Life in an Apocalypse

Chapter 9

     The next morning was quite a blur of events for me. To begin, I was crudely woken up by Damien who was on last watch as he tried to warn us of something. Jack was the only other one who was awake and he was trying get to Marge while Damien tried to get me.
    "Okay! Okay! What the hell is it man?" I asked groggily. As my sight began to focus a bit more from my sleep, I noticed that Damien was panicking quite a bit. It made me wonder what was going on; if it were just another horde, he would have shot already and I would have been woken up by gunfire. But for some reason Damien decided to wake me up this way. 
    "Something's just outside our barricade. Humans, not reams, I bet," Damien whispered to me, "We should stay alert in case they ain't too friendly."
    "Alright fine. Let me wake up Cynthia and you starting making a plan with Jack and Marge," I replied quietly. Damien nodded and left me to wake Cynthia up. A shame; the poor girl needed that sleep, I thought to myself. I got up from my sleeping bag and went towards Cynthia, who slept closest to the corner. At first she placed our packs in the corner with all our sleeping bags surrounding it, but the rest of us chose to put Cynthia in that corner with everyone else surrounding her. I was over to the far right; the furthest from the mall exit.
    "Cynthia," I nudged her, "C'mon, wake up. You need to get up now." I gently shook her sleeping form, feeling bad that I had to bring her back to this harsh reality. I heard a slight moan from her as she rubbed her eyes awake. 
    "Zee? Is everything okay?" Cynthia mumbled sleepily. At this I really couldn't help but to feel a bit guilty for waking her up. She looked like she was having the best sleep in a long time only to be woken up so soon. If I could, I would probably let her sleep longer but I honestly don't know why; I just felt like that. Odd, I've only been like this around her, I noted mentally. I couldn't explain it myself, but now wasn't the time to be thinking about that.

    "Hey Zee! Is she up yet?" Marge asked, trying to keep her tone low as she called to me. 
    "Yeah! She's up! We'll join you in a second!" I replied in the same tone. I turned back towards Cynthia and noticed her confusion. 
    "We've got something at the mall exit we barricaded. Humans." Cynthia turned pale, moving closer to me. I could understand why she felt that way. Handling reams was one thing; living survivers were a whole different beast. Who knew if those people were friendly or not? Keeping her close to me with my right arm, I took out my bayonet with my left hand and approached the others who were crouched by one of the windows. I crept over to Jack, who remained close to the barricaded doors. 
    "They're definitely armed, that's for sure," Jack reported to me, "I think it's a group of four guys. Two of them have rifles and one's gotta a scar across his face. The last one's been banging on the door for a few minutes now."
    "Should we talk to them? See what they want?" Damien asked as he crept over to where we were with Marge right at his heels. I didn't answer. There really wasn't much we could do. Normally, if there were a horde that we had to face, we could just go at them with no reservations. But seeing as these individuals weren't reams, we had to approach this differently. In the case of when Damien, Jack and I met with Marge and Cynthia we were interrupted by a horde attack. With a group whose armed and possibly well-supplied, we really had to be careful.
    "I say we try to have a chat and see what they want," Marge suggested.
    "And what if they're hostile?" Jack questioned, "Not every human nowadays is nice. It's always been that way even before the Catastrophe. It's probably worse now, to be honest."
    "We could just gun 'em down and take their stuff. Always good to have new gear," Damien said. The rest of us just shook our heads.
    "And that makes it okay for us to kill more survivors than reams? Damien please," I reasoned. 
    "How about we talk to them through the barricade?" Cynthia chimed in, "I mean, with the barricade between us there's no way that they know what we have on us. We can have an advantage if they turn out to be bad." I looked over to Cynthia, who still clung to me in fear of the guys just outside the barricade. Of course she would manage to find a safe way for us to talk to these guys, I thought smiling. "I say we go with her plan. I like it," I whispered. Marge nodded and brought out one of her knives as I heard the clicking sound of a loaded gun from Damien and Jack. 
    "Cynthia, you and Marge take rear," I started, turning to Marge. The two ladies nodded and got behind me, Marge readying her knife as Cynthia stood behind her. I looked to Jack and Damien. "You two, one on each of my flanks. Aim towards the door," I told them. Without saying anything else, Damien crept over to my left as Jack got ready on my right. I checked around me to make sure everyone was in place before facing the door.

