The Aftermath

“Move!” I surged forward and shot a bullet at one of the enemy’s shoulder. My shotgun kicked back once the bullet went off and I reloaded in record time.

One heavy man came out with his fist flying. I dodged a heavy punch and sent the gun’s butt into his stomach. Then I slammed my foot into his face.

“PUSH THEM BACK!” Riley screamed, hauling Damien from off the mud slicked ground by his shirt.

People were already streaming out from the building behind us. Two of Riley’s snipers were directing people in the opposite direction of the battle.

“Jasmine, look out!”

I ducked just as a grenade flew over my head and sent an explosion that rocked both me and Ryant a few yards off the ground. I landed against the edge of a hard step and the flames rocketed into the air once more.

Then, time seemed to freeze. I saw Alex throw his gun down and dive for a girl, his hands outstretched for her throat. Riley head butted someone else. Rodney’s van came barreling down the road with Lion in the driver seat. The van shot through the crowd of ambushers and divided them.

Another boy came running at us, rope in his hands. I jumped for my shot gun and pulled it up to his chest in record time with my back still against the ground.

“Make a move and I’ll shoot.”

A grin tore its way onto the boy’s face. “You can’t stop us. We’ll take whoever we want.”

Then blood flew from his chest and bone flew out. I rolled to the side as his body nearly fell on me. Riley stood behind him with a gun. She’d shot him.

She didn’t even look at me as said the words. “Let’s go.”

The rain continued to drench down. The flames of the detonated grenades were
being doused by the rain, but the third floor of the building was still enraptured. The ambushers seemed to be retreating back from their own dead fighters.

I saw Ryant running for the building’s steps.

“Ryant! Ryant! What the hell are you doing?!”

Something else inside the building exploded and sent cinder blocks shooting into the street.

“Ashley, Kyle, Cece, and Rodney are still inside! There are people still in there!” He was screaming. Then, he disappeared into the smoke filled door.

My insides caved in.

God, please let them be okay.

“We’ve gotta get moving.” Alex came up beside me with Riley still at my side. “People are running, but those ambushers didn’t leave. They’re trying to circle our people.”

“But, why?” I asked urgently and then looked to Riley. “Why?”

She didn’t answer. Lion pulled our van up before us and told us to climb in. We did. The windshield wipers worked at high speed as he shoved his foot on the gas.

“Where’s Ryant?” Lion asked.

Max was in the backseat huddled with Uncle Trevor, crying.

“He went inside the building to save people.”

The same building that a wall’s section had just fallen off of. I prayed there weren’t people still inside.

“What happened with you?” Alex held onto the dashboard.

“And where’s my dad?” I asked.

Lion cut a hard left as we reached the road leaving out of the miniscule town. Now we were just driving on bone dry Earth off of the roadway. People could be heard screaming.

“We were outside, just trying to get some gas from the supply we found. Then, we heard those guys shooting on the rood and it just all started happening. Those people on motorcycles and trucks came out. They had rope and tranquilizers. They started shooting back.” Lion looked back to Riley for a long moment. “They started taking people.”

Alex’s arm pulled me in closer. “And my dad?”

Lion swallowed.

“I saw him run with those people escaping the building, protecting them.”

Then, the crowd of people came into view. There were more people in Riley’s camp than I’d first anticipated. There had to be at least three hundred and they were all running in a mob formation through the dry and parched desert. In such a desolate place like this there was really no escape.

“They’re trying to circle us!” Uncle Trevor shouted from the backseat.

The van skidded to a halt and we jumped out into the thunder showering down from the sky.

“Run away from the town!” Riley shouted.

But, no one was listening. They were all terrified and huddling together. The trucks and motorcycles were zoning in from the distance. Men stood armed in the beds of pickup trucks with machine guns at the ready. With the bedlam and the screaming, I darted straight for the crowd. There was one person I was not losing track of again.

“Dad! Dad!”

I shoved and crammed past the enclosing bodies. Women held their babies. Teens held onto younger and sobbing kids. Everyone was screaming.

“Everybody has got to run! RUN!” A hoarse voice shouted.

Slippery backs and limbs tried to block me, but I just kept screaming and screaming.

“DAD! DAD!”

“Jasmine?!”

“Dad!”

A hand reached out for my shoulder and I wheeled around, throwing my arms around him. I didn’t know why I was sobbing. I didn’t know why I was so scared. It had to be Lexicon doing this. They weren’t really dead. We hadn’t defeated them. This was the end. My father’s hands reached for the side of my face and the rain soaked into my hair. Despite the chaos, he smiled at me.

“I’m glad we’re together. I love, you know that?”

“I love you too.”

Then, the real screams started. Shots fired out and the crowd swayed dangerously. People were shoving each other over, trying to get away. A heavy elbow slammed into my eye and I screamed. A flare could be seen going into the air and a white flash of thunder crackled way too closely.

“We’ve gotta try and move the crowd!” I recognized the voice to be Cece’s. She must have escaped the building.

I held onto my father’s hand while we tried to navigate out of the crowd. The closer we got to the edges, the more of the mayhem I saw descending. Nets were being thrown over bodies. Professional grades lights chased people down and tranquilizers were shot. People were being dragged away to the beds of pickup trucks.

Then a strike of lightening came down and sliced a car in half, sending explosions into the air. The smell of burn flesh filled our noses. That got people to start running.

“Shoot that guy! He’s the leader!” Cece pointed and shot a haywire bullet towards the guy that missed.

Even in the drenching rain, I could tell who that person was in heartbeat. It was Jamie Carter. He had tan skin and moving, sinister brown eyes under shaved down head of hair. He was at our interview with Good Morning America.

I was bitten by one of those things.

Chills ran up and down my spine when his eye’s gaze collided with mine and that sinister grin worked its way onto his lips. Evil came in many, many forms.

Then something hit my father. His hand flinched under my hold and his other one went up to his neck.

“Oh shit.”

Then, his body started to fall. I tried to catch him in my arms, but his large figure brought me down too. I reached for his soaked shirt.

“Dad! Dad!” I froze. There was a dart sticking out of his neck.

“Enjoying the reunion?” Jamie’s voice smirked above me before turning to his followers. “Take her dad.”

“No!” I roared.

I lunged forward. His hands threw me aside and my head collided against the ground, teeth slammed down on my tongue as blood filled my mouth. Regardless, I rose with my chest heaving.

“You are not taking my father.” I seethed. “You’ll have to kill me first.”

“Fine with me.”

He jumped forward, sending a roundhouse kick straight for my skull. I ducked, then shot a heavy fist into his gut, but all my knuckles touched were hard abdomen. His own fist came around and slammed into face, knocking me over in the slick rain. His hands grabbed for my hair.

“This is for touching my sister.” He growled. “It should remind you of your pointless banter on television.”

Then a gun went to my shoulder and a blast went off that rocked my entire insides. The jarring pain cracked against my mind and in an instant I fell to my knees, breath knocked completely from me.

Holy shit, he just shot me.

My vision turned white and I collided with the ground. The last thing I saw was Jamie Carter dragging my father away.