AM13 Outbreak Shorts

One Year On - Forty (Rhys)

Rhys

"Alex, no!"

I watch in horror as my old best friend charges towards Benji, screaming something about killing him. This is what I tried to warn Hugh about, this is what I have been so scared of. The unrest within this camp has been brimming to erupt for a long time, and now...

"Oh, God."

Chaos explodes. Alex isn't the only one fighting, the emotion spills over and yelling consumes the whole camp. As a soldier, this should be something that I need to control, but we've only been trained to fight the enemy outside the walls, not within. I tried to suggest this might happen, but no one listened to me, and now it's too late.

Now...

The moment bullets begin firing in the air, I grab my own gun, gulping down the sheer terror threatening to swallow me up whole. This just got serious and now we might have to deal with even more dead bodies. As if Rachael's wasn't enough.

I still can't believe one of my oldest friends from this world isn't around anymore. It kills me how she went, but I can't think about her now. I have to calm this down.

"The walls!" someone manages to be heard over the racket of everyone else. Maybe because there's an ice-cold fear in their tone which strikes everyone. "The walls have come down."

A near-silence follows. Some people continue to battle on among themselves because they don't realize the enormity of what's going on, but others are struck by this news. The walls have separated us from the beasts outside since we got here. They might have been struggling a bit recently and some of them have even required some repairs which we haven't yet got to, but those words suggest it might be too late.

"The walls?" I whisper. "They're down."

I back away from the crowd, no longer feeling brave like a soldier should. My initial animal instinct is to run, to save myself, because if any of those walls have broken while so much noise is erupting then we are about to have a much bigger problem on our hands.

We are about to be flooded by the undead.

The gun trembles in my hand, it no longer feels like it belongs to me, it's too heavy for me, it doesn't sit right between my shaky, sweaty fingers. It's slipping, I know that I'm losing control of it, and I can't stop. I can't gather myself back up again.

Fighting them out there is one thing, that's controlled, and we can't lose the innocent, but them in here means everyone could die. I could lose my home and everyone within it. I can't see that happen, I don't know if I can stop it either, all I can do is escape...

"Argh!"

A scream bursts from my chest as hot pain radiates through me. I grab my shoulder which is now covered in unexpected blood and spin on my heels.

There I find myself faced with my worst nightmare; my own personal hell come to life in front of my very eyes.

It's over. I've lost.

We have lost.