The Rabid: Rise Read Free Page B

and all weapons or we will kill you and that little bitch.” 
    I know it's over. That I am just stalling the inevitable. I always told myself that if it ever came to this that I wouldn't be like the other pathetic bastards; clinging and clawing to life. That I'd go out and stand tall and face my fate like a man.
    It's not that easy though.
    The reaper is knocking at the door.
    Hard.
    I'm giving him every excuse I've got, but, he’s growing impatient.
    Be right there, fixing my tie, gimme one minute.
    I can't ward him off much longer. He’ll break through and take me.
    Worse...
    he’ll take her.
    Ready or not, here I come.
    “I'm ready Tim.” Bethany is looking up at me. Her eyes are glossy but her voice is steady.
    “ Ready?”
    “ To go down fighting. They're going to hurt us, bad. It's better to go down fighting. Better for it to be quick.”
    “ No, Bethany, don't you dare!”
    Bethany is holding her gun. Checking the magazine. Pulling back the slide. “Tim, I love you, but there's no getting out of this.” I can feel her trying to pull away. “I love you, Tim.”
    “ Stop, stop, no, Bethany!” She's wriggling. Clawing my one arm from around her waist while warding off the other with the back of her gun hand. “I love you, please, stop!”
    When did I start crying?
    When I realized that there was no stopping her?
    When I realized that I'd just held my sister for the last time?
    She’s standing in the hallway now. Raising her weapon. Answering the knocking at the door.
    “ I love you, Tim,” she says, tears rolling down her cheeks.
    My knees buckle. I can't reach her. I can't save her. Not this time.
    That submachine gun pop pulls the oxygen from my lungs once more.
    Sinister .
    Like some tiny blade trying to sink its tip into a vital organ.
    There is the thud of bodies.
    I'm screaming.
    Arms reaching.
    Bethany...
    She’s still standing.
    Gun outstretched.
    Mouth wide with disbelief.

 
     
     
    5
     
    I step from cover. I stand beside Bethany. Knees still shaky. Eyes still wet. Gun raised. Ready to meet the reaper right along with her.
    The reaper isn't here for me.
    It's here for Dwyer and his squad.
    He’s a tall dark skinned man with a scraggly chin strap and hoop earrings. He carries a silenced machine gun. He wears a black tactical vest that carries two spare magazines across the right side of his belly. There is a pistol holstered diagonally across the left side with another magazine of ammunition in a Velcro pouch sitting directly on top of it.
    The dark skinned man's partner i s shorter in stature. She's got fiery eyes that shift from blue to green in the changing light. Her hair falls across her right shoulder in streaks of blonde and black, the left side of her head is shaved close. She wears a white tank top, now stained red with blood. It falls just short of her navel, exposing a dark black tattoo that winds in elegant curves up her tanned torso, partially concealed by the cropped shirt and low riding brown khakis tucked into high top black combat boots. She carries twin katanas dripping with crimson and entrails. She twirls them into their sheaths and smiles with full red lips as Dwyer’s head lies detached beside her left foot. The machine gun pop I'd heard when Bethany stepped into the hall had been Dwyer’s trigger finger locked in a death squeeze, like a chicken running around with its head cut off; he'd sprayed MP5 rounds in a rainbow arch before coming to rest on his back.
    The tall dark man steps across the pile of severed limbs and punctured torsos, his gun pointed down towards the floor. I can't tell if he is a threat. “I am Ruiz, this is my sister Katia. You're the one with the item?”
    I take a step forward, placing Bethany behind me, ready to raise my pistol sights on him.
    “ We're not here to hurt you or your sister. We're here to help.”
    A voice echoes up the stair well behind them. “Hey, you two, okay up there?”
    Katia bounds over to the railing. She looks to be