The Long Dark by B.J. Farmer (reading women .TXT) 📕

somewhere near the fire. Several supersonic pops could be heard overhead. “Shoot back,” Sam pleaded.

“Shoot, where?”

“In the damn direction you came,” Sam said.

My fingers were frozen. It was hard to tell if my exposed fingers were even touching metal because they were so cold and swollen. With some effort, I managed to pull the trigger. It bucked to beat hell, but then nothing. It had stopped working. Sam was peeling off round after round downrange, but for whatever reason, my gun just stopped. “You got ta keep pullin the damn trigger,” Sam said, exacerbated.

“Fuck,” I said, feeling stupid for thinking every rifle was automatic.

Not knowing how many bullets were in my gun, I shot slowly. Between shots, I could hear the shuffle of feet all around us, not to mention the howls. I had never heard a Gray do that. I wasn’t sure why they weren’t attacking. I didn’t know if it was because of the strong smell of the repellent I wore, or if the snow had shorted their senses. I took a couple shots at ones who managed to come too close to us. I didn’t know if any of the bullets had found their target or not.

A knock of a diesel engine could be heard over the din. It came from somewhere to the south of us. Powerful lights flicked on. The vehicle crossed over the road that split the base. It stopped near the burning dish. I knew because I could no longer see as much of the glowing fire.

The howling of the Grays became more intense.

“Shut ‘em fuckers up,” Sam said.

“I can’t see them to shut them up,” I returned.

Grays aside for a moment, we were lying in the middle of the road. There was a large berm of snow to our right, the remnant of keeping the base’s roads clear of snow. “Other side of the snowbank,” I said as I stumbled through the rough snow, before sliding down the side of the berm. Tish and Sam toppled over soon after.

“Shit,” Sam hissed.

“See what you’ve done--”

“Yell at me later, Tish,” I whispered. “We got bigger problems.”

“Yeah, like shootin at ‘at damn truck up ‘ere. Shoot at the lights. And dammit, Tish, you gotta help, girl. You can’t just lay ‘ere. We need you.”

We expended several shots in the truck’s direction before the snow berm exploded with return fire.

“The Grays, son. ‘Ey honin in on us. We gotta take ‘em out, or we finished.”

“Fuck,” I said, both because of what Sam had said, and that my rifle was out of ammo. I had brought an extra magazine but didn’t know how to load it. As most always, Sam knew I needed help. He grabbed the mag and the rifle and quickly alleviated my issue.

A second or two, maybe, after Sam handed me back my rifle, two things happened at the same time. The diesel sped by our position, a fiery payload in tow, and something landed not more than a couple feet away.

“Goddamn grenade,” Sam yelled.

There was an explosion, alright, but it wasn’t from a grenade. Screeching howls filled the night. Footfalls came closer and closer. Couple that with withering gunfire from the south, and we were just straight up fucked.

Sensing movement behind us, I turned to see a Gray standing over Tish. Sam lit him up with two rounds to the face and head. It fell in a heap on top of Tish. She screamed, her arms flailing as she smacked and pushed at the dead Gray.

More footfalls could be heard from behind us. “They’re flanking us,” I said as at least five Grays, maybe many more, came running at us from behind. The sound of gunfire seemed to be getting closer from the opposite side of the berm, but I wasn’t sure if I was imagining that – imagining the worst. We had more pressing issues, anyway.

I had managed to take out a Gray who had charged from the side.  More withering gunfire. They were advancing on us. I couldn’t see them, but it made sense that they would. “Concentrate on the Grays, Sam, those bastards shooting at us are advancing,” I said.

Sam cursed a reply before dropping Gray that had fallen over the berm and made for an easy kill.

I heard movement just over the lip of the berm. Not seeming to care about the repellent on my jacket, the Gray was on me in a blink, his fingers probing my face before settling on my eyeballs. Sam shot him, a geyser of blood filling the air, but it didn’t stop the bastard from trying to push my eyeballs into my skull. Sam cursed as I struggled to get the man off me. His rancid breath blew in my face as he exerted himself. I was growing tired of fighting, and he was squeezing harder and harder. There was a blinding light and a loud explosion. My ears rang as I lay dazed.

Sam turned his attention back towards our flank just in time to take aim at two Grays. One fell, but Sam was struggling to bring the other down. Click. He was out of ammunition. Sam braced himself for impact, but I somehow managed to push the Gray off me and fire off a lucky shot that clipped the Gray somewhere in the leg, just before he attacked Sam. The Gray spun before falling. Sam whacked the Gray with the butt of the rifle until it was clear he was no longer a threat.

“We gotta do somethin ‘bout ‘em shooters,” Sam said, struggling to load a fresh magazine into his rifle. His voice had a tremble to it.

I was dizzy from the attack, but I managed a nod.

Sam moved over to Tish. “Damn, girl, we gonna die if you don’t help us. Come on, girl.”

“Okay,” she managed. She slowly moved just to the left of me, near the lip of the berm.

We could see the blast from the shooters' rifles. They shot in such a manner that they never ran out