Saving Jackie
Billy left the settlement that day knowing he was going to save Jackie. She was in trouble. Everyone said it was a suicide mission, but he loved her. She was his first friend in the new world. She had taught him so much and she made him as happy as anyone could given the current circumstances. He loaded up his buggy with equipment for the trip and set off.
Billy pulled the buggy to the side of the road. He steps out, slowly. Parking the buggy up against the entrance to a cave, concealing it.  Covering the buggy with sand, he thinks to himself. He thinks about that day. The day everything happened. The day the world as he knew it ended and threw him into this barren landscape. He missed the trees. The parks and the people. He missed his dog, Ruby. Oh, how he missed Ruby. Every Saturday he would wake up and take Ruby to the dog park.  The dogs were all so happy together, running, playing. Billy missed his old life. He used to be a doctor. He was the one who sutured up wounds and made sure you were done bleeding. He has always loved taking care of people.
A buggy in the distance snapped him out of his thoughts. He made sure his rifle was loaded. He knelt down, resting his rifle on the hood of his own buggy. As he did so, he sunk into the dry sandy floor of the ravine. He felt the sand come up in the gap between his legs. He listened and watched. The roar of the incoming bandits, the yelling, screaming, the chanting. They were getting louder. He slowed his breathing. He could see the bandit convoy approaching. They were on the other side of the ravine. He lifted his rifle, shouldering it. He squinted to see through the dusty scope. He slowly moved his index finger to the trigger. The bandits stopped. They had reached their rendezvous point. If his intel was correct, the third vehicle should have Jackie in it.
Billy repositioned himself in the sand. He set his extra magazines next to him in the sand. He had one last pipe bomb from the raid on the bandits the week before. He set that in the engine bay of his buggy to protect it from any incoming projectiles.. He searched through his scope and found his first target. He was a massive individual with broad shoulders. He had a dark complexion. He was a large, muscular build and his veins bulged seemingly out of his skin. He was obviously the leader of the convoy. He walked out and faced the other bandits, his back to Billy. Billy tightened his hold on his rifle. He breathed slowly. He aimed at the back of the head of the bandit leader. He set his crosshairs in the middle of the of the bandit’s skull. Slowly, Billy started to pulled the trigger. His body jerked. The rifle pushed back with the recoil. A huge blast of flame and percussion came out of the end of the barrel. The sound was immense, and a ringing followed the initial blast. Through the scope, the bandit plunged to the ground, limp. His head bobbed as he fell. He hit the ground like a rock, spitting up dust and debris as he hit.
The bandits scattered for safety. A few pointed their guns in random directions and fired.
Bullets sprayed in every direction.
“Waste of ammunition,” Billy whispered to himself.
He aimed at the next bandit. One that was firing his weapon uncontrollably. He put the crosshairs on the bandit's chest and squeezed the trigger. Another shot rang out through the ravine. The bandit dropped with a spurt of blood coming from his back. He hit the floor and his gun went off one last time. The bullet whizzed past Billy’s head and he ducked. Billy looked through his scope to see three bandits charging his position. He rested his rifle in the hood of his buggy and took the pistol out of its holster. He aimed, and fired. He hit the first bandit twice in the chest. He dropped face first into the sand. The other two kept coming, and Billy opened fire. He emptied his clip, every shot hitting true on one of his targets.
He heard a scream from the convoy location. It was Jackie. A bandit was dragging her to a buggy. Billy dropped his pistol and grabbed his rifle. He took aim on the running bandit and fired. The shot hit his left leg. He crumpled and screamed in agony. Billy tried to fire again, but his rifle was out of ammunition. He grabbed another magazine and banged it against the buggy a few times to get the sand out of it. He was running out of time. The bandit was getting up again, against the pain and aiming his rifle at Jackie. Billy pulled the action back, aimed at the bandit, and pulled the trigger. The bandit flipped to the side from the impact. Billy was unsure where he hit the bandit, so he fired again hitting the bandit in the back. The bandit crumpled and fell to the ground.
Jackie sat up, astonished. She hadn’t a clue what was happening. There was still another group of bandits and they were closing in on Billy’s location. Billy grabbed the pipe bomb and primed it. He pulled the pin with his teeth and grasped the bomb as tightly as possible. The bandits were only about fifty yards away now. Billy threw the bomb. Before the bandits could dive for cover, the bomb exploded mid-air, sending arms and legs flying in all directions.
The ravine calmed down and Billy could hear the constant patter of his heart beat. He slowly stood up, looking for foes. He scanned the sand but saw only dead bodies and limbs. He had to see if Jackie was okay. He picked up his pistol and put his last loaded clip into it. He pulled the slide back and with a click it locked into the empty, open position. He pushed the slide release and the gun was now loaded. He slung his rifle around his back and put the remaining magazines into the buggy. As Billy entered his buggy, a shot rang out through the ravine. Billy jerked and fell to the ground.
He thought to himself he was dying. Blood was pulsating from his chest out of the small bullet wound that was just created. He realized from his years of doctoring in his past life, it was a punctured lung. He had to stop the bleeding. He was slowly suffocating and if he wanted to save Jackie he had to live. He was becoming sleepy. His head hung limp as his eyes fluttered. A shadow was approaching his buggy. A figure appeared out of the corner of Billy’s eye and he jolted to consciousness. It was Jackie. She had a rifle. It was pointed at him. What was going on? Jackie spoke.
“You  shouldn’t have come here. I’m one of them now.”
Another shot rang out, and everything went black for Billy.