After Cara and I had blocked the door and I was confident that it was going to keep the zombies at bay, all there was to do was figure how and when I was going to take out my friend.

I could’ve push him off the roof when he next looked over the ledge, but that seemed a bit less ‘final’ than I’d like.

I could’ve just started shooting, but I’d already seen that he was far quicker than I with a gun.

To me, that left only one option, and that was to sneak up on him, take my knife, and literally stab him in the back.

I was right about to take the opportunity, Cara was out of the potential crossfire, Stan was looking over the ledge, and I was mere feet from him, but that’s when I saw something fiery hurtling out of the sky toward the building across the street before disappearing in the foggy shroud.

“Looks like people are finally using their points…” Stan muttered, “You reckon he knows we’re here?”

“Who?” I asked, my hand hovering over the handle of my blade as I casually inched my way closer.

“Whoever called in that pod,” Stan replied concernedly, “I mean, there’s no reason they’d call one in without being nearby, right?”

That little question was enough to stop me in my tracks.

“Do you think it could’ve been an infrared sight or something?” I asked as I let my hand drift away from my knife and to my hip.

“Maybe, I mean, that’s what I’d order in if I had gun that was compatible with it.”

“AS50 has an infrared scope,” Cara announced confusedly as she walked over to us, “I’m pretty sure it’s one of those high-tech alien ones with night and x-ray vision capabilities.”

“Let me rephrase, that’s what I’d order if I could afford it and had access to the tier three stuff.” Stan clarified matter-of-factly, “Anyway, point is that this rooftop could get very interesting in the next few minutes.”

“Only if he decides to do something stupid,” I sighed before stalking my way over to one of the milk crates and taking a seat, my opportunity to rid us of Stan having evaporated once Cara had decided to get close enough, “you know, like shoot at us.”

“I don’t see the stupidity in that.” Stan replied defensively.

“Muzzle flash.” I said flatly.

“And what if he got in a flash hider at the same time as the scope?” Stan asked, striving for an argument that I didn’t see the point in, “Again, that’s what I’d do if I wanted to kit myself out for the endgame.”

“Look,” Cara practically grunted as she came between the two of us, “I’m hearing a lot of baseless assumptions and useless bickering when what I should be hearing is plans to get us off this roof. Seriously, I’m sick of getting up in places like this. It’s like the world’s biggest, lamest version of leapfrog.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that last part, which earned me a rather sour look from Stan who was still looking back and forth from the building.

“I want off this roof too,” Stan finally said when it became clear that I wasn’t going to say anything, “but I sincerely don’t see a way that that’s going to happen. There’s got to be at least a hundred wandering around down there, and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover if we wanna get out of Voltown.”

“Even then, where would we go?” Cara asked dejectedly, “Hospital’s a death sentence, so’s the forest.”

“The farm,” I interjected, “there’s a barn and a house there, both are easily defensible, and I’m pretty sure there’s a blast cellar.”

“Only ‘pretty sure’?” Cara jabbed, “You’re normally pretty frickin’ sure before you open your mouth.”

“What can I say?” I chuckled, “I’m not used to hiding this much, or having company for that matter.”

“He’s got a point,” Stan said with a smile, “the amount of times he’s gone off on his own since I’ve known him, regardless of if I’m in his server or not.”

I know it sounds ridiculous, but I was actually kind of annoyed about his reminiscence, mostly because it forced me to think about just how long I’d known him and how much fun we’d had together, but also because it made me sound as if I was just going to bail on them at the first opportunity.

“What’s that sound?” Cara asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over our little group and causing Stan to hit the deck.

“Is he shooting?” Stan replied with an undeniable level of terror in his voice.

“What? No, it’s something else…” Cara trailed off, “Like… birds? Like a really big bi-shit…”

RingoGotKennedy murdered CorvinTheBlade

-1 Player (125 Players Remaining)

Delta activated!

Delta activated!

Quarantine force Delta inbound!

“Welp,” Stan huffed as he got back to his feet and clapped his hands together, “that’s it. We’re fucked.”

“Hate to agree with you,” Cara replied with a sigh, “but I think you might be right.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll send in trucks?” I suggested hopefully before noticing Cara was shaking her head.

“Know that sound I was hearing?” she asked before pointing up at the sky, “V-22.”

I followed her finger but was left to wait for a solid five seconds before the twin-propeller, helicopter-like plane slowly descend through the fog, beating the thick cloud away with ease as it did so.

“Yeah…” I trailed off in defeat, “Yeah, we’re fucked.”