"Finders Keepers" (Nature)

=Chapter 8: Finders Keepers= “What’s going on over there?” Reed marched towards the gate, noticing the residents were crowding around it. “Excuse me! May I get past please!” Despite how rapidly Reed’s patience was snapping, he still tried to be polite and reasonable with the camp residents.

As he finally got to the edge of the gate, he noticed Agnes staggering out of the car, clutching the knife in her leg. Adjacent to her, Celeste was lumbering towards the gate with Zach in her arms.

“Open the gate!” Reed shouted up to the guard, as he humbly obeyed. All the residents backed up as the gate opened towards them. “Agnes!” Reed ran over to her, picking her up. He carried her all the way to the hospital.

“Erica! Tina!” He sounded distressed, as he ran over to his two friends. “Agnes? What happened to her?” Tina was just as concerned. “I don’t know! But look! She’s got a knife in her leg!” Reed was in a flurry, as Tina helped him lay her out on a bed.

Erica took Reed out of the tent, “Listen, I’m sorry Reed, but we need space. We’ve got a lot of patients to be dealing with in here. I’ll make Agnes a priority for your sake, but I need you to…” Before she finished her sentence, she noticed Celeste approaching with an injured Zach in her arms. Erica’s eyes widened, “What the hell happened out there? Why are you all hurt?”

At that moment, Celeste’s eyes rolled back, as she fainted and fell back to the ground. “Celeste!” Reed crouched down by her side, “Erica, please. You’ve got to help all of them! Please!” He begged her.

Now, Erica was in a dire predicament. With the gazebo hospital now filled up and with countless patients to treat, whose life was she about to end up putting down to chance and luck?

At the gate, another batch of people turned up. There were several men, fully armed, with rifles equipped. They were all marching towards the gate in a line, with a single woman in front of them. She was sleek, with long white-dyed hair, sporting a white shirt and a black skirt. She looked like an adult school girl in a way.

“What’s this about then?” One of the gate guards mumbled to his fellow guardsman. “I’m dreading the answer to that,” he responded as he adjusted the spotlight to expose the potential threat headed towards them. “Hold it right there!” He aimed his rifle at the woman, as she raised her hands.

“Who the hell are you?” The guard was upfront, but the woman didn’t respond. She only smiled at him.

“State your business, or I will blast you to hell,” he warned her. She laughed at him response. Putting her hand to her mouth and then rolling it out, she blew him a kiss. Then, all of the men behind her raised their rifles, opening fire on the gate guards.

Inside the camp, all the residents turned around amidst panic. Some froze to the spot, others fled in the opposite direction to the gate. Reed put his hands on his hips, watching from a safe distance the opponents marching on his camp, “Christ…” He didn’t know what to do at first, but upon noticing the corpses of the gate guards hanging over the balcony, he immediately dated into the gazebo hospital.

“Reed! All-due respect man, I did tell you to get out,” Erica tried to push him out again, but Reed stood his ground. “Erica listen to me, we’re about to get slaughtered! There’s some psycho bitch out there with a bunch of trigger happy guys.” They paused momentarily, hearing more gunfire outside.

Reed put his finger up to his lips, nodding at Erica and Tina, indicating to them to remain absolutely silent.

Outside, a man was desperately crawling away from the woman. He was clutching the side of his leg which had been shot. The woman stood in front of him. “P-please… I have son. Just let me go…” The man begged, still on the ground.

Mercilessly, the woman pulled out a handgun from behind her, shooting the man directly through his brain. She looked up at her men, nodding at them. They all scattered in different directions, raiding the camp as if they were looking for something, or someone.

Reed took a deep breath, sharpening up. He primed his pistol, concealing it on his side. Rolling his sleeve back down, he made sure his concealed knife was ready to be drawn out if necessary. He looked back at Erica and Tina, “If this is… it. I just want you to know, it was nice knowing you guys. Thanks for coming to seaside town.”

Erica and Tina’s hearts melted. They hadn’t thought about their first encounter with Reed since it had actually happened. They grasped each other’s hands, both equally worried about his safety. Taking one final deep breath, Reed stepped outside the gazebo.

“Good evening there,” he raised his hands far above his head, as he walked towards the woman. She raised her pistol at him. “Wait! I’m the leader of this place! You don’t wanna do that!” He pleaded for his life.

The woman kept the gun aimed at him, but hadn’t fired it yet. Still, she didn’t speak a single word.

“I um… I don’t know who you are, or what you want. But I would like to. Please, step inside my trailer. Let’s be civilised about this,” He pointed to his office, but the woman rolled her eyes, shooting a bullet at the ground just inches away from his feet.

“Christ this is gonna be hard work,” he mumbled to himself before looking up at the woman. “Fine then. I guess we’ll just talk out here… Or maybe you’re a mute?” He was trying hard not to offend her for his own safety, “Do you have a name? I mean, of course you do. My name is Reed… Can you tell me yours in any way?” He waited several seconds.

She still had the pistol pointed at him, but she lowered it ever so slightly. “Moriah,” she finally spoke, “My name is Moriah.” But that was all.

“Right… Are you from Camp Leroy? Or any camp at all? Are you here in search of Elliot?” He was cautious about the amount of questions he asked her, but he needed all of the answers as well.

“Camp Leroy? Oh… You think I’m one of Leroy’s dogs? No, no, my boys and I, we are much, much, worse.” She evilly grinned at him, raising the pistol again.

