It came from outside.
A cold wave embalmed me as the hairs rose on the back of my neck as Daniel, Clareta and I got to our feet in an instant.
"What was that?" Alison asked as she ran out of the kitchen with wide eyes before another explosion filled the air and my heart began to throb in my ears, but I barely heard it. My mind was clouded with fear.
Were we being bombed? What else could make a sound like that?
I heard the growl of a big engine as a vehicle zoomed on the street past our house and Ezra and Daniel immediately headed for the door.
Where the hell are they going?
"No, no, wait," I called out as I headed towards them and Ezra held a hand up.
"Stay inside," he said, looking at every one of us in the living room before he opened the door and stepped outside with Daniel.
We all stayed quiet for a couple of seconds after they shut the door. My eyes darted to Jack when he let out a whine and trotted to the door just as Faye ran down the stairs.
"What the hell was that?!" she exclaimed before Clareta quickly shushed her and the living room became quiet again. The only sound we could hear was the rain pelting the windows and Jack whining next to the door.
Where are they?
My heart began to beat wildly and my hands were shaking in an odd trembling rhythm as another explosion sounded in the distance before Zeke shook his head.
"I'm going outside," he stated as he began to head for the door.
"No!" Hae In yelled and he stopped a couple of feet away from me just as I said, "I'm going with you."
"You guys should go upstairs and hide. We have no idea what's going on."
"Exactly!" Hae In gestured at all of us. "We have no idea what's going on and neither do you. Ezra said we should stay inside."
Jack let out another whine as he began to rake at the door with his nails before Alison softly called his name and he trotted to her.
"We could look out the window," Clareta said and walked over to the curtained window that was next to the door.
I don't know why but I held my breath and clenched my fists as she pulled the curtain back to look through the window.
"There's a –"
I jumped when the front door suddenly swung open and Daniel and Ezra ran in. Daniel slammed the door close while Ezra quickly pulled Clareta away from the window just as gun shots rang out.
The sound of breaking glass filled the air and fragments that were sharp enough to cut on contact rained onto the ground. My heart stopped as I ducked to the ground when the gunfire started and another explosion went off. Screams erupted and I wasn't sure if it was from inside the house or outside.
The gunfire abruptly stopped just as it started but I could still hear it echoing down the street. The sudden lack of noise washed despair over me and I looked up.
A wide eyed Alison was curled up on the ground next to the couch with her arms wrapped around Jack's neck while Zeke was next to me. Daniel, Clareta and Ezra were next to the door and also on the ground. I couldn't see Hae In and Faye because they were behind me but they were definitely on the ground too.
Blood began to gradually soak the sleeve of Zeke's shirt, radiating outward and I let out a gasp which drew his attention to it too. He cursed under his breath and poked the wound where blood was escaping from before letting out a hiss. I swallowed over the sound of my heartbeat thrashing in my ears.
"Hae In," I called out and tried to lift my head from the ground to look back.
"Stay down," Ezra stated and I glanced at where he was. "The estate is under attack."
Clareta was gripping her side with one hand and I realized that she had also been shot when I saw blood trailing down her fingers. Her face looked really pale as she sucked in a breath.
Hae In crawled over to Zeke and held his hand as she looked at the gunshot wound in his arm but he shook his head at her and pointed at Clareta. She whispered something to him which he nodded to before she began to crawl over to Clareta.
Ezra peeked out of the window and muttered something as he quickly crouched low. "They're coming in. We have to go, now."
Fear washed over me like a tidal wave after my mind processed his words as more gunfire erupted outside but it wasn't aimed at our house.
Go where? Go outside through the back door or go upstairs to hide?
We can't go outside because even if we were able to avoid being seen by the people outside, we would end up running into another one of their groups. Ezra said the estate was under attack and I'm sure it wasn't just the people outside our house that attacked it. The explosions that we had heard earlier indicated that these people didn't have meagre weapons. If we did manage to avoid the attackers, we could find other people and find somewhere to lay low till the soldiers got this under control but being able to avoid the attackers sounded unlikely.
We couldn't stay in the house because the people outside definitely knew that we were inside. It didn't seem like they just decided to shoot into the house for fun. If we hid upstairs, they might find us or they might not and that was a dangerous risk to take because they'd definitely kill us if they found us.
In summary, both options were really terrible.
"Go where?" Faye asked from behind me, voicing out my thoughts. "Outside or upstairs?"
Ezra blew out a harsh breath and glanced at each of us before muttering 'shit' as he ran his hand over his face.
"Outside."