"Hello. You can call me Maverick." The man said. I saw no fear in him- He was fully kitted out in black.
I eyed him, and said "Maverick. How many people have you killed?" I asked him.
"One." He said. "Why?" He smiled, as if he had been asked this many times before. My friends came into the room. "Because he asked me to. He was bit." Maverick said. I eyed him. "Hawk." I
said. Santiago came up behind me. "Santiago. Hawk, do you know him?" He asked.
"He says his name is Maverick. I do not know him." I said.
He smiled, again. "If you shoot, I wouldn't blame ya. Too many people shoot on sight." He said.
Santiago looked at him, and said "We are not bad people. We don't shoot unless given a reason."
Maverick said "It is nice to see some friendlies… It is not often you meet someone."
Santiago simply eyed him, and said "You may join us, but, we have our eye on you. Hurt any of us, and you're a dead man."
"I think your choices are well made." Maverick said, taking off his sunglasses.
The rest gave him our names, and we set up in a barn, on the hills above the city. We looked down. Cars littered the street. A turrent from a tank lay in town square, broken. Smoke arises from some buildings, the blackout covering the city. This use to be a huge city for trading.
" I was just down there. Hordes of hundreds are down there. Near the port, bandits lurk, waiting for ships with supplies to come in. No one survives their attacks." Maverick said, staring into the town. He seemed a bit distant, during that moment. He had seen a lot.
He spoke again. "I was with a old man. The bandits got him. They handcuffed him, made him drink disinfectant, and left him to die. He was eaten by the infected."
I was shocked. What happened to those people? Why were they so violent? Those questions would forever haunt me. "Im so sorry." I said, holding his shoulder. He smiled. "Thank you." He said. He looked back into berenzino.
"There are gang wars all the time near the port. It is a massive killzone, with 8 extremely violent gangs inside. The Cobras, The Sworn, The PMCs, The Hellbreakers, The Hellhounds, The Ghosts, and the most powerful, The Reapers. They fight for supplies all the time. The lumber yard is combat central, with at least 40 men there, all the time.
Upper Berezino is home to huge hordes, and is known for the abnormals there." He said. "Abnormals?" I asked. He nodded. "Rare spawnings of the Virus. They have special abilities, like a higher amount of defense, or mobility."
He said. Could one of them be the one that ripped apart that convoy? "Hold on. Im seeing something." Maverick said. I looked in the direction that he was facing, and sure enough, a armored humvee was zooming across the field. I looked at the men inside, and noticed something. They had special gear. One had a ghillie suit. Special forces. They had a M2 machine gun on top, and 3 out of the 5 had M4s with scopes and suppressors. The ghillie had what looked like some kind of .50 caliber sniper rifle. They stopped, and got out. They aimed down the hill, and I saw smoke coming from their silencers. I looked down, and saw a freakishly large infected creature fall. They loaded up, and went back on the road.
Maverick turned towards me, and handed me something. A handful of SKS rounds. I took them, and put them in my pockets. He said "I must go now. Good luck."
He turned around, and ran off. I looked at him until he disappeared in the distance. He was a strange man- one I would never get.
Destiny came up to me, and said "Hey. Santiago wants us to head into town. We all have handguns, and you have a rifle. C'mon." She went back into the barn. I followed her, and saw Santiago and Kayly talking. Santiago turned towards me. "Where is Maverick?" He asked. "He left." I simply said. He looked as puzzled as I was.
"Anyway, grab your gear, we are going into town. We are too low on food and drinks." He said. I did just that, and met my friends outside. "So, whats the plan?" I said. He said "We charge down the hill, and go into the hospital. We set up from there." Santiago said. It sounded like suicide. We loaded up, and charged down from the barn, A gunshot, from my left, distant. We got down, when we started receiving fire. "GET INSIDE! DAMMIT!" Santiago yelled as he opened the back door of the hospital.
We rushed in, and I held my SKS afloat. Santiago held his revolver. "On me." Santiago said. We went through the hallways, clearing each room. I peeked into one room, and saw something. 6 people, all looking at me in fear. One had a handgun, and one had a firefighter axe. Another had a crowbar.
