State of Panic: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (8 page)

“But—”

“You are in a war, whether you like it or not. They won’t hesitate to kill. It’s simple, do you want those officers dead?”

I hesitated before I replied. “No.”

“Then you need to pull the trigger.”

“I’ve only ever fired a rifle when I’ve gone hunting.”

“Then you should be fine,” Luke muttered over the radio.

There was a pause in our conversation; I assumed Murphy was reassessing the situation from his position.

“Luke, once he takes the shot and you fire some rounds, I want you to change position. We need to keep moving. Give them the sense that there are more of us than there really are. And Sam, I hope you can run fast.”

I didn’t reply.

“Sam, did you hear me?”

I pressed down on the button. “Yep.”

As I peered through the scope, Murphy told me to take the shot. I checked that there was a round in the chamber. I focused in on the guy who was now standing in front of one of the male officers. He lifted his gun and fired a round into his head. The sound of Kate’s scream could be heard. The armed skinhead then stepped to his left to repeat the process.

“Sam. Take the shot!”

I froze in that moment. It was long enough for the man to shoot another cop. There were three remaining. Kate was in the middle.

“Take the shot!”

I exhaled hard. My finger squeezed against the trigger and the bullet hit its target.

The skinhead fell on the officer and before the others could figure out where the shot came from, Murphy, Edgar and Luke began unloading rounds into the large group.

It was pure pandemonium.

People were climbing on top of each other to get out from the rain of bullets that were taking down the group from multiple angles, and different locations.

I pulled the rifle back into the case, closed it and got the hell off that roof.

I
couldn’t believe
I had just killed someone. I didn’t even have time to process it. I was down on the ground and pounding the pavement back to Cedar Street. The streets would be crawling with them as some sought cover, while others looked to find the shooters. On one hand I didn’t want to leave them but I was following orders, running on instinct and had smothered the emotion that was in danger of paralyzing me. A mix of fear and adrenaline kept my legs moving. My thighs screamed in protest, and I could feel a stitch coming on.

I saw the sign for Seventh Street up ahead. It was one block over. I still had to cross Sixth Street. As I burst across the street a batch of skinheads plowed into me. One of them fell to the ground. A few of them I recognized. My eyes scanned their faces hoping to god that they weren’t any of the guys from the library.

“Frost, where the hell have you been?”

It was Bryan Catz. He grabbed a hold of me.

“We were getting fired at, I ran just like you.”

“Did you see where it came from?”

“Back there.”

I motioned over my shoulder and he glanced down at the case in my hand and frowned. “What the fuck is that?”

I swallowed hard as he pulled it out of my hand. Other skinheads ran past us, only Bryan and a couple others had stopped. They were looking around nervously. Fear on their faces. The idea of standing out in the open was probably making them antsy. He pushed me back and placed the case on the ground. I reached around my back and took a hold of the Glock. I began taking several steps back towards Seventh Street as he unlocked the case. I didn’t stick around to see his reaction. I turned and ran. I glanced back when I heard him call my name.

“Frost! You fucker. Get him.”

And that was it. If I had a stitch before, my stomach felt like it was about to hurl as I raced towards Seventh Street with multiple skinheads on my tail. I turned a few times to fire a couple of rounds to slow them down but that only infuriated them more. As I zigzagged to avoid being hit by a bullet, I fixed my face like a flint towards Seventh Street. When I reached it, I could see City Hall one block down.

The only thing pushing through my mind was to get to that building.

At the far end of the road I saw more skinheads running up towards me. They were probably the overflow from Main Street. While they weren’t aware of the others chasing me, I wasn’t going to risk it. I dashed into an alley, pushed the Glock into the back of my waistband and sprinted hard down the dirt-filled street full of puddles left over from rain. Water splashed up my leg and my throat felt like it was on fire as I turned back to see Bryan and six others racing after me.

I was fucked. Royally.

I turned a corner and practically launched myself up onto a dumpster and over the fence. As I landed hard the Glock fell out of my waistband. I had only taken a few steps when I heard it hit the ground. I swiveled back and scooped it up just as one of them came over the fence. He was in midair about to land when I fired into him, then fired two more rounds at the fence. That kept the others back but not for long. As I got closer to the rear doors of City Hall, I knew that there was a shitload of chairs and tables stacked up behind them. There was no way that I was going to be able to get inside, and if any of the five skinheads behind me realized that others were there, they would swarm the place.

