[color=a2d39c]Chris moved to the stairs slowly and quietly, always listening.  He looked behind him, seeing his wife and the others and held his fingers to his lips.  Silence was everything in cases like this.  He didn’t hear them behind him and wasn’t worried--they knew the drill.  He noticed his mother and father and found it odd that even now while stress and the cruel world aged everyone, the both of them still looked so young.

The apartment complex in the small town was lower end and basic with the building itself being 2 stories.  He opted to choose a room on the second floor.  It wasn’t ground level, but low enough that if he needed to jump, he could avoid injury.  He didn’t spend much time on the first floor, he simply stood and listened for about 5 minutes.  It was quiet and there were no signs of human life, so he was satisfied and began to move up.  

The stairs creaked a little, but he hardly heard the others behind him as they followed.  He got to the second level and looked left and right.  Nothing seemed out of place or dramatically different.  There was some random trash, a few open doors and some chairs in the hall.  He motioned for a halt and listened again.  It was a rather uneventful last fifteen or so minutes, but that was how Chris enjoyed it.  When nothing was happening, that meant no one was getting injured or hurt or anything of the sort.  

Nothing was what he wanted.  

He moved from one end of the hall back by himself, quietly and slowly and finally picked a room.  It was one on the end and with access to a fire escape that could be lowered.  He secured the room and a few moments later, they were all inside and set.  Chris took a moment to spread some random stuff around on the floor outside, things that would hopefully be stepped on, tripped on, or moved and make noise should anyone come down the hall.  He moved inside, closed the door and slid the couch in front of it.  Then he turned around...

His heart stopped and he felt a cold shock.  

“[b][color=00a651]No[/color][/b],” he said in a voice filled with panic.  “[b][color=00a651]No, no, no.[/color][/b]”  He looked around for something but it was obvious he couldn’t find it.  The apartment was small and consisted of a small living room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen.  He ran from room to room quickly, looking in closets that he’d already searched, same with cabinets and under the bed...

He stood up and felt cold dread and absolute terror.  This can’t be happening.  “[color=00a651]Babe!  BABE!  KIDS![/color]”  He moved room to room again and kicked an end table in a mix of fear and anger.  He calmed for a moment and looked at a mirror mounted on the wall.  He stared at it for a split second and then looked around again.  “[b][color=00a651]Mom?  Dad[/color][/b]?”  This couldn’t be happening.  Everyone was gone.

‘[i][color=00a651]They were just here, they were just RIGHT FUCKING HERE[/color][/i],’ he screamed in his head. 

He moved to the end table and flipped it angrily, then violently tore the TV that was on a stand off of it and threw it into a wall behind him.  

“[b][color=00a651]Honey, honey please.  Please, please.  I...the kids.  FUCK![/color][/b]”  Tears started to stream down his eyes and that only made him feel more panic, which led to more anger.  “[b][color=00a651]Oh my god, where...This...can’t be real.  This can’t be real[/color][/b].”

He moved towards the kitchen and flung the chair and table aside to look out the window.  Nothing.  “[b][color=00a651]Babe please, please.  BABE PLEASE![/color][/b]”  The last part was screamed at the top of his lungs and was filled with desperation and frustration.  “[b][color=00a651]Oh god.  Please, not the kids, not the kids, not the kids...[/color][/b]”

It was then that the sounds started to ring in his ears.  No, the sounds weren’t heard by his ears, they were sounds in his mind.  He heard the violent CRASH and glass shattering.  Then the hissing and crumbling of glass and metal.  Then the sirens and voice.  He heard voices.  He ran to another window and looked out.  

“[b][color=00a651]Baby, honey PLEASE...I…I need, are the kids…[/color][/b]”   He felt weight on his chest, his body.  He couldn’t breathe.  He gasped, but still managed to scream.  

The sirens.  He heard the sirens.  He couldn’t think.  He couldn’t block out the sounds and the panic and he started to scream and put his hands over his ears.  He kicked at the walls and smashed the mirror.

And he screamed and screamed.  All he could here was a grenade, gunfire.  And Corporal Black screaming commands.  Then there was more screaming, but it wasn’t his own, it was his Marines and then a hellacious hail of gunfire, so loud and constant it seemed like one single sound.  It was all around him and he fell to his knees and put his head down on the carpet.

He didn’t know what he was saying, he didn’t know what he was doing.  He was just lost, overwhelmed.  “[b][color=00a651]Please, god no, please.  Me not them HONEY PLEASE PLEASE I KNOW YOU’RE HERE!! I NEED THE KIDS![/color][/b]”

Everything stopped and he heard the music and laugher of the party, then heard the night ripped apart by more gunshots.  He heard screaming.  “[b][color=00a651]Oh my god, no, NOOO! STOP PLEASE![/color][/b]”  He didn’t even know he was screaming, or where he was.  He just went into another rage, punching and kicking anything in his way, screaming until his voice was all but gone.  

He didn’t know how it happened, or what had happened, but there was pain above his eye and he could taste blood.  He looked around the room, one last time, hoping this was a bad dream.  A nightmare.  He was still crying, or maybe it was the blood.  He felt his chest and heart pounding in a mix of rage and pure panic.  

Everyone was gone.  He fell to his knees.

He was alone.  He went fetal and cried.

There was no reason to live.  Everyone was gone.  Nothing mattered.  He pulled out his pistol and put it under his chin.  “[b][color=00a651]I’m so sorry.  I swear, I’m so sorry.  I wish I could...Not everyone.  Please, not the kids.  Not the kids.  Please, not my kids.  Please.[/color][/b]”  He started sobbing, closing his eyes as he cocked back the hammer to the revolver.  He was sobbing, he couldn’t even form words.  Everything was gone.  Everyone.  He was alone, he couldn’t protect his family.  His parents.  Wife.  Kids.  Family.  Life.  Everything gone.  

He put his finger on the trigger and just said over and over, “[b][color=00a651]I’m so sorry, oh my god, please, I’m so sorry...so sorry, please god, please.  Not them please, I’m so sorry.[/color][/b]”

He closed his eyes and took a deep final breath.

[/color]“Honey.  What are you doing?”  [color=a2d39c]He gasped and his head shot to the side.[/color]