Chatty Town

Chapter 20

 A/N: So I got a little carried away writing this chapter at 1 am and it ended up being over 6k words so... I split it up for easier reading. Here's part one.

...

We shouldn't have gone this far. I blame myself as I glance at Lee bleeding out in my arms.

Gunshots fire off all around us. "Hang tight, Lee, I'll get you out of this!"

She flashes a weak smile, she always tries to be happy even when it's hopeless. "Can't get rid of me that easy, Dem."

Dlink. Dink. GINK.

I shield her with my body as gunshots hit the dumpster we're hiding behind.

I glance across the street and see Saanvi on the roof of the abandoned movie theater.

"V! How many of them?" I shout at her and she raises her hand and flashes fingers, a full hand and four fingers. 9 bastards. She returns to shooting back. They came out of nowhere. At least twenty of them, we were surrounded. Forced down this street. I shot most of them, got us down to 13 when Areli got shot in the back. Barely got her behind the dumpster when V decided to go rogue. Ran across the street and made it to the theater.

She pops out of the roof and shoots her pistol at the giggling bastards. Bricks below her arm get blown off with bullets and she ducks. I gotta get her out there but I can't leave Lee. D already hates me for letting Harris die, he'd kill me if I let the same happen to his girlfriend. I glance around the street and the alley we're hiding in and it hits me when the dumpster gets shot at again. Dlink. Like a light bulb.

Saanvi keeps shooting at them as I scoop Lee up. A weak breath leaves her and she opens her eyes as I lift the lid to the dumpster, using it to shield us from the bullets as I hoist her up by her hips. A revolting stench slivers out of the dumpster and my face twists, failing to keep it out of my lungs.

"What are you doing?" she questions under her breath.

"Do you trust me?" I stare into her blue eyes as she struggles to keep them open.

"Course."

I look back at the dumpster, there's black bags of trash and a few boxes of bloodied nursery items. In one quick movement, I lift her limp and scrawny body over the dumpster wall, aiming for the bags and lay her on her back. "Stay quiet but don't fall asleep."

She nods as her red hair smushes against a rotting ball of something too far decomposed to figure out. I wait to grimace at the sight of her until after I close the lid.

It's not lost on me that I'm leaving sweet Lee alone, dying in a dumpster like a piece of trash but it'll take those bastards longer to climb and open it to shoot her than it would if I just left her lying on the ground. I pull my pistol out from my waistline and shove off the safety.

Taking a deep breath in, I shake the sight of her from my mind. This isn't goodbye. I peer out from behind the dumpster and see 8 bastards left. Giggling and dodging the flying bullets like half-a-yard-tall gymnasts. Their colorful outfits and overalls aren't fooling anyone, these aren't kids. They're not even human. I take in another deep breath as I hide behind the dumpster again. Everyone's counting on me. I see Reese's fair smile as he stares at Colt and Lace on the couch. Before all of this happened. Lace's blonde waves falling delicately across her cheek as she leans, laughing at Colt. Reese's eyes glisten with yearning, for a love like theirs. I let them down. All of them. They disappear and Zeph replaces them in my mind. Zeph's nose is buried in his book, the only book he can read. His full head of waves, the only thing you can see peeking out from the pages. His worn out teddy bear clutched in his arms, the oil lamp beside him as he's bundled up in the black and blue sleeping bag. I can't fail him too. I can't die here. I look up at V on the top of the movie theater and I feel the dumpster vibrate on the bullets' impact. I remember Lee bleeding on trash. We can't die here. I let the deep breath flow out and with it I leap from the dumpster's cover. Pistol in hand. Finger on trigger. Sprinting feet on asphalt. Eye to eye with the bastards.

We don't call this Chatty Town for nothing. It's theirs. We know that. They know that. But for today, for this fleeting moment in time, it's ours.

