Free The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) by James Harden Page B

called out would they enforce the
containment protocol?
    Would they
shoot to kill?
    I did not
know.
    One of the
machine gun sentinels came to life. Its multiple barrels spinning and firing.
    Like I said,
the sentinels track movement and fire upon moving targets. These particular
sentinels were capable of firing over three thousand rounds of ammunition per
minute. It was firing on full automatic.
    It was not
enough.
    The infected
came charging around the corner. A lot of them were being completely torn apart
by the barrage of bullets.
    But a lot
were still getting through.
    The second
sentinel came to life.
    It was an
extremely effective line of fire. The infected were piling up in the street. It
was an unbelievable display of power. Both Jack and Maria were watching in awe.
But there was a problem. As good as these automatic weapons were; they were
designed to shoot human beings.
    Normal human
beings.
    None of the
shots were headshots.
    Every now
and then, the bullet would hit square in the chest, and completely destroy the
upper body, including the head. But most of the time, it wouldn’t. So most of
the shots were not kill shots. A lot of the infected still managed to crawl
through.
    I guess this
was better than having them run at full speed.
    The sheer
number of infected that now filled the streets, meant that a lot had slipped
through the sentinels line of fire.
    They charged
right for the men in black.
    "We should
get out of here," Jack said over the machine gun fire. "It’s not safe."
    "I need to
help them," I answered.
    "Help them?
Their orders are to kill us!"
    "They’re
soldiers," I said. "They’re people. I need to help them."
    Once the
infected had run through the sentinels, the soldiers opened fire. They were
good. Way better than I was. They were obviously trained snipers. They had most
likely volunteered to stay behind and distract the chasing horde while the
others made their getaway.
    They had
made the ultimate sacrifice.
    The soldiers
continued firing. When they ran out of bullets, they didn’t bother reloading
the rifle they had. They just picked up the next one.
    When the
horde got too close for comfort they would put down their sniper rifles, and
pick up one of their bigger automatic machine guns. They would aim for the legs
and bring them down so they could take them out.
    For a minute
it looked like they were going to make it.
    They had
created a little bit of breathing room.
    One of the
soldiers lit another green flare. Checked his watch. "Three minutes!"
    But then
another group of infected appeared from the other end of the street. They were
about to be surrounded.
    I told Jack
and Maria to get inside the building.
    Jack looked at
me confused. "What? Why?"
    I didn’t
answer him. I pushed him inside, told them both to move back and stay down. I
told Jack if anything comes out of the dark, shoot. If there’s more than one,
come back out on to the track.
    He nodded
and moved inside the entrance to the building.
    I opened
fire.
    The soldiers
immediately looked up. I knew they could decide in a heartbeat to enforce the
containment protocol. But I was hoping they would use their common sense and
realize I was helping them.
    I covered
their rear. I managed to take out three infected with successive shots. Hopefully
this would prove my worth to them.
    It did.
    They
continued firing at the rapidly approaching infected.
    Another
thirty seconds passed. They kept the infected at bay. But eventually they had
to reload. This wasted a lot of time for them. The infected covered a lot of
ground in a short amount of time.
    The
sentinels ran dry. They were knocked over.
    In the
distance, over the chatter of machine gun fire, I could hear the thumping of
rotor blades.
    It was their
ride out of here.
    It was too
late.
    The infected
continued to cram into the streets. There were just too damn many of them. They
rushed the soldiers. In the end, they didn’t stand a chance. The soldiers had
been overwhelmed. The