Two Page Shorts by Nick Venom (top reads .txt) 📕

“Let’s go before we meet the same fate,” Esrael said as he turned around. He glanced over at Brady and squinted at him. Something’s off, he thought. His tears look real, but… why does this rub me the wrong way?

Ha, he actually believed me, thought Brady as they ran to meet up with the others. I can’t believe I managed to trick this dumb bastard!

***

Aaron had taken a few seconds to understand what happened to him. He wants me dead? Why? So he could get Gwen and the Child? That bastard! He threw Colet’s corpse off him, jumping up. He dashed towards the door, trying to open it. It was locked, leaving Aaron trapped in the building by himself. 

However, him being locked in the room proved to be a good thing. The horde of corpses outside strolled into the building, hearing his efforts of escape. They ran into the door, throwing their weight at it. They growled and snapped at him from the other side of the metal door.

Aaron turned back, quickly searching through Colet’s pockets, apologizing to her as he ransacked her items. Unfortunately, she didn’t carry a firearm on her, but she held a pocket knife in her belt. 

Now armed, he looked around for another way to escape the small room. The only entrance he knew was covered by the corpses. The only way he could escape, which he noticed after a loud sigh from it, was the vent. He jumped up on the desk, moving it slightly to fit under the vent. He began unscrewing the nails that pinned the vent door to the vent with his fingernails breaking them. His fingers bled, but he fought through the pain. The horde bashed and slammed at the door, limiting Aaron’s time before all hell was released into the small and cramped room. 

After ten minutes of using the pocket knife and his nails as screwdrivers, Aaron managed to take the vent door off and enter the vent system as the door crumbled, flooding the room with corpses. Colet’s body was quickly taken by the horde and chewed on. It was a disgusting few moments of crunching and tearing sounds. 

Meanwhile, Aaron climbed his way onto the roof by kicking the vent door open. It took him a few tries, but it worked. Now on the roof, Aaron watched as the horde flooded into the building, taking control of the store. “What happened,” he muttered to himself. As he stood idly on the roof, Brady’s words shot through his brain, pushing him to react. Brady and Jerek, those two pieces of scum. Want to kill me like Brie’s fiance and let that be it? I’m a hunter, trained by the government. I was trained to hunt people like you, who betray each other for your own selfish greed. People who kill to save themselves. I hate people like that. 

Aaron looked out at the surrounding area, not able to see any of the members of the scavenging team. They were gone, which made sense. It had been over ten minutes since he was declared dead. No reason to go back if a trusted member said he was dead.

“I wanted to protect Gwen and the Child… and Emma. You didn’t want that. Why?” He questioned, staring off. “If that’s how you want to play, I’ll play too… The hunt has begun.”

The town of Celina was in sight. In a matter of tens of minutes, we would reach it. We would be out of the grip of Alpha Fox base. Out of the leader’s devilish grip. We would be free.

As we entered, the others and I crept carefully into town, inspecting every building we came upon. The city was in disarray, full of crumbling buildings and desolate neighborhoods. Nobody was waiting for us with a warm welcome. Everything was eerily empty. 

“How long do you think it’ll take them to return?” Salinas asked, creeping into an already destroyed house. The building was a one-story house that had lost its roof and walls, but not its floor.

“A week, at most. If any trouble then maybe longer.” Garfield said, resting his back against a pillar holding up air. The roof was long gone by the time we arrived.

I shook my head as I approached a lonely chair. The table that it was positioned against wasn’t there anymore, the chair being the sole survivor. “Then we wait here for a week. Let’s wait for them.” I thought out loud as I wiped the dust off the chair, sitting down.

I swung my body to face Garfield and Salinas. “What else can we do?”

“She’s right,” Garfield said. Salinas rubbed his nape, nodding his head.

“Okay, since it was my idea to split apart, we’ll stay here. However, we need to figure out our living conditions. This house-” He pointed at our surroundings.”-isn’t the five-star hotel I was looking forward to.”

Garfield cracked a small smile, nodding. “Let’s go check for any food, water, and non-destroyed buildings to sleep in.” Salinas and I nodded. Salinas walked out of the house, Garfield following after him. I stood up to follow them but stopped short when Garfield suddenly turned around to meet my eyes. “Are you okay?” He asked.

I nodded, slightly confused. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No, it’s… it’s nothing.” He turned around and followed Salinas to a new neighborhood where the buildings were in better condition. I lingered behind, watching Garfield. That was weird, but… Hmm? 

