Black Market Merchant

Chapter 215: Not Good
”Come on Hector, you can keep moving. We are almost there!” The gangster holding onto Hectors arm yelled encouragingly. ”You got us this far, so don’t go dying on us now.”

Hector had been braving the pain since fleeing the stadium but now the arrow that had pierced his left shoulder had worked its way deeper into him. The taste of blood told him that the arrow had punctured his lung. If he took it out now, with no medical help, then he would suffocate on his own blood in no time. That would be the case if the Twisted pursuing them wouldn’t eat him first.

Hector and those Mad Dogs that had made it out from the stadium were just passing the halfway point between the gorge and the compound. At first, they were being hard pressed by the Twisted and so badly so that they couldn’t even make a stand to fend them off. If they stopped, they were near immediately swarmed and devoured. However, as they reached the more residential areas of town the Twisted began to spread out and attack the mostly unaware civilians.

Though Hector hated the sight of his townspeople dying and his inability to save them, he ordered the Mad Dogs to set fire to the buildings as they went, just as Martinez had ordered on the walkie-talkie. The only way they could block off the flow of Twisted effectively with the fire was for their force to split up into three groups. Hector was in the middle group and stuck with the residential route that eventually led towards the market area. One group was to head towards the dock to connect the fires burning there with the new ones. The other group was to spread deeper into town and hopefully meet up with Martinez’s forces.

It was clear to Hector after some time that the fire was doing little to slow the Twisted’s advance. The fire did, however, break up the hoard into smaller groups and it was a help to warn and force the townspeople to run away. The townspeople had already been warry of the dock fire and the other fires burning downtown, so when a new fire started spreading they were sure to notice.

The only problem was that there was no way to place the blame on the Skull for these fires. Everyone saw the mad Dogs were the culprits. He only hoped that the sight of the Twisted would be enough to sway their feelings to excuse their actions for burning their homes as a Twisted deterrent.

“I am sorry.” Hector thought as he watched a building almost instantly become ingulfed in flames. The long dry rotted wood and peeling siding made for easy tender. “This isn’t what I wanted to do by joining the Mad Dogs. I wanted to help to protect the town not destroy it.”

They were now passing through an area that was once a joint strip mall and park. Though the buildings provided more cover it also limited their escape routes. If the Twisted caught them inside it would be a matter of time until their ammo ran out and then subsequently eaten. The park may have been more exposed but the mobility it offered was a much more appealing option.

From their right, on the other side of the strip mall, there was a loud commotion of screeches and screams. As soon as it started the sound ended. Whoever the unfortunate soul that was over there was now likely dead.

“S***! Here they come again.” The gangster seethed. “I can hear their claws climbing on the rooftops. They must have our scent.”

“P-prop me on that tree and form a perimeter in the park.” Hector said weakening.

“But we can’t stop, they will overrun us.” The gangster argued, though he was already setting down Hector as he was told.

“Their numbers have been getting less and less. We have, let’s see...” Hector said glancing over the men following closely behind. A few others that were leading the way turned back and joined them. “We have around eighty of us still here. There should be other splinter groups still nearby too. Let’s take on this wave and wipe them out. Hopefully the sound of our shooting will bring those scattered towards us.”

“Won’t that just attract more Twisted?” The gangster replied as he loosened his blue bandana some from around his neck before pointing his rifle at the rooftop.

“It’s a risk we need to take.” Hector said. He then painfully pulled himself upright and balanced the barrel of his rifle on top of his knee. “As soon as the last Twisted is dead, fire a pair of triple bursts to notify the others nearby that we won.”

As soon as the words left his mouth the first Twisted, a Night Hound, stuck its black elongated head over the roof’s edge. The creature let out a warbled yell and it was echoed by another from further away. The Mad Dogs were spotted.

“Open fire!” Hector shouted.

The Night Hound was visibly struck as black, bloody splashes of impact knocked it out of sight. That Night Hound was soon replaced by three Logos Cutters that leapt over the roofs edge without hesitation. All the Mad Dogs took aim at them and off from the roof top, this was a mistake. Sure, all three of the Logos Cutters were instantly gunned down but this allowed the rest of the Twisted to look over the edge and spot the humans locations. Then like a waterfall of dark mutated flesh and fur the Twisted poured off the roof to the ground below.

The Mad Dogs did their best to kill them, but their numbers were just too great. The Twisted quickly crossed the slim parking lot between the strip mall and the park. Both sides clashed briefly and taking heavy damages in the process. The dried grass of the park was quickly painted red and black with blood as the gunfight drifted into a melee.

The entire skirmish took less than a minute and miraculously the Mad Dogs pulled through. The Twisted numbered around two hundred but since the Mad Dogs were prepared to shoot at them the Twisted were defeated. Only a fifth of the Twisted escaped from the area as they made their way back over the strip malls roof. Even though the close combat was disastrous for the Mad Dogs they were a hardy bunch and a few even made it through without a scratch.

