Chapter 5
Author: Maxwell
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

There was only one choice left. He knew it was his best chance, no matter how ridiculous it seemed. He turned around and moved toward the gate of the pool. There was no lock on the iron gate; instead, a small flip catch prevented the gate from being blown open by the wind. He flipped it, rushed through, opened the gate, and then, just for fun, closed it behind him. The first of his attackers reached the gate just a few moments later and slammed it with a loud thud. It attempted to grab him through the bars after letting out what sounded like an angry grunt. He was astonished as he observed from just outside its range. He should have realized that the creatures couldn't open doors. They seemed to be driven solely by instinct, and their only motivation was their desire to eat his flesh. More of them spilled out of the hallway, and he didn't want to wait to see which combination of their combined weight and the likely shoddy fence would prevail.

Gabriel turned and headed for the side entrance to the pool at the back of the main offices with a triumphant chuckle. FeGabriel was quite pleased with himself when he opened the gate and stepped outside. The once-human monsters continued their pointless assault on the entrance gate behind him.

When he turned around the building's side, another of the creatures was already there and waiting for him. He was knocked to the ground when it landed on him. He cried out of surprise and grunted in pain despite himself as the force of the impact with the cement forced air out of his lungs. Even though he knew he had to work even harder to avoid unwanted teeth, he struggled just to breathe. He was losing the fight quickly, and he was very aware of it.

He froze in place as the thunder roared through the air. The thing that was on top of him stopped moving as soon as the sound stopped. It took his brain a few seconds to catch up, but once it did, he screamed and pushed the corpse away from him before sitting down. A single girl stood surefooted, feet apart, with a gun raised and pointed in his direction, and she was only a few dozen feet away when he looked around for the sound source.

She appeared to be around his age or slightly older, indicating that she was in her early to middle twenties. A feGabriel ng Gabriel had was that she was at least a few years older than him, but there wasn't much to indicate her age. Perhaps it was the hard, cold look in her deep brown eyes, which appeared to indicate that she had significantly more experience than someone his age should have.

She had dark brown hair that was not quite brown. It had a deep color, but it still had hints of glowing golden flashes that flowed down to her round shoulders like water from a waterfall. Some of it gathered in small pools, but the majority of it stopped completely. She wore tight dark gray jean pants that showed off her figure quite nicely and black ankle-high boots. The ensemble was completed by a dark blue top with a white undershirt peeking through the angular v-neck. From the short sleeves, her slender, well-tanned arms extended outward, forming a sort of triangle in front of her body, wrapping around the handle of a small, black pistol.

Straight at him was the pistol's aim.

Gabriel gave a sheepish grin and mockedly extended his hands in the air. He made a joke about it, "Don't shoot," but she kept her straight, serious expression. The quiet extended on and he dropped his hands and the grin immediately disappeared from his face. He experienced a feGabriel ng of unease, and he became convinced that she would actually shoot him.

"Did you get bitten?" Her voice was firm and steady as she demanded. As she spoke, her eyes and weapon remained completely fixed on him, and her body barely moved.

“What?” Blinking, he inquired.

She said it slower and with a lot of emphasis on each word, "Were... you... bitten." The query is not difficult.

“I- no.” He stood up and mumbled something. I didn't get bit. Only one of them tried to chew through my shoe.

"How came you to be here?" she proceeded, her voice still cold and unpleasant.

“Here?” He repeated, his eyes furrowed in disbelief. He said, "Returning to the pool area." Through there,” was his brief response.

She said, "No, I mean-" "Jake!" as she suddenly lowered the gun, her anger growing in the back of her throat. Her sentence was ended when a voice called out.

As they turned toward the call, they were both taken aback when a figure burst out of a nearby hallway. Another young woman with skin that was dark, almost ebony, probably around the same age as the first. She wore a simple outfit: navy blue skinny jeans and a white shirt that's a little baggy with a strange, unrelated black design flashing across it. A series of dreadlocks held back from her face by a bright green headband made up most of her short hair. Gabriel noted with a weak interest that neither of them was wearing any gems past this newbie with hoops and a septum puncturing.

"We must leave!" The newcomer's words came to a halt just short of the first girl, who appeared to be Jake. The gate has been forced open. They are starting to crowd the place.

