Snippet #2420330

Tia's mind reeled in shock, her body numbed, as the Fireflies, her supposed saviours, opened fire on her. She gaped on as first one man, then another, barrelled into her assailants, the first going down with an evil-looking blade in his skull, the second falling under a wild blindsiding haymaker, bullets still spewing futilely from his high-powered rifle.

She sucked air into lher lungs witha shudder, and patted her skinny frame frantically. She knew the action was ridiculous, but it was instinctive too. 'I'm not... I'm... I'm okay I'm okay, it's okay, I'm okay,' she gabbled. She stared at the newcomers, the sweat dripping from their brows, their clenched fists and bunched muscles, their animalistic grimaces, and down at the dispatched Fireflies, and a shiver of fear ran through her. If she couldn't trust her brother's comrades, could she trust these strangers? If her brother's comrades were the enemy, were these her friends? She raised her handgun in front of her.

The man with the fists of fury nodded briefly at his companion as heart-beat seconds of silence dragged by. Tia's eyes flicked from one to the other, then her head snapped round at the unmistakable sound of approaching Clickers; the compound had just got that bit more perilous. Fists of Fury raised his rifle and a Clicker that just hoved into her line of sight crumpled to the floor. He shouted out another warning, but was borne to the dirt floor as a Clicker came round the corner - the same corner from which the supposed Fireflies had appeared around, Tia noted - and blundered into him.

'Fuck, someone help,' he cried out as the infected creature slavered down onto him. By chance as much as design, he'd got his rifle between it and him, but its heavy head was bearing down on him. Tia's frayed nerves finally snapped into action and she dashed the short distance to the downed man and the Clicker, found a gap in the fungal carapace that surrounded its head, and pulled the trigger. Gouts of blood, brain matter and fungal growth sprayed out the exit wound on the other side of the creature's head as it slumped heavily onto Fists of Fury. Another Clicker fell to the ground nearby; Tia hadn't seen who had downed it, but the cries of scared, agonised humans and the shrieks of Infected were both growing louder. She heaved uselessly at the body on Fists of Fury; he pushed it off himself.

'We gotta go! We gotta get out of here,' Tia screamed, glancing over at the stand where the first man had fallen. 'They're fucking everywhere, come on!'