Apocalypse Life/Issue 13

Previous Issue - The Blockade Part 2

Issue 13 - Let Go
Everybody in the mess hall were at a standstill at first. They looked like they never heard a gunshot ring inside this camp before.

Jen suddenly leaves her post and runs toward the direction of the gun shot, and was then followed by the other soldier working with her.

People started whispering from their seats. Some of them started to follow the soldiers.

"Nobody shot a gun here before," Dolores says, some slight shudder in her voice. Julius and Alice look to each other, then stand up from their seats, as many people before them did. They joined the slowly forming crowd of people walking out of the only opening in the mess hall.

Other soldiers, their combat gear missing, start to join the crowd of people headed toward the gunshot site. All other sounds were drowned out by the collection of whispers and footsteps of the crowd. Julius and Alice were slowly pushed into the middle, as more people join the crowd behind them, coming from the sleeping quarters that they passed by.

Julius nudged the person in front of him, as the crowd finally came to a halt. A few other soldiers, still missing vests but clutching guns, forced them to stop.

"Don't step in too close," the soldiers calmly said. The gunshot must have came from behind them.

"You're all gonna fuckin' die!!" shouted a familiar voice. It was Hal, restrained by a struggling soldier. He was being forced out of a large tent, more sophisticated than the ones in the sleeping quarters.

"Die, I tell ya!! They're killing people there!! Killing people!!" A few heads in the crowd winced at the sight of Hal's struggle, as he was pulled away from view.

Lieutenant Arroyo emerges out of the tent's opening, followed by Whedon.

"What the hell happened?!" a loud, distant voice from the crowd asks them. Arroyo glances at the direction of the voice, then returns looking at Whedon.

"No need to panic. The man you just saw from earlier stormed into the tent and tried to shoot down some of our medics. It was out of complete rage; he wasn't intending to kill anyone."

The crowd of people start to buzz with noise. "We have some new rules, effective immediately: first, anyone affiliated with a patient in the ward will be given proper visitation time during the day, and afternoon. Second, there will be a curfew--" The crowd's noise started to grow louder at this point, in response to Arroyo.

"Curfew of ten o' clock every night. Any civilian found after this time will be escorted back to the quarters."

The people were growing impatient. The lack of space seemed to contribute to their unrest.

Arroyo gives a few more words to Whedon, then sends him back into the camp. "Please, return to your normal routines," he exclaims to the buzzing crowd.

"The hell you gonna do to Hal!?" a different voice from the crowd shouts. "Gonna feed them to Whedon's pets," another replies. Arroyo starts to look agitated toward the direction of the voices.

"He'll be detained," he finally replies. He turns around from the crowd, vanishing into the tent. The soldiers restraining them start to put his initial message forward.

The crowd starts to shrink, as people walk away in different directions. Some of them went toward the ward. Most of them looked dissatisfied.

Julius and Alice started to walk back to the mess hall, as Jen suddenly pops up to their side. She looked as discontent as everyone else.

"Wild stuff back there," she says to them, periodically turning back to look at the fading medical ward. "Hal shot a hole through the tent."

"Was he really trying to shoot the soldiers in there?" Julius asks. Jen looks back once, then says "Yeah. The lieutenant was lying about that. Hal didn't cool down at all."

"Where'll he be detained?" Alice adds. Jen turns from Julius, to her.

"I'm guessing near our quarters. We have some vacant ones that were planned to be detention areas. Honestly, though, we only have room for him."

Julius, like all of them, were quiet, thinking. They were half-way near the mess hall, when Jen was interrupted.

"Arroyo needs us front and center," a young soldier suddenly tells her. "Now." Jen, expected to follow the running soldier, stands still for a moment. She looks back at Julius and Alice, dazed. "I'll-I'll be back," she tells them. She follows the soldier, who was out of view at this time, and slowly fades.

Alice had an different look about her. She was face to face with Julius, sitting at the mess hall tables.

Her expression was a mix of anxiety and annoyance. "I'm having second thoughts."

Julius looks at her, somewhat surprised. "Second thoughts?"

"About this place. Staying here." The bleak atmosphere around them was completely gone; everyone in the mess hall was talking about the ward, and the curfew rules.