Living on Borrowed Time

Chapter Seventeen

     My vision blurs as death stands over me. My stomach riddled with pain as blood gushes from a fresh bullet hole. David sits beside me in the back of the van as it speeds away, trying to put as much pressure as he can on the wound, but as death creeps closer and closer I start to feel less and less. Sammy scrambles around as she tries to find something, but it's too late, my eyes slowly shut and death seems to have swallowed me whole. Death has finally gotten what it had wanted for so long... me.

27 minutes Earlier
. . .

"Here we are at last." Kate says. We finally creep toward Joseph's place in the night, lurking closer, blending in like a shadow in the darkness. My heart beats rapidly as I feel the gravity of the situation. There's only two of us, and many of them, but we have the element of surprise to our advantage.
"Alright, remember the plan. You wait here until I get up to the front door, once I'm there you send the truck flying through the door, there's a cinder block on the seat. Now, once the truck goes through I need you to stay back here and pick off the lookouts on the roof, from what I seen there are three of them up there." I tell her, "You can do this." I add.
She takes a deep breath, "Okay, I'm ready."
I proceed forward, soon enough I'm only feet away from the wall when I hear Kate start up the truck. Everything is happening so fast it seems like before I can turn my head and look at Kate the truck is already tearing through the front door. The sound is incredibly loud, much more than I had expected. It might have even drawn the attention of nearby walkers. As I stand there with my back up against the wall beside the gaping hole that's now in the front of the building, I can hear the men inside screaming to each other to get their guns and prepare for an attack.
Kate fires the first shot from the rifle and a man comes falling off the roof and lands right in front of me, just like I had expected.
Just before Kate fires off another shot and kills the second man I see the barrel of an assault rifle creeping out from the hole in the wall. I slowly slide toward it with dead silence as I'm still as close to the wall as I can get. In the blink of eye I grab the barrel of the gun and pull the man holding it out, all in one fluid motion I then grab the underside of the assault rifle and slam it upward into the man's face with such force that he's knock out.
I crouch down and peek around the corner of the hole, aiming my rifle inside. The first person I see is a man retreating to cover that's further back as he pulls out his handgun. Just before he's able to slide down into cover I fire a shot, it spirals forward in the blink of an eye and rips through his left leg and shoots through his shin bone. The man screams in pain as he falls onto his knees and slides over into cover.
"You're fucking dead!" The man cries, "You here me!"
Suddenly a second man comes running forward around the truck, nearly upon me when he runs straight into Kate's bullet that zips through his rib cage, dropping the man like a sack of potatoes. Proceeding very cautiously I crouch walk over to the rear of the truck, the assault rifles sights up to my face the entire time, my finger waiting for the signal to fire.
"Johnny!" I shout, "David!" I'm suddenly startled when a fire ignites beside the truck, blazing up over the side. I quickly move over to different cover. The trucks fuel line busted, all it was waiting for was it's time to shine, waiting for the smallest spark which must've come from the engine.
"Bruce!" I suddenly hear a muffled shout. Remembering the small white room we had first been locked up in I cautiously maneuver to the right side of the room where the door is. As I grab the doorknob and realize it's locked a bullet is fired from behind me and hits my right arm, just below the shoulder. I panic, quickly firing two shots at the doorknob and diving into the room. As there is not a second to spare for hellos and catching up I rip my handgun from its holster and throw it at Johnny.
"Cover me!" I growl with pain and grit in my voice, then sit up and slide beside the door, "Sammy, help me tie this off." I breath heavily as I pull an extra rag from my pocket, my heart thumping like a rabbit that's trying to escape death as it's jaws clamp at it from behind. Sammy looks speechless as she tries to tie the rag around my wound, fumbling a bit as she seems to be in shock. I peer around the corner of the doorway as she does this and in front of the bright fire I see the figure of a man approaching with a gun. The man fires a shot at me but I'm quick enough to pull my face back. Then, unexpectedly Johnny steps out into the doorway and fires off a shot, hitting the man right in the throat.
I look around and see Sammy, Johnny, and David, but where's Jane?
"Jane?" I question through my adrenaline induced panting, "Where is she?"
"Later." Johnny says as he aims his handgun outside the room, waiting for Josephs men to come running, "We have to leave, this place is burning."
I grab him by the ankle as I'm still sitting there, "Where is she!"
"Bruce, she's dead." Sammy blurts out.
"Wha...?" My heart drops and I nearly swallow my tongue. I stand up, so many thoughts try to process at once that my brain seems to stop working, suddenly I'm no longer thinking, I'm just doing. I grab my assault rifle and walk out of the room, holding it up with one arm I fire two shots into a man who was advancing toward the door with a handgun. From my left a man runs out and fires three shots from another handgun, one of the bullets grazing my forearm on the arm that's already injured. My heart pumps faster and faster as anger and adrenaline courses through my veins. As Johnny slowly and cautiously pushes forward I look behind me, the blazing flames now blocking off the hole we created, the only way out is to push further ahead.

