The Birth of Death

Chapter Six

Loral puffed under the weight of the gun strapped to her back. Peter had given her a semiautomatic 20 gauge shotgun to strap to her back and a 16 gauge pump action shot gun for her to carry. He had also given her a break open hand gun that was strapped to her thigh and a semiautomatic hand gun on her waist. Peter insisted that she put both shotguns on her back so she could hold another hand gun but she refused saying she wouldn't be able to do it.

Peter himself carried two 12 gauge bolt rifles on his back and two revolvers on his waist. In his hand he carried a semiautomatic in which he kept fiddling with the safety, clicking it on and off. Dog trotted beside him with bags on his back filled with ammunition, each pouch labeled with what gauge it carried.

"Peter I need water." Loral gasped.

He looked around nonchalantly, spotting a figure on a roof. "No, you want water, there's a difference." he said as he looked back at her. "And besides, we don't have any, not until we get out of Queens."

"What?" she screeched.

"I'd appreciate it if you would shut up." he said flatly.

"You don't control me!" she spat.

He stopped walking and turned around. "Loral, look around you." he said in a hushed voice.

"Why do I-"

"Just do it." he said forcefully.

She glared at him before she finally took a sweep of the area, her jaw dropping slightly. The anger she had held in her eyes faded and was replaced by fear and shock as she saw figures on the roofs of building, some crouching some standing.

"They've been following us for twenty minutes now." he said, looking up at the buildings.

"Why didn't you say anything?" she asked. Her voice quivered as she tried to hide the terror that was building up inside of her.

"Because I wanted to make sure that that's what they were doing before I said anything. At first I thought-" his voice trailed as he spotted a figure he recognized standing in a side alley.

"What is it?" she asked and looked around.

"We need to go." he said frantically, still looking at the shadowed figure. "We need to leave now." He grabbed her hand to run but stopped when he saw men at the end of the street with their guns trained on them. He looked around frantically but saw that all roads were blocked.

"Leaving so soon?" a sweet voice asked from the side of them.

He took a deep breathe ad turned towards the person he had just seen. "No, I thought I may stay and chat about the apocalypse." he replied, his frantic voice was gone and was switched with a sarcastic tone.

"Mm, that sounds like a great plan." she smiled. The girl was roughly around Loral's age, maybe slightly older her, 17 at the least. She had darkened skin with a sleeve of black and blue tribal tattoos down her left arm. Her thick, coarse hair was done in cornrows that went down past her sharp shoulder blades. Her perfect pearl colored teeth flashed like diamonds in the fading Queens' sunlight as she grinned at Peter.

"I won't be able to spend the night this time though. I'm on a bit of a tight schedule. Sorry."

"Oh don't worry. That can be arranged." she replied. The sound of a dozen safeties went off at once, the crisp snaps echoed in the night air. "We can even find someone for the girl."

Loral pushed the safety on her own gun but Peter waved her off. "No one will be sleeping with anyone. If you hadn't noticed Amara, we're in the middle of an apocalypse."