Hello and welcome back! Mr. Potassium here with another chapter. You're probably feeling anxious about what happens next after the last chapter so let's get right into it! Don't forget to follow and favorite!
-Day 5-
Alarms and sirens scattered throughout the entire town as the sun fell down to the earth. The sky had a tang of orange and pink pigment scattered across the horizon. Streetlamps flickered on and off in the sidewalk. Windows in every home went opaque and the air conditioners no longer blew air. As usual, gunshots were fired, along with the shouting of protesters.
The stadium was locked down by the National Guard and by local police forces. Every roamer that escaped from the gates of the stadiums were shot down by law enforcement. However, not all those who escaped were roamers.
The protesters continued to shout at the riot police, sometimes throwing stones at them. A police officer hollered at the protesters, ordering them to go somewhere safe. The truth was, in the eyes of the protesters, there were no safe places except their dark homes. Meredith Hilda couldn't stand dark homes, especially with a niece that she barely interacted with, unless she counts the amount of times she had conversations with her while holding a bottle of liquor.
A helicopter landed in an empty parking lot outside of the hospital near Palmer Field. The chief of police of Ann Arbor awaited near the gates of the parking lot, which also served as the entrance to the hospital. A couple rogue soldiers came out of the helicopter, scanning the surrounding area. The chief gulped as he saw General Quentin Black step out of the helicopter.
"How are you, Chief Adams?" greeted the general. "You know what it's time for, am I correct?"
"Yes," said the chief, shivering as he thought about what he was about to be ordered to do. "But, I believe she's protesting with the others. We don't have to storm inside their homes and slaughter everyone. I can't do that to innocent women and children."
"You understand that the Meredith and Vonda aren't innocent?" insisted Black. "But to save you guys from storming inside each individual home, you and your guys are going to be doing something different."
"As long as my family is guaranteed safe passage to Nova Scotia, I'll do anything you say," said Chief Adams.
"And that's why you and your family will enjoy a hot meal in Nova Scotia. But you won't be calling it that anymore. When the whole world goes to shit, and the strong make it out alive, it should be known as Nova Terra."
"Nova Terra?"
"New Earth. New Land. What I want you to do is order your men in blue to shoot down the protesters. Sacrifice the lives that would no doubt suffer in the new world to take out the one threat that would destroy the future that we have planned. We got Tim and his daughter in Detroit. Quirino's forces should handle Sherry."
Chief Adams grabbed his badge and sighed. General Black looked around the hospital and spotted dozens of people trying to get inside the gate. The general looked at his men and nodded his head while motioning his index finger and middle finger across his neck. The rogue soldiers raised their weapons and sprayed bullets through the gates. Adams' jaw widened and he held his breath as the people were slaughtered outside the gates.
"People will suffer a worse fate in New York today," said General Black. "Quirino's forces will storm New York some time after Operation Dust Zone. It will be hell over there. This mission is for the greater good of this world, don't forget that."
Chief Adams softly lowered his head and raised it again. General Black continued to stare at him.
"Well? Are you going to follow orders?"
"Right, the order," gulped Adams.
Adams nervously pulled out his walkie-talkie. He turned it on as he eyed the bleeding bodies near the gates.
"This is Chief of Police Ferdinand Adams. To all riot control forces, I order you to eliminate any threat you encounter in the containment of the infected by any means necessary. The infection causes its victims to become aggressive and that is enough I can tell you about the protesters. This is an order."
The rogue soldiers stormed inside the hospital. Gunshots went off. General Black walked back into the helicopter, holding his hand out for the chief. Adams climbed onto the helicopter and both men awaited the soldiers' return. The gunshot stopped and the rogue soldiers climbed back into the helicopter.
Meredith Hilda held a liquor bottle with a cloth and a lighter. The protesters were becoming violent and turning into rioters. The riot police unleashed tear gas on the crowd, which resulted into the lighting of hundreds of bottles. The Molotovs were tossed into the gas, causing a streak of flame to spark within the tear gas. Suddenly, bullets flew away from the gas and towards the rioters, striking many of them. The riot police focused their attention away from the stadium in which the roamers were now escaping from.
