Rise of the Fallen

Chapter 11: A Child's Anguish

You know, I’ve seen some horrible things in the short time I’ve been alive, but nothing could ever prepare me for this. As soon as Julius and I make it to the lobby, the scene we saw froze us in place, like we were forced to watch what was happening just a few feet away. To put it into perspective, it’s like watching a movie being played out in front of me.
A Ford truck stuck in the side of the wall. brick, sheetrock, and debris cover the floor, all the while some of the nicest people I’ve ever met are ripping each other apart.
I look to my left and see the receptionist fighting a man over a knife. Just as I run over to help her, she wrestles the blade away from the man and repeatedly stabs him in the chest. I slowly walk over to her and ask, “Hey Ms.? Are you ok?”
The receptionist turns to me with a blood-stained face and shaking hands. “It’s ok. What’s going on?” I ask attempting to comfort her as the woman starts to laugh hysterically.
“Danny! Watch out.!” Julius yells as the woman tries to plunge to knife into my neck.
I stop her just as the tip of the blade touches me. Julius kicks her off of me and helps me up.
“You straight?” Julius asks as he takes out his bronze knuckles.
“Yea… just got caught off guard a little bit.” I answer.
“Alright then let’s go. The longer we stay here the worse it’ll get.” Julius says as he makes his way towards the door, weaving and slipping past all of the fighting.
Following behind him, I think to myself, “It can’t get any worse than this right?”
Julius and I make it outside, but the parking lot wasn’t any better. The pavement’s stained red with blood and people are fighting and killing each other everywhere and as far as the eye can see. The clamor of yells and enraged screams fill the air like cry for help and it wouldn’t be long until the whole town ends up like Portland.
“This is the Fallen’s work right?” I ask knowing the answer
Julius nods, “Yea.”
“Do you know how to stop this?” I ask
Julius looks up at the night sky and says, “I don’t know. I really don’t, but I’m pretty sure…”
“Pretty sure what?” I ask as my voice starts to shake
“We can’t.” He finishes.
“So even if we do kill the Fallen the fighting won’t stop?”
Julius shakes his head, shrugs and says, “Well we can try, can’t we?”
“Yea. It wouldn’t hurt, only kill us.” I say half-jokingly
“Alright, lead the way.” He says as I walk ahead of him and begin our descent into Hell on Earth.
As we walk through the once bustling town, the citizens are consumed by chaos and unfiltered rage. Julius and I avoid the fighting by sneaking around the civilians and taking back-alley ways and by the time we make it to the center of town the fighting intensified.
Peeking around the corner a large group of about fifty men and women in the middle of the street causing havoc. “What do we do? We can’t sneak around them this time.” I whisper to Julius.
Julius takes a deep breath and answers, “Uhhhh. I’m not sure.”
“Really?” I ask
“I mean I have an idea, but I know you won’t like what I have in mind, so I’m not sure.”
“Just tell me.” I say,
Julius sighs and says, “I was going to say let’s fight through them.”
“What?” I say shocked, “They’re still alive you know.”
“As far as we know Danny, even IF we kill the Fallen, it might not stop this, and they’ll be killed anyway.” Julius argues, “All I’m saying let’s fight through the few now so we can at least try to save the rest of the town before they kill each other.”
I turn back around and look towards the people fighting in the street. Blood flying everywhere, people with missing legs crawling back into the fight. “Can’t we just knock them out?” I ask in a worried tone
“You can try D and let me know how that works.” Julius says as he walks out from behind me and into the street.
The enraged citizens charged as soon as they saw him. Julius, who looks oddly calm, pulls out one of his Colts, aims, and shoots a man point blank in the head. As the man’s body hit the ground more and more people start to charge Julius.
Unfazed, he takes out his second Colt and starts to shoot with pinpoint accuracy taking anybody down who comes within range. In the midst of all of the chaos and noise, a boy with a knife barrels full speed towards Julius’ blind side.
“Julius.” I say to myself as the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth.
As the man closes the distance between him and Julius, I quickly grab an arrow from my quiver and nock it, while leading my aim to catch him as he’s running.
I let go of the arrow and as it cuts through the air, the boy, who’s just a few feet away from stabbing Julius, runs straight into the path of the arrow. Julius turns around as the man takes his last few steps, attempting to stab Julius as he collapses onto the street.
I try to nock the next arrow to be ready in case something happens, but my hands won’t stop shaking. My stomach starts to churn as I think about the little boy I killed. The family he might’ve had. He wasn’t a monster. He was a victim. “Is this what being a member of the Order is about.” I say to myself as I look at my trembling hands.
“Come on Danny!” Julius yells as he starts to move forward through the mob.
Taking a deep breath, my nerves start to calm, and my hands stop shaking. I nock my bow and follow behind Julius. We fight through the crown for I don’t know how long. An hour or two, maybe longer, or maybe shorter. All I can tell is that I’m almost out of arrows, and Julius just fired his last shot. I shoot off a couple arrows as Julius puts his Colts away and takes out his bronze knuckles.
“Do you know where we are?!” Julius yells over the screams of the citizens as he punches one in the jaw.
“Your guess is as good as mine!” I respond shoots an arrow over Julius’ shoulder hitting a woman behind the man Julius just dropped.
I look around to see if there were any street signs that’ll tell us where we were, but a swarm of people descend down on us. I take out one of my knives as Julius disappears into the crowd.
“Julius!” I call out in the midst of fighting the mob back.
“Over here!” He answers
I fight my way towards the sound of Julius’ voice and see him standing in front of a building trying his best to hold off the mob. After I fight my way to Julius, he opens the door and closes it as soon as we rush into what looks like a restaurant. Although I say it’s a restaurant, you can hardly tell. Chairs are thrown everywhere, tables are flipped over, broken plates, glass, and silverware cover the floor.
