Terror Hell: by Nick Venom (great books for teens .txt) 📕

Chloe returned with a Molotov, handing it to Lynn. Lynn thanked her, grabbing the Molotov and glancing to her right. “Are you gonna do it? Or should everybody here die?” 

“I-” He gulped down the saliva puddling in his mouth. “-don’t want anybody to die!” He shouted as he threw the Molotov at Brainy. The second Molotov was enough to scare off Brainy, but not finish her. They couldn’t kill Brainy with the Molotovs, but they could, at least, grant themselves some time. With this extra time, they could monitor and prepare a way to end the vile beast.

“As long as you keep those monsters away from us, then nobody will,” Lynn told him, extinguishing the Molotov in her hand. “Freeze up again and there will be more bodies than one to clean up.” She glanced at Rale’s body, impaled in the middle and slowly blackening, decomposing some distance from them. “Rale died to protect us and to teach you a lesson. Don’t you dare forget it!”

Lynn and Chloe left the roof, leaving Killian to clean up Rale’s body and to reflect on his mistakes. He didn’t want to cause another death because he wasn’t paying attention or wasn’t strong enough to assist. He wanted to be stronger.

TBC…

Red reached the Town Hall easier the second time. It was almost as if the monsters were avoiding his presence, allowing him to travel through the streets with ease. If it was because of the parasite living in his head or not was unknown to him.

He knocked on Town Hall’s door, waiting for a response. Roseanne opened the door ajar, peering out into the near darkness. Her eyes tried desperately to adjust to the darkness, but, when they did, they quickly recognized Red. “What are you doing here, Red?” She asked.

“Delivering supplies,” He nonchalantly responded, as if he was employed to a soul-sucking delivery job.

“I’m guessing that Mert believes we’re running low in supplies,” Roseanne said, a hint of disgust lying into her voice.

He nodded his head. “Yeah, I think he does. This bag doesn’t have much, but it's better than nothing.”

Roseanne tilted her head and raised one eyebrow. “Red, are you okay?” She asked, paying attention to his near ghost-pale face. He hadn’t realized that his face flushed while he struggled to figure out whether or not he was a monster.

Red tilted his head, furrowing his brows. “What do you mean?”

“You seem quite sad. You don’t give off the same aura as you did the last time you were here. Did something happen? Did...” Her voice trailed off. “Did somebody die?”

Red shook his head. “No, no, no. Nothing of that sort, I’m just…” It was his turn for his voice to trail off. “At the very least, I’m okay. Anyways, how long can you last here with your current supplies?”

Roseanne noted his weird behavior and was about to challenge his attitude, but figured that he could solve the problem on his own - going along with his topic changer line. “A week, at most. Most of the survivors here eat like bears, chomping on the smallest bits of food we have, so the supplies will be gone quickly”

“Hopefully you have a few deers to balance stuff out.” He joked.

“Unfortunately, there are fewer of those than monsters.” She responded dryly.

“Yeah… anyways, is there somewhere where we could find more supplies from?” Red asked.

Roseanne stroked her chin and furrowed her brows. She glanced around the Town Hall, staring at the locations through the walls as if she had x-ray vision. In her head, she analyzed a map of Solaris.

“There’s a grocery store behind the Kurupt house.” She said, pointing a finger in the direction of the store.

“The grocery store?” Red questioned, looking in the direction she pointed towards. “Is it still operational? The monsters wrecked a handful of buildings.”

“You’re right, we lost some residential buildings and so, but Mace saw the place intact. It’s boarded up, so the supplies should still be there.” She told him.

“Okay, then how many people can you send? Six? Seven?”

Roseanne looked around the main room of Town Hall at the unmotivated and fearful survivors. “Not many,” she remarked.

“Then, I’ll go,” Red volunteered. 

Roseanne glanced at him before opening her mouth to speak, She almost shot him down before an idea popped into his mind. She reached for the walkie-talkie tied to her waist.

“Let me report this to Mert.” She said as she changed the channel on the device. “Mert, I want to send out Red with a scavenger group to hit the nearby grocery store.” She reported. 

Mert didn’t respond instantly, hesitating to answer. “Okay, let him go on his own.”

“Alone!” Roseanne shouted, catching the attention of the other survivors. She apologized to them for her sudden outburst, turning back to face the walkie-talkie. “That’s absurd, letting a sixteen-year-old go on his own with these monsters roaming around.”

“Why not? He has the most experience with avoiding monsters than anybody else.” Mert argued, trying to convince her. “He’ll be… fine, I think.”

Roseanne ignored his words, shouting out to the survivors, “anybody volunteers to follow Red to the nearby store to pick up supplies?” Unfortunately, nobody responded instantly; it was a suicide mission and they knew it.