Shit! I screamed inwardly as I changed direction and flew into a tight alley that had overgrown with weeds, branches and brambles. Nature tore at my skin like gnarled fingers. I felt as though I was running into a black hole.

As I came out the other side, I sprinted across the street and into a large patch of trees between a maintenance and building supplies store and an auto dealership. I ran up to the first door and yanked on it hard but it was locked. Before I could get to the wall that hedged in the two buildings, I heard them.

I ducked down behind a huge supply of lumber.

“Frost, I know you are in here.”

I heard their boots nearby, one of them smashed a window on a car with his baseball bat. It happened again, then again.

“Come on out. I’ll give you a chance to explain yourself to Eli. Perhaps he’ll show mercy on you and just take away your red shoelaces.” Eli? I heard a couple of them laugh. They were playing games with me. There was no way out. It was made very clear at the beginning. If you went against them, you got fucked up. And with the way things were now, fucked up meant dead.

I shifted my position as I saw one of them getting closer. I moved over to a red SUV and got between two of them. I laid on the ground. From there I could see their boots. I pulled out the magazine and checked how many rounds I had left, and then slid it back in. I had more than enough to kill all five of them but they were also packing. At least one of them was. The others had baseball bats, a chain and something else that would no doubt tear me apart.

“You know Nate was a good guy, he was like a brother to me.”

He must have been referring to the guy I’d shot near City Hall. That was two people I had killed. Though the second time around, it was different. I knew it was him or me. I wiped moisture from my lips and looked to my right. In the window of one of the cars I saw the reflection of a flashlight. I moved position for a second time. I wasn’t going to be able to hide for long. On the other hand I didn’t want to kill any more people.

We were going to need the bullets. I moved into the section of used vehicles and began checking the trunks on each of them while keeping low to the ground. Several times they passed by the vehicle I was behind. All that could be heard was gravel beneath their boots and the occasional whack as they slammed a baseball bat against metal.

At what point does a man break when pushed into a corner? What happens when the lines blur between what he doesn’t want to do and that which he must?
Murphy’s words came back to me. They were words he’d shared when we were out in the wilderness. The second month was meant to be harder. That it was. Every day out there in the elements he imparted lessons to us. Some of them just went in one ear and out the other but others stuck.

Murphy had been reeling off one of his old war stories about him and his buddies caught in a firefight. According to him, his platoon had been sent in to rescue a group of U.S. military advisers when they got overrun. A massive coalition air strike was called in. They destroyed over forty buildings and killed over seventy militants but it wasn’t enough.

There is a fine line that separates those that will and those that won’t. There is a fine line between those that will stand and those that will fall. While you are out here that line for you might be as simple as hiking another mile. On the frontline, where lives are lost or survive, it means pulling the trigger when you might just want to freeze or run. I don’t like killing people but if it means bringing the guy beside me home alive, I won’t hesitate. Now dig deep, dig d-e-e-p.

His words echoed in my mind as I became one hundred percent focused on getting out of this alive. I crept up the back of the van I had moved behind and peered through the murky glass. I could see two of them at one o’clock, one was at twelve and the others were at nine. Like sheep that had strayed from the pack. I focused on the one at twelve. I crouched down and positioned myself at the corner of the van with the Glock extended.

I was waiting for the moment he came into view. I swallowed hard, every ounce of my being was focused on the tunnel, the gap between the vehicles. As he walked into frame, I aimed and pulled the trigger. The moment he went down, I rolled out into a new position further down and further back.

“Where did that come from?”

One down.

I moved again. This time I was nervous to look around the corner of the next vehicle in the event that they spotted me. The two guys who were at one o’clock had raced over to check on their buddy who was now lying motionless. I circled around another vehicle. As I stuck my head out to take a look, one of them spotted me and pointed.

“There he is.”

A spray of bullets from whoever was carrying hit the car. A window shattered and I heard Bryan telling them to split up. My pulse had gone into overdrive. Everything became crystal-clear as though I had too much caffeine. Fear no longer crippled me, all I had left now was my fight-or-flight instinct and flight was off the radar.

I stared into a window and saw the reflection of one of them creeping up the side with a large knife in his hand. The ground beneath me was nothing more than gravel. I took a handful of it and tossed it towards the tree line. When I saw him turn, I came out and fired a round into him then ducked back out of sight.

