pull the trigger, I press the blade of my dagger against his neck and slit his throat. His heavy body drops to the side, choking on his blood. While Lilly scrambles to pull up her jeans I stare at the looters who continue to fall. Turning back to the teenage girl, I forget that she can’t make out anything in the smoke and extend a hand out to help her to her feet. Unexpectedly, another canister of smoke explodes behind me, giving us more cover from the looters. I thought Travis only had one smoke grenade.

  “Lilly, it’s Isabelle. Reach out your hand.” I yell over gunfire.

  When the looters realize where the gunfire is coming from, they begin to fire back at the surrounding buildings while retreating back to their pickup trucks; including the girl with the pixie cut.

  “Isabelle! Oh my god.” Lilly’s voice shakes. She bursts into tears again, her body trembling.

  “Not now Lilly, we need to move.”

  As I wrap around her forearm, somebody yanks the strap on my goggles aggressively. The eyewear snaps off my head leaving me blind in the smoke. My back slams down on the asphalt, knocking the wind out of me. As I struggle to catch my breath, I stare above. Through the smoke, I see a teenage boy towering over me. His tall stance and muscular frame makes him appear like a high school basketball player.

  The wind blows the smoke revealing a sinister smile that spreads across his face. His arm lifts up and aims a silver barrel at my face. I roll to the side, still trying to catch my breath. There’s a loud bang sound when he pulls the trigger, sending a bullet into the pavement beside me. A loud ‘zoom’ fills the air from the bullet ricocheting off the street. Before he can shoot again I throw the dagger in my hand straight at him. I can’t see if the blade struck him through the smoke. Not until his body drops to his knees beside me. Blood seeps through his white shirt where the blade impaled his chest.

  “Isabelle?” Lilly cr
ies out.

  “I’m okay.” I reply as calm as possible.

  I rip the dagger from his chest while the teenage boy struggles to breathe. When he falls on his side, breathing heavily, I kick the gun away from his hand. As he stares at me with his light brown eyes, a single tear escapes down his cheek.

  “Please… don’t let me… bleed to death.” He begs through short breaths.

  I want to leave him here to die. But, for some reason I can’t. When I eye the gun beside him, I pick it up.

  “Please… do it.” He begs me.

  I have to turn away when I pull the trigger.

  With the dagger in hand I run to where Lilly has taken cover behind an abandoned car. My hand wraps around her arm, which is wet; probably from the alcohol. I pull her through the dense smoke, towards the restaurant where Travis continues to shoot from the windowsill. Bullets fly all around us as the looters shoot back through the white smoke from their pickup trucks.

  “Get down!” Travis yells from in front of us.

  We dive to the ground. The sound of bullets fly over our bodies. When I look up, I find Travis’s silhouette walking into the smoke. He’s aiming a smaller gun at the intersection, shooting nonstop. I recognize the ‘rat-a-tat-tat’ sound of the machine gun. When there aren’t any more bullets flying back at him I wonder if the looters are all dead. I twist back and watch the looters start up their pickup trucks. One by one, they turn and drive away from the intersection. As the lights from their trucks disappear, I listen to the multiple exhausts roaring away in the distance.

  The wind howls, blowing the fading smoke away. When I stare back up at Travis, I can see that he’s continuing to aim the black machine gun down the street where looters dead bodies are spread out. I tap Lilly on the shoulder and motion with my head over to where Jace and Luke are running up behind him. Their eyes are wide as they eagerly search through the smoke. She holds the front of her shirt together and jumps to her feet. Her legs tremble like a doe learning how to walk. She dashes towards her family and cries out, “Jace! Luke!”

  I stand up and slide the bloody dagger into my thigh holster. The same dagger that has saved my life more times than I can count. I think I’ll have to keep this one. It has become quite lucky for me.

  Travis drops his weapon to the ground. His strong hands grab my waist and pull me in. He presses his soft lips against mine, kissing me gently.

  “Eww!” A small voice calls out. A voice I know well.

  “Ty?” I say, my heart skipping a beat.

  I search around. The first person I see is Billy clutching his backpack. This is the first time I’ve seen him since the chaos first broke out. Behind him, the small silhouette of Ty becomes visible. With widened eyes, he runs towards me frantically; with Allie by his side. I sprint over to meet him as my heart beats hard. The second he’s within arms’ reach, I lift him up and squeeze him against my chest.

  When he pulls back, looking at me with a small smile, I brush his shaggy brown hair out of eyes. “I was so scared when I couldn’t find you.” My voice becomes unsteady. I clear my throat, trying to get rid of the knot stuck in the center, and continue, “Where were you?”

  “I was in the tunnels, with the Guerrillas.” He replies. “It was so cool!”

  “What?” I thought the Guerrillas were the looters tricking us.

  My eyes shift upwards. Through the fading white smoke, I can see a few people wearing camouflage. As I look around, I realize that we are surrounded by an army.