"The War of Rebellion"

Chapter one    

 

 

The War of Rebellion started almost two years ago. First, people rioting against the government, people killing each other for who's right or wrong, people trying to get to the government. Then that is when people start being dragged out of their homes by the governments order, they said it was to unsure "we keep order," that it was the right thing to do. "We" are disposing those who destroy the order. How soon they realized that they were wrong. 

 

Then, the uprising of the people came. Buildings were on fire. People stole. Killed governmental police and military who dared to cross their paths or hold them back. No matter where we go, there are fights, anger, pain, chaos, and most of all - death. There are some days I wonder if this fight is worth it. There are some days I know this is how we are gonna gain our freedom and control back from what they took from us. As the days progress, the more and more of the military has been doing on street executions. But then, it just causes more of an uprising. They try their best to try to paralyze us with fear. But so many times they have failed to do so.

 

My family is smart enough, that we stay in the same town. Never leave it. Because no matter where we go, there will be chaos. So many people have died or gotten life changing injuries. Like amputated legs or arms. Losing feeling on different limbs from landing wrong, getting shot, or other things. Most of it came from the fight between people and military. But not all of the military are fighting for the same thing. Some are fighting for us, the people. For our freedom. Some are fighting for the government. To keep us all enclosed in their illusions.

 

They both wear different uniforms. Our side wear's blue camouflage, the other wears brown camouflage. Witnessing this, seeing this, seems like the Revolutionary War all over again. When the soldiers and people have war in town, tanks come in, bombs, guns and death follows. But for these times, where there are people with families and those who cannot fight, we go to the bunkers. There's five in this town, it can hold up to five hundred people. It may be a tight squeeze, but it's alright. At least we know that we're safe. But I know that somehow in the end, we will gain our rights, our freedoms back. There will always be someone to destroy the system of freedoms we fight for. There will always be people to deceive us. But no matter what, I will fight for my family. Even - even if it meant that I would have to die for them.

 

I glance at my little five year old brother, Timothy, also known as Tim or Timmy, in the cart that my mother is struggling to push through the rubble. His dark brown hair shinning in the sunlight, his blue eyes glistening. If we all survive this, how much will he remember this? I'm afraid that he will remember too much. Be scarred for life. I look at my other brother, that is only a mere two years younger than me. Johnny. His head low, his bangs in his eyes. His light brown hair, smooth to the touch, his pale green eyes that has the look that all hope is lost. He saw his girlfriend die in front of him, along with her family. He held her hand till she drew her last breath. He tries to stay strong, tries to forget her. But even he breaks down into tears from fear and missing her. My sister who is walking with my father a few feet ahead of us, Melanie. Her curly sandy blonde hair slightly moving with the breeze, her hazel eyes filled with fear. She's five years younger than me. She will sometimes have nightmares over night about being taken away. Or being shot.

 

I grip onto the barrel of the AK-74 that I hold in my hands in a down-right position. I never imagined holding a gun for my safety three years ago. But since the riots started, I knew this was coming next. I look around the town, that I once remembered being well-built, nice community. Now it's full of broken down buildings from the explosives and full of scattered and scared people. Roads broken to the point where it isn't even drive-able anymore. Some of the sidewalks have lifted up. Big patches of dirt and rubble everywhere. Broken trees, some lucky they are still standing. The air sometimes thick from the gunfire exhaust.

 

This is not the home I use to walk. Luckily my father was a former military soldier, my mother used to be in the marines in till she

met my dad. They got married and had a happy life together. My father got called to exchange to different bases here in America. Our last transfer was here in Texas. Once the riots started, my father backed away from the military and we moved to a different town. He did not want to take someone's life for what he stands for.

 

Timmy begins to start whining and mumbles something about a "deeno." I think he's trying to say dino. He lost his toy dinosaur because we had to get up and run. We left the only things that we didn't need. My mother frowns, her hazel eyes that look much like my sisters, sparkle from the sunlight. Her knowing that the dinosaur was the only thing that kept Timmy happy, the only thing that somehow gave this five year old hope. My father gave me a quick glance at me over his shoulder and gestured me over with his hand. I look at Timmy, scruff his hair a bit and then quicken my pace to get to my father. Melanie looks at me and gives me a quick smile then looks down. I look at my father with curiosity and he gives me the same look. His eyes are the same color as mine, a deep dark brown, but focused. His messy dark brown hair, that is almost black, moving so slightly that it is hardly making a twitch.

 

"Melanie, go and help your mother." I flinch as his voice came so suddenly. Without hesitation or any objection, Melanie goes to mother. I keep my head low, hoping I didn't do something wrong. Which I can't think of anything that I possibly did wrong. "How are you holding up?" He asked with the look of gentleness in his eyes. I give him a questioning look, maybe to convince him or myself that there is no point in the question. "Kaelyn, I see you sneak away, to higher ground or just far enough so no one can hear you at night. I've heard you cry." I haven't since this look in eyes in a while, the look of like he is heart-broken. Torn apart.

