Chevlar Files: Book One, Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven
Standing United, Dying Divided
On the top of that rooftop, where the life of one of the two warriors was to taken, Kaolin lied there on the ground, about to accept his death. As the bullet flew from the gun, it was almost as if it he was watching it in slow motion, traveling to him inch by inch.
He thought to himself as he was waiting to be shot, "Well, I guess this is it for me… I managed to get those guys this far, I'm sure they can head the rest of the way to Pittsburg. One thing I wish I could've seen was what Rebecca's smile looked like; she's always been gloomy and sad, I would've liked to see that…" Kaolin closed his eyes, and finished off his thought, stating, "Heh, why am I thinking about her in my last moments? Even if she came to mean something to me, I'm probably not the same to her. Well, it doesn't matter now; it's time to accept my end…"
As he got ready to take the hit, he felt the bullet fly towards him; somehow, Scott missed him completely, and hit the ground next to his head. He turned his head to where the bullet went, and then back to see what had happened to make Scott miss his mark; he saw Scott standing there, his eyes wide and the rest of his body twitching from a sudden jolt of pain. Scott looked back, and saw what had happened to alter his aim; it was Matt, and he was still clutching the item that was impaled into Scotts firing arm, his claw hammer. Scott turned his twitching head to see the hammer still stuck in his body, and shrieked out in anguish and pain; he shoved Matt away, and pulled the hammer out.
He stared at the hammer, and in his adrenalized rage, pointed his gun at Matt, screaming, "Grahhh!!! You arrogant, single minded, waste of space of a human being! You didn't!!-," before he could finish, he was interrupted by the blast of a shotgun; he flew back onto the ground, his abdomen riddled with the shell's buckshot.
Matt, holding his boom-stick out one handed, brought it back to cock it, replying back, "Wrong you worthless piece of shit! I did!!" Matt then walked past Scott, who was now gaging on his own blood, over to Kaolin; he held his hand out to him, saying, "Come on and get up man. You're looking pathetic down there."
Kaolin brought himself up, and grasped hold of Matt's hand, replying, "I don't care what I look like right now, I'd be dead if you didn't show up, thanks." He came to his feet, and went over to Scott to collect his gun, continuing on to say, "So, how are the others? Is Rebecca all ri-?" Suddenly, something grabbed Kaolin's ankle; he looked down, his gun now at the ready, and saw that it was Scott.
Scott looked up to Kaolin, and said to him under his gargled blood, "Y-you…w-will not get in my… way. I will live on, and I will see you all dead! Do you h-." As sudden as his grasp for Kaolin's leg was, he was stopped short again by another shotgun blast, this time directed at his legs. Scott spit up all the blood building up into his mouth in pain, and screeched out from it.
Some of the blood landed on Matt's pant legs, and he looked down on his prey, declaring to him, "You'll do nothing you trash! I'm going to make you suffer for every second that my sister did at your hands! First, I might as well castrate you so you can't think of trying anything with a woman ever again!" He angled the barrel up higher towards Scott's groin, and cocked it again for another round; before he could fire, Kaolin shot Scott clean through the head, effectively ending the once tyrannical man's suffering.
Matt turned to Kaolin with disgust in his eyes, and barked to him, "What did you do that for?! He deserved all that pain I gave him and more, and you know it!"
Kaolin turned his attention to Matt, and declared back at him, "Maybe so, but that doesn't mean sinking to his level Matt! You're still a human being, not one of those mindless, flesh craving drones that'll respond to any sound heard, so act like it! We may be living in a time of insanity now, but that doesn't mean that we should be insane ourselves!"
Matt turned away from Kaolin's glare to hide his anger; after a minute or so, he turned back to him, and reluctantly replied, "Yeah, you may be right, there's no changing what's already been done anyways. I don't care anymore, so let's just get back; I need to get back to my sister."
Kaolin nodded, but before he went to leave, he turned and walked back to Scott's table of commands, and flipped a few switches corresponding to the adjacent video cameras, and moved the phone speaker closer to the announcer microphone.
