“Are you ready?” Eric asked. Lauren H. nodded. Caroline kept watch over the crumbling window frame.
“Go, go go!” She instructed. Lauren H. ran to the window and began firing random ballistics towards an adjacent building. “To the next building!” Eric yelled when they saw that the soldiers had noticed. They didn’t, however, know where the shots were coming from.
The shots signaled for JC’s group to let out a few gun shots from their machine guns. Jiko aimed a nice shot into one of the soldier’s necks and killed him instantly. JC gave him a disapproving look. “What…” Jiko stared back blankly. They caused everyone more confusion on the ground and the large man, obviously their leader, had begun to instruct them to fan out and find the source of the gun fires.
Sarah, Mel and Lauren N, perched on a low lying roof that Lauren had found while scouting around. Sarah picked off a few of the soldiers one by one that had spread out towards their line of fire. One escaped back to the group leaving Sarah cursing under her breath. “Damn, only if we were closer.” Mel said putting her knives back in her pocket. “Come on let’s go…we can’t hang out here for too long.”
A large group of the soldiers still situated in the middle where they continued blasting buildings with mortar and flame throwers. Christa and her group got as close as they could without being spotted. A small horde of zombies appeared out of nowhere and began to attack the soldiers allowing Christa’s group to move in even closer due to the distraction. One of the soldiers was killed by the zombies but the rest of the horde was burned alive or shot through the head. The group of soldiers gathered and tightened up even more, surrounding two tanks that sat there idle. Christa knew though, that the tanks could fire at any point, if they chose to.
“What are we waiting for?” Jenny asked.
“You’ll know when you see it…” Christa said as they listened to more gun fire coming from different directions. She knew that the other groups were moving around at a fast pace.
Suddenly smoke veiled the entire perimeter and surrounded the soldiers, hiding them in a mist of grey. It was the signal they needed. Jiko had dropped canisters of smoke bombs that they had from the equipment they gleaned off of the dead soldiers in the metro tunnel.
“Let’s go!” Christa, LeAndria and Jenny ran through the smoke and knew they wanted to get to the car they saw Adelaide in. Soldiers were coughing and lost in the thick smoke. They didn’t notice the women running past them. The smoke was beginning to clear up as they approached the car. “Damn it Jiko! You were supposed to use all of the cans!” Christa cursed. They ran behind a large stone pillar realizing it was going to be a bit too risky to try and get to the vehicle. But as they were beginning to sit and wait, Jenny ran for the car seeing how close she was to getting her daughter back. “Jenny no!” LeAndria yelled out.
Jenny reached the car and opened the back door. Suddenly a gun was pointed directly to her head by the veiled woman. Jenny could see her daughter in the back seat emotionless. Adelaide looked up and realized, even through the dirt and smoke that it was her mom. She immediately began crying and reaching out for the woman who stood still in fear of getting shot in the head.
“Who are you!?” The veiled woman asked.
“That’s my daughter! Please, let me have her.” Jenny cried. The veiled woman looked back at the small child and realized she was telling the truth.
“What is going back there?” A large booming voice came through the smoke. The veiled woman pulled Jenny in and slammed the door.
“Stay low.” The veiled woman whispered as she exited the car. She approached the large man. “Nothing. There is nothing going on…everything is fine.” The man gave her a questioning look and a quick up and down. “You look ridiculous in that veil.” He said and walked away.
The veiled woman entered the car and removed her disguise letting her long black hair to fall to her side. Jenny sat up and hugged a crying Adelaide.
“Where did you find her?!” Jenny asked through her tears.
“She was walking the streets during one of our recon missions to this part of town. I didn’t have time to look for you nor did I know where to start so I took her with me.” The woman said.
“Thank you so much.” Jenny wiped her eyes. “I’m Jenny by the way.”
The woman smiled. “Kathryn.” She brushed her hair to one side and Jenny immediately noticed the large burn on her face. Her hair had been hiding most of it but now seeing it closely, Jenny could see that one of her eyes had completely gone red from the damage. It looked fresh too.
“What happened?”
“This happened.” Kathryn said, talking about the fires that were happening around her. She explained to Jenny that after the outbreak in Bethesda she had gotten separated from the rest of her friends. She wandered the streets and made it all the way to Downtown DC, joining up with other random strangers. When the military began torching the surrounded neighborhoods, she and the other strangers began to retaliate because the military was killing people indiscriminately. They fought back for a few days but were eventually overpowered. She was about to be killed along with the rest of her group until the large man, who Kathryn explained, was the commander of a small unit of Torchers – as she also explained, approached her. “He had a fancy for me…” She said. “Even with this new burn.” The commander took her around in the car while they continued to torch buildings down and killing anyone who weren’t fortunate enough to have left the place.
“Now we’re here.”
“I’m with others, they’ll be killed. We need to help them.”
“Jiko is one of them?” Kathryn asked.
“Yes, yes he is…do you know him?”
“I was with him and a lot of other people when the outbreak happened.”
“So you must know JC, Christa and Caroline?” Jenny asked. Kathryn’s eyes grew wide.
“Yes I do! They’re alive?!” Kathryn said in glee. Jenny explained as quick as she could their entire situation.
“I can’t believe they’re all alive and around us right now!” Kathryn said.
“Let’s get out of here and we’ll rejoin the rest of them.” Jenny said.
“I can’t…there is no way I can escape right now…but the two of you might be able to.”
“Why, why not?”
“In a weird way…I feel obligated to stay with the commander, at least for a time being. He could have killed me but chose not to...I feel like I owe him something.” Kathryn said.
“That’s crazy! You shouldn’t be feeling any sympathy for your captor.”
“I know it’s crazy, but it is the way it is. But you have to go and take your daughter with you. Please!” Kathryn said unlocking the other side door, facing away from the group of soldiers.
“But…but…” Jenny stammered. Adelaide was pulling on her sleeve.
“Go!” Kathryn yelled over the gun fire. Jenny scooped Adelaide in her arms and began leaving the car. “One thing” Kathryn began, “Please tell my friends I’m fine.” Jenny smiled and fled. Kathryn put her veil back on and sat in silence waiting to explain where the little girl went.
To Christa and LeAndria’s surprise, Jenny came back without a scratch and with Adelaide in her arms.
“Let’s get out of here and hurry!” Christa said. “We have to set this final smoke bomb off to let the others know that we’ve completed the mission.” She tossed the can into the middle of the mix, causing yet another veil of grey smoke to cover the entire area. They fled through the smog and disappeared.
The group gathered again, ecstatic that their plan had worked and no one was hurt.
“Kathryn is alive?” Mel asked. “That is wonderful news.”
“It’s upsetting she couldn’t come with you though, Jenny.” Sarah said.
“But I’m sure we’ll see her again. She’s resilient.” Mel said. “I’m sure of it.”
The groups got into their cars and were ready to leave. JC put the key into the ignition. Nothing. He tried again…still nothing.
Christa got out of her car where she had the same result.
“What’s going on?” She asked. Everyone had left their cars. Nervous and tense feelings permeated among the group. They all just wanted to flee.
Jiko went under the hood to check.
“Ah guys” He began “There’s no spark plug…”
"What! How can that be possible?" JC said joining Jiko under the hood. Owen checked the other car and realized the same thing.
“Are you looking for these?” The group turned around and saw a familiar face. It was Elizabeth Puglisi. Her face seemed distorted and twisted. She began to laugh maniacally and darted off before anyone could react.
Would they ever leave Friendship Heights?
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