The Charred Lands: Apocalypse of Fire (17 page)

“
Get the hell out of here. No where’s safe if they’re bombing
us.” He yelled, charging outside. After a brief check to ensure
that I hadn’t left anything in the house, I followed. The streets
were filled with panicked people running back and forth, some
seeking shelter, others seeking action. It didn’t take long for me
to find Conrad making his way over to Lynette. She stood atop of a
chair in the middle of the street, with an army no fewer than a
hundred men strong standing before her. I couldn’t believe how
quickly they had amassed so many people, all with their own weapons
and gear. They were preparing for something big here.

“
Just in time.” She called out for all to hear as our trio
reached her group of makeshift soldiers.

“
What’s going on?”

“
We’re getting ready to attack. Are you helping us or not?” She
asked.

“
Yes.” He simply replied, before turning to face me.

“
You’re coming with me too, Zach. Lizzie is staying here, but
you… I want you by my side.” He said. I felt my stomach drop as the
words left his mouth. After everything he had done for me, I
couldn’t possibly say no, yet every ounce of my being was screaming
for me to tell him where to stick it. Reluctantly, I nodded my
head.

“
Wait, you can’t just leave me here!” Lizzie
protested.

“
It’s where you’ll be safe. I won’t stand a chance out there
with you strapped to my back.”

“
Will somebody escort this girl back to her house?” Lynette
said, caring not for Lizzie’s pleads. Conrad carefully unstrapped
the girl, before handing her over to a pair of volunteers who,
between the pair of them, started to quickly transport her back to
the house. I could see the pain on her face, but she didn’t protest
too much – she understood.

“
Wait!” I said, running over to her.

“
Keep hold of this please… just in case.” I said, hanging her
my backpack. She gave me a half smile before whispering in my ear,
“Good luck.” She simply said, before the two soldiers took her
away. Though I didn’t like leaving the egg under the protection of
others, a young crippled girl no less, but I knew it was for the
best. If I really was about to march into a battle, I couldn’t risk
the egg being harmed in anyway.

Still,
somewhere in the distance explosions seemed to sound out. I saw a
large crater just outside of the house that we had been staying it,
it looked fresh – and I hadn’t noticed it last night. I couldn’t
believe how close a missile had landed from the place I had been
sleeping. Perhaps luck was on my side, that’s if I still believed
in luck anyway.

Conrad and I
quickly joined forces with the band of riff raff survivors. A quick
scan around confirmed that this was no army, it was more of a
militia; built up of all kinds of people; small, tall, fat, thin,
tough, weak, and everything in between. The weapons on show weren’t
great. Mostly handguns, whilst a few had bolt action rifles; I
noticed very few automatic weapons between the squad. Everyone
turned to face Lynette as she cleared her throat at the front of
the pack.

“
Today, you’re all going to embark on a very important mission.
I feel that finally, the time is right for us to launch counter
attacks – and that’s what we shall do. It will be the last thing
that they expect from us. These
bastards
think that they can just
take our town! Murder our family and slaughter our children in the
streets like animals! We cannot let this stand. We will
not
let this stand!” She
cried to her troops. They ate up every word that left her mouth.
All around me people began cheering and chanting like a pack of
wild animals, intent on tearing their enemy apart. I exchanged a
nervous look with Conrad.

“
I’ve devised a plan of action. One of my most trusted
generals, Maximus Heath will be in charge of today’s operations.”
She said, gesturing to one of the three men standing beside her.
There was something a little different about these guys, they
seemed to stand out from the rest of the riff raff of Warrington;
Maximus particularly. He stood around a foot taller than the rest
of the people standing by Lynette’s side. He may even have rivalled
Conrad for height. His rough, wrinkled face bore no emotion. His
clothes were clean and well kept, a rarity in Warrington it seemed.
His hair was well trimmed, and a stylish moustache kept his top lip
warm. He looked tough, and most importantly: confident. Knowing
that we would be charging into battle behind this man gave me a
great deal of confidence.

“
Come on then, follow me!” Maximus bellowed out as Lynette
stepped down from her chair. With that, the large squad began to
follow their new leader.

“
Stick by my side out there.” Conrad whispered to me as we
began our march through the streets of Warrington. From all around
us, women, children and men not fit to fight, or left behind to
defend the streets cheered us on.

“
I won’t fucking leave it, don’t worry.” I laughed,
nervously.

“
Aye, you’re the new guys, right?” I heard a quiet, whimpish
voice call out from behind. Much to my dismay, I found it to be
Carl, the lad who was part of the trio that captured us
yesterday.

“
Yeah.” Conrad said, without so much as looking at the
boy.

“
My dad and brother aren’t fighting today… I don’t really know
any of these people. Can I stick with you?” He timidly asked,
struggling to keep up with us between the rows and rows of
militia.

“
Stick with Zachary.” Conrad said, still looking
ahead.

“
Sure, I’ll look after him if that’s what you want.”

“
I don’t need looking after.” I snapped, a little
offended.

“
I didn’t mean anything by it, I just, well…”

“
Just keep quiet.” I said, and with that, Carl fell
silent.

I stuck close
to Conrad, and Carl stuck close to me as our army of around a
hundred makeshift soldiers matched across Warrington town centre,
away from the main populated area. The sounds of explosions and
gunfire drifted into the distance as we passed through one of the
large manned gates and left the town’s makeshift walls. We marched
for around about an hour, heading in a westerly direction until we
suddenly came to a standstill, ahead of us, Maximus held his hand
up to bring us to a stop as he scanned ahead.

“
Alright, we’re in line with their forces. They’re a little
under a mile away from us now – they won’t be expecting us, so I
want to keep this as quiet as possible for as long as possible,
understand?” Maximus called out to the troops. Several people gave
hushed cheers whilst others simply nodded their heads.

