Chapter 27: The Last Stand
It was now past eleven and completely pitch black. Max wanted to surprise the Red Death by waiting to turn on the lights. Rock, George, and a couple of other strong men held the hoses at the fire truck waiting to spray the Red Death.
"Everyone stay quiet!” Max yelled aloud, “The Red Death will be here in a little under twenty minutes." All of the people stood in a square formation so that no member of the Red Death could be hidden. The people had reinforced the barbwire fence and even dug a small ditch around the entire perimeter. Clay was in the middle with group A ready to strike and shoot at any moment. If the Red Death didn't have any weapons they would have to climb up a ditch and then hop all the way over the fence, which had small nails and sharp objects on it.
As Max looked out in the distance Katherine teleported right next to him, whispering, “What do you want me to do Max?"
"If you see any Red Death climbing over the fence, teleport over to them and blow their brains out." "Copy that commander," she smiled, and teleported over to where Clay was standing.
Every citizen remained dead quiet, their hearts racing waiting in anticipation for the Red Death to find them. Max was ready to fire the switch and have the lights come on at any moment. He held his plasma ray gun tight in his hand thinking to himself, “You have to beat them Max, you can do this." As he thought about this he felt the cross on his neck start to give him power. He stared down his neck and saw the cross start to light up. He heard a light pitter-patter of footsteps coming their way. The field was about five-hundred by three-hundred feet across, so it was easy to spot.
"Ah!" A Red death member yelled in the distance, and everyone in the field could feel their skin crawl. Max heard more footsteps now and he yelled out loud, “Get ready, closer, closer, closer, now!"
Max turned on all of the lights and the entire place was surrounded. "Now, Rock!" Rock ordered the men to open up the hoses. They sprayed water in every direction and the Red Death didn’t know what was going on, at first they even acted like they liked it. After all the water was pumped they stood laughing right in front of the ditch. "You really think a little of water is going to defeat us?" a Red Death leader announced.
"Well try to kill me and find out!" Max shouted and he aimed at the Red Death leader and shot him right in the face. The other Red Death screamed in rage all pointing their weapons at Max. "Now you are ours!" another yelled. “Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!” The Red Death started firing their weapons, and instantly the shots fired right back into their chest and face. Nearly all of their army fell straight back taking the deadly shot from their own plasma ray guns.
Now it was Max’s turn to laugh, "Well that was smart," he yelled. The Red Death who survived screamed, even more outraged than before. They threw their guns to the ground and started to climb through the ditch. "Fire!" Max shouted and all of the people started shooting, trying to hit as many Red Death as they could. Max ran to the front of the fence and hopped on the top. He shot furiously, nailing every single Red Death trying to break through. Rock ran up behind him and also fired, making sure no Red Death could get on the fence. Katherine teleported around to each section of the fence, shooting anyone who tried to climb on the fence.
Just as Max thought the Red Death were starting to lose, one part of the fence was ripped down. "Run back to other side! Don't let them touch you!" Max shouted at the top of his lungs. Katherine reappeared next to Max and grabbed him, and they instantly teleported over to where the fence had been broken. There were more than twenty Red Death inside the fields now and Max viciously shot at them. They somehow ignored Max and ran by him, but Max kept firing and none of them made it a couple feet past his line of fire. Then the worst thing happened. The Red Death started throwing rocks at the lights and eventually every single light was taken out.
Max suddenly had about a thousand people trying to take cover behind him. "Does anyone have any matches or something, we need light." Max whispered. "I do Max! I have something even better." Clay replied as he handed Max an LED flashlight. Max took a deep breath and turned on the flashlight, pointing it in front of him. That’s when he saw the Red Death all standing about fifty feet away with their red skin and blood shot eyes. They numbered about five thousand or so and all stood side by side, smirking and cackling.
"Alright guys, this is it. This is the last chance we have. Clay, I want you to take your group and use one of those formations I showed you." Clay nodded at Max and assembled his team into an eleven by five rectangle. "Forward march, fire!" All fifty-five of the men began shooting and each killed at least one Red Death. Those who weren’t hit sprinted straight for the humans, in a complete rage. Max ran forward, the cross on his heart now radiating extreme power. Max clicked on the trigger faster than he had ever had before. His plasma ray gun was blowing straight through lines of the Red Death. The people of the town kept shooting and backing up, making sure no one would be touched and infected by the Red Death. But eventually they were pushed back and pinned against the fence on the other side of the training field. Max still stood ten feet in front of all of them. They had killed so many Red Death, but there were several thousand more standing, ready to strike.
"You see boy, we told you to give up. The purpose of your people is to die, the time of the Red Death is now!"
Max's heart raced, he couldn't let them come any closer or his people would be killed. Max stepped forward almost inches away from the Red Death. They all stood still not moving a single muscle. "I'm not afraid of you disgusting things!" he hissed and shot one right in the face then ran and somehow leaped into the middle of their pack.
"Attack!" Rock yelled and all the people started to run forward with their automatic machine guns firing, trying to keep the Red Death from coming any closer. Max was in the center of their circle. They clawed, bit, and punched him but he still was standing up. Max was in complete pain even as his wounds kept healing, but he knew he couldn't keep this going for much longer. As he was about to fall he screamed out, "Katherine help!" Instantly she teleported to his side and grabbed him and they teleported out of the circle.
They reappeared in her apartment, and she put him on her bed. Max screamed and yelled in absolute pain his legs were gashed and his chest was ripped open. But in just minutes, the pain went away and his body healed itself and he was back to normal. "Thanks for saving me Katherine, we need to go back now." She grabbed him and they teleported back to the field. The Red Death continued attacking the town’s people, already killing hundreds of them.