 

"I'm fine." I manage to let out in an unconvincing tone. "I don't cry every night." I try to say more boldly. Which is true, I do not cry every night. I can't sleep well some nights. And other nights, I'm just afraid. I look down at the ground underneath my feet, watching my foot go forward, then disappearing behind my body as the other comes, then come back as the other disappears with each step. "I'm sometimes readying myself." I add.

 

Both me and my father here something move behind a broken down building, we both quickly look and ready our guns. A person is standing behind where a window use to be, his hands in the air. "Hey, hey I don't want any trouble." He says with a shaky tone. "J-just passing through." My father and I point our guns back down, I take a quick glance at my mother and the others. My mother holding Timmy just in case she had to run, as Melanie is holding Johnny's hand, readying their selves to run. "I see you have some extra medical supplies in that there kart of yours. Would you mind if we traded? M-my wife, she's wounded." He adds with desperation. I look at my dad and he gives the man a quick scan up and down. Searching for a weapon.

 

"What do you propose?" He asked holstering the gun.

 

"Uhm... This here dry fruit. And some-some extra bread." The desperate man says showing a loaf of bread and three packages of dried fruit with shaky hands.

 

"Johnny, bring over some bandages." Father orders gently to Johnny. I hear the footsteps of Johnny walking to the kart. I watch my dad walk to the man and grab the food he has shown to trade with. Johnny walks over with a set of bandages and hands it to the desperate man.

 

The man looks pleased, his eyes filled with glee. "Thank you so much, sir." He says with a smile under his scraggly mustache.

"Thank you. God bless you and your family." He puts the bandages in his backpack and throws it over his shoulder. "Thank you." He says again. I smile, seeing this man overjoyed that we probably have saved his wife, fills me with joy also.

 

"Don't mention it. Thanks for the food." My dad says with a smile. "I hope your wife gets better in time." The man nodded and quickly made his way deeper into the building. His footsteps fading with him.

 

Johnny then suddenly appeared next to me and I look at him. "Here. Mom says we can eat some." He says showing the open package of dried apple slices. I holster my gun onto my back strap and grab a handful of the dried apple slices. I slowly nibble on one and the taste of sweet apple fills my mouth.

 

"Thanks Johnny." I say to him as he puts one in his mouth. He nods and walks back to the kart, giving Timmy a dried slice of apple. "Should we rest here a bit?" I asked father, since we are next to a building, it'll give us some nice shade in this hot sun.

 

"Yeah, we can rest here." He says nodding to my mother. I sigh with relief and sit on a bench that is next to he small broken down building. I take off my backpack and place it by my feet. My feet have a slight ache in them from walking and standing for a long period of time.

 

Johnny walks to the bench and sits next to the open spot next to me. He to places his backpack next to his feet. He lays back on the bench and tries to get as comfortable as he can with this wooden bench. I slowly nibble on my apple slices and take sips of my water here and there. I use the sleeve of my shirt and wipe off the sweat that has been on my forehead for a long time.

 

This war needs to end. It's been two years. Can't they surrender already? We've proven our point, haven't we? I mean, they may have killed a good amount of us who stand against them, but we also got our advantages. We aren't laying down our arms so we can lose all of our freedom and so they can regain control over us. We are not to be controlled. We may have lost a lot, but in the end we will gain everything.

 

I give a silent prayer for the man and his wife, in hope that they will be okay. I never believe in God in till my father got into a shoot-out while he was in Afghanistan for a year.  I believed in God since, because my father should have died. There were only three survivors. He has preformed so many miracles for me and my family, even now. We should have died a long time ago. But here we are. Alive, eating, drinking, healthy and better yet - together. I look up to see Melanie running around with Timmy. They are both giggling. My mother smiles at the two and so does my father.

 

Even though we're in the middle of all of this. We still have our great times when we get to laugh and smile. In those times, I sometimes feel like we are safe. That none of this is happening, that there was no war in the first place. But then I have to look around and see the chaos that's happened and will keep going in till it's over. I look to my left to see a group of three, young and possibly college-aged people, wondering about. They see us, but keep continuing on their way. As if we aren't here. Luckily, there isn't many bandits. I think because we're all in this together. We all started this. And we all want the same thing. Freedom.

 

I close my eyes as a sudden nice cool breeze comes through. Feeling the peace for a few seconds. Johnny taps my forearm and I quickly look at him. "What?" I say raising a shoulder.

 

"Dad wants us to search the old store behind us." Johnny informs me as he gets up and picks up his backpack. I nod and do the same. "Need anything in particular?" Johnny asks our father.

 

Father looks at the kart, talk to mother a bit and then looks back at us. "We need some more water and some more - smaller rations. So it can hold us off." He informs us. Johnny and I nod. We both walk into the broken down, abandoned store. Most supplies has probably been taken. But nothing hurts to look. I step in to the door, the crunching sound of glass on the floor.

 

"Watch your step." I inform Johnny as I grasp onto a counter for extra support. With a quick push with my feet. I hop over the counter. I land lightly onto my feet, making a scratch sound on the tile from the left over dirt and glass on my should and head my way down the aisles. I take out my Glock 38. Just in case there is anyone else here to hurt me or my brother. I scan the shelves carefully, hoping to see something. Just as I thought, the shelves are practically empty. I pulls out my flashlight that is hanging on my side. It's getting a bit dimmer as I get deeper and deeper into the store.

