Free The Lost Journal (A Secret Apocalypse Story) by James Harden

like she stumbled for a bit, like someone had pushed her. But then she regained her footing and kept sprinting.
    "Oh God," Franco said. "They’re not going down!"
    Franco was freaking out. He took a few single round shots before he switched to full automatic.
    I was stunned. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. These people were taking fire; they were being shot with high-powered assault rifles. But they weren’t going down.
    They weren’t human. They were monsters.
    I took aim again and rested my index finger on the trigger.
    Inhaled.
    Exhaled.
    I took the woman out first. She had actually over taken the men. She was in front by a few feet.
    The bullet passed through her temple, her head snapped to the side and she fell to the ground, her momentum causing her to roll head over ass.
    The two old men did not stop or even acknowledge that the woman had been killed. They just kept running.
    They were a hundred feet away from Franco now.
    Drake was still shooting, trying to provide support. But his aim was getting more and more erratic. And when the old men got within fifty feet of Franco, Drake stopped shooting altogether from fear of hitting Franco.
    I fired again and took out one of the men.
    There was one guy left. I reloaded. Took aim. Fired.
    Clipped him in the shoulder. But he kept running. I fired one more shot.
    Missed.
    I saw Franco stand up from where he had been lying down. His rifle was raised up to his shoulder. He fired at point blank range.
    He would’ve had to have hit the old man but he was so close I couldn’t tell.
    The infected man crashed into Franco, tackling him to the ground. I stood up and sprinted over. When I got there, Franco was lying on his back. He was breathing hard.
    The infected old man was face down in the dirt. He was not moving.
    A few seconds later Drake arrived. "Jesus, man. Are you all right?"
    Franco slowly got to his feet and brushed himself off. "Yeah, I’m fine. I think."
    "That was messed up," I said.
    "Yeah, I freakin nailed that old lady," Drake said. "Didn’t drop her. She didn’t even stop running. It was like nothing had happened."
    "They weren’t lying when they said a head shot is the only way to stop the infection," Franco added between deep breaths. "This virus is messed up."
    Franco called back to command and reported the incident and requested reinforcements. He was denied.
    They couldn’t spare the men.
    "You’re kidding," I said. "What the hell?"
    I checked my watch. We still had a couple more hours until we were scheduled to be relieved. And unfortunately this incident was just the beginning of our worries.
    Complications. Yeah, it gets worse.
    We were standing around, trying to catch our breath, trying to make sense of the situation.
    I was struggling to come to grips with shooting and killing these old people, an old woman for crying out loud.
    I guess I was in denial. Even though deep down there was a part of me that knew these people were infected. How else could they have escaped from the old folk’s home? How else could these geriatrics get through the perimeter? How else could they run barefoot through the desert?
    We were just about to call it in but off in the distance a van approached. It appeared to have a satellite dish on top of its roof.
    It was a goddamn news van.
    "What the hell?" Drake said. "Is that what I think it is?"
    Reporters? Out here?
    It was the last thing we needed.
    I’m ashamed to admit it, but my first thought was that we'd have to shoot them.
    I mean, these guys were obviously not infected. At least, I don’t think they were. But what would happen if we refused to follow orders? Would we be court marshaled? Locked up? Would they send in the gunships now and take us all out?
    I know it sounds crazy but all these thoughts were running through my head as that news van pulled up to us. Once again we held innocent people’s lives in our hands. We had the final say. I feel sick just thinking about it. For all we knew, these guys