Subject A7

Chapter Twenty-Four

Avery's POV

"BRANDON!" Nick shouts running back into the room.
Hunter and I stared at the lights that were coming closer, I glanced at him nervously.
"Right Avery," Hunter says checking the ammo in his gun. "Hell is about to break loose, we're about to be caught up in a war zone with people running around screaming and Arcane guards shooting whoever they want. Remember to keep your shit together and stay close."
I gave him a look. "Right Hunter, wrong person to tell this information too. Go talk to Colin, he's the cry baby."
"I'll get to him later," Hunter says going back into the room, I stayed right behind him as we pick up a bag each.

"Oh, another thing Avery," Hunter says looking at me. "When you are running from something, don't ever look back, if you do, it could be the last time you do look back. Whatever happens, keep running and don't look back. Plus you don't wanna trip over something."
I nodded. "Understood."
We went downstairs, Dylan motioned for me to come to stand beside him.
"Angus is taking us to the escape route, remember to not waste any ammo unless you have too. Stick together and please, don't die," Dylan says looking at each of us.
"Great speech Dylan," Hunter says rolling his eyes.
"We'll hold them off as best as we can," Brandon says. "When we can, we'll meet you back at the campsite."
"Really?" Nick asks. "Thought you loved it here."
"I'm actually really sick of this place, to be honest."
"Good to know."
"Also, whatever happens," Dylan says looking at each of us, "if we end up separating for whatever reason, the main goal is to head straight to the campsite. We should meet up at there."
We all murmured an agreement.
We quickly split up, Brandon taking his men out to meet the Arcane guards whereas Angus took us out the back. We ran, people were screaming and running. I bumped into people, this fat guy pushed into me knocking me over.
Dylan pulls me up, gripping onto my hand and we ran after Angus.
And that's when explosions started to go off, I screamed as we fell down from the blast, I turned feeling my head spinning around, my eyesight cleared up to see it had hit the building we had just been in. Panicked, I stood up watching the flames burn the bulding, if we had been seconds behind we would have been burned alive or crushed together by the building crumbling, either way I did not know which was worse.
I spun around running with Dylan behind me, more explosions came. It was so loud that I covered my ears while running.

Angus led us to a building, it was older than the rest as went ran in. Hunter quickly pulled out a few flashlights throwing one to Nick and Dylan.
Endless screaming came from outside, I stood at the doorway watching as this town began to burn and it was because someone had called Arcane for immunes... people were dying because of the spy... people were dying because Colin and I ... we both caused this...
"Avery, come on!"
Taking a deep breath, I took in one more look of the town before following the group through the building, we came to a set of stairs leading down.
"This doesn't look right," I say to Dylan.
"I know but its supposed to warn away prying eyes and from the wrong kind of people from finding the campsite."
"It looks like infected could be hiding in here," I whispered.
"That's the idea," Dylan replies.
We came to a door, Angus pulls out a little silver key from around his neck and unlocks the door.
"Here we go," Angus says walking in flicking on a light.
My heart was pounding hard against my chest, we followed Angus. The lightbulb needing to be changed as it continuously kept flicking, there looked to be blood stains on the wall and there were bits of dirty water on the floor making it muddy and a little slippery. It smelt like something was rotting away in here, I used my shirt to cover my nose.
We continued walking until we came across a dead end. We all stopped, I looked at Dylan who was looking at Angus. Hunter was glaring, Nick looked around to see if he was missing something whereas Colin looked scared.

"It's a cave in," Angus touches the rocks. "When did this happen..."

"That wasn't our escape route right?" Dylan asks Angus worriedly.
"Oh, you mean the one that's blocked off? Want to say no but yes, it was," Angus looks back sighing heavily. "There is another way but you're not going to like it..."
"Tell us" Hunter growls. "We're already wasting time."
"The old tunnels," he says looking worried.
I was confused. Wasn't this a good thing? Another escape route.
"What's wrong?" Colin asks.
"We haven't checked the tunnels in a long time, not since someone was bitten... it has been sealed off..."
Thoughts of a level five infected crossed my mind, those things were a lot scarier than the infected Arcane used on us as punishments. Last thing we needed was to go from dealing with Arcane guards to dealing with infected.
"Is there another way?" Nick asks.
"Maybe we should go through the tunnels," I suggested slowly as my mind was conjuring up a plan, everyone turned to look at me as if I lost my mind, I probably did without realising it. "Do you have a car?" I asked Angus ignoring everyone.
"In the tunnels," he says.
"Do they work?" I ask, he nods. "And what about the keys?"
"Always keep them on the key hanger in the room just before you go into the tunnels."
I look at Dylan. "If we take one or two cars, we can drive through the tunnels without worrying about the infected and if Arcane catches us, we can always use your trick."
Dylan smiles. "Put a brick on the pedal and watch it drive off."
"Exactly," I say smiling.
Dylan smiles at me. "Sounding more and more like the old Avery," Dylan nods.

* * *

As we exited the building, it seemed to have gotten a lot worse since we entered, nearly everything was on fire. There were bodies that laid dead on the ground, I could not stop staring at their faces. Men, women and even the little children. I spotted a baby dead, I felt the tears sting my eyes as we passed, that child will never be able to grow up which only made my hatred for Arcane burn even more.
Angus aimed his gun looking around as he ran, the others did the same thing with the exception of Colin and I, we were open targets.
We were running past a building and in the street were Arcane guards, Dylan pulls me back into hiding. Angus, Colin, and Hunter were on one side while Dylan, Nick and I were on the other. Angus nods to the boys on my side, leans around to start shooting, I shrank back staring wide-eye at the scene before me. Angus moved back to avoid being shot and leaned back to shoot.
Dylan does the same thing shooting, he came back around closing his eyes as the bullets hit the building. Nick looks at Dylan.
"We have to go risk it!" he shouts over to Hunter.
"I'll cover you!" Hunter shouts back leaning to do some shooting. He moves back to avoid being shot, he mouthes the numbers, 'three... two... one... GO!"
I swallowed, Dylan waits for Hunter to lean back to shoot. We all bolted, running as fast as we could, I glanced over to see more bodies of people as well as some of the Arcane guards. A loud noise was coming from the air, it was a helicopter hovering above them. I crashed into Colin, we both stared at each other for a couple of seconds knowing that we're both just as terrified and traumatised. We continued to move now being extra cautious of it because the Arcane guards were now infiltrating the town.
"We're almost there!" Angus shouts. We turn the next corner, he points to a building with the words written, 'Tunnel Depot' we were so close.
Angus scanned the area.
"Appears we're all clear!" he says smiling. He runs across with us following, we were almost at the door when a gunshot went off, we shrank back. I looked in shock to see Angus falling to the floor, blood was pouring out from his head, he was shot in the head. I stood there frozen at what I was witnessing, the man who was helping us was shot. The man who was risking his life to help us was killed.

He was shot in the head.