The Night that never Ends

Escape

There was a lot of times since the apocalyptic outbreak where I was terrified...Of all the times...It was most terrifying when it was quiet. The silence was daunting, it pawed at me internally. The only thing I could feel was the sweat droplets sliding down my forehead. The sweat droplets, I had sweat droplets in the freezing cold. The fear was giving me a heatstroke. The howling had faded, the snarling had ceased, what the hell was happening?

What the hell was happening?

What the hell was going to happen?

Ryan was my opposite, he was calm, his breathing was soothing, his crossbows aimed at the darkness.

I couldn't tell Jacob's emotions, he looked calm on the outside for that matter, but for all I know, he could be a nervous wreck on the inside. He just held his rifle up high and exhaled slightly.

The outside lights came on which means the moon was almost high. The rest of the streetlights started flicking on and off irregularly, the stage was set for an eerie stand, the pure versus the infected,

"Dom...where's all the howling?" Jacob asked nervously,

"I don't know." I reply softly,

"Maybe it was just a scare tactic?" Jacob replied,

"You think those creatures are smart enough to pull a stunt like that?" I looked over my shoulder in surprise to Jacob's ludicrous question,

A part of me thought he was right, maybe these infected beings were pulling a prank. But why, why would they. I thought their only motive were to kill, infect, kill, infect, kill some more, infect some more.

It was still silent...

"Dom..." Ryan snapped at me nervously,

"Here they come." I reply sacredly.

The entire forest practically parted and a hoard of tens of runners started breaking for the shelter. They snarled and trampled over each other to get to us. They ran almost like animals using their hands as an extra launching pad.

Ryan yelled as loud as he could be firing off his cross bows, he couldn't see if he hit anything, he just kept firing. I fired my rifles in all directions hearing the satisfying sound of runners falling over themselves and groaning in pain.

Jacob was perhaps the calmest of us all, he took precise aim, every four shots he would shift the aim of his rifle and fire off four more shots. One runner successfully survived the oncoming barrage and was in feet of him; Jacob took out his spiked bat and slammed the base against the runner's skull, the sharp edges slammed through the thin scalp and pierced blood cells and vessels. The runner gurgled on whatever blood billowing up in its throat and slumped over on the ground.

The rest of the hoard started gaining ground, one unfortunately ran through the fire burning itself to a crisp. Others did the same thing; the slightly smarter ones ran around and tried to ram me and Ryan head on. I started firing headshots which took more time, but saved ammunition and was more effective. Ryan shot the arrows from his crossbow that pierced the soft innards of the runner's flesh. They tumbled over and over past Ryan, some were so disoriented that they slammed into the outer walls of the shelter.

I continued unloading round after round of ammo. The runners would just not stop coming. Not having repellent for almost an hour caused the entire hoard to come running. Not an ideal.

One runner had managed to dodge all of Ryan's efforts and tackled him from where he stood. Ryan managed to chirp as a cry for help loud enough for me to hear, when I turned my head he was struggling to keep the bastard from chomping one whatever he could get its teeth on. He could bite anything and it would be game over for Ryan...I had no choice...