Snippet #1983035

The second a racket started at the back door, Trent was on his feet. He pressed an index finger to his lips, indicating that the others should be silent, and then broke all-but-silently away from the group to go investigate, his shotgun primed and ready to go in his hands. The teenager’s expression had changed from vague annoyance (he’d been very ready to tell Sorin off for being an idiot; there were infected maniacs running around, ready to kill them, and he was worried about cussing?) to grim determination, and he disappeared into the back of the store. In this kind of situation, he wasn’t about to wait for Jet’s permission. This was what he brought to the party.

The intruders were making plenty of noise, which made him lean towards them being infected. It was that or they were just plain stupid, and in either case, Trent was more than ready to pump whoever it was full of buckshot. He took his time, focusing more on his senses and maintaining quiet than he did on moving quickly. Swallowing a lump that had irritatingly coalesced in his throat, he took a turn…

And was confronted with the sight of Mercy hunkered down. From his vantage point, he could easily tell that she’d seen the group, and little girl or not, he wasn’t taking any chances. He leveled the shotgun at her; until he got to see her face, to see if she had the telltale bumps of infection, all bets were off. Odds were it was just some scared kid with decent enough instincts to last this long. Using a little girl as bait was a little sophisticated for the murder-minded infected, at least from what little experience he had.

Great, he thought. Just what we need. Another friggin’ kid. No doubt Saint Jet will wanna adopt this one too.”

“I ain’t gonna hurt’cha, little girl,” he finally whispered, still sighting her with the Browning. “But I need you to show me your hands and your face, real nice and slow like, okay?” The tone of voice he was using would have been appropriate for a five-year old. An eleven year-old under normal circumstances probably would have found it insulting, but then again, he did have a shotgun on her. ”You here alone, or is anyone with you?”