Episode 7: Lost

Part Two:

The Outside

Episode 7

"Lost"

I went to sleep on the roof again that night, beside Sabrina. I don't know what it is, it is just a hell of a lot more peaceful sleeping outside than it is inside. I like the night sky I guess. I climbed down from the roof, and then helped Sabrina down. We headed inside. The whole house was empty for now, good thing we were the first up. That would have been an awkward story to tell.

"I need to check on Kayla." I said.

"Ok." Sabrina sat down at the table and made some cereal.

I headed up the stairs, and went to her bedroom door. I opened it, and saw her soundly sleeping in the bed. She wasn't sick, I think she was gonna be ok. I headed back downstairs, and visited with Sabrina until more people started coming down for the morning. First Mark, then Patrick, Damien, and then Margaret, following by Kayla a few minutes later.

"So what are we doing today?" Damien asked.

"I think we should really set up targets and get everyone familiar with guns, and how to use them." I said, "I could use a little practice as well."

"Good idea, I guess we'll kick start the morning with some guns." Patrick agreed.

I sat beside Sabrina for breakfast, and I think people were starting to notice. Patrick kept looking over at me, he must suspect something.

I set up some empty cans on the fence line for practice, everyone had a handgun. I think it is more important to shoot pistols before anything bigger, like shotguns or something. Kayla had a smaller gun. She used a stub nosed revolver. I watched her shoot, and she pretty much missed every single shot she took. It was kind of painful to watch. She was also shooting really fast too.

"Whoa slow down." I said, "Take your time, line up the shot, then fire."

"What if the strangler is coming at me?" Kayla asked me.

"Take as much time as possible to line the shot up. If you keep missing, you're screwed."

"Ok, I'll focus real hard."

She closed one eye, pointed the gun to the can, took a few seconds, and shot. She hit the side of the can, and skimmed it. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Nice, you hit it." I said.

Damien was a clear shot, he hit every single can, dead centre.

"Wow." I said.

"Well, when your dad was a police officer, you learn a thing or two about guns."

Once we were all done, everyone went inside, Patrick and I stayed back to gather up the cans. We were lucky no stranglers showed up while we were shooting. I held out a plastic bag, and knocked the cans off of the fence and into the bag. Patrick came up to me.

"You and Sabrina look friendly together." he said.

"Yeah, well we made up I guess." I said.

"Jeff, do you two have a thing going on? You can tell me. I think I should know."

"No." I said, we technically didn't. We just spent one night together on the roof. Nothing big.

"Alright." he said, I could tell he looked doubtful though.

Once we were done, we were about to head in, until I saw something down the road, coming to us. There was a car, driving up Patrick's lane way.

"Shit! Get down." I said.

Patrick saw the car and we ran down and hid in the grass. The car slowly rolled up and parked beside Patrick's car. The door flung open, and hit Patrick's door. It scratched his car up.

"Those bastards." he said.

A bunch of people stepped out of the car, about five or six men. I couldn't recognize anyone though, I wonder if they were just survivors looking for shelter. I hope it was as harmless as that. They headed for the house, and Patrick and I got our guns ready and chased them. We got behind them, and pointed our guns at them.

"Stop." Patrick said.

They turned around, and pointed their guns at us. I could finally tell who it was, it was Derrick. He was wearing the same open blazer, showing his bare chest. Jeans, and work boots.

"Hey neighbours!" Derrick said.

"What do you want? I thought this was over." I said, I kept my gun trained on him.

"The thing is," Derrick said, "Before I killed Ian for disobeying me, he told me you guys had a nice big house. I was thinking, it would be really nice to live in a house for once, instead of a shitty old camp. You know what I'm saying?"

"No I don't, I think you should leave." I said.

Derrick laughed, he made a hand signal and his men walked up to us, they kicked the back of our knees, and Patrick and I fell to the ground. They grabbed our guns and Derrick walked up to us.

"I thought you didn't steal, that's why you killed Ian, for stealing." I said.

"I used to go by that rule. But after killing Ian, I realized how right he actually was. Shame he died, why play by the rules out here? I'm taking your house, and killing anyone who will get in my way."

Patrick and I had our hands tied to a tree. We couldn't leave. Two men were staying beside us and watching us. Making sure we didn't try anything stupid. Derrick and his men headed in the house to kick everyone out. He said if we cooperated, he would let us go, and there would be no deaths. After all this, we are going to lose the house. We had it made here, and now it's going to be lost. All of our guns we got from the gun run were in there, we were going to lose all of it. After all that hard work, everything gone.

"You know you all are going to die." Patrick said.

"We have about ten times as many people as you."

The guards looked a little concerned, Patrick was obviously, lying, but it sounded convincing. We kept sitting around, and I was starting to worry. Derrick hasn't come out yet, and the rest of our people were still in there. I then heard a gunshot coming from the house, oh no. Was someone not cooperating? Did Derrick just shoot one of our people? I hope Kayla is ok. Derrick and the rest of his men ran out of the house, Derrick was holding his arm, and it was bleeding.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" he yelled.

"What happened?" I asked, I cracked a smile, knowing our people must have fought back.

"One of your men shot me in the damn arm! Point blank!" he yelled.

I looked at Patrick, he smirked, I did as well.

"Someone is going to pay!" He yelled.

