Aftermath (20 page)

“Yeah,” Drew nodded along. “You guys should be saying something like, ‘those bad people’ hurt us.”

Paige smiled at this, but it actually might be effective. She nodded.

“What if I can’t cry?” asked Randy.

“Just pretend,” replied Drew. “You’ll do good.”

Randy nodded his okay, as Paige then continued, “So the guards come in the door, and as the last one passes the bathroom, Chad and I get them from behind. Then whatever guard’s out front, he’s gonna turn, and that’s when Drew can jump him.”

“What if there’s more than three guards?” asked Trish.

“Then we just move extra fast,” Paige responded, shooting her a grin. “Anyone have any questions?”

Drew raised his hand. “What happens if I sneeze. Or I need to pee?”

“Bite me,” she smiled back at him. There he was again, making her smile. And it worked. She actually felt a little of the anxiety subside. “Can you see how close they are,” she asked, turning to Chad.

He headed over to the door, pressing his ear against it. He listened for a moment, then hurried back to the others. “Real close,” he said in a whisper. “It sounded like they’re in the next room over.”

“Okay, guys, let’s do this,” said Paige. The anxiety was back. It was like right before one of her track meets. This was the part she always hated. The anticipation, and buildup. Once things were in motion, the adrenaline took over, but this waiting part sucked.

The kids positioned themselves over by the window, Drew crouched down behind the wall, and she and Chad ducked into the bathroom. And there they waited, as the moments ticked by.

Then she heard the sound of a key card sliding through the door’s lock. The door opened, and a male voice barked into the room. “Occupants of room 408, we have orders to scan the Registration Identification Marks of all those registered to these premises.”

“Don’t let the bad people hurt us,” Paige could hear Trish’s voice pleading.

“Little girl, step away from the window,” the guard instructed her, as they entered the apartment.

Paige watched as one guard passed, followed about five steps behind by a second guard. Was that all of them?

No. A third guard followed, glancing in the bathroom door. Paige fired, nailing him in the chest. The guard was thrown across the entrance way into the far wall.

She could hear commotion as the second guard spun around, firing a burst through the outer bathroom wall. The bullets riddled the inside wall, just above Paige and Chad’s heads.

Paige wanted to return fire, but she couldn’t, not knowing where Drew or the kids were. She sprang out the door, and instantly the second guard was on top of her. She just had time to catch a glimpse of Drew struggling with the first guard in the living area.

Suddenly Chad leaped from the bathroom, knocking the second guard off Paige. She scrambled to her feet, and fired a shot at the second guard, catching him in the chest. She spun around, and fired a shot at the first guard, throwing him into the wall.

It was all over, in less than a minute. The adrenaline. The rush. Paige had to focus. “Help me get them out of these uniforms. We’ll put them on,” she said, already tugging the uniform off the third guard.

The Escape

It was still dark out, and surprisingly still, as Paige and her friends crept out the back exit of her apartment. Hopefully never to return again. Paige couldn’t believe the amount of relief she felt to finally be on her way out of this city. But there were still plenty of obstacles between here and the tunnels. And what if the tunnels didn’t run out of the city the way they had hoped?

She brushed these worries aside, as she crept over to the corner. She, Drew, and Chad were in the guards’ uniforms, with their rifles slung over their shoulders. The kids were in their linen outfits.

There were only three guards stationed out front. The others, she supposed, were busy invading the other residents’ rooms.

She hurried back to her friends, waiting at the exit. “There’s three guards out front,” she whispered.

“Should we try another route?” Drew whispered back.

Paige thought about it, then shook her head. “There’s gonna be guards all over,” she whispered back. “We should just go this way.”

The others nodded in agreement. And then they were off.

Paige and Drew led the way, followed by the kids, and then Chad, as they followed the path over to the mall fronting her apartment. Then they turned, and headed down the mall, passing her apartment.

The guards out front seemed to be occupied with some conversation, paying little attention to Paige and her friends as they strolled past.

They were just passing the far side of her apartment pyramid, when suddenly a siren screeched from inside.

“Crap,” Paige muttered to herself, her face twisted up in a cringe. Someone had found the bodies.

“What’s that noise?” Trish whispered.

“Shh,” Paige whispered back. “Just everyone act normal.”

Paige and Drew had been setting the pace for the group. They quickened it up, ever so slightly, but not enough to draw attention.

Guards were now pouring out of surrounding buildings, and racing over to Paige’s building. Why couldn’t things ever go as planned, she thought to herself.

That siren was still going off behind them, as they reached the end of their mall, and turned left onto another mall. Now they were able to quicken their pace even more.

Suddenly a shout came from behind. “Hey! We need everyone back here,” someone was hollering. Paige had no doubt it was directed at them. And she also had no doubt it was a guard doing the shouting. That meant two things - one, she and her friends passed themselves off as guards. And two, they were about to be chased down if they didn’t comply with his order.

Paige fingered the sling on her rifle, just in case she needed to slip it off quickly.

“Time to run?” Drew asked in a whisper.

“Let’s keep going,” she replied back in a whisper. “Just pretend we didn’t her him.”

“GET BACK HERE!” the guard behind them was now shouting, “THAT’S AN ORDER!”

It was game over, thought Paige. It was about to get messy.

And then it did, as the guard shouted to someone else, “GET THOSE FIVE!”

“Go!” Paige hollered to her friends, and they took off running.

