I'm finally 21 YESSIR! Thank God for another year of life. My present to y'all is this chapter. Hope y'all enjoy!
Part I: First Day Out
-Day 100-
Back in one of the four Units of the prison, JuJu is lying on his bed in the cell throwing a ball he found in the air and catching it one-handed repeatedly while his other hand is resting behind his head trying to keep himself busy. Marcus is in the cell next to him while looking at pictures he had in his jeans back pocket. Byron is in the cell across from the two writing in a notebook he found.
"Yo J," Marcus says. "You've never seen my momma before, huh?"
"Nah," JuJu replies. "I haven't. Why?"
Marcus stands up and puts his hand outside of the bars toward JuJu's side of the cell with a picture. JuJu catches the ball one last time and stands up as well to walk toward the image his friend is handing out and grabs it.
"Oh damn," JuJu says. "Your momma's beautiful."
Marcus's mother had long and loose curls, light brown skin, and hazel eyes, just like JuJu's little sister.
"What happened with her if you don't mind me askin'?
"Thanks, bro. She had cancer when I turned 16. She kept it a secret from me until I noticed myself but it was too late. I thought she was indestructible. She was my hero, inspiration, and most importantly, an angel."
"I feel it. What did she do?"
"Damn, she worked two jobs just to provide for me since my dad was never there, fuck that nigga by the way."
JuJu stood there, looking at Marcus's mother, remembering his own. Getting flashbacks from seeing her lifeless body at the Lions' stadium. He then hands back the photo.
"What about your momma?" Marcus asks. "What did she do?"
"My momma was a social worker and helped with the homeless. She always wanted to help people since she was a kid in Mexico. She loved to play soccer too, she was hella good at it, but due to her kindness, she threw that all away."
"Damn, that explains why you're a gifted athlete haha. Both of your parents were athletes."
"Yeah."
"Hey," Byron interrupts. "You think we'll ever get outta here? I'm kinda getting sick of this shithole."
"Aren't we all?" JuJu smirks. "Nothin' to do but let time go by at this point. Shit, I don't even know what day it is anymore."
"Wait, do yall hear that?" asks Marcus.
Hundreds of gunshots and explosions are happening outside the building and reverberating through the brick walls. Suddenly, the soldiers in their building start running toward the exit, and all the prisoners' attention is grabbed by it. Everyone is questioning what's happening but the soldiers ignore all of it. Then, the sound of a door blasts open and it's followed by multiple gunshots and bodies dropping.
JuJu looks straight at Byron and says, "Nice timing bro."
The cells then open and JuJu sees the soldiers dead on the ground with other survivors wearing their body armor. He regroups with his friends and the first thing they do is head to the armory while prisoners with weapons protected them. They see rogue soldiers drop dead one by one all around them and things blowing up around the buildings. While running in a group with other prisoners toward the armory an attack helicopter comes out of nowhere and lowers its altitude looking at one of the buildings and its machine guns started spinning until it fired, killing many of the survivors that were outside that building.
"Holy shit!" Byron yells. "They have helicopters?"
"Wait," Marcus says. "Where's JuJu?"
The two notice that their friend is missing from their group and due to all of the shootings and explosions going on, they can't go look for him.
JuJu snuck away from the rest of the group to find General Black and kill him. He sneaks into one of the buildings and onto the roof. He slowly opens the door and sees one soldier with a sniper looking down the scope trying to take out the prisoners. JuJu finds a glass shard on the ground and slowly moves toward the soldier, making little to no sound.
"Come mierda culero," He says before stabbing the soldier in the neck.
The soldier drops the L115 sniper rifle and his body falls over the ledge and plummets to the ground. JuJu looks at the gun laying in front of him.
"This shouldn't be too hard."
He picks up the sniper and posts up on the ledge, setting the bipod up so the kick from each shot will keep him on target. He looks into the scope and sees a soldier on an overwatch tower. He puts the crosshair on his head and pulls the trigger and he misses.
"Shit!" JuJu says.
He pulls back the bolt handle and aims his sight at the soldier's head. A shot is fired and the soldier's head pops like a balloon. He pulls back the bolt handle once more and the bullet casing pops out of the weapon as it dings onto the floor next to him. He looks around the area through the scope and sees his friends and the Loud Parents by a building made out of steel followed by other people he recognizes.
"Wait, Is that… No fuckin' way."
He enhances the zoom on the scope and puts it on the girl and she turns her head to reveal herself.
"Lynn? Holy shit, and her sisters too?"
Suddenly a bullet ricochets near him and he finds a soldier trying to shoot him off the building. He quickly aims the sniper at the soldier and hits him through the skull. He cocks back the bolt handle again and looks for more targets until he sees the General trying to retreat in another helicopter. He puts the crosshairs on his head and quickly pulls the trigger to find out that the gun has run out of ammo.
"Of course" JuJu grunts as he throws the gun to the floor.
He then looks to see a Helicopter looking right at his building and starts to spin its guns once again until a missile hits the rear of the chopper and crashes down in a fiery blaze.
"Woah, they got damn near every weapon you can think of."
JuJu then heads down the stairs of the building and runs toward the armory. He runs in and sees everyone he knows.
"J!" Yells Marcus. "Where the fuck did you go?"
"I protected y'all's asses from that building up there with a sniper," JuJu replies as he points at the rooftop he was on. "A simple 'thank you' woulda worked."
He walks past him and is met by Lynn.
"JuJu?" She says.
