Liam Hall

Tuesday, April 12th, 2022 (22 days after the Shutdown)

“Liam, come here for a second,” Garret called out.

Sticking his head into a silver Toyota Camry, Garrett pulled out a green backpack and threw it to him. Reflexively catching it, he thanked the older man and gently slipped it on.

For the better part of the day, they’d been following Corporal Nguyen’s map but every spot they went to was ransacked.

The map was obsolete in the post-Blackout world and after arriving at the last store to see an opened can of tuna, the morale of the group hit rock bottom.

Fed up with the endless scavenger hunt, Corporal Nguyen relented and allowed them to start plundering the abandoned cars, no longer concerned about alerting others to their presence.

Shattering the car windows was cathartic even if the yield was dismal. Still, having spent a whole day scouring the city for nothing in return made Liam question if this entire journey was worth it.

His strength and health were taxed from the ceaseless movement and he was being exposed to constant danger.

And while the streets were deserted, for the past few blocks he had the unnerving feeling that someone was stalking their group, their eyes boring into the back of his head.

If this is going to be my new routine, I should leave before I’m stuck.

His entire life had been dictated by others. From his parents to now repaying Kyle and Carl, he once again was focusing on someone else rather than himself.

It was… an endless burden.

Stepping away from the looted car, he stared at the dismal loot in his hands.

…What should I do?

He ran different scenarios through his head.

Leaving to run into the forest around Half-Moon Bay would be ideal. But the notion was just as absurd as the last time he considered it.

Running away would mean that I would lose access to the bandages and the gauze I need. But if I did leave, the army would more than likely be thankful for one less mouth to feed. I could go back to my old neighborhood and see how David and the others are doing.

A warbled voice cut through his thoughts.

“ — Liam?! Where the hell is your head at?” said Garrett, tapping his arm. “Nguyen is callin’ us.”

“...”

“Liam?”

“Yep, sorry. Be right there.”

“ … Right. We finally found a restaurant that hasn’t been robbed yet.”

Garrett set off at a brisk pace, squeezing his way through a clutter of cars that had stalled at a traffic stop. Straining his body to keep up, Liam managed to make it just as the corporal launched into an explanation of how they would tackle the situation.

The restaurant in question was a small one-storey building at the corner of Slater and McKenney Boulevard, surrounded by high rises and office buildings.

Liam tried to be attentive, but something about the location kept putting him ill at ease.

The sun was dipping behind the buildings, throwing the city into the shadows.

Glancing at the watch on Mark’s wrist, he grimaced. It’s 5:10 p.m. We’re cutting it close to 6:00.

Issuing a brief command, Corporal Nguyen gestured to the others to follow and the team of twelve crossed the intersection; the troops flanked the sides and formed a protective ring around the civilians.

Knocking on the front door to alert any possible dwellers within, one of the 15th Regiment soldiers shouted at the closed door, “If there are any civilians within the building, please be advised. This is the military and we are entering. Stand clear of the door.”

They waited with bated breath for a response but didn’t receive one. Grabbing a crowbar from another soldier, he wedged the blunt tip into the door frame and gradually increased his pressure on the shaft.

The other members of Squad 37 inched forward with feverish, over-bright eyes, desperate to return back to the neighborhood with something other than seventeen packs of gum. Stella was right behind the soldier, breathing down his neck.

“Ma’am, please back up.”

Blinking her eyes in confusion, it took her a few seconds to comply with his demand..

Crack. CRACK!

Liam, who had been waiting at the back of the group, didn't see the projectile until it slammed into his abdomen. Crumpling inwards, his body tried to respond.

His shoulders hunched over and his muscles contracted.

Adrenaline surged through his veins in a desperate bid to heighten his senses.

But it was a second too late.

Whatever hit him slammed into his diaphragm, knocking the air out of him. Unable to grasp what was happening, panic seized hold of his mind and he was thrown backward. With his arms knocked away by the strike, his back took the full brunt of the impact.

His scarred tissue raked against the road and his world exploded into red. Howling in agony, his head snapped back and smashed against the pavement.

Liam’s head was ringing.

