Laura's POV
"Alright everyone, we're heading out right now. No more exceptions, so let's go!" Chris ordered everyone.
"Yes sir!" The team answered in unison.
"Laura, stay close to me. We have things we need to talk about," Chris told me, as he handed me my S.T.A.R.S. knife back. I took it from him, placing it back into my sheath. Then, I pocketed the TerraSave switchblade.
"Okay," I acknowledged him.
Chris and I left the dark alleyway, heading out with the rest of the team. We all began walking down the wide and abandoned street, covered with nothing but debris, blood, and corpses. While Piers, Moira, Rebecca, and the rest of the team walked ahead, Chris and I treaded at a slower pace, right behind everyone else. Besides, I couldn't blame for him for being skeptical of me at first. It takes time to process things like this. Sometimes, I think he's still doubtful of me.
"Where are we going anyway?" I asked Chris, as he grabbed something out of his pocket. It was some sort of PDA. He opened up a digital map on it—showing a small, red, glowing dot on the grid.
"We're heading to the rendezvous point at Lake Union park just a few miles north of here. That's where the evacuation point is, we have until 12:30 a.m. before the evac helicopters take off. So, while you and Moira get extracted and leave the city, Alpha team and I will stay behind to look for Claire and to continue our mission here," Chris explained to me, then he turned off his PDA—placing it back into his pocket.
'If Chris thinks that he can easily just ship me and Moira off to safety on some helicopter out of the city, he's gonna have a very hard time in doing so. There's no way I'm leaving without my mother.'
"No way, I'm staying," I objected.
"This is not up for discussion Laura. It's too dangerous to stay here."
"I know that, but I can help! I know this city like the back of my hand. You won't be able to navigate through the city without my help. Plus, there's no way I'm leaving without my mother," I argued.
"I understand that you want to find her too Laura, but she would be crushed if anything bad happened to you. I'm doing this to protect you," Chris claimed.
"I would be literally crushed too if anything bad happened to her, especially on my birthday. Besides, I can take care of myself Chris. I'm not a baby, I'm sixteen. Practically an adult." I spat back, before walking ahead of him.
After our little heated argument, there was silence between us for awhile, as we all kept walking along the street. Chris caught up to me, speaking up,
"You're a lot like your mother, Laura. Like a mini version of her."
I directed my gaze back at him. "I am...?" I asked him.
"Yeah, you definitely are. I'm starting to see the resemblance between the two of you. You're both kind, caring, sweet, strong-willed, fearless, stubborn, generous, and beautiful. You have your mother's eyes, you know that?" Chris pointed out.
"Really...?"
Chris nodded his head at me, as a smile curled onto his lips.
"Thanks Chris, that's means a lot to me. Especially now, during times like these..." I told him, as I started getting a bit sentimental.
I never had anyone compare me to my real mother before, it was something I thought I would never hear in my life. It was the last thing I expected to hear, especially from him. I knew that I was on the verge of crying at this point. Even though, I tried my very hardest not to. At the same time, apprehension was trying to consume me too, but I tried my best to remain brave and strong. I just wanted to find my mother and get the hell out of here as quickly as possible.
"Are you okay Laura?" Chris asked me, observing the tears forming in my eyes.
"Yes, I'm fine. My eyes are just watering, that's all," I stated, as I wiped away the tears. Calming down.
"Okay. Let's catch up with the rest of the team. We're falling a bit too far behind," Chris added.
"Alright, hold on a second," I said, as I caught a glimpse of something on a corpse up ahead.
Chris shot me a funky and confused look, as I treaded away from him. As I approached the corpse cautiously, I took out my knife of my sheath in case it wasn't dead. It was a police officer, you could tell he turned into one of those B.O.W.s because he resembled one, and there's an open bitemark on his neck. What caught my eye was a 9mm Beretta sticking out of his holster.
