Wildfire (Book 1): Leap of Faith

by Bailey, Emily

  ‘Agent Gunn is down Harris’ he was breathless.

  ‘Which apartment are you in’

  ‘Two down from you’

  I turned back and went into the apartment, gun raised. Agent Gunn was slumped against the wall and with a large wound gaping in his neck. He was bleeding out fast. He was scared, I could see it in his eyes.

  ‘Can I get you anything Agent Gunn?’ I tried to minimize the sympathy in my voice. He knew he was a goner, I didn’t want to make it worse for him.

  ‘Call me David and yes please, I’d love a cigarette’ he choked out a laugh and then winced in pain.

  Peters leant over and gave him one of his and lit it for him. David savored each and every inhale. He died before he finished it. Without hesitation, I unsheathed my knife and stabbed him in the head.

  I pointed to the Agent, ‘you’re with us, lets go’.

  We cleared the rest of the apartment block without any fatalities. I looked out the window and slowly, lights were turning off. This wasn’t a power cut, it was the odd apartment here and there. They must be broadcasting to stay quiet and stay hidden, lights off.

  We were stood on the top floor landing, catching our breath.

  ‘What do we have to blow this place up?’ I looked at them all.

  ‘Nothing, just bullets’, okay we need to improvise.

  ‘Go into every apartment, turn on the TV’s and turn them up as loud as they go, if there’s a music system, blast it and if they have gas, turn it on. Do not fire your weapons again, use a knife if you need to’.

  We worked our way back down; it was unbelievably noisy. It overwhelmed my senses.

  As I came out of an apartment, three snappers flew up onto the landing. I got the first straight away and kicked one down the stairs. I held up the one I just stabbed and used it as a barrier against the other, then stabbed it when I had a good shot. The last one, stumbled up the stairs, its leg was facing the wrong way and dealt with it when it got to me.

  Two levels from the bottom and a stream of snappers were running into the building.

  ‘Get into an apartment, close the door and get onto the fire escape, now!’ I hissed over our channel. I grabbed peters lighter and in the next apartment, I lit a piece of paper on fire and held it up to the smoke alarm. Ten seconds later and the alarms were blaring. Me and Peters then headed out to the fire escape.

  We all worked our way quietly down the fire escape and I peered around the building. There were snappers in the street making a beeline for the apartment building.

  Its working! We needed a place to hide and wait it out, best place was the building across the street. Worst part, they streets were filling up with snappers, we would never get there unseen.

  I waited until the group of snappers went into the building and I took our chance.

  ‘Now!’ I hissed and sprinted across the street. I shot the snappers that saw us from the doorway of the apartment block. Then waited out of sight for any stragglers. Ten seconds later and I stabbed a snapper that came into the archway, but no more came. The apartment on the lower level was empty, we made it our base.

  The main living room overlooked the street and the kitchen and bedroom were on internal walls and hidden from view. I took first watch. I was counting how many snappers went in, I counted thirty in the hour I sat there.

  Peters took over and I went and sat down on the bed. I pulled out my phone, three messages from Rafe, first one: ‘its been two hours, Wildfire, tell me you are okay’, second, half an hour later: ‘please tell me you are okay’, third, twenty five minutes later: ‘tell me you are fucking okay!’.

  ‘I’m fine, was busy clearing out an apartment block. Be safe xx’ I replied.

  My phone rang, it was a number I didn’t recognize, ‘Peyton, its Charlie, update?’ he barked.

  ‘The block is cleared sir, gas is on and waiting for it to fill up before we blow it’, short, sweet and to the point.

  ‘Good, leave it for now. I’ll have another team finish the job later, let it catch some of the bastards for a while. I have a new location for you, I’m sending it to you now, same thing. Dead zone it’ then he hung up.

  I called the agents into the kitchen ‘next job, get your shit, we’re leaving. When I give the command, run to the cars. I’ll cover you’ I chucked Peters the phone, he knew the roads better than me.

  When we were ready, we left.

  By the end of the next afternoon we had dead zoned twelve apartment buildings. I heard reports on the radio that the hospitals were overrun, the army was doing their best to deal with it. People were being advised stay inside and stay unnoticed. They were also told how to take out the snappers and encouraged to do so.

  I heard from Rafe every two hours; he was still alive. Katya had checked in with me as well as Daniels.

  After the twelfth apartment dead zoning was done, I couldn’t get hold of anyone to find out next assignment. We started to head back to base. Our dead zones were attracting the snappers, but we couldn’t get enough in place to control the masses of snappers. It wasn’t just the hospitals that were overrun, the snappers are everywhere.

  Then the announcement came, the radio blared out an emergency message to evacuate the city.

  My phone rang ‘Wildfire, it’s good to hear your voice’ Rafe sounded broken ‘how many on your team are left?’.

  ‘Two, including me’ it hurt to say.

  It was just me and Peters.

  ‘Where are you?’ I recognized the streets; we were near my apartment.

  ‘Ten minutes south of my place’

  ‘Good, meet me there’ I directed Peters where to go.

  Inside, we waited in the living room. The apartment had started to smell; I knew it was Ben. Peters looked questionably over to the closed door and I nodded sadly, he knew there was a body in there.

  I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror, I was filthy, I had patches of blood on me, some mine, some from the snappers. Rafe arrived and pulled me to him, I hugged him hard. Daniels walked into the apartment and I smiled to him over Rafes shoulder.

  ‘Are you okay?’ he saw the blood on me ‘tell me that you are not bitten’.

  ‘I’m okay. I promise. What’s going on? I can’t get hold of anyone.

  ‘The bureau is gone. Overrun with the dead. We had no choice but to destroy it’ his eyes were tortured.

  ‘The army has pulled back; they’re trying to take down the dead as they leave the city. You can’t get hold of anyone because they’ve either turned, evacuated the city or left their posts.’ I looked over to Daniels who nodded in agreement.

  I didn’t need to ask my next question, I knew the answer. We had lost, the world as we knew it had ended. Time for plan B.

  Thank you!

  Thank you for reading! I hope that you enjoyed it.

  Work has begun on book two and I can’t wait to show you!

  Emily B x