Free Reapers Mist: Third in the Reaper Trilogy by Justin Gowland by Justin Gowland

weight pulled my hand down. Looking round there was no other movement on the street. Bending quickly I pulled the bayonet from her head and shook the black blood off the blade.
    Quickly crossing the street and going into the alley, I tried keeping to the shadows. My thoughts strayed to how Maddie and Jacob were doing on the boat. I had to stop and shake my head. I couldn’t be thinking any thoughts like that at the moment. The distraction might lead to those thoughts being my last. (As a human that is.)
    I came to the end of the alley and to one of the main roads going through town. It was a wide dual carriage way with a fence running down the middle. I needed to get over this road and back into the alleys on the other side. Unlike any other road there didn’t seem to be any abandoned vehicles to hide behind. The other problem was that it must have been at least thirty to thirty five meters wide. Looking left and right along the pavement on my side there didn’t seem to be any other way across. (Shit.)
    I couldn’t see any movement on my side, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any Reapers nearby. Might as well get this over and done with I thought and slowly headed across in a crouch. I reached the fence in the center and just managed to climb over. When (yup you got it.) I heard the keening of the Reapers. The noise seemed to echo off the concrete of the buildings. Making it hard for me to know where it came from. Keeping bent over I moved as quickly as I could to the other side. Turning just as I made it into the shadows of the alley, I saw three Reapers come out of the alley opposite. They stood with their heads raised and looking about. I kept my breathing steady the last thing I needed was to make some kind of noise and attract them to me. If that happened, I’d have to use my rifle and that would bring them from all over after me. They stood on the opposite side for what was maybe ten or fifteen minutes. Some kind of decision must have been made because two split off. One going to the left, the other to the right and the third Reaper stood waiting for the others to move from sight. I swear it looked across into the alley I was hiding in. It turned and headed back down the alley it had emerged from. I didn’t realize that I had been holding my breath and it exploded out in a burst.
    I didn’t know when Rees and his group would get to our meeting spot. I also didn’t know if I would get there in time or not. I turned and got going heading toward the outer edge of town. Keeping to the shadows of the streets and alleys I made it a few streets from where I needed to hole up. It was then that I noticed the sky starting to darken. Looking up and the gray skies from earlier had now darkened to an almost black. If I didn’t move quickly, I was going to get soaked. There was a flash of lightening followed by a clap of thunder. I was caught off guard by what happened next.
    Erupting from nearly every direction was a screeching and howling. (Yes, I did do a little pee pee.) I threw myself into a small garden and hid behind a hedge. The noise seemed to die down and I looked over the hedge. Nothing moved on the street so I got up to move. When there was another flash of lightening and another clap of thunder. The screeching and howling came again.
    This time I didn’t take a dive or anything else. The noise calmed down again. Stepping onto the street I continued my journey. Looking round I could see movement in the darkened rooms of the houses I passed. But nothing came running out of any to attack me. What was keeping them inside? The only thing that had changed was the storm that was coming.
    Could the flash of lightening and the claps of thunder be keeping them inside? I decided to try moving a little faster and started to jog the last few streets. I finally got to the road that I was to meet Rees on. The rain had started to fall in heavy sheets. The flashes of lightening and claps of thunder were getting closer and