Chapter 11

The creature roared and leapt down. "Look out!" Ben yelled as the group leapt out of the way in different directions as the monster that was Gerald crashed down on all fours, his legs were bent backwards and arms were like thick massive tendrils covered in eyes and tipped with several bone like claws that spread from flat palms. The leather coat was in tatters and thick ribs pierced through the jacket. The creature let out a low roar as it crushed the fountain with a large arm. The group scattered and raised their weapons and began to open fire as the bullets pierced the creature. Abe raised his gun and the creature sniffed, smelling the stinging silver in the old man's gun and let out a roar as one of the massive arms smacked Abe into a wall sending the gun into the air. "Abe!" Ben called firing his revolver into the creature's skull which dripped black blood as they fired every bullet they had at the creature.

Abe slowly picked himself up and ran for the revolver which Gerald smacked into a distant building setting it off as it collided with the wall. Abe looked down and saw a patch of blood leaking from his coat before falling to the ground with a groan. The massive skeletal beast snarled as the others reloaded their guns. Sarah emptied the high caliber pistol into the massive beast head blowing away pieces of bone as Gerald groaned in pain, turning his attention to the red haired woman who stared the creature down and threw a heavy tendril like arm towards her and she ducked out of the way. The arm penetrated a crashed truck. Soaking it in gas and other fluids. "Sarah get out of the way!" Claude yelled and with Donny right behind him, Claude fired at the creature's oil soaked arm which ignited in flames. The flames quickly spread along the monster and the rest of its body was set ablaze. The arm pulled back drenched in flames as it shook and writhed in agonising roars of rage. Donny ran to Abe and dragged him away from the chaos by grabbing the collar of his coat and dragging him out of the way just as Gerald rolled a truck in a fit of rage over the spot Abe was laying just as the dog yanked him backwards.

"What the? Holy shit." Abe said becoming conscious and with a pained gasp. Sarah and Claude were to Ben's left and Lydia was rushing to Abe to make sure he was okay. A loud rumble was coming from behind Ben. he ignored it thinking his ears were just ringing as he loaded his revolver with a speed loader and fired into the sockets of Geralds blackened eye sockets. The eyes were still there just too dark to see. Though both seeped black blood where Ben's bullets hit and the monster threw its arms up over its face and turned to hide its pained head. With growls. Ben realized what the roaring noise behind him was. He turned and saw a police car speeding towards the steel police barricade behind him as the driver slammed hard on the horn repeatedly to get him out of the way. Ben dived out of the way as half the barricade came down and the speeding police car soared across the roundabout and into Geralds massive body, sending the hulking creature and the car smashing into a building behind them both creating a heavy cloud of dust and debris.

Delton grabbed the weapon and kicked the door open as the car skidded to a stop on a creaking weak upper floor. Flipped the safety off stepping out of the car as the massive skeletal beast pulled itself together. Groaning as it pulled itself from the brick wall and turned back to the others below, ignoring the driver. Abe groaned in pain as he picked up the small revolver. The creatures' two thick tendril-like arms split into four arms with a long bone-like claw at the end of each one. Abe raised the revolver and fired into Gerald who let out a deep agonizing cry before Abe fired another and another and another into Gerald who roared in anger as he turned his attention to Abe, the massive beast lowered it's gigantic body leaning back on it's backwards legs and launched itself into the air with it's spiked tendril arms towards Abe who fired two more shots ready to be crushed before an explosion collided with Gerald's body blowing a large chunk of flesh and bone out of his behemoth body. "Holy shit. Delton!" Ben called pleased to see at least one of his fellow officers survived this horrific ordeal. Gerald's body was a smoldering pile of flesh bone and leather, impaled on what was left of the stone fountain in the round about as Delton pushed a narrow green projectile into the rocket launcher and fired blowing up what was left of Gerald's gargantuan skull as the tendrils flailed violently from the still body.