Who has done what now? Gabriel demanded, now completely perplexed. This had begun as a strange day, and it appeared to be getting stranger by the minute.

Who in the world are you? The new girl demanded, appearing for the first time to be paying attention to him.

Lisa: "I just found him. The person who was on the ground was attacking him. He claims to have not been bitten. Jake responded with dismissiveness.

The new girl replied, immediately turning back in the direction she had come from, "Fine, then he can come with us."

"What, wait?" Gabriel answered, to some degree shocked by the speed everything was abruptly moving. " I want to stay where I am."

Jake said, turning to follow her friend, "Fine by me." Stay here and eat yourself. She then sped off, heading for the nearby hallway.

Unsure of what was going on or what he should be doing, Gabriel sighed, but a voice deep within his stomach told him he wanted to follow this girl wherever she went. He therefore followed her without first giving it much thought.

Before arriving at a portion of the parking lot devoid of the creatures, they hurried past the first building, down the slight turns in the path through the complex's center, and down the hallway of a second building. There were a few SUVs waiting, and they were quickly filled with people and supplies. One of the people loading supplies was a middle-aged man with arms the size of Gabriel's head. As he tossed bags into the back of the vehicle, his arms bulged and strained ominously as Jake ran up to them.

Marshall, "Where were you at this time?" She asked, appearing to have lost some of her earlier impatience in her tone. Instead, it seemed to Gabriel to have an understanding, almost eager quality to it. Despite his inward scowl at this, he remained silent.

Robert, the large man, said, "Devin said there’s a military installation just a couple dozen miles west of town," his voice being as deep and imposing as his strength in the upper body. He claims that was his original destination. There ought to be ample supplies and defenses there."

“Devin?” Jake answered just.

He stopped loading and explained, "The new guy." He showed up today. a great deal to say."

She responded, "I guess so." Also a good thing. We must stop referring to him as a new guy. We now have a new one of those. Gabriel, who had been standing next to her throughout the entire conversation, was patted roughly on the shoulder after she slightly turned. I discovered him stumbling around like a lost puppy.

The man grunted, "great," and returned to work carrying the remaining bags, "just what we need: more ineffective survivors."

“Survivors?” Gabriel repeated himself in a somewhat shrill voice. What is your intent? What exactly took place here?

The entire world seemed to stop. Gabriel knew without looking that everyone had stopped working and was looking at him from within earshot. Heat moved across the tips of his ears, which were presumably turning a dark red, yet he made an honest effort to disregard it and not move his look from the huge man.

"Are you lying?" After what seemed like an interminable pause, Robert asked.

"This is out of the question!" A voice from the side said. They turned to see an older man, probably in his sixties, hurrying toward one of the loaded SUVs' driver's door. We must begin, and I mean immediately!

The big man, who was standing in front of Gabriel, agreed, "He's right." He finished throwing the last bag in. Once we are safe, we will have plenty of time to talk. You and Mac can enter Mac's vehicle. There ought to be a few open seats there." After making a motion to the car that was the farthest away, he stopped and turned his attention to Jake. He immediately looked timidly away. " Sorry, mine is full.

Jake awkwardly replied, "It's no thang." She was beginning to appear somewhat timid herself. Gabriel became irritated and rolled his eyes.

He added, "I have my own vehicle." That will do, thank you.

After a brief moment of surprise, the big man shrugged. Where is your vehicle?

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    Gabriel redirected them in the same direction. Over by the front entryway." The girl Jake had referred to as "Lisa" came around the side of one of the SUVs in the vicinity and was followed by the man who laughed. With a look that no one could possibly have perceived as threatening, Gabriel's eyes narrowed. What?” he insisted.Lisa offered her explanation, shaking her head, "They're coming through in large numbers at the front gate." Your vehicle is doomed.Gabriel said indignantly, "Your mom is a lost cause," and he immediately regretted it. He quickly mumbled, "I-I'm sorry." In LoL, I grew too accustomed to saying that to stupid people. "Priorities, people!" When Jake snapped her fingers in the space between Lisa and Gabriel, it seemed to shock everyone present for a split second. Monsters that eat flesh are arriving. Moving forward!“Right!” The huge man concurred, and he and Lisa immediately turned towards their separate vehicles and moved in. Gabriel was half-dragged across the pa

