The Regulator (Complete First Draft)

Chapter 60: Andrew - Desperate Measures

BANG

Andrew was startled awake by the sound of a distant gunshot. He groggily looked up and out the large window, seeing a barely blue sky through the darkness. The sun was rising, it must have been pretty early in the morning. Maybe around six o’clock.

BANG BANG

Andrew was startled, once again, out of his morning grogginess. He stood himself up, and looked around the barn. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary inside, dead and rotten bodies not included.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

The gunfire was coming faster and in larger bursts now. Something was wrong, Andrew knew it. He rushed over to door of the barn and looked through the list between the doors. Outside he saw nothing. Nothing at all. No people, nothing out of the ordinary.

BANG BANG BANG BANG

The gun shots came again. Andrew pushed on the barn doors but, of course, they were locked and wouldn’t budge. Andrew threw his body against it, but to no avail. Andrew kicked the doors, but still had no success opening them.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

This was big, and it was bad. Andrew felt tears of desperation in his eyes. He didn’t care if everyone at the camp suddenly hated him, he was going to help them. He was going to protect them. He was going to protect his group. Andrew ran into the doors again, but still had no success opening them. He turned around, and desperately looked for any escape.

A breeze of cold air flew in through the window.

It was wide open, and not too far off the ground. Andrew got a determined look on his face and walked towards the window. This was his escape, he was sure of it. He approached the window and jumped up, but his hands missed the sill by about half a foot. He looked around the barn, but there was nothing that could give him a boost up high enough to get to the sill. Nothing except the bodies.

Andrew turned away from the massacre for a second, taking a deep breathe and holding it in as he thought over his options. This was the only one. He didn’t have any others. He had to do this, or let his friends die.

Andrew walked over to one of the bodies. It was incredibly bloody, rotten, and swarming with flies. It stank something awful, and Andrew reared away from it as he got close. The smell had been permeating the barn for awhile, but nothing this bad or powerful. Andrew took a deep breath and got closer to the body. He grabbed it by the legs, lifted them up and began to drag it, but then stopped himself. He bent down and felt that bodies pants, it’s pockets. A square shaped lump sat in one of them. Andrew reached in and pulled out a wallet. He opened it up. The name on the license read “Thomas Mincey”.

Andrew laughed. He couldn’t help it. Tom had always been a funny guy. He always seemed really out of it, like he’d just woken up from a nap or something. He was always high off of something as well, even coming to camp high a couple times. Andrew once had to watch his group for a whole morning because Tom was basically incapable of normal human functions he had been so high. He just kept following Andrew around blabbing on and on about how the “Universe was so vast, so amazing. We’re just this tiny little speck…” with no end in sight. Andrew didn’t complain though. Tom was a nice enough guy, and Andrew hadn’t wanted him to lose his job. But that was only a week before everything happened. Maybe… maybe if Andrew had gotten Tom fired he could have saved him… gotten him away from the place he got bit…

Andrew threw the Wallet on the ground, not wanting to think of it anymore. He grabbed Tom’s legs again and dragged them under the window. He then walked up to another body, a child’s. From what Andrew could tell it had been a girl, but the giant gash mark an axe had left in it’s head left it unidentifiable. Andrew sighed, and dragged the body over to the window, dropping it on top of Thomas’s. He did this about three more times before he finally had a stack of bodies large enough to boost him out the window. Taking a deep breath, Andrew climbed up on top of the fleshy mound, hearing bones crack and rotten flesh slush as he did so. He grabbed onto the ledge of the windowsill, pulled himself up, and jumped to the muddy ground below. He took a breath of fresh air, and looked up into the raining night sky, before heading off towards his group to make sure they were alright.