There were two rectangular shaped pockets on the holster too, they're most likely meant to carry extra magazines for the gun. Without any hesitation, I rapidly kneeled down and stabbed my knife into the corpse's head, so there wouldn't be any surprises. After I knew for sure it was dead, I sheathed my knife and started unhooking the holster from the corpse.
Once I successfully removed it from him, I strapped it around my right thigh and hooked it onto my belt. It's not everyday that you find a gun laying around in middle of the streets. Next, I inspected the two rectangular pockets, both of them contained a full magazine. I took out the gun out of the holster, carefully switching the safety on, so I could check the magazine without accidently firing the gun. As I quickly checked it, I saw it was completely full—holding eighteen bullets. I reloaded the gun, placing it back into the holster strapped around my thigh.
"Do you even know how to use one Laura?" Chris questioned me, as I stood up off the ground.
"Yes, my friend Tyler taught me how a few years back when he wasn't supposed to. Please don't tell Piers about it, or he'll flip shit on Tyler the next time he sees him," I whispered to Chris.
"I won't Laura, just be careful—"
"Laura watchout!" Someone shouted, as something from behind tackled me to ground fiercely.
I didn't have enough time to grab any of my weapons to defend myself, as it got on top of me. At first I thought it was another one of those slow moving B.O.W.s that got me by surprise. But this one was different. It was definitely more swift and light on its feet than usual.
While I was trying to prevent it from stabbing me in the throat, with a simple kitchen knife, I got a better look at his appearance. It was a man, around his mid twenties. With gingerly hair, only wearing a blue sweater, blue shaggy pants, and regular green sneakers. He didn't really resemble much like the B.O.W.s that, Moira, Mom, and I encountered back at the restaurant.
His skin was deathly pale, most of his veins were exceedingly dilated and popping out of his skin. The B.O.W. growled like some sort of monstrous animal. He was even a hell of a lot stronger than the regular B.O.W.s we've faced, since it could wield and use a knife. The most noticeable change about him was his eyes. They were completely blood shot red, even the irises were red as well!
As it was trying to pierce my throat with the kitchen knife, it was slowly opening it's mouth—revealing something rather monstrous and very mutated on a molecular scale coming out of it. It looked like some kind of parasitic mouth to be honest. Chris quickly yanked the guy off me and shot it a couple times in the head with his assault rifle, after dislodging it onto the ground. Blood began pouring out of the bullet holes in its head—spilling rapidly onto the ground.
"Oh my god! Laura, are you okay?!" Moira asked me, as she rushed over to me.
"Yeah, I'm fine Moira," I responded, as she helped me up off the ground. "What the hell?!" I muttered, as I tried to control my heavy breathing.
Everybody including the team was on high alert, there could possibly be more than just one of them around here.
"What kind of B.O.W. was that captain?!" Piers asked Chris, as he approached him.
He examined the corpse precisely for the moment, then his eyes widened. Sudden panic and apprehension clouded his features.
"Oh shit... We need move, now!" Chris ordered.
As soon as Chris said that, we began hearing repulsive shouts, groans, and screaming coming from behind far us. We all turned around—seeing a massive horde of B.O.W.s running towards us. Just like the one Chris just recently killed. They were holding all different sorts of every-day tools as weapons. From wrenches and kitchen knifes, to crowbars, shovels, and hatchets.
"Get ready men, because we're gonna have one hell of a welcome party here soon," Chris asserted. "Piers, go finding a safe sniping position in the area to cover us. Flint, Parker, Jackson, and I will take them head on. The rest of you guys will watch our backs and provide us with cover fire. Rebecca, take Laura and Moira to the extraction point at Lake Union park."
"Yes sir!" Rebecca acknowledged him.
"Come on Laura, we have to go!" Moira stated, as she tugged me by my arm.
I glanced over at Chris one last time, with concern clouding my features. Then turned around—running away as fast as I can from them with Rebecca and Moira.
"Stay safe Uncle Chris..." I muttered to myself.