"
"Seriously! Why now ?" Nicolas felt helpless.
Pulling himself together, he took the situation in hands. "Fred, you check on the first raw in the stairs and the new group, I will handle the rest of the group."
"Ok!"
Originally Nicolas was supposed to be waiting at the third quarter of the human row and Fred at the first quarter. This way they would have at maximum 4 people on each side. This mean, being very close to the people they had to handle thus they could act fast.
From where Fred was standing he could check on both groups, the beginning of the first raw and the new group, and act if needed.
Nicolas now had to handle not 8 persons but 11, he did not dare to shoot from afar, so he chose to go closer to his designated area to increase his accuracy. From his point of view, since he would be the only shooter for 11 people, only one or two persons should turn. If he could spot the ones who turn, he would be able to rush by their side to shoot at very close range and reduce failure or mistakes.
Time went fast, Fred and Nicolas were on their toes.
Some of Nicolas' friends were already starting to move.
'Keep cool, keep cool,' Nicolas was trying to keep himself calm, drops of sweat were visible on his face.
'No.. No.. No..' Nicolas was judging the ones who were moving, checking their eyes and behaviour to determine if they turned.
Among the eleven people, he had to handle seven were already pointing their finger toward the sky.
'Good luck!' But just as he was thinking this, the closest person from him started to make some weird noise. It was Rika! She was just below him on the narrow stairs.
"Rase your finger!" alerted Nicolas. He did not want to shot without being sure.
Then Rika jumped at him, he now could see her eyes, they were red!
He shot her twice. The impact made her go back a few steps, and she fell on the 3 persons who were behind her. She did not move anymore, at this distance and with the angle, it was easy to target the head and one of the bullets hit the mark.
Nicolas did not have the time to breathe in relief, he could hear screams further down and up above.
Since he was responsible for downstairs he checked there first, he saw John's group armed with two bats facing someone who was enraged. It was Amir, John and Jesper very good Friend.
Nicolas went down the stairs in a hurry, leaving to Fred whatever was happening above.
Upon reaching the end of the stairs, Nicolas screamed. "Move, I will handle him!"
John made a side step in a hurry. "BANG" the deafening shot shock the group. Both John and Stacy felt dizzy and they were so close to the gun.
Amir who was a metre away fell to their feet, blood flowing out of the hole in his head.
Nicolas did not wait, since his side was now covered, he wanted to make sure the top of the stairs was secured.
"BANG" Fred shot one of the two Indian guys who just arrived. His side was easier to handle. The four people who were exposed first were all safe, so he had the opportunity to come closer to the newcomers. As soon as he saw the red eyes of one of them, he closed in and shot him straight to the head at almost point-blank.
"If you're awake raise one hand in the air, right now!" he screamed warning the three others.
The three did as they were asked as they were scared to death! They had just arrived when they fell unconscious and were woken up by gunshots! What was happening here?!
Fred could see they barely could move due to fear, but this was good enough for him, as turned-ones were aggressive right away.
"How is it going?" Nicolas just arrived at the scene and saw one guy dead, the blood was still flowing out of the side of his head. 'Arf! this is still disgusting. How are we supposed to get used to that?' he thought.
"I think I am good, I assumed your side is safe too?
"Yes, it is."
"What… What is happening *sniff* here!" Stephanie was crying and scared. Markus was holding her tightly looking at Fred and Nicolas in fear.
"Sorry! You arrived at the worst time possible! We will give you an explanation, please go sit at the BBQ pit first." Nicolas was pointing at the benches behind him.
Followed the aftermath cries were feeling the background noise. Nicolas explained to Stephanie, Markus and Ramesh what they were doing when they just arrived. Ramesh was under shock, he came here with his flatmate to join the group, little did he know this would be the end for his friend.
Ramesh was a very good friend of Lexie, they knew each other from work. He was Indian and has been living in Singapore for 6 years now.
Stephanie was French, not from the mainland but Guadeloupe, a French island located in the Caribbean Sea. Her husband, Markus was German, from Munich. They met in Switzerland and got married there. They were both the stereotype you can expect. She was average in height, had lovely tanned skin, tightly curly black hair and a bright smile, while he was 188 cm tall, blond, blue eyes with a squared jaw.
***
It took 20 minutes to the group to gather at the apartment again. Some hid the dead bodies down the stairs near the BBQ pit, while others were crying or feeling sick.
After some discussion and planning, the ones who were planning to go to Europe by boat were almost ready to leave.
"All the supplies are ready in the cars, did you solve the problem of transportation?" asked Emmanuelle to Nicolas.
"Sight… I am not sure how we will make it. We are now sixteen, meaning we need another car.
Jesper has motorized bikes, three of them, and two normal ones, so this could help us at the beginning. And Markus and Stephany came in electric scooters. But it is not safe to ride those things right now, and it will be hard to keep up with the cars, So I am wondering what we should do."
Nicolas did the math, five persons in the sedan, seven in the Van, four needed to ride.
"We can just begin the journey slowly, and as soon as we find a vehicle we steal it. The distance is not that big, about 27 km, I plan to gather supply on the way and hopefully, we can leave the island soon," he continued.
"I have a question" Baptiste stepped into the conversation, "what do we do if we don't find big enough boats?"
Nicolas made an awkward smile. He thought about it already but did not find a suitable answer. "To be honest, I don't know, we can try with two smaller ones, and stay close to the coast? Or go to the marina of Sentosa" none of those ideas were ideal, but this was better than nothing in his mind.
Baptiste nodded, he understood that they will need to improvise.
Followed a long farewell full of sobs.
"I feel like today was worth a lifetime of cries and tears," said Nicolas looking at his friends.
Baptiste who was next to him answered, "Yeah, probably, but I guess it won't be the last time…"
They both did not like crying, it made them very uncomfortable, but seeing so many people crying, they had a hard time to fight the urge.
***
Lexie was with Georgie and their close friends. They were saying goodbye to Akari and Andrew who had decided not to get exposed to the meteorite and stay in Singapore. The former was from Japan, while the latter was from Australia. They both wanted to reunite with their family as soon as possible.
Amber was hesitating. She said she would not go with them to Europe, but she did not want to go back to China either. She did not feel a huge attachment to her family and she knew it would be an arduous journey anyway. In the end, Andrew told her she could stay with him for the time being, definitely convincing her to stay.
The group of good friends split just like this, with some hugs and waving hands, each group would now face the crisis on their own.
***
Fumes were spreading all around the city, the sirens of ambulances, fire trucks and police cars were filling the air, stressing the inhabitants to stay hidden.
Two cars, fill to the brim, were slowly going toward the exit of River City condo, followed by three persons on bikes with an electric engine. Baptiste, Jesper and Tomomi, the three with the best fitness and most practices were the ones riding.
After consideration they decided to stack one more person in the van, it was more secure that way, and it would increase their global speed.