Bang! Bang! Bang!I felt my breath quicken. I BJ and I stood there for a couple of seconds.BJ's eyes remained shut as he waited for my signal.Bang! Bang! Bang!"Now!" I yelled.Suddenly, he opened his eyes and looked directly at the door as he clenched his battle QUAX arm...My grip on his back intensified as I planted my feet on the floor even more strongly.Ooooiiinnn~A blue beam began gathering at the tip of BJ's battle QUAX fist area.The entire living room dazzled from the glow, and from the outskirts of the household, blinding rays of light could be spotted escaping the windows.Screams rang out from behind as the blue beam shot forward.It blasted through the door as it increased in size and pulled everything in the vicinity into its centre of gravity.Boom!It exploded with intensity after reaching a particular distance. Meanwhile, I and BJ slid across the living room due to the powerful recoil pushing us back."Hnnggh!" I groaned while closing my eyes as I struggled to sto
The best possible remedy at the moment would have been finding shelter. However, no building in this vicinity seemed to be safe. Everyone was running away from their homes since the infected monkeys easily broke in.We just wanted to get as far away from this area as possible."Let's go to this w—""They are coming!"Someone cried out from behind us. Turning around, I froze in shock. About thirty paces away was a mass of infected humans and monkeys coming right at us.The monkeys glowing red eyes piercing the dimly lit streets, sent chills to my bones."Let's go!" I shouted while pointing towards my right.We ran in terror, as our only thought was to survive.Other people were also trying to escape the same fate. As the infected horde started to close in on us, I thought of using one of my charges, but there were still normal uninfected people behind us.I didn't want them to get blasted away as well, but we were all going to die if things turned awry."BJ!" I heard BJ's mother scream
In horror, I turned to see David's arm outstretched as he got accosted by three infected monkeys."David!" BJ's mother screamedI BJ and I turned around swiftly with our spears poked forward.Unfortunately, infected humans were blocking our path to him."Get out of my way!" BJ screamed as he blindly hit an infected with his QUAX in rage.Bang!The infected head made a loud cracking sound as its body spun from the force of the hit, and it slammed heavily into the ground.With the way the human infected blocked our path, I could have sworn they knew we were trying to get back to one of our own and planned to deter us. I had two energy charges left, but if I made use of one in this situation, innocent people would be harmed. The energy charge had a large area of concentration. "Arrrrrgh! Please h-help!""David, use your knife!" I screamed at him."Dustin!" Bella's dad called for me.I turned to sight a gun flying in my direction. I caught it and centred it in the direction of the appr
As the group headed further away, I crouched so the recoil would be easier to deal with."Come on, come on," I muttered.When the infected were only a few feet away, I took a deep breath and activated an energy charge.Thrrruuuuooooooo~What happened some minutes ago, repeated itself as the beam shot through the air toward the approaching horde of infected.Upon contact, an explosion of blue light filled the entire street as many infected got obliterated.Boom!At that moment, the force from the explosion sent me flying and slammed me into the ground heavily, causing me to slide across the street for more than a couple of feet."Timmy!" I faintly heard someone yell my name, but my ears were ringing, so I couldn't ascertain who the voice belonged to. I groaned in pain while trying to rise. My back was hit with a stinging sharp burning sensation due to the friction from sliding across the street grounds.The street was filled with smoke and the smell of burning flesh. Fortunately, the
However, in the next instant...BANG!A loud gunshot rang out, and the next thing I witnessed was the monkey's head exploding into pieces right on my face.I felt my face burn from the hotness of its black blood as I yelled out in pain."Fuck!" I rushed to rub my face with my sleeves."Don't let it get into your mouth!" Bella yelled."Water! Water!" I screamed.My mother who had a backpack strapped to her shoulders quickly brought out a pet bottled water and handed it to me.I wasted no time in making use of the contents to wash my face and mouth of the blood.After spitting for the umpteenth time I finally stood up while clutching my right arm.The people around us had left us behind and kept running for their dear lives while my group wasn't interested in leaving me behind.The black blood on my face had been cleared but I was left with reddened cheeks, forehead and neck from the burn.As my vision cleared, I viewed the bloody carnage of the monkey's corpse but then I also noticed w
"Let's go,"With a nod, we ran in the instructed direction, moving past the corpses of infected littered across the street.Some of the soldiers concentrated on getting rid of the horde while others helped get the citizens in the area to safety.The military was really here. Though it was sad that we had already lost two people, I was glad that we were at least safe from the nightmare… or so I thought.I and the others were almost close to the trucks that contained survivors in the neighbourhood who had gone ahead of our party.All of a sudden, I heard something.Drriihh~The loud droning sound in the air made me stop in my tracks and look up at the sky in confusion.What was that noise?At first, I thought they were drones to assist the military, but it was something else.Before I had the time to process it, I realized I was looking at a cloud of unknown black objects clustered together in the northern sky.As they neared, the buzzing got deafening, and everyone around me had to cov
