Chapter 17

The dust from the explosion began to settle, and Megan groaned, as she opened her eyes. Slowly, she emerged from underneath the rubble that had fallen on top of her, and she unsteadily got to her feet. Consciously, she moved her arms and legs to make sure that nothing was out of place or broken, and the only thing she saw was cuts and scrapes, but nothing too serious. Megan coughed, as she looked around, and then she went to go look for Josh, Joe, and Amanda.

“Josh? Joe?” she called, as she looked around the destroyed building, and at that moment, she saw a muscular arm sticking out from underneath the rubble.

“Oh, no,” she breathed, as she ran over to the arm.

Quickly, she began moving the heavy debris, and she discovered that the arm belonged to Joe. He was unconscious, and breathing shallowly. Carefully, Megan rolled him onto his back, as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“No, Joe. Come on, please, wake up,” she stammered, as she stared at his handsome face, but he still did not move.

“Alright,” she sniffed, as she wiped her face with her hand.

Continuously, she began doing chest compressions on him, and suddenly, Joe inhaled sharply, and he looked up at her with frantic eyes, as he began coughing. Megan sat back on her legs, as she stared at him with wide eyes, and Joe sat up. Without a word, Megan threw her arms around him.

“Oh, thank god,” she said, and then she let him go.

“Where is Mand, Josh, DJ, and Christie?” he asked, as he coughed, and Megan shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she said, sadly.

Frantically, Joe scrambled to his feet.

“Come on. We have to find them,” he said, and she nodded.

Swiftly, they ran through the rubble calling for their friends, but they couldn’t find anyone anywhere. Horrifically, Megan put her hands to her face and stared. Joe looked at where she was looking, and his heart sank. Sadly, Josh staggered towards them. He was covered in blood and dirt, and he was holding his left arm. Quickly, Megan pulled her handgun, and she aimed it at Josh. Shocked, Joe looked at her.

“Whoa, hold on. I’m not dead yet!” exclaimed Josh, and Megan sighed in relief, as she holstered her gun.

Seemingly, she didn’t lose her weapons like Amanda had when she woke up.

“I thought you were,” Megan breathed, softly, and Joe looked at his cousin in question.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, as he noticed that Josh was still holding his arm.

Josh winced in pain, as Joe walked over to him, and examined his arm.

“I think it’s broken,” he said, as he grimaced, and Megan looked at him with care.

“We will get you fixed up, as soon as we find the others, and get back home,” she said, and he nodded.

“Wait, come hold still for a second. Let me look at it,” said Joe, and Josh let him.

Curiously, Megan and Joe inspected Josh’s arm and shoulder. They realized that his arm wasn’t broken, his shoulder had popped out of place. Heavily, Megan sighed, as she told Joe to hold Josh still, and Joe held onto his cousin. Carefully, Megan pulled Josh’s arm straight, and then she twisted it. Painfully, Josh screamed as the socket in his shoulder popped back into place. Seemingly, Josh sighed in relief, as the pain subsided, and he nodded gratefully.

“So, where are the others?” Joe asked, and Josh shook his head.

“I haven’t seen anyone except you two.”

“How long were we out for?” Megan asked, and Joe and Josh shrugged their shoulders.

“By the looks of things, maybe a couple of hours,” suggested Joe, and Megan looked at him, thoughtfully.

“Maybe they went back to Overwatch, after they couldn’t find us,” suggested Josh, as he moved his arm in a circle to stretch his tender muscles.

Evidently, what they had thought was a couple of hours had actually been about a day when they were unconscious. Slowly, they made their way out of the building, and that’s when they saw the truck. The front end was demolished, and the vehicle was lying on its side.

Were Amanda, DJ, and Christie in the truck when the bomb went off? Megan wondered, as the three of them cautiously advanced around the tail end of the truck.

“Hold it right there!” said a strange voice, and suddenly, Megan, Josh, and Joe were surrounded by five men in dark clothing and masks on their faces.

Megan, Josh, and Joe gritted their teeth, as they reluctantly put their hands in the air.

**********************

Exhausted, Amanda slowly trudged up the road, as she looked up at the sky. SHe felt like she had been walking for most of the day. The hot and humid sun beat down on her, and made her sweat profusely. Noticeably, her water bottle was almost empty, and her arm throbbed in pain with every step she took.

At that moment, she looked back at the road, and she saw a woman with long blonde hair waving at her, and Amanda shook her head in disbelief.

I really must be tired. I must be hallucinating, she thought, as she looked at the woman.

Then, Amanda realized that she wasn’t hallucinating or dreaming, as she got closer to the woman, and she huffed a sob. She had a frantic look on her face, and she looked over Amanda.

“Please, help us. My husband got shot!” she said, hysterically, and Amanda nodded.

“If you can help me,” Amanda said, as she took her hand from her wound.

The woman looked at her wounded arm, and then she nodded.

“Anything, if you can help us,” the woman said, and Amanda nodded, as she followed the woman up the driveway she was standing in.

“I am not sure what happened, but I believe the mutant killers might have mistaken him for a mutant,” said the woman, and Amanda looked at her oddly.

“Mutant killers?” Amanda asked, and the woman looked at her, as she nodded.

“A group of survivors that live underground. They call themselves the mutant killers. They only come out to kill or capture and torture the infected. They are not very good people, she said, sadly, as she led Amanda into the house.

