Where They Cannot Follow

Captain Decker crouched near an abandoned car at the end of Vance Circle, listening for sounds of movement. Beside him, his brothers in arms Coleman and Holbrook sat on the cold roadway, running their fingers over their rifles, checking them for damage. A few feet away, a man and a young girl sat together, her in his arms, a cross dangling from her neck between them, strangers not two hours before.

"Have we checked this street?" asked Decker, eyeing the empty houses in the rapidly fading daylight.

Holbrook pulled himself up to one knee and put his goggles to his face, surveying the street in infrared, looking for heat signatures. "No bad guys, but there is a small signal coming from that house over there. Could be a small one, maybe?"

"Great, then we should go that way," said Coleman, pointing in the opposite direction.

Decker grinned and looked at Coleman sideways, "Come on, it's just a little one. The girl could take it out." His eyes drifted to the young woman and she looked at him with worried eyes. "Just kidding, Miss, I wouldn't ask you to do that." He returned his eyes to the street. "I'm just saying you could, is all."