The Fear Within Us

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Lucas

It took only seconds before the doctor was able to rip out the bullet with a knife. “Ok, now keep the band-aid on all day and take antibiotics tonight. Come back tomorrow to get another band-aid” said the doctor. It turns out I have a small infection. Nothing antibiotics won’t fix. As I returned to the group of newbies, Kaylin pulled out a few semi-automatics and dragged mannequins from the old JCPenney into the gym.
“We have M4’s and M16A2’s. Who wants to blow heads of mannequins? Anybody? Well, more for me” she spun around and put bullet holes all over the mannequin's face. “OMG, we also got shotguns. Anybody?” said Kaylin. We all stood in silence wondering if we should answer or not. “Lucas, how ‘bout you. Come up here and shoot some stuff” said Kaylin. I slowly wrapped my fingers around a M16A2. “Of course It’s not as good as my M14 springfield, but it’s a start”. I pulled it up to my shoulder.
As I pulled the trigger, I was knocked back a bit. As the rounds went off one by one, the deafening blast could be heard through the base. By time the gun finished of its rounds, the mannequin's face had been decimated. Along with most of the neck area. “Good, good. Do a little more practice and you will be able to shoot a bird in mid-flight" said Kaylin. I appreciated her comment but I wasn't planning on training that much. 
After me was Corey. He was able to keep the gun still unlike me and was unaffected by the gun's  recoil.  Next was Alexander, he handled the gun like Corey. But when Steven came up he fell to the ground from the recoil and put bullet holes in the ceiling. "Hahahaha!" We all laughed. I even joined in. I couldn't help it. Even Steven laughed after a few seconds.

I had a nightmare that night. It was so vivid, I thought it was real. But what happened in that dream couldn’t be real.
I awoke in a empty street. Only one streetlamp was lit. It seemed like an empty street in the middle of nothing. A street in the middle of darkness. But then I noticed a figure below the streetlamp.Then there were four. My mother. My father. And two others. “We want you Lucas” spoke one of the dark figures. “You have something we need. If you don’t give it to us, we can’t guarantee your parents safety”.
I woke up sweaty and grabbed my amulet almost on instinct. I turned around to see Corey staring at me. “Dude, you were mumbling in your sleep. Were you having a nightmare or something” asked Corey. “Yeah, a pretty nasty one if I do say myself”.

   Today was melee weapons training. That includes knives, swords, and anything else you could swing. "Ok, we have plenty of weapons to choose from. Swords, forged right here, pocket knives, switchblades, baseball bats ( a classic), and  two katanas" I walked straight towards the katanas. I picked up the pack and slung it over my back and yanked out katanas like an expert. And practically scaring everyone in the room. "Okay Lucas,  let's see what you got". I swung my left hand and sliced the mannequins head of and thrust my right katana in the mannequin's chest. A lethal blow. All in a split second. “Okay, let's see how you are in defense” said Kaylin as she set up the tennis ball machine. Seconds later the machine roared to life, and began to fire the green bouncy balls. I sliced the first ball and tilted my head to dodge the second. The third I deflected but the fourth hit my knee. “Nice try, you can go back to your dorm. Training is done for today.”

    I layed in bed. Staring at my amulet like I had done so many times in the past, wondering how, when, and why I have it. I just remembering always having it. I had just finished eating dinner and decided to lay down while most of the other soldiers were getting drunk and betting bilos. Drunk idiots. There drunken shouts could be heard all the way across the base. Those guys were giving me a migraine. I got out of my bed and slowly walked to the recreation room. More like an all you can drink bar. As I opened the door, I was hit by a wave of drunken shouts and the smell of beer. This was gonna be a long night.