I could hear them cursing.

“Give me that,” I heard Bryan scream.

“Come on.”

He fired off four rounds in frustration in multiple directions.

“This is not over, Frost.”

I then heard their feet pound the ground and become distant. As I looked over they were gone. Two down and the other three had run.

I breathed out hard, went over to the guy who was closest to me and checked his pockets. I grabbed a packet of cigarettes out, banged one out and lit it. I coughed hard.
Shit, I need to give these up
. I peered over the hood of a car, took the knife from the guy and pinched the bridge of my nose. I felt something sticky and wiped my mouth with my hand. As I looked at it, I saw it was covered in blood. But it wasn’t mine. It was his.

The smell of iron, and its taste on my lips made my stomach turn again. I brought a hand up to my mouth to stop myself from throwing up for the second time that evening.

I
returned
to City Hall by cutting through the maintenance supply building and a health food store. When they opened the back door, Billy rushed me inside and cast a nervous glance around. Ally took one look at me and then craned her head to see if her father was behind.

“Where is he?”

I was panting and out of breath. I placed a hand on my knee and pulled the backpack off my shoulder. “He’s been shot.”

“What?” she screamed.

“He’s alive but he needs our help.”

I passed the two-way to them and they tried getting through to Murphy but there was no answer. That only increased their anxiety. I couldn’t imagine he would answer. By now the skinheads would be crawling all over the place trying to get at them. I just hoped they were still alive.

I unzipped the bag and turned it over. The contents went all over the floor. There were four handguns of various makes, Glock, Browning, Ruger and Sig Sauer. In addition to this were several boxes of ammo.

Both Sara and Ally kept peppering me with questions but I couldn’t answer them. First because they were asking at the same time, and second because I had this ringing in my ears from shooting the last guy.

“Give the kid some space,” Matt said getting between them and me. “Just give him a minute to catch his breath.”

An older woman came up with a bottle of water. I thanked her and chugged it down then took a seat. Billy grabbed up one of the handguns and began loading it.

“Do you know what you’re doing with that, boy?” an older man with grey hair said.

“I’m not a boy, old man.” He popped out the magazine and began loading bullets one on top of the next. Once he had it filled he slapped it in the bottom and loaded one in the chamber.

I brought them up to speed on what had taken place with Kate. I saw the look in Sara’s eyes. There was obviously something going on there. Perhaps Murphy was seeing her on the side. Maybe that was what had caused their marriage to fall apart.

“Anyone who wants to stay, stay. I’m going with him,” Matt said taking one of the guns and loading it. Sara frowned and grabbed his arm. She shook her head.

“I’m not losing you.”

“He needs our help.”

Ally grabbed one of the guns.

“Oh no you don’t,” Sara said taking the weapon from her hand.

“If dad is in trouble, I’m going.”

“No, she’s right, you need to stay here,” Matt said.

“I’ll go,” Corey added.

Raymond Wells, an insurance agent, pushed his way forward. “Don’t be a fool, boy. You are just a kid.” He tried to take the gun from Corey, but that was the worst thing he could do.

Corey pushed him back. “Get the fuck off me.”

“You need someone to teach you manners,” he shot back.

“What? And you’re the guy to do it?”

Raymond moved forward. “Just like your father, he was a loser.”

Corey lifted the gun at him, holding it in some kind of gangster angle, like he’d seen on TV. “You better back up, bitch.”

Billy started laughing.

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Oh what, you going to make me?” Billy raised his weapon. A few gasps came from the oldies and Matt tried to intervene. Things were spiraling out of control real fast.

“Guys, this isn’t helping Murphy,” I said.

There was a moment of awkward tension and then Billy lowered his weapon. If only Murphy could have seen this. We really needed six months with him. He had only begun to scratch the surface of our problems. The friction between Billy and Corey had been ongoing since day one of our arrival at Camp Zero. Billy had been acting like he was mentally insane in an attempt to get himself sent home and Corey was the first one to see through his charade. From then on out, they had been at each other’s throats.

“I’m just saying, you’re not old enough to fire a handgun,” Raymond said.

“Are you willing to go out there? Do you want to face those skinheads?” Corey asked.

Raymond’s chin dropped a little.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Corey, he has a point,” Sara tried to provide a voice of reason.

