Red America: Book 2 (Glass Heart Series)

Chapter 2

Ashley started to hear a crack echoing through the streets of New York. She looked down each alley she passed, wondering if it's just a door closing and opening again. But then the crack got louder and more able to be found. She got closer to the sound, and she started to hear people. The people were yelling, trying to get help. She got closer and now was able to make out what was going on.

She peaked around the corner of a building, she saw a line of people. She also saw men with heavy weaponry. She was now understanding what was going on.

"Please stop," a man yelled with his hands up. One of the soldiers was standing behind the line of people kneeling. The soldier was holding a pistol up to each and every one of the people's heads. " you don't have to do this!"

The soldier disregarded what the man said. Ashley was covering her mouth. She saw the soldier shooting the next person. Blood gushed up as the head disintegrated. Ashley saw the body fall down into a ditch. Ashley saw many bodies in the ditch.

"Somebody!" The same man yelled at the top of his lungs, " help us! Help us!" The soldier was almost to the man, Ashley noticed the man holding on to the girl's hand, that was next to him.

She figured they were soulmate's. The man and woman were crying. Ashley heard more gun shots.

"Hey," Ashely blurted out, " what are you doing?" Ashley saw the soldier have the pistol up to the mans head, the one that was yelling. The soldier looked up, the other soldiers that were closer to Ashely turned to look at her.

"Well hello," the man said smiling, " my sweet dear what is a fine girl like yourself doing in such a ratchet place like this?" The soldier asked still having the pistol touching the mans head.

"I've been locked up in one of these buildings for the past seven years," Ashely explained, "and I've just made It out and I have no idea what happened to the city." Ashley started to walk closer to the soldiers that were close to her. They looked at her lustfully, she gave them the evil eye in return.

"Well my dear come," the soldier said putting his pistol away. " let us take you inside and get you some better clothing then." The man said as he plopped down on the bodies that were in the ditch. Ashely saw the pile, hundreds of bodies must have been there. The man got up and grabbed a blanket from the truck that was par just to the left of Ashley. He put it on her shoulders.

"Thank you," she said, looking at the eight or nine people that were just about to be executed. The man that was yelling for help smiled with teeth showing, he turned and hugged the girl to his left. " what a beautiful day isn't it?" Ashley asked as a diversion. The man looked up to see the dark rainy clouds over head. Ashley then punched him in the Adam's apple. He went down choking. She quickly pulled out his pistol and shot both of his knee caps. His screams echoed between the buildings. Ashley saw the other soldiers with heavy machine guns running at her.

"Stop you," one of the men said.

"Put down your gun, or we will open fire!" The other man yelled, just as Ashley took cover behind the truck. She layer on the tar road, looking underneath the truck she saw two sets of feet. She reloaded the pistol with the clip she stole for the other soldier. And she aimed the pistol at one pair of feet. She pulled the trigger in an instant. And the man fell to his right side, se shot him in the head. Two bullets.

"Surrender," the other man said, as he got up on the back of the truck. Ashley heard his steps, she began to crawl, the darkness from the truck was devastating. Ashley could barely fit, but se did. She made it to the end where the back of the truck was. She looked up from behind and noticed the man looking straight, thinking she was still at the front of the truck. "Just give up. Your not going o make it out alive!" Ashley looked at the armor the man had on, bullet proof vest and a personal shield. She looked around to find an explosive. She saw a grenade belt on the other soldiers chest. She was kneeling as she moved over to grab the belt. She had it and returned to the truck. She saw the man was looking through the trucks back window. She took off one grenade, she opened the gas compartment of the truck. The cap to let the gas in was missing, thank goodness for Ashley. Since she would need Skye to get into it. She pulled the pin and the grenade and tossed it into the gasoline.

She jolted away as fast as she could, the soldier turned to see her. He began to open fire just as the truck went up in a big mushroom explosion. The shockwaves made Ashley go down to the floor. She was on the floor in seconds. She turned her body to see the exoskeleton of the truck burned and in flames.

" thank god," that man yelled again, " thank god you came!" Ashley got up from the floor. Her face was dark from the ash remains landing on her face. She rubbed it making it smear around.

Ashley walked over to the nine people left, the men had there hands bound. She broke the bonds, " why were these men executing you?" She asked as she helped the woman up.

"There part of the Guerrilla militia," the man said, massaging his wrists, "they think their superior then everyone else. And they believed we were possessed." The man explained. Ashley finished helping the last of the nine people.

"Possessed?" Ashley asked walking over to the man.

"Yes, it's what happens when someone or something bites you with the Quietus virus!" The man saw Ashley's arm, the two puncture wounds, with blood dried at the top.

"What?" Ashley asked as she saw the man looking at her arm.

"How did that happen?" He asked kindly. The girl that was next to him came up to him and hugged the man.

" a dog from the building I was kept in came up to me and bit me! But it's nothing." She said.

The man shook his head. " no, that dog was possessed. And now you have_wait_ how long ago were you bit?" The man asked looking at his watch. Ashley was thinking as hard as she could.

"Twenty minutes at the most." She said, " maybe thirty!" She tried to stay to a minimum count.

The man was still looking at his watch calculating the time. "Ok_ we still have time!_um_ just follow us. We will take you to the camp we were at before we were taken.".The man and his girlfriend were the only ones left, the other people took off on a run.

"Ok," Ashley took another three steps before she felt a sharp pain in her ankle, " argh_ this stupid ankle!"

The man turned around, " are you ok?_what happened?" He kneeled holding onto the dried bloody ankle.

"I got my foot jammed into a drawer," she was grinding her teeth, and biting her lip. " and it just hurts a lot!" She said pushing her hair behind her ear.

The man got up, and reach into his coats pocket. He took out a piece of circular metal. " here," he said as he opened it up.

" what is that?" She asked as he put the metal circle on her ankle.

"This is an advanced healing brace," he explained as he pulled the metal ring up. It spilt into two rings with a red light in between both of the circles. As the red light was formed in a complete circular form. " the metal rings are the brace that restrains your ankle from moving around. And the red light that is in between the rings, heals your ankle over a duration of twenty to thirty minutes." The man finished talking just as Ashley felt the red light giving shocks to her ankle.

"Why don't you know this stuff?" The girl asked, as Ashley felt the sun break through the dark clouds. "Where have you been for the past five years?"

Ashley sat down on the dirty platform, that the people were being executed on. She was careful not to hurt her ankle anymore. " I've been locked up," she said, looking up at the two people. "And I've been kidnapped from my parents when I was nine! And I literally just broke out of the room I was being held in."

The two people looked down at her. "Well_erg_ we will help you! What's your name?" The man asked giving Ashley a hand.

"I'm Ashley, Ashley Anderson. What are your names ,might I ask?"

"My name is Samantha, but you can just call me Sam." The girl said

"And my name is John, and this is my wife."

Ashley smiled "yeah I kind of figure with the wedding bands and all!"
Ashley shook johns hand. John helped her up from her sitting position. Ashley wiped her butt, and fixed her jacket.

"Come," John said, having his hand out showing the way back to the street. The truck was no longer on fire, but it did leave a foul stench. Ashley then realized something...it was snowing.

She smiled looking up, remembering the last Christmas she spent with her parents, before she was abducted, before all she remember was darkness, before all this plaque took the world. She remember it like a it was yesterday, it was cold and peaceful.