“I brought newcomers, Matt,” Sierra said.
“I see. You did well, Sierra. Come! Come closer!” the man said.
He got up from behind the table and positioned himself in front of them. He reached out his hand toward Bill.
“I am Matt Slick, the leader of The Resistance.”
“I am Bill. It’s an honor, sir,” Bill said, after shaking his hand.
“I am Sophie.”
“I am Thomas and this is Julie.”
“It’s an honor to meet you all.”
“This place is amazing,” Bill said. “How were you never caught?”
“We had to take extreme precautions in order to maintain our movement secret. All sorts of codes, from verbal sentences to sign languages. When we got in or out, we had to double check if the guards weren’t looking. We also had to lie a lot. You see, when we built these tunnels, we had to build them starting from outside the walls. It’s obvious we couldn’t build them from the inside out. So, in order to make the guards let us go outside the walls and do our job, we had to tell them that we’re going hunting or foraging. Which we did, considering that if we returned empty-handed, the guards, or worse, Nick himself, would have become suspicious.”
“I suppose Sierra brought us here to fight with you,” Sophie said.
“No. Sierra brought you here because you were foolish enough to break the curfew. And the punishment for that is death by body damage.”
“What’s that?” Thomas asked.
“They lock you in a cage, they beat you until they break every bone in your body, they cut you fifty times with a razor blade and then they hang you by the hands until you bleed to death.”
“Jesus Christ!” Thomas said. “What’s wrong with these people?”
“That’s what we’ve been asking ourselves since Nick came to power.”
“Why would you choose such a leader?” Sophie asked.
“We didn’t choose him. He proclaimed himself our leader after killing the one before him. Those who had something to say about that went missing without a trace.”
“What you’ve seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg,” Sierra said. “It’s not only by brutality that he rules. He also has his own private harem, which consists of nineteen girls, aged between fifteen and thirty-five. Each of them must have sex with him one night at a time, or else he will kill their loved ones, from their parents to their dogs.”
Sophie, Bill, and Thomas couldn’t believe their ears.
“This, right here, is called slavery,” Bill said, outraged.
“Exactly!” Matt said. “And even though the world as we know it ceased to exist, it’s still unacceptable. And that’s why we are all here. To liberate those who were born free and lost this gift and right because some power-thirsty psychopath said so.”
“Hasn’t anyone tried to simply run away?” Sophie said.
“Lots of us tried. And very few succeeded,” Matt said.
“For those who run, a posse is created. A posse that doesn’t give up until the runner is found. And when the runners are found, they are shot on sight for defecting,” Sierra said.
“Aren’t you afraid of spies among you?” Thomas asked.
“No,” Sierra said. “Everyone here has good reasons to hate Nick. All of our members suffered or have relatives who have suffered because of Nick’s regime. Where is the logic in loving the one who caused you pain?”
“Plus,” Matt said, “we have good reasons to think that, except for his guards, everybody else in our community wants the bastard dead and buried. And we have a plan to do just that. A plan we will apply…tonight.”
Sophie and Bill looked at each other with surprise.
“Tonight?” Bill asked. “You and what army? There are two hundred of you and God knows how many hundreds of his guards.”
“You will be killed instantly,” Sophie added.
“Then, at least we will die with our dignity high. The same dignity he took away from us.”
“And if we die, others will replace us. Especially after the number of his guards will drop dramatically after the battle that will follow,” Sierra said.
“Now,” Matt continued, “the tunnel to our left leads to the forest north of the wall. Take it and put as much distance between you and this fowl place as you can.”
“No,” Sophie said, after a few moments of silence. “This guy messed with our lives too. I personally want my vengeance on him as well. I admit that I wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible, but now that you guys are in the picture, I want to contribute to this fucker’s downfall.”
“Are you insane?” Bill asked her with surprise. “We could die. In a fight which is not ours. Do you really want to leave Thomas and Julie orphans for a cause we have nothing to do with?”
“You should listen to your husband,” Matt said. “He is a wise man, speaking wise words.”
“The moment that asshole unleashed his men upon us, then he made this my cause too. He made my life a living hell. And I want justice for that. I want justice for my wounds, for Thomas’s wounds, for your wounds and for Julie’s.”
Bill thought for a moment and said:
“Okay, then. I guess we’ll fight alongside you.”
“Are you, guys, insane?” Thomas asked.
“Thomas,” Bill said, “take Julie and follow that tunnel.”
“What are you…”
“Now!”
“How will I know if you survived or not?”
“Do you have a flare gun?” Sophie asked Matt.
“Yes, I do.”
“Wait at the tunnel exit until tomorrow at six o’clock. If you don’t see a flare by then, it means you are Julie’s new parent.”
“Okay,” Thomas said, with tears in his eyes.
“Now go! Now!” Bill said.
“Come on, Julie, let’s go!”
Thomas took his little sister’s hand and started walking through the tunnel.
“Now, when do we do this?” Sophie asked.
“Easy, there, Rambo-lady,” Matt said. “Let me explain the plan first.”
