Safe Haven

Lunch Time

"Did you guys hear that?" Griffin shouts, out of breath from sprinting.

"Yeah, they must be close, just keep an eye out," James says.

The group continues on their adventure to Fairview. Kate, still shaken up from Griffin's lack of empathy for human life, walks a few paces ahead of him.

"Kate, something wrong?" Griffin asks, speeding up his strides. Kate refuses to acknowledge him. "Kate," he repeats. "Kate."

"Leave it, Griff," James says, keeping his eyes forward.

"Fuck off, old man," Griffin snaps.

"Watch it," James raises his voice. Griffin opens his mouth, but meets Nathan's glare. Griffin purses his lips and lets Kate walk ahead of him.

"You scared the shit out of us, Griffin," Jillian says, meeting his pace. "You can't just shoot someone three feet away from us without warning, especially if they're unarmed. It's not cool."

"It's how this world is, Jillian," Griffin sighs. "Do you know how many unarmed men Nathan has killed?"

"W-what?" Jillian stutters.

"You can't be this naïve," he chuckles. "He's saved my ass on multiple occasions, sure, but he's shot, stabbed, hell, even beat men to death that weren't even threatening us. It's how this world is sweetheart, get used to it."

Jillian spaces out, thinking about Nathan. She's always seen him as a protective lover, not an unhinged killer. She approaches him, intent to ask if what she's heard is true.

"Nath-" her words are cut short by a volley of bullets firing nearby. The group gets down and figures out where the bullets are coming from.

"Rest stop, just over there, to the right of us," Griffin says. "Should we investigate?"

"Let's go," Nathan commands, leading the way.
They run off the highway towards the rest stop, kicking open the front doors. They all draw their weapons, scanning the area.

"The bullets stopped," Chloe whispers.

"Hush," James says to her. "We just kicked down a door, last thing we need to do is make even more noise. Let's all split up into groups of two and flush out anything hiding in here. Chloe, you're with me, Nathan and Jillian, check the restrooms. Griffin, Kate, watch this lobby and make sure nobody else comes in. Chloe and I will check the-"

"BC!" Kate screams. She fires recklessly, missing most shots. The ones that hit it leave mere scratches.

"Split up and time your shots! We can't bunch up like this or we'll just hurt each other!" Nathan yells. The group spreads out, attempting to surround the BC, which quickly hops onto a wall and climbs into the ceiling.

"Don't shoot while it's up there, you'll just waste ammo!" Griffin says. Silence falls upon the group as they wait for the BC to come out of hiding. The door behind them swings open, and a deafening screech fills the room.

"Another one!" Jillian shouts, firing several bullets into its chest. It shrugs off the wounds and pounces on Kate, intent to snack on her flesh.

"Kate, no!" Griffin sprints for the BC and tackles it to the ground. He pulls out his survival knife and plunges it into its skull multiple times. The creature's arms drop to the ground, and it's heavy breathing is silenced. Part of the ceiling collapses as the first creature falls to the ground. It lunges at Nathan, slicing his arm open with its claw-like nails, and knocks Jillian's gun out of her hands. It pounces on her, before getting shot in the body multiple times. It slides Jillian aside and plunges it's arm straight through James's stomach, pulling out a large portion of his small intestine. James falls to the ground, and the creature climbs into the ceiling once more.

"DADDY!" Chloe cries. She begins to run towards him, but Kate grabs her arm and holds her back.

"Don't run for him!" She commands. "That thing is just going to pounce on you and kill you too!"

Nathan covers his mouth with his left hand, and falls to his knees. Tears gather on his eyes, but he refuses to let any roll down his cheeks. Jillian runs over to comfort him, crying on his shoulder. Griffin stands in the middle of the room, weapon ready, determined to kill the BC.

The creature crashes through the ceiling again, directly to the left of Griffin. He quickly fires aimlessly, unable to get a good shot so close. He kicks it back, and it stumbles into Kate, who drops Chloe and grabs the beast by its arms. It thrashes violently, but is unable to break Kate's grip. Nathan rises to his feet, and approaches the creature with his weapon drawn. He fires three shots into its head, and Kate lets it drop to the ground. Nathan stomps on its head repeatedly. "You... mother... fucker!" He yells in between stomps. Jillian grabs his arm and pulls him away, hugging him tightly. Chloe kneels over James, who's still clinging on to life.

"I've... argh," he winces in pain. "...seen better days, haven't I baby girl?" He puts his hand on her cheek. Chloe holds it there. "You've grown into..." he pauses for a moment, attempting to ignore the pain, "...such... an amazing young woman. Stay with your brother, you two will make it, I know you will." He begins to lower his head to the ground.

"I'm not leaving you, daddy! You're coming with us!" She says through tears.

"Baby, don't be stupid, you have to go without me," he replies, coughing up a decent amount of blood.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH

"Shit, they must've heard the noise," Griffin says. "Guys, we need to go, now."

"I'm not leaving my dad! I'm not letting him be some ugly freak's lunch!" She screams, tears streaming down her face.

"Chloe, baby, he's right, leave me," James says. "Go, and tell your brother I'm proud of him."

"Okay daddy, I love you," she whispers, standing up and letting him go.

"I... love you too..." he manages to say, before the group runs out of the building. Two windows break simultaneously, as two BCs enter the room. A third one lurks through the door, spotting James's disemboweled body on the floor. James pushes himself up, and stands strong on his feet, slicing the disemboweled intestines from his gut with a broken shard of glass.

"Come get your lunch, motherfuckers," he yells through clenched teeth, bleeding his left hand on the shard of glass while gripping his pistol with the right. He fires one bullet directly into the first creature's head. It collapses in the doorway, bleeding out on the ground. He turns towards the other two, lunges at one with the shard of glass. The beast catches his forearm and throws him to the ground. The other creature holds him down while it slowly tears his left arm clean off his body. James let's out a loud scream before firing a bullet through his own head, finally ending his suffering.

The creatures munch on his corpse, picking his bones clean before searching for their next meal.