He vaguely saw his squad members screaming, running past the soldiers to find shelter. The corporal was yelling orders at his men, continuously firing rounds into the restaurant with his rifle.

The whining in his ears intensified until everything snapped back into focus as a cacophony of sounds bombarded his ears.

"CONTACT FRONT!" the corporal kept roaring, his eyes ablaze with fury.

A dull throb from where he’d been hit branched out across his abdomen, till it felt like someone was twisting a knife deeper into his intestines.

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Wheezing for air, the taste of bile rose from the back of his throat and he tilted his head to the side, heaving until he couldn’t. Moaning nonsensically as it dribbled down his chin, he felt an insistent tug on his arm.

Garrett was screaming at him to move, desperately yanking on his arm.

The older man’s eyes darted between the restaurant door and Liam, who stared at him uncomprehendingly. Convulsing from the throes of pain, he weakly lifted his head and gaped at the butchery in front of him.

The wooden door was ripped apart, boards jutting outwards in a ring of spikes from where the shotgun slugs penetrated it.

A headless corpse sprawled on the ground was all that remained of the soldier who had been prying the door open, bits of his scalp and brain strewn across the street. Blood continued to pump from the soldier’s lifeless body, spreading across the road and trickling into the street drain.

Stella, who had stood right behind him, was twitching on the road, entirely forgotten by her squad in their haste to flee. Blood seeped through her hands, flowing from the gaping wound in her chest.

Hyperventilating, she weakly looked around her for someone to help her until she saw Liam.

Garrett was still tugging at his arm, dragging him despite the situation. Pulled further and further away from her, the despair in Stella’s eyes turned to comprehension.

Nobody was coming to save her.

With tears leaking, she whispered with quivering lips, her final words were lost in the surrounding havoc. Her spasmodic chest stilled and her hand slipped and fell onto the road.

Wheezing out to Garrett to turn around, Liam caught sight of a flash of light high up in one of the surrounding windows.

Seconds later the pavement to his right erupted and his body was peppered with small bits of gravel, tearing into his skin.

A wave of pain engulfed him.

Strong hands dug into his flesh and dragged him across the intersection but the pain had already made his mind go blank.

Everything was moving slowly as if time had stalled.

“RETREAT! Fall back to the building!” the corporal commanded as the sound of thunder erupted across the city.

Shooting the lock off the door they swarmed into the lobby of a nearby office building, hiding behind pillars and sofas.

The sound of rolling thunder ceased.

“Everybody STAY DOWN! Get away from the windows! Do not turn on your flashlights!”

The soldiers were staring down their rifle scopes, lasers trained on the restaurant door, which barely hung onto its hinges, and the condominium the sniper had shot from. Dragged deeper and deeper into the building, Liam was lifted onto a couch, his body writhing in pain.

The entire squad sat shell-shocked. The younger sister of the siblings was weeping in the corner, her soft sobs were blades to their hearts, adding to their palpable anxiety.

“Can you shut up?!” Garrett snapped at her, refusing to raise his head from under the front desk.

“What the fuck, man? She’s scared. We all are,” her older brother yelled back.

She tried to muffle her sobs but the terror in each one became more pronounced.

The fading adrenaline made Liam’s pain worse. His back was sticky with blood and the pieces of gravel on his right arm sent needles shooting up his side every time he tried to move.

In the gloom of the building, the dark did little to alleviate his pain but it was comforting nonetheless. There was a deep satisfaction in suffering alone, away from everyone else. Nobody was needlessly fussing over him and he didn’t feel like a burden for once.

Realizing his breathing wasn’t uniform, he inhaled deeply but a spike of pain warned him against expanding his lungs.

Resigning himself to short, shallow breaths, he tenderly touched beneath his sternum.

Oh… I am so screwed.

His skin was scalded from where the shotgun shell had hit him, after it had passed through the door, the soldier, and then Stella, still possessing enough force to mess up his insides.

Touching around his skin, the small bursts of pain told him he wouldn't be able to move for a while.

Corporal Nguyen walked towards them, calling over the siblings.

“There hasn’t been any movement for the past half hour so we should be safe for the time being.”

“Safe?” said Mark, rolling his eyes. “We aren’t any safer than we would be if we were outside.”