“Well then, let’s put it to a vote. If there are four adults who want to go, fine. We’ll stay.”

Corey looked over to Billy.

“Speak for yourself. I’m going,” Billy replied.

“Three then.”

Another icy glare was exchanged; thankfully handguns weren’t waved around this time. Matt asked people to raise their hands if they wanted to help. We could tell within the first thirty seconds that no one wanted to go out there. It was risky business and the chances of coming back were slim.

“Then it’s settled,” Corey said picking his gun back up and moving out with a box of ammo in the other hand. I don’t think it was as much a matter of bravery as it was that he really didn’t give two shits about his life.

“I’ll go,” Brett said.

“That’s five.”

Corey, Billy, Matt, Brett and me.

“No, Brett, they will lynch you,” Jodi said.

“Then so be it. I’m not going to sit by watching them destroy our town.”

“Maybe you don’t need to.”

I was eyeing Ally from across the room. “Did your old man ever teach you how to fire a gun?”

She let out a chuckle. “I could shoot a cap off a bottle from fifty yards.”

“Yeah, right,” Billy said before mimicking puppet movements with his hand as though she was all talk.

“Let’s put a cap on your head then.”

“Screw you.”

“Hey,” Matt said coming to her defense.

“She’s not going out, Sam,” Sara said. “Trained or not, I won’t risk it.”

“Fair enough.”

It was interesting to see the level of concern that she had for her. Brett and Jodi? They were different. They had what I classed as a vested interest in me. I just wasn’t sure what it was.

“Let’s go,” Matt said.

A few hugs were exchanged while Corey and Billy pulled back the chairs and tables from behind the door. I glanced at the clock. It was a little after eleven at night. Billy shouldered the door and surveyed the area outside. It was so damn dark that if any skinheads were waiting to pop us the moment we came out, we would have died for sure. Thankfully, as far as I knew, no one was aware that anyone was inside City Hall. It would have been one of the last places to check. They would have gone to homes and raided businesses long before they approached any government building. Then of course there was the police station that was directly beside it.

Getting back wasn’t an easy task. The streets were filled with them. It was like a war zone. The sound of gunfire could still be heard.

“You think they’re still alive?”

“As long as they haven’t run out of ammo and are on top of the roofs. There is only one way up onto those roofs.”

“I don’t like this one bit,” Matt said.

We stayed in a line with Corey and Brett keeping an eye on the rear, while Billy and I forged ahead. It took us the better part of fifteen minutes to get close to the block where Luke had killed the two guys.

“Just follow the sound of rapid gunfire. That has to be Murphy.”

We were down between two buildings in a narrow dark alley when the first wave of attacks began. They must have seen us coming as it happened so fast. I don’t even know where they were hiding as it was so damn dark. One of us managed to get a round off but after that it was all hands on. One of the skinheads wielded his bat, I ducked and shouldered his gut taking him to the floor. Jab after jab, I unleashed a flurry of hits on him until someone kicked me in the face.

The sound of another gun went off and then they stopped.

“Don’t you fucking move!”

Matt was holding his gun out and waving it around and for a few brief seconds I thought we were in the clear. When the baseball bat came swinging out of the darkness and hit him square in the face, I think we all winced. The gun went off and the brawling began again. I scrambled to my feet and threw as many punches as I could get in. It was hard to see who was winning as it was like a mosh pit in the dark. Arm, legs, hands, groans of pain and then I was being pulled off the guy whose face I had pummeled.

“Sam.”

I swung around instinctively and nearly took out Brett.

“That’s enough.”

I looked down at the guy whose face was bloodied and beaten to a pulp. My hands were shaking. I stared at the back of my raw knuckles. The shock didn’t set in until I saw Matt further down from us. He lay motionless.

“Matt?”

“He’s dead. We need to go,” Brett said pushing on.

All of us looked as if we had been dragged through a bush backwards. Bruised, battered but still alive we pressed on until we reached the building I’d been on. I tried communicating with Murphy but there was still no answer. We climbed up and that’s when we got a better view of what was going on. Skinheads were on the tops of various buildings and were firing at one that held all three of them. Luke, Murphy and Edgar were returning fire. Crouched down low we assessed the situation. I tried to communicate again but they weren’t picking up. The noise of gunfire was deafening. It was like the Battle of Mogadishu, except none of us were soldiers and none of us had training on what to do. We were fortunate to have survived so far through brute force of will. Matt hadn’t been so lucky. It could have been any one of us.

