Hinder

Chapter 3 (Marissa)

I was readying the guns when Brent said it, what he said I hoped it was a joke, but it wasn't. The lights to the supermarket were out. How could this be? who could have done it? Last time we were here they were working just fine, last time we came was a week ago, and we didn't have a problem. Anything could have happened by that time.

We got out of the car with guns in hand, just in case, we were about to go in when Brent said.

"Did you hear that?"

I actually didn't at first, but then it came. The screams, where really loud, I had to put my hands over my ears for a while. What are we going to do? I saw Brent doing the most intelligent thing in a moment like this, call Asher.

He wasn't that good of a leader, but who can blame him, it's only been two months, he didn't have that much experience I guess. We had to give him time. Every problem that happened and will happen will make him wiser. He will learn what to do even in the most extreme conditions, but for now he didn't.

We were waiting for an answer from Asher. I looked around, this part of the city was a big one, the streets were clear, no cars, just ours. If anything happened we could run, we could use the technique, divide and conquer, but there was a problem. We didn't know how many of them were in there.

Was it just one? Maybe a whole group. The largest group we had seen in the last two months were five of them, which wasn't that much I guess, with all of them running around at night. There could be hundreds of them, the thought of it gave me goosebumps.

I wasn't the only one afraid. I directed my attention to my teammates, Nick was shaking, you could hear the sounds the gun made in his quivering hands, Brent was still talking to Asher, receiving orders I think, even Jerome had a look in his eyes, a look I had never seen before in him, fear.

The sounds were growing louder, stomps coming closer. Was it coming towards us? Did it hear us? He couldn't come out, the sun was out, but what if they developed resistance to the sun? I didn't know what was going to happen, but I needed to put my shit together, so I tried to calm down and look ready for anything.

Brent finished talking to Asher, what were we going to do? I was about to open my mouth when Nick read my mind and asked the exact question I was going to make. 

"So what are we going to do?"

He tried to act cool, but his body wouldn't let him, he was shaking. It was common to be afraid, and he was the youngest one from the group too, I think he felt like the most vulnerable. We all knew he wasn't, he knew how to fight. We all knew the weakest one here was Brent. But he knew how to react to all kinds of situations, maybe he should be the one leading the group of survivors, not Asher.

"We are going to enter, there are a lot of places in which to hide, we will take a small flashlight, just to check how many there were in there". 

The guns already had a flashlight, a small one attached under the barrel, but I remained quiet, following instructions.

We were actually going to do this. Jerome was already entering the supermarket, he seemed fearless, even though we all knew he was terrified, just like the rest of us. I followed, then Brent and Nick entered last. 

It was pitch dark in here, the screams had stopped, but we knew, we all knew, they were still here somewhere. They weren't that smart, but they weren't dumb, they knew what was happening. 

We had to plan every single step, making sure we didn't step on anything that could make a sound, we needed to be stealthier than ever. This was life or death. We were going around a food stand, the cold metal in my hand made me shiver. I had a hand touching the stand as we walked around it, we were all in a crouched position, as close to the floor as possible.