FULL ECLIPSE (Book #2)

𝕿𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖊

It wasn't easy heading out of Monty's, but I found it a lil relaxing knowing that for the first time, I wasn't in charge of anyone – not the baseball team, my sister, or this pack. My dad is highly trained in evasive tactics and combat skills. Like duh, it's part of his job being in the SWAT. He has a Colt M4 carbine over his shoulder and an M1911 in his hand. His spatial awareness is immaculate, making me feel like I lack as a male.

We follow closely behind him. When it is safe, he motions for us to move ahead quietly, whisper-shouting with a series of 'go, go, go'. Fucking and hiding, we cut through the front car park of Monty's which didn't have that many vehicles parked. Being meticulous was part of our lives now and if most of us couldn't get straight A's on our assignments, we were definitely acing this, that much was for sure.

Lurkers kept twitching their necks up and down but none of them spotted us. A few were trapped inside cars, underneath them too. One lone lurker was pulling itself across the asphalt, its body ripping apart with each pull. It's like give up at this point. Yuck. Most were just lost and wandering around. Dad motions again and car-by-car, we catch up to him. Easy pea-

*Clickkk*

And everyone pauses.

A small whimper comes from Carmen. Somebody has stepped on something, and from that whimper, I'm guessing it's her. My scan slowly falls to her foot while everyone around me is frozen in distress. From her foot, my scan drifts to her big bold turquoise eyes. She has stepped on an empty plastic water bottle in the middle of a scattered zombie field.

Oh Carmen...

The lurkers jolt their heads up like a venomous rattlesnake about to attack. If stepping on the plastic bottle is enough to catch their attention, stepping off the plastic bottle will be enough to do us. Usually, I'd be the one to figure this predicament out. I would say something like run! but because I have my dad now, thank god, my line of sight goes straight to him. He puts his fist in the air to tell us to do the exact opposite – stop!

I look back at Carmen who's a few steps behind me and I relay the message to her, putting a finger to my mouth. Carmen nods and bites her bottom lip to stop herself from whimpering. She pretty much has stepped on a mine, putting us all in a death trap. Stupid of her but I'm not mad at her, it could've been any one of us.

I face Dad again to see if he has another message for me to relay. The dark green shemagh scarf around his face makes his irises glow two shades lighter when in actual fact they're both the same colour. His emotions are spilling from his eyes, and not through tears, but light. His concentration is my admiration and now I know what I wanna be when I grow up.

A few terrifyingly long minutes go by and the lurkers lose interest. Dad brings his fist down from the air, queuing us to release from our fixed positions. Carmen slowly lifts her foot from the plastic bottle. I mean, the lurkers have started prodding along again, so if anything, if the bottle makes the same noise, it'll just catch their attention again, not pinpoint it to us, right?

Boy, was I wrong...

My eyes watch her foot release the pressure from the bottle with my heart in my throat. This fear, this is the type of fear I dread. It brings me right back to that earthquake. Right back to that building. Right back to that moment where our hands touched for the final time. Where I lost her, and along with her, myself. It takes me back to when I saw my mum, when Ms Mills left the room, when Coach left his.

It takes me back to the start.

*Clickkk!*

Beating hearts race like a thousand shooting stars. Luck diminishes. Hope vanishes. Growls on top of growls become angrier, hungrier, and deadlier.

"Get behind me!" Dad orders, bullets leave his handgun one by one.

One headshot, two headshots, three headshots, four. Five headshots, six headshots, seven headshots, eight. He doesn't miss a single shot. Each bullet brings us to safety but each bullet leaving its chamber alerts a dozen more lurkers.

"Quick, move, move, move!" Dad steadily moves backwards, allowing all of us to get behind him.

"Bray, Dean!" Jace calls out as he holds onto a chain-link gate that leads to a skinny alleyway. "Over here!"

We link up with Jace. He curls his fingers in between the metal hexagonal holes and helps the girls up before allowing himself and Bray to get over.

"Yallah, Dean," Bray reaches down for me. "Grab my hand!"

I curl my fingers in between the holes, slightly pausing and glancing over my shoulder at Dad.

"Dean!" Bray urges. "Hurry up, man!"

I look back up at Bray and then back behind my shoulder to Dad as if I'm in some kinda dilemma.

"Quick, Zinedine!" To my surprise Dad's right behind me.

He supports my back to get up. I'm glad that that dilemma was cut short. I put one foot into the hexagonal holes and reach to grab Bray's hand. When my palm comes into contact with his, I become frozen. I can feel Bray tugging at my arm and Dad shouting in my ears but I can't move. I'm paralyzed, as if my body is not mine to possess anymore, but a vessel, a shell. I've hit blank. I try to snap out of it but the more I do, the more pressure builds in my brain. My head hurts.

My head, hurts.

Everything begins spinning 360 super-fast.

I pass out.