Chapter 2

Chaps was thinking about Franklin. His smile quickly vanished as he remembered Franklin's insides spraying the outside. His blood ran cold. He wandered how only four Locusts could make Swiss cheese of his men so easy. Even in the middle of the day, the woods had been so dark. Medson broke formation and jogged up to Chaps who was thinking why Franklin stepped out of cover after not hearing "Clear down." Medson immediately asked Chaps, "hey old man, I heard of Stranded groups in Tollen were making there way to the Kadar Mountains. You know, we should have never split up from that other group. They had water, guns,"

"I know it son, but there's nothin we can do about it now, Franklin made that decision and he had the most experience with those aliens. We continue with the plan, meet up with them, combine our guns and work our way from there." Chaps liked Medson, he was six feet, pretty stocky. He had good strength, great aim, and knew how to stay alive. Medson had short hair, hadn't shaved in a few days, but the beard had suited him. Medson had lost everything on Emergence Day. His family, his everything. He had come to terms with the ordeal and was able to cope nowadays with the thought of being with his family after death. He had guts, but he wasn't stupid. He knew how to stay alive and in the end, and that is what matters.

"Sounds good. You know, when Franklin's outpost was overrun a few months back, I thought we were all done for. Those pigs could have stuck around for a few days," Medson had gotten himself worked up now and Chaps could tell. "I know it. They're too damn shaky. They worry about themselves only. Goddamn communists."

Medson laughed at that last one, "There was nowhere safe for miles. The next stranded outpost was over 10 fuckin miles away. I just don't get it, they never attacked us before, and they almost acted as if we never existed." "I know it son, that's what they do though, they know were there. They know we aint COGs. But that's what they do. Never know what the hell they are thinking," Medson saw movement on the road about a quarter mile up the road. The Locust were moving slowly, but still moving. He stopped and immediately flung his hand up halting everybody.

"Stop, everybody get down a bit. Chaps, Locust up the road a bit." Chap's heart started to beat faster, "ok, ok. Everybody, follow me to the edge of the woods. Looks like the road dips down a bit so they'll be stuck in there with no cover. If we see a boomer, we let them pass. If not, we let them have it." Chaps led them to the edge of the brush and woods. It was perfect for an ambush. The Locust weren't too far away but they didn't suspect anything bad to be happening.

"No boomers Chaps. Looks like there is only four of them, again. What the fuck is goin on here? It almost seems like there is less Locust. Maybe the lightmass bomb hit em a bit harder than everybody thought."

"Okay good, each one is armed. Maybe we can grab some ammo. I see one Longshot, a gnasher and two Hammer bursts. We hit em hard and fast. I want nobody dead. Medson, you take out the sniper. You need to hit him in the fuckin head ok? Me and Crawford will take out the first guy. Anybody else with a gun, shoot the two inside." Medson moved away from everybody else and counted his bullets he had left for his Longshot. He counted 12. Tense moments passed. They were walking faster it seemed

as they got closer to everybody. There was no way the Locust could see them. They had no idea that they were walking into the lions den. Medson knew that he was the first shot. He knew he wouldn't miss. Chaps didn't have to tell him when to shoot. They were about a hundred meters and were closing in. Chap's heart was beating out of his chest. He knew he didn't have to tell Medson when to shoot. And he knew that Medson would not miss. He didn't want to think about if Medson did miss. Step by step, the Locust got closer and closer. They were fifty yards when the lead Locust stopped his squad. He thought he saw something but it was clear he wasn't looking at the Stranded taking cover. He continued his squad regardless. Chaps hands were sweating and his grip on his gun was not good. The Locusts were about 20 yards away and the road started tilting down. Crack! The last Locust in the column lost half his head and flung back onto the ground.

