Ends With You: Joel Miller

CHAPTER 19

I take in a deep breath as we reach the landing and Henry goes up to the lone doorway and slowly opens the door. Light spills through as he pokes out to check the surroundings before turning back to us, bringing a finger up to his mouth and that tells me there's already hunters. 

He waves us forward and gets down into a crouch to hide behind some cover, "Okay." He says as we come up next to him, "Let's try to take them out quietly." He whispers.

I take a peek over the cover and notice that there's two of them huddling around a fire and looking back down to Joel and Henry. I bring my fingers up and display two fingers. Henry nods, "I'll follow your lead." He says to Joel.

"Alright." He whispers, and I hang back with the kids as they both sneak off to the two other men.

As their light footsteps lead away from me, I look to my left out to the street before us to see a big spotlight circling the road and I roll my eyes at having to try and avoid it soon.

The sounds of the hunters gurgling reach my ears and I look ahead of me to see the boys have already taken out their targets. Henry looks back to us and waves us over, "We got 'em. Everyone move up." He whispers and begins to look around again.

I usher the kids forward, always keeping them in front as we join the others. Joel doesn't waste any time coming up to the door that's leading out to the spotlight and take cover beside it, "Stay low." He whispers and takes cover behind a concrete barrier.

As we all file out, a gunshot sounds followed by the screech of a clicker. I tense from the loud sound as the hunter's yell just before us, "You hear that? It's a clicker."

"I hear it, but I don't see shit." Another one says.

I clench my eyes shut as the spotlight glides over where we're hiding, and the clicker sound getting closer. I can hear a hunter's footsteps getting closer to our position before he's yelling, "There it is! Shoot it." The clicker emerges from down the street and it's not long before another loud bang fires off, the clicker falling to the ground in a thud.

"Woo! Nailed it!" One of them yell, "You see that shit?" 

"Not bad." Another replies and I roll my eyes at them making it a game.

As soon as the hunter in front of us turns and walks back to the gate, Joel sneaks over to another barrier. I quickly wave at the kids to follow before the spotlight comes back and we all make it over in time. I really don't know how we're gonna get past all of them.

As if to answer my thoughts, Joel pulls out his bow and pops up quickly to take aim before loosening an arrow and I hear the faint pop of the spotlight blow out. The hunters make startled sounds as the surrounding area goes dark, the only light coming from the moon in the sky.

"The light blew." One of them say and I try not to sigh in relief when they don't realize it was foul play. At least it'll be easier to take out the last remaining men.

Since it's darker now, we can move around a bit more freely, but we still have to be careful not to be spotted. As we take cover again closer to the hunters, I peek up to see the two men on the watch tower climb down and turn off the generator that powered the light before they tug it down and start to inspect it. 

My eyes drift to the other hunter across the street and I realize Joel has already begun his pursuit on him, so I look back down to Henry and point over my shoulder, "The other two are occupied with the light." I whisper and that's all it takes for Henry to get my message before he starts to sneak up to one of them.

I don't need to tell the kids to stay here as I quickly step up with Henry and bring my focus to the right guy as my knife makes an appearance in my hand. Henry grabs his first and I quickly pounce on mine a second later and it's like muscle memory as my knife has already made its way into the guy's neck, the sounds of his gurgling catching me off guard at how fast it happened.