Forsaken World (Book 1): Innocence Lost
Page 32
A few seconds passed, and Ian’s trembling voice came over Lance’s earbud. “Ready.”
“Come on. You have to help us,” one of the women cried out, running closer to the gate.
Wiping a tear off his cheek, Lance grabbed the fore grip, took a deep breath, and let half out. Flipping the safety off, he lowered his finger to the trigger. “I’m sorry; I can’t. Mom and Dad are coming, and this is the only place I can wait for them to find me,” he mumbled, blinking the tears out of his eyes as his finger slowly pulled the trigger.
With his crosshairs on Donald’s chest, the AR coughed, startling him. As he moved his aim right, Lance heard Donald scream out. Everyone in his group stared at Donald in shock. When his crosshairs hit the man on the far left that tried to sneak away, Lance pulled the trigger.
Watching sneaky fall, Lance saw the women drop as he moved his crosshairs over on them. Resting his crosshairs on one, Lance closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. A scream erupted outside and over the handheld beside him.
Opening his eyes, blinking the tears away rapidly, Lance saw the other woman jerk and heard her scream out. Seeing movement in his scope, Lance moved it left and saw sneaky trying to crawl away. Putting the crosshairs on his side, Lance pulled the trigger three times in rapid succession and saw two hit, making the man curl up.
Moving back to the woman, Lance saw her stand up, missing her right arm below the elbow. Moving his crosshairs to her chest, he fought to keep his eyes open as he squeezed the trigger twice. The first hit her in the gut, making her move and double over as the second hit her in the chest. She jerked back with the impact and cried out.
A loud boom of a gunshot sounded outside. With tears streaming down his face, Lance moved his aim and saw Donald on his side, aiming at the cabin, working the bolt of his rifle. Letting the crosshairs settle, Lance pulled the trigger and watched Donald drop his rifle and grab his chest.
“Your nephew came here to steal. You may be innocent and only wanted to hide, but we can’t take a chance,” Lance mumbled as he aimed at the side of Donald’s chest and squeezed again.
With his lungs full of blood, Donald tried to scream as the next round passed through his chest but just spit out a fountain of blood. Lance moved his aim to Ian’s side and saw Tony, Alex, and the other woman down.
Hearing Ian’s rifle cough in the loft, Lance saw one of the men’s body jump. “They’re down, Lance,” Ian called over the radio with a low voice.
“Let’s just wait a minute and make sure,” Lance answered and wiped his eyes. Taking deep breaths, Lance calmed himself down.
“They’re dead,” Jennifer said behind him.
Lance yelped and turned his head. “Goddamn it, Jennifer, get back to master control, and keep an eye out. We don’t know what heard that or if they have friends coming!” he bellowed. He couldn’t see her in the dark house, but he damn sure heard her running away.
Rolling back over his rifle, Lance looked at the carnage and was thankful the thermal scope didn’t give him a colored picture. Seeing Donald still breathing, Lance grabbed the handheld and lowered his goggles down. “You should’ve just left.”
“I knew we should’ve just killed you,” he grunted, and even through the night vision’s world of green, Lance could see the blood coming out of his mouth. “Where’s my nephew?”
“You were coming to take the cabin, weren’t you? If you answer honestly, I’ll tell you. Doug said you will like the answer, and it will put you at peace.” Lance said raising his goggles and getting behind his scope again.
Donald gave a little smile. “Glen was supposed to get in and stop you from getting in until we got here. Doug got here before Glen, didn’t he? And Glen got away, didn’t he?”
“Glen’s dead. He got burnt to death trying to get inside. The cabin has lethal security. My dad watched him get burnt to death as he tried to break in.”
“You fuckers,” Donald gasped as his body shook as he cried. “You killed my family.”
Lance moved the crosshairs to Donald’s head. “You tried to kill mine first,” he said, putting the handheld down. Peering through the scope, Lance took his finger off the trigger. “No, you don’t get off that easy.”
“Just leave ‘em, bro,” Ian said from behind him. “We defended our family and the cabin. None of them are going to live much longer.”