After killing off about dozen more of Josephs men in a cooperative effort we reach the door that leads to where Joseph should be, the upstairs office. The only way in or out is the stairs on the other side of this door.
"Alright, Johnny get the door would ya?" I say, "I'll cover you." I hold my automatic rifle up to my face, ready to tear apart anything that comes out. As Johnny approaches the door I can hear screams on the other side of the building somewhere behind us, Josephs people on fire. The air is filling with spoke quickly, and with death even quicker.
"Go!" Johnny shouts. I step forward but am ambushed by Joseph standing in the doorway and before I can react he shoots me in the stomach. Johnny shoots back at him, hitting him in the left shoulder near his collarbone. Joseph stumbles back into the stairway as Johnny aims at his chest and pulls the trigger again, except this time Johnny's gun clicks, no ammo.
"Shit!" Johnny shouts and dashes forward to slam the door shut but Joseph charges to stop him. Johnny smashes Josephs arms in the door, trying to shut it all the way. I just sit there in shock, blood gushing from my stomach.
"Bruce!" Somebody yells from behind me. I turn my head and see Kate standing there with a Molotov cocktail in her hand, the rag already lit.
"Johnny." I say, looking back at him struggling with the door. He looks over at Kate and sees the Molotov, understanding what needs to happen.
"Sammy, take this." I slide my assault rifle across the floor as her and David hide behind a couple of crates. Quickly standing I retreat from the door as I put pressure on my wound. "Stop!" Another voice yells. Zoe comes running through a doorway that looks like it might collapse any second from a weak structure.
"Let him out!" Zoe shouts, pointing her handgun at Johnny, then at Kate as she sees the flaming Molotov. Then Sammy points the rifle at Zoe, holding it as to make it obvious she doesn't have much experience with it. Zoe now aims at Sammy, then at Johnny, at Kate, then back to Sammy.
My heart suddenly jumps from two startling gunshots. I look over at Johnny, he stands there with blood soaking into his shirt, then falls to the ground, two bullet holes in the door. That's when everything happens all in one quick motion, the door opens before Johnny hits the ground, unleashing Joseph. Kate throws the Molotov just as the door opens wide enough, setting Joseph ablaze before he can run out. Zoe fires three shots, all three of them hitting Kate, then suddenly Sammy fires off five shots in a panic, missing most shots but hitting Zoe with two. One in the chest and the other in the face.
I just sit there up against a crate, shocked beyond all comprehension.
Sammy runs over to Johnny as tears start to run down her face.
"No, no, no!" She's on her knees beside him trying to get him to stand up, "Get up!" She shouts as David runs over to me.
"Bruce, no." He kneels, "Wha... what do I do?" He questions as his eyes start to tear up. I feel weak, too weak to put pressure on my wound any longer.
"Sammy!" David yells at her, "We have to go! This place is falling down!" He puts my arm around his neck and tries to stand me up, and surprisingly he does but he struggles. I try my best to stand up on my own but need him more than ever.
"Sammy..." I mumble, too weak to yell over the crackling flames that surround us in nearly every direction. As we walk toward Sammy I notice that Johnny's lungs are no longer inhaling air, his chest no longer expands. He's dead. I feel that infamous lump of sorrow fill my throat, that infamous sorrow tugging at my heart strings. I look to my left, Kate lies there with her eyes still open but no longer blinking. I look to my right... Zoe... my sister. Joseph had changed her to the point to where we were forced to kill her.
'Why?' I think, 'How could I have let this happen?'
Sammy gives Johnny one last kiss on the lips, then comes to help David get me out of here, tears pouring down her face as she sobs.