State of Decay✔️

Chapter 30: Collapse

Someone was screaming.

Something was burning.

A gunshot cracked.

Marcus' eyes snapped open and he sat up so fast and hard that he hit his head on the bunk bed above him. He cried out as pain shot through his skull and he fell back onto the pillow, but Maya had gotten in last, so she was closer to the edge of the bed. She rolled out of it and was on her feet in a second, a pistol in her hand. Marcus, much slower, joined her, reaching down and almost instinctively grabbing and shrugging into his backpack. He scanned the area as he pulled out his pistol, looking for some kind of threat.

The church was burning.

For a second, he simply sat there and stared. He just couldn't believe it. He felt dumbstruck and dislocated, as if he was watching a movie of a fire or like he was a disembodied presence. One corner of lot was entirely engulfed in flames and Marcus realized that that's where they had been storing their gasoline. The front of the church was also alight and catching fast.

"Marcus!" Maya screamed, shoving him. "Get moving! Come on!"

She shot off past him and he began to follow her but he heard the others stumbling into awareness behind him. Jacob suddenly appeared beside him.

"LILY!" he screamed and set off towards the front.

Marcus reached out and grabbed him. "The back! Go through the back, the front is burning!" he yelled.

Jacob fought him for a second, then his words took hold and some semblance of logic came over him. Together, the three of them followed Maya around the back. Just as they arrived Maya was yanking the back door open. A pair of figures stumbled into her. Marcus identified them quickly: Lily and Karen.

"Anson is in the main room!" Lily screamed, coughing.

"Jacob, Ed, get whatever you can from the kitchen!" Maya screamed. "Lily, Karen, go down to the basement and get the medical supplies! Marcus, come on, we've got to get Anson!"

She shot forward, into the church. The others followed her in. Immediately Marcus felt the heat and was lost in a sea of smoke. He started coughing and followed Maya through the kitchen and into the main room, only to stop short. The entire room was filled with smoke and half of it was on fire. Marcus could just barely see a dark figure on the floor, engulfed in flames. Anson. He felt sick. This was happening too fast.

"Get back!" Maya screamed. "Get back, it's too late!"

Marcus stumbled back into the kitchen. Already the flames were chasing them, the whole church going up. The pair of them managed to shove some cans of food and bottles of water into their packs before being forced back outside, where they spied a group gathering.

"Where's Anson!?" Karen cried.

"Karen...I'm so sorry..." Marcus said, then trailed off, unable to speak the next words.

"He's dead," Maya said. "The fire got to him."

Karen moaned sickly and fell to her knees, covering her face, sobbing. Marcus felt some measure of control returning as his dislocation truly set in, letting him think clearly. He did a quick headcount. Danica had emerged from the basement, a backpack in hand, looking wide-eyed and dazed. He realized that someone was missing.

"Where's Sam?!" he asked.

"I...uh...she was on watchtower duty!" Maya replied. "Jesus, come on, we can't go back in there, we have to get out of here."

They hurried around the burning church and barely made it in between the gazebo, the tent and the side of the church. Both side structures had caught alight as well. How could it all be burning so fast? Marcus spied a dark figuring lying on the ground next to the watchtower. In the distance, he thought he could hear an engine revving. He hurried over to the figure lying on the ground and dropped to his knees. It was Sam, she was bleeding from her chest. She moaned weakly as he shifted her. It looked like she'd been...shot.