Everyone nods. The plan is in place. All we have to do is survive.
“Your girlfriend handy with a gun…?” Tom asks as we ascend the staircase.
“Sometimes,” I answer honestly. “She took one out all by herself while I was in town.”
As we all enter the bedroom. Claire is continuing to rock band and forth in one spot.
“What the hell is wrong with her?” Other Tom asks as he raises his gun.
“No!” I shout as I get in front of his pistol. “She’s my girlfriend. “
“She’s different,” other Tom continues.
“Just let her be,” Eli says.
“She could be one of them…” other Tom says as he tries to push past me. “She’s doing that thing.”
“She’s not like them. She’s different.” I say as push back.
“We can’t waste time fighting amongst each other…” Tom says as he goes and takes a position in one of the other bedrooms.
“Look,” I say in a whisper. “She saw her whole family die, she is not an Unstable though—she just has problems sometimes. I pull my glasses out and hand them to other Tom.
“Are these?”
“Yeah,” I say as I watch as Eli leaves and takes his position in the office.
“How’d you get these,” other Tom asks as he places them over his face.
“Personal protection back in St. Louis…”
“He looks at himself, and then looks at me and says, “…normal.” He then looks past me at Claire.
I begin to feel a little scared. If Noah is wrong this could mean a lot of trouble. It is bad enough that Aggros are coming here and the odds aren’t so great—having to deal with a scared normal seems like it would just be the worst possible situation.
“Normal…” Other Tom says as he tosses the glasses back to me. “I’m sorry man.”
“It is alright,” I say as I nod. “These are difficult times.”
“If you two ladies are done in there we have windows we need covered!” Tom shouts from the other bedroom.
“There is a window in the bathroom, it is the only one that faces west from up here. I say as I point the way. “It is a small one—just break through it.”
“Got it,” other Tom says as he nods.
I enter the bedroom. I pull Claire up from the floor. “I know you’re scared… I know you are having anxiety attacks now. Things are bad though.”
“They’re coming…” Claire whispers.
“Take this,” I say as I hand Claire the handgun. “We’ll stay in this room—but we have to help the others.”
I open up the window, and pull my rifle from my shoulder. I take the two boxes of rifle ammo from the surface of the nightstand, thankful that I hadn’t already packed it away. I place them beside me as I scan the area for any signs of activity.
Claire sits beside me. The handgun pointed down to the floor. “We’re in trouble…”
“We’ll be alright,” I say as I turn to Claire attempt to smile reassuringly. “We have help.”
“I can tell that you’re scared…”
“I am,” I admit.
“That man wanted to hurt me—what did you say to stop him?”
“I just… I told him you were my girlfriend… that you weren’t like them, that you were different.” I say as I think I see some movement in the field, as I steel myself to fire—deer dart out of the high grass.
“Just some deer…!” Eli shouts from the other bedroom.
“That’s good eating!” other Tom jokes from the other room. “…should have taken the shot!”
“You saved me from him though, thank you.”
“Anything for you Claire…” I whisper as I reach down and hold her hand. “Anything…”
I spot more movement in the high grass. A large group of what look like large people begin to spread out and into the yard.
“Plug your ears Claire,” I whisper as I release her hand. “It’s going to get very loud.”
“They’re here!” Eli shouts.
“I see them.” Tom Shouts.
Gunfire erupts from the top floor. I take aim at one and fire a few shots with my rifle. I am not sure if I am actually doing any damage though. I keep firing, for a moment I see one of them stumble—but they get right back up again.
“Keep on them!” Eli shouts.
I hear another round of gunfire as one of the Aggros finally goes down. I take aim and fire off some carefully aimed shots. I manage to at least disable one of them as they fall to the ground. More gunfire comes and the Aggro is put down. The yard is empty, save for the two corpses. They are now beyond our line of sight.
“Other Tom, get downstairs!” Tom shouts as he leaves his position and heads towards the stairs, followed by Eli. Tom stops Eli at the top of the staircase. “You stay up here—stay with Benjamin and his girl. If they get this far you last three are the last line.”
“Stay here,” I say to Claire as I run to the staircase.
I stand beside Eli. Our rifles are pointed down to the first floor. I can hear sounds of chaos below—the sound of both gunfire and the breaking of wooden boards. I hear an explosion that rocks the entire house. It seems that they were trying to get through the basement after all. I hear a few screams—although they are barely audible over the terrible guttural screaming of the Aggros. From our small view above, all I can make out is blood and flashes of gunfire. I hear shouting, but I cannot make anything out.
“God help us,” Eli says as he looks to me and shakes his head.
“Thank you, Eli,” I say as I keep my gun fixed to the first floor. “I would have been dead already if you hadn’t come to warn me.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Eli says as he has a grim look on his face. “I think you’ll be dead soon enough—me too, I guess we’ll have to buy each other drinks in hell.”
“I suppose so,” I say as I shake my head.
After what seems like an eternity of gunfire, another explosion rocks the house nearly causing me to fall down to the floor. I watch as Eli is thrown forward. He lands a few steps down.
“Are you alright!?” I shout.
Eli shakes his head and gets back up to his feet.
There is an eerie silence in the air.
“Tom!” Eli shouts down the stairs. “William! Anyone still alive down there…?”
There is no response—only an unsettling stillness, like the calm right before a storm. A form starts to climb up from the bottom of the stairs. A bloodied woman, her face is contorted and all of her exposed muscles are contracted and disproportioned. She lets out a terrible scream that nearly drives me to the floor.
“Eli!” I shout as I attempt to aim my rifle.
Eli manages to get a few shots off before the woman picks him up and tosses him against the wall as a sickening cracking noise of his body breaking fills the air. He cries out in agony as he raises his gun and fires a few more shots. The Aggro falls down and collapses down the stairs in a crescendo of terrible screams.
The silence comes once more.
I rush over to Eli. He is bleeding very badly and his legs are all twisted in unnatural ways. “What can I do?”
“Ain’t nothing that can be done, Benjamin… they’ve gone and broken my back and I’m all a mess.”
I begin to cry, because deep down inside—I know that this is partially my fault… all of this.
“You’re young, don’t cry for the old,” Eli says as he picks up his rifle and allows it to slide down to his chin. “Looks like I’ll see you in hell after all.”