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    “Help the others,” she demanded, a growl deep in her throat, as if warning him against trying to talk her out of anything. “Don’t worry about me.”Gabriel wanted to say something. He wanted to tell her that she was the only one he was worried about. He wanted to say that if she didn’t survive he would consider all his effort to have been pointless. He wanted to say a lot of things, but he knew how ridiculous he was being. So instead he bit his lip, fought back his growing fear, and shifted his position to peer into the passenger side window.Ryan’s head was turned away and dangling. It bobbed up and down to every slight movement of the vehicle. His arms hung similarly loose, dangling down across the car and bumping Mac as he made a series of frantic movements. Gabriel squinted, trying to get a better view of what he was doing, but it was almost impossible to tell past the cracked glass and Ryan’s motionless body.Realizing that time was quickly running short, Gabriel pulled at the

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    Jake was over by the cash registers, busy ripping open the packaging on a flashlight so she could have one of her own. “I can’t bGabriel even how dark it is in here,” she whispered once he was close. Some light did stretch into the store, not just from the windowed front but from a line of small windows that stretched across the sides of the building near the ceiling, but she was right. Even as the store slowly grew more and more clear as their eyes adjusted to the dim interior, the long shadows between aisles and jutting silhouettes still cast an especially eerie pall on an already dark and creepy building.“We should check the camping section,” she added. “Some of those electric lanterns are pretty useful for times like this.”“Okay,” Gabriel agreed absently. While she worked he swept his flashlight in an arc across the store, on the lookout for any sign of movement. Jake finished shoving batteries into her own light and clicked it on. She reached up and put a hand on Gabriel ’s sh

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    He craned his neck and peered off in the direction of the back of the store. The aisles were already filling up with the creatures. Where the hell did they all come from? Gabriel wondered to himself. Jake followed his gaze and her eyes went wide at the sight. “Right,” she said, dumping one last bottle into her bag. She broke into a run and barreled past Gabriel and up to the car.“Should we shut the doors?” Gabriel called after her, hesitating for a moment.“Screw the doors, let’s get them!” Jake snapped. She pulled open the passenger’s side door and threw herself, bags and all, into the seat. Gabriel shrugged his consent and followed her lead.“What’s going on?” Nancy demanded as the car roared to life.“A swarm,” Gabriel answered. The tires screeched as he threw the car in reverse and blasted away from the store. “They came in through the back. It was like they were planning it.”“They can’t do that.” Nancy said, but there was a wavering uncertainty in her voice. She turned to

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    “Gabriel !”Sturdy hands wrapped around his upper arms and shook him. He turned his head and his clearing vision made out the image of Joe standing in front of him. “Gabriel , get it together. We have to go. Now!”Gabriel nodded his head and tried to take a deep breath, and then found himself taking several quick gasping breaths. Was he panicking? He didn’t have time to panic.With as much certainty as he could manage he nodded his head. “Right,” he agreed, “let’s go.”They each turned and ran off in separate directions.This had all been worked out in advance, each person memorizing a map of the town, studying it, learning each street and alleyway. They’d all settled on a divided running path before they ever stepped foot outside of the base. So Gabriel knew where to go.Or he thought he did.Though he hadn’t been willing to admit it with the others, he had never been particularly good with maps, not great at visualizing the 2D images with 3D spaces. So it wasn’t that surprising w

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    “I’m telling you, you go to that place, the only thing you have to look forward to is death. You’re better off here. Just keep your heads down, hide out, and maybe they’ll never come for you. That’s the best thing to hope for.”There was a long silence marked only by the sound of some uncomfortable shuffling. Claire stepped forward so she could get a better look at him. “But… Gabriel … you went into the caves. You tried to make a difference.”“I was wrong, okay?”Gabriel shouted the words so loud that Claire took a step back.“I was wrong. I was an idiot and I was wrong and people suffered because I was wrong. I suffered because I was wrong. The world is worse off now than it was before, all because I had to go play hero. Well there are no heroes. There’s only the living and the dead and you’re either one or the other. You can stay here and stay alive or you can go out there and join the ranks of the dead. Those are your options. I don’t care which you choose, but if you choose deat