The Night

One problem too many

      The sun rose gracefully in the morning sky, though there were no birds chirping. All the birds had fled into the sky, how I envied their freedom. When I was a child I remember Alex, Stef and I would pretend to be birds flying away in the sky, I remembered how everything was so peaceful then, how we had simple thoughts like 'I wonder when dinner is' and moan at things like having to do the washing up. Back in the day, back in the day.
        I decided to get my radio back, seeing as how we were back at my old base, and see if there were any broadcasts. Creaaak. No, nothing. I sighed, "Hey Harper," I called. Harper was the girl who shared with Alex yesterday, she was popular among the group and massively helpful, "Do me a favour and watch this radio please?"
She grinned, "Sure I'll spend the whole day staring at this radio, why?"
     "Waiting for someone to get our lazy asses out of here I suppose?" Paul cut in, shaking his hair and rubbing his eyes, he looked a bit more calmed down now. "Well, I guess that's a good idea. I'm gonna go foraging for food, Arya, you and you, follow me. We're gonna get some supplies," he said pointing to two strong men and Arya, all of which seemed to just be waking up. "Kreis you'd better have this place in perfect condition when I'm back, anyways see ya!" And with that, the small team grabbed a few stuff (mainly weapons and water) and walked away into the distance.
     As soon as Paul left, everyone crowded around me, terrified. "We, uh, have something to tell you..." Stef muttered.
      "Yeah, we have something big, something you must keep a secret, ok?" Alex said. What? What could be this big? I wondered.
     "Huh? What's up crew?" I asked, curious.
     "Well. Uh, we've been keeping a small secret from you," Stef was speaking barely in a whisper, "Most of us are... Infected," And everyone nodded, seemingly ashamed. Wait, what, I was so confused? Infected? As in, bitten?
     "What are you on about?" I demanded. Alicia looked at Stef with concern and everyone was silent.
      "It would be better to show you, I suppose," he said, lifting his sleeve up revealing an ugly scabbed up clawmark. "They got me, and a lot of the others too." Cueing for the others to show their respective scars. Few were unbitten, only Alex and a handful of others. Harper's bite was on her stomach, she seemed to be drooping downwards slouched because of it.
      "What? Ohmygod ohmygod. Does Paul know? Does anyone else know? What? Tell me everything, right now." I replied furious they had kept this a secret from me.
      "Paul doesn't know, neither does anyone else, and as for the reason we were bitten. Well," they were all chipping in bits of their own stories but I heard it as one long speech in different viewpoints, "There were these screams, very scary screams. Way too humanoid to be those creatures we had thought. Checked em out, we were assaulted instantly, torn apart some of us were... Aye, my great friend Paddy didnae make it, poor fella. They had no mercy, gorged on them, they did... Yeah, but the real question is: why didn't they take us?" A murmur of agreement passed through them," Innit! They like, let us go, only biting us casually... Hah! Casually biting us? As if, that motherbugger tore me apart, feels like hell. Anyhow, yeah we were attacked and when they ran, you found us in pain on the floor and took us in."
      That story left a stunned silence, leaving me and Alicia with an unreadable face. What a secret. All my anger evaporated into sympathy and I felt guilty. "Frick, urgh." Alicia suddenly stumbled, clutching her gunshot wound. She collapsed and everyone gasped, Stef jumped down to pick her up and dragged her across the floor to her bed. The whole room went silent; A quiet tomb of tension, why so sudden? Someone silently swore, and I instantly told everyone to stay calm and stay back. I gave Alex temporary leadership to handle things as I ran to Alicia's side. She was quietly groaning in pain. Maria dashed to her side and started crying, scared.
      "Someone get some painkillers, now!" I shouted, I uncovered her bandage and her blood had spread, leaving a gooey pus and traces of dirt clinged to it, they must've bandaged it on a short notice because there was mud and sticky stuff everywhere, I feared it had infected her and she would fall ill. It definitely wasn't a Reaver infection, but still dangerous nonetheless. Her face was pale and weak.
      Suddenly the radio buzzed, "Fu-" I heard a muffled sound of shouts, "Bloody hell help me, they're, they're everywhere," Paul pleaded, "We're stuck in a warehouse, it's full of supplies, they tricked us, trapped us in here. One of the men got taken, just me, Arya and Michael, he's bitten though, we'll have to... Put him down, merciful so he doesn't tur-" he was cut off by a rough screech, their volatile call...
       "Stef, Alex and Harper- take care of this place, now! I'm out."
       But Harper insisted, "I'm not doing anything other than sitting and waiting for some stupid radio, I'm with you!" And we took off, I decided to take some of my modified equipment, the grapple wasn't perfected yet though, my shield, sharpened sword and blowtorch. It weighed me down a lot, but I needed that stuff to not die anytime soon. Harper, however, wielded nothing but a very sharp serrated dagger and a metal pokey pole kinda thing, the pole probably to keep things at a distance.
      We both dashed without a word into the distance, though it was nearing 9pm and seemed very risky. Ah well, we had to try, we had to save them. With little effort we found the warehouse, it was surrounded by about fifty day walkers, that was the name we had given them, and were all pounding at the bolt locked door. "Ugh, how we gonna do this then," I moaned, then saw Harper getting ready to take them on a chase and my mind drifted to Arya's theory, "Wait no! Don't do it!" I shouted, pulling her back.