Matt walked to Kaolin, and questioned him, saying, "Hey Kaolin, what are you doing with that guys stuff? We need to get going, and fast."
Kaolin turned back to him, and replied back, "I'm just moving the crazies to a far corner of the town; they shouldn't be bothering us for the rest of our stay here, and it'll be a straight shot for us to get out of town once we hit up the police station."
Matt nodded in realized agreement, and the two headed out and collected the amassed supplies from Scott's improvised headquarters on the way to the stairwell; the loot consisted of his sub-machinegun, one full magazine, some food and first aid materials, and the keys to every major building in the town, including the police station. They both trotted down the stairs and out the door into the street, which still had not a runner in sight, despite all the outbursts and the echoes of weaponry that had taken place just a story above. The two made their way, with Matt shouldering Kaolin's shattered right shoulder and body, through all the streets, and all the way back to their apartment hideout. When they both came in, they saw that Rebecca was lain down on one of the two beds so she could nurse her wounds with sleep, and Matt, with the help of Kevin, put the near-unconscious Kaolin on the bed next to hers.
Kaolin awoke to find all the others conversing in their circle without him; he stumbled up, feeling completely fine, and went over to join them in their arousing conversation.
"Hey guys and gal, did I miss anything good?"
Kevin looked up to Kaolin in shock, and managed to find the words to reply, saying, "Wait, you're already up and about? It's only been half a day! Matt said you took a major beating from that Scott guy!"
Kaolin took in that statement with a related surprise, and asked himself the same question; putting it off as a combination of misinterpreted injuries and luck, he said matter-of-factly, "Well, even if I was injured, I couldn't be a lazy bum and let you all plan something without me contributing." He looked around, and saw that all three of them looked relieved to see that he was all right; with his newfound feeling of belonging, he continued on, "So, what is the topic of interest today?"
Matt slid his body to face Kaolin, and stated, "Same thing as yesterday boss, heading out to the police station; we were concerned about two of us going out while only one able person was left here, but that's not going to be a problem now that you're awake."
Kaolin lightened up, and replied back, "Oh, you're right about that; can't wait to explore that place today with one of you all."
The group all turned to look at him in shared surprise; Rebecca was the first to break the silence, saying, "Wait Kaolin, you shouldn't be trying to do anything after your fight yesterday, you're still hurt…"
Kaolin turned to her, and smiled brightly as he said back, "Don't worry Becca, I'm feeling better already, and I'm not just saying that, look."  Kaolin removed his shirt, and he and the others gazed at, amazingly, nothing out of the ordinary; no burn marks from the electricity or bruising areas on his body from yesterday's confrontation. Amongst all of their shock and awe, he went on to say, "So, I guess we're all in agreement of two things; I'm a freak and that I'm going to lead this noble quest. Now, who wants to go with me?"
Everyone became silent as they awaited an answer that one of them would have to make; eventually, a person stood up and spoke out to answer Kaolin. The person was Rebecca, and she answered him, saying, "I'll go with you Kaolin; it's the least I can do for you after you saved me."
Matt stood up at this, and put his hands on her shoulders, trying to convince her from her decision saying, "Rebecca no, Kao may be fine, but you're still hurt. I refuse to let you go outside with your injury."
Rebecca brushed his arms off of her, looked up at him with a shy grin, and replied, "It's okay bro, because if something does happen to me, I know that Kaolin will be there to protect and look after me. You can trust him after all he's done, can't you?"
Matt groaned out in disapproval at first, but when he saw that her mind wasn't going to be changed on the subject, he just shook his head, and proclaimed, "Argh, fine already, you can go with him." After he reluctant agreement, he turned to Kaolin, and added, "You had better protect her with everything you have, don't let anything happen to her, or I'll throttle you."
Kaolin gave him an assuring thumbs up, and replied back, "You don't have to worry about a thing Matt; I won't let anything happen to her out there. You and Kev just hold down the fort here, and we'll do our part." Kevin and Matt gave their word on that, and Kaolin and Rebecca got prepped to go out for their destination, and were ready for whatever would be there waiting for them.
