The Wall

Zane's POV

It was 9:00 PM now and Daniels had brought a crate of moonshine down from his room. Carl, David, Anderson and Richards were all drinking moonshine from bottles. They were more like jugs than bottles but that did not matter to them they were getting as wasted as they could to drown their pain out. They were all in the common room of barracks A. It was very similar to barracks J. Couches and chairs were spread out in the area. We were all sitting down. There was a tv and a playstation and some games with movies near it.

Anderson and Carl were sharing stories of Williams. They talked about his first deer kill. The time he got scared by a cockroach. The time he killed a turkey and how it was in mid-flight, like an old westerner cowboy. About another time that he got chased by a hive of bees. These stories made Williams seem like a badass.

They told stories well into the night. Zane especially liked the story of him clearing Pales like a badass. Shooting them down as they came out of a den with a rifle and with a few other soldiers.

That story was definitely the best out of all of them. Zane was drinking moonshine with them getting very drunk, they all were. Suddenly a drunk Richards came up to Zane and asked him for a story from his eight years of survival.

"Well," Zane said and thought. Then he started to speak of his most recent event of clearing Pales in a grocery store. They listened in silence, shocked that someone could kill Pales so silently and efficiently. "They were inexperienced, so that made it easier but I could have died there."

"Still that's badass man!" Anderson slurred, obviously very drunk at this point.

"Tell us another story!" Richards slurred.

Zane thought for a moment then he told this story in a dark tone, "Well at the beginning I was with a group of thirty people and we got caught outside in a forest at night. So of course the Pales came and started picking us off. This was before I had my sword, so I only had a baseball bat. I remember a Pale charging me it was young and stupid."

"I ducked its claws and hit it on the side of its head. It took two swings but it went down and I bashed its head in. There were incidents all through the night of people getting dragged away. Our first mistake was building fires that night. By morning we were down to fifteen people out of thirty."

They were silent for a moment, shocked at this depressing story. They knew the military did what they could but were also helpless against the Pales in the end. It was eleven o'clock at this point so Zane decided he had enough story time and bid a farewell to them and walked out.

Zane walked to his barracks and went inside, he locked the door to his room and undressed. He set his weapons on the nightstand. Zane got into bed, since he did not have patrol tomorrow he didn't set my alarm. He was exhausted so he passed out almost instantly.

Zane woke up, as he heard something shrieking in the night. Zane listened closely and he heard it again. A loud shriek low and guttural, followed by a howl that was shrill and also guttural. Pales, he thought. They must be migrating to the city due to an absence of food in others. He looked at his alarm clock and it said it was four AM.

BANG BANG BANG! Suddenly Zane heard gunshots ringing out in the night! Yeah I won't be falling asleep again, he thought. Again more gunshots rang out in the night and the Pales screamed out in pain. The guards on the wall must be handling this, Zane thought again.

Zane sighed and got out of bed. He began to dress, putting my clothes, as well as his vest on and equipped his weapons. If this base was going down it would have by now. So he wasn't too worried about it being overrun. It was still about two hours till breakfast. Zane figured he would see what's happening at the wall out of curiosity.

Zane exited his room and locked it and began to head down the stairs. He left out the front doors and began to make his way to the checkpoint. Gunshots were still ringing out in the night as Zane approached. The guard at the checkpoint didn't say anything as he went by. The lookout towers were shining UV light on the ground beyond the wall.

Zane walked up the stairs leading up the wall to hear a shriek wail into the night. The shriek was loud and close. It was dark but the lights from the towers lit up the area beyond the wall. Suddenly a man on the wall was lit up by his gunfire as he shot at pales in the dark. He recognized the man shooting, it was Talons.

Zane shouted out a greeting as he was further down the wall. He turned and looked at him, then resumed shooting at the Pales which Zane could see now. There is, about five as far as he could tell darting around the light with the lookout tower following them. There were two dead ones on the ground, which had been shot. He started to walk towards him as he was shooting.

There were a few other guards manning the wall but they were all spread out. Talons turned and looked at Zane as he got about five feet away from him. He let out a greeting and said "Rough night, eh?"

"Yea I woke up to the Pales screaming and howling." Zane told him.

"Yeah it's been awhile since I saw action like this." Talons said a little tense.

"When was the last time the Pales were in Boston?" Zane asked.

"Heard it was a little over two years ago." He replied.

"So this is very uncommon." Zane mused.

"Yeah I would say so." He said very focused on shooting the Pales.

"Here let me help." Zane told him. He withdrew my sidearm and started shooting at them as well.

"Yeah thanks for the help I wasn't gonna ask but-" He was cut off as a huge Pale, possibly around eight feet tall lunged out of the shadows and grabbed him by the knee. Talons let out a startled scream and was dragged off the wall into the dark. Zane could hear him screaming and shooting as he was pulled into the dark, then he was silenced. The Pale had probably delivered a killing blow.

Zane stood there shocked and horrified. It was just like a scene out of Jaws, only there wasn't water and you could hear his pain in the screams as he was dragged away. He could not believe what he just witnessed. Zane decided to get off the wall immediately. He left in a hurry, hastily moving past the checkpoint.

The guard at the checkpoint yelled at Zane to holster his weapon. He hastily holstered it, it had still been in his hand as he had forgotten to put it away from the shock Zane was experiencing. How could someone be dragged off a twelve foot wall that easily? If Pales could get that high in a jump what use was a wall?

Daniels' POV

It was 04:30 when Danniels stepped outside of his barracks. He had heard the Pales and gunfire coming from the perimeter wall. Daniels had figured he would check the wall out and see what was going on. He was walking past the tents when he saw Zane stumbling towards the barracks. Daniels called out a greeting but he seemed to be in shock so he walked over to him.

"Hey buddy, what's wrong?" Daniels asked him. He stared at him for moment and spoke:

"A Pale just took Talons from up on top of the wall…" He said this very much in a daze. Dnaiels could understand how shocking it is though. He has witnessed it happening himself a few times.

"Yeah it happens from time to time when they come into town, I've lost a few friends myself." Daniels said glumly.

"What use is a wall if they can just jump over it!" He shouted.

"Hey, hey, hey calm down, it doesn't happen often, just every few years. Besides they aren't en masse enough to take the base out so don't worry." Daniels tried to reassure him.

"Are you sure this base is safe?" He asked.

"Yes." Daniels answered honestly. "There will be a patrol heading out later on to find the den and exterminate them, I promise."

"Alright, I'll take your word on it." He said. He turned and started to walk towards the barracks.