Rains of Heaven & Sprouts of Hell: by Nick Venom (ereader android .TXT) 📕

“Arm yourselves, we got a large horde!” Houston shouted. “Shoot and retreat! Shoot and retreat! Shoot and retreat, you bastards!”

They complied.

TBC…

The Attack Squad popped off shots as they moved backward, falling back to the humvees parked at the entrance to the one-way neighborhood. The drivers sitting inside of their humvees roared their vehicles alive and maneuvered them around, pointing their rear-end to the soldiers. 

“Shoot and retreat, you bastards!” Houston shouted, alerting more roamers at the same time he alerted his unit. They all scattered out of the houses and sprinted towards the humvees, some ditching their bags out of fear they would be the unlucky ones claimed by the horde. 

Emile and Ryder, meanwhile, followed the others and headed towards the humvees. Ryder lowered his gun, running as quickly as he could. He then stopped as he approached the humvee, turning to face the horde. He raised his gun and peered down the iron sights at the roamers as they sprinted towards them. 

“Fire!” Emile shouted. “Hold the trigger and pray you hit one of them!” He ordered as he stared at the horde coming towards them with his gun pointed in their direction. Houston was barely able to keep ahead of the roamers, but they would soon overcome him if given more time and space. Fortunately for him, most of his unit had jumped into the humvees or lingered outside to assist him. They poured bullets into the horde, creating a massive dent in them. 

However, then one of Ryder’s comrades alerted them to a new problem. “Roamers flanking us! Roamers flanking us! Focus on the front! Focus on the front!” The soldier shouted, pointing his gun at the roamers that came from the nearby neighborhood and alleyways. They trickled initially into the soldiers’ views before erupting like a flash flood. Soldiers that lingered outside now dove into the safety of the humvees in time to avoid being hit by the flood. Ryder, Emile, and Houston found themselves jumping into one of the humvees before they were overwhelmed.

“Get those pits closed!” Houston ordered before grabbing at a walkie-talkie pinned to his belt. He repeated his order into the radio, alerting the other two humvees who quickly complied. The hatches to the machine gun pits were slammed shut before the roamers crawled over the front and back windshields, saving the inhabitants of each humvee.

Houston, who watched as the roamers surrounded their humvees, smacked his lips. “Damn, this is a funny situation to get out of.”

“Is it possible?” Emile asked.

“Well, there isn’t an easy answer to that,” Houston responded as he looked around, doing his best to peer through the fleshy mess that blocked his view of the humvees. “Can we move or are we trapped?” He asked the driver.

“Let me try,” The driver responded before stepping on the gas, applying little pressure before adding to it. The humvee roared into action and slammed into the roamers in front of them, creating a dent but nothing much after that. The tires quickly got caught by the flesh, deflated organs, and disintegrating bones that went underneath the vehicle. The humvee was now stuck. 

“No good, sir. I’m putting everything into it and it’s not enough.” The driver said, staring at the rearview mirror at Houston. “What should we do?”

Houston opened his mouth but was interrupted by piercing metal-bending sounds. The roamers were damaging the humvees, putting dents into them. 

“What the hell?” Houston angrily asked. “Can you go in reverse?”

The driver nodded, switching gears with ease. He slammed on the reverse, jerking the car backward and into the roamers swarming the rear. They ran over the roamers, escaping their unfortunate situation.

“Get us away from the horde then open the pit,” Houston ordered. He then turned to face the others. “Get out and fire at the roamers.” His unit nodded and spilled out to accomplish their tasks. A soldier jumped into the pit, roaring the machine gun into action. He sprayed at the roamers headed towards him while Emile, Ryder, and the co-driver provided support. They gunned down the roamers that had been surrounding their humvee before going for the next one. 

The soldier on the machine gun laughed as he sprayed into the roamers, feeling satisfaction at their deaths. He giggled as he aimed at their heads, making them explode or deflate with one easy press of a trigger. However, he then felt something strange on his uniform, spending a moment to look for the cause. He held down the trigger and pointed it at the roamers in front of the humvee while moving his right arm’s sleeves around in search of the cause. He quickly found it - a hole the size of a penny. The hole had gone through his uniform but stopped before it touched flesh. 

