Downfall [Punk Niall Horan]

27

Terror.

Complete, excruciating terror flooded through my system, and I froze solid in my place. The after effect of what just happened was long forgotten as I stared at the snarling, deranged humans stalking straight towards us with menacing gurgles.

We were now out numbered by atleast seven, and we only had two guns and our bare hands to defend ourselves. The dehumanized beings sauntered towards us, closing the distance more quickly and effectively than I thought possible. Wide-eyed I finally turned to a somewhat composed Niall, who was also breathing heavily and taking in our opponents.

"What do we do?" I breathed, a mere whisper above the ever growing snarls, too afraid to be heard by the creatures. Finally, he snapped out of his silent trance and jerked his head towards me and locked eyes, "Get your damn gun out. Now." Without a moments paused, I ripped it from the waistband of my jeans.

The weapon felt cold and unwarranted in my hand, like it was weighing my soul down just by holding it. Now that pure rage wasn't flooding through me, I didn't even know if I could shoot the gun without a moments pause. It gleamed devilishly in the still rising sun, flickering a ray of light into my eyes. This thing terrified me now, and honestly I couldn't breathe at the moment.

"Aim for the head, they won't die if you don't," Niall barked quietly, signaling me towards the attackers on my side. They were advancing on us, and my breathing only increased even more than it already had. Please, please don't let me have an attack down here. Not right now.

"Hey," Niall said, making me turn towards him far too quickly, causing my stomach to reel, "You got this. We got this. We charge and take down your side then we run. Got it?" The plan was simple enough, and Niall made me feel safe, but that didn't stop me from having a panic attack.

Absentmindedly, I nodded, only half grasping his plan as I looked at him with wild eyes. We were being trapped pretty evenly on both sides by Benders, but his side was just a tad bit behind the group flanking my side. Piles of debris were just visible through the mangling bodies. All we had to do was past them and get through the rubble.

Inhaling deeply, I steeled myself and raised the gun at arms length with a firm grasp. "Now!" Niall yelled, voice panting in my ears. We sprang from our spots and started firing blindly at the group before us, hearing bullets sink in or hit the wall. Derisive barks and guttural laughs echoed around us, and it took everything in me not to sit down and call it quits while I just let them take me.

I pulled the trigger, and it connected straight between the leaders long-gone eyebrows. My stomach rolled as black goo seeped from it's skull, trickling down his face before he fell with a plunk down on the ground. That was a human, you killed another human.

Shoving the invasive thoughts hastily in the back of my mind, I kept firing at the creatures. Through the blood pumping viciously in my ears I could barely hear Niall's gun going off as well. Bullets flew and connected with our targets. Decomposed bodies fell to the ground like leaves in the fall, only with a sickening thud instead of a calm swish.

Bile rose in the back of my throat as one by one dropped they dropped to the ground, lifeless. These things were still humans, and I was killing them. I was a murderer. My body stopped functioning as the words rolled around in my head, seemingly the only thing prevalent at the moment. Everything slowed down around me until I was completely standing still in the midst of the war.

I was a murderer.

Something I never thought nor imagined I would ever be. Just when I thought I recovered from the first time something happened again that proves I'm a horrible person. But I was not one to think that you could ever recover from murder in the first place.