 

And echo of my brothers voice makes me jump. "Kaelyn, grab what you need to. Such as batteries or something useful."

 

"I know!" I say back. Hearing the echo bounce back to me. I use the flashlight to look deeper into the shelves and occasionally under them. After what felt like ten minutes of searching, I find two cans of beans and also three batteries that look like they have some juice in them. I find Johnny at a water dispenser, try to get water out. "Is there any water left?" I asked tapping the dispenser.

 

Johnny pushed the dispenser button a few times and shook it. To get no water. "Nope, it looks like it's empty." Johnny said with a disappointed frown. I hear a distant pop sound, but shrug it off. Probably some idiot shooting at birds or dropped something. I can tell that Johnny heard it too, because he became very still. So still that he could be a statue. He keeps his eyes closed, listening for more. I hear another distant pop sound. Johnny and I exchange looks nervously. Him and I don't dare move. Because one sound can disrupt the sounds that we need to listen for. Maybe it's over - Pop! Pop! - Johnny tore out his gun and I exchanged my Glock 38 for my AK-74.

 

"Kaelyn, Johnny, we gotta run!" I hear my father shout echo throughout the abandoned store. Blood coursing through my veins, my heart pumps fast. I gesture Johnny to follow me and we begin to run to the front door where we left our parents and other siblings. "Kaelyn! Johnny!" My father shouts again.

 

It takes a few huffs, but then I yell. "We're coming!" Johnny and I exchange looks again, this time more determined, but also

scared. I slide to a stop at the counter and jump over it without any hesitation. I hear the loud crunch of glass under my feet as I land. I see my mother and father. As I jump over the lifted gap in the door, I ram into my dads chest accidentally. But he barely moves, he's steady and he grips onto my arms.

 

"You listen to me! Stay on my back!" He says to me sternly looking at me with his eyes. I nod, not daring to object or say a word. My mother is holding Timmy and has a backpack on. Practically the whole cart is empty. Melanie has her backpack on and her small pistol for protection. My main priority to protect is my mom. She can't really hold a gun with Timmy in her arms. I hear the pops of gunfire again, but more frequent. "Johnny stay with me and Kaelyn, do you got it? If we have to split up, you go with your mom! Do you understand?" My father says quickly. Johnny quickly nods.

 

My father gestures to my mother to move forward. Melanie and my mother quickly run as fast as they can. My mother holding Timmy for dear life, fear in her eyes. Timmy's look in his eyes, not knowing what's going on. I look at father and Johnny. "Go!" My father shouts as the three of us ran after my mother. Staying on her tail. I don't dare to look back. No matter how tempting it is. I keep my eyes on my mother. "If we happen to split up, head to the nearest bunker!" My dad shouts to us. I can't even think of splitting up with them right now. All I can think of, is running to the bunker with them. Trying to avoid bullets if I have to. My mind races faster than my feet. I hear more pop sounds of gunfire behind us, this time louder and closer. I hear a whistle of something. My heart stops for a second, then just as I see my mother, father, brother and sister do. I dive down.

Edited September 18, 201411 yr by TheWayToDawn

Chapter two 

 

 

I lay face down with my arms wrapped behind my head. Then the ear deafening sound of an explosion so close, I try to hold back a scream. The ground quakes, rubble hits my back and some land on me. I push myself up quickly, grabbing my gun. Timmy is crying now, Melanie is shaking, my mother looks like she saw a ghost, my father is angry, and Johnny has a scratch on his arm. "Go, go, go!" My father yells. We all obey without argument and run. As we run, I can't help but look to see the big hole inside the building that wasn't there before. I lick my lower lip to get a small taste of blood and a stinging sensation. My lip must have been cut from the rubble that managed to get under my arms. I hear the gunshots behind me now, they can't be to far from here fighting.

 

I follow my mother as we cut into an ally that should be at least a small guard for a few seconds. We stop for a moment, to catch our breath. I listen to the gun sounds that's not to far, afraid that one of them can kill any one of us in a second. "Everyone okay?" My father panted. We all nod. My hands are shaking so badly right now, my chest heaves up and down, my heart is racing, I can't think of anything else but run. I grab my bottle and quickly squirt a sip into my mouth. Then I shove back into my backpacks side pocket. "Alright, let's go." Father said with a nod. We follow him out of the ally. My mother and sister Melanie in the middle. Me and Johnny in the back. We run as fast as we can, jumping over rocks and piles of rubble, broken building parts.

 

My mother surprises me, even to this day on how swift she can be with a five year old in her arms. Melanie trips over a lifted side of the sidewalk and falls onto her knees. I quicken my pace and pulls her up by her arm. "Go!" I say to her as I push her lightly for a running start. I look to my right to see more people running and helping each other. We're all afraid and we're all working together. She does as she's asked and catches up with mother. Then to my horror, bullets hit the nearby trees. I duck my head every time I hear the bullets.