“I’ll go,” shouted Carter.

“Me too!” Kaylee chimed in.

Roseanne nodded, thanking the two. She changed the channel to the Eastwood home and asked them the same questions, receiving two responses from siblings, Mae and Freddy. 

With a team of five set up, she ordered the siblings to sprint across the street and meet with the rest of the team. 

The siblings arrived five minutes later, finalizing the scavenger team. Red was given the position of leader because of his experience in the outside world. He had only traveled from Mert’s house to Town Hall and argued that Carter, who was the oldest of the five, should be the leader. However, Carter argued that his experience was in blacksmithing and not avoiding ungodly monsters. 

Red quickly gave up, accepting the position.

“Good, with our leader decided, it’s almost time for you five to leave. Remember, once you’re outside, pay attention to every sound. Keep quiet and out of sight. Never allow the monsters to pick up your trace. The supplies you’re looking for will be in the J & D Mart. There should be enough to feed the entire population here. Without them-” She brought her voice to whisper to prevent the fragile survivors from hearing. “-we have a week, at minimum. Now, can you all handle this pressure?”

“I can’t let a sixteen-year-old outshine me,” Carter remarked.

“I already volunteered,” Kaylee said.

“I got nothing else to do, but sit and chill. Might as well get some experience for the future” Freddy stated.

“I wouldn’t let Red go by himself,” Mae muttered under her breath, faint enough to avoid being heard by Red, who stood farther away from her than Roseanne, but enough to be heard by the others.

“We will survive, because I’ll see to it,” Red whispered.

***

“How’s Killian doing?” Lynn asked Chloe, sitting down in her room. She sat down at a wooden table, which was filled to the brim with sketches, ideas, and intel for expanding the Outpost and eliminating the monsters.

“Better, especially with the sniper Mike made for him. It’s a bit crude, but fit enough for its purpose.”

Lynn nodded, watching as Brad---Lynn’s boyfriend and co-leader of the Outpost---entered Lynn’s room. He walked up to the table, sitting across from Lynn. “Okay, Chloe?”

Chloe nodded, tilting her head. “Yes?”

“How are Valeria and the others? There’s only twelve of us in this place, so we’ll need all hands on deck.”

“Uh…” Chloe’s voice trailed off.

“Don’t tell me that we already have cases of insanity?”

“I’m afraid so, miss. Jimmy and Alexia have gone insane already and been put in the basement to recover. Valeria should be in charge of guarding them.”

Lynn put her hands on her face before pressing her forehead against the table. “Argh!” She muttered. “That cuts us down to ten. Damn it!” She shouted, jumping out of her chair. “Is that the extent of the bad news?”

“Yes, miss. I only have good news left.”

“Perfect, I need it.”

“Killian reported that he noticed a kid moving around through the streets and backyards to Town Hall. He thinks that there may be survivors there.”

“Survivors?” Lynn jumped at the word. “Then we’re not the only people here. There’s the kid and… there could be more…” Her voice trailed off, excited to hear of other people surviving the initial chaos. 

“I’ll lead a team to investigate it. If there are more survivors, we’ll establish a connection or take them in.” Brad said, standing up from the chair. He walked over to the door and left without saying anything else. 

“Is everything okay with him?” Chloe whispered.

“He’s worried about his parents. They were separated during the initial chaos. I think he wants to go out and find them.”

“Don’t we all?” Chloe rhetorically asked.

“Nope, my parents died a year ago.”

“Oh!” Chloe’s eyes widened as she began apologizing. However, Lynn stopped her.

“It’s fine. I think it’s better that they didn’t see their hometown being destroyed by monsters. Honestly, having a peaceful death seems like bliss right now.”

“I see,”

“I would enjoy a peaceful death. It seems like dying brutally is the new craze and I, for one, don’t like it.”

TBC…

The group of five---Red, Kaylee, Carter, Mae, and Freddy---were dispatched from Town Hall towards the grocery store. They were followed by the hope of Roseanne and the survivors in the Town Hall. Most of the survivors resting there were too weak, sickly, or cowardly to assist in the trip. They remained behind, waiting for their next meal. 

Roseanne wasn’t able to assist in the hunt because she was the leader of Town Hall. She single-handedly saved everybody now resting in the Town Hall, and was responsible for rationing and protecting the decaying building. Due to many people not having a favorable opinion of Roseanne, any plans to renovate the building were prevented. Many hated her and didn’t want a sliver of the budget going towards her or anything she participated in. However, she didn’t care about the haters that wanted to tear her down. She remained in her position, making the community safer by making the fence an electric one and outlawing weapons. 

Although she had good reasons for outlawing weapons and making an electric fence, it blew up in her face. She prevented them from escaping as the generator was an older model---as