    "Hey! I know you're out there!" I shouted, "What do you want from me?" The outside remained quiet, although I could hear murmurs of the guys talking outside. 
    "You alone in there?!" I heard one guy ask me. I turn to Jack for a suggestion. I was considering lying to them to catch them off guard, but at the same time our number could scare them a bit.
    "I say tell a lie," Jack whispered, "If they try to take advantage then we'll just pop them where they stand." I nodded and turned back towards the door, gripping my knife in hand as I could faintly hear a small whimper from Cynthia in the back. 
    "There's just me and one other. We don't have much and we don't want any trouble," I answered the guy outside. Silence for a few more moments.    
    "How about you let us in then," I heard another male voice, "We've got four strong guys out here and we can help you." I hesitated. This one seemed more maleficent than the first voice I heard; it gave me a shiver.
    "And you really think I am going to trust four strangers who sound like the're gonna kill me once they get past my doors? Don't push your luck," I called out.
    "Look kid, I'll get straight to the point," the man replied impatiently, "We've got two snipers and a shotgun with us, plus it's two against four. I say you give us all we have or we kill you for them." I blinked and low whistled. Guess there was no point in trying after all. I looked to Jack and Damien and nodded. The two got in front of me with weapons out. Marge stepped towards the barricade and began moving things away as I backed up towards Cynthia, keeping her behind me. Once Marge finished removing the barricade, she looked to me for a sign to open the door. I smiled and looked towards the door.

    "Honestly you guys should really get off your high horses, thinking you're all strong and shit," I called out to them mockingly, "You are really going to threaten two teenagers with nothing on us? And you think I'm scared? Why don't you come on in and kill us then?" I looked to Marge and said: "Open the doors." And with that Marge ran from the door as Jack and Damien began to shoot, unloading clip after clip that they had on them. Luckily, while raiding the mall, we came across another gun shop with loads of ammunition, so we could let the metal fly. They returned fire, of course, but Jack and Damien looked as if they were making sure they couldn't get close. Marge, Cynthia and I found some cover near our supplies as a window shattered close to us from the flurry of bullets. Marge searched through her things and pulled out two pistols and headed for the window to help cover for Damien and Jack. The shootout went on for what seemed like forever. Screams of pain echoed outside, so I knew they were hitting their mark. During the beginning stages of the shootout Damien and Jack had managed to find cover with the items we used to barricade the door; a bunch of heavy wooden crates and a vending machine. This left with me and Cynthia crouched near our supplies, my knife out in hand in case they came in for a close combat fight. 

    After a long while, the gunfire finally calmed down a bit. I noticed Jack and Damien running away from the door. That group must have run out of bullets, I thought. It didn't seem like they were dead or gone, so my only assumption was that they were going to rush us. "Come on and stay close to me," I told Cynthia, racing down towards the center, "Everyone else! Hide behind cover and get ready but don't dome out!" Through the noise I doubt the group outside heard me but I still managed to get Marge, Damien and Jack to hear me. All three of them hid behind concrete decoration planters that lined the mall's walkway to my right and left as I stood dead center with my bayonet out and Cynthia right behind me. Sure enough, the four guys immediately rushed in with knives and their shotgun still loaded and surrounded me and Cynthia. They were hurt with a few bullet wounds lacing everywhere on their bodies. I was a little relieved that they survived but frustrated that they weren't backing down. The guy with the shotgun - I think he's the leader - stood in front of me with his gun aimed right for my chest.

    "Nice trick kid. You managed to get us without getting hurt yourself. Impressive," the guy scoffed, "But it looks like we still win." The next series of events were a blur to me from that moment. A shot rang out. A body fell with a thud. And panic ensued.