Episode 2: The Storm

Episode 2

"The Storm"

(Jeff)

More and more stranglers piled up and we had to fall back even more.

"We can't let them get to the house! We lose if that happens!" Jess cried.

I fought as hard as I could, remembering all the things Brad taught me when I was training in Lockwood, I was trying to remember it. Four stranglers ganged up on me, I smacked one across the face and kicked another one. I stabbed one strangler with my knife, the fourth strangler darted out at me while I was pulling my knife out of the other one. I grabbed its head and threw it onto the ground. I plunged my knife into the back of its head while it was lying on the ground. The other two stranglers I smacked and kicked got up, looking even angrier. I got ready to take them down, but more stranglers started piling up, and I had no time to fight them. Before we knew it, there were at least eighty stranglers piling up on the front lawn.

"We need to fall back!" I yelled.

"They get in the house, we all die!" Jess argued.

"We die if we stay out here, they're surrounding us! We can try and board the house up!"

"We have no time Jeff! We either fight or we leave the mansion! And I'm not giving the mansion up anytime soon!"

There was no arguing it though, there were way too many stranglers, we had to fall back. Jess realized this too, she didn't like the idea, but it was our best chance.

We started running back to the mansion, being followed by a horde of angry stranglers. Once everyone rushed inside, I slammed the door shut.

"Find shit to barricade the windows and doors with!" I yelled, holding the door.

It was too late, before we knew it, stranglers threw themselves through the windows, and I couldn't hold the door, the door came smashing down. I ran towards the back door, but that was blocked by stranglers as well. The stranglers had outsmarted us, there were at least one hundred by now, surrounding the mansion.

(Stan)

I hid in the basement with Kayla and Doug. We hid in the closet and didn't dare to make a sound. We heard the door open and everyone run in, then the windows and doors smash down. The stranglers had gotten in, and I heard so many. I don't think we can hold off the mansion this time.

"Stan." Kayla whispered.

I stayed quiet, frozen in fear, too scared to even take a breath.

"Stan." Kayla slapped me across the face.

"S-sorry." I said.

"We are gonna pull through this, my dad is here. He'll know what to do."

(Julie)

I was trying to hold the back door from breaking open and being flooded with stranglers, it was no use though, the stranglers started to break through the windows. They've done this before, we should have barricaded the windows when it happened the first time. It's over, because we weren't being smart. There was only one option now, we had to fight them off. We couldn't escape, we could only fight. One of the stranglers broke through a window next to me, it growled and darted at me, I grabbed it and wrestled it. It was powerful though, and very angry. It tripped me and threw me onto the ground, the thing tried to scratch me, but I held its hands and kept it away from me, holding it away. I didn't know how much longer I could do this though. The strangler was pulled off of me and thrown onto the ground by Ned, he started kicking it in the head until it had died. More stranglers piled into the house though, it was no use, no matter how many stranglers we kill, more will just come in. You cut off one head, two more grow back.

I got up and looked around for something to save myself with in the house, but I couldn't find anything. There was no escape. A strangler came out of nowhere and shoved me back onto the ground. It jumped onto me, and scratched me in the face. That was it, I was done. All it takes is one scratch. That didn't stop me from giving up though, Ned told me I wasn't useless, and I am going to fight as long as I can. I grabbed the strangler and pushed it off of me with all of the strength I had. I got up and tackled it onto the ground, turning the tables on it. I started smashing its head off of the ground over and over again until I was certain it was dead. I heard screaming coming from the corner of the room. I turned to see Ned, who was being surrounded by at least five stranglers, crying out for help. They examined him like animals, trying to decide what to do with him. I felt my cheek, which had been scratched, it was over for me, but not for Ned. Not yet. I ran over to the pack of stranglers and grabbed one from behind and started choking it, the other stranglers attacked me, trying to help the other strangler. This gave Ned just enough time to squeeze out of the corner and to safety. All of the stranglers attacked me and piled onto me, everything went numb and my ears started ringing, I looked down and saw the stranglers ripping me apart. I looked up at the ceiling and tried smiling through the pain. I'm not useless. My vision faded to white.

(Bay)

The stranglers kept on coming, and they almost had taken over the whole first floor. Everyone was trying as hard as they could to keep them out of the house, they were firing off their guns, but nothing was happening. The stranglers just kept on piling into the mansion. I saw Julie get taken down by stranglers, they were ripping her apart. I ran to the stairs and found one way to possibly get out, it was a long shot, but our only chance.

"Everyone up here!" I yelled, but over the gunshots and screaming, nobody heard me.

I decided to take matters into my own hands. I rushed upstairs, where everyone else was keeping busy downstairs. I ran into the armoury room and slammed the door shut. I frantically searched around for the backup plan, knocked shelves over and turning the whole room upside down. I found the flare gun stashed away in the closet finally. I knew I had to act fast, I've done this before, it has to work.

I opened the window and looked off into the forest, I could fire off this flare gun, maybe the stranglers would leave the mansion. I'm not sure how that will work, but it's all we got. I kept a pistol in my back pocket just incas, and a few extra flares. I climbed through the window and jumped down into the snow, there were tons of stranglers around me, I started running. Some of them started following me, and they were fast too. It looks like I was going to have to use up my first flare already. I pointed the flare at a strangler and shot it behind me, it took one to the ground, this bright light was distracting the other ones, they all stopped and jumped on top of the strangler to try and catch the light. They're like moths, only a lot more dangerous. I looked ahead of me again, and started sprinting for the forest, the more time it took me to get to the forest, the more in danger the group back there was in. So I ran as fast as I could, reloading the flare gun while I was running. I eventually made it to the forest, I kept running through it, since I need the stranglers to follow the flare far into the woods, we can't have them coming back. After running a good distance into the forest, I stopped and pointed the flare gun into the sky. I closed my eyes and fired it off.