“Grab those chairs.” Julius says as he picks up a chair and props it up against the door.
I do the same and after we put half of the chairs up to block the door, I find a good place to sit down and drop to the floor. The shaking in my hands comes back as I start to process everything.
“I can’t do this. I can’t do this.” I say to myself as tears well up in my eyes
Julius walks over to me and squats down He opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off and ask, “I can’t do it Julius. It’s too much. I just wanted to find my parent’s killer. Like, what is this?”
“Danny…” Julius starts before I interrupt again
“I killed a little boy Julius. For what, because the Fallen infected everyone with this… insanity?” I say, “I… I just don’t know how much more I can take.”
I look at Julius as he wears the most somber face, I’ve ever seen him make.
“Danny, I know.” He says calmly, “I know that every single person out there is doing this because of that monster, but if we quit or die now, what happens in the next city and the city after that. If we give up or die now, how are we supposed to save everyone else? I feel sorry for the people here and I will make sure I will remember today until my last breath, but we can’t save everybody, and you know that just as well as I do.”
Julius stands up and says as he reaches out his hand, “This is what we really do Danny. We do what needs to be done to protect the world regardless of the threat. Now get up, we have unfinished business.”
Julius’ words struck a chord within me. I could tell he probably was feeling the same way, he had a point. We can’t save everybody. If we do that then we lose everything in the process. I grab Julius’ hand and pull myself up.
“Alright.” I say picking up my bow, “I’m okay now.”
Julius gives off a smile of relief and says jokingly, “Good, even if you weren’t, I would’ve dragged you all the way to the end with me.”
“So where to?” he asks
“First, lets find a way out of here.” I answer as Julius and I stumble about in the increasingly dark rooms and hallways that are barely lit by the sparce moonlight.
As we search the building for a way out, we eventually find our way to one of the Emergency exits. Luckily, no one was around when we made it back outside. With the sound of fighting still heavy in the air, Julius looks up and says, “We might can go this way.” As he points to n alleyway that leads to an unoccupied area of the town.
I nod and follow Julius through the alleyway and the closer we got to the end of it, the smell of death starts to get closer, and my scar starts to burn little by little.
“We’re getting close.” I say as we exit the alleyway and into a part of town decimated by its own citizens.
The stench is choking. “What way Danny?” Julius asks covering his nose
I look to the left and to the right. My scar burns with more intensity and I say, “This way.” As I point to the right.
Julius nods and leads the way through the wreckage as I follow close behind. As we get closer and closer to the meeting point, the smell of burning flesh fills the air. An unforgiving yet familiar scent that makes my blood boil. My scar burns even more as Julius stops abruptly and sticks his arm out.
I stop walking and ask, “What’s up? “
“I think this is the place, but…” Julius whispers
“But what?” I ask
“There’s two people at the end of the street. I don’t know what they’re doing though.”
“Uh huh,” I say, “So, you can feel where and how many people are on the ground, but not what they’re doing?”
“Your scar isn’t exactly pinpoint either.” Julius retorts.
“Point taken.” I say, “So, what do you think?”
“I think that it’s an obvious trap, but hey what do I know? I can just feel people on the ground.” Julius says sarcastically
“Could be a trap duly noted, you think we can get a better view without them seeing?”
“Umm, I think so. You see that car over there?” Julius asks as he points over to the car, “Let’s move over there and see.”
I nod and crouch over to the car as Julius follows behind me. Just moving a few feet from the end of the block my scar starts to burn like crazy.
Wincing, I say, “Julius.”
Julius turns around and I say, “The Fallen has to be one of the two people down there.”
Julius takes out both of his pistols, loads both magazines and says, “Alright. That’s all I need to hear. I owe him for tossing me into the side of a car.”
“Just wait a second. We don’t even know who the second person is. I could be another one.” I point out
Julius’ grip around the pistols tightens and loosens as he sighs and says, “Your right D.”
“We need a plan.” I say as I peek over the top of the car. I don’t see anybody, but I can just faintly hear the sound of fighting in the distance.
“You got one?” Julius asks
I scratch my head and tell Julius, “Let me think.”
We can separate and go opposite ways in a pincer, but that might put Julius in more danger than necessary… actually. “Matter fact, Julius, you can head towards the fallen first by going that way,” I said as I point to the right, “I’ll go left and look for a vantage point. If the second body is a Fallen I’ll take it out, but if it’s a civilian distract the Fallen long enough so I can get them out of there.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Julius says as he grins slightly before fades, “Just uhm, one question? What if things don’t go according to plan?”
“I didn’t think of that.” I answer as I continue to think, “I don’t know run maybe?”
Julius stare blankly at me and says, “Let’s just hope it doesn’t get to that point.”
I take a deep breath and say, “Alright, let’s do this.”
Julius taps his fist on my shoulder and says, “We got this. Just cover me and don’t let me die. It’ll be a piece of cake.”
I nod as Julius leaves to go distract the Fallen. He has his job, now I have to do mine. I carefully make my way left and onto a hill that overlooks the street. I can see just about everything from up here. The moon and the streetlights make it easily visible from up here. I count the arrows still in my quiver.
I have six arrows left and one sidearm with a full magazine. I’ll have to make every shot count. Looking down at the street, I can see the Fallen, it found a new suit but it’s still the same one that got away. I see Julius slowly making his way into position, inching ever closer to the Fallen.
As I scan the area for the second body that Julius felt, the Fallen walks around in a circle, and stops in front of a store. He kicks the door open and walks in. I nock my arrow and aim my bow at the entrance of the store.
The Fallen slowly walks out of the store with something in his hand. Squinting, I can see what the monster was clutching in his hands. It was our classmate who’s been missing ever since we passed the second phase of the exam.
“Tianna?”