“Well I can see that!” He rushed out a dark compliment, desperate to stay alive. “You are… very… worse.” He knew his sentence made no sense, but he had to brag his way to mercy as well. “I like your pistol… I’m quite a huge fan of firearms. What model is it?” Reed couldn’t care less about the weapon manufacturer. The way he viewed weapons was that so long as it could fire bullets, he liked it.

“What’s your favourite model then?” She clearly knew Reed was lying to her. “Um…” He scratched his head, “Glock? Glock 16, maybe?” It was the first model which came to his mind, as he remembered it being engraved on his own handgun.

However, Moriah still knew he was lying. “Simon!” She turned around, calling out a name. From behind one of the tents, one of the men walked over to her with his rifle in hand, “Yes ma’am?”

She turned back to face Reed, “This one could be… useful. Cuff him and take him back to the lorry. As for the rest… kill all of them. Leave no survivors.” She stared Reed down, as he looked terrified with regards to everyone else’s safety – especially Agnes’.

Simon grabbed Reed’s arms, twisting them behind his back. He cuffed them with genuine metal handcuffs, taking him back to the lorry.

“Everyone open fire!” Moriah bellowed out, prompting Reed to turn back. He noticed the entire camp suddenly light up in a blaze of smoke and gunshots.

“No! No please!” Reed began crying, trying to break free from Simon’s grasp. He produced a Taser from his side, shocking Reed in his neck. Within seconds, he was knocked out. Now, Simon’s job of taking Reed away was a lot easier…

In the hospital, Erica and Tina treated Zach as efficiently they could while trying to remain silent as well. “That’s it, easy does it,” Erica wrapped a bandage over the exit wound. With both bleeding points covered, Zach just needed to rest now. “Phew!” Erica wiped her forehead, hugging Tina.

A soldier of Moriah’s militia burst into the tent, looking at all the patients on the beds. Erica and Tina jolted up instantly, holding on to one another’s hand tightly. The man raised his rifle at them, as Erica charged into Tina, throwing them to the ground. She quickly produced her handgun, spinning it around and shooting the man as he stepped into view again.

“Lucky headshot huh,” Erica quirkily said. She grabbed the man’s rifle, checking the clip. “It’s loaded.” She turned around and grabbed Tina’s head, “Stay here, stay safe.” She rose to her feet, but Tina pulled her back before she could leave, “I love you…” They looked deeply into each other’s eyes, before moving in for a romantic kiss, “You’ll get to say that another time,” Erica reassured her they would both be ok. As she ran out of the tent to fight back, Tina did not feel reassured at all…

“Come on then you bastards!” Erica shot up two of the soldiers wandering about, taking down a third who was completely unaware.

“There! Get her!” Moriah ordered two soldiers, as they weaved in between the tents, chasing after Erica with their rifles. Moriah followed their path steadily, a safe distance behind them. She ducked through, pushing the tents out of the way, her handgun out in front of her. She heard two shots being fired off, noticing one of the tents up ahead lighting up with gunfire, “Got you now,” she grinned, heading towards it.

She snuck around the side of the tent, pausing for several seconds at the front. Taking several breaths, she pulled the entrance back, firing off several shots inside. Looking in, she found no one. No person, no corpse, no blood at all – she was bewildered.

From behind her, the cliché sound of a gun clicking occurred. Without turning around, she nodded, with a strange smirk on her face. “Of course… Well played.” She dropped her handgun.

“Turn around, slowly,” Erica gripped her own pistol firmly, keeping it level with the back of Moriah’s head.

“Of course,” obeying Erica’s orders, she turned around slowly. Once she was half turned, she took her chances and smacked the weapon out of Erica’s hand before she could fire it. She tackled her to the ground, locking her hands on her throat.

“If at first you don’t succeed, die and die again…” She morbidly mumbled to Erica, continuing to strangle her tightly. As she tightened her grip even more, Erica’s eyes started going blood shot. Her face began turning purple, the vein on the side of her head bulging out. The only thing on Moriah’s face was a sadistic grin.

Moriah grunted as she was whacked on the back of the head. She rolled off of Erica, releasing her throat. Erica desperately caught her breath, looking up at her ‘saviour’ – Peter stood over her with a 2x4 block of wood in his hands; a construction beam from the house that was being built.

“Come on. Jacob and Arthur have already fled, there waiting for me. Let’s go,” He hoisted Erica to her feet. “Wait! What about Tina? She’s still in the gazebo! What about Zach? Or Agnes? Or Celeste? There all still in there!” Erica looked over at it, as Peter put his hands over her arms.

“Listen doc, I’m really sorry but we’ve gotta go. Tina is resourceful. She can manage on her own.” Peter looked around, hearing gunfire in a distant area of the camp. “We have to leave, now…”

Erica looked back at the gazebo one last time, and took a deep breath. “No…” She answered. “You go. I’m not leaving her to die!” She wriggled Peter’s arms off of her. Picking up the rifle and Moriah’s handgun, she ran towards the gazebo. Peter looked at his escape route, then over at Erica. He sighed, “Of course I know which way I’m going…” He picked up Erica’s handgun which she had left behind, putting it on his side. He readied his 2x4 wooden beam once again, before following on after Erica.

Inside the gazebo, Tina was trying her best to wake Celeste up, as she was the only other person who was fully-able in the hospital with her. “Come on, come on Celeste. Please!” She tried everything, but Celeste was lost in deep sleep, or perhaps something far more deadly…