Hope II

Rise

WARNING: The fight between Jerry and Thomas depicts graphic, gory violence.

This chapter is dedicated to MarcCruz7 for continued support and help throughout. He also picked the name "Ripper" for Thomas. Enjoy the chaper!

***

I picked off the enemy with few bullets from the height advantage atop the store. Aiming down the iron sights of my rifle and piercing the brains of the Ripper's men with single burst shots, yet he was nowhere in sight. Hiding like the coward he is. My eyesight snapped from target to target throughout the town, shooting them down with the aid of the dead slowly hording into the town to expand the battle in the three factions just as the night began to fade and light found its way on the horizon again. They lunged for the closest life source to them, but if it were to one of the remaining supermarket men I would shoot them dead... yet the dead posed no match for the weapons in the field, not one even came close to feasting on live flesh. Nearly all of them gathered near the ruins of the supermarket to feast on the flesh of our fallen soldiers, rising up from the flames of their homes to join the dead army in reclaiming their home.

I shot another bullet, but my attention had been so drawn to the dead that I missed, and almost immediately shots were fired towards me. My body quickly collapsed into a prone position on the rooftop. I perked my head up slightly, but a bullet whizzed by, I had to think fast. This guy has me pinned down at gunpoint... and then I made the deathly decision to raise my weapon over the rooftop and open fire below, hoping to hit him... and I did. The man was shot dead by my stream of bullets, and within seconds a sprinter came running out of an alley and slid down alongside the corpse, feasting on it like the beast he is. His head waving back and forth, tearing apart the man's body. A sudden emotion of delight struck me, but my smile was short lived once I realised that having fired out that entire clip, I was left without ammunition in the rifle I have had for over a month. Suddenly I felt a quick grasp on my waist that pushed me forward, the Ripper grabbing my waist while he shouted and ran to the edge of the building, pushing me with him into the air.

'RIPPER!' I yelled just as we both fell over the edge of the building, him on top descending fast and then a sudden slap, a pounding into my back from the ground below.

My entire back seemed to shatter like glass. My feet felt immovable and my head seemed paralysed, stuck to the freezing snow, my head thumped hard off the snow on the ground that had failed to absorb the shock of the fall, the ringing in my ears was amplified by screams omitted from the town. The Ripper quickly got to his feet and ended the runner feasting on his man.

His attention quickly came back to my body on the ground. He grabbed me by the chest, pulled my torso off the ground and walloped his fist into the centre of my face. I heard and felt the bridge of my nose crack, and the red blood began running down my cheek from my nostrils just when he hit me again, quickly following through by grabbing his pistol and shooting down two oncoming runners, facing me again.

'You are a fool Jerry' he said, staring at me with his dark eyes. His bald head glistened under the light of the morning sun. He wore no more than a white t-shirt, his long black overcoat still on the ground alongside his fedora only several feet away. The Ripper's scar still ran down the side of his face, giving him that ghastly, villainous I remember from Atlanta.

Suddenly his fist palpitated my abdomen, belting my gut so hard it felt as though my stomach would pop out of my mouth.

'Showing up, to my city!' he yelled 'Killing my men!' kicking my in the stomach while I was trying to stand, quickly knocking me back down onto the snow for me to stare to the sky.

I slowly got to my knees, panting for air and wiping away the blood with my lumbar jacket, leaving a stream of red on the sleeve. Signalling my own defeat.