“
From now on I don’t want to hear any talking.” He added,
before continuing our march. I whispered good luck to Conrad before
following.

This final
march seemed to take an eternity. With each passing minute I could
feel everyone around me grow more anxious, the confidence in their
mission had quickly dwindled as we neared the enemy. From what I
had heard from the other men chatting, we didn’t have any intel –
we had no idea how well equipped they were, how large their forces
were, or even where exactly they were. All we had was a general
location and a simple goal; destroy every single Saviour of Man
troop that we came across.

Finally, we
reached the edge of the town. Just like I had crossed the day
before, there was a large main road, followed by what looked to be
miles of woodland. Somewhere, inside the thick, condensed trees was
our enemy. Just like the one on the other side of town, the road
was lined with destroyed, burnt out cars.

Suddenly, as I
stepped onto the road, I began to feel vulnerable. Conrad had done
his best to try and keep us away from the front of the pack, should
we be ambushed, but even here, some ten or so rows deep into the
pack, I felt ready to feel a bullet whizz through the air and
strike me dead. I scanned the treeline ahead, desperately looking
for any enemy movement, snipers or mounted machine guns were what I
feared the most. But as we reached the halfway point in the road, I
still hadn’t seen a single glimmer of movement.

“
Hold up.” Maximus called from ahead, sending a cold shiver
down my spine. The entire company came to a standstill whilst
Maximus scanned ahead. I hated him at that moment, for making us
come to a standstill, right out here in the open.

From nowhere a
gunshot rang out. I, and everyone around me hit the deck. I felt
shards of glass pierce my skin as I hugged the ground. All around
me the sound of gunfire broke out. I managed to lift my head to
scan the treeline ahead. Just a few feet in front of me, I saw
Maximus Heath hit the floor, blood pumping from the gaping hole in
his forehead. The treeline was different now. Rows and rows of
enemies cling to the trees for cover and they began opening fire on
the squad. All around me people jumped and ran for cover behind the
burnt out cars. I scanned around for Conrad, or even Carl, but I
saw neither.

I scanned the
unfamiliar faces of the Warrington militia as they returned fire on
the treeline. Man after man took a bullet and hit the floor in a
puddle of blood. All around me the road was becoming lined with
still, unbreathing bodies.

“
Look out!” I heard a familiar voice scream from my left, I
turned just in time to see Carl jump for cover in my direction as a
missile landed behind him. The explosion shook the ground and sent
men flying into the air, consuming them in flames. Most of Carl
landed some twenty feet away, whilst his left leg struck my own. I
gagged and quickly chucked the severed limb away, only then did I
see Conrad peering out from a behind a car.

“
Keep your head down!” He yelled to me. The body of a young
boy, not much older than me collapsed besides me. Blood pouring
from a bullet hole between his eyes like a red fountain. His dead,
unblinking eyes seemed to stare into my soul. I forced myself to
look away from the boy, staring instead at Conrad. He tentatively
peered over the hood of the car before ducking back
down.

“
There’s too many of them, all around the tree line. We don’t
stand a chance!” He yelled to me. Still, people from Warrington
tried to continue across the road, but most were cut down before
they even made it half way. All around me people continued to drop
to the ground, riddled in bullet holes. The ground turned red with
the blood of my fallen makeshift comrades, and before long, the
battleground fell near silent. I scanned my surroundings, still, a
few brave soldiers continued to jump out of cover to fire off a few
shots before ducking back behind a car. From my view, I could see
at least twenty men cowering behind vehicles, occasionally popping
back up to fire a few shots away. Behind me, I spotted a few men
trying to run back to Warrington in cowardice, only to be shot down
– by their own men. I watched as a man that had spent the most of
the journey stood beside me aim his rifle and place a bullet into
the back of a man who had tried to retreat.

“
We fight to the last man!” He screamed, before a bullet struck
him in the stomach, he collapsed onto a couple of fallen comrades,
moaning with pain as he bled out; before long he fell silent and
motionless.

“
Can you crawl to me?” Conrad asked, the pain from the broken
glass embedded in my left arm began to increase.

“
There’s too much glass to crawl!” I almost cried, feeling like
the stranded child I really was. I couldn’t believe how fast this
entire plan had fallen apart. I knew it was going to be a deadly,
risky mission, but never would I have predicted that this would
have happened. I scanned the highway, dozens upon dozens of bodies
littered it as the last remaining fighters took a bullet and joined
the carpet of corpses around me.

“
Retreat!” I
finally
heard a voice call out from somewhere on the body
riddled road. The order was about five minutes too late, already
the majority of our forces had been slain. From where I was lay, I
could now make out no more than ten soldiers still standing, all of
which cowering behind their own vehicle. The battle – our slaughter
– had only lasted but five minutes.

“
Don’t move, Zachary. I’m coming to get you.” Conrad yelled,
despite the risks. Every time one of our people tried to turn and
run back to Warrington, a hail of bullets were sent in their
direction, more often than not hitting their target. Now that our
forces had been reduced to near nothing, the enemy only had to wait
us out and pick us off one by one.

“
No, I can crawl…” I said, but before I had even finished
talking, Conrad was on his feet and charging towards me. Instantly
gunfire from the woods broke out. I heard bullets striking the cars
all around me. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as the
mammoth of a man charged through the bloodbath. He jumped over a
corpse, his grey, shaggy hair bouncing with every stride, he had a
look of pure determination on his face as he charged in my
direction. I stared into his eyes, they didn’t show fear, only
valour – until something in his face changed; mid charge, a bullet
tore into Conrad’s left arm, blood shot from the wound like a
sprinkler, yet he hardly so much as broke stride. Conrad was a
machine. A man on a mission, determined to do anything to help us
survive…