Chaps shouted, "Open up!" Chaps and everybody else immediately starting shooting bullets into the other Locusts. The front man was riddled with bullet after bullet. He fell right away. The second was riddled with a few bullets and fell as well. The last started dead sprinting towards the edge of the woods. Medson reloaded and shot him in the hip. It fell over and was crawling and made it to the edge of the woods. Chaps and Crawford jumped off the brush and into the road and started running after it. They passed by the two corpses and the second Locusts was breathing hard and had only a few moments to live. Without hesitation, Crawford lifted his boot, and smashed the Locust in the face. He did it a second time and it was dead for sure. Blood and bone crushing into Crawford's boot. The next step he took on the road crunched under his foot and he loved that sound. It was almost sickening. He had left a bloody footprint. Chaps was up ahead and Crawford sprinted to keep up. They saw where the Locust had entered the forest but there was no sign of him. Crawford went in first. Chaps wondered about Crawford and realized that he was obviously looking for revenge. There was a small blood trail that mysteriously vanished. All of the sudden, the wounded Locust jumped from behind the tree and tackled Crawford into Chaps. He punched Crawford in the chest and stomach. Chaps lost grip of his Gnasher when he fell down. He grabbed the nearest rock and smashed it into the Grubs face. It stunned him a bit but didn't hurt him. Chaps smashed him again in the face and Crawford threw a hard punch that did more damage than the rock had done. The Grub started choking Crawford. With his other hand he punched Chaps. Crawford was trying to get out of the strong Grubs arms but couldn't. Without help, he would die. Chaps ran toward the Grub, and when the Grub raised his fist to punch Chaps, Chaps dug his fingers in the bullet hole inside the Grub's hip. It screamed and hissed in pain and knelt over. Crawford got on top of the Grub in ferocious rage and grabbed the blood stained rock and started smashing the Grubs face over and over again. Chaps got up and looked around. He grabbed Crawford's Lancer off the ground and revved it. All of the sudden, Chaps thrusted it into the stomach of the Grub and Crawford moved out of the way immediately. The Locust then stopped moving and Chaps ripped apart the lifeless Grub. He stopped after a few seconds with blood spurting everywhere. Bones and guts were pouring out of the dead Grub. The rock in Crawford's hand had actually been indented back.

"Christ man, your nuts you know that. I almost fuckin killed you with this thing. Your own damned gun." Chaps started laughing. It was that creepy old man laugh that anybody can really imagine.

"Chaps, thank you man. You saved my ass. I thought I was done when he was choking me," Crawford started coughing at the thought somehow, "if you hadn't dug your fingers in his side, he woulda choked my ass to death."

Medson ran up with a woman behind him. Alice was her name. Medson looked at the horror around them all.

"Christ man, what the fuck happened here. Everyone okay? Chaps you hit man? You okay?" He started walking towards Chaps, "Nah, im fine Medson, it aint my blood." Medson stopped dead in his tracks, "Let's take five, grab the ammo, search the bodies and get the fuck outta here."

"Fine by me son," Chaps said. He was relieved, his heart still pounding. He felt no remorse whatsoever for the dead Grub. Everything he had just done, it had been for Franklin. For every human killed. For Baskins and Haren. For every little child and old person that had been ruthlessly gunned down by the Locust Juggernaut. Chaps thought to himself, you aint so tough now you ugly fuckin freak.

"Crawford, you grippin that rock like it's a fuckin artifact or something man," Medson explained as he started to laugh a bit.

"Im keeping this thing forever man, it fits perfectly in my extra bag. I smashed his fuckin face in and Chaps cut his body into two," Crawford said with a sickening voice.

Crawford got up and helped Chaps up. They started back towards the road. The four others left were already searching the Locust.

"Grab those two hammerbursts, but let Medson have that Longshot ammo, he don't fuckin miss."

A tall skinny man named Joseph Smith grabbed the hammerburst and the only extra magazine he could find on the dead Grub.

"Finally man, I been without gun for over a week." Chaps padded his shoulder and mumbled in his ear, "Good, now somebody who aint a lousy shot can get my back again," and they both laughed.

Smith put the extra mag in his pocket and was ready to move at Chap's words.

"Ok, Medson how man bullets you got son?" "33 Chaps, im good to go."

"Ok good, we are all armed now except for Jody." Crawford had a backup pistol with one extra mag and he pulled it out and handed it to Judy. Everybody could tell she never handled a gun before in her life.

Chaps nodded and knew that they are as ready as they could be.

"Ok, lets move it out, we got lots of sunlight and we got about four or five miles to Kadar. Were gonna move inside the woods again in case we see another patrol. Chances are there won't be because we've already taken out two on this road."

Everybody was as ready as they could be and Chaps led them to the other side of the road. Right when he was crossing Medson grabbed his elbow, "dont worry old man, ill help you to the other side," he said as he laughed and Chaps smacked him on the arm with the back of his hand, "you're a real smartass you know."

Chaps was the unofficial leader and everybody knew it. He had the brains and he had been in the military before, so he also knew strategy. Nobody here had questioned him and they weren't about to. Chaps once again thought of his days at the gas station, and thought about how good life had been back then. Even though the economy was bad, his business was great because the COGs always bought gas from him. Now there was no such thing as an economy and there probably would never be another one in his lifetime.