If we didn't leave the street, we were going to be the next victims.I urged myself to move faster as there was no guarantee that shooting at them would even yield any results since the military was having a hard time as well.The mosquitoes were fast and managed to repeatedly escape the projectiles showered at them. They seemed to be even more deadly weapons than what the military had in their possession as they repeatedly sucked people dry, turning them to dust.I heard the sound of vehicles ahead and spotted more military transport trucks."Everyone, get on the trucks!" a soldier shouted.I counted six of them, but we were still a long way from getting there. My little sister breathed heavily as she ran, but she didn't stop.My legs were aching as a result of running, and the QUAX arm did nothing to help my situation. I could also see that BJ was struggling with his, but there was no time to stop and unequip them.Normal weapons seemed to be having difficulty penetrating the tough
We ran alongside each other, avoiding the puddles of black liquid on the ground that had been formed from the obliteration of the mosquitoes in the area.We made our way forward swiftly since we could still hear other mutated mosquitoes from the distance. The military seemed to be having a hard time taking care of them.As we got closer to the vehicles, the ground shook beneath our feet as the sound of explosions rocked the air.I realized that the vehicles had now reduced from six to two. The other four were nowhere to be seen."Where's everyone?" I muttered as we got closer to a truck.Sofia, my mum and the rest of Emma's family, were currently standing before a different truck. The one closest to us earlier was already gone.Sofia answered my question with a scream."Big brother!""Oh my God, there's blood everywhere?" My mother said with a look of horror while staring at me and my friend.Meanwhile, BJ's family was checking on his injuries with frightened looks."I'm fine," I answ
"Well... you see… you have to promise to take us all out of here if we agree to let you come in and look for that person," The man answered once more.Emma shook his head in disappointment upon hearing that.If we agreed to the man's demands and Hannah wasn't there, we were going to have burdens to carry."Tim," Emma whispered as he walked to him. "Think well o. What if she isn't there?""But what if she's there?" I retorted."We didn't come all this way to turn back now. Let's just check,"He gave me a look. "See, just hold on. Let me take care of this,"He moved closer to the entrance and questioned, "Just tell us if there is someone named Hannah,"There was no answer.Emma was tempted to yell out her name, but then there was the risk of attracting the infected, so he held it in.He asked once more and was met with the same answer as before."You can only be let in if you agree to help all of us,"I honestly wasn't sure Hannah was there. I knew my girlfriend. If she was, she would ha
"Well... you see… you have to promise to take us all out of here if we agree to let you come in and look for that person," The man answered once more.Emma shook his head in disappointment upon hearing that.If we agreed to the man's demands and Hannah wasn't there, we were going to have burdens to carry."Tim," Emma whispered as he walked to him. "Think well o. What if she isn't there?""But what if she's there?" I retorted."We didn't come all this way to turn back now. Let's just check,"He gave me a look. "See, just hold on. Let me take care of this,"He moved closer to the entrance and questioned, "Just tell us if there is someone named Hannah,"There was no answer.Emma was tempted to yell out her name, but then there was the risk of attracting the infected, so he held it in.He asked once more and was met with the same answer as before."You can only be let in if you agree to help all of us,"I honestly wasn't sure Hannah was there. I knew my girlfriend. If she was, she would h
[Unedited Chapter]As much as the smell of death was everywhere, I didn't want to leave until I looked around. I could still remember the clothes Hannah wore on that day, and that was the reference I used in searching while hoping she wasn't amongst the corpses.A few of the dead still had clothes on, but most were reduced to nothing but bones and scraps of fabric.Cautiously, I looked at them for any signs of life. As I turned to look inside the tilted truck for something or someone that could give me a sign.I suddenly felt something tugging at my right leg. I swiftly reacted by swerving sideways with my gun pointed out."Timmy! Get away!" Emma shouted as he pointed his gun in that direction.I was faster than him as I instantly pulled the trigger, blowing a hole in the infected head.Bang!It had been crawling out the broken windshield of the truck and happened to have broken limbs, which made it easier to kill."Come on man, we've seen enough," Emma said as he came closer."Let's
