G Hopf - Driver 8 - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

“How am I supposed to know?” Cisco yelled back.

Barry raced back into the bedroom of the suite. Inside two young girls no older than twelve were there huddled in the corner whimpering. He looked at them and screamed, “Shut the fuck up!” He went to the closet, found a rifle and a pistol. He checked to see if they were loaded and headed back towards the living room. On his way past the girls, he aimed, shot and killed the them. "I told you to shut up."

Cisco fired another volley of rounds until the bolt locked back. “It’s empty! I need more bullets!”

Barry tossed him a fully loaded thirty round magazine.

Cisco caught it but had no idea how to remove the empty one. “How does this work?”

“For Christ’s sake,” Barry bellowed storming over to Cisco and doing it for him.

“Number One are you safe?” a voice boomed from a radio positioned on the sofa table.

Barry picked it up and yelled, “No, we’re not. Now stop calling and send up everyone!”

“Everyone?”

“Yes, everyone!”

Cal stormed over to Kyle and shoved him, “This is your fault!”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Kyle asked shocked and annoyed by Cal’s behavior.

“Dana’s dead because of you. I told you this was a bad idea and you supported her plan. Now’s she’s dead!”

“She died a hero. She was one of the toughest and bravest people I’ve met in a long time.”

Cal grabbed Kyle by the collar and pushed him hard against the wall. “I should kill you.”

Done with Cal’s tantrum, Kyle pulled his knife and poked Cal in the groin with it. “Let go or I’ll have you singing soprano.”

Feeling the sharp tip of the blade against his genitals, Cal looked down and took a step back. “When this is done, you and I will have a few words.”

Kyle cracked a smile and looked at Tommy, “Drama queens, I told you.”

Tommy wasn’t paying attention to the squabble, he had cut open his pants and was addressing the wound.

“You good?” Kyle asked.

“Fine, just grazed me,” he said tying a cloth bandage around it. “We need to get these doors open and now. Eric toss me the satchel,” Tommy said.

Eric did as he was told and threw the satchel over.

Tommy quickly set the plastic charges near where he guessed the hinges were located and stepped back. “Everyone get clear.”

The others stacked up against the wall and waited.

Tommy blew the charge. The concussion was loud and the hall was showered with wood, plastic, sheet rock and other debris.

Kyle was the first to enter, “Going left.”

Cal came in behind him with Eric right behind and Tommy bringing up the tail end.

Kyle scanned his area of responsibility and upon seeing no one was there, called out, “Left clear.”

“All clear here!” Cal hollered. “I’ve got a double set of doors here.”

“Me too,” Kyle said.

On either side of the large living room were entrances to two bedrooms.

“Anymore charges?” Kyle asked.

“No,” Tommy replied.

“I guess we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way,” Kyle said. “Let’s take down the one on the left first.”

“I’m going to keep watch on the door, we’ll have visitors soon,” Tommy said going back to the breached doorway to provide watch.

A loud crash came from the opposite side of the room from Kyle. He looked and saw Cal kicking in the door. “For fuck’s sake!” Kyle ran over and said, “Get out of the way!”

Cal resisted at first but soon relented.

Kyle stepped back, aimed at the door handle and shot several times. He turned back to Cal and said, “Try now.”

Cal came forward and kicked hard. The doors flew open.

Eric raced in and looked around. “No one here.”

“I’ll check the bathroom, Cal check the closet,” Kyle said heading towards the bathroom, his rifle at the ready in his shoulder. He pushed the half closed door fully open and peaked inside. “All clear.”

“Closet too,” Cal said.

Heavy gunfire erupted from the front door area.

“It’s Tommy. Our guests are here!” Kyle said bolting out of the room. “Tommy, you good?”

While engaging guards further down the hall, Tommy replied, “I got this, go get your man.”

Wanting to show his bravado, Eric marched over to the other bedroom door and kicked it, “Open up!”

Not ready, Kyle hollered at Eric, “No, don’t!”

Gunshots ripped through the doors striking Eric in the neck, shoulder and chest. He stumbled back, tripped over a chair and fell into the coffee table. He immediately pressed his hand to the wound in his neck to prevent the blood from pouring out but it wasn’t helping as the blood oozed through his fingers.

Cal came to his side. “Oh, no, no.”

“No fucking time, he’ll be dead in a minute,” Kyle said callously.

“You don’t know that,” Cal said applying pressure to the wound on his neck.

“Trust me, he’s been shot through the jugular. He’s dead,” Kyle said.

Eric coughed and gargled volumes of blood before expiring with a gasp.

Cal stopped administering first aid and looked over at Kyle, “You’re an asshole. I hate you.”

“I hear that a lot, now are we going to accomplish what we came to do?” Kyle asked.

The backdrop of heavy gunfire from the hallway and doorway hadn’t subsided.

“How you doing Tommy?” Kyle asked.

“I need some ammo, there’s a shit load of people up here.”

Kyle ran up and handed him two fully loaded thirty round magazines for his AR. “This is all I can spare.”

Cal came up and gave him more, “These were Eric’s.”

Not lifting his head from his rifle, Tommy said, “Fellas, I’m not liking the odds right now.”

“We’ll be fine, Tommy boy, remember that time in Compton when we were beat cops?” Kyle asked.

“No time for reminiscing, go get Barry,” Tommy replied.

Kyle looked at Cal and said, “This time we do it my way.”

Cal nodded.

They went to the door.

“I’m going to blast the door handle while I want you to spray some rounds through the door. That’ll get them to retreat away from it…I hope,” Kyle chuckled.

Cal nodded, his anxiety was at an all-time high.

“On the count of three; one, don’t you love this shit, two, remember don’t kill Barry, and three.”

One by one the women were either taken to be raped or butchered and consumed, except for Portia who remained tied up. Each time a Generate came towards her, the Generate leader would chase them off and warn that she was his. What that meant was unknown to her.

Portia had heard of these ceremonies but found calling it that was inappropriate, it was more an orgy of blood and decadence. It was no surprise after all she had witnessed that Generates weren’t even considered human anymore. How could a human do such a thing? The barbarism, the pure evil of what they did was so shocking that no one could ever understand if you explained it to them, the only way to truly comprehend was to witness it with one’s own eyes.

Weary, she waited for the moment the Generate leader would come for her. Each time he’d approached she wondered if this was it, was she now going to suffer everyone else’s fate. Nancy lasted longer than Earl, she was still alive up until he plunged his knife into her chest and pried it open. Portia hadn’t known her long and in that short period of time found her to be annoying and clearly a thief but she did feel sorry for what happened to her. Like her, Nancy had been a resident of The Collective and diagnosed with a terminal disease, solely because they needed fresh slaves to sell.