I got up quickly ready for the next one, this time it was a child, ambling towards me. Dressed in a light blue shirt and now bloodstained jeans. Its throat had been ripped open and I could see inside, blood and bone, muscles and sinew hung from the wound. He had a bracelet on, the type you buy your kids and get their names engraved on them, it was made of a navy braid and the nameplate was silver.
He could have been an older Cameron, I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him. Closer and closer he came at me, making a kind of gurgling noise from his throat from which blood still ran.
“I can’t, I can’t” I cried, tears running down my face. Not sure if I was warning my friends, or telling the dead boy or hell, even telling myself.
He lifted his arms as he got closer, ready to grab onto me and make sure I didn’t run away. I couldn’t run, my feet were rooted to the floor. This was someone’s baby boy, they had held him close and somebody had kept him safe and well dressed for this long.
What the hell had gone wrong at camp 2?
“George” Adam, came out of nowhere and swung his baseball bat, hitting the child clean off its feet.
“No!” I called out before I could stop myself. Reaching out my arm as if to help the child.
Adam brought his bat down twice upon the child’s head, caving in its skull. Every sickening bone crush made me wince and feel physically sick.
“George?” Adam looked at me, concern marring his handsome features.
“I’m sorry Ad, I… and Cameron, and” I couldn’t form the sentence. But I didn’t need to. He got up and pulled me into a tight bear hug.
“It’s ok G, I get it. I got your back man. Come on let’s get inside.”
“Ok.” We started to follow the rest of our group towards the main building where we hoped there were survivors.
“Oh, and Ad, Thanks man” I clapped him on the shoulder and lined behind the rest of the men.
“Right, I’m not sure what we will find in here men. The layout is similar to our own at camp three. I’d like us all to stick together and have each other’s backs. We have left our two drivers in the vehicles just at the back of the building ready for a quick getaway, should we need it” Jacks told us in a hushed voice.
“Right, let’s go and see what we find” Adam replied.
He reached out and knocked the door, tap tap tap then paused then tap tap again. I assumed it was to prove to any survivors inside that we were not the walking dead.
“Hello?” came a small frightened voice.
It was female but I couldn’t tell whether old or young.
“Hi there, this is Lt Jacks. We’ve come to help you but we gotta move quick”
We could hear a discussion behind the door, before another stronger deeper male voice returned “Danny? Daniel Jacks?”
“Yes, it’s me, we’re looking for Captain Cooper”
We exchanged relieved looks when we heard the door locks click.
We hurried into a small entrance, which used to be a waiting room of some sorts. People of all ages were sat on the chairs and on blankets on the floor.
An older man, with very dark skin and eyes so dark that at first, I thought they were black came and hugged Jacks tightly. He too wore a military uniform.
“It’s so good to see you. These things have been attacking us for three days. We have lost a lot of people and we think all our livestock. Ripped to bits. We couldn’t get to them quick enough.” His eyes went blank as he stared into space, reliving the horrors that he had seen.
“Are you all clean here? Have you seen the captain?” Lt Jacks asked his voice hurried.
I turned to look around, people were crying and hugging each other. A few had on bloody clothes but I couldn’t tell if any of them had been bitten.
“Clean?” the man asked, confused.
“Yeah Frank, I mean has anyone been bitten or scratched?” Jacks explained.
“No, no of course not” he looked at us but his sincerity didn’t reach his eyes. He was scared and rightly so.
“Do you have access to vehicles and fuel?” I asked, I wanted to get out of here and look for our friends.
“Uh yes, they are kept around the back.” He pointed to some navy double doors behind him.
Of course, they were, I shook my head. “Do you know if it’s safe?”
“We don’t know, not for sure. Its why we are all still holed up here.”
Well there was a little honesty at least.
“George?” Jacks nodded right twice with his head indicating that he wanted to speak to me.
“I’m going to take John and Frank and look to see if they have a vehicle large enough to take them all. Can you and Adam make your way to the canteen storage area and collect what you can from there? We don’t have the manpower to make this compound safe at the moment.”
“Ok”
“Right, here’s the plan…” Jacks continued with our plan as everyone else listened.
“Will we be able to get our belongings?” one woman asked.
I looked to Jacks who nodded his head. He sent most of the adults along with two of the men from the other car. Leaving in the reception area, two women, and old couple already carrying small tan coloured backpacks
