Swan song

"She's-"

"It'll get-"

"Keys! the key-"

"Gauze here-"

I swear I keep hearing their voices. I'm half awake and I can barely do anything but just listen to what they're saying.

But I...haven't lost all hope yet...

My mind is drifting away to sleep again, my eyes are shut tight and I can't move a muscle.

"She'll be alright..."

I... still have a job to do...

______________

...

I slowly opened my eyes, gaining control again of my body. My vision is blurry but I can still see where I am right now.

The room was lit up by a weak fluorescent lamp and I glanced over to my right side to see a shelf flipped over revealing a box of weapons hidden in the wall, there was also a desk with a lamp turned on and laid there was a medical kit.

On my left side I saw a few chairs, and another shelf flipped over as well, same box of weapons that were also hidden inside but it was empty on this side of the room, and over a few meters away was a door leading somewhere.

My eyes slowly adjusted to the environment, and I could see a bit clearer now. I just have to carry myself and find out where the hell they went.

I pushed my body upwards to sit straight on whatever I'm laying down on; I looked at my injuries and noticed that they took off my clothes; I was wrapped around in bandages along the waist where I was hit. The sting is still there and it still hurts while trying to move, but it's not the worst like earlier.

They left my clothes hanging on the chair near the door, all covered in blood. I dressed myself again feeling like shit. Every time I take a step the pain from my wound gets stronger.

I grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door open, revealing a staircase leading up to the first floor. I took my first step and slowly made my way upwards until I can see another door leading me to the main area of Balalaika.

The entire place was barricaded up to the last detail, the windows were covered in planks and all the doors leading outside were blocked by tables and chairs, I can barely make out what's happening outside as I keep hearing repeated gunshots and explosions, along with screaming.

I wanted to find out what was going on outside and where everybody is, until I heard cans falling from somewhere, I looked around to see where it came from and found the old man in the supply room at the back of the counter packing necessities on a box.

He noticed that I've entered the room, quickly glancing over to look at me before minding back in his own business. "You fine now?" the old man's deep voice echoed throughout the room.

"Barely, anyway where's Winter and Hank?"

The old man then threw a gun to my side, expecting me to catch it but ended up planting first on my arm before crashing down the floor, "They'll need protection later, pick that up and get ready" he carried the box and exited the room, I followed him just so I need to know what we're doing.

I walked side by side with the geezer along with the gun on my hand, fingers relaxed from the trigger, "What's the plan old man?", he opened his mouth, explaining what had happened as we walk through the corridor that leads to the back of the bar.

"Right now I sent Hank to fetch our emergency vehicle, Winter is safe in the garage and I need you to hold the line for us since you have my gun for now, We're going somewhere where we can't see anymore of this chaos and probably settle down in another town," he explained while carrying the box of supplies as we're headed to the rear end of the building.

"And also I forgot to tell you that Winter's leg injury is manageable, she's able to walk a bit normally," the old man added, easing my worry for her.

I cracked a smile again, while the old man was set looking straight at the corridor. He knew I'm relieved after hearing that news.

I felt the need to thank the old man, seeing how much he's already done to us ever since he took me in and how much he cared for Hank and Winter before this.

He may be a pessimistic man with no obvious goal other than taking care of his bar, but he truly lives up to his name as the caretaker we all know and look up to.

I gathered the courage to speak out of my mouth, "Thanks, Mr. Avery... for taking care of her while I was out..." my voice was quiet, almost non-existent, but undoubtedly felt by the old man.

He stopped in his tracks before looking at me with his grumpy resting bitch face, but hidden within it are his intentions of providing what's good for everyone he knows. "Don't mention it." His eyes shone brighter as the lights in the corridor reflected on him.

It almost looks as if he's an old decaying angel.

We shortly arrived at the garage where we would meet Hank later, together with our emergency vehicle, but a familiar face showed up and instantly came by my side, beckoned by our companionship.

Winter was there, standing by the corner along with two other boxes of supplies. The moment she saw me entering through the door, she immediately came over and checked if I was okay.

Mr. Avery laid the boxes in the same position as Winter was near earlier. He chuckled a bit after seeing Winter's sudden reaction of me appearing again.

She inspected the wound on my sides and tried to touch them but I immediately grabbed her arm before she could hurt me, "Don't try it", I hissed at Winter lightly trying not to scare her, but just show her I'm still in a terrible condition.

"But at least you're okay, and that's what matters," she remarked, and put up a facade trying to hide her worry for me.

Time passed shortly, and we were waiting for Hank to come around anytime now. The time on the clock read as 5:13 PM, a few more hours until nighttime, and a few more hours until we can finally get out of here.

Mr. Avery got back from the basement to fetch a few more equipment. Earlier I saw a bunch of weapons stashed in a hidden compartment from a book shelf gimmick. He came back walking around with armor and a few more weapons alongside him.

He wore an armored vest colored in brown with a radio strapped near the shoulder and a few magazines tucked under the pockets of the vest.

He also bought three other more vests that look exactly like the one he's wearing and instructed both me and Winter to wear one for safety purposes.