The two slowly opened the door to the street, and began to head in the direction of the police station; among all the bloody splotches on the sidewalks and the dismal silence, Rebecca said to Kaolin, "Kaolin, where are all of those things? How can there be so many of them in one place, and then none at all?"
Kaolin replied back to her while still walking, saying, "Well Becca, they may be crazy strong and hungry, but they're not too smart at all. They must think every loud noise will lead them to finding something to eat. I'm not complaining though, it makes our exploring a whole lot easier, right?"
Rebecca smirked at him, and replied back, "Yeah I guess you're right, I'm glad that you thought of that, and…," she stopped walking, and stared down at the ground away from Kaolin; he stopped as well, and turned back to her as she continued, "I want to thank you for, you know, saving me. I know that I can't do much, but just, thanks for everything…" She moved in close to Kaolin, and embraced him; he returned the gesture, and wrapped his arms around her as well, and they stayed like this, as if time had stopped for them. She looked up at him, and gave him what he was wondering before his assumed death hours ago; her full, beaming smile complimented her green eyes, and the sun's rays slightly reflected off of her slightly revealed white teeth, showing off their natural shine to him. It was then that he realized that, he was starting to build up feelings of intimacy towards her; Kaolin hadn't thought of having a relationship like this before, so the sudden arrival of these feelings were something completely new to him.
Kaolin pulled apart to look at her, and said, "You don't have to worry about anything at all Rebecca, as long as I'm here, I'll do everything I can to protect you."
Her eyes lightened up, then she looked away with a sullen face, replying back, "But, you were almost killed the last time because of me…please, promise me that you won't die. I just couldn't deal with it; it would kill me inside…"
Kaolin noticed a tear drop fall to the ground below her head as she said that; he gently placed his hand on her cheek, turned her to look him in the eye, and said, "Rebecca, I promise you, no matter what comes our way, I will not die as long as you and everyone else needs me." Her face grew hot as her face began to turn red from where his hand was; Kaolin quickly withdrew his arm after realizing this, and continued on to say, "W-well, let's hurry up to the station, we don't want to keep the others waiting." Rebecca nodded and turned away from him, and they continued on to the police station.
They arrived there half an hour later, and found the whole place few and far between in supplies; other survivors seemed to have picked the place clean from the office desks to the armory, and left the bodies of the fallen where they lay. Kaolin cursed to the ceiling, and spoke out, "Damn, we can't get a break, can we, well, we might as well get-," He was interrupted by what sounded like a ghostly mumbling from below him. He motioned for Rebecca to be quiet, and listened in again; he heard it again, a barely audible voice saying, "Hey, who's up there? I'm down in the cell blocks, and I'm trapped." Kaolin looked around for any place where they haven't checked out; Rebecca then pointed out a door that was partially hidden by a desk cubicle. Kaolin went to open the door, and found what he was looking for, stairs leading down to a basement level. They both proceeded down the stairs, and arrived at the bottom to be met by a computer and desk, and a vast quantity of jail cells on each side spanning down the entirety of the hallway.
As soon as they reached the bottom, the voice called out again, this time directed to them, saying, "Hey! You two come down here and get me out of this cell! I promise you that there is not a one of those flesh cravers down the dark scary hallway, so come on!"  Kaolin and Rebecca both looked at each other, shrugged, and went down the hallway, with only the emergency lighting of the cells to dimly light their way to the young man. Halfway down, a body slammed itself against a different and clawed at the surprised pair; they both got out of its reach just to jump forward from another runner in the adjacent cell. They shook off their surprise, and continued the rest of the way to the correct cell, where the guy was now laughingly hysterically.
Kaolin banged against the cell to shut him up, and yelled, "What the hell is your deal?! You could've told us about those others in the cells!" After all his outbursts, the runners in the cells began to roar and shriek, the sounds filling the ears of the three to the point of them ringing. They stretched their arms out through the bars of the cells in an attempts to get a meal they've been weeks without. After a while, the cries died down, and they became docile once again.