Quickly, the woman led Amanda to her husband, and she saw that the man had been shot in the shoulder. Amanda grabbed her first aid kit out of her duffle bag, and she fixed up the man’s wounds.

“The only thing I can give you for the pain is a joint. I am sorry that I don’t have anything else,” she said, and the man only nodded.

Evidently, the couple offered her a hot meal, and a good night's rest. They didn’t want her walking the streets at night, because not only would the mutants be out, but so would the mutant killers.

*****************

“Why did you bomb the supermarket?” asked one of the men, as he pointed his gun at Megan, and she looked at him annoyed.

“We didn’t,” she said, and one of the men walked up to her and hit her in the stomach with the butt of his gun.

Angrily, Josh glared at the man.

“What did you do that for?” he yelled angrily, as he took a step towards the man, and immediately, two of the men grabbed Josh.

“Looks like we got ourselves a live one, boys,” said one of the men that was holding Josh, and he sneered at them.

“Bitten?”

“Think so,” said the man holding Josh by the back of his neck.

“Listen, hold up just a damn minute. No one was bitten. We are not the ones who set the bomb off in the building. We were doing a supply run when the building blew up,” stated Joe, and one of the men hit him in the face with his gun.

“No one asked you,” he said, as Joe’s head snapped to the side.

Annoyed, Joe spit blood from his mouth, and he glared at the guard as he turned his head back towards him.

“Bind their hands, and take them back to base. The boss can deal with these three,” said one of the men.

At that moment, Megan, Josh, and Joe were made to stand at attention while the men zip tied their hands behind their backs. Angrily, Megan struggled with the guy that was behind her, and without notice, she was hit in the back of the head with something hard. She fell to the ground, knocked a little unconscious, and she gritted her teeth, as she shook her head.

“Come on, man. Is this really necessary?” Josh cried, as he struggled to get to Megan.

Suddenly, Josh was hit in the back of the head, and he fell to the ground next to her. Joe watched silently, as blood dripped from his lip, and he knew better than to struggle at the moment.

“Ah, you must be the smart one out of the group,” laughed one of the men, as the others pulled Megan and Josh to their feet.

Surprisingly, the dark clothed men drove them straight to Overwatch. Megan started laughing as she, Josh, and Joe were pulled from the car.

“When Maverick gets out here, he will let us go, and all of you are going to pay for this,” she laughed, and she began to struggle with the men.

“Pipe down!” demanded one of the guys, and he hit her in the head again.

This time she was completely knocked unconscious, and her head hung down between her shoulders.

“Megan!” Josh called, as he began to struggle, but the guy grabbed him by his injured shoulder, and he winced in pain.

“Do you want to join her?”

Immediately, Josh stopped struggling and he sneered at the man.

“Okay, go get the boss,” said one of the men, and one nodded and ran off.

Joe couldn’t wait to see the look on Maverick’s face, and what he was going to do to his men for treating them the way that they are.

“You know she had a point. We do know Maverick personally,” he stated, as he chuckled, and the masked man looked at him.

“I do not know this Maverick you speak of,” he said.

At that moment, no one was paying attention to Megan when she came to, and she took this opportunity to bite the guy’s hand.

“Arg, you bitch!” yelled the guy, and then he threw Megan to the ground.

Horrified, Joe and Josh watched as the man aimed his gun directly at her head, and he was about to shoot her.

“What is the meaning of this?” yelled a familiar voice, and Megan, Joe, and Josh all looked up.

They stared in awe at the man that walked up to them.

******************

The morning came quickly, and the couple made Amanda at least have breakfast with them before she left, and Amanda agreed. She took this opportunity to tell the couple about the community she lived in, and that they should come with her. Gratefully, the couple thanked her, but they said they would rather stay in their home, because they had seen some pretty strange things out there. They also told her that she should consider staying away from that place. Amanda gratefully declined their offer and she told them that she had to go back. She had her whole family waiting there for her to return.

Evidently, the couple waved her off, and Amanda continued on her journey back to Overwatch, back home. After a while of walking, she noticed something strange on the side of the road. It was one of the infected, and half of its body was smashed flat. Heavily, Amanda sighed, as she pulled her gun and walked over to it.

“Wait!” the man whispered and she looked at the creature oddly.

“How are you still alive?” she asked.

“I am not alive. The community I ran away from had found a way to keep the infection under control, but we are all still dead. They gave us these vitamins to keep the infection away, but now they have us all working for them as slaves,” explained the dead man, and Amanda looked at him thoughtfully.

“What kind of vitamins? What did they put in them?” she asked, and the man shook his head.

“I don’t know, but when you run out of vitamins, the infection spreads faster than it did when you were first bitten.”

She thought for a moment, and after she had gotten home, she was going to see if she could find this community.

“Please, set me free. I do not have any more medicine, and I don’t want to turn into one of those things, again,” he pleaded, and she nodded, as she sighed heavily.

She gave the man one last look, and then she aimed her gun at his head.

“I set you free,” she whispered, and the man closed his eyes.

Without thinking, she pulled the trigger, and the sound of the gunshot echoed across the sky. Suddenly, Amanda heard whistles, and then four dark clothed men surrounded her, as they aimed their guns at her.