 

"C'mon!" Father yells over the shooting. "We're close!" We take a sharp turn left between two buildings. As we leave the gap between the buildings the open fields are here and the bunker is five hundred feet away. I see the military getting closer on the left. Brown camouflage. My heart sinks. My dad must have seen this to and grabbed Melanie's hand to make her run faster. The metal doors are open at the bunker. Other people are loading in. A lot of the leaders there are gesturing everyone over with quick, frantic hands. Desperate to get everyone in. We slide to a stop at the bunker and help my mother in quickly. We put Melanie in next, than Johnny. I turn to see if anyone else needs help, as my father does.

 

I see someone familiar running this way. My heart leaps. It's Calum. He was my crush before all this happened. I haven't thought about him in a long time. I see him and his sister running over. His sister has long blonde hair, she was always so funny. Calum shouts and I see him fly off his feet to the side. His sister screams in horror. I quickly run to his sister, she recognized me right away. "K-Kaelyn! Help him!" She screams holding onto my arm.

 

Calum lay on the ground holding his side, which is a velvet red seeping through his white shirt. Panic sets in inside me. "C'mon, I'll get Calum." I pulled Calum's sister with me and we ran to the bunker. "Dad get in there. We need to get her down there." He nods and jumps into the bunker I lift up Calum's sister and hand her to my father. The doors the bunker are being shut, the military is getting closer. I have a tear leave my eye and look at Calum. I look to my father in the eyes. "I... I'm sorry!" I struggle to say. "I love you!" I yell louder. I shut the bunker door and run to Calum's side. Dodging the bullets the best I can.

 

"C-Calum, come on!" I say bending down to him as he grunts in pain. "Come on!" I scream. He looks at me and then he looks surprised. "Put your arm around me." He does as I say and he puts his arm over my shoulder. I help pull him up and he shouts in pain. "You're okay. It's okay. F-Follow me." I say pulling him with me. He's breathing hard and grabbing onto his side with his free arm. I look at his wound and see that he's losing a lot. "We go this. It's like a dance, really." I say trying to encourage him. He gives a faint smirk in between the grunt of pain and biting his lip. The bullets are getting closer but we're getting closer to a building. "We're almost there. Come on!" I say pulling him as fast as I can. He doesn't hesitate to follow and we keep moving. A bullet comes hits near my foot, I try not to panic or scream. I'm trying to stay calm with Calum.

 

I put him against the wall of the building and kick open the door. I quickly grab his arm and I pull him in with me. I kick the door closed and I continue to the middle of the building. I take him into the bathroom and sit him down. "Okay, you're gonna have to trust me." I say squeezing his shoulder and looking at him in the eyes. "I need to see your wound."

 

"O... okay" He huffed. I take off my backpack and grab my medikit out. I life up his shirt a little to see the bullet wound. My eyes widen and I touch around the wound. It a hole from the bullet, it's pretty deep, and it's bleeding out. He grabs my hand and I put my other hand on top of his. I look at him and he's cringing.

 

"I'm sorry. I-I need to get the bullet out." I say with a shaky tone. He looks at me with wide eyes. "Trust me. I know how." I say. I go into my backpack and search for the hard beef jerky. "You like beef jerky, right?"

 

"Mhmm..." He manages to let out through his pants.

 

"Okay, I'll need you to bite down on this then." I show him the beef jerky. He gives me an unsure look, but nods. He opens his mouth and I put the beef jerky in his mouth. "You may want to grip onto that pole." I say nodding above his head. He closes his eyes and does as I say. I bite my lip and grab the tweezers from my medikit. "Don't push my hand away, okay." I order. He nods and I hear him breathing in through his mouth, preparing for the pain. My eyes water, because I've seen my mother do this. I know he's gonna scream. But I'm on a time limit here, between the military and him bleeding out to death.

 

I don't hesitate any longer and say. "One... two..." I take in a breath. "Three." I let out the air. I gently put in the tweezers and he grunts, biting hard on the beef jerky, squeezing the pole above him so hard that his hands are pale and bright read in others. I concentrate on the wound, listening for the bullet. I have to push in deeper. He screams out in pain, my whole entire insides shake. I can't stop now. I feel something weird with the tweezers and I know it's the bullet. "I-I got it!" I say pinching the bullet with the tweezers. His chest heaves up and down quickly. "Stay with me, Calum." I say calmly. I slowly pull out the bullet, to get Calum screaming so loud from pain, my ear drums vibrate. I bite my lip.

 

I pull out the end of the tweezers to find the silver shiny bullet, covered in blood. "Okay, okay! I got it!" I say with relief. I think I hear Calum do a small cry, I look at him, seeing a tear leave one of his eyes. "I'm gonna have to sow it. I don't have any anesthetics. I need to close up the wound." I feel a bead of sweat slide down the side of my head.

 

Calum grunted with frustration. "Just - get it over with." He huffs. I nod. I rinse out his wound with a little bit of water and to my surprise, he sighs with relief. I put down the bottle and then I take out the needle and thread. I just realized the gunshots outside, I was so absorbed with this I forgot what was happening outside. I put the thread in the needle and I give Calum a look of sympathy. "J-just do it. I trust you." He says behind the beef jerky.

