Wake of the Dead | Three

Chapter Forty-One | Jasper

Phoenix's soft sobs into his shoulders was enough to make Jasper's heart break. No child should grow up in a world like this. He thought. The poor thing's exhausted. Those monsters..they're too loud. She can't sleep even if she wanted to. She might pass out soon. Sitting inside their tent, the snarls and growls of the creatures drowned out whatever peaceful sounds might have comforted them.

The young girl was holding onto his shirt, her fingers curled tight into the fabric, as if she were clinging on for life itself. To her, she might have been. Jasper didn't blame her. If I was her age I'd be terrified too. "It's okay Nixie," he murmured, "I'm here to keep you safe. Even if they do get in here, I won't let any of them hurt you." The little girl's watery eyes looked up at him, her small body shook against his.

"How will I ever be brave like you," she said shakily, "so that I can keep myself safe too?"

"Well," Jasper sighed. Damn it. They always ask the tough questions, don't they? "It isn't that you get braver, things just feel easier. Right now you're real tiny, not as strong as them. But I bet when you grow up, you'll be big enough to take on a whole army of them."

"You think so?"

"I do." Jasper stiffened when he heard shouting  from the guards at the front gates. Phoenix had heard them too. She almost poked her head outside to see what was going on, but he shook his head at her. God forbid if they've gotten into the walls, she doesn't need to see all of that blood. Carefully craning his neck out of the fabric, he was relieved to see that the walls were still holding strong—sort of.

Milo had her back against the gates along with several other people. The biters outside continued to slam to try and get in, their hands and fingers clawing at the small gaps. A dead body lay on the ground in the midst of the rain, their clothes covered in mud and their eyes blank. Blood trickled out from between their lips, but the only injury he saw was their neck, bent at an awkward angle. "Phoenix," he said shakily, "I have to help them."

"N-no, no don't leave me!" Phoenix yelled, grabbing onto his arm. "I don't want you to die too!" Too? She's already seen somebody die? I can't think about this now. If I don't go out there and help then they'll break in and they'll all be killed. "I...I'm scared."

"I know you're scared," Jasper soothed. His heart raced in his chest, a cold sweat broke out across his forehead. "I'll come back, okay? And I'm going to send Milo back here to keep you safe while I'm gone." Already a plan was beginning to form in Jasper's mind, slowly but surely. The hands reaching at the doors were definitely living ones. He'd long since been aware that whatever virus had spread was evolving. The monster itself might have been alive in the most basic definition, but the human wasn't.

Jasper took a deep breath and unsheathed his largest hunting knife. It was massive in Phoenix's hand, but she took it with widened eyes, staring up at him with a mixture of awe and terror. "If anything comes here besides Milo, you kill it. Understand?" Phoenix nodded vigorously. With an aching heart, he pressed a lingering kiss onto her head and ran out of the tent, loading his gun as he did so, flipping the safety off.

Jasper almost slipped in the mud as he sprinted over to the gates, slamming into it with his shoulder. "Milo, go get the rest of the civilians to the center of the Cove. They'll want to hide but they're dead meat waiting in that corner." He winced as a cold hand gripped onto his shoulder, he ripped it away from the biter's grasp, "Your people with the most rounds, on the outer edges. Melee weapons second. Some are going to get through but I have a plan to lead the rest away."

Milo's eyes were wide with shock, it was clear nobody had talked to her like that in a long time. For a few seconds Jasper was worried she'd talk back, but she then nodded and began relaying orders. "Leave these gates open for me to get back in," Jasper yelled above the collective snarls and groans. He swallowed hard, "unless you can't hold them back anymore. Then close them."