Delton threw the empty launcher on the ground and made his way down the building's stairwell and tackled through the door. As Lydia was helping Abe walk with his arm over her shoulder. Ben ran to him as he stumbled through the doorway still wearing the cultists robes. "Delton you're alive!" Ben called over as Delton caught his breath from all the stairs. "Yeah, crazy Doctor, don't trust him, kill him if we find him." "Barker's dead." Deltons eyes widened. "Good." he muttered stepping outside the building which proceeded to come down behind him. "Stole robes off corpse. head hurts." Delton struggled to get the sentence together as he rubbed his head. Whatever the doctor did to Delton affected his speech. "Are… you okay buddy?" Ben asked. "Head hurts. Doctor drilled into my brain." The last sentence sounded painful for him to speak. Claude was also rubbing his head. "I don't feel right either sheriff." "It's the curse… I think we killed him. It's over." Abe said as the pain rushed through Claude and Delton. Claude was the first to fall to his knees. Heaving as something warm and painful writhed its way through his throat cutting off his breathing as he reached in to grab it before pulling his hand back as his hand was bitten by something small with sharp teeth. After a few more pained heaves, Claude coughed a small pitch black eyeless creature that looked like a large worm with five thin spider-like legs on each side of its body and a mouth like that of a piranha flopped and writhed on the ground in front of him.

"What the fuck?!" Claude spat as he fell backwards on his hands scuttling away from the creature that tried to flip itself over and run away before Ben's boot came down on it like a hammer splattering a stinking black blood across the ground that started to smoke as it squealed and died. Delton fell to the ground and began to heave and choke as a similar creature squeezed painfully out his throat and mouth before wrapping his fist around it and yanking it out as it squirmed and painfully sunk its teeth into Delton's wrist. "Little fuck." Delton cursed as he ripped the creature out of his mouth pulling out drops of blood as it writhed and scratched his throat. Delton whipped the creature at a pile of bricks on the ground, it must have had bones as it made a loud crack on impact with the brick and like the other began to leak a steaming dark blood. "Are you two okay?" Claude and Delton struggled to catch their breath as they realized what happened. Donny also looked like he was getting sick as the rottweiler lowered his head with a whimper before gagging and vomiting out one of the strange parasitic creatures before backing away from it. "Donny!" Claude called running over to his dog smashing the parasite with all of his strength as it splattered beneath his foot.

They felt a great deal of stress and worry lifted as if the parasitic creatures pulled the curse they were infected with, out with them. "I think I'm fine." Claude gasped as Sarah helped him to his feet. "Delton how do you feel?" Delton raised his head slowly "Not great." me muttered falling forward and Ben caught him. "He's unconscious. He needs a doctor. Abe where's Gina? Is she still in town." "Yeah she's holding up at my place. There's no one I want to see more right now." Abe said looking down at his revolver with a grim stare. He threw it into the remnants of the brick building before turning to the others. Geralds remains were melting into a similar steaming black liquid like the tiny creatures that left the two cursed men's bodies. The fountain was filled with the black liquid which overflowed and mixed with the fountain's water in an eerie sight. The strong structure didn't break when Gerald fell on it after a few minutes it began to flow again While what overflowed went down the sewers. "Do you think this is over Abe?" Ben asked, scraping his boot on the concrete as the sun hung high in the sky. "I hope so." Abe said lighting a cigarette and offered one to the sheriff who took it with a smile and lit it with Abe's lighter as he passed it to Ben.

Claude and Sarah helped Delton to his feet. He was waking up slowly but something was still wrong with him. Everything was spinning around Delton as his vision blurred and contorted in vivid hallucinations. He looked down at his hand that was dripping with red blood before he blinked and it was black. He closed his eyes as Sarah's voice broke through the hallucination. "Delton calm down! It's not real. Keep your eyes closed. We're getting you some help. "Okay okay okay." he said in frightened whispers keeping his eyes tightly shut as they guided his steps and calmed him. Donny even walked beside Delton as he sensed his distress. "How far is your place, Abe?" "Not far from here. Three blocks that way." Abe raised the hand with the cigarette and pointed in the direction they were going, behind them Ben took one last look at the fountain. Gerald's body was gone. Just the disturbing black water that cycled through the fountain. "Why did he melt?" "I don't know or care, and neither should any one of us." was Abe's fast and somewhat angered response to Lydia's question. "I'm sorry. If that comes across as rude or indignant, but My son just died. I'm just glad he's out of his misery." He said, holding back tears as he drew from the cigarette while everyone walked down the street of the sunny dead ghost town.

After several minutes of silence the group reached Abe's house. Bars drilled into the window and covered in claw marks. A single light was shining inside. Gina was pacing across the living room when she saw them through the window and with wide eyes ran to the door and quickly unlocked the seven locks on the door. "Dad you're alive." "I'm fine Gina, I'm just glad you're alright. That's what matters to me the most right now. Our friend could use your help again. Can you see what's wrong?" Sarah and Claude braught Delton stumbling up the steps and into the house. "I… I can try, lay him down. Claude and Sarah layed Delton down on the couch in the living room. "Jesus christ what's wrong with him?" Gina muttered. His eyes were still closed but he was still awake. "Delton I need you to open your eyes for me." He groaned and opened his eyes. They were completely black. "What's happening? Why can't I see?!" He panicked trying to sit up. "Delton I need you to lay down and stay still! What is this bite on his wrist?" "That's difficult to explain." Abe responded. Not knowing what to do besides watch the helpless man.