 

I close my eyes and take in a deep breath. "Okay." I let out. With steady hands I poke it through the side of his wound. He grunts

and I hear the beef jerky crunch from his biting, the sound of the pole as he grips it. "Sorry..." I say under my breath. I push it through the other side of his wound and he grunts again. I squeeze my eyes shut. I take in a deep breath and do it as quickly and gently as possible the next two. I pull the thread then cut with my knife. Calum is sweating and breathing quickly. I squirt a little water into my hands and scrub off Calum's blood. Quickly I dry off my hand and hand Calum his water bottle. "You're okay." I say feeling his forehead, he's really warm. I can only imagine why. He pulls the beef jerky out of his mouth and sticks it onto his lap. "I have some Tylenol in my kit, it'll help with fevers and pain." I say grabbing the kit. I get the Tylenol pill and hand it to him. "It should help."

 

He takes a few sips of the water and the pops the pill into his mouth. "Thanks. I owe you." Calum says in a sigh. I hear him swallow the pill. I smile and shake my head.

 

I grab the bandages from the kit and have him sit forward. "You don't owe me anything." I say wrapping pressing the bandage on his stomach to keep it steady. I wrap it around him once, using both my hands. "You really don't." I say. I wrap it around him one more time. "Hold this." I say. He nods and puts the pressure on the bandage. I grab my knife from my pocket again and I push his hand gently away as I cut it.

 

"You saved my sister." He says with a croaky tone to his voice. I freeze for a second. I look at the bandage that I've cut through half way. I start cutting through it again and I shake my head. With one last tug, the bandage is cut thoroughly.

 

"Hold the bandage again." I order him gently as I put the rest of the bandage in the kit. "And... it was my dad who saved her." I grab the medical tape from the kit. "You can let go." I add, putting my hand on the bandage. He let go and put his hand on my shoulder to keep his hand from getting in the way. I tape the bandage as best as possible and I looked at his shirt with a frown. I put the tape back in the kit and shoved the kit back into my backpack.

 

I hear the gunshots outside again, then I remember. We need to move. I grab the beef jerky off his lap and put it in a baggy. I put it one of his backpack pockets. "You save my sister too." He grunts. I look down and shake my head.

 

"You need to change your shirt, the blood on your shirt shouldn't absorb into the bandages." I say stand up. He nods and I offer him a hand to get him up. He takes my hand and I hoist him up slowly. He let's out a long slow grunt on his way up. "Can you stand without the pole's help?" I asked glancing at his hand still gripping the pole. He lets go and puts his hands up to show he can. "Okay. See you in a minute then." I say picking up my backpack and tossing it over my shoulder. I exit the room. Holding the AK-74 in my hands tightly. I lean against the wall, bowing my head. I know my family is safe. But me and Calum may not be. This fight can last anywhere between one to sixteen weeks. Between that time, we're gonna have to stay away from the fight as much as possible.

 

What's my father thinking? He must be so worried about me. Him and the rest of my family must think I'm dead by now. Or probably bleeding out to death. I put my head against the wall and close my eyes, feeling the draft coming in through the home, listening to the stomach wrenching sounds of war outside. A tear escapes me. That may have been the last thing I said to my father. I love you. I lower lip and breathe in my tears, trying to keep them from coming out. I can't tell Calum I'm scared. Not because I want to impress him. I don't want to say it. I will feel like a coward. I can't cry in front of him and expect comfort from him out of pity. Which I know Calum isn't heartless. I know him a bit. Him and I hung out a little bit before this happened. I can't believe he's still here, alive.

 

The door knob of the bathroom moves and I quickly wipe my tear away with my sleeve. "Okay le-" I hear a kick in of a door and I look at Calum in horror. His jaw drops, his eyes are wide.

 

"Get in!" I hiss at him, pushing him into the bathroom.

 

"What about-"

 

"No! I'm fine, just get in!" I hiss more agitated. He looks at me with concern. "I got this, trust me." He gives me one more look and nods. Put away my AK-74 and take out my Glock 38. The door shuts silently behind me and I hear the lock. I hear the movements over boots in the hall, I push myself against the wall and take out my knife. I slow my breathing and keep it more quiet. I hear a pair of foot steps running in.

 

"Kill him!" One of them said. I peek over and see them shoot the running soldier in the head. I gasp, then pulls myself back and push my body on the wall. They're wearing brown. Why brown? Why not blue? "Search the house!" The man shouts. I walk into a doorway that's on my left and see I'm in the kitchen. There are two entrances to the kitchen. I see the shadow of one of the soldiers and I quickly dive between the kitchen counter and wall. Which I assume where a washing machine should have been. I breathe quickly and quietly. I peak from behind the counter and see the man is facing the opposite direction. I aim my Glock 38 at the guys head. I pull the trigger just as he slowly turns around. Blood splattering from his head. I hear one of the other soldiers say a few things that weren't very nice.

