First Activation

“It won’t do any good and we would be risking our own position,” Bernie said.

Shouting a warning or firing a flare would be even worse ideas, they would both bring unwanted attention onto our position. I didn’t have time to run down and head them off, so we had no sensible options.

I looked back out to the road. It was too late anyway. The man and woman were now hiding behind the last car and looking over at the lot. I felt helpless as I watched the scene unfold.

“They have already survived for at least a few days in this madness, and then made it to Elmhurst. They might be alright…” Bernie said.

The pair slowly entered the parking lot and started to look around.

“Do you think you could hit the killer from here if we see him first?” I asked Jack.

“No,” Jack replied, “and I’ve already said that we don’t want to be attracting people here.”

Bernie had been right. This was a fuck-up.

“Come on, come on. He’s behind the car. He’s behind the car,” I caught myself murmuring aloud.

It looked like the man sent the woman around the back of the car, while he approached the passenger window. I took a deep breath.

We saw the man slump backwards onto the ground with both arms outstretched as the delayed sound of a shot echoed up to us. The woman was still crouched behind the back of the car when we heard the second shot. The woman ran around to check on her partner and knelt next to his body. I looked down and closed my eyes.

“What do we do now?” Jack said.

Bernie looked at me.

“Those two shots will have attracted even more interest than the music. It’s going to be dangerous down there,” he said.

I had to do something.

“You two stay here and keep a look-out; I’m going to get her. I’ll look this way when I get down there. Direct me if she moves Jack, if you see a killer nearby, then hold your rifle above your head with both hands.”

Before Bernie or Jack could argue, I ran for the stairs and quickly descended them.

Once outside, I ran towards the parking lot. I knew from our first trip that it was around three minutes away, and was hoping that the woman would still be there. It seemed unlikely that she would stay, but I knew that finding her once she went into hiding, would be difficult and dangerous — especially on my own.

Just before I reached the parking lot, I looked up at Bernie’s apartment block. Jack was holding his rifle above his head with both arms.

I waved an acknowledgement and cocked the Glock, Jack pointed towards the trees that the first killer had approached from. I was suddenly confused, as I gave the instructions in a rush before heading down the stairs. I didn’t know if Jack meant the woman had gone towards the trees, or if that was where the killer was. I thought of what I would have done in his shoes and decided he was pointing towards the killer.

I moved quickly into the parking lot and saw the woman kneeling about twenty yards away, over the body of her partner.

“Lea Ash?” I whispered loudly.

Her head shot up, “Who the fuck are you?”

She raised a silver Beretta and pointed it at me.

I put my finger to my lips and gestured towards the trees to the left of the parking lot.

“Shhh. There’s somebody coming to try and kill us.”

“Stay the fuck back,” she shouted. “How do I know that you aren’t the one trying to kill me?”

“We’ll have to do this quickly. Look up there. You see my brother holding a rifle above his head? That means he can see a killer,” I said.

“That could be a dummy for all I know. They’ve tried to fool us before.” She stepped towards me, keeping a two handed grip on her weapon.

“A dummy with two mechanical arms?” I snapped.

I looked back up at Jack who was now waving frantically.

“Look,” I said, “you can kill me after if you still don’t trust me, but for now, there’s danger coming our way and I would rather not die. Get behind the car.”

I picked up my weapon, held it by my side in a non-threatening way and walked behind the car. The killer was slumped against the door with an entry wound in his temple. I took the revolver out of his limp hand; it was empty of rounds, so I quickly discarded it.

“Hands up,” the woman screamed from the other side of the car.

“Get around here or you’ll be dead in a minute. I could have shot you by now if that was what I wanted,” I shouted.

I looked back up at Jack who seemed to be aiming his rifle just to the left of the parking lot. Using my moment of distraction, the woman ran around the side of the car and put her Beretta against the side of my head.

“How do you know my name, are you one of them?” she asked.

I couldn’t blame her for acting like she did, we were in a crazy world. I needed to convince her quickly, to improve our situation.

“We were the ones on twitter,” I said. “Can I pick up my Glock now? There’s somebody coming.”

“Were you watching when Chris was shot?” she shouted at me again. I ignored the question.