"Please work." I said.

(Jeff)

I kept fighting, that's the only thing anyone could do right now. We have killed a good thirty stranglers by now, but more just kept on coming, what the hell were we going to do? One strangler came out of nowhere and pinned me up against the wall, it looked into my eyes in anger, trying to size me up. It growled, but I stared it down. It didn't like that much, so it dug its nails into one of my fingers, I screamed in pain and head butt the thing backwards. I pulled out a pistol and shot it in the chest twice, it fell to the ground. I quickly examined my finger, it had clawed into my right ring finger, it had to come off. Or else I would become infected, this was nothing new. I sighed, I would cut it off if I made it through this horde alive. I have to finish this fight first.

I went after another strangler, and this continued for a long time, us just fighting and getting nothing accomplished. All of a sudden, I noticed something out of the window. A flare, a big red flare that shot through the sky hundreds of metres from here. Deep in the forest, who shot that off? It didn't matter, the stranglers inside kept trying to take us down, but the stranglers outside lost interest in us, they all started going for the big flare in the sky. Stranglers stopped breaking into the mansion, and we were just left with the stranglers in the house. All we had to do now was kill the stranglers in here, and we won. I wasted no time, I immediately started slaughtering stranglers as fast as I could, everyone else did the same. I stabbed one in the eye, then another in the forehead, another in the chest a few times, and soon enough, after everyone working together, the stranglers had been exterminated.

We all took a deep breath and sat down, the mansion was filled with a sea of dead stranglers, blood as far as the eye could see, the walls painted a new colour of red, and you could barely walk without stepping on a strangler body. Everyone looked around at each other and exchanged faces of relief, but also sorrow. We lost someone, Julie. She was left on the ground in a corner, mangled. All of her insides ripped out, it was horrible. I lifted my right hand and looked at my ring finger. It had to come off, there was a bloody hole in it, right where the strangler had stabbed me with its sharp claws. I walked to the bathroom and rinsed off my knife as best as I could, and set my finger on the table, everyone looked at me.

"Jeff? What are you doing?" Mark asked.

"I was infected by a strangler, if I chop this finger off, the infection will stop spreading, and I will live."

"Oh my god, that really happened?" Jess asked.

"It's not too bad, considering Mark's condition." I braced myself and started sawing at my finger.

(Kayla)

Stan, Doug, and I hid in the closet. Was it over? The gunshots stopped and I couldn't hear anymore stranglers, or did that mean we lost? I wasn't sure, and I could tell Stan wasn't sure either. I then heard my dad's voice screaming upstairs, what was happening? He needs my help! I tried opening the closet, but Stan stopped me.

"No," he said, "If we go up there we are only going to be an extra snack for the stranglers, your dad can handle it."

"No! You're wrong!" I yelled, "I'm going to find him!"

With that, I barged out of the closet, only to be faced with a strangler in front of me, just one. It must have gotten lost down here. I shrieked as Stan jumped out from the closet to saved me. He pushed me out of the way and tackled the strangler into the wall. They fought each other, and I realized Stan wouldn't be able to do this himself. I pulled out my gun and aimed at the strangler, I really didn't want to miss and hit Stan, so I waited for the right moment. The strangler shoved Stan off of him and I took my chance. I shot the strangler in the side of the head and it dropped.

Stan backed up into the wall and held his left side.

"Good job Kayla." he said, trying to handle the pain.

"What happened to your side?" I asked.

I heard a bunch of footsteps rushing downstairs, great, more stranglers. I got my gun ready and pointed it ahead of me. Instead of stranglers arriving downstairs, I was greeted by the rest of the group. I realized I was pointing my pistol at Jess, I put it away.

"Sorry," I said, "is it over?"

"Yes." Jess said with relief.

"Oh thank god." I ran up to her and hugged her, I then realized that my dad wasn't down here with us, then I remembered him screaming.

"Oh no," I started, "where's my dad?"

"He's fine," Jess said, "He is upstairs, why don't you go see him?"

I didn't hesitate, I bolted upstairs to go find my dad, I heard him screaming earlier, what happened?

(Ned)

I just stood there and looked at her. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was horrible. My eyes watered and I couldn't look away. I somehow felt responsible. Julie, she was dead. She died saving me. It was all because we had that talk before the horde. She wanted to feel like she was useful, and killed herself saving me. Maybe if I was more enthusiastic and not such a jerk when she was talking to me, she wouldn't have felt the need to do something this drastic. I should have died, I am the real useless one here, I haven't done anything for the group since Toronto. I tried making a plan to escape, it failed and Sabrina died because of it, the only real thing I have done for the group is find that stupid science lab. I was responsible for this, the thought made me sick to my stomach. I threw up on the ground next to Julie. I sat down on the ground where there wasn't a dead strangler body and buried my face in my arms.

(Jeff)

I wrapped what was left of my finger with a cloth, using it as a bandaid. I walked around the mansion, seeing what had happened here. All these bodies, it was horrible. Those were the most stranglers I had to kill before. It was insane. I walked into the dining room and saw Ned sulking beside Julie's dead body in a corner. I looked away, feeling horrible on what happened. I remembered my conversation with Kayla last night.

"I won't let anything bad happen to anyone in the group, I promise."