The Chase

Sirens were going off now through the whole city, as Paige and her friends sprinted down the mall. The only thing working in their favor was that the majority of guards had scrambled to Paige’s apartment in response to the alarm, which left few ahead of them. But they needed to get off this mall, and put some corners between them and the guards.

“Follow me,” she hollered, as she veered off the mall, and sprinted for a path winding between two rows of buildings. She glanced back to make sure the kids were still with them, as she raced onto the path, and disappeared between the buildings.

Paige had no doubt that if it was just her, Chad, and Drew, they could easily outrun the guards. But the kids couldn’t. So her mind was racing through contingency plans they would need to take as soon as the guards closed the gap.

She turned right down another path, this one running along the backside of the buildings fronting the mall. She guessed that they were now running parallel to the direction of the mall, and that was the way they needed to go to get to the tunnels.

Then she could hear the heavy footsteps and clamor of the guards behind them. She took a hard left down another path, eager to put another corner between her group and the guards. She couldn’t allow the guards a clear shot. But either way, the guards were closing in.

They were approaching another path, when a bullet whizzed past her ear. Shit she thought. “Go!” she hollered to her friends, as she turned right down this next path, again running parallel to the mall, albeit some distance away.

As she spun around the corner, she dove behind a bush, signaling the others to keep going. She waited there less than fifteen seconds, before the guards sprinted around the corner. She had the selector switch on her rifle set to full auto, as she opened fire on the guards, spraying rounds across their ranks. All five of the guards were down.

Paige sprinted off after her friends, easily catching up.

“You okay?” Drew asked, quickly looking her over for bullet wounds as they sprinted down the path.

“Yeah,” Paige nodded. “No holes yet.”

Suddenly five more guards raced onto the path about twenty yards ahead.

“Duck!” Paige hollered, not missing a beat. They all dove to the side of the path, rolling behind bushes.

Paige, Chad and Drew opened fire, sweeping their barrels across the path. Two guards were down, as the others dove for cover.

“Cover me,” Paige shouted, as she sprinted off down a side path. Drew and Chad, opened fire on the guards, pinning them down.

“Where’d she go?” asked Chad, taking a second to reload, before resuming his shots.

“I dunno,” replied Drew.

Suddenly there was a burst of shots from down a side path up ahead. Paige stepped out into the path, waving at her friends to come. While the guards had been distracted, and pinned under fire from Drew and Chad, Paige had flanked them, coming at them from a side path.

Paige waited for her friends to catch up, then they all sprinted off.

***

Paige and her friends sprinted down a path, and out onto the mall. Paige didn’t see any more guards. At least at the moment. But the ongoing screech of the siren was sure to bring more of them out.

Then a new, and even more terrifying sound echoed across the city. It was one that Paige, Chad, and Drew instantly recognized, and sent a cold chill up their spines.

“Go, you guys! We need to go faster!” Paige rallied her team.

That sound was the banshee-like howl of the hybrids. And apparently their hosts had turned the hulking monsters loose on them.

Then Chad noticed something. A cloud-like mist was drifting up from drains along the mall. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

“Paige,” Chad hollered. “The mist.”

“Don’t let it touch you,” she hollered back. She wasn’t sure if it was a repeat of the tear-gas from the dining hall, or something worse. And she suspected it was something worse.

Suddenly more gunshots were heard. Paige looked over, as dozens of guards were pouring out from surrounding buildings. They had to get back off the mall. She looked for an opening in the mist, which seemed to be forming its own barrier along both sides of the mall. But fortunately, as it rose, it was also keeping the guards from getting a clear aim at them.

She spotted an area where the mist was still low to the ground. “Over there,” she hollered. “Be careful of the mist.”

Paige dashed in that direction, as the mist boiled out from the drains. She leaped over it, coming down on a path on the far side of it.

Several guards across the mall made a run for it through the mist, and onto the mall. Then they halted, falling to the pavement screaming as their flesh singed, and boiled.

Chad, Drew, and the kids followed Paige’s lead, leaping over the still low lying mist, and coming down on the path. Paige slowed down just a bit to let her friends catch up, then they all raced off down the path.

She turned right down another path, so they were again running parallel to the mall. It was the only way she knew to keep her bearings in this crazy maze of twisting and winding paths.

On the far side of the building, she could hear more shouts and yells, as apparently other guards confronted that lethal mist.

Paige turned right down another path she thought would lead back to the mall, then stopped. It was a dead end. “Okay, everyone. Back that way,” she hollered, waving everyone back.

Suddenly bullets were spraying all around them. They dove into the bushes along the path, whipping up the rifles. Several guards sprinted around the corner, before ducking back under a burst of shots from Paige’s team.

Paige, Drew, and Chad looked around. They were boxed in by buildings on three sides, with the only opening leading past those guards.

Then a burst of shots rang out from around the corner. It was followed by a shout. “Hey, you guys. Come out. It’s safe.”

Paige paused for a moment. She knew that voice. “Tony?” she called out.

“Yeah,” came the reply.

“Come on,” Paige said, springing to her feet.

“Wait,” Drew said, grabbing her arm. “Who’s Tony?”

“He’s Valerie’s friend,” she replied. “He’s on our side.”

Paige and her friends sprinted around the corner, and found Tony standing there next to the dead guards. Paige wanted to kiss him.

“You guys need to hurry,” he said. “They’ve been tracking you with drones, and there’s more guards on their way.”

“Are you coming?” Paige asked.