"Was it one of those things from the hospital?" She asked loudly as she struggled to lay Delton back down. "Don't worry we're gonna fix this buddy." Ben said approaching and putting a hand on his shoulder, calming him slightly. "Sheriff what's going on?" Deltons bite from the creature began to burn intensely. He screamed, grabbing the bite on his hand with his other hand. As the pain flared in surges like it was being set on fire and put out over and over. "I'll get some morphine!" Gina said running to the kitchen where she kept a well stocked first aid kit. She dug through the high cupboard she kept it and yanked it out knocking a few empty prescription bottles onto the floor from the medicine cabinet and she ran back to the living room. Delton was in pure agony, his black sightless eyes, wide open. "Delton stay still!" Gina yelled over his screams as Ben and Claude held him down. "I'm gonna give you some morphine I need you to stay st-" Gina's words were drowned out by Delton. "CUT IT OFF!" he cried, still screaming as he clutched his burning hand. The bite was pulsating. "Hold him still!" Gina shouted at the two men holding him down. They put all their strength on him to keep him still as his screams wouldn't stop. Gina clutched the syringe steadily and just about missed his vein as he flailed but she hit the right spot and pressed the plunger. His breathing was hard as he let out a groan before falling unconscious. "What did this to him?" she said with a look of disgust at the pulsing bite mark which was growing dark.

Ben and Claude loosened their grip as he stopped. "Delton? Delton, answer me! are you okay?" "Ben?" Delton hadn't called him by his first name since the day he walked into the station to be an officer. "Delton I'm here pal, don't worry." Ben had seen too many friends die. He didn't want to lose one of the last officers who was willing to stay during the chaos of the last few days. Lots of good respected members of the community are all dead. The last one laid before him clenching his teeth as the pain began to slowly rise once again. The bite began to pulse harder as his veins began to turn black as his eyes as the arm twitched and flailed violently. "Shit… Hold him down." Gina said getting up and turning back towards the kitchen. She opened the sliding glass door and walked to a shack in the backyard. "What the hell is she doing?" Ben asked, looking at Abe confused. "I don't know I'll go see." Abe said and as he stepped into the kitchen Gina was walking out of the shed with a long sharp hand saw and a very nervous look on his face.

She left the shack open and raced back inside with it. "Dad, get a fresh syringe from the medical bag and fill it with morphine." "What are you going to do Gina? Gina?" She ignored The question as she walked back into the living room with her father behind her. She put the saw down on the table and everyone looked at it grimly though without question. Abe shakily filled the needle with morphine just like he watched his daughter do and handed her the syringe.Delton was trying to hold back his screams as Gina spoke to him. "Delton, I'm going to amputate your hand. Do I have your consent to do so?" "Do it!" he begged "Cut it off, I can feel it spreading!" he screamed in pain as she put the needle back in his arm and administered the morphine before he could flail again. Under normal circumstances she wouldn't think about giving a patient this much morphine but these were obviously, not normal circumstances. In the moment he calmed down she stretched his arm over the gap in the table and readied the blade. "Can you ladies go get some towels? They're in the kitchen. You two make sure his arm is steady." Sarah ran to the kitchen flinging open cupboards until Sarah found the one with the towels. "Over here!" She called to Lydia as Sarah filled her arms with towels as did Lydia while the screaming continued. "Put some under him and have it ready to wrap the hand." Gina placed the blade of the saw just above the bite. And as the cold steel touched his arm he reached up and grabbed her wrist. "Not there." He groaned, raising it to just past his elbow. "There. Hurry." Gina took a deep breath not knowing what would happen. This wasn't a medical saw nor a place for an amputation.

