Death After Death (#2)

Epilogue

Val patrolled the wall like a hawk protecting her young, ever vigilant, and ready to strike at any conceivable second. The city lay out before her like a maze, which pleased her greatly; she had always considered their haven as the treasure in the middle, the one shining ray of hope in an unsolvable puzzle.  

Snipers were positioned on every corner of the wall, deliberately placed to give them a line of sight on every possible angle, every road and every building, the element of surprise was not an arrow in their opponent's quiver.

The wall loomed four or five metres over street level, casting a deep shadow at this time of day, as the sun sank below the hospital in the centre of their sanctuary. The walls were compiled of thick wood, expertly pieced together, and planted with cement and assorted rubble. Along the very top of the wall, planks were nailed to the side to provide a walkway around the entire expanse; a walkway that Val covered every inch of repeatedly, all day, every day, without fail.

She was well aware of the importance of what they were building here, of how pivotal it may be in humanities greatest fight. She was not about to let anything slip on her watch. If she had to drag every last one of her people through this extinction event and out the over side, she would not hesitate.

There would be survivors. There had to be.

"Bodies approaching!" a man to Val's left barked. "Humans by the looks of it!"

Val strode across the creaking planks until she stood shoulder to shoulder with the man, peering down over the wall to match his gaze.

A man and a young girl limped towards the front gate, eyes fixed to the ground, clothes bloody and filthy, bodies plagued with exhaustion. The girl looked to be unconscious, and just as Val went to shout a greeting, the man collapsed too.

"Open the gates, fingers on triggers, and someone prepare the test!" Val ordered, as she clambered down a ladder next to the gate.

The huge wooden doors, attached to rope pulleys, slowly began to ease open, revealing the two prone bodies on the pavement a few metres beyond.

"T," Val said, nodding towards a particularly muscly man in front of the gate.

T raised his gun to his eyes, wary of any kind of trap, and ready for any kind of fight. His bulking 6-foot-5 frame scooped the two strangers up without a sweat, before he plodded back towards the safety of the walls.

Once he was safely through the gate, it wound closed behind him, and he laid the bodies gently on the ground by Val's feet.

T unscrewed a canteen of water attached to his heavy, army-style vest, and splashed a few drops of water onto the man's face.

Max's panic-filled eyes flickered open, as he shot bolt upright, his throat dry and hoarse.

"Help," he croaked. "Please help."