More Molotovs were thrown across the air, setting cars, trees, and buildings ablaze. The police moved towards the fleeing rioters in a thunderous motion, shooting anyone they see. A frightened driver raised his hands as an officer walked to his car. The officer raised his rifle at the windshield and pulled the trigger. Many pieces of glass shattered as the riot police shot their guns at the windows of stores and houses near the stadium.
Meredith sobbed as the tear gas attacked her lungs and eyes. Her upper left limb was missing and the rest of her body was painted with blood. She let out her last breath, apologizing to Tim and Vonda. The fire engulfed the many bodies that lied in near the stadium.
The roamers came out of the trail of gas, hungering for the souls that ended them. The officers shot the roamers' bodies, but they failed to hit their heads, resulting in the officers' gruesome deaths. Their screams matched those of the rioters that fell near the stadium.
The red sky reflected the anger of the rioters and the blazing streak that consumed central Ann Arbor. General Black, Chief Adams, and the rest of the rogue soldiers flew out of the chaos that they created. Adams looked away from the burning town while Black stared at it.
"You understand that I don't enjoy seeing this, right?" said Adams.
"I don't enjoy seeing the world burn, either, if I have to be honest with you," replied Black. "The last thing I wanted was a world on fire. But this is only a microcosm of what was. The world was already on fire before. And according to a buddy of mine, we were walking in the midst of it."
Chapter 12: Walking in the Midst of Fire
I - The Fire
-Present Day-
"No, I won't kneel," spat Luna. "Your group won't be happy about what you're doing."
"You don't know shit about my group," said Jayden. "Get on your knees!"
"I wouldn't hold that shit on me if I were you. You're asking for death right now."
"Luna, what are you doing?" gasped Sam.
Lynn held Rusty, Zach, Tabby, and Clyde back as they watched the scene unfold before them. Carol stood behind them, holding a small revolver, while Lana held her heavy wrench tightly.
"I need you guys to walk behind the cabin. I think shit's about to go down," said Lynn.
"I can cover you," said Wavehead.
"No, I need you and D to protect the others."
"Okay, got it."
Lynn grabbed her bow and drew and arrow from her quiver. Before she took a step towards the RV, Clyde grabbed her shoulder.
"Stay safe," whispered Clyde.
"You too, Clyde. I'll be fine," smiled Lynn.
"I would listen to your girlfriend," said Jayden. "I'm giving you one last chance before I pump some lead into you."
"You need to chill with that. Put that shit away and fight me with your hands, pussy!"
Jayden lowered his pistol and shot it. Luna yelped while falling to the ground on her knees. Blood poured from beneath her left shin as she placed her left palm in the ground, her head low, and her arms on her right knee.
"Come on! Who's next!" yelled Jayden.
"Luna!" yelled Sam, as she looked up at Jayden. "Why'd you do that?"
Jayden aimed his pistol at Sam.
"Looks like you want to be next."
"No, no, I'm next," said Sergei. "Leave them alone. They don't deserve death."
"You're saying you do?"
"I just want you to settle down. We all need to calm down. Your group and my group are going to return some point later. They won't be happy to find out that we did this. It would drive a wedge between us and your people back at the community."
"Community? You gullible fucks! There is no community! Your group are being sent to trap to end their pitiful lives!"
Luna gasped as tears of pain fell from her eyes. Sam held her tightly, whimpering as Jayden moved his pistol towards Sergei.
"Why? What did we ever do to you guys?"
"It's not that you guys did anything to us. It's that we need all the supplies that we can get. Even if we have to kill other people for it! You see, there was a point in time when we had nothing! Not even a bottle of water to feed the many of us! There used to be more of us, but… shit happens!"
"We have nothing as well. Maybe some shit that will last us for a few days, but then that is it. We are all desperate, but we wouldn't kill for some supplies!"
"You would kill anyone who defies you! Like Jake! If I were to lower my gun, you guys would kill me!"
Lynn pulled the string back in her bow and aimed it at Jayden. As she released the arrow, Jayden ducked and shot his gun at Lynn. She tackled the door to the cabin and ran inside, dodging the bullets.