"What do you want?" The man with the handgun asked. Santiago looked in the room. "We are escaping bandits. We took cover in here." Santiago said. The man nodded, and I heard a door slam open below, followed by shouting. "Get inside." He said. We went in, and huddled at the door, pushing against it. I heard the stomping of boots going up the stairs. There was 2 of them, from what I heard. The man who was the leader looked at me. "Viktor." He said. I nodded.
"Hawk." We stopped talking when we heard the men outside our door. I held my gun close. The men passed. I looked at Viktor, and then Santiago. "On me." I said. I got up, followed by Santiago and Viktor. I pulled the door open, and stormed out. The bandits turned around, and I fired, followed by Santiago. The one on the left fell. The other, with a AK74, and opened fire. I heard screams behind me, Some of pain, some of fear. I stopped the man's fire by shooting him in the chest.
We took the left bandit's gun, a Mosin 9310 with a bipod. We grabbed the ammo, and darted downstairs. We passed dead bodies, some with knives in their hands. We ran out the back door. One of Viktor's men, a man by the name of Christopher, took the Mosin.
We had our guns up, when I heard groaning. From our left, a horde was coming. I saw Destiny stab one on the head, and the knife get stuck. We ran in the other direction, with the infected advancing from either sides. Gunshots echoed around us, while we kept running for the hills. I saw a humvee to our left, with men outside. The soldiers. They opened fire, and the infected changed direction.
We got up to the hills, with the humvee trying to escape. They got swarmed quickly. We stopped on the other side of a massive rock. We took a headcount, revealing that 3 of Viktor's people died. The person with the crowbar survived. He looked at me, and said "I'm Doug." We sat by a fire that I built, and we shared our stories.
"It was a long time ago. We were in a church sermon, when sirens started. Gunshots were all around us, with snarls and screams. We had no idea where we were going. Creatures ripped into my friend's flesh, and there was nothing I could do." Viktor said.
It reminded me of what happened, back at Kamyshovo. I shuddered, thinking about it. We had all lost so damn much. A Lot of people have died to get where we are. We gathered our supplies, and set off into the night. Viktor looked at me, but I ignored him.
Something about him, didn't seem right… From the corner of my eye, I saw Viktor unholster his weapon, and pointed at me, with Christopher. I raised my SKS, and fired. I saw Santiago yell out, and saw blood coming from his left shoulder. I Kayly pushed Doug aside, and stabbed Viktor in the head. I finished christopher off, and Doug took off running. I saw Kayly pick up the Mosin, and fire. Doug yelled out in pain, and fell. Destiny rushed to santiago, and looked at the wound.
Santiago coughed and said "Run. They are coming." I looked at him confused, when I heard growling. A horde was coming up the hill. With tears in our eyes, we ran. Santiago's scream echoed through the woods. He was gone. We got to a small cabin, and closed the door. I fell on the couch, and broke out crying. In a few days, I lost two very important men. I couldn't control myself. Destiny sat down next to me, and hugged me. "Hawk… We couldn't save him…" She told me. We hugged each other close, and fell asleep.
Unknown's POV
It was early morning. I carefully cleared the small town of Khelm. I held my M4 in front of me, and went into a red brick house. I checked each room, until I got to the top floor. Inside the bedroom, I heard breathing. I peeked in, and a man with a handgun panicked and fired. I fired 6 shots, 2 hitting him in the head. He fell over. He had reason too. I had a black balaclava on, a sign of banditry. I had full military gear, and a automatic weapon. Who wouldn't shoot? I sighed, and went towards the woods, leaving the crime scene behind. I had to. Nobody could be trusted. Once you fired a gun, everyone in the area would head to you. It doesn't matter. I was too strong to back down- For, I, Lexus, was to rise above them all.
…..
Anarchies have risen up. Thank you, for all that read this. Now… Stay tuned for…..
chapter 12: False hope