“You have shelter here,” Corporal Nguyen pointed out. “All of us have little to nothing to eat and I understand how that’s upsetting. But we can’t let that impair our judgments, not if we want to avoid making bad decisions.”

Scoffing, Garrett got up from the floor. “Bad decision, eh? You want to know what a bad decision is? Look outside, chump. You have one dead soldier and one dead civilian right in front of you. That is what you call a poor decision and impaired judgment. You hadn’t even surveyed the area and still, you encouraged us to come. Sounds pretty fucking severe to me.”

The room became deathly quiet.

Just when Liam thought the corporal would ignore the outburst, he snapped, “ Alright hotshot, tell me, did we force you to come? No, you came” — turning to the rest of the squad — “You all came knowing the risks, which we reminded you of. Yes, we never expected people to start shooting, but we warned you of the dangers.”

Turning back to Garrett, he scowled, “So, tell me. What do you think I should do, sir? Go and pick up a phone and call an airstrike on the city? Our radios don’t work. Maybe I should go and get the police to arrest and detain him? Well I can’t, can I? I’m sorry for what happened, I am. But don’t think for a second that you have any fucking right to blame me for everything that has happened so far. I’m not a god for fuck’s sake, and I sure as hell don’t have any lasers shooting out of my ass. So please, be quiet and cooperate.”

Everyone stared at him, as the corporal took deep breaths.

“Now,” he said, lowering his volume, “ the way I see it, we have two options. We can move upstairs and seek shelter on another floor. Judging by the locked door, it could’ve been done from the inside so it wouldn't be unreasonable to say there are people on the higher floors. Another option… is that we leave.”

Garrett, undeterred by the outburst, furrowed his eyebrows. “You want us to go back out there with those murderous psychos loose?”

The look the corporal gave him made him wither.

“Tonight it’s overcast, which is both a good and bad thing. We’ll be walking blind, but it works both ways. They’ll have a hard time catching us. Now, if we don’t move tonight, they’ll come in the morning and search this place and likely find us. If not tomorrow then it will be the day after that, until they surround us and starve us out.”

Sighing, the corporal continued.

“They chose to waste bullets on us so in all likelihood, they’ll come back for a return on their investment. If we leave, we can be back at the borough by early morning. It’s likely only a small fraction of the city that’s turned to banditry, so if we stay quiet, we’ll be safe.”

“... When do we leave?” the brother of the siblings asked.

“Hold up,” Mark protested. “How ‘bout we make the fate-deciding decision together, not just blindly follow someone’s lead like last time.”

“Make your decision quickly before the clouds pass by. I have a soldier collecting Mike’s gear and then we’ll leave,” the corporal said, glancing at the lobby to see if the soldier had returned.

Hidden behind the couch, Liam piped up, “What about Stella? And the soldier’s body?”

Liam listened to the corporal walk around the end of the couch.

“I’ve… uh… known Micheal for years and I’m deeply saddened by his loss. I didn’t know… Stella well enough, something I regret, but we would only be burdened by carrying their bodies.”

“Okay, and what does that mean for me?”

“Pardon?”

Gesturing to his abdomen, he said, “I can’t move. I can’t feel my legs.”

Covering the front of his flashlight with one hand, Corporal Nguyen flicked it on, allowing a controlled amount to leak out. Frowning, he called Garrett over to lift his shirt while he checked on Liam's condition.

Liam stared at their faces, waiting for their verdict.

“Shit, man. You’re—”

“Don’t sugarcoat it. How does it look?”

Grimacing, Garrett replied, “You’re turning purple.”

"Likely something ruptured within you," Nguyen offered helpfully.

Liam wanted to kick himself for his previous statement.

If his injuries were judged to be severe, he would be left behind which at this point meant being left for dead.

Moving to rectify his mistake, he painstakingly pushed himself up onto his left arm, masking a groan behind a cough.

“I’m sure I can move though, if someone lends me their shoulder.”

“Sir, we’re ready to go,” a soldier said from the lobby.

Glancing between Liam and Garrett, he slowly nodded. “Agreed. Liam, was it? If there’s trouble and we’re found I expect you to do the right thing. The rest of you, time’s up. Let’s move.”