Derrick sent some more people in the house to flush it out one more time, they weren't as heavily equipped with weapons as we were. They only had a few pistols and one shotgun. If we had been more prepared when they showed up, we could take them out easily.

Patrick was still smiling, I guess he felt good that our men were fighting back. I did too. Derrick didn't like that too much. He was sitting on top of our car with a person treating his wound. He glared at us, then hopped off of the car. He walked over to Patrick and punched him in the face.

"Is it funny now?" he asked.

"Yeah," Patrick said, he spit out some blood from his mouth.

Derrick pulled out a pistol from the back of his pants and pointed it at Patrick's face.

"Funny now? I could kill you guys right now without a problem. But I don't, one of your people shot me in the damn arm! I kept my cool, so I think it is your best interest to not test me."

"You're right, sorry." Patrick said.

Derrick's men came back out of the house with everyone this time, Kayla, Mark, Sabrina, Margaret, and Damien. They got us, shoot. They placed everyone down beside us and tied their hands behind their backs, I looked at Kayla. She was crying. I felt really bad for her, no little girl should have to grow up like this. I really wonder who shot Derrick though, all he said was, one of our men. It could be anyone really.

"Alright," Derrick began, "Since one of you shot me."

"Someone is going to pay. I don't know who did it because I didn't get a good look at the person, so I think it is all of your best interests to tell me. Who did it?"

Everyone stayed quiet, Derrick paced back and forth. He kept glaring at people, he knew it wasn't me or Patrick, so he never looked at us.

"Alright fine," he said, "If I don't get an answer in ten seconds, this little girl is going to pay for it."

Derrick grabbed Kayla, she was crying and screaming. One of his men handed him a saw, and he put it to her neck.

"No! Don't do it!" I yelled.

"Then someone tell me who shot me!" Derrick screamed.

"It was me dammit!" Mark said.

We all looked at Mark, he had always been the quiet one of the group. I would have never suspected that he would have shot Derrick.

"Kill me! Don't hurt the girl." he said.

Derrick pushed Kayla away and she fell onto the ground. Derrick's men grabbed Mark and brought him over to Derrick.

"Oh no," said Derrick, "I'm not going to kill you. But you are going to pay for this."

He grabbed Mark's arm, and placed the saw onto it. Then swung it back, and slashed Mark's arm with the saw. Blood splattered everywhere, getting in my eyes. Mark screamed as Derrick continued to slash at his left arm. I looked at Kayla, she was screaming. After a couple more slashes, Mark's left arm was gone. Mark looked at it, and passed out. He was also losing a lot of blood very quickly. We could hear the crazy people screaming in the distance, they heard Mark screaming for his life. They were coming.

"Alright, you guys are on your own now. Thanks for the house." Derrick smiled.

His men headed into the house, we were left outside tied up. The screams were getting closer, and it started to rain. I looked into the sky, a thunderstorm was coming. The rain got heavier and heavier, and thunder roared in the sky. I spotted some crazy people roaming in the field, they were going to find us sooner or later.

"We need to go!" Patrick yelled.

"What about Mark?" I asked, he was lying helplessly on the ground, bleeding out as we speak.

"He's going to die! We need to run!"

"Dammit." I said, we all got up. It was difficult with our hands tied behind our backs. But we managed.

The screams got even louder, and the stranglers in the field were now running at us.

Everyone ran off in different directions, after we just lost the house, it's every man for themselves. Sabrina and Margaret ran off in one direction, Patrick ran off by himself, Damien ran off in another direction. Until it was only me, Kayla, and Mark lying on the ground. I needed to help Mark, but I couldn't carry him with my hands tied behind my back. I ran my back against a tree, and started rubbing the rope against the tree. The crazy people were getting closer, and I had to work faster. The rope was really starting to burn me, but I wasn't leaving Mark here. I can't put Kayla at risk though.

"Kayla," I said, "You need to run, I'll catch up. You can't stay here." I said.

"No!" she cried.

"Yes! You have to! Please!" I yelled.

She sniffled, then ran as fast as she could in one direction. I was praying to god that she would be ok, if she ran into a strangler, she wouldn't be able to protect herself. Derrick took all of our guns, and her hands are still tied behind her back. I kept scraping the rope against the tree, it burned like hell. I heard a snap, and my hands were freed. I looked over at Mark, who was bleeding out very badly. I ran over and picked him up, and he was a hell of a lot heavier than I thought. I took my shirt off and wrapped it around his wound. I heard a scream that was dangerously close to me, I slowly turned around. There was a strangler standing right behind me. They screamed again and ran at me, I kicked it in the stomach and it fell to the ground. I ran in the direction Kayla went in with Mark in my arms. I was panicking, where was Kayla? She must have ran very far, because I didn't see her anywhere. There was a lightning strike, and it hit a tree not to far from me. This was absolute chaos, we were not going to survive this.

"Kayla?" I screamed.

I was tackled by the strangler, I dropped Mark and he fell to the ground. I swung my arm back and knocked the crazy person off of me. I backed away and tried to stand up, but the strangler ran at me again. I stuck my foot out and knocked it away again.

"Stay away dammit!" I yelled. "Stay away!"

The strangler kept coming, and I didn't know what to do. The strangler jumped on me and started choking me, I was over with. Suddenly, something went straight through it's head. The strangler dropped to the ground, and standing behind it was Kayla. She was holding a branch, she saved me.