"Lynn? How did y'all survive the blast?"
"They put us in a bunker under the Safe Zone," Lori interrupts. "We'll catch up later. We gotta take this place back."
JuJu nods as he looks around the armory to find his weapons. First off, he tosses an FN FAL assault rifle at Marcus as he grabs the ammo for it and holsters a suppressed Heckler & Koch USP.45 while Byron gets his MP443 Grach pistol again followed by an MP5k Submachine gun. JuJu then finds his .357 Magnum Revolver. It had a matte black finish with a red pistol grip and a glossy red design of a snake wrapped around the cylinder and going down toward the grip. He then grabs his Honey Badger followed by his father's pocket knife.
"Let's send these fuckers to their graves," JuJu says as he cocks back the charging handle of his AR.
JuJu, Byron, and Marcus exit the armory while the three separate themselves from the others to cover more ground. JuJu takes cover behind a broken jersey barrier as he peaks his head around the corner. A bullet grazes the side of it, saving his head from being hit.
"There's 2 to the left by the entrance of the building across from us and one by the humvee," JuJu says to his friends.
He peaks over the barrier and fires two bullets from his rifle and takes out both of the soldiers, quickly and cleanly. Marcus then peeks for himself and takes out the other soldier. They then continue taking out other soldiers along the way as others try to escape in their vehicles. He looks at building D and sees a smoke grenade go off near the front as prisoners and soldiers escape the building. They all fire their guns at the soldiers as some prisoners perish in the gunfire. They see some of the dead soldiers' and prisoners' bodies start to rise, once again showing their golden eyes, and start charging at some of the survivors. They each quickly get shot in their head and collapse to the floor until suddenly, there's nothing but silence. JuJu looks around as he sees the rogues escape Houlton in their vehicles in the distance. He looks back at the fire spreading from the blown-up helicopter as the flames reflect off his brown eyes.
"Yo," JuJu says. "We won."
"Yeah," Marcus replies. "We did. But the question is, will they come back?"
"That shouldn't be important right now. Let's enjoy this."
He walks to the armory once again and looks inside one of the storage lockers. He then finds his backpack with all his things still inside.
"Huh," he says. "All my shit's still here."
JuJu holsters his weapons and walks out of the building. He walks toward the Louds, reunited once again, followed by his friends.
"Guess it's over, huh?"
"Yeah, it is," Lynn replies. "Good to see you again bro."
"Same here. How you been?"
"Hold on," Lori interrupts again. "I gotta ask you some questions first, JuJu."
"Uh, why?"
"Just a trust thing."
JuJu looks at Lynn and she signals him to do it.
"Fine, hit me."
"How many roamers have you killed?"
"Roamers?"
"That's what we call the undead."
"Oh, then a couple at least."
"I need a number."
"I don't know, around 10 I guess."
"How many people have you killed?"
"Too many to count, but I'm guessing more than 15."
"Why?"
"To survive, what else? I got nothing else to lose, I see nothing but red when those rogues are present, especially Black. I didn't want to kill anyone but my anger takes over."
Lynn then looks at JuJu with a worried expression.
"Okay. Who are they?"
"These are guys I met when I left Detroit. This is Marcus and Byron. They saved me when I got ambushed by the rogues."
"Woah," Lynn says. "Byron, you too?"
"Hey, Lynn."
Lori asks the same three questions to JuJu's friends and they answer.
Lynn then walks up to JuJu to introduce him to members of her group he's never met before and greets the other sisters once again. While meeting up with the other Louds, he realizes that Lola and Lucy are missing, but doesn't say anything about it.
"Yo J!" Marcus calls out. "There's a whole ass abandoned neighborhood over here. We all got somewhere to stay."
The group then walks toward the neighborhood, followed by the other prisoners that survived the battle, away from the military zone. JuJu walks with Lynn and they catch up with each other.
"How are we supposed to get into these houses?" Asks Lynn. "They're most likely locked."
"Nah, JuJu replies. "Some of the soldiers lived in these houses, so most likely we'll find an unlocked door or window to go through."
He walks toward one of the houses and tries the door and it was locked. He then tries the front window.
"Boom!" He yells. "Told ya."
He climbs into the house and unlocks the front door.
"Y'all can have this one. House looks big enough for you guys."
"Oh, Uh. Thanks, JuJu," says Lori.
The Louds walk into the house as JuJu and his friends find one a couple of houses down from them and luckily the front door was unlocked. The house had a tan, rugged carpet with grayish-blue walls, wooden stairs, two bathrooms, and coincidentally, three bedrooms upstairs
"This place ain't bad," says Marcus.
"You ain't lyin'" JuJu replies.
"I call the biggest room!" Says Byron.
"B, they're all like, the same size."
Byron chuckles awkwardly.
"I'm gonna check the bathroom real quick," JuJu says.
He throws his backpack into one of the rooms and jogs to the bathroom down the hall. He walks to the sink and turns the key to find the water coming out of the nozzle. He's surprised and begins to wash his face. The dirt and dried blood went into the sink bowl and swirled around it until it went into the drain. He takes off his shirt and wipes his face with it and looks at himself in the mirror, seeing his hair get longer and turn into a small, nappy afro as time goes by. He then puts his shirt over his shoulder and exits the bathroom letting his friends know that there's running water. He walks into his new bedroom and looks out of the window toward the military zone. With the black smoke from the downed helicopter dying out, JuJu looks at it remembering the lives he has taken in that short amount of time.