 

Somehow I smile. I get up and jog from my spot to the other entrance of the kitchen. I hear the pace of walking footsteps coming from it. I turn my knife backwards in my hand and holster my Glock 38. As the man walks in, I take my right hand push his head down and stab the knife into his back hard with my left. He screams out in pain as I pull out my knife and push him down harder letting his face hit my knee on the way down. I quickly draw my gun and shoot him in the head. Breathing hard, I softly but quickly, exit the kitchen. I hear running footsteps in the kitchen and I dive into a room on my left. I listen for the two of them. "Oh

my g-" One of them started.

 

"Shh!" The other hissed. I hear them make their way down the hall. I know they're coming. I pushed my body against the wall near the door way. One of them walks by carefully, then the other on is coming. I turn my knife in my hand, waiting to grab him. His back is to the doorway. I quickly grab him, covering his mouth and digging the knife into his throat. The guy barely made a peep and remained motionless as I dropped him to the ground. I look down the hall and the other guy is missing. I put away my knife and take out my Glock 38. Barely making a sound with each footstep. I listen carefully for the other guy, but don't hear a sound. I put my back onto the wall before I enter the family room. I walk in carefully, going against the tall bookshelf. Something hard hit the back of my head and searing pain went through my entire skull as my head hit the bookshelf. I fell to the ground and turned onto my back.

 

"There you are you little-" I threw a book at him and he blocked it. I turn to my hands and knees, scrambling to my feet. I start to jog as I push off the floor with my hands, then something drags my foot back and my chest slams into the ground. I cry out, not only in pain but in hope someone heard. "Think you can kill us and get away with it?!" The man shouted as he pulled me up by my hair. He slammed my back against the wall and all the air escaped my lungs. I'm breathing hard in fear now. His face so close to mine, I feel his every breath. He takes his knife and sticks it to my neck. "Enjoy your freedom." He whispers in my ear. A small sob escapes my throat.

Edited September 19, 201411 yr by TheWayToDawn

Chapter 3

 

I close my eyes, preparing for the pain that is about to sear through my neck. My whole body is shaking and trembling. The only thing I can think about now is my family. A loud bang from a gun echoes in the room. I scream from the fear that the bullet was for me. I feel the mans grip on my arm tighten, then slowly releases. I open my eyes with blurry vision from the tears I was holding back. The man who was about to kill me, is now on his knees. My chest heaves up and down, I keep myself pressed against the wall. The man gives me the look of hatred, he then falls down to the side and lays motionless. I look towards the doorway to see who shot him. Calum is leaning against the doorway with his gun trained on the man lying on the ground. My mouth hangs open, at loss for words. My heart is still rushing. Calum walks forward with a limp to the man he just shot, keeping his gun trained on him. A puddle of blood begins to form behind the man's back. Calum gives the man a light tap with his foot, the guy doesn't budge.

 

Calum puts the gun into the holster on the back of his pants. He to looks very shocked. He then looks at me with concern and holds on to both of my arms. "Are you okay?" He asked.

 

I swallow hard and close my eyes. I nod and say. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm okay." It came out more shaky than I intended. But it's hard for me to maintain my voice right now. "I'm okay." I repeat with a nod. I'm not sure if this was for him or for me. I look into his eyes. I forgot how blue they were. I study his eyes for a few more moments and then shrug him off.

 

Calum moves his arms away and he looks to my forehead. "You got hurt pretty good." He says with a frown. I nod and put my hand to my forehead. There's a little bit of blood, but I think I'll be okay.

 

I shrug and say. "I've had worse." He hands me a rag and I hesitatingly take it, it's moist.

 

"From the sink." He says. I nod and begin to dab my forehead. Calum looks at the man on the ground and says. "Should we loot him?" I look at the man and looked at the gun in the holster. It's no better than ours.

 

"I don't know." I say with a shrug. Then I remember the other three I took down. "We can look at what the others got." I put the rag in his hand and begin to walk to the kitchen. On my way out of the family room and I bent down and grabbed the Glock 38 then holstered it.

 

"There are others?" Calum asked with a surprised hint to his voice. I nod and continue down the hall. The man who I stabbed in the neck, there's a puddle of blood around the mans head. I look at what he's got, I see a nice knife with ridges in the blade. I hand

it to Calum.

 

"You need a knife." I say as he grabbed it. His t-shirt is now a dark grey. "How far do you think you can walk?" I asked. He looked around, then a bullet hit the glass in the other room.

 

Calum raised one of his shoulders and shook his head. "I don't know." He says. "I guess I'll go as far as I can." I nod and walk to the kitchen, stepping over the dead man, trying carefully not to step in the blood.

 

I get a quick look at him and I don't see anything with use. "Okay, let's get a move on out of here." I say turning to Calum. He

looks at the dead man with a wide open mouth. "Told you that I got it covered." I say with a smile. I just noticed a door behind a curtain and I walked to it. "This is our way out." I say as I peek out the door. The door use to be a sliding glass window, but all the glass seems to have been shot out. I don't see anyone, but I definitely hear the gunshots around outside.