Connor wanted our little group of teens to scout out the city because he wanted us to be in his group of snipers. I walked through the streets and avenues of the city. I walked into the plaza to look for sniper spots as I noticed something. To my left, a soldier's uniform was partially visible. I walked away as quick and as unnoticeable as possible. A few seconds later I slammed into another soldier. Without knowing, my heart rate began to rise. Sweat glands started opening. The corners of my vision began to blur. My breaths became short. My mouth became dry. All in a matter of a second, the power of fear. “Watch where you’re goin! Do you know who I am. I can put you in prison in a matter of seconds” said the officer. “Yes sir” I quickly replied as I walked away. I hid in a small hallway to hide from any other soldiers in the plaza. I checked my surroundings as I wiped the sweat of my face. To the left was a steel ladder leading to the ceiling of a nearby building. To the right was a locked door. I tried to force it open but it was rusted shut. I decided to climb the ladder. On the ceiling, I had a great view of the plaza. A perfect sniping position. I looked at the jumbo board, half surprised, half not. What didn’t surprise me was the pictures and names of me and the others. What did was what we were accused of. Each one of us was charged with first degree murder on civilians I’ve never seen or heard of. Where the victim's face was supposed to be shown, was a blank screen with the words “Recent picture not available”. We were now outlaws, assassins. Murderers. Or at least that's what the U.S.S.A wants people to think. I quickly climbed down the ladder and took my sweet time to get home. As I passed a coffee shop, memories swam through my head. I'd been here before. My dad used to come here every morning until he got in a fight. Then he lost his job due to "too many workers". We all knew that it was because money is tight these days.

“Nice shot!” said Connor as I put a bullet hole in the mannequins head. I wish someone would put a bullet in my head. I was so overworked. My brain, stuffed with as much problems as possible. So many things going on in my head, all at the same time. And with a migraine on top of it. My head hurt...A lot. And if it couldn’t get any worse, today was gun practice. "Okay, class is dismissed". I slowly walked back to my dorm in silence, for the last time for a while.

BANG! A large explosion yanked me out of sleep and into reality. On the other side of the room was a crater lay a mortar shell. A screeching alarm sounded to notify us of the attack. I ran out of bed and quickly grabbed an M16 and ran through the door... while wearing pj's. "You couldn't change? " asked Connor. I didn’t understand what he meant until I looked down at my matching blue and white pajamas.  "Oops". I walked over to the shelf the held all kinds of explosive stuff. I unslung my rifle and aimed at the front wall. The noise from outside was deafening by now. Then all went silent. We watched silently,  guns aimed, fingers around the trigger. Waiting for some kind of movement. But there was none. Then out of nowhere,  a butterfly flies in. "What the hell?" said Connor in confusion. As the butterfly got closer, I noticed something strange. The butterfly was beeping. It slowly floated up to a soldier along with others that had just entered the room. "What in the name of God..." was all he managed to get out before the butterfly erupted in flames.  All the others exploded like a chain reaction, each like a big fiery ball of death. When everyone was either confused, panicked, or on fire... Beasts, to muscular,  ferocious,  and misshapen to be any kind of dog. They were twice the size of your average dog, and had rows of teeth. Like the ones that attacked my house but bigger, and more sinister. Soldiers also began to flood into the building. Gunshots rang through the air as the battle began. I was too busy unloading my clip on the approaching soldiers that I didn't notice the hellhound getting closer. As it pounced, I unclipped my grenade, dropped it, the dived to escape the explosion.  I sat up and aimed my rifle at an approaching hell hound. But it was too fast. Both of my shots missed as the hellhound zigzagged its way to me. I was a bad shot. I tried to reload but I was body slammed into the wall. I lay limp on the ground, trying to do a self assessment.  Broken ribs. Yep. Throbbing head. Most definitely.  Dead. Not yet. I doubled over, my vision darkening from the pain. I'm blacking out  surrounded by hell hounds. Great idea, all I need is a tender steak hanging from my neck. I tried to get up, but my knees buckled underneath me. I couldn't get up. I have to get up. I have to. But I couldn’t. My leg felt broken. I couldn’t walk like this. After all. I’m only human.