Mark Judah: Chosen

Chapter 10 Somewhere in California

HUNTED

"I'm scared to close my eyes, I'm scared to open them. We're gonna die out here."
-Heather Donahue,
"The Blair Witch Project"

"We need to move and keep moving. They won't stop until they kill us ... or we kill them."
-Adelaide Wilson, "Us"

224 HOURS BEFORE
APOCALYPSE

Ryan Lee

After a while, a voice boomed over an
intercom.
"Your ten minutes starts, now. Get up, and go!"
Everyone was too afraid to move. Lee
decided to take the lead by getting up, and
heading towards the weapons. One step. No gunshot. Two steps. Then, three, four, five,
and no gunshot.
Seeing this gave courage to the others,
who got up, and headed for the weapons.
Lee paused to watch everyone as they ran
for them. He wanted to give the others their first picks, and also get a good look at
everyone. He spotted both Mylon, and Lucy Together.
"Mylon! Lucy!" He called to them.
They didn't recognize Lee at first. He looked more wily than usual. But then, they did.
They hurried over to him with their
weapons in hand. Lee, then, saw two men,
and a woman sprint off into the woods with more than their share of weapons.
"Mr. Ryan? What's going on?" Lucy asked.
It was at this time, Lee spotted.
"Larry!"
Larry looked over at Lee, puzzled.
"Ryan? What in the world!" He said, heading over to him.
None of the three knew Lee was a
detective. They all huddled together.
"Larry, where's Carrie?" Lucy asked,
anxiously.
"Not sure, probably in LA still. I got
grabbed while I was walking. Anyways,
we need to get a move on. Like three
minutes ago." Larry paused and looked at
the group of seven huddled behind him.
"Everyone! We have to get moving, and it's
better we stick together. So, come on."
At that, Larry started for the woods. Everyone followed. Looking over to Lee, he said.
"Those bastards took extra weapons. We
only have nine, and there's eleven of us."
"It's okay. I'll go without."
Larry nodded and quickened his pace.
More than five minutes had passed since the voice sounded over the intercom.
"What're we going to do?" Lucy asked, who walked between Mylon and Lee.
"We're going to fight, of course." Replied
Larry.
"But, they said no one's ever survived.
That means there's been others, right?"
"Yeah. That's crazy." Mylon added. "But, we'll have a better chance with him. Larry's an ex-marine."
Lucy thought about that. "Yeah. I feel
better with Larry. But, did you see that guy
speaking? He was huge, and scary looking.
This looked all too normal for him. What if they all look like him."
Mylon didn't know how to respond. Larry was about to speak when a loud siren blared. Then, a voice boomed over an intercom.
"Ready, or not. Here we come!"
"Everybody wait!"
They all stopped, and looked at Lee, who
took off his left shoe. He, then, undid the
hidden compartment at the bottom.
"All we have to do is survive for less than thirty minutes."
Lee, then, pulled out a satellite phone, and dialed 911.
"Oh my! He's a phone." A woman said.
"He can call the police." A man called out.
The call didn't go through. Lee looked, and saw he wasn't getting signal. He put his shoe back on, and said.
"Let's keep walking. I don't have a signal
right here."
"It's because we're in the middle of nowhere." A man said.
"This is a sat phone. It picks up signal even in the middle of nowhere."
They'd wasted two minutes.
Lee started to worry that maybe the signal wouldn't catch out here. Obviously, these guys were smart, but smart enough to use a signal jammer? One that jammed even satellite phones? Lee wasn't sure what to think.

They continued walking at a good clip
deeper, and deeper into the woods. Lee
sped up, catching up to Larry, who led the
group.
"Ever use a sat phone before?"
"Of course."
"It's not catching a signal. What do you
think?"
"My first thought is, you have a crappy Sat phone. Or, they have a signal jammer."
Lee knew it wasn't the first one. Because
his Sat phone wasn't crappy, so it had to be
the second one. And, that wasn't good.
That meant there'll be no rescue team
coming anytime soon. And also, the tracking device buried deep inside the heel of his boot wasn't giving off his location.
He wondered how long the signal'd been getting jammed. He hoped the SWAT team
would, at least, know the general area.
Otherwise they wouldn't survive this
experience.
They continued walking east. The way the sun'd risen. It was pushing close to nine. They had to survive less than four hours, Lee thought. How hard could that be?
"Has anyone ever killed someone before?" Larry barked out. "And, I'm not speaking of no accident."
Two of the men spoke up.
"Okay, fellas. I'm not going to ask when,
and where. I do, however, need one of you
watching our flank. And, the other our left
wing. If you notice someone, or anything
strange, just holler."
They nodded, and headed to their
positions.
"I've killed someone."
Larry looked at Lee for a second. Then,
nodded.
"Ryan. You watch our right wing. I'll keep us at a good clip. Maybe we'll stay ahead of
them. If not, anyone who comes your way.
Kill em dead."