Aftermath

Chapter 4

Westarted to make our way over to the lights. There was rubble in thestreets everywhere. It was impossible to recognize it anymore.Luckily, that was the least of our problems. We walked and walked forabout Twenty minutes. Remains of human bodies lied everywhere, and itwas heartbreaking. The guilt in my stomach started to pile up again.Kicking rocks and metal as we were walking wasn't helping either.

Wefinally got a glimpse of what the lights were. It was a military airforce base. No planes in sight though. "There'sthe building." I exclaimed "It seems like a military building, soit has to have some useful equipment for us. Remember. Take only whatwe need." Sara said. She walked up to the front entrance. The doorwasn't as flimsy as the others that were still standing. The shockwave must have hit hard. The door was locked. She peered up at thered-ish atmosphere. "Here, take this." Sam handed her a safetypin. "You can use it to pick the lock." He continued.

Saratook the pin and bent it so it would fit inside of the key hole. Hestarted twisting it around. I had no idea what it was doing, but itseemed to open the door. "Guys, when you take things, be quiet. Wedon't know if that bear is still here." My mother announced,peering at the door.

Sampushed the door open, and everything inside was like it had neverbeen touched. The lights were off, so we could barely see anything,but there was no rubble visible. We explored the building thoroughly.Without finding anything we went to the second floor using thedamaged stairs. They had cracks in them.

Wewent up to the second floor of the building. It looked a lot worsethan the first floor. But as we looked around, we found theequipment. "Hey. Look what I found." Sam told everyone. We walkedtoward him and he showed us a large needle. "A tranquilizer.."Sara said. "This must be some sort of science or artillery lab.Never knew we had one in this janky town."

Weexplored further. In the center of the room we found a large lasstube that extended to the ceiling. I put my hand on it, to realizethat it was jittery cold. Frozen, somehow. "Sam, could you get thatflashlight on the table over there?" I asked. "Yeah.." hecommented with a confused voice. He handed me the flashlight and Iturned it on.

Ipointed it at the frozen tube, and in astonishment, I saw a creaturesimilar to the bear we saw yesterday. "Sara, Mom. Look at this."I told them. "What the hell.." They exclaimed, confused andfrightened. "That bear wasn't mutated. It was released. Maybe itwas used as a weapon, I've got no clue."

Frightened by thesighting, we continued to look around. I walked over to one of thewalls with the flashlight, and saw a large silver button that wasbolted to the wall. Curiously, I pressed the button. A loud *swoosh*sound ejected from the wall beside it. A sliding door had openedaround 4 feet from me. Everyone else heard it. "What's in there?"my mother asked curiously. "Only one way to find out." Samresponded.

Ilooked at sam. I knew he was a brave one, but never knew he wouldjust jump at an opportunity to get himself killed like that. Wewalked through the smoke that the door admitted, and passed on intothe other room. To my disbelief, we saw an entire room full ofweapons and supplies. "Sam, look through all of the cabinets, findsomething useful." Sara said. "Mom, Sara, help me grab the gunsoff of the wall." We looked through all of the weapons until one ofthem stood out. "Sara. Come here." my Mother said. Intrigued, weboth went over to her, and my mom pointed her flashlight at theweapon. I had no idea what it was, but it was large. "An RPG"Sarah responded to our confusion. "Take it." She peered down atme. I started to grab the gun off of the wall, but immediatelydropped it due to its unparalleled weight. "CAREFUL! That thingcould explode by the slightest touch!" She startled at me.

"Mom,I found medicine and bandages," Sam explained walking through thedoor. "Awesome, put it in your shoulder pocket" she responded tohim, in a quiet tone. I gripped the RPG and used all of my strengthto pick it up. "Here, give it to me." Sam insisted. "Don'tdrop it." I told him. He took the weapon from me, and acted as ifit was easy to carry. "Alright, we need to get out of here-" Sarawas cut off by the loud rumble of the building. Concrete crumbsstarted to fall from the building. "GET OUT!" I shouted. We allran down the stairs, and out of the building before it collapsedbefore us. When we exited the building, we were greeted by a brightlight from the sky. "A helicopter!" I said.

Samread the text on the side of the chopper in the air. 'AfghanistanAir Force'"That'snot the US. RUN!" The chopper noticed us, and its loud windrotation blades got louder. We all ran the fastest we could. Thehelicopter started to shoot at us, and the loud booms it madefrightened me. "AUGH!" Sara screamed. She got hit in the leg withone of the bullets. "Back UP!" Sam yelled before aiming the RPGat the helicopter.

TheRPG made a terrifying sound when it launched, and the helicopterexploded with a loud, obnoxious boom. We saw a bright yellow andorange light, before it turned to metal frames, and crashed into theground. The ground shook, and rubble was thrown past us as thehelicopter slid near us. We took shelter at the edge of the buildingcorner. "God, damnit!" Sam's mom screamed in pain as she putpressure on her leg. "Mom, tie this around your leg" Sam blurted,handing her a dry cloth he found on the ground.

Shestood up, limping. With terror, we heard another chopper approachingus. "Give us a break!" I remarked. We began to run, but we didn'tget far due to Sara's leg. The helicopter landed, and multiple men incamo suits, with no radiation protection, ran out of the helicopter,moving toward us. "Don't Move! Put your hands up, and lay on theGround!" They shouted. They jumped on top of us, and started todrag us to their chopper. Sam groaned as they took him. I felt theimmense pain of my wounds scraping along the rocks on the ground.

     "Aslong as you do what we say, you won't get hurt." The menproclaimed, putting us into the backseat of the chopper. Theyinjected us with a large serum. I began to feel dozy. I startedtalking, but my voice was too faint for them to hear me properly. "Iguess you'll have to save that story for later.." one of the mensaid with a hysterical chuckle. I peered over at Sam, everythingfaded to black within seconds.