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A minute later, Tug was at the girl’s door knocking excitedly. Dana opened the door and looked out.

“Tug, are you okay? You look terrible. Come on in.” She said.

Dana opened the door wider to reveal Kim and Mia, who were inspecting Tug with wide eyes. They rushed over to Tug and led him to a chair to sit down. Kim ran over and brought him a bottle of water.

Mia looked at Tug with concern, “What’s going on, what’s happening?”

Tug took a large gulp of water before speaking, “The infected have breached the west wall and are flooding into the compound.”

Dana looked at Tug with fear in her eyes, “The military will take care of them, won’t they?”

Mia and Kim leaned in to hear the answer. Tug dropped his head and shook it.

“They don’t have the ammo or the soldiers. The horde has grown again. There are as many now as there was before.” Tug went silent for a moment.

The girls went silent, but continued to stare at Tug intently, hopefully waiting for him to finish with a “but we will be okay”.

Tug felt the stares on him. He looked up and forced a smile.

“Hey, I believe if we hide and let this mob run through, we should be okay. We will just wait them out.”

The three girls exchanged glances, and then Kim broke the silence.

“We don’t have any other options.” She said to the other two.

Dana and Mia slowly nodded, but did not look too convinced.

Tug stood up. “Come in girls; it will be alright,” he said with a reassuring smile.

All four of them stood up and gathered food and some water. They entered a decent size storage closet and settled down with Tug at the very back.

“We might want to shut this light off in here,” Tug suggested.

Dana reached up and switched it off. The four of them sat in the dark, straining to hear what was going on around them. They could hear distant weapon fire along with yells and shrieks. The girls stifled their sobs as they held on to each other. Tug’s breathing was rapid, and he tried to be as quiet as possible.

The weapons fire died down, but the screams and screeches continued.

The noises became louder and louder the longer the four of them sat in the dark. Running footfalls came closer and the girls inc

hed closer together.

A brief silence fell on the group huddled in the closet. Quiet sniffles and whimpers came from the three girls as the silence made them nervous. They waited for any sound to clue them in to what was going on.

Suddenly a screech split the silence and a pounding against the wall in the hallway startled the group. One girl involuntarily let out a slight scream. More footsteps found their way toward the group’s location. Another scream, followed by two more, came from the hallway, closer to where Tug and the girls were hiding.

With the screeching getting louder as the infected keyed on their location, the girls were panicked and cried loudly.

The infected knew where the group was now, and they came pounding on the door. The girls were screaming and sobbing, trying to hold on to each other.

Tug whispered, “I love you girls, just as if you were my own.” BANG! BANG! BANG!

Tug fired three shots from the Glock he already had pointed at the back of the girl’s heads.

“I told you I wouldn’t let them these fuckers take you. You girls will be just fine now. No more fear, no more sorrow, no more of this fucking hell!” Tug was yelling now.

A tear rolled down Tug’s face as he closed his eyes and the door finally gave way. The pistol was already in his mouth, and he only needed to provide a few pounds of pressure on the trigger.

Tug’s eyes shot open and in a last act of defiance, he swung the pistol out in front of him and shot the two closest infected right in the forehead. He smiled and quickly turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger before the rest of the infected reached him.