I discarded my thoughts as quickly as they arrived, picking up my pace to keep up with them. It was time to begin our new lives. Our new lives in the abandoned city of Celina. For seven days.

***

Seven days passed faster than expected. Neither Luna nor Lee appeared at Celina. None of their family members arrived either, confusing us. What could have happened to stop them from escaping? Unless they were captured.

Salinas was thinking the same, sitting on the couch in the living room portion of the house we found still intact. He turned to face us, a pointed finger raised in the air. “They had to be captured by them. There’s no way that it took them a week to reach this place. We reached this place in no more than a day.”

Garfield’s footsteps could be heard from the second floor, going towards the top of the stairs before making his descent downward. He reached the living room, turning to face Salinas on the couch and me on a chair nearby. “He’s right, they had to be captured. Now, the question is what do we do?”

Salinas lowered his finger, shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t want to leave them, but I also don’t want to return to that god-forsaken place. We’ll be captured as well and tortured worse than Lee and Luna already are.”

I watched as Garfield nodded his head, contemplating our choices. We could go and see if our suspicions are right or begin our trek away from this city and distanced ourselves from Alpha Fox. It wasn’t an easy decision with our past in mind. Lee and Luna survived Operation Iron Hold with us, so leaving them didn’t sit well with us - but being captured by Alpha Fox wasn’t a good choice either. However, I decided to go with the former.

“Let’s help them,” I whispered. Garfield and Salinas stared at me. I jumped up from my chair, attracting their attention more. I looked at the both of them, declaring, “let’s help them.”

Garfield smiled, nodding. “I agree, let’s go.”

“Well… what do I have to lose?” Salinas said, rising from the couch. He grabbed his rifle, checking his total bullet count. Garfield did the same, looking up at me with a small smile.

“Lead the way, Lindsay.” I nodded, grabbing my rifle. I beckoned them to follow me, leading them out of the house and towards Alpha Fox. Soon we’ll be at the fort that raised, trained and discarded us. We’ll be home.

***

We reached Alpha Fox a day after leaving Celina, finding ourselves staring at the large stone fortress that was our home. It stood terrifying in one piece, still bustling with people even after Iron Hold’s failure.

Guards were posted outside of the main ten-foot walls, standing at attention. They were armed with rifles, wearing a mismatch of tactical clothing. The guards had no experience with guns, but they were still given the weapons.

“I can’t believe we’re back,” Salinas remarked, crouched behind me. We were crouching on top of a hill a decent distance away from the fort.

Garfield, who was to my right, nodded his head. “We need to get inside and see what happened to Luna and Lee. I know someone inside the base who may sell us that information.”

“Someone?” Salinas questioned. “Are you sure we can trust them and they’re not in cahoots with the government? And what would we give this person? We found enough supplies to stretch for a week for three people, but that’s it. We can’t hand over our weapons or our lives.”

I nodded my head. “I agree with Salinas. You know how the government is. Who knows how many spies they have waiting for our return. They killed the other squads, most likely without a second thought. What will stop them from doing it to us? You remember Hackman.”

Garfield nodded, staring at the ground. He bit his lip, thinking about something.

Salinas appeared at my left. “We all remember Hackman. That may be a bit too much to say, though.”

I nodded, relenting. “Okay, let’s go meet this person then. The only question is how do we get in and where do we find this person?”

Garfield raised his head, catching something moving at the corner of his eyes. He turned around, staring at the forest line behind us. We were in a compromising location, a small hill surrounded by trees on three sides and the fourth looking towards the fort.

“What’s wrong?” Salinas asked, straining his neck to look into the sea of trees behind us. “Have we been found out?”

Garfield didn’t move a muscle, calmly peering into the trees. After a few seconds, he turned around and grabbed my hand, dragging me over the hump of the hill. He tripped on rocks embedded into the hill, crashing onto the other side of the hill and dragging me with him. 

I hit the descending part of the hill head-first, being nicked by a rock, before rolling to a stop at the bottom of the hill. I turned myself over, sitting up. Garfield, next to me, jumped up. He was bleeding at his forehead, wiping it off with his sleeve.

Garfield turned around, hearing gunfire. Salinas, thankfully, had followed him and went over the hill before the gunfire started. None of the bullets were close enough to nick him. 

Garfield turned to face me, holding out his hand. I grabbed his hand, being thrown forward. He was running, dragging me with him. “Catch up, Salinas!” He shouted. 

At first, he dragged me with him, but I slowly got the pace of him. I ran as quickly as he was, matching his strides. Salinas did the same, always a few steps behind him. I could hear his heavy breathing. 

Garfield tried to