"Cut it now!" Delton screamed in agony as Gina took a deep breath and began sawing through his arm with the hand saw. "Keep him steady!" She cried out having to push harder as she hit the bone. The perpetual screaming far from over. Blood spilled everywhere as the saw made a horrible crunching noise going through the bone. The force she put on it to get through the bone made it slice through the last of his flesh quickly and the arm fell to the ground. Gina dropped the saw and started frantically wrapping towels over the wound as blood poured in heavy spurts to the ground through the thick kitchen towels."Hold these!" She yelled, running to the kitchen and returning with zip ties which she tightly zipped around the towels wrapped around his wound at the elbow locking the towels tightly in place. She added more clean towels over the tied ones to put more pressure on the wound and hopefully stop the bleeding. His blood looked like there was a dark fluid mixed in. it let out steam when it hit the ground. The screams stopped and Delton fell unconscious from shock.

She put the tied knub over his chest with more towels and took a step back. "What the fuck did that to him?" Ben started to answer "Delton and Claude vomited these parasitic creatures after…" "After what?" "After we killed Gerald." Abe finished. "You… you really found him? He was alive this whole time?!" "He wasn't himself Gina… he was a monster… he's in a better place now." Abe pleaded with Gina. she never saw him in the state he was in and only assumed he was just alive and normal. "Where's his body, can we at least bury him?" "Gina… he wasn't the boy you grew up with anymore. He was insane, his heart soul and mind were all poisoned a long time ago. I don't know how to tell you this honey. I've never felt sadness like I have today. But he didn't even see me as his father and I know if you were there… he would not have seen his sister. He would have killed you. Whatever humanity he had was dead and gone." "I can't listen to this! He was your son!" "It took half a dozen silver bullets and two rockets to kill him that boy's arm you just sawed off? Gerald did that. Now I'm not going to call him your brother. Your brother was a kind soul who died exactly when we thought he did. This creature has been in his place ever since. And that's the truth.

You don't believe me? Here's his journal? Abe pulled out the thick black book with Gerald's notes and dropped it on the table next to the saw. It was also deeply indented with a piece of silver fired from Abe's thirty eight which would have killed him had the book not stopped most of the bullet's force though he was still mildly bleeding. Abe forgot he was even shot until he felt the wince of pain where the bullet tried to penetrate through the spot was bruised and a bit bloody from the impact. "I'm going outside for a smoke." Abe said angrily slamming the front door behind him as he stepped into the cool evening air. Not a howl to be heard as he lit his smoke and watched the sun set in the distance. Gina looked down at the book and back at the door where Abe stepped through. "Wait… was he shot? Did somebody shoot my dad?" "Gerald knocked the gun from his hands and it went off as it hit the ground. Knocked the wind out of him pretty hard. Gina you didn't see what your father did. He saved Amber. You all have, that is if the town can ever recover from this…" Ben said as Gina pulled the bullet from the thick journal and opened it's pages, scanning them with horror in her eyes.

"What… What the hell is all this? She read everything her brother kept note of during his foul unnatural experiments. Tears rolled down Gina's eyes as she closed the book not wanting to read anymore. All this time she wanted her brother to be alive but after what little she read, she believed everything. Ben stepped outside to join Abe for a smoke. "Hey." Ben said, clapping Abe lightly on the shoulder. "You did the right thing today. You're right. He wasn't your son anymore." Abe didn't have a smoke in either hand, he just wanted privacy to cry and mourn his son, though he considered Ben a friend after everything they had gone through. "I wanted to believe Ben. I had… so much hope when he left us the truck that maybe there was a little piece of him left that I could save… I didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of saving him." "You did your best Abe. you've still got Gina." Ben lit one of his own smokes and offered one to Abe. "Thank you." Abe said reaching out with a shaky hand as Ben lit Abes smoke and they just enjoyed the cool silent evening. Claude opened the door and stepped outside with Donny. Inside Gina had lit the fireplace and threw the journal inside as she sat holding her knees under her chin like a little girl with Lydia and Sarah beside her comforting her for her loss while Delton slept off his ordeal. "How are you holding up Claude?" Ben asked, offering him a smoke.