Reaching up, Lance lowered his goggles so Ian couldn’t see he had cried. “Yeah, we did,” he said, getting up and closing the vent and lowering the lock. “You hear that?”
“Yeah, but it still doesn’t make it easier.”
“Just remember what Uncle Doug told us they would do to the girls and us. We can’t take any chances,” Lance said, grabbing his magazines off the floor.
“I know,” Ian huffed, “and I would do it again, but it still doesn’t make it easier.”
Lance grabbed the pillow off the floor. “They are worse than stinkers,” he said, tossing the pillow to the couch.
“Yes, and I don’t like killing them, but I do.” Ian nodded as Lance looked at him.
Seeing Ian was wearing his goggles like him, Lance sighed. “You think Jen is going to be mad because I yelled at her?”
“She shouldn’t have left her spot.”
Glad he wasn’t in the wrong, Lance keyed his radio. “Jen, do you see anything?”
“No,” she sobbed over the radio.
“You and the girls come on up then,” Lance said, walking over to the light switch. Taking his goggles off, he turned on the lights and blinked at the sudden illumination.
Jennifer came up and was hit by the smell of cordite. “I’m sorry I left master control. I should’ve stayed, but I thought it was over,” she cried out.
Lance and Ian turned to see tears running down her face. “It was a learning experience, Jen,” Ian said, walking to the couch.
As Ian laid his AR on the coffee table, Lance came around the sectional, taking off his gear and dropping it on the floor. Ian dropped down on the couch as Lance put his AR beside Ian’s and dropped next to him. “Today was a shitty day,” Lance mumbled.
“Yeah, the squirts kind of shitty day,” Ian grunted. “You wipe fifty times, and your ass still has shit on it.”
Allie and Carrie ran around the sectional and jumped beside them. “Are anymore bad people coming?” Allie asked, looking up at them.
“I hope not, but if they do, they will be laying out there on the other side of the fence,” Lance said.
Jennifer came around the couch. “Are we going to bury them tomorrow?”
“They won’t be there tomorrow,” Ian said, looking up at her.
“You didn’t shoot them in the head?” she gasped.
Lance looked up at her with sad eyes. “I don’t want to see them up close, and we have enough work to do without digging graves of people that want to come here and kill us.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” she said, dropping on the couch.
“Yes we do,” Ian said and told her how Lance found out.
Pulling her legs up on the couch and wrapping her arms around them, she mumbled, “We really can’t trust anyone.”
Everyone sat, thinking over all the events that had happened, and nobody talked. Slowly, they all drifted off to sleep.
A few hours later, Lance woke up and looked around at everyone. Easing off the couch, he crept down to master control and pulled out the flash drive his dad had told him to get out of the safe from the house. Sitting in the chair, he turned on the camera upstairs to see everyone still asleep. Glancing at the monitor, Lance saw all the bodies were gone.
He plugged in the flash drive and saw the messages from his dad and mom. Grabbing the mouse, he hovered over his dad’s file then moved over, opening his mom’s message. His mom’s face filled the screen. “Hey, baby,” she said, and Lance paused the video.
“Momma, I killed people today. Again. This time, I saw them up close. It wasn’t like before when we were driving here,” Lance said, l
ooking down. “I’m worried because it bothered me right then but now, it really doesn’t bother me. Am I okay?”
He looked up at the paused image of his mom and smiled. “I’ll be okay till you and Dad get here.” Lance clicked the play button.
“If you are watching this, that means something bad has happened, and you are at the cabin with your dad,” his mom said and wiped her eyes. “My God, I’m just making a recording, but the thought alone is breaking my heart.”
“Sandy,” his dad said off screen. “Just talk to him.”
“Sorry, baby boy,” his mom said. “If you are watching this, I’m not there, but you can bet Momma is coming for her baby boy.” She smiled as Lance started crying, and his mom continued.
Not blinking as tears rolled down his face, Lance watched the message his mom made for him then replayed it over and over until the sun rose the next morning.
The dead were rising as the living fell.
The End of
Forsaken World: Innocence Lost
Coming 2016
Forsaken World: Part 2
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