***
It was seven o’clock. Matt and his men went out of the tunnel, followed by Bill and Sophie. They were all armed with pistols, M-16s, Kalashnikovs and even knives and bows and arrows. They were tip-toeing, to avoid being spotted by the guards on the wall.
Matt got ten of his men and rounded them up around him, in a circle. He whispered:
“Okay, guys, you go on the walls and eliminate the guards patrolling on them. They are our first major obstacle. Do it quietly. Use your knives and attack them from behind by stabbing them in the back or cutting their throats. Once you are done with them, come back here and we will continue with the rest of the plan. Got it?”
“Yes, sir!” they all answered simultaneously.
“Good. Proceed!”
The night was quiet, but it was very cold. And while the guard was enjoying the silence, he hated that he had to shiver, even though he was dressed properly. Every time he exhaled, his breath was emanating steam.
He turned around and looked at a section of the wall where a fellow guard should have been. But he was nowhere to be found. “Maybe he went to take a piss,” he thought. So he didn’t worry.
But then, he heard another fellow guard yelling. He turned toward the direction of the sound and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His colleague had just been stabbed by an intruder, who was now retrieving the knife out of him.
“Son of a bitch!” the guard yelled. He pointed the rifle at the intruder and fired three shots, missing him every time. The intruder looked at him and ran away quickly. And just as the guard was about to shoot again, he felt an immense pain in his back, before collapsing. Another intruder came toward him and retrieved his knife form the guard’s back.
“There goes our plan,” the intruder said.
***
Nick was standing up in the center of his office, looking at some paperwork. He heard
three shots coming from the wall.
“What the hell…?” he whispered.
He went to the window and looked outside. And his face turned white. Hundreds of his own citizens were attacking the guards on the streets. The revolution had just began.
“Oh, fuck!” he whispered. He then turned around and started running.
***
After hearing the shots, the rest of the guards started spreading around the town.
“You, search there! You, go over there! You, go that way! Let’s move, people!”
Meanwhile, the resistance members started hiding and waiting for the guards to come out in the open.
About five minutes later, a whole crowd of guards appeared running on the street. They were well equipped for combat, wearing bullet-proof vests, assault rifles and helmets. They were cautiously looking everywhere, hoping to see the enemy or enemies in the dark.
They eventually reached next to the houses where the resistance members were hiding. Matt had no hesitation and yelled:
“Fire at will! Blast them!”
The next second, all the resistance members started firing at the guards from everywhere: roofs, attics, windows, corners, etc. A few guards dropped dead to the very next second. The rest of them fired back.
“Retreat! Retreat!” their leader yelled.
The guards started retreating while firing at the resistance members. More of them were hit while pulling back.
“Allright, we got them running. Let’s go!” Matt said.
Everyone started getting out of the houses or from behind them and started chasing the guards who, meanwhile, hid in or behind some houses themselves. Some hid behind trees or simply went prone on the ground for better aiming.
They were firing at the resistance members once they got in front of them. They hit about five or six of them, while the rest of the bullets hit the ground next to them. The resistance members opened fire upon them as well, while hiding behind trees or other houses, in an attempt to take cover.
***
Thomas and Julie were sitting next to the tunnel entrance. Thomas was crying and desperately praying:
“Please, Lord, let them live! I’m begging you! I still need them. Julie still needs them. And you know they don’t deserve to die like this. Out of everyone else, you know this best. Please, keep them alive. Please!”
“Don’t worry, Thomas,” Julie told her brother. “It’s not the first time Mommy and Daddy fought bad guys. They will win. You’ll see.”
“I sure hope so, Julie. I sure hope so.”
***
Both sides refused to silent their guns. Thirty minutes passed since the battle begun and none of them seemed willing to give up their ground. The guards and the resistance members continued to fight frantically for victory. Dead bodies piled up on both sides.
Sophie, Bill and Sierra were nursing some wounded behind a house. They each had at least one close call. Sophie almost got hit once when a guard came from behind her. Someone saw him, fortunately, and shot him before he could kill her. Bill almost got shot when a guard came in front of him from a tree and hit him with his rifle. He fell to the ground, but luckily, he was quick and managed to take his gun from his hip and shoot the guard before he could point the rifle at him. Sierra was the luckiest. A guard’s gun jammed right before he could shoot her. She shot him instead.
Matt called them to him.
“All right, listen up. We can’t do this forever. We can’t keep pinning them down behind windows and walls, hoping that, eventually, a stray bullet will hit them. We wasted enough ammo and time by doing just that and we can’t afford to waste more. So here’s what we’re going to do: the five of you will enter the houses while we cover you and you take down whoever is inside. Then, we advance to the next houses and we do the same, until we clear them all. Got it?”
“Got it!” everyone answered.
“Okay! You… what’s your name again?”
“Bill.”
“Okay, Bill. You will be the one taking care of this first house right here. We’ll cover you, while you run toward the door. Get ready to run in three, two, one… run. Everyone, cover him!”