Claude declined and sat in a chair on the porch scratching his dogs head. "I'm alive. My dog's alive. Honestly I'm as happy as I can be. This guy's been through a lot with me. We just want to go back to our regular lives again." "Couldn't agree more Claude. Could not agree more." Ben responded smiling into the peaceful night as he blew a cloud of smoke off the porch while Claude pet Donny who laid down next to the chair he sat in. inside Delton groaned in his sleep as he fell into a deep sleep. Twitching and muttering while he dreamt. "So he's dead? You both saw it?" "Yeah." Lydia answered as Sarah stood up. "Come on let's go outside and get some fresh air." Sarah said, stretching as she got up. "Good idea. It's nice not having to run from monsters anymore." Lydia responded "Damn right." Sarah said with a grin helping her up. "Gina, you coming?" Lydia asked, reaching out a hand to help her stand up. "Yeah." Gina wiped the last tears from her face and grabbed Lydia's hand pulling her up. They all made their way onto the porch where Claude, Ben and Abe were relaxing under the porch light as the sun set in the distance. "Dad. I'm sorry, I didn't know Gerald had gone down such a strange and awful path. I'm just sad we couldn't save him." "Me too honey, believe me I tried." Abe responded hugging his daughter. "Hey sheriff." Claude called to Ben who turned towards Claude. "What's gonna happen to Amber? Do you think people will come back?" "I don't know Claude. I hope so, but it's not likely." a loud thud came from inside. "What was that?" Ben said, turning back to the door. The others relaxed expressions faded slowly. Ben opened the door. Delton was gone.

A trail of blood from the couch led into the kitchen. "Delton, are you okay?" there was no answer. As Ben entered the kitchen he saw the trail go through the kitchen and out the sliding glass door, through the snow towards the shack that Gina grabbed the saw. The door was closed. Ben stepped outside the sliding door. Ben squinted at the shack with his hand near his revolver. "Delton are you in there? Buddy?" The shack creaked as Ben got close. Still no answer. Ben creaked the door open and only got it open a couple inches before the rest of it slammed open hard. Ben barely saw Delton who cracked him in the face with a heavy punch sending him backwards falling on his back in the snow. "What the hell?" Ben groaned looking up. Delton stared down at Ben with blackened eyes and a wide smile on his face. "One second sheriff." boomed an unnaturally deep voice that came from Deltons mouth. "This will all be over soon." Delton said, grabbing a chainsaw off the shelf in the shack and yanked the cord and the engine let out a low rumble as the blades slowly turned. Ben drew his gun but was too slow, Delton kicked it from his hand sending it into the snow several feet away. The others heard the noise and came to see what was going on. "Stay where you are or I'll see his goddamn head off!" The low voice boomed.

"Oh hell I'm leaving with all of your heads. You just wait your turn." he said with a grin. "Delton what are you doing?" he ignored the question and brought the loud rumbling blades inches from Ben's neck. Just before the blades could slice into Ben's throat, Delton was tackled to the ground by Donny who was able to silently creep past the others and get behind Delton who fell to the ground dropping the saw which just touched Ben's nose creating a small scar as he scuttled away as Delton fought with the heavy dog with one arm. Donny snarled and went for his throat with a powerful bite. Black blood spurted everywhere and Donny backed away gagging on the black blood. As Delton stared into the sky with his pitch black eyes and his teeth stained with black blood. "Ben held his throat looking down at the saw and back at Delton's dead body. Leaking steaming black blood into the snow. Ben got up and drew his gun walking over to the body ass he wiped drops of blood from his nose. Delton looked up at Ben. "What are you?" Delton started to laugh in a low pitched laugh. "I'm sick of all the monsters in my fucking town." Ben groaned as he fired every bullet into his forty four into Delton's head splattering black blood, flesh and bone across the area as his body twitched lifelessly in the snow, "Donny you okay?" Ben asked, turning to the dog who let out a happy whine rushing to Ben's side with a whimper. "Good." Ben sighed patting the dog's head as he walked back inside where the others stood in shock. "Ben are you alright?" "What happened to him?" "the others asked. "I'm fine…" he only answered the first question. As he took one last look at the carcass of his friend in the backyard. Ben and the others limped into the living room as Gina shut and locked the sliding door. "When the hell is this gonna be over?" Claude groaned looking at the body.

Claude and the others stepped into the living room as Ben was opening the front door. "Where are you going?" "I think that answered your question Claude." "We need to leave Amber, tonight. All of us. This isn't gonna stop till we're all dead." Ben said, stepping out onto the porch. Abe followed him outside. Ben what should we do?" "find a vehicle and get out of town, drive to a bigger city where it's safe." "And what are you going to do?��� "I have to destroy Amber. Burn what's left to the ground. Nobody can find this place. Or this chaos will just start over." "I'm gonna help." "Abe, take Gina and get out of this cursed town." "You can't do this on your own. What if there's more of those monsters?" "Then I'm going to burn their home to the ground. It was my job to protect this town and look, I failed. Every cop in town is dead but me. If anyone comes here, then this starts over." Ben stepped outside and began looking for a vehicle in working condition. Abe turned to Gina. "Get the gas cans from the basement honey." Abe said and she nodded with a confused look. Turning to the basement door where she descended and grabbed the two full red plastic gas containers and carried the heavy jugs up the staircase and placed them on the floor in the living room. "What are these for?"

