Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Forty-Two: Noah

"If you're looking for some real firepower, give this sucker a try." Tank handed Noah a semi-automatic rifle. "This here's an AK-47. Russian military grade artillery. With this puppy, you could shoot the head off a zombie from half a mile away. Be careful, though, it's heavy as hell."

To Noah, it was light as a feather.

"Thanks." Noah pulled the gun to his shoulder and looked through the sight.

"Woohoo!" Crash slapped him on the back and held his own gun up in the air. From the looks of it, Crash had chosen a high-powered rifle. Noah also noticed a couple of pistols in his waistband. Someone was enjoying the unlimited firepower of this armory. "Is this the coolest or what? Let's head up to the roof and get in some target practice."

"What's up on the roof?"

Crash lifted an eyebrow and gave him a sly smile. "Why don't we grab the girls and go find out?"

"Don't go far with those guns," Tank said. "Meet me on the roof in five."

Parrish, Karmen, and Lily were sitting on the floor in their temporary bedroom, going through a bunch of bags filled with clothes. Parrish had changed into a pair of tight black jeans and a black tank top. Her long hair was newly washed and fell straight down her back in a way that took Noah's breath away.

"I take it your shopping trip was uneventful?" he asked. When she looked up at him and smiled, his heart did a double-pump.

"Nice gun," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Guns," Crash said from behind him. "Plural. Now go out there and pick your poison. We're all heading up to the roof for some shooting lessons. If we're going to volunteer for any missions, we need to make sure we all know how to aim for the head."

"There's no way I'm going to use a gun," Karmen said, stuffing clothes into a tan backpack.

"Oh?" Crash leaned against the bedpost. "And how exactly are you going to keep yourself safe for the rest of your life?"

"I'll just use my mind thingy," she said with a shrug.

"Okay, that's fine for one or two, or even a group when you're inside the safety of the Humvee, but we never know what kind of situation we might end up in eventually. How many of those things can you control with your mind anyway? And for how long?"

Noah saw a look of concern cross Karmen's face as she considered this question. "I don't know," she finally admitted.

"The other thing to consider is that if we don't want these guys to know about our powers, you won't be able to use your mind control for a while," Noah said, glancing toward the door to make sure no one was standing in the hallway.

"Then it's settled," Crash said, grabbing her hand and pulling her up from the bed. "Pick out a gun just in case. I'll help teach you how to shoot it."

A few minutes later, the five of them were up on the roof of the armory with Tank as their teacher. "One thing we know for sure is that the rotters are attracted to noise," he was saying.

"Yeah, we learned that the hard way," Noah said, glancing at Karmen. Had it really only been a couple weeks since her screams had attracted a huge group to them in D.C.? It felt like months had passed.

Tank pointed at a hand-crank siren set up near the edge of the roof. "We had this siren installed, gosh, about twenty years ago? Mostly, it was for emergencies like tornadoes or bad weather or whatever. Only used it a handful of times, really. But this baby's responsible for helping us keep the area clear of zombies. See, what we do is crank it up and wait. With the noise this thing makes, any rotters within a two mile radius will head this way, thinking they're about to get fed. Even the ones who were inside, hiding from the sun."