Firing the pair of triple round bursts the blue bandana gangster returned to Hector. “We should move now. It looks like we lost fifteen or so on our side. We didn’t kill all of the monsters either, they will lead more here very soon.”

“Alright, lets move.” Hector said reaching up to indicate he need help getting up. The blue bandana gangster lifted him up and Hector continued to speak. “Once we get two blocks away from here shoot the signal again. Everyone will figure out we are still moving and drift this way.”

“Understood.” The blue bandana gangster replied.

Hector then coughed and spat some blood. “Also, we should move towards the river docks. That way we have one less area to keep watch on and it’s a straighter path towards the compound.”

…

“How in the h*** did we survive that?” Rile asked from his prone position on the deck of the only barge to escape the Twisted.

“Dumb luck and skill I’d say.” Ernest answered from the bow. “If the Twisted hadn’t been in such a rush to get into the rest of the downtown area they could have taken more of us out. What I don’t understand is how they got behind us so easily.” He then looked at Calvin who steering the barge. “Do you have any idea how? You should have been the first to notice them.”

Calvin kept looking ahead at the narrow river before him as he spoke. “I can only assume they crossed the river somehow. In case you hadn’t notice yet the other side is already covered in Twisted.”

Ernest looked across the river and looking carefully between the buildings he spotted a few inhuman figures running about. It was hard to get a clear look though, for the afternoon wind was picking up and the smoke was starting to turn to go northeastward. The direction the inhuman figures were moving was towards the cliff. As to why, he knew not the exact reason, but from the lack of gunfire or screaming he could guess that they were chasing the eastern humans that way.

“This is so screwed up.” Ernest said looking away. “We had a plan to takeover the town but why did these monsters show up out of nowhere? We were so close.”

“Who can say.” Calvin replied. “War is often a confusing time. Without intel we may never know. What we do know is that we have half of what forces we brought downtown, and we lost all our artillery in the process. We need to get back to the compound and regroup with the rest.”

“Hey, I am the one calling the shots around here, remember?” Ernest snapped. “But what you said is correct. Get this bucket of bolts as close to the compound as you can. No telling how far they spread already. Though guessing by the fires spreading in the town I’d say they are not even halfway yet.”

“I guess one of the bright sides of this is the Skull have nowhere to run.” Rile said sitting up to look towards the downtown area. “Maybe the Twisted will kill them all for us and all we need to do is wait for the Twisted to leave.”

“That is if they do leave.” Calvin added. “If I remember right, the Twisted almost never leave survivors in the places they invade.”

Ernest scoffed. “In any case, all we need to do is get back to the compound and resupply. Then we will show these stupid beasts that it was a mistake to take us on. They are all a bunch of small monsters and from the number I killed by hand, they are not all the tough.”

“I hope you are right.” Calvin said. “There are bigger kinds of Twisted out there in the world, but we had only seen the little ones so far. Perhaps we can beat them.”

Then something on the westside of the town caught Calvin’s attention. Peering at the source of the movement he saw that it was a man waving at them. Calvin pointed at him, “Who is that on the edge of the dock? Is he one of ours?”

Ernest placed a hand over his eyes to block the sun. The man had on a grey arm band and a gun in hand. A sure sign he might indeed be one of them. A moment later Ernest saw a second man join him. This time the second man had a red arm band. They were Mad Dogs.

“It looks like they are.” Ernest said lowering his hand. “Go ahead and pull up to…”

His words were interrupted when an outburst of gunfire sounded out from beyond the docks. The two waving men turned around to go back when a pair of Night Hounds jumped onto their path to attack. Those on the barge saw the four have a brief struggle and after a lot of screaming and gunfire only the red arm banded man was left. A second later the rest of the surviving Mad Dogs came out onto the dock, about fifty in all.

“Should we pull over and help them?” Calin asked.

“No.” Ernest said flatly.

“But they are on our side.” Rile countered.

“If we go over there, we could get attacked and loose the barge in the process.” Ernest said before turning away from the docks. “We are going to leave them to the hands of luck and get back to the compound. Those that make it back will be worth saving, no need to save the weaklings. Keep going Calvin.”

“That’s wrong. We should save them.” Rile continued. “We are all on the same side!”

“I don’t care. If you want to help them so bad jump overboard and help them shoot.” Ernest replied going back to his spot on the bow.

Rile chewed his lip as he watched the Mad Dogs on the docks. “This isn’t right. We should be saving our won and stick together.” Then he heard another warbling cry of a Night Hound and the Mad Dogs on the docks scattered back into the town. “Its too late now I guess. Our situation right now is not good!”