"Son of a bitch!" growled Jayden as he took out a magazine for his pistol. "Looks like I gotta hold one of y'all at gunpoint to teach this bitch a lesson."
Sergei grabbed Jayden's right arm and pulled it backwards with immense force, snapping Jayden's arm and rendering it useless. He let out a strong yell before smacking Sergei with his gun. He grabbed Sergei's neck with his left hand and choked him. Sergei fell to the ground with Jayden on top of him.
Suddenly, a spike went through Jayden's chest as blood poured out of it and his mouth. Sergei moved out of the way, as Jayden fell flat into the ground. Sam pulled out the ice pick away from Jayden's chest and out his spine, creating a gaping gash in his back. Sam dropped her ice pick and covered her mouth, gasping at what she had done.
Lynn came out of the cabin with the string of her bow drawn backwards. She pulled the string forward as she grabbed her arrow. Luna looked at Sam with her jaws left open. Sergei smiled and sighed in relief. Luna then smiled as well.
"Thank you, my love," gasped Luna as she fell to the ground.
Carol came out from behind the cabin, along with the other kids, running to Luna. She turned Luna over and saw a bullet hole in her shin. Lynn walked over to Jayden's body and spat on it, while Sam began to sob.
"Is she going to be okay?" whimpered Sam. "Please tell me she will!"
"She will be okay. She will be. I just need to bring her inside the cabin," said Carol. "You guys need to rescue the others! Go!"
"Right! The rest of the group!" exclaimed Sergei. "They're walking into a death trap!"
Sergei ran inside the cabin and grabbed his rifle. Carol and Lynn brought Luna inside the cabin, while D and Wavehead grabbed a couple magazines for their pistols from the van. Sam walked inside the cabin with hopes of assisting Carol with stabilizing her girlfriend.
Sergei, Lynn, Wavehead, and D dashed into the forest, following the groups' trails that led them into the big campfire. The kids dashed inside the cabin, closing the door. Jayden's corpse remained outside in the grass, as thunder boomed across the sky.
Lincoln looked quietly into the campfire. The crackling sounds of the embers filled the silence in the gaps from one thunder to another. He turned to look at Lori, who was distraught by what she saw. Bret continued walking around a circle. Lori couldn't stand looking at Bret's shoes, so she lied her head in the grass whimpering.
Ronnie Anne looked at her sniffling brother, who cried for the daughter that he always wanted. She felt a large sting in her heart, almost as if Darcy was her own daughter as well. However, she knew that what she felt couldn't match Bobby's pain. Still, watching the fire swallow Darcy's corpse felt too uneasy for anyone to bear. Even David turned his eyes away from the fire.
"I bet you guys want to shove a knife through my skull," said Bret.
"No," said Lori. "I feel like doing something much worse to you. Like slitting your throat."
Bret smirked slightly while placing his hands on his neck and rubbing it.
"Well, I understand how you feel. I wish I could do the same thing with Major Brown. He was the one who killed my mother with a grenade launcher back in Boston. Mike knows it too. After all… he's my brother. But you guys aren't too concerned about that, right?"
"You burned a four-year-old girl alive. Why?" puffed David.
"Fire is one of the most beautiful thing that nature has to offer. It provides heat. And heat provides life. But life leads to death, and it only makes sense to die by something that would provide life. Not following me here, yet?"
The group remained silent. Bret continued with his story.
"Look, it doesn't have to be fire. I could've drowned her. But I didn't because fire has life. It moves and seeks to engulf, burn something. Or someone. I can see why Major Brown used fire to kill his enemies. Still doesn't make what he did right. But I understand it. And what I did was right. I hope you guys understand."
"How was it right?" asked Bobby. "What did this girl ever do to you?"
"Jake contacted us earlier, telling us that she knocked him out. Pretty smart girl. Everything that happened after was because of Darcy. And that's why we tossed her into the fire. Justice."
"You're sick," said Becky. "Sick pyromaniacs. That's what you guys are."
"You should've seen the dead ones burning up in flames to haunt us as we fought them off. Beautiful. We are just like them, now and in the afterlife. Walking in the midst of fire. Just like Darcy. Just like you guys in a couple minutes. You guys aren't following me, right?"
