A QUICK DEPARTURE (Genocide sneak peek pt. 1)

A Quick Departure

The clock read 6:12 AM when I was rudely awakened by an obnoxious trumpet playing over the speaker. James jumps out of bed like it’s Christmas and runs out of the room. I roll my eyes and throw my pillow up over my ears. No more than 5 minutes later, I wake up again, but this time the ENTIRE BASE is standing over my cot yelling and screaming.
I sit up. “What do you want!!?” I scream back.
James pushes his way to the front, stands over me and replies, “Breakfast is getting cold, and EVERYONE must be at the table before ANYONE can eat!”
My eyes widen. “Well, how was I supposed to know that? Hell, I didn’t even know there WAS breakfast!”
“Get dressed, Sleepy-head,” Frank says with a snicker. They all file out of the room. I get dressed and walk down to the mess hall where one big table stretches across the whole room. The funny thing was that the table was full of food! “I distinctly remember you said you had NO FOOD!” I voiced in a sarcastic tone.
“Sit down and eat!” James yells desperately.
I walk over and sit next to James and the girls. Frank raises his glass and says happily to the crowd, “Now that all stragglers have arrived, DIG IN!”
Everyone reaches out for their own delight. But it was short lived, we hear a slight buzz on the radio, then a scream. There was a long pause and then “BREECH! IN THREE DIFFERENT SECTORS!”
“Move! Move! Move! Fire at Will!”
Frank started yelling, “Everyone with me! Nick and James take the girls to a sealed room!”
“Yes Sir!” James and I said at the same time. As we were walking, overly fast, James said, “I got an idea….let’s go in here!”
“Where?” I asked.
“Here!” James turns and takes out a key card and opens a door.
“What the Hell! I never got a card!” I exclaimed while Morgan giggled.
“Yah—well, I’m the mechanic!” James said with an overly big smile.
“We’ve been here for less than 24 hours you Smart Ass!” I almost screamed.
“Me me ma me ma me me me” he replyed like the mothers on the Charlie Brown shows. He smiles starring into the distance. “In there.”
“In where? Your unfinished Hummer?”
“No! In the TANK!” James shouted.
“I’m calling the turret!”
“Oh, ha…” James said, feeling stupid.
James jumped up on the tank and then turned around and helped Emily up. “Thanks Baby,” Emily said in a sweet voice. Then he helped Morgan up.
“Thanks,” she also said in a soft voice. He took out a very small key and unlocked the very large lock on the hatch.
We all climbed in and James closed the hatch and re-locked it. I was looking around, but didn’t tell James that I was feeling very jealous. James climbed down into a tiny hole and the flipped some switches. The light flickered and the whole take shook as it rumbled to a start. Right away he turned on the stereo and put a CD in.
After five minutes Morgan said, “It’s really warm in here.”
“Oh, sorry!” James replied fast and reached over and flicked another switch and four almost-hidden fans started blowing out the nicest air we had felt in the last few days.”
OMG! James is the best mechanic EVER!” Emily let out with a squeal.
James was just about to answer when the radio came on and Frank was screaming. “Nick! James! Leave now! Go! Go! Go! PLEASE don’t look back! That’s an ORDER!”
“Are you sure sir?” James replied sadly.
“Yes…very! I love you girls!” Frank said, also in a very sad voice. Morgan and Emily both brought their hands up to their mouths and just let the tears roll out. James moved over closer to Emily and brought her head to his shoulder.
We waited for just a bit before James went to the driver’s seat. He put it in gear and the tank jerked forward. As we went out the biggest door there was, I told James “GO RIGHT!” But he turned left.
“James….where are you going?”
“THIS way!”
“But we were told to get FAR AWAY!”
“Nick! Just shut up!”
After moving along the side of the building for a while, we finally turned left again and heard the gun fire.
“Nick! Open the hatch!”
“Okay…” I open the hatch and looked out, seeing Frank, I yelled, “Frank! Get in!” He turns and looks at me like I’m crazy, but his face suddenly changes.
“Watch out!” he yells and points behind me.
I turn around just in time to see a very bloody sharp boomerang spinning towards my neck. I let my knees collapse and pull me down into the tank as the blade shears the tips of my hair off.
“Holy Shit!” I scream while everyone in the tank stares at me mindlessly. I pull myself to my feet again and poke my head out of the top of the hatch. “Okay Frank! GET YOUR ASS IN THE TANK!” I yell
He runs for the tank, “FALL BACK, EVERYONE FALL BACK, THEIRS TOO MANY OF THEM THAT’S AN ORDER!!!” he screams into his radio.
“What the Hell is going on?” James screams from below as Frank dives through the hatch.
“Raiders!” Frank says angrily! “They kill everyone and take everything!” he added.
“Oh Hell NO! They aren’t touching my truck!” I exclaimed as I spring out of the tank and run for the building. Bullets hit the ground all around me and I begin to regret getting out of the tank. The building comes up fast, I reach for the door, and feel a very sharp pain in the back of my leg. Limping insues, but I continue to move forward towards the garage. I run around a corner, forgetting there are raiders everywhere. Sure enough, there was a group of 4 in front of the garage entrance. I run back to the corner. It was my moment to shine.
I reach for my pistol and pre-chamber a round. “One…Two…Three!” I say to myself as I run around the corner. I fire four times, but only three go down. “Shit!” I thought to myself, as the last raider opens fire. The pain overwhelmed me, but I pushed myself to lift my gun as I fell. I pulled the trigger and he collapsed. Rolling to my side, I reached for my gun that had flown out of my hand and stumbled to my feet. I looked at my right shoulder while it bled like a sieve, I ripped my sleeve off of my shirt and wrapped it around my arm before continuing into the garage.
The door was open, so I limped towards the Hummer. I painfully lifted myself into the Hummer and turned the key. “Owww,” I said softly to myself. I pulled out of the garage, driving aimlessly into the void of night with no sense of direction. How could there be raiders already its only been three days! My vision began to fade as I bled out. Everything goes black as I pass out leaving my truck accelerating down the road out of control.