The Departed

Ch. 10

Peter POV

"How many?" I ask Matthew as we run down the hall. Paper crunches under our feet but right now I wasn't really worried about the noise we were making.

"2-3 squads...I'm guessing about 30 soldiers, maybe more." Matthew stops in front of the window on the east side of the building. We were six floors above the entrance so we wouldn't be able to see them if they were directly below us. Matthew points to the north, I squint as I try to make out where he was pointing. Two tiny ants move out from between the cars, it takes me a while to realize that these weren't ants, they were soldiers. I watch as more soldiers begin to walk out from between the cars, they were headed towards the building.

"Get down." I say as I drop down to the floor.

"Why?" Matthew whispers as he edges closer to me.

"Because, we need to make sure they can't see us." I reply. I stretch my neck, but since we were on the ground it made it impossible to see anything from the road.

"Do you have your binoculars?" I whisper. Matthew nudges my shoulder and I hold out my hand. My fingers curl around the binocular's lens and I pull them towards me. I crawl forward, until I'm mere inches away from the glass and pull the binoculars up to my eyes. I peer through the lens and immediately look away, I had the binoculars aimed towards the building on the opposite side of the road. One of the floors on the building was filled with them, and they were all concentrated on the ground below. Most of them were pressed against the glass, some of them were pounding on it, trying to get out. They wanted to get to the Guardians.

"Matthew-" I whisper. I feel him crawl closer, I hand him the binoculars and point across the building. "-look, over there." Matthew brings the binoculars up to his eyes and quickly pulls them away.

"Geeks." He says and I nod.

"We need to find a way to let them out..." I whisper as ideas begin to form in my mind. Matthew shakes his head.

"We can't, it's too risky. Even if we did there is no way they would make it to the bottom, they're five floors up, a fall like that would break their legs or kill them." Matthew was right, even if it didn't break their legs how would we get them out? We could have Alek use a sniper to fire a shot through the glass but the noise of the gun firing would likely attract more Geeks and it could give away our location to the Guardians.

"Shit." Matthew whispers. 

"What?" I ask. Matthew shoves the binoculars into my hand and points to the street. I look through the lens and watch as Guardians begin running down the street, they were running in-between the cars and down the sidewalks.

"Why are they-" I stop talking as soon as I see them. Geeks, a big mob of them were running after the Guardians. One of the Guardians trips over a fallen lamp post and I watch as he is instantly surrounded. Vomit rises in my throat and I look away as the Geeks begin to tear him apart. He wasn't the only the one, two more Guardians trip and are torn apart in a matter of seconds. Matthew gags next to me and I have the sudden urge to cover his eyes.

Although I felt the need to protect him, I couldn't, he needed to see this. Seeing this would harden him, it would make him stronger, maybe not now, but later down in life. The Guardians disappear out of view as they continue to run down the street, the Geeks were not far behind them, well at least the ones that weren't busy devouring the three Guardians.

"Were are they going?" Matthew asks practically wheezing. The blood had drained from his face and he looked about ready to throw up any second. I give him a pat on the back, it was the least I could do to try and comfort him.

"I don't know." I reply as I look down below. 

"The hospital." I turn my head to find Laurie looking out the window. Her eyes meet mine and I see terror that filled them.

"Their headed towards the hospital."