 

I look behind me and see Calum limping over, I hope he can go a far distance. "Well, let's go." He says gesturing to the broken slide-door.

 

I nod and grab my AK-74 out and exited out with caution. I gestured Calum to follow me and he does. There's a fence that's slightly taller than Calum, which surprises me. Because he's easily six feet tall. I push open the gate door carefully and begin to slowly make my way out of the gate. I crouch down next to the fence as I hear gun shots go crazy. I put my hand out to stop Calum behind me. He to, tries to crouch down behind me. I hear a grunt and I know this is gonna be a difficult task. Difficult, but no impossible. I listen to the guns go off and then it gives a five second delay, then picks up again.

 

"Can you run?" I asked Calum quickly as I turned to him. He nods. I turn around and listened one more time. I know Calum can't run as fast as me. The next him is quite a distance to run behind. "Calum, take my arm." I say reaching my arm out behind me, he hesitatingly grab my arm. The pause starts - now! "Go!" I say pulling him with me.

 

Five. We both run as fast as possible, he keeps a grip on my arm. Four. I look at Calum behind me and he's limping as he runs. Three. There's a big enough slump for him and I do dive behind before we make it behind the next building. Two. My heart races, we're not gonna make it to the building. One. I pull Calum harder to get to the slump.

 

"Dive down!" I shout and we both dive down to the slump. The gunshots go off again, he lays close to me, we're both breathing hard. "Y-you okay?" I ask I look down to see he's grabbing his wound. He nods with his eyes closed. "Prepare to run then." I inform him. Calum is surprising me so much. He's wounded, but he still keeps going. He's running, even though I know it hurts him more than he lets on. He saved me, even though he didn't have to. The gunshots slow down and in a second it'll stop. "Now!" I shout. Him and I both get up quickly and run as fast as possible.

 

Five. I could run faster, but I stay next to him just in case he falls or needs an extra hand. Four. We are close to the house. Three. Just a few more feet. Two. I touch the fence and grab Calum's hand, then pull him over to the fence. One. Bullets fly through the quickly. We both take this moment to catch out breath, but a brown camouflage soldier appears from behind the fence. Calum and I both shoot him as soon as the man appears.

 

"Good teamwork." I say between my gasps for air. "Y-you're doing good." I add. He smiles and nods. We're already sweating and I know it's from nerves. "Okay, the more and more we run that way, the closer we're gonna get to the blue." I say to myself.

 

"Good to know." Calum says. I look at the next building, it's the same distance but there's no slump to keep me and him hidden. We're just gonna have to run when the bullets slow down. After this house, we can run to the right. There's more buildings that direction, broken, but at least it's a guard.

 

I hold out my hand to show that Calum that it's not time to go, I listen to the gunfire carefully, listening for any sorts of break. It's starting to slow down I swing my arm forward to gesture that it's time. I take off like a bullet, I look behind me to see Calum running after me. The gunfire stops and I don't bother to count down this time. A few guys stopped and started running toward us. Calum and I both shoot the men till they fall. I have to reload my gun, but it's in a pocket I can't reach at the moment. I holster my gun and take out the Glock. The gunfire starts as soon as I slide to a stop behind the fence. Calum just made it by a couple of feet. Him and I both lean against the fence and catch our breath for a moment.

 

"New plan. We head that way." I nod to the buildings ahead of us.

 

"You sure we can make it?" Calum asked as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

 

"I can. The question is: Can you?" I say turning my head to him.

 

"Yeah." he nods.

 

"Hydrate." I say pulling out my bottle of water. I chug down a few sip, just enough to get my mouth watered. I pull my backpack to the side and grab ammo. I empty the AK-74's cartridge and reload it. "Ready?" I asked Calum as he puts his bottle back on in his backpack.

 

"Yeah."

 

"Let's go then."

 

I push off the fence and he follows. Our feet hit the grass and dirt beneath our feet. We have to run so we can get away from the fight. But we can slow down soon. Once we get far enough away. I begin to start jogging after about a minute of running. Making sure Calum can keep up. Calum is breathing harder than me, but that's understandable. I jog next to him, the pops of the guns behind us still loud but it's definitely more distant than earlier. I look behind us and see know one following. I look at Calum jogging next to me, I frown because there's something obvious that I should have noticed sooner. His parents are missing. Where are his parents? Maybe they split up and ended up in different bunkers. Or the parents volunteered to go into the military. That wouldn't make sense though, because they'd never leave Calum and his sister behind to fend for themselves.

 

Maybe they're both injured and they had to recover in a bunker as Calum and his sister has to roam around. I really hope his parents are okay. At least if they're injured and had to stay in a bunker, they are safe. Maybe why that's why he's so calm about his sister in the bunker. Maybe because he knows that if he did end up dying, his parents are there to take care of her. I look at Calum again. I shouldn't just jump to conclusions about his parents. I might ask him about it later. I look up at the sky and realize that the sun is on the verge of setting, and some dark clouds are rolling in. And we still have a good twenty to thirty minute walk to the buildings. Calum had to do a quick hop over a thick log and I see him cringe.

