Living Among the Dead

Hailey's POV

We all ran outside to where we saw five familiar faces belonging to Ben, Drew, Susan, Erin, and even Derrick, holding a pistol in his single hand, as well as two unfamiliar faces. They now had the advantage over us.

"Well, well," Ben snickered. "We're going to give you one last chance to leave before we shoot you all up. You can't win, especially being that it's 7 against 5."

Five? I looked around and saw that Alyson wasn't with us. It was only Sarah, Savannah, Gabe, Macie and I standing out here. She must have ran off, not wanting to die today.

"We have fought bigger threats than you. You can't win."

"I beg to differ," Drew started. "Only 2 of you have pistols, but each of us have large weapons."

"Those big guns don't do anything that these can't do except intimidate your target," I yelled as I gestured to my pistol, "And you aren't intimidating us."

"Just leave!" Erin yelled. "Nobody needs to get hurt."

"Not if you want to stay here!" a voice from far away yelled.

Bang!

Everyone had their weapons out at this point, if not already. One of the new people on Ben's side lay on the ground with a hole in his head. Each of us looked to a balcony of one of the rooms in the ski lodge. Alyson was looking down the sights of her large rifle, which had smoke spewing out of the barrel.

There was no negotiating now. The five of us ran inside as gunfire whizzed past our faces.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

We each made it inside the lobby without being shot.

"Split up!" I commanded.

And everyone did. Susan ran after Sarah, Derrick went after Gabe, Drew hunted down Alyson, Erin chased down Macie, and the other newbie did the same for Savannah. That left Ben in the lobby with me. I flipped over a table to provide myself cover. Every once in a while I would poke my head out to take a shot him, which he would do right back to me.

Bang! Miss

Bang! Miss

Bang! Miss

Bang! Miss

Bang! Hit in his arm

Bang! Miss

After the last shot in the cylinder of my revolver, Ben pulled the trigger on his shotgun, causing a chunk of the wooden table to be shot off from the rest. He continued doing the same tactic until there was just a small amount of cover for me to hide behind. I awaited the final shot from his weapon to end me, but it didn't come. He was out just as I was. I yanked out the machete that formerly belonged to Taylor and made my move. I rolled out of the cover and ran towards the knife-wielding Ben. He dodged may attack as I lunged at him. My blade sliced into a drywall, but wouldn't come out.

"It seems that this is your end," Ben chuckled. "I'll do you a favor and get you in the head so you don't suffer."

He poised his knife above his head, ready to strike. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch myself die.

Bang!

Ben clutched his chest, which began to bleed heavily. He fell to the red-stained floor in pain. He stared at me as if he were asking for help. I lifted up m boot and stomped on his windpipe. I heard a crack and suddenly he wasn't looking at me anymore. Over on the other side of the room, Kai stood. One hand was against the wall, keeping him balanced, while the other shook vigorously with his handgun in it. He too fell to the ground, being that it had been only about twenty minutes since he's been shot. I ran to him.

"I'm fine, just a little woozy," he coughed. He thrusted his pistol towards me. "Make sure the others are okay. Save them just like you did to me at Kate's factory."

I nodded at him. I saw Alyson and Savannah running towards me.

"I took the other guy down," Savannah said being out of breath, "And Drew ran off."

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"They are still pre-ocuppied with our enemies," Alyson answered.

The three of us ran off. We came across Gabe and Derrick wrestling on the ground. Savannah sprinted to the two and kicked the one-armed man off of our one-legged friend. She planted her foot on his chest, allowing me time to aim Kai's gun at his head.

Bang!

He stopped squirming and the four of us searched for our other friends. Susan lay with a knife in her skull as Sarah sat against a wall. She had a cut going down her leg, but she seemed fine.

"Gabe, take her to the infirmary," I commanded.

He did as told. Savannah, Alyson, and I searched for Macie. We walked dow a hallway until we found an open door with weeping coming from the inside. I slowly entered and found Erin sitting on the bed, crying into her hands.

"I d-didn't mean to," she stuttered.

Macie lay on the floor with blood rolling down her cheek. I listened to her chest and was relieved to hear a heartbeat. She was just out cold. As for Erin, she chose the wrong side. I pointed the Glock 17 at her.

Bang!

Her crying stopped even faster than her heart had. I dragged Macie's limp body out of the room. Everything was quiet for a second...but only just for a second.

Bang!

Bang!

"HAILEY, WE NEED HELP!!!"