The man uncovered his ears, and was about to yell back before he caught himself, and then he replied with a shaking voice, "Please, for the godless sakes, don't yell like that. I haven't a decent sleep ever since I got myself stuck in here weeks ago. I'm sorry about not telling you about the stiffs in the cells, I just needed a good laugh; do you know the feeling of not being able to sleep for days on end, I needed small things like that to keep me sane friend, I promise it won't happen again. Besides, it's not like I lied; there wasn't a single crazy in the hallway right?"
Kaolin calmed his mind, and returned the favor of his calm attitude among all the docile groans, and mildly spoke out, "Yeah, I do actually, but enough about that. What's your name kid, and what are you doing here in the first place?"
The guy took offense to whatever it was he said, and scoffed back lightly, "Please, you're what, Twenty two? I'm twenty three for your information, and the name is Keith Andreas. Now, as for our current situation, I'm proposing this; you let me out of here and get me something to eat, and I'll help you two out with surviving in this new world. You don't have to worry about me stealing your woman though guy, I may be a ladies man, but I'm not an asshole."
Kaolin looked at Rebecca turning away in embarrassment, and replied back to Keith, "Um, we're not together that way, and you're right about my age surprisingly. My name's Kaolin Chevlar, and this is Rebecca Danvers, and we're actually on a salvaging run for our party of four, is that okay with you?"
Keith's eyes lightened up, and he said back with a grin, "Are you kidding? Choose starvation over traveling with an actual group, and one of them is a well-known Indiana vigilante? Count me in man, and don't worry, I'll pull my weight for the group, for you, and for the lovely missus."
Kaolin chuckled under his breath, and replied back, "Dang, I guess I'm more famous than I thought, now-," Rebecca jerked on his arm to take him aside and address something to him; he turned back to Keith to finish up his sentence, saying, "Wait one moment inmate, the 'lovely missus' wants to discuss something with me."
Keith shrugged and grinned, and walked back to take a seat on his jail cot;  Kaolin and Rebecca walked out earshot of him, and Rebecca said, "Kaolin, are you sure we should take him in? I mean, he is in jail for a reason, and it might be because of something really horrible."
Kaolin looked back at Keith, who gave him a sarcastic wave; he turned back to Rebecca, and replied back, "Look Rebecca, at this point we have to take everyone we can find. Besides, he looks like an okay bunch; he's probably just a pickpocket or some kind of swindler with a personality like that."
The two discussed some more, and then came back to the cell, and Kaolin said to Keith, "Okay, you can join up with our group, but how do we go about getting you out of there?"
Keith snickered under his breath, and replied back, "See bud? Not even out of my temp home and you already need my help, hee hee hee….hah, anyways, you probably saw a monitor when you came down here; just hit the release function, where ever it may be, and I'll be free to go. Oh, but watch out though; all the other cells will open, and nearly all of them has one or more of those crazy flesh eater guys."
Kaolin nodded at this, and instructed Rebecca to work the computer; he handed Keith his knife from Kevin's house, slightly bent and jagged from the many battles it's had, and instructed, "Now, when these doors open, they'll be on us from both sides, I trust that you'll have my back."
Keith got used to the weight and feel of the blade, and replied back, "Heh, you're just lucky I'm good with concealable weapons; don't worry bud, I've got your six."  Kaolin turned back to Rebecca to give her the okay to open the cells, and the stood guard at the back hall, ready to strike down however many runners were to come from the seemingly innurmural cells spanning down the hall. An alarm sounded off, and all the cells opened up in unison, and Keith rushed out to face Kaolin back to back style as they awaited the hosts of the piercing wails all rushed out to the hallway.
The runners came out in twos out of each cell on Kaolin's side, and rushed him; the first was brought down with a swift headshot, tripping the one behind it. As it began to get back up, Kaolin ran up and curb stomped its neck, snapping its spinal cord with an audible crunch. Another two came into close range, and he forced them back with a straight punch to the front runners face and knee-capping the back monsters legs.  He moved forward and finished them both off with headshots; another one got came out of nowhere and got the jump on him. He stopped it short of ripping out his jugular, and held him off with a choke hold; another came rushing in, only to be brought down with the rest of the bullets in his gun. His clip dropped to the ground, and the choked runner took advantage of the opportunity; it forced its body in an attempt to overpower him, biting and reaching just inches away from his neck thanks to Kaolin's desperate attempt to hold it off.
