The Chosen Ones: Book 3: The War

19

They aimed their weapons back in the direction of the two men that opened the door. It was just a matter of who fired first. That was until Sam cried out.
"Gavin!" She screamed, pushing past the rest of them.

The others looked on in confusion. Casey stepped forward and lowered Phil's rifle with her hand as she smiled. She couldn't believe it. There holding rifles of their own were Gavin and Marty.

"Jesus Christ." Marty said. "You scared the shit out of us. Get in here. Hurry!" He yelled in a loud whisper. He looked outside down both ends of the building before shutting the door.

Sam was still hugging Gavin. She couldn't believe he was alive. Marty was alive. They had made it through that horrible massacre in the gym that night. Casey gave Marty a hug.

"Somebody want to tell me what the hell is going on." Shannon said as she relaxed a little.
Casey hugged Gavin. "I can't believe you guys are alive." She said.
"We can't believe you two are." Marty replied. He then eyeballed Jenna.

"Save it Marty. I feel bad enough." She said. She felt his cold stare. She waved him off and took a seat on an iron pipe.
It was hard to talk over the hissing of the boilers, and the room was uncomfortably warm.
"Everyone." Casey introduced. "This is Gavin. And this is Marty. They're with us."

Handshakes and head nods were given out. Sam would not let Gavin go. He seemed to be enjoying every minute of it. Shaun approached him and Sam gladly grabbed his arm.

"This is Gavin." She said.
Shaun laughed. "I heard. He shook Gavin's hand. "Nice to meet you. I heard a lot about you. This girl here is crazy about you."
Both Sam and Gavin smiled as their faces turned a bright shade of red.

"My mom and sister are alive." She told Gavin, suddenly. She just blurted it out. Gavin gave her a confused look. "I'll explain later, but Shaun looked them up on the computer, then I went to my old house and saw them. I didn't go in...... I can't explain now, I can..."

"Sam!" Shannon said in a loud whisper. "Focus."
"Sorry." Sam said, embarrassed. Gavin put his arm around her. "I'll tell you later." She whispered.

"So what happened Marty? How did you two escape the gym?" Casey asked.
"Well after I saw you and Sam arguing I thought maybe you were onto something. I mean, you're you, so I had to think your concern was justified. I found Gavin and he said the same thing, that there was something wrong with you guys. So we snuck out to find you both. That's when the doors were chained shut from the inside." Marty explained.

Gavin continued. "We watched it happen from the window of one of the doors. All of our friends. Kids, man. Those things ripped them apart."

"Then I remembered this place." Marty said. "I knew from patrolling the halls that nobody ever came in here. So we hid out in here."

"That was smart Marty." Casey said.
"We snuck out at night for some food and water. Other than that we've been in here trying to figure out what to do." He pointed to two makeshift beds on the concrete floor, not well hidden by cardboard boxes.

"We don't have a vehicle, and we figured we would have been seen by the cameras or the guards outside." Gavin said.
"How did YOU get past them?" Marty asked.
"They're dead." Matt said. "And the cameras are disabled "
"Shit." Gavin said, impressed.

"So we can go then?" Marty asked.
"Negative Marty." Phil said. "We're here to burn this place to the ground."
"Fuck yeah." Gavin said.
"I like this guy." Shaun told Sam.

"How are we going to do that?" Marty asked, unconvinced.
"The whole building is wired to blow. C4, from front to back. We just have to see Walker first." Casey explained.
"Jesus. C4?" Marty repeated.
"We don't fuck around." Matt said.

"There are guards down both ends of this place." Gavin told them. "Seventy-five."
"Sixty-five." Shannon corrected. "We killed ten."
"Jesus Christ you guys work fast." He replied.

"You two ready to fight?" Matt asked them.
They nodded.
The Chosen Ones had lost Weller but gained two abled bodies in Gavin and Marty, all while killing ten of Walker's men on the way here. It was still a tall task but things were looking up.

"You don't have a vest." Sam said nervously to Gavin.
He smiled down at her. "I'll be okay. Seeing you gave me a second shot of adrenaline." He kissed her.

Matt approached Marty. "You good? I don't have any extra vests."
He nodded. Matt shook his hand again. "Thank you for watching over Casey while she was here. She might not have made it out of here without you."
"It was nothing. She's the best." Marty replied.

Tyler stood on a chair in front of Gavin. He still wasn't close to eye level with him. He looked up.
"You're tall." He said.
Gavin just stared down at him. "And you're short." He replied.

For nine whole years he had learned about this boy, training to one day protect him. Now here he stood, right in front of him. If he was being honest there were times when he questioned whether Tyler really existed, whether ANY of the Chosen Ones really existed. It was a relief to see what he was training so hard for wasn't a lie.

As he looked at Tyler he couldn't help but think he KNEW him, like he'd seen him before, which wasn't possible because he'd been in here nine years and Tyler was only five. Still, it was hard to shake the feeling.

Tyler reached up and put his hands on Gavin's face. He still had fresh cuts and bruises from his beating a few days ago. It only took a few seconds and he was as good as new.

"Wha- what was that?" Gavin asked.
Sam came over. "He healed you." She replied, smiling. "It's true Gavin. Everything we were told about. It's all real."
"That's unbelievable." He said.

They gathered around the door. Matt turned and looked at the squad he was going to battle with.
"Marty, you're with us. Gavin, you're with Shannon's group." He instructed. "Jenna, where do we go now?"

"We'll head left, they'll go right. Both straight shots to the exits, except we'll have to double back to the exit they are going to clear after we leave my dad's office. If they do their job all we'll be doing is stepping over dead bodies on our way out the door." She said.

"Don't worry about us." Phil said.
"Remember," Matt told everyone. "we're not fighting because we hate the people in front of us, we're fighting because we love the people behind us."

"Damn, you just make that up?" Phil asked.
"I've been waiting to say it since I thought of it this morning." Matt joked back at him.
"Nice." Phil replied.

He opened the door slowly, thankfully the halls were empty where they were.
"Stick with Shannon." Casey told Sam, who nodded. "You'll be fine."
"I think I'm covered." She replied as she looked at Gavin and Shaun.

"Hey." Shaun pulled Jenna aside. "It'll be okay. I'll be waiting for you on the outside. I love you."
She kissed him. "I love you too."
"Whatever happens, I'm here for you." He told her.
"Just stay alive." Jenna replied.

The teams split up. Matt grabbed Shannon. He looked at his phone. It was 9:00 p.m.
"If we're not out by 11:00, press the detonator. Got it?"
She looked him dead in the face. "I don't know if I can."
He smiled. "You're stronger than you know. I'm lucky to have had you by my side all these years. You can end it all tonight."
"Just hurry up." She replied.