Bill ran toward the door. Resistance members spread a hail of bullets toward the guards in the house.
He eventually reached the door, which he broke. He then quickly ran underneath the stairs, while the guard, who saw him, started firing at him. Fortunately, all he hit were the stairs and the floor next to them. Bill pointed his Kalashnikov at him and fired five bullets in his gut. The guard collapsed in a pool of blood.
He then proceeded upstairs, where there were two more guards, each in separate rooms. Due to the noise made by the weapons firing at them from the outside, they didn’t hear the gun shots from right below them. So Bill had no problem opening the doors silently and shooting them both in the back.
Bill came out of the house victorious, yelling:
“All clear!”
Everyone was glad to see him coming out of the house alive. But no one was happier about that than Sophie, who hugged him and kissed him.
“Well done!” Matt said. “Now we have to apply the same tactic for the rest of the houses.”
Which they did. They applied the same successful tactic on every house full of guards in their way. They covered the ones they were sending and after that, the men sent were doing the job they couldn’t do from the outside. It took about three hours and it cost them a lot of men, but in the end, the tactic was worth it. They managed to clear all the houses but one: Nick’s.
They reached in front of Nick’s house, which was full of guards. The moment the guards saw them, they started firing with everything they had. They were determined not to let their leader’s house fall in the hands of The Resistance.
The Resistance members hid behind some trees and bushes to avoid the hail of bullets coming toward them.
“Sierra!” Matt yelled.
Sierra came immediately to her leader’s call.
“Yes, sir!”
“I’m giving you the honor of capturing the tyrant’s house. You know what to do. Go! We’ll cover you.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Oh and Sierra… if you find Nick, don’t kill him. He doesn’t deserve a quick death.”
“Got it, sir!”
“Now go. We’ll cover you. Good luck!”
“Thank you, sir!”
“Okay, everybody, listen up! We cover Sierra in three, two, one… covering fire.”
At Matt’s command, the ones who heard his call got up and fired at the house. Sierra ran as fast as she could, before the guards saw her coming.
She reached next to the house just when The Resistance members started reloading. Seeing that nobody was firing upon them anymore, the guards popped up their heads and prepared to return fire. They started firing again, but, about three seconds later, Sierra sneaked next to a window, pulled a knife out and stabbed one of the guards in the face. The other two guards, standing about twenty feet away, saw what happened and started firing at her. She ran away to the entrance.
She kicked open the entrance door and the guards at the windows started firing at it. A few seconds later, they ran out of ammo. Hearing their weapons going silent, Sierra came out from behind the door and shot them both. But just when she was about to enter the house, three more guards came from upstairs and started firing at her from the stairs. Sierra hid behind the wall and reloaded. When their guns went silent, she got out from behind the wall and shot two of them. The third one managed to run back upstairs. She tried to follow him, but when she stepped on the stairs, he started firing at her from above. So she fired through the ceiling, hearing him collapsing against the wall later.
She climbed upstairs, her M-16 reloaded and ready. She was walking slowly and cautiously. In front of her, the door to Nick’s office was waiting to be opened. She approached it slowly and when she opened it, a guard with a knife jumped at her and tried to cut her throat. She ducked, but the guard tried
to stab her again. She grabbed his hand and kicked him in the gut. She took the knife from his hand, but the guard jumped at her again. She went sideways, hit him in the back, smashed his head by the railing and then stabbed him in the neck. She then grabbed her gun and continued searching for the tyrant.
She cautiously entered Nick’s office, but he wasn’t there. She then went to an adjacent room, but he wasn’t there either. Eventually, she went to the hallway again and opened a door to the right of Nick’s office. The moment she did that, a bunch of girls who were kept there as sex slaves got scared, thinking they will be taken to Nick or killed. Despite the fact that they were barely able to stand on their feet and their voices were almost gone, they started screaming pretty loud when they saw Sierra with a gun.
“It’s okay!” Sierra said. “It’s okay! I’m on your side. I’m here to liberate you. You are all free now. Nick’s reign of terror is over. Go to your homes. He doesn’t own you anymore.”
Once the girls heard that, they started crying with joy and hugged her.
“Did you kill him?” one of the girls asked.
“No. I can’t find him.”
“He ran to the basement like the coward he is when the shooting started. He may still be there. If he is, put a bullet in him for every single one of us.”
“No,” Sierra said. “I have a much better idea. The rest of The Resistance is waiting for you outside. Go! Go now!”
“Thank you! We are all grateful.”
“Okay. Go now!”
The girls started running down the stairs, anxious to go home. All but one. A blonde one, wearing a purple dress. She was sitting down, on the floor, with her eyes on the ground. Sierra approached her, kneeled in front of her and grabbed her head in her hands.
“Sis…” Sierra said. “Sis, look at me! It’s over! You’re free.”
The blonde woman, Sierra’s sister, smiled and hugged her.
“Go!” Sierra said. “Go home. Mom’s waiting.”
Dark Apocalypse: A Post-Apocalyptic Family Saga Page 5