In The End Box Set | Books 1-3 Stevens, GJ (story books to read TXT) 📖

away as you can. What you see…” he said, looking back to his men. “What you see is everything, you understand? There’s a hundred or more of those. I don’t know what they are, but they were my regiment and they’re coming here with one thing on whatever remains of their minds. I don’t have to tell you what will happen. Now go,” he said, his voice raising. “Or do I have to waste one of my men forcing you back inside?”

They had no chance. Their colleagues had been overrun with such ease. One minute they were jumping from their trucks, the next they’d joined the ranks of the dead risen up.

I could use a gun. I wasn’t the best shot, but maybe one more bullet could be the tipping point.

“Toni,” I shouted, remembering how she handled the rifle.

Despite knowing I should run, knowing my job was to get the story out, still I stood my ground as he turned away and watched him raise his rifle and peer through the sight.

I flashed a look down the road to see the tarmac clear until I blinked. The moment my eyes opened I saw the first movement, saw the camouflaged legs, looked up the body and half an arm hanging loose at his side, swinging in time with its slow, casual stroll.

I jumped as a bullet leapt from the long rifle, snatching a look to the sniper crouching to my right, the double legs of the long gun leaning on a sandbag.

I turned back to the road and watched the sea of legs trampling over the fallen figure. With the awful creatures in view, the stench felt like it poured from the sky. My heart raced, but I couldn’t just walk away. Toni needed to know where her mother was if there was any chance she could stop me from being consumed by what had taken over those creatures. I wanted her for another reason altogether and I couldn’t let this pass by.

The rifle snapped over and again, my body’s reaction lessening each time. Each time a hit. Each time a kill, despite my mind’s trouble with those words. Ten, maybe more, fell down, but still they continued on, stumbling over their fallen.

Some veered up the hill, nudged by the piling bodies before falling back, drawn down by the incline, funnelled by the valley back to the road.

This was a stand. This was where history could be made. If they broke through here where would the next be? From here they could move out into the open and I’d seen too many movies to know how this would end.

I thought of my parents and my friends. I thought of Jamie and his kids. I thought of the villages, the towns, the cities. The people. The children. The lives to be lost. The lives that would live again and add to the battle that would have to be fought.

I couldn’t run. I walked to the back of the van, avoiding Toni’s eyes and the scorn I knew would be pouring out of her. I pulled the rear doors open to the sound of the dried blood cracking and took the empty gun from the floor. I shouted just as the door slammed.

“You go. The keys are in the ignition.”

Moving to the rear of the Land Rover, I took a magazine from an open crate, pushing it into the base of the pistol and re-joined the line as the sergeant gave the order to open fire.

30

The machine gun jumped to life, hot lead spraying in a furious chatter, consuming the belt of finger-length bullets as the soldier swept it across its wide arc. The first shots were too low, the bodies rattling with each impact, but as the spray moved across the line, skull and brain erupted under its power.

The first in line were down, with rifles picking off those missed in the rain of metal. The soldier’s pause caught us all by surprise, their gazes catching on the next targets stumbling through the red mist as the wind added a thick metallic hint to the acrid swirl around us.

“Fire,” the sergeant screamed and all rifles joined the chugging rhythm of the machine gun. Shot after shot, round after round exploding flesh as they hit their targets.

Dead flesh sprayed to the ground. Blood and guts showered the air with gore. Slowing their advance, they stumbled, moving to their hands and knees, if they still had them, to cross the carpet of bodies, only to be cut down.

Shouts went through our line, an excited rumble of voices as the bodies piled ever higher. The gunfire fell quiet when all movement stopped, the masses unable to cross the hill of camouflaged bodies.

Weapons reloaded as the rifles went quiet. Voices died to nothing with the slap of metal against metal.

The sergeant called the line to order and silence surrounded to let us hear the low rumbling chorus of moans in the background.

A chill ran down my spine and I let my gun drop without a round being fired. I knew my limitations and was pleased enough the advance had halted beyond my useful range.

I turned as the van’s engine sprang to life at my back, smiled to Toni in the driver’s seat as she peered out, beckoning me toward her with her head shaking.

I pushed my hand to the air, gesturing for just a few minutes more.

The soldiers were talking amongst themselves, their voices high, excited at their easy victory. Not even the sergeant held the rise of his bushy moustache as his mouth parted in joy.

Until the first screams brought back their silence.

Only two remained calm, their heads not snapping sideways; their mouths not hanging down, eyes not wide with questions.

The sniper and his companion had seen it before. They’d taken them down and had saved