On the other side of the cell block, Keith rushed inside of the closest cell, knowing it was empty. With his back to the wall, he awaited the first runner to charge in. As soon as it was in the door, he crouched and ran towards it, and stabbed upwards just under its head. It began to twitch violently as he shoved it back to retrieve his weapon. A second one reached in and clawed at him as he just managed to jump out of its reach. It rushed inside towards him, arms out; he ducked and sidestepped around it with a trained speed, and ended up behind it as it hit the wall that was behind him. Without missing a beat, he brought the knife up, and stabbed it into the back of the runners head, killing it instantly; he pulled the slumped corpse around him, and kicked it out into the door. As he waited for another enemy, he saw a runner run past him; realizing that Kaolin was at risk for a surprise attack, he rushed out to the hall, and aimed his knife at the runner. He threw his blade, striking the beast in the back, pulling its agro back to him as another enemy attacked him from behind. Realizing the situation he was in, he ran at the injured runner to get his knife back; he attempted to sweep around this one like he did to the other, but this one managed to catch him by grabbing his right arm, and biting into his shoulder. He screamed out from the sudden jolt of pain, and raised his good arm to punch the animal-like human being off of him, but was going to be too late as he saw that the other one was closing in for a joint attack.
As quick as a whip, three gunshots rang out from behind him, felling the enemy behind him; he took this opportunity to keep wailing on the other runner till he got him off, and yanked the knife out of its back. He grappled it with a headlock, and raised its neck to slit its throat; in its confusion, he dragged it to a wall, and rammed its head into the solid concrete wall four times in quick succession before throwing it to the ground, effectively finishing it off. He turned back to where the gunshots came from, and saw Rebecca at the ready; she fired off another round, hitting another runner that was about to attack him from behind. He quickly grabbed it by the throat, and stabbed it multiple times in the body, and let go of it to deliver a left hook with his unarmed hand, sending the now-convulsing animal to the ground beside him. He turned again to give Rebecca a wink and thumbs up, and shouted out, "Thanks baby!"  Seeing a strike of embarrassment come over her, he grinned with a joy from the sight of that, only to lose it as quick as it came up as he looked around for anymore of the feral cannibals; seeing no one around, he ran up the hall to meet up with Kaolin to back him up with his side.
He got to where Kaolin to see where he was at, and was surprised at what he saw;   a mound or roughly fifth teen or more bodies crudely piled to one side of the hall, and him leaning on the wall of the adjacent side, with bite wounds on his left shoulder, right leg, and a gash on his head pouring blood down the left side of his face.
Keith ran up to give him his shoulder to help him up, and said to him, "Wow, how the hell did you manage all of this? Take it easy man; I'll get you back to your girlfriend." As soon as he said that, an outstretched, vein ridden arm reached out at the two; Keith threw Kaolin back, and tried to jump back in vain as it managed to grapple his leg. It yanked him to the ground, and violently dragged him back to the body that it belonged to. Kaolin saw this, and aimed him last bullet in that clip; he fired, and it met the stretched arm head on. A screech came from the dark hallway, and the arm released its grip on Keith. Kaolin reloaded his last clip, and they both got to their feet to finish it off; the strong-arm threw out its other arm, slamming Kaolin against a wall and incapacitating him. Keith continued his assault without him, and found the monster; he took his knife in hand, and drove it dead center into the shortened creature's body. It grabbed him with its injured arm, and forced him back, but to no avail; he rushed in again, avoiding the sweep attack of his other arm, and roundhouse kicked it in the head. It fell over from the shock of the hit, and Keith finished it off with snapping its neck with a triangle choke hold.