The soldier’s eyes widened as he recognized what had happened. “Acid rain!” He shouted. “Acid rain! It’s raining! It’s raining!” He shouted, alerting Emile and Ryder who immediately jumped into the humvee. The soldier began to climb down but stopped himself when he noticed roamers behind him. I got time. I just need to kill a few more. He thought to himself as he turned the gun towards the roamers. He fired on them, killing a few before he felt the rain singe his uniform and helmet. Knowing that he had very few moments left, he slid down and closed the hatch before it began pouring. The rain refused to stop, coming in droves and melting the humvees. It couldn’t and wouldn’t stop.

TBC... 

Houston watched as his comrade escaped the pouring rain, slouching in his chair. He breathed heavily, his near-death experience being great and scarring. Almost as scarring as the acid rain that pounded the top of the humvee. 

“Sir, what should we do?” The driver asked.

“Get us back to HQ now!” Houston shouted before grabbing his walkie-talkie. Do not leave the humvees, it’s raining. I repeat, DO NOT LEAVE THE HUMVEES!” He ordered to no avail. The other two humvees had followed his early order and reversed out of the horde but they had received more damage. One of the humvees had a window punched through by the roamers, though the window had been ‘roamer-proof’, and one of the inhabitants was bitten. This created a panic that led to two deaths and a wounded person. However, the co-driver had gotten out to seal off the window before they moved. He was quickly killed by the acid rain, becoming a puddle version of himself. The others inside the humvee were affected by the acid rain that used the wind to fly into the humvee, scarring them. The other humvee, meanwhile, faced a similar situation but with one death (the machine gunner) and with fewer broken windows. 

This irritated Houston who hated that his unit was ignoring his orders and falling to their deaths. Unfortunately for him, these weren’t the last deaths.

“Get out of here!” He screamed into the walkie-talkie, hoping that the other humvees heeded his order. Fortunately, they complied. The drivers turned around and drove away from the roamer horde that followed after them, now a trickle instead of an actual horde. Their numbers had decreased significantly because of the lead poured into them and the acid rain which harmed them - though, not as much as it did to humans. 

Houston’s humvee turned around and followed the others, moving out of the neighborhood and towards their home - Winter Hollow. Waiting for them were their friends and families, only if they survived, however. 

The humvees moved in a single-file line, escaping the grip of the residential block and acid rain - it let up several minutes after escaping the block as if it was concentrated there only. 

As they headed home, the humvees ran out of fuel, forcing Houston to order them to stop off to the side of the road to refuel. The survivors spilled out of the humvees and established a perimeter as the humvees were refueled. 

Houston directed his unit around, ordering them to avoid the grass on the side of the wall as nature had long reclaimed the area, before taking a glance at the casualties. They had lost four people in the attack, mostly due to the acid rain than the roamers. However, it was more than Houston liked. 

“Sir, what should we do now?” Emile asked him as he stared at the humvee with a broken window. A wounded soldier was propped against the door with a still functional window, bandaged and healthy. He had a few scars from the acid rain that hit him but nothing compared to his comrades who burned to death. 

“We keep moving.” Houston declared. “Otherwise we lose more men.”

Emile nodded. “Got it, sir.” He said before turning away and going off to assist others. Ryder, meanwhile, lingered at Houston’s side. Houston glanced at him before looking away.

“You have a girlfriend, right?” He asked.

Ryder nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“You love her?”

Ryder nodded. “With all my heart, sir.”

Houston scoffed at him. “Such cheesy lines, Ryder.” He remarked, turning to face him. “I’ll make sure you return to her.”

Ryder nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

Houston waved his comment off. “Don’t jinx it. Thank me when you’re in her arms. I’ll accept it then.” He told Ryder before a scream attracted his attention. He looked in the general direction of the scream, noticing one of his soldiers being attacked by something in the grass. He instantly recognized what was attacking him - a sprout of hell; Hellplants, a species of plants that resembled Venus flytraps but hellish and made to trap humans instead of flies. These plants hid from sight by using their camouflage ability to blend in with normal vegetation, which made them difficult to spot. 

“Hellplants, get out of the grass!” Houston shouted as he raced towards his comrade. Ryder followed after him, raising his gun. He peered through the iron sights and snapped his aim towards the hellplant, which was difficult to see through the dense vegetation. He waited until he got a clear shot before pressing the trigger, hitting the plant’s roots where it was the most vulnerable, killing it with ease. The hellplant had raised the soldier high into the air using its vines that it utilized like arms. However, now that it was dead, it dropped the soldier onto solid ground. Houston approached him, grabbing his arm and picking him off the floor. He then spun around and led the soldier away from the vegetation.

Unfortunately for Houston, he was presented with more problems as