Hope

Vengeance

We climbed and climbed, our hands gripping the cold rods of the metal ladder, climbing vertically up the side of the school faster than the rising black smoke. We climbed two stories from the third we were already on until Brad, the one up front, came to a stop, stopping the train of us from climbing. I couldn't see him with the others in front of me, but the message was passed down along, eventually reaching Aaron who muttered to me 'Six of them on the roof' 

As I began to think of a way around this, one suddenly came flashing down beside me, plummeting with a shout, and as I looked up I saw Brad had climbed his way onto the roof... of course.

The chain moved fast again as we climbed onto the roof, shooting bullets to kill the other two who were dead when I reached the flat roof of the high school, all killed except for one who was injured, crawling along the white rooftop in a trail of blood. 

Brad walked over to him, pinning him down with the sole of his foot as Bryan scavenged ammunition from their rifles. Every one of these men seem to be carrying similar artillery. 

'Where are they?' Brad demanded. 

'I don't know what you're on about' the man replied. 

Brad pointed the nose of the assault rifle at the man's forehead 'You have no idea what we have just been through. I will not hesitate to pull this trigger' 

The injured guard laughed 'Even if I tell you, the Ripper has put the place on high alert, every guard in the building is going to be looking for you' 

I jogged to Brad as his finger placed itself on the trigger, telling him to stand down as I approached the down guard. 

I went down on one knee alongside him and looked at him in a human fashion with no weapon between us. 

'We just want to find the rest of our group' I said 'Two women and a child, a child!' 

The man smiled no more, he now just kept his concentration on me. 

'If we don't find them, they will kill them. Do you really want to die knowing you could have saved three innocent girls? You know that what you are doing is wrong, so do right and tell us where they are' 

He looked at me, his facial expression had not changed throughout. 

'The swimming pool. Their being held captive there, men's changing rooms. You need to get to the gym, that's the only way in' 

'We just came from there' said Aaron as he scouted the rooftop 'The place will be heavily guarded' 

'Is there any other way in?' I asked him. 

He lay down his head and looked to the sky, thinking for a moment. 

'The scaffolding' he said 'There's scaffolding on the other side of this roof, the school was still being renovated when people decided to start eating their neighbours. Follow the scaffolding down to the ground floor, you can get in through a window that will drop you right into the pool area, only problem is... it's about an 8 metre drop onto solid, possibly wet ground' 

'Can we make the jump into the pool?' I asked. 

The guard shook his head 'Not without alerting the guards watching your girls, a splash from 8 metres will alert them, you'll barely be out of the pool and they'll have killed the girls, and you' 

I got to my feet, realising how screwed we are. Suddenly Brad came up and capped the guard in the head, killing him on the spot. 

I lashed out 'WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?' I shouted, pushing him hard in the chest three times until he stood down 'We needed him!'