With the heat of battle finally coming to a close, Keith began to fully realize the extent of his injuries; he dropped to a knee from the sudden rush of fatigue, and gripped the wound on his arm to try and reduce the blood lose. He got back to his feet, and hustled over to where Kaolin was at; he got there to the sight of Rebecca stitching his gash closed, and beginning work on his arm wound. He moved beside Kaolin, and propped down beside him, saying, "Whoo, that was a fight, haven't had one that intense in a while. How are you feeling Mr. Vigilante?"
Kaolin turned his head slowly to avoid opening up the gash even more, and replied back, "Just a little banged up is all. Believe it or not, I've felt worse. How are you holding up, and where did you learn how to fight? What you were doing was beyond mere instinct."
Keith gave out a pained, light chuckle, and spoke out, saying, "Eh, I'm feeling the same way you do. As for my way of fighting, I've learned some basic karate from my days at the Y; forgot most of it, but I still know how to predict attack patterns better than most."
Rebecca gave a heavy sigh, and interrupted them both, saying, "Can you two please stop being so chummy about being hurt? We still have to get out of here in one piece."
Keith sat up, and bragged back, "You have no need to fear miss, even when I'm hurt, you can't keep me down. Heh, as soon as you patch me up, I'll carry your bf all the way home if I have to."
Kaolin looked up to the ceiling and laughing, replying back, "As enjoyable as that may be, there won't be any need for that. I'm a pretty quick healer too now." After the two were completely patched up, they collected the dropped clips from the ground, and headed out back to their base of commands.  They were met with a various amount of reactions; surprise at the new face, concern for the others' safety, and anger at how dumb they acted were among the most popular ones.
After everything had died down, and everyone was calm, talk of what to do next came to mind; Kevin started off by saying, "Okay um, Keith right? First, how did you survive in that cell for so long with the door locked? That's survival at its finest, but anyway, do you know of any other places around here to hit up?"
Keith shrugged, and replied back, "Nah kid, besides me and Scott the crazy, everyone else just looted every useful store and building and just left. Oh, and as for my surviving, somebody let me out, so I hoarded loads of food and water in my bag of belongings, but wouldn't you know it, soon as I walk out, some bastard tries to bite my head off. I shove him back, hit the lock on the monitor, and rush in the first empty cell I saw before the doors closed."
Matt leaned back in his chair, and pondered aloud, "So, in other words, there's nothing more here for us to grab. Now, that means it's time for us to get going."
Kaolin stood up, and ordered out, "Okay then lady and gentlemen, that's what we need to do then." He pointed to Kevin, and continued on, saying, "Kev, you pack up our rations. Rebecca, get the medical supplies readied. Keith, you handle the spare ammo and other things."  Everyone went about their tasks, and Kaolin went out into the hallway to look at a window overseeing the street below. Matt followed him out, and looked to the street alongside him.
"So Kaolin, we're getting ready to move out, but you didn't say when. Knowing you, I'm guessing tonight right?"
Kaolin nodded his head, and replied back to him, "No, even if we're safe with that intercom of Scott's constantly going off, it would be bad to move out in the night time if we don't have to. I was thinking tomorrow morning would be the best time to elope to another town, what say you?"
Matt shrugged his shoulders, and said in return, "Eh, it doesn't matter to me, the sooner we're out of this place the better. One thing though, you're sure the mass amount of those runners will be out of our way on the way out?"
"Yeah, I signaled them all to a far corner of town according to that Scott guy's map of intercoms. With the way we're heading, we can just walk out. Now, let's go back in and do our part to prepare for tomorrow, then we can get some much needed rest." Matt nodded, and they both went inside to finish up the group preparations for their next operation. When night came, they were all asleep; cooped up on all the couches, beds, and chairs they were all soundly passed out. Outside, the wind began to pick up, and the strong breezes swept throughout the whole town. At the courthouse, the wind swept across the rooftops, rustling the still corpse that was Scott ever so slightly; the intercom tables' contents got swept to the floor, the receiver away from the announcer mouthpiece. In the other part of town where the runners were condemned to, the mass amount of bodies broke free from their mesmerized state, and howled towards the sky, and scattered about the entire city, unknown to Kaolin and the rest of the survivors of this apocalypse…..