The Few Part 2: The Mob

The event began, as a plump, middle aged man who was presumably the leader stepped up onto the top step of the Hunting Club entryway and began to address the crowd. He spoke in the manner of a businessman trying unsuccessfully to sound personable during a speech, with the same detached friendliness that made the listener feel his feigned sympathy without wanting to continue with a conversation, and a determination in his voice made it clear that there would be no questions.
"You know the drill," he began. "Those of you that were appointed to lead the lines can start immediately. We'll be going to Fifth Street, then to Walnut Boulevard, and ending up on Woodwork Drive. I want no casualties this time around."
He paused a minute before gesturing with his arm and announcing "Let's Go!"

A few men began to move first, and the rest of the crowd fumbled into a misshapen line behind them. The group began to move, beginning with a well-paced march, but quickly disintegrating into a disorganized gallop, and finally an all-out run, with the crowd morphing gradually from a line to a shapeless blob as they moved. The children, intent on being as much a part of the group as possible, clamored into what intended to be a line, but manifested itself as more of a semicircle, and followed as quickly as they could despite the shoving within their group. The crowd moved proudly around the block before returning to the club to arm themselves, They moved into the building through the left door, selected their arms from the rack inside, and proceeded out through the right door. John inadvertently found himself emerging from the building at the front of a line, and panicking, tried unsuccessfully and unfittingly noticeably to fade back into the crowd. After his line began to fall behind the rest of the mob, he gave up, and rushed ahead to join the other lines. They proceeded down Main Street towards Fifth Street, an old residential district of town where the few small, decrepit wooden houses that remained were overtaken by shut-down public housing developments, still occupied despite the "No Trespassing" signs plastered on the front.
The screaming mob was followed and observed intently by the mass of children, who provided the screams and shouts necessary for a mob scene. Among the children screaming for blood were the same three silent ones, who, if any of the adults had taken interest, or if any of the children had actually known the purpose of these escapades, would have been singled out immediately as outsiders. The one freckle-faced boy searched the crowd of children he was scuttling after for any sign of his twin brother, who he had seen fade into the crowd earlier. Suddenly, at the motion of the well-dressed, plump man who had commanded them on the steps of the Club, the mob stopped at the corner of Fifth and Main. The children, unaware until too late that the adults had stopped, slammed into the crowd of adults, falling down around each other and taking a number of adults with them. Only the three children in the back remained standing, and at the sight of the falling crowd, they too quickly lay on the ground to avoid suspicion.
The well-dressed man glanced at his watch and the people fell silent. The adults stood and the children rustled as they rose to seated positions on the sidewalk. The well dressed man aimed for a window across the corner and shot. At the sound of the gunshot, the mob fell back into their organized lines, only to destroy them at the sound of a second gunshot as they galloped down the street.
As the group ran on, John cast a worried glance back at the group of children sitting on the sidewalk. He tried again to locate his own sons and daughter in the crowd and failed, before turning forward again and running through the streets with the rest of these madmen. Soon they approached a lighted building. It was only lighted in the sense that a dim, yellowish candlelight could be seen from a a couple of windows, but in comparison to the blackness of the other decrepit developments, it shone like a golden shrine.
As they ran towards the building, gunshots rang out above the deafening screams of the mob and glass shattered in harmony in the background. The mob ran through the now shot-out glass doors and began pounding on the doors of the apartments inside. They continued the run through the first floor until the doors were knocked out and then proceeded inside, shooting, dismembering, or bludgeoning the inhabitants until they had canvassed the entire floor. They shot into space a few times as necessary as they proceeded to the stairs to continue their run.
The second-floor experience was much like the first, except that at the rear corner, two young brothers peered out of a doorway. A half-dressed mother ran out after them, with only time to see her sons fall before she was shot herself. At the feat of having killed three of the Others, the crowd stopped for a moment to cheer and congratulate each other.

Several hours later, at five past one by John's watch, they arrived at the corner of Woodwork Drive and Main Street. The crowd stopped and breathed a collective sigh of relief before turning to survey their accomplishment. Dismembered body parts littered the sidewalk along with a couple of trampled and still-intact corpses of men, women, and children, and the blood and rainwater from the unfolding thundershower mixed where the storm drains were overflowing. As the rain grew harder, the well-dressed man walked over to John with a big smile on his face and, glancing at the mess of bodies, said "We did good."
Swallowing his remorse for the destruction the group had caused, John paused for a second before replying halfheartedly "Yeah. We did good."

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