Camp Zero (Book 2): State of Shock Read Free Page B

region where the bunker was. The moment we arrived in the clearing, I slammed on the brakes, grabbed my M4, pushed out of the vehicle and approached the edge of the trees. Luke, Corey and Billy circled around while Ally offered to stay with Kiera in the locked vehicle. After seeing what she had done, I was beginning to think that having Billy hang back would have been a better idea.
    The closer we got, the clearer the flames were. Tongues of orange licked at the sides of the open hatch.
    “Check the escape exit,” I said to Corey. He and Billy went off into the woods as we got closer to the main hatch. We couldn’t get too close because the fire had now burned up the brush that once hid its location. The intensity of the heat was so great that we had to shield our eyes. That’s when we began fanning out looking for anyone who might have got out.
    “Sam,” Corey shouted. “You better come and see this.”
    I rushed over in the direction of where his voice was coming from. Branches and brush snapped beneath my boots as I pushed my way through. That’s when I took in the sight of five bodies. They had been shot execution-style in the head. Based on the amount of shells scattered around, it looked as if they had been firing in every direction.
    I was still staring down at the dead when my name was called again. Deeper in the forest, Luke had found the body of Brett with two bullets in his back, facedown and still clutching a Glock. Based on his location, it looked as if he was trying to escape. I dropped to my knees and checked his breathing even though I could tell from the color of his skin that he was gone. My chest became heavy as I inhaled faster and my brain tried to make sense of what happened.
    “There had to have been a lot of them.”
    After seeing Brett dead, we didn’t have high hopes for what might have happened to the rest. It was Ally that found Maria and Sophia, Corey’s mother and sister. She had seen them from the vehicle. Sophia’s leg stuck out from beyond a fallen, decaying log. When Ally reached us her breathing was fast and I could tell she was going to pass out if she didn’t slow down.
    “Where’s my father?”
    “We can’t find him.”
    “Hey guys. Guys.” Hearing Billy’s voice off in the distance made me gulp. I had an image in my mind of Ally mourning over her father’s dead body. She reached Billy before we did. And though she broke into tears, it wasn’t Murphy. It was Dan. His body was riddled with bullets as though he had put up one hell of a fight. All around him were golden shells. A trail of blood could be seen smeared across leaves and pieces of bark.
    As I bent at the knees, I noticed he was holding something in his hand. I pried open his fingers to find a piece of paper. Scrawled on it was the word — military. It looked as if he was trying to write something else but had been shot in the process. His fingers had smeared blood all over the paper.
    I placed a hand over my eyes.
    “Look around. Check for Shaw and Murphy.”
    As I came out of the thick woodland, I saw Corey on his knees in front of his mother. He was holding his sister’s lifeless hand. His head rested against his mother’s body. I had never experienced a close bond with any foster parent, neither had I known the loss of my biological parents but in that moment I felt his pain.

Chapter 4 - Murphy
    I f I had known they were going to attack, I would have done everything in my power to stop it, even if it meant dying in the process. Shaw and I were on the way back from night fishing when our vehicle was stopped. They were already en route to the forest. The sound of distant gunfire must have caught their attention. That’s the only way they could have known our group was there. With no towns in the general vicinity, there was no other reason why they would have headed in that direction.
    Initially I thought it was the beginning of the government’s attempt to bring order to the nation so there was no