       "Why?" She demanded, "I have to do something!"
       "Trust me, don't take em on a run. Everything'll go wrong, we need another plan." I insisted. A few were beginning to notice us, we needed a plan, and quick. "Look! Up there, a way into the storehouse. Get in there, get them out. And fast, let's get in there before they attack us."
     We stealthily jumped on to a wall then leaped to the open window, and saw Arya, Paul and Michael. There were no day walkers within, and they looked fearful, for there was also no way to reach us or any other exit. "Paul, Arya!" I shouted down at them, "Try and find a way up here, quick!"
     "What does it look like we're trying to do?" Paul retorted, he looked grim and tired. Then his face signalled alarm and Harper screamed, behind us, a behemoth threw us into the warehouse, we collapsed into a metal truck which crumpled like foil. My head fuzzed up, my eyesight flashed and it was a few seconds before I got a proper look at what hit us.
      It wasn't a day walker, nor a Reaver. It's eyes were crimson red and had claws the size of butcher knives. Harper braced for impact as it readied itself to jump, and it charged down at us. It wasn't much bigger than one of us, but it was powerful and threw huge containers with ease. It impaled Michael, he let loose a weak whimper before his life slipped away, leaving his body lying there, lifeless. We were all shocked, but staring scared wouldn't do us anything. "Guys, we're gonna have to kill this thing... Arya and Harper, move that box by the window and stack it as high as you can, Paul, let's take this thing down." I commanded and we all set to our positions.
       Paul wielded a small handgun and a spiked baseball bat that I wouldn't like to get on the wrong side of, the massive mutated beast grabbed a metal box and threw it at us, narrowly missing, leaving us both on the floor, without missing a beat it ripped a metal pole off of the wall  and swung it. Paul leaped to the side and I ducked beneath it. We wouldn't survive five minutes fighting defensively, and he realised that too. Paul raised his gun, firing three shots in its body, only to be shrugged off and it continued its advance. I swung my sword, sending a pulse of electricity down its spine, it hesitated for a fraction of a second, and swung again. This time, it made contact, throwing me to the ground for the second time that day.
       I glanced at the girls, they had made a big start on the way out, but weren't fast enough. This wasn't gonna work, I thought sluggishly getting up, thinking of a new plan. It wasn't that big so we couldn't trip it up or anything but it was insanely strong. Paul, realising his gun was useless, raised the club and bludgeoned the creatures face and it hesitated again, took a step back and let loose a deafening roar. Urgh, we couldn't last any longer, we needed a miracle. The girls shouted, seeing us losing, for us to try and get out now, through their half made staircase of containers and boxes. As Paul jumped up our escape route, he was fast but the creature was faster, it ran straight into it, collapsing it. As huge chunks of metals flew through the sky, Paul also fell. It was a short fall, maybe jumping  down off of a small house's roof, but he landed on an awkward angle, smashing his elbow and right arm in, breaking it instantly. His weapons lay on the floor, and Arya quickly picked it up, then hid behind a fallen crate. We hid all hid, but Paul was still on the ground, too far away for any of us to reach before this thing. It slowly lumbered towards him, step after step, almost teasing us after his extreme speed.
     "Stop right there, that's enough!" Commanded a confident voice as a small dart pierced its neck, a small vial on the end of it being drained into the beast, it gave a mighty growl then fell to the floor, still breathing but unconscious. "Cage em boys." The voice said again and 3 men in biohazard suits and a more formal looking man with glasses and a white lab coat entered through the front door, putting it in a cage.
     Paul rose from the floor, shaky and heavily injured, "Who the hell are you?" He demanded. "I'm grateful and all that for saving my life, but who are you?"
      The man stared at him, when he spoke he had a posh voice, "A group of scientists who were sent by a larger orginazation. We have a job, to put these beasts to an end. Anyway, we must be going now."
     I was tiring of thinking it but, WHAT?! Just then, the radio buzzed out of Harper's pocket. "Bzzt A warning to all survivors. I repeat, a warning to all survivors. The recent increase in courage and strength of Reaver's and Skulker's have worried the government. First off, Reaver's and Skulker's are two different entities, Reaver's are nightmares of the night, Skulker's haunt the day. Second of all, due to this, we are to be launching air drops full of resources for survivors." The message relayed over and over.
       The scientist looking man stared again, seemingly shocked but hid it immediately after. He surveyed us as though deciding whether we were worth anything, or another set of scavengers. "You," He said pointing at me, "It was you, wasn't it. You who escaped that night and then started a war. Hhm. Alright then, fine. I'll explain everything on the condition you tell me what I need to know. Deal? Alright, follow me." He offered without actually giving us a chance to reply. He wandered off with his small crew, who were also very heavily armed, and we followed. All the day-walkers or 'Skulkers' were gone, vanished from sight. We had to be quick, I daren't tell Paul and Arya about Alicia's injury for fear they would run back and leave our one chance of hope. One problem after the other...