Brothers

Chapter 11

"Come on, Lieutenants. Rise and shine!" Zach said, raising his voice to get their attention.

Mariah, Liam and I chuckled at his outburst. We all got up before Jason, Peter, Kyle, Drew, Chris, and the new recruits got here.

In the end, we decided to flip a coin, that was in Liam's coat pocket. Unfortunately for Zach, he lost the toss and had to wake the Lieutenants up.

The Lieutenants got up in a hurry, their heads whipping back and forth, trying to find some sort of danger.

"It's time for your shift. Hurry and get ready. We're leaving in fifteen minutes tops." Zach informed. He walked back to his cot as the drowsy Lieutenants scramble to get their things ready.

"So who is going with us?" Liam asked, resting his elbows on his knees, looking at me.

"I think that one of them should go with Zach and you can take the rest so that your not alone and more people are with you, just incase something happens." I said, looking between the two friends. "Especially now."

"Right." Zach agreed.

"So, who's going with who?" Nick asked, lacing his boots.

"I'm going to leave that decision to Lieutenant Rodriguez and Lieutenant Johnson."

"Okay. Well, since I patrol throughout the city then two of you should come with me." Liam announced. He turned to look at Zach. "If that would work out with you."

"Yeah that's fine. I only need one guy up there anyway." 

"Is Lieutenant Jones patrolling at night with you or did he switch to the day?" I asked.

"No. I haven't seen him anywhere since the first night we came here."

I nodded.

"I'll just have to ask the guys when they come back." I mumbled.

"Okay. Lieutenant Johnson." Mariah spoke up, trying to get us on track. "Who do you want to take with you?"

"I'll take Lieutenant Whitetail and Lieutenant Grant."

"That leaves Black." Mariah said, stating the obvious. "You'll be patrolling with onn the wall with Zach."

The flap lifted and Jason, Mark and Ryan walked in.

"How was it?" Nick asked Ryan and Mark.

"It was good, though, I did expect more activity out there." Ryan informed, walking to his cot.

"Yeah. I mean, we mostly saw children and women out." Mark added, following Ryan to his cot.

I shot Jason a confused look in which he returns a 'I'll tell you later' look. I sighed but nodded as he walked to his cot to sit down, his back facing me.

"We should get to our posts before the rest of the squad shows up." Zach said, standing from his cot and motioning to Nick, who quickly grabbed his rifle and followed Zach out the door.

"Shall we go, Lieutenant?" Mariah asked, looking at me from the foot of my cot with Dante standing right beside her.

"Yeah." I stood up and grabbed my pistol to put in its holster, that's strapped around my thigh, before grabbing my rifle. "Let's go."

***

"Why didn't you give the new recruits a walkie talkie?" Mariah asked when we got to the gate. "Don't you have more?"

Even though it's sunset, there wasn't many people.

"I do have more, but we have to trust them before I hand them over. When the time comes, I'll give it to them, but in the meantime we'll wait." I explained.

We fell silent, the only sound was the gravel under our boots. Our eyes darted from side to side, trying to find anything unusual. Our ears, listing for anything that could tell us something.

As the night grew so did the silence. I normally welcomed it, but the absence of a cough or a baby crying was missed.

It was too quiet, like no one was in town.

The eerie feeling was getting stronger until you can cut it with a knife.

"Mariah." I murmured, my eyes darting in all directions frantically. "Something's off."

I see her nod in the corner of my eye.

"Yeah. It's like no one's home. It's too still." she mumbled back.

I didn't want to make her nervous than she already was, but I had to voice my thoughts.

"I think it's almost here." was the last thing I said before a bright light followed an explosion erupted.