“We aren’t going to be able to help them from here. These handguns won’t give us the distance.”

I peered over the edge into the streets to see where the officers were. The crowd had dispersed. The only light came from cars that were on fire. I could see bodies everywhere. There had to have been at least sixty or seventy people dead.

I pulled back and slumped down behind the brick wall. The others were watching the mayhem when the radio crackled. “Sam.”

It was Luke.

“Yeah.”

“You got the others?”

“Three.”

“Three!” he stammered and I pulled the speaker away from my ear.

“That’s it,” I replied.

“Murphy wants you to go find Shaw.”

“Oh, I’ll just stroll on into the chaos down below and locate her. Are you out of your mind?”

“That’s his words not mine. Hold up.”

The sound of gunfire intensified for a minute or two. I peered over the edge and could see that some skinheads had attempted to go up the side of the building. One was carrying a lit Molotov cocktail. Luke shot the guy before he had a chance to toss it. Instead it dropped and smashed over the two below him. They fell off the side of the building covered in flames, screaming.

“Sorry about that. Some asshole was at the door,” Luke continued.

“Tell Murphy we’ve lost the rifle and shotgun. But we still have the handguns.”

“Any other good news?” Luke enquired.

I hesitated before speaking into the mic. “Matt’s dead.”

There was silence on the other end. I was expecting Billy to make a crack about how having his ex’s boyfriend out of the picture might have been good news. But he didn’t.

“I got to go.”

I waited there for a few seconds looking over the tops of the roofs.

“Well, you heard him.”

“He expects us to go back down there?” Billy asked.

“Kate could die.”

“So could hundreds of other people. Why should she be treated any different?” Billy asked. “Hell, my family is out there too. He wants us to risk our neck for some cop? The same one that busted our ass multiple times?” He paused. “No, screw that. If he has a death wish he can go down there and save her. I came here to help these guys get back to City Hall.”

“And then what?”

“We hunker down until the cavalry shows up.”

“The military have their hands full, Billy. No one is coming.”

“There are thousands of military personnel on aircraft carriers. The military is coming.”

“Even if they make it back to land, you think they are going to come to our little neck of the woods? They are going to focus on continuity of government and the largest cities first.”

“I don’t give a shit what you think.”

“And what? You think these skinheads are going to sit by and wait? We have just opened up a can of worms, kicked a hornet’s nest and unleashed hell on this town.”

“That wasn’t my call.”

“No, no it wasn’t but you’re in it now. If you didn’t want to help then you shouldn’t have come.”

“Oh screw you, Sam.”

“Guys,” Brett said, gesturing with his head out across the town. We followed his gaze to a group that was coming up the street carrying Molotov cocktails.

“Oh shit.”

I got up and ran over to the edge and began making my way down. Corey and Brett followed suit. Billy was the only one that hesitated and the only reason I think he moved was because he didn’t want to be left alone. As soon as my boots hit the floor I broke into a fast-paced jog keeping my gun low and hugging the sides of the buildings. Once I made it to the corner of the U.S. Post Office, I crouched down in a comfortable position. Corey took up a spot behind a burnt-out car. Brett climbed up a small pipe that led to an overhang on a building and laid down. Billy came up behind me and was droning on about how we were all going to end up dead.

“Good, maybe then I will get some peace from listening to you.”

He huffed and took a spot over by Corey. We watched the group get closer to the side of the building.

“Wait.”

They stopped and looked around for a few seconds before beginning to climb. I no longer thought about not wanting to kill. The thought didn’t even cross my mind. We had no other option. We weren’t going to let Murphy and the others die up there. They were already under heavy gunfire from across the roofs. It was a means to distract them while another group attempted to come up the other fire escape. Even if Luke could hold them off, it was only a matter of time before they ran out of ammo.

I focused on the one beginning to climb, aiming for his back. A short pause. A final second and then I fired. The moment I did so, the others did also. The guy fell causing the Molotov cocktail to set alight the ground around their feet. Chaos erupted as others began returning fire at our unexpected attack. The only advantage we had was there were no vehicles nearby us that were on fire, so we were shrouded by the darkness of night. However that didn’t stop them from firing wildly at us. When Luke leaned over and started raining bullets down on them, they retreated back like rats into the sewers.