"We are," said Richard. "I can see that you guys are batshit murderers."
"It's funny that you mention that," said Bret. "Jake said he was running away from something while having his hands tied up. He mentioned a tall, blond man with hair in his jaw. We later found him lying in a ditch with a bullet hole in his chest. You can imagine our anger after we saw that, right?"
"He attacked a member of our group. Of course, I went after him. I don't feel ashamed about it."
"Even when he was lying helpless on a ditch? Even as one of the dead ones, he couldn't climb out of the ditch. We had to help him up."
"One of the dead ones?" wondered Richard. "He got bit?"
"He must have," replied Bret. "Otherwise, he wouldn't look like this."
Mike and the other Looters grabbed Roamer Jake from the rope around his wrist, bringing him in close to the group like a dog. The bullet hole was apparent in his chest and his watch still ticked. Bret held out his hands and pointed at the zombified Jake.
"Look at that! Another act of justice has to be done. Where do you want to get bit?"
Richard stood up, but the Looters grabbed his shoulders and forced him down to the ground. David eyed Roamer Jake and realized that Richard told the truth except with one detail. He claimed that Jake got away. And that was a lie. A lie that would end up biting Richard back.
Roamer Jake reminded Lori of Lucy and her tragic death. Luan and Benny saw an exact scenario involving Lucy with this as well. The unstable nature of roamers meant that even if Bret wanted the roamer to kill Richard, there is a chance that they could lose control of it and allow the roamer to bite another survivor. Since Luan and Benny knelt close to Richard, they braced themselves for the teeth of the wild roamer.
Lightning and thunder joined in a unifying sound as it caused the sky to flash in a split second, shaking the earth. The wind shook the trees around and tiny raindrops touched the large campfire. More raindrops formed a drizzle.
"Keep that fucking monster away from me!" shouted Richard.
A bullet flew through the air and struck the chest of the Looter to Richard's right. Another bullet struck the Looter to his left, creating a hole through his shirt and in his chest. Both Looters dropped to the ground. A burst of bullets erased the face of the Looter behind David and the limbs of another Looter behind Becky and Dana. The Looters aimed their weapons behind Lori and fired into the trees.
David grabbed Mike, covering his throat, and shoved his knife in his lower spine. Roamer Jake was released, growling towards Luan, but Richard grabbed it by the rope around his wrist.
"I gotta make you useful," said Richard, while turning Roamer Jake around.
A Looter stood behind Lincoln, with his rifle aimed at the trees in front of them. Richard shoved the roamer to the Looter. Roamer Jake sunk its teeth into the back of the Looter's neck, biting his flesh off. He screamed in agony, while Roamer Jake sunk its nails into the Looter's arms and pressing him as they both fell to the ground.
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne crawled towards Bobby. Benny grabbed his straight-edged katana and stood up. A Looter turned around to the other Looter's screams, and dived into the tip of a katana. Benny shoved the katana in and out, killing his first victim ever since the apocalypse started.
The other Looters looked at Benny and raised their weapons, but one of the Looters was shot in the head, causing him to the drop next to a small campfire. The drizzle dropped more raindrops on the group as the other Looters faced the trees behind David and Richard. Another bullet struck a Looter's head, and another Looter was shot in the abdomen and then the neck. He gasped as he fell to the ground, blood washing the ground below the group.
Lori grabbed her box cutter and shoved the box cutter inside of Bret's right eye socket. He yelled at the top of his lungs as blood leaked out of his eye socket. Lori yelled as she twisted the small knife inside his eye, causing it to squirt blood and aqueous fluid. Bret's voice grew more agonized as he was paralyzed with pain. Lori removed the box cutter.
David tossed Mike to the ground and stomped him in the chest. He stomped him again and again, mostly in the face. The sound of ribs cracking and Mike's face being bruised rang throughout the dying Looters' ears.
