RAGE

“How much further you reckon, Hermione?” Luna asked in whisper.

“A mile at most I reckon.” She answered. “There’s a general store down the main street. We should head there first; get some food and drinks.”

They heard a cry in the distance and stopped dead in their tracks.

“We’re close.” Hermione whispered. “Let’s put our disillusionment charms on before we go any further.”

They all cast the spells and set off walking again. Although Hermione could not see anyone around her, she could still hear their shoes trampling the dry leaves and twigs. Occasionally she would catch her jeans on a bit of ivy.

“After the general store, we should head straight to the police station.” Hermione said quietly.

“Why?” Goyle said, irritated. “So we can report the infected?”

“So we can get weapons.” Hermione shot back. “Spells might not work sometimes but guns will.”

“What are guns?” Luna asked.

Hermione forgot often how little her friends knew about the Muggle world.

“It’s sort of like a wand that is made for one thing; killing. You point it at your enemy, pull the trigger and a small piece of metal flies out the end so fast that it will almost certainly kill you if it hits you in the head or chest.” Hermione answered.

“Wow…” Luna said. “Sounds terrible. Why would Muggles invent such a thing? It’s like the Avada; it never should have been invented.”

“It was for protection.” Hermione said. “Unfortunately, like the Avada, guns are usually used more by the bad guys.”

“I’ll bet.” Luna said.

Another cry came, this time closer.

“Fuck.” Hermione whispered, stopping and closing her eyes. “No matter how much I hear them scream, it still scares the shit out of me.”

“Don’t worry.” Draco said, close to Hermione. “We will be far away from them in an hour or so.”

“I know. It’s the what happens in the mean time that I’m worried about.”

***

They reached the end of the woods and stood at the tree line, surveying the main street. There were a few dead bodies on the road, but no infected in sight. It was quiet.

All holding hands and under the silencing charm, they started walking down the footpath, trying to keep as close to the shops as possible.

A scream came from behind them and they stopped, pressing their backs against the wall of the beauty salon. They looked to where the scream came from. An infected woman was running down the middle of the main street, coming for them.

Hermione looked ahead of them and saw a doe. Hermione felt both Draco and Luna starting to move, intending to start running. She flattened her arms against them, silently telling them to stay still. The doe spotted the infected and darted down a lane. The infected woman sprinted after it.

Hermione felt Luna heave a sigh. They began walking again and reached the general store. They looked through the window and saw no one inside. Fortunately the door was open so they wouldn’t have to make too much noise.

They walked in, one hand holding onto someone else’s and the other gripping their wand, ready to stun the first thing that moved. They walked down the first aisle, the girls quietly taking all the food they could. They shrunk it with their wordless magic and put it in their pockets.

The second aisle were canned goods. Hermione grabbed as many cans as she could, anything and everything. Then from behind her a can dropped to the ground. The sound echoed through out the shop and everyone stopped, fear clawing at them again.

They heard a yell come from the back room. Draco lead them to the corner of the shop, eager to stay out of the way. The infected man walked out into the shop and looked around, grunting slightly. He went down every aisle and nearly stepped on Hermione’s foot as he scooted around the corner. She bit her lip and held her breath to stop herself from panicking.

Finally, convinced the sound didn’t come from the shop, he walked out the front door and down the street, out of sight. Hermione didn’t want to move. She felt like he would see her if she did. Even though he was gone.

Draco lead them back to the second aisle, making them go a little faster. Hermione’s pockets were getting full and heavy. Hermione was glad when they had finished, but less than happy about going back outside. The police station was a block away, and there was no guarantee that there were still weapons there. They walked outside and looked around. Seeing no one, they began crossing the street.

Suddenly an infected man burst out of a little cottage. They stopped as he did. He looked straight at them. He cocked his head to one side as though some thing was out of the ordinary. He stepped closer, the rage seeming to freeze with in him for a moment. Then the red returned to his eyes and he ran off across the street, entering another cottage.

They quickly finished crossing the road and set off down the lane. They saw three infected at the end of the lane, standing, doing nothing but breathing. They had no choice but to go on. They crept closer and closer until finally they were just metres away. They stopped until Hermione spotted the police station a few houses away on the opposite side of the road. In single file, they tiptoed past the infected who noticed nothing.

When they got to the police station, the door was closed and the windows were smashed. They weren’t going to get in unnoticed. Hermione lead them around the back. The door was hanging off the hinges. They walked in, their wands in front of them. Hermione lead them down a passage that she was sure lead to the weapons and evidence cage.

She was right. The cage door was hanging by it’s bottom hinge. She stepped over the door and saw that there were still heaps of weapons left. There was lots of blood on the desk in the corner so she guesses that the person who had come here, hadn’t made it out alive. She realised that no one had grabbed any of the guns yet.

Then she mentally slapped herself. They wouldn’t have the faintest idea about what a gun looked like. She reached for a handgun, shrunk it and put it in her last empty pocket. A moment later four guns were in mid air, shrinking, then disappearing.

She took all the ammo off of the shelves and the spotted the draws. She quietly opened the top one and was delighted at what she found. Pepper-spray. Precious pepper-spray. It wouldn’t kill the infected but it would definitely stop them. She shrunk them all then opened the next draw.

Tasers. These would definitely help. Merlin help them if the infected came close enough that she had to use them, but they would be comforting none the less. The next draw held handcuffs. Hermione hadn’t thought about it but they may be useful. The bottom draw was empty. Hermione looked around the room. They had almost all of the guns and all the boxes of ammo. There was nothing left that they could use.

She lead them back to the back door. They quietly crept back to the street. The infected that were standing by the lane were gone. Hermione found that extremely upsetting. Draco again took lead, for which she was thankful.

He lead them quickly to the trees. Once they reached the tree line, they began to run as fast as they could, desperate to get out of the town. They ran for ten minutes and then stopped, exhausted. No one had eaten still. They took their silencing charms off and Hermione began to sob a little.

“I’m never doing that again.” She said, sniffling. “Never, never.”

“It’s alright.” Draco said moving towards the sound of her voice. “Hopefully you will never have to again.”

“Can we just get out of here!” Luna said, clearly crying too. “Let’s just fucking go!”

“Alright, darling.” Narcissa said. “Let’s think… we could go to our holiday home.”

“Our holiday home?” Draco asked.

“Well, your fathers retreat really.” She said sadly. “It’s in the middle of Scotland, quite near Hogwarts actually. No towns or people around for at least forty miles.”

“I didn’t know we still had it.” Draco said.

“Sounds fantastic to me.” Hermione said.

“And me.” Luna said. “So let’s go.”

“I will take Luna and Gregory.” Narcissa said. “Draco you take Hermione.”

They lifted the disillusionment charms. Luna and Goyle took Narcissa’s hands and disappeared a moment later. Draco took her hand again and she stepped in close to him, preparing to side-Apparate.

“Don’t worry, Hermione.” Draco said softly. “We’ll be alright.”

She looked up at him and smiled. His kindness breaking her heart.