Not long after wearing the suit of armor, I could hear a large vehicle revving its engine up the driveway. I walked over outside the garage to see a large 4x4 truck pulling up on our side, with the driver being revealed by none other than...

"Hank, what happened?" the old man walked over to him as Hank closed the door to the driver's seat. I looked at the truck and noticed that it had scratch marks, so many scratch marks and bullet holes in it.

"Well..." Hank hesitated, but explained to the old man what had happened during his drive.

"By the time I got to our truck it was riddled with scratches, possibly from those bloody thirsty people I ran away from, as for the bullet holes, I got shot by the military and police but not me literally but the car itself."

"At this point it's no use for us to stay here any longer. We need to hop in quickly and get the fuck out of here. I know a way that leads outside the city."

Mr. Avery gave an armored vest to Hank and a small arms firearm he kept in his pocket, me and Winter carried the supplies and put them in the back of the truck, while the old man himself carried an automatic rifle and hopped onto the truck.

Hank turned to face me before he got in the driver's seat. "You fine now Zaina?"

I simply nodded, not in the mood for chatter as we're surrounded in madness and chaos. We both hopped into the truck, Hank and the old man up front, and both me and Winter by the back.

I gripped into the gun Mr. Avery gave me and kept my hands eased on it, prepared for anything that happens.

"Alright son, show us the way" the old man fixed his position on the seat while Hank started the engine and drove out of the building.

Winter looked out the window and saw the mayhem that had been occurring ever since this afternoon, and just couldn't help but feel disgusted at the view she was seeing.

As we drove by the road and into the path Hank was taking us, there were several- no, hundreds of decimated bodies of people lying everywhere, while the living ones were walking around confused and scared, and possibly injured.

"Just a quick note guys, the military checkpoints are a no go for us anymore, they're ordered to shoot on sight." Hank gave a heads up warning to all of us, possibly to save us from his reckless driving.

We took the path he was talking about and it was relatively quiet compared to the other roads, but it feels off.

Something is just not right about the path Hank is taking...

I looked around the road and noticed that there are a few bloodstains scattered around the area, with little to no gore to be found on sight.

Hank kept driving forward with caution. Our speed barely hit 10 mph and we are not risking the chance of totaling our only way out of the city.

We kept on guard, trying to look out for whatever may come our way, until the car stopped dead in its tracks.

"What's going on?" I asked the men in front. They didn't answer me so I had to know what they stopped at, and it just dawned on me after a slow realization of what I'm seeing.

There was a trail of blood that leads to the left side of the road and it's a massive trail, something that can definitely fit a lane of cars.

The old man asked our driver, "Do you know where you're going, Hank?" Mr. Avery asked him in almost a menacing voice.

Hank was also confused as well. "What the hell, there wasn't anything like this earlier." he raised his voice.

"Whatever the case, we're not going on the road that has a large trail of blood, we're backtracking now!" I ordered Hank to steer the truck backwards, I guided him out to reverse the car without hitting the other vehicles that were in the road.

"Oh, shit..."

Mr. Avery swore silently as he turned to the front of the truck.

Winter also turned around to see what was going on.

"Guys? we need to get out here now! Look!"

I turned my gaze from the rear of the truck a bit to see what was going on the front.

"Oh no"

From the corner of the blood trail half a hundred meters ahead of us there was a swarm of people all covered up in blood, they huddled together like a pack of bees and slowly walked out of the corner and into the road from where we were.

"Hank... get us out of here!"

Instead of backing up slowly, he moved faster and kept the car going in reverse at full speed.

The swarm of people one by one slowly ran towards us, attracting all their attention. We had no other way but to find another way out.

Hank reversed the entire way out until he could turn and finally drive forwards. We opened our GPS systems on our phone, but all our services were disconnected.

The swarm of blood-thirsty people kept up and ran faster even comparing to that of a speed of a lion, they were abnormally fast...

And from my experience earlier, abnormally strong too...

Our driver kept on speeding past the vehicles that are littered around the road and turned to whichever path was less likely to be infested with these people.

"Shit!"

The vehicle came to a stop and all of us in the truck got thrown face first in what's in front of us. Hank stopped because there was someone that was on the road, he almost ran over a person.

"Keep going dammit!" I shouted at him, his foot now on the gas pedals again.

Before the car could go any further, the ones chasing us slowed us down.

They slowly inched their way up to the vehicle and added their weight on the truck.

Hank pressed down the gas pedal once more and broke free from the swarm. But there were a few stragglers that are stuck on the roof.

"They're above us!" Winter warned us as a hand from her window slowly reached down to claw the glass behind her.

The old man readied his rifle and shot at the roof of the car, blowing holes and injuring those that hanged into the vehicle.

But...

One person latched on to the roof unscathed from Mr. Avery's attack. The person broke the glass on Winter's side with brute force.

"Winter!"

I pulled out my gun and aimed at the guy, but Winter was blocking the way.

I can't shoot.

The old man ran out of bullets and Hank is busy traversing the road and can't pull out their weapons in time.

They can't do it.

And suddenly...

Blood was smeared on my face...