Lori wrapped her arms around Bret, pressing his arms against his ribs as he groaned as a result of his missing eyeball. Lori clenched the box cutter tightly and pressed it against the right side of Bret's throat. She dragged the box cutter across his throat, with blood squirting out like a packet of ketchup as Bret's yells turned into gasping. Lori removed the box cutter by ripping it out of his throat. She then shoved Bret into the large campfire as the rain began to pick up. Bret's body twitched as the fire consumed him, serving a different kind of justice with the same punishment.
David continued stomping on Mike's head until a crack in his skull was heard. His brain squirted blood as David made one last powerful stomp. David looked around as an arrow flew across the camp and into Roamer Jake's head. The roamer dropped to the ground with the arrow stuck in its head.
Sergei propped out of the tree behind Lori. Wavehead and D came from behind David and Richard while Lynn revealed herself behind Leni and Carol. They all looked at Lori, horrified and aghast. Lori blinked slowly as she wiped her bloody hands on her shorts. Her face was stained with blood as well though she ignored it. She dropped the box cutter, still containing pieces of Bret's flesh. She then lied on the floor and released her tears as the sky rained on the dying campfire.
Millions of raindrops rained over Boston where the group decided they weren't going. The group turned on their flashlight and saw a couple roamers heading to the camp. Lynn and Wavehead made it their job to protect the group from the roamers. David and Richard walked over to the smoldering campfire, picking guns along the way. Becky, Dana, Benny, and Luan rummaged through the Looters' backpacks, taking them along with them. Lincoln and Ronnie Anne stood up and helped Leni up to her feet. Shocked by what occurred, Leni held Lincoln close to her.
Lisa held out her hands for Lincoln to grab since her glowing glasses were stained from the drops of tears and rain. Lisa flicked her glasses, causing the lens to fade into transparency. Ronnie Anne helped Bobby up as he continued to stare at where the campfire used to be. Lynn walked over to Lori and offered to help her up. However, Lori stood up on her own and walked away from the camp, her hands shaking and her breaths rapid.
"So I got two of them," D told Wavehead. "And you got one of the others."
Both boys walked back to the cabin with the rest of the group following them. The rain diluted the blood on Lori's face, though it was still obvious that something bloody occurred in the Looters' camp.
David looked at his RV and saw Jayden's corpse lying in the grass with a gaping hole in his back. He faced the sky and closed his eyes, letting the rain wash off the blood in his face.
Richard walked over to his corpse and grabbed his lifeless arms. Richard pulled mostly with his left hand as his right hand lacked a thumb to grip the arms properly. He dragged the body into the forest, hidden from sight and smell.
"Luna, Sam. I have to be honest with you guys. I don't even know if she'll be able to walk again with that leg," said Carol, eyeing the wounded girl. "I need Lisa's input on the situation– oh they're back!"
Carol opened the cabin door and allowed the group to come inside. Lori rushed towards Luna, giving her a quick hug. Luna's eyes expanded.
"Lori, you have red gunk on your face!" gasped Luna.
Lori walked back towards Carol and wrapped her hands around her. This surprised Carol, but she hugged her friend back, knowing that she needed some kind of comfort.
"Thank you for saving her," whispered Lori. "You've done it again."
"It's my job… but Lori! What happened out there?" asked Carol.
Lori released Carol and held Bobby tightly. Tabby walked downstairs into the living room, holding Lily. The toddler was cooing and making baby noises, holding Rafo, the stuffed giraffe. Bobby's tears fell from his eyes once again as Lori whimpered harder into his shoulders. Becky rubbed her arms as she walked upstairs. Dana and D followed her. Lisa flicked her glasses and handed them to Carol.
"Twist the lens counterclockwise to go backwards. Twist them clockwise to go forward," whispered Lisa. "You'll see what happens."
Carol placed the glasses on, raising her eyes as she watched a silent-film type of recording of the group kneeling down. The fire blazed in the one-way lens, causing her to cover her mouth with her hands. She twisted the lens clockwise and watched the scene unfold before her. She gasped, now seeing her friend differently, as she watched Lori push Bret into the fire. She took off the glasses, now looking at the survivors staring out the window or lying in the floor. Lisa was gone.
The candle inside the cabin continued flickering, with the silence that was associated with the somber nights that they each knew about very well.