With my pistol lined up on each of their heads, I pull the trigger. 8 bastards. 7. 6 bastards on the asphalt, shoot one down and pass the ammo around. Cheer when it's all done. Wren's rendition of 99 bottles of beer plays through my mind as the bullets leave my chamber and drill into the bastards' frontal lobe. V's bullets from the roof fly into view as they graze their arms. Shrieks fill the air. Their freakish legs propel them forward. She takes down one and I lock eyes with the tallest and chunkiest of them. Brown eyes. Bullets fly. The bright orange pulses around their pupils. V ducks as enemy fire rains on her, and time slows down with my heart beat. Red freckles scatter his face, focused across his nose. His arms and legs jiggle with each forceful step. Their grip tightens around their pistol, too big for their child hands; once fit for sippy cups. His lips curl and their eyes haunt me as I line up my shot and pull the trigger.

The recoil lifts the tip of my pistol into my view, obstructing his face for a second as I regain control. His curly brown hair flows up and out as my bullet forces his skull behind his steps. Screeching from the others lights up the street as his oversized body flops to the ground with a thud. One leg bent under his weight. As if it broke, the second life escaped his body. His eyes wide open, his lips still curled. His freckles fleeing his face as if they were fleas in a bath.

V grazes another's head as they pick up their speed; running out of her crosshairs. They toss their pistols to the ground and one hops on the back of another and within a heartbeat the monsters reach me, climbing my legs. Their slimy mouths gnaw on my arm and leg and I bellow as they rip my skin. I yank my arm up high and switch the hand that holds my pistol.

"V!" I grumble as I smash the handle into their heads, like whack-a-mole. It doesn't loosen their grip on me, instead their teeth dig in deeper, their fingers curl into my flesh and one bastard crawls across my hips. Up my chest, as I squirm and kick the other off my leg and onto the asphalt. As I shoot her in the chest and head once each, the bastard reaches my shoulder and opens his grimy mouth and a screeching giggle enters my ear. His humid breath surrounds my ear and I wonder if this is it. If this is how we lose the war. With Lee dying in a dumpster, Saanvi stuck on the roof possibly bleeding out too; and these bastards using me like a jungle gym made of candy. This can't be how it ends. Slobber envelopes my ear and it starts to rip from my head. I close my eyes and think about one person. One person only. Her sun kissed skin caressed by her subtle waves of dark chocolate hair. She lifts her head and that authentic smile beckons me to trust her even though I've stared into her emerald eyes and I've seen something cruel staring back at me. "Don't you trust me?" slithers out of her delicate lips and I wonder why I let Wren convince me exiling her was best.

- P.O.V. SWITCH -

Odina's Diner, five minutes ago.

"And that's how I got ownership of Funky Fashion." Olsen laughs cruelly as he throws a fry into his mouth. By killing the owner along with everyone in the building. Even when Merrick and Dempsey told me he was a ruthless murderer I didn't want to believe it. Even when he himself told me he's at war with the inadequate, deep down I was hoping it was all a bad dream. A lie he was keeping up, an act he was performing. Then the fear in Leean's eyes today, plastered on her pale face whispered that maybe it wasn't all just folklore. Maybe there was truth to who this fourteen-year-old sitting across from me really is. And now this? I avert my eyes in case they show disgust, fear or pain and my head shakes into a nod, "Wasn't there another shop in town you could've taken over?"

He shrugs and I dip a piece of the grilled cheese I ripped off while he was speaking into the big bowl of red soup.

"Nothing quite as fun-ky as this one." He pauses as a smirk grows on his face, waiting for me to acknowledge his pun so I force a genuine laugh as I think about Zephyr's excitement over Arlo's story. Olsen nods with pride and continues. "Besides, it's a clear shot from the hospital. Perfect for vetting new members to town."

With Zephyr's big round eyes in my mind I remember what I'm doing this for. I nod, "It's a shame the previous owners didn't give it up willingly and join our cause."
I chew the soggy part of the sandwich after leaving it soaking for a while.

"Our cause?" Olsen's navy eyes grow and I nod.

"Fighting for a better future. No matter the cost, right?"

His lips curl into a creepy grin and he picks up another fry and twirls in between his fingers, "Right. A better, educated, open minded world..." He takes a bite of the french fry and I peel away from his eyes. "No matter the cost."