[Unedited Chapter]"Yeah," I admitted softly. "But I'm also worried my decision will gravely affect others, and I might not be able to fix it."He smiled. "No need to worry about that, let's worry about where we are going.""True... now that I think of it, look at the map," I called Emma's attention to the map."Hmm," He stared at his watch in response."I'm guessing the routes that appear red signify that a high number of infected are cooped up there... the ones that appear yellow must have a lower number in comparison to the red, and the normal-looking routes should barely have any," I pointed out."That makes sense. I'd been wondering since, but the officers never explained that. However, this must have been documented by the military, right?" Emma inquired."Definitely, or they're monitoring it with satellites," I responded."The former is most likely true, and since that's the case, we can only count on the information in the meantime, not in a long run," Emma stated."Hmm, are y
[Unedited Chapter]The party responsible for this might also have been searching for supplies and had run into some trouble.The next section was filled with fortunately filled with drugs and they began to load them up.Just like the former section, most had been taken but there were a few that looked helpful. As they continued with that, we moved around, alert to any odd noise…which I heard in the next second.At this point, I was about to give Emma signals to tell him that, it might be time for us to move.The others in the perimeters were focused on patrolling around and we would get a window of opportunity soon."What is that?" Someone muttered through the comms. It obviously came from within."What?" One of the volunteers questioned."I can hear a low droning," The initial voice replied. "Can you hear it?"For a few seconds, the comms was a little silent except for the men packing the supplies."I can hear it too!" One of them finally stated.The problem was finding where it was
[Unedited Chapter]"What about the QUAXs?" someone interrupted beside me.His smile and excited tone told made me feel like he had joined for a different reason, "Aren't we going out there with them?"The soldier glared. "Do not ever dare interrupt me! Never try it again!"After a few seconds of silence, he answered. "The battle QUAXs can only be used by professionals who intend to go all the way to battle the infected, which is not our job. It is also in limited numbers, so it can not just be randomly given out.You are a rescue and supply team, and your business doesn't lie with that. Also, the weapons here will be enough. In the right hands, anything can be used to kill!"The battle QUAXs was a good idea, but we were on a simpler task, and we were only going to get more attention to ourselves.I felt, a group with the purpose of gathering supplies and going on emergency rescue missions should be more solo.Although I and Emma would have loved to take our battle QUAX arm with us, it
[Unedited Chapter]I felt this had been easy for him to say since he was a military personnel. I already viewed people who killed others as heartless...The thing is... I am not you, Darius.To make him get off my back, I nodded and moved away.Now, I was trying to convince Emma about it, but my friend was stubborn."Tim, I understand you," He began."It's just the same with my family. Two nights ago, my mother woke up wishing to hold David in her hands. She wanted my father to return to get him, and if I could at that moment, I would have. Maybe Darius is right—""Emma, Hannah is still alive," I countered. "You can't write her off like she's already confirmed dead—"He shook his head. "I didn't mean that. I'm just saying that..." He looked lost for words and then continued after a few seconds..."She might still be alive, safe in a stronghold. I know the horror we faced on our way is still haunting you, but we are safe now and shouldn't do anything to change that. I'm sure she feels
[Unedited Chapter]It was like we were in another world. Still, I wondered if it was why we had been separated.Did they think we couldn't control ourselves?"We can't go... We haven't seen Hannah yet."Sofia immediately reminded me. "Maybe she is in another stronghold? Remember, the soldier said that they were others."I knew that. While we had been waiting for identification, I asked a soldier about the other trucks, and he mentioned that only a few had come in before us.Some people had also made their way here themselves.When I asked about the rest, he only shrugged and said there were other strongholds so the trucks could have gone there.Still, I was holding onto the words of Darius, who said that we were all passing the same route, which led to the big question.How did the trucks not all reach the camp, and if they didn't, what was causing their delay?I had counted six trucks then, which meant that two were in the stronghold, one was gone, and the remaining three were missin
[Unedited Chapter]*****Five days...Five days of having the same nightmare replayed each night. I thought it was all over since we were now safe in the stronghold but it only seemed to get worse.Each night, I woke up with perspiration on my body as though I'd been running a marathon.But it was only a nightmare. One that always began with the mutated infected human appearing and crushing the truck that was behind us.Then the infected would get blasted to pieces after the missile hit...This would have been a befitting end for the dream but then I'd find myself standing in the middle of the road where the other truck had been flattened...calling out a single name..."Hannah!"At this moment I would jolt awake with my whole body drenched in sweat as I breathed in and out profusely.The crushed truck disturbed my mental state to the point where I was having nightmares about it every night.I badly wanted to know who the occupants were.What made it worse was that the soldiers were a