George yelled, "Max there are too many of them, we can't hold them off much longer." "Keep going!" Max responded and he ran back into the Red Death with his plasma ray gun. “Bam, bam, bam!” Max hit every target and was shooting with perfect accuracy. He saw Clay and a couple of other men cornered and ran over to help them. Clay and the other members of the A team were shooting well, but the Red Death was too powerful, and eventually all of them were grabbed and killed, except for Clay. He escaped and sprinted back to where Max was with a good hundred Red Death running after him. "Help me Max! Help!" Max darted over to him nailing all the Red Death trailing Clay. They all ignored Max though and had their sights set on Clay.
"Clay turn around and fire!" Clay listened to Max and turned, but as he did one of the Red Death members slashed him across the face. Max ran up behind it and blew its brains out from behind. Clay lay motionless on the ground and his body started to become cold. "Clay talk me boy, don't give up!" Max told him almost in tears. Clay was barely able to respond, “I can feel it Max, I'm going to turn into one of them, I'm infected. You have to kill me and kill the rest of them." "I can't do that Clay, you know I can't." Clay grabbed Max's hand and told him it was okay. "You’re like a son to me Clay, I can't do it." "I'll always be with you in here Max." He pointed to Max's heart and pulled the plasma ray gun out of his other hand. "You have to do it Max, I don't want to be one of them. Just make sure you do one thing for me Max, win
this battle." Max nodded at him tears now flowing down his face. He tilted Clay's head back, his little body was completely limp like a rag doll. "I'm sorry Clay." He pulled the trigger and left Clay lying on the ground. Max knew he had to contain his emotions so he could stay focused. He ran back to where George, Rock, and the rest of the citizens were fighting.
"We can't keep them back any more Max! A lot of us are out of ammo," Rock said to him out of breath. "That’s alright Rock tell everyone to line up against the fence. Trust me don't move." "You’re out of your damn mind Max, they'll come straight for us." "That’s an order Rock, do it now!"
Rock threw down his gun and yelled, “Everyone, put your backs to the fence and don't fire a single bullet." The people reacted fast to the order and the rest of the people put their backs on the wall. There were over a thousand Red Death now, all about ten yards away from Max and the people were about twenty yards away from him. Max announced, “You can take my pride, you can murder me, but you can't kill my best friend!"
The Red Death laughed, and snarled at him. "Your friend is nothing, just like you boy." "Say one more thing about my friend, and I'll kill all of you right now." In unison the Red Death cackled, " Your friend is nothing, just like you."
Max took out his plasma ray gun, holding it with two hands. They laughed louder, "You think that one person can defeat all of us?" "I don't think, I know."
Max shot forward and nailed the Red Death who spoke. Then he went crazy and chased down every single Red Death, hitting them with fatal shots. They ran after him and he would shoot and then juke. He dipped right and left, almost like he was untouchable. The people watched in amazement as Max hit every target. "Go Max! You can do it!" they all yelled. Max was blind with rage for what they did to Clay, he was running around the entire field. With the surviving Red Death following, screaming at each other, trying to catch up with him, Max turned around and fired twenty shots in under a second. His gun started smoking he was shooting so fast. Two Red Death got close to him and swiped for his head, he ducked and then rolled away from them. They got right behind each other in confusion and Max took a single shot that went through both of them. The Red Death had started to retreat, with less than one hundred left. But Max didn't let them go easily. He trailed them, running faster than he had ever run before. He caught up to almost all of them, blowing every single one of their heads off. He saw the last Red Death leader running with about fifty members of their group. Max aimed and fired at its leg blowing it off instantly. The thing howled in pain, Max slowly strutted to where it was bleeding. It started screaming, as Max got close. "Please, please don't kill me," it begged him. "You’re the one who told your people to chase that boy, aren't you?" "It wasn't me I promise, please just don't shoot." "Admit it, tell me you shot the boy!" Max said with fury. "Alright I did do it. They made me make that order, I'm not the one in charge Max." "Don't you dare say my name, you're nothing. Your own kind left you behind because they don't even care about their last leader." Max pulled out his gun, the Red Death still begged him not to shoot. He didn't say a word, and pointed his gun straight at his face. "You have no purpose," he whispered to it and fired. “Bam!” Max shot it straight through its heart.
He turned around and started to slowly trail back to the field. It was almost morning now, and the sun was just starting to come up. As Max got into the field he heard applause. Rock, Katherine, and George all ran over to him, hugging him and shaking their heads in amazement. "How the hell did you do that Max?" Rock asked in an enthusiastic tone. Max stared at the ground only saying, “Clay's dead." He burst out in tears only able to say in sobs, “I killed him! I didn't save him in time and he asked me to kill him." The people all circled around him and cried with him. Katherine put her hand on his shoulder and stroked it softly. Max lay down on the grass, his eyes were puffy and red.
"You saved us Max, you saved us all. Even the ones who are dead are now free," Rock said to him. "He's right Max, you did all that you could. That's why you're the Mayor of this town,” George reminded him. Max stood up wiping away his tears. The people all stared at him waiting for his next command. "There's still one thing we have to do. We have to save the rest of the humans who are at the Red Death base. I want to get everyone to come with us and help me break everyone out as soon as we can. But first, go home and rest for a few hours. Thank you all for everything you’ve done, I couldn't have done it with out you."
Max and Katherine started to walk away, but Rock yelled out, “so what time should we meet you back here?" "Twelve o' clock" Max yelled back as walked away.