 

"Calum?" I say with concern. I'm afraid he's pushing himself to hard. His limping seems to be worse. Which bothers me.

 

"Hm?"

 

"Need a break?" I asked with a frown.

 

"No, I'm fine." He says forcing back a grunt. "I'm thirsty though." I see that his water bottle is out of his reach so I jog over and grab his water bottle out of the bouncing backpack. I hand it to him and he quickly opens it and takes a few sips. "Thanks." He says after his third sip. He closes the bottle and keeps a hold of it.

 

The pops of the guns get more and more faint as we near the buildings. We started walking a few minutes ago. I don't know how much longer Calum can handle this though. No matter what he says or tries to act. I know he isn't doing well. I just realized my backpack is bigger than his, which probably means I've got more supplies than he has. My feet ache so much, my head is starting to throb from earlier. I know I'm not gonna be able to handle much longer myself. I reach for my bottle in my backpack, but I can't really stretch that far right now. Calum grabs it for me and hands it to me. I smile and give him a nod. It's getting very dark right now and the clouds have to be blamed for this. I feel a couple drops of rain and I hope the worst of it holds off till we get to a building. I look over to Calum and see that his limp is getting worse. A building is pretty close, but it's seriously broken down. I hope it at least has some sort of part of the second floor ground for cover.

 

More and more rain starts to appear and we still have a five-minute walk to the building. Calum and I both have stayed super quiet the whole walk. Barely making a sound, except for a few of Calum's failed attempts to hold in a grunt. The fall quickens and becomes too much to fast. Calum and I give each other a look that could only mean that we're really agitated now. The rain quickly soaks us, our hair is wet, our shirts are so wet that it sticks to us. I'm lucky my backpack is waterproof. I hope the same can be said for Calum's. Calum slipped to his knees and he attempted twice to get up. I sigh and wrap his arm around my should.

"Come on, I got you." I say giving him a smile. He nods, only looking at the ground. I hoist him up with me and we continue our way

 

The rain dreads on as we make it to the building. There's no use for a fire since the rain will wash it out. I can tell Calum can't take another step, even with my helping him. So I pray that there's at least one place that's dry here. We walk into a part of the building where it should have had a wall, the place is muddy and obviously wet from the down pour of rain. I see a wall that hasn't been blown to bits and to our luck, I see a spot that's barely been touched with rain because of the old second floor above it. I tug Calum with me, hoping he has at least an ounce of energy left in his being to move forward. We get to the dry area under the second floor, at least what's left of it anyway.

 

Calum automatically drops to his knees once we're good a good distance from the rain. I fall with him as I to can't handle this much more myself. "We made it." I say with difficulty. Calum is breathing hard and I know the Tylenol has worn off on him. I help Calum take his backpack off of him and lay his head on it. I take the knife out of his pocket and place it by the nearby wall where a windowsill is still in tacked without that glass. I take off my backpack and quickly grab my medikit out. I grab a Tylenol pill and crawl over to his side. "Calum, open your mouth." He opens his eyes slightly and then opens his mouth, I place the pill in his mouth and I quickly open his bottle. I let him take a few sips and I pull the bottle away.

 

He closes his eyes and I can hear his heavy breathing over the loud pouring rain. I lift up his shirt and see the bandage soaked. I frown and go back to my medikit. He doesn't need a big one like before, because we're gonna stay here for a little while. I cut off some of the bandage and walk to Calum. I kneel down and cut off his bandage that's around him. Careful not to wake him up. I check this stitches, skimming my hands over them. They're still in tact and he'll be okay. I place the bandage over his wound and taped it on him. I pull down his shirt again. I take the bandage I just cut off of him and place it near his knife. If I wash it off, it can be useful once again. I go into my backpack and grab a small blanket out of it. I have a small sleeping mat tied on top of my backpack. So I have something to sleep on.

 

I walk back to Calum and put the blanket on him. He's sound asleep now and I don't think much of anything will wake him up right now. The sound of the rain drowns out the firing of guns. But I know it'll continue tomorrow. I take off the small sleeping mat from my backpack and roll it on the ground. I lay down on it, keeping my guns close to the sleeping mat. I take the knife off of my belt and place it next to my guns. I brush my brown wet bangs that felt like it was glued to my forehead. I can barely sleep so I lay on my sleeping mat and listen to the rain. My body is tired, but I'm wide awake.

 

I keep my eyes on Calum, so I know he's okay. I hope that him and I live to see our family again. They must be worried sick or maybe mourning for the possibility of us being dead. I close my eyes, smiling. Knowing my family is okay, is going to help me sleep at night. It's going to help me think straight. I hope my parents are comforting Calum's sister. I feel bad that his sister may be crying now. Wondering if Calum is okay. Cause all she knows is that he was shot. I wish the Bunker guards kept the Bunkers opened longer. But once one side closes, the rest do. So I did my part and shut the Bunker door on my father. Who is probably blaming himself for me being out here. When everything I have done so far, is because of me. And thanks to Calum, I've made it this far.

Edited September 20, 201411 yr by TheWayToDawn