The Fear Within Us

Chapter 4

Lucas

Am I alive? Is anyone truly alive? Is what we do everyday considered living? I mean, we can feel. We see. We can touch. We can love. We can fear. But are we really alive? I tried to lift my arms, but it was no use. My eyes felt crusted shut. My legs were pinned. Every breath burned my hoarse throat. Well, I have to be alive because if I wasn’t I wouldn’t feel this much pain. So I just layed there. Until I got some energy back. Eventually, I opened my eyes. Smoke. Fire. Shrapnel. It took all of my strength to lift the store shelf off of my legs. My shin was purple. That's not good. I tried to stand but only to cry out in pain. I picked up a nearby gun, emptied it, pointed the tip at the ground, and used it as a crutch. I stood up and took a look around. All of the walls had collapsed and not much of the building was left. If the sight wasn’t horrific as it was, the stench hit me like a train with no brakes. Then I realized that my neck felt bare. Where's my amulet? I looked down where I was laying. The amulet glinted underneath a pile of rubble. I picked it up and stared at the flame engraved within the golden heart. I cursed the U.S.S.A with every foul word in my vocabulary,  and began to walk to the only place I felt secure. My home.
    It took awhile before my house came into view but it didn’t look like home anymore. Windows had been broken. The door had been broken off of its hinges. But the most noticeable change, was the burn marks. I walked in through where my door had been cringing at the sight of it. In the living room,  couch cushions had been removed. The desk had been emptied. What were they looking for? In my room, the bed had been ripped to shreds. Whatever my they're looking for, it must be important. I quickly ran to my dresser and removed the wooden plank in front of it. Well, they obviously didn't look very good. I put my hand in and wrapped my fingers around the cold metal of my .44. Magnum. Fully loaded. Don't judge me, anything can happen these days. I left the house knowing that I didn't need anything else.
        I went to the old base to gather supplies after that. My leg was good enough where I didn’t need a crutch but it still hurt like hell. I picked up the nearest M16, grabbed as many clips as I could hold and then walked to the cafeteria. I grabbed some bread, bottled water, and some granola bars and stuffed them into the dark blue backpack lying around. And by lying around I mean on a dead soldier. The granola was probably still good but the bread didn't look to fresh. What happened to all the meat? I then heard a large bang in the back of the kitchen. The sound of a frying pan hit the ground. I slowly reached my hand behind my back and took my M16 of my shoulder. My heart began to race. Fear began to take over my mind. My fight or flight instincts began to turn on. At least the fight part. I saw the tail of a hellhound and I crouched behind the counter. I remember watching a movie when I was little (when we still had movies and televisions) that was like this except that the hellhound was a velociraptor. The danger level is pretty much the same. In fact, I would choose the velociraptor over the hellhound any day. I could hear the loud breathing of the huge beast about two aisles down. I inserted the first clip I could grab out of my pocket into my M16. I'm gonna die. I peeked over the counter and saw the hellhound edging toward me. You know what, I'm tired of being afraid.  I stood up abruptly and before the hellhound could react, I aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. I don't remember that moment to good. I just remember pulling the trigger and one clip later, the body of a dead hellhound was laying in front of me. I've never seen one so close and so still. Its teeth were like normal dog teeth except longer and sharper to accommodate the larger size. Where I shot it, instead of blood out came a black ooze.
"Damn"
I quickly spun around to see whose mouth the words came from. And in front of me stood two people I thought I would never see again. Connor and Kaylin.
"What are you two doing here" I said in both shock and surprise.
"I could say the same thing" replied Kaylin. "We're here looking for survivors. Looks like we found one".
"Who else is still alive?" I asked. Connor had a grim look on his face.
"Alex, Corey, you, me, and Kaylin" said Connor.
"Steve..." I began but Connor shook his head. Steve was gone. Poor guy. I had just met him and now he is gone”
“Come on, we need to go”.

    Have you ever been in a place where you feel like you don’t belong? I walked with Connor all the way to our new hideout. Well, depends on your definition of new. It was a rundown shack in the middle of a concrete jungle. With its teal paint pealing off and the dainty windows, this building looked like it could use a touch up. Scratch that, it needed to be demolished.
“Take a look around” said Connor.
“What do you mean? This place is a dump!”
“Look closer”
I did as he said and took a look around. All around me, men and women hid in the shadows. The place seemed almost to be in a valley. With only one entrance; the way in which we came.
“Okay, maybe I was wrong”
Connor took about five steps forward, cracked a grin, and smiled at the ground. “You know, some would call me genius”
“Keep telling yourself that” I shot back at him. The look on his face changed immediately to a look of disgust.
“Smart ass”. He then motioned with his hand to follow. Hesitantly, I followed him into the small dark shack.
    “Lucas!” Alex stood up and slugged me in the shoulder. “Don’t do that to us again”. He then looked towards Connor. Connor, with a look of despair, shook his head. The moral in the room seemed to drop instantly.
    Kaylin walked from behind me and slammed the cans of soup on the table. “What now?” she said in exhaustion. She looked around the room. Peering into everyone’s eyes. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing”. She continued to scan the room for some sign of a response.
    Then Corey stood up. “She is right. The U.S.S.A just killed all of our friends. They need to be stopped”.
    A grin arose from Connor's face. “So what, you’re going to single handedly take out an entire government and stop the country from going into anarchy”.
    Corey seemed embarrassed from Connor’s comment. But I get where he was coming from. I mean, we were a bunch of kids. In our path was an entire military.
    “We’re not alone”. Kaylin’s words pierced the silence and everybody listened without interruption. “There is resistance everywhere. Every state. Every city. They’re just unorganized. United as one, we may have a chance. There is an underground railroad of sorts just for the resistance. We can use safe houses to spread news”.
    We sat in silence as we pondered on the elements of her plan. And if they could work. We all went to bed that night on small cots, still thinking of the possibilities. We dreamt that night. We dreamt of a world free of suffering.