Survivors

As they got closer to where the gunshot had come from they could hear a strange noise. It was a rattling, wheezing, groaning, grunting sort of noise. It was only a quiet noise but it was pretty eerie, it was the sort of noise that put your teeth on edge and sent shivers down your spine. Joe was still in the lead crawling slowly through the undergrowth. All of a sudden as he wriggled through one last bush he came nose to sole with a large pair of boots. He froze, too scared for a couple of seconds to move.

The others stopped behind him. They knew better than to ask questions. If Joe had stopped there was probably a pretty damn good reason. They knew he’d be weighing up the situation, assessing possible courses of actions and formulating a plan, or at least that’s what they hopped he was doing. After what seemed like an absolute age Joe whispered over his shoulder.

“There’s someone lying here. I think it’s the Dane. I think he’s been shot”

A hundred questions instantly buzzed into Holly’s mind, but one buzzed louder than all the others like a particularly angry bee that was the size of a large cat. If it was the Dane who’d been shot, who the hell had shot him?

“I’m going to see if he’s …” Joe paused “If he’s still alive”.

Do you want me to check?” Asked Luke trying to sound confident but all the time hoping Joe wouldn’t say yes.

“No” came the reply “I’ll do it”

They had seen lots of dead bodies in the first few years after the Aliens arrived. In fact they had seen so many that they were almost numbed to the horror of seeing them, but this felt different. Those bodies were nameless, unknown, anonymous people but this, this was the Dane. Joe crawled slowly forward trying to see if the Dane was still breathing. The eerie noise had stopped but now it had Joe wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. No noise and no signs of any movement, not the slightest rise and fall of chest, nothing. It seemed like the Dane was dead.

It was probably because he was concentrating so hard on the Danes chest that he hadn’t looked where he was crawling. It wasn’t until his elbows and stomach began to feel cold and wet that he glanced down. His arms, chest and stomach were covered in thick dark red blood. Joe felt like he was going to throw up. He took a few really deep breaths to try and control himself. It didn’t work. All he managed to do was breath the awful stench of the blood deep into his lungs. The smell felt like it sank deep into the pit of his stomach and he would have, without any doubt, have been sick if the Dane hadn’t shocked all thought of puking out of him by speaking.

Actually speaking is probably too strong a word to use, it was more like a strangled gurgle but it still made Joe jump like a cat with a chilli up its bottom. With his heart pounding and swallowing hard for breath he crawled forward a little more until his head was next to the Danes.

“Dane” he whispered “Dane!?”.

The Dane slowly and obviously painfully rolled his head towards Joe. Although the Danes eyes were looking at Joe it was pretty clear he wasn’t really seeing him, not properly anyway. His eyes kept rolling into his head and moving sluggishly around as if the couldn’t quite focus properly.

“Dane, what happened?” Whispered Joe.

“Sh.. Sh... Shot me”.

“Who shot you Dane, what’s going on?”

“Ergh must stop” frothy pink blood dribbled from the side of the Danes mouth and he choked coughing heavily.

Joe waited a few moments for him to recover his breathing, ragged though it was.

“Must stop what?” asked Joe.

“Must stop … him. Couldn’t stop him, he shot me. So tired, so very very tired”

The Danes body was suddenly wracked with pain. He groaned low and long then fought to get his breath back. As he did the sucking gurgling noise from his chest got louder and even more blood frothed across his lips. Joe knew the Dane was going to die. Not only was he going to die he was going to die right here and in the very near future while Joe watched. Tears welled in his eyes, not just for the Dane but for himself, for what they were both going to go through in the next couple of minutes.

“Joe” whispered a voice behind him, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah” said Joe, wiping his hand across his eyes. “Just stay where you are, okay!”

“But...”

“Just stay there”.

The Dane seemed to have recovered slightly from the spasm of pain and had relaxed a little. Joe knew he needed to find out as much as he could about what had happened. He also knew that he probably didn’t have very long to find it out.

“Dane, I’m sorry, I’ve got to ask you and I know it’s going to hurt like hell for you to tell me but i’ve got to know so I can tell Darius. Who shot you Dane? And why did they do it?”

The Dane was trying with all his strength to focus. His voice came out as hoarse whisper.

“Saw him leave, no time to get anyone, knew something was wrong, so followed. Caught him and he, he shot me”

“Who shot you Dane, who was it?”

The Dane grimaced again with the pain and his eyes rolled back deep into his head. His mouth moved forming silent painful words. Then the silence became a hiss, which became a gurgle that became a word painfully and insistently repeated over and over again.

“Jacob, Jacob, Jacob”

Suddenly the words stopped and the Dane reached out and grabbed Joe’s shoulder with one of his huge bear like hands and hauled him forward so they were practically nose to nose. For a few seconds they stared at each other then the Dane hissed.

“Warn Darius, move the camp”.

The Dane gave one last gasp and rolled onto his back, dead.