Dead Chaos - Book 1 - Zombie Apocalypse

Dead Chaos - Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

When our guard was ordered to take position along the barricade, we were ushered to get moving. A nurse brought a wheelchair and my dad and Viktor lifted Kyle out of the bed, settling him in carefully. If I wasn’t worried about our situation, I’d laugh at the state of his pants. One pant leg had been cut off at his upper thigh and a bandage over the wound was the only thing covering his bareness.

With a gun still at our backs, we made the journey back down Main Street, me wheeling my invalid boyfriend along. Panicked shouts were heard as a flurry of fire rained down from the freshly christened night sky. Eden was a warzone. The commune’s security force positioned themselves around the formidable edges of the wall. I watched as two of the soldiers put on night vision goggles and climbed the watchtowers at a speed monkeys would envy. Calculated shots rang loudly and an eerie quiet momentarily overtook the picturesque valley once again.

My family rushed into the nearest building as Sergeant Davies passed us carrying the same rifle he’d been tending to when we first met. I expected to see a troubled face, but he was brimming with eager excitement. We were directed to hole up in a former bank until the battle was over.

Kyle smirked and feigned shooting Davies with an imaginary handgun as we walked away, adding a chipper “pew pew” for good measure. I rolled my eyes at his marijuana-induced antics and parked him next to the half-naked elderly couple ducking behind a bank counter. Peeking out the window, I saw the raiders had driven an SUV through the main gate in an attempt to breach. The guards smartly positioned a minivan behind it to prevent that from happening. The men in the watchtowers ruthlessly plugged the attacking car full of shells.

“Anya, get the hell away from the window!” screamed my father, going into papa bear mode.

“I’m just trying to see what’s happening! We’re sitting ducks in here without our weapons!” I yelled back angrily. The pocket pistol in my boot would do little against more than a few men, but I retrieved it nonetheless and deposited it into my hoodie pocket. It made me feel marginally better.

Viktor was of the same mind as me and began scouring the bank for any sign of a weapon. He found a ski pole on a desk and hurried next to me. My dad hovered near the doorway, insisting on maintaining the front lines. Melanie stood behind Viktor, a gun in hand. Obviously, we girls knew how to be sneaky.

“In case they break in, you go first ok?” I couldn’t help taunting my big brother. He missed my sarcasm and gave me his trademark dismissive grunt. Alexi soon joined us with a cheap K-Mart pocket knife in his shaking hand. Looking at his pinched face, I was tempted to tell him to grow a pair.

One of the soldiers dropped from his perch and fell lifelessly to the ground below. Little fires lit our view as we watched the militia shooting at headlights a couple hundred feet away. There was no telling yet how big the group of raiders was. In the past we’d encountered small gangs like the ones at K-Mart and large ones we were lucky to escape notice from.

The giant of a man we encountered earlier was loading an RPG with obvious intent to maim the men who’d been foolish enough to raid the same settlement twice in a week’s span. Assuming this was the same group. He shouted something at Davies who apparently gave him the go ahead to take the shot. People talk about things slowing down, life suddenly moving in slow motion. I never believed them until the moment that missile was shot. To watch the imminent death of so many people, even the lowest of the low, was an unforgettable reminder of how very far civilization had fallen.

The initial explosion and the following blasts it triggered sent chills down my body. No doubt the bandits had been defeated, but whether any survived remained to be seen. This group of apocalyptic soldiers seemed like the take-no-prisoners kind. I glanced around at my family and friends, hunched in a place of the past, and couldn’t help but appreciate how fortunate we’d been so far.