"give one to Ben. the night's not over yet." Abe said to his daughter. As everyone flowed outside. Abe filled a briefcase under the couch Delton was sleeping on with documents and folders that were scattered around the house before he joined the others outside with the case in one hand and the gas container in the other. He handed it to Ben who put it in the trunk of a car that crashed into a stop sign just across from Abe's house. Ben got in the driver seat and hotwired the car. The others approached the car. "What's the plan now sheriff?" Abe said looking in the car window at Ben with a concerned look. "I'm driving west and dumping this at the edge of the forest and lighting it." "But there's no way out of town that way, you'll be trapped!" "I know, drive to Lake squire and dump the other can on the path leading to Geralds cabin, light it and get out of there with your daughter on the western highway." "Take Claude and the others with you if you can." "I will, you're a braver man than most sheriff." "Likewise Abe. good luck. That van over there should have room for the rest of you. The owner got dozens of dui's and slept in it regularly. Keys should be in the ignition like always." Ben pointed to a wide white van with rusted bumpers parked at the end of the block, the owner's house it was parked next to looked completely destroyed. "Good luck to you too, sheriff."

Abe said with a nod as Ben nodded back and he sped off down the road slowing down to circle cars or make the occasional detour. The town was as dead as it ever was, and Ben Aster was ready to cremate its corpse. Back at Abe's house everyone was making their way to the van. "I'll be damned." The keys were hanging off the sun visor above the wheel as Gina opened the back and got in followed by Claude, Lydia, Sarah, and Donny. Abe got in the driver seat and put the keys in the ignition and turned the large van in the opposite direction Ben was going and made their way down the western road which wasn't nearly as blocked. They reached lake Squire in about fifteen minutes. By that time Ben was passing the trailer park Francis Callahan used to call home before everyone was attacked in the night by creatures. Not a single noise came from outside besides the wind.

Ben parked the car at the edge of the trailer park where a wall of forest lay before him. He got out of the car and went for the trunk grabbing the can and approaching the tree line. As Abe did the same thing across town. He parked the van at the edge of the frozen lake and stepped outside, the sliding door opened and Claude stepped out holding the gas container, Donny hopped down beside him. "Let me help Abe." "Sure thing kid." Abe said, lighting a smoke as he looked at the dark path that led to his old cabin. He couldn't get the image of that forsaken altar in the basement out of his head as they drew closer. They stopped at the treeline. "Here. get as many trees as you can. They'll grow back eventually." "Gotcha." Claude said as he spun the top off the red container and raised it over his head and dumped it all over the trees and their roots, splashing it across at least a dozen trees. Lowering the empty jug. "Back up now." Abe said, raising his hand to Claude as he flipped open his lighter and threw it in the gas, igniting the treeline and slowly spreading. Claude, Donny and Abe turned and made their way back to the van as they saw the glow of the fire Ben started on the far side of Amber. "Let's go. Hurry." they ran back to the van and got inside as the flames spread.

Ben watched the fire grow and smolder around him. The flames rose and the wind blew them onto the buildings of the trailer park around him. Ben let out a sigh as the fires grew. Two robed figures appeared to watch him from within the burning forest. He squinted his eyes at them to get a better look but had to back up as the flames grew and swelled around him. For a moment he thought he saw a man that looked like Abe but older standing next to Delton whose face was still mangled from bullets, before backing up to the car and getting inside, closing the door. When he looked back the figures were gone, and the flames were spreading rapidly as the wind welled and picked up outside. Ben's car screeched as it backed up and he drove out of the trailer park driving full speed through the flames as he traced his path out. Once the buildings caught fire it spread endlessly. He could see the blaze Abe set in the distance. "Perfect. This god forsaken town is done." He closed his windows to prevent smoke from coming in as he made a sharp left turn off his detour making for the southern highway driving around cars keeping him out of the flames. A sign reading Amber city limits, 1km was visible ahead, Ben grinned when he saw it and layed harder on the gas dodging crashed vehicles as he spotted them in his headlights. While Abe and the others drove on the western highway Donny whimpered sadly as he, Sarah, Lydia and Gina watched the town burn through the back window as Claude pet his dog. "Don't worry buddy, it's gonna be okay now. It's done." "I Hope so Claude. I really hope so…" Abe said, keeping his eyes on the road as they exited the city limits.