The Razor's Edge: A Postapocalytic Novel (The New World Book 6) by G. Michael Hopf

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    Lexi scanned the expansive rolling valley but saw no one. The golden grasses swayed in the crisp wind but not a soul was in sight.
    “Help!” a woman screamed.
    Lexi pivoted to her right and looked.
    A woman emerged over a small hill. She was running full speed; her T-shirt was smeared with what appeared to be blood.
    Two men then popped over the hill.
    The woman was clearly fleeing, and Lexi was in the right place at the right time. She dropped the binoculars, shouldered her rifle, laid her cheek on the stock, took a deep breath, and looked through her scope.
    A gunshot rang out, but it wasn’t Lexi.
    In the time it took Lexi to bring her weapon to bear, one of the men had shot the girl.
    Lexi looked to find the girl but she was gone, most likely lying wounded or, worse, dead in the tall grasses.
    The men were still there though, and Lexi meant to change that. She placed her sight on one of them, flipped the safety off and began to apply pressure to the trigger when a man hollered.
    “Stephanie!”
    Lexi looked and saw another man appear over the hill. He was running at a breakneck speed towards the others. He didn’t appear to have any weapons, but he was determined to save the woman.
    The man who had shot the girl turned and raised his pistol.
    Seeing this, Lexi quickly squeezed off a round. The .308 exploded from the heavy barrel and in an instant slammed into the buttocks of the man holding the pistol. The round easily passed through and exited at the top of his thigh.
    The man grunted in pain, dropped the pistol and fell to his knees.
    “Stephanie!” the new man again cried.
    Lexi grumbled at the bad shot and adjusted her aim. She again began to apply pressure but stopped when the new man reached his first target.
    The wounded man raised his hand defensively, but it wasn’t enough to stop the other’s onslaught. He began to rain down one punch after another.
    When he had stopped, Lexi counted that he had landed twenty-four punches. Distracted by watching the spectacle, Lexi didn’t see the second man appear and jump the guy. The two scuffled and rolled on the ground. The tall grasses obscured Lexi’s view.
    The second man rose, his back towards Lexi.
    Lexi saw an opportunity to help and again began squeezing the trigger.
    The second man turned and brought into clear view for Lexi the fatal wound he bore. His arms were wrapped around his bloodied lower abdomen in an attempt to hold in his guts.
    The other man stood up, his clothes, face and arms covered in blood. In his right hand he held a long knife. He took two steps to clear the distance between him and the other man, placed the blade against his throat and slid it across.
    The second man reached for his throat, which only complicated his situation as some of his lower intestines burst out of his gut. With his throat slit, he was seconds from death.
    The third man shoved the other out of his way and cried out, “Stephanie!”
    A bloody arm slowly grew from the grasses twenty feet in front of him.
    Lexi was in awe at what she had just witnessed. She lowered the rifle and picked up her binoculars to get a closer look.
    Seeing the woman’s arm, the third man ran towards her but fell down before getting there.
    Lexi wondered if he had tripped or was wounded.
    He got back to his feet, took several steps and paused to bend over.
    It looked like he was wounded.
    The woman’s arm dropped out of sight.
    Beau whimpered.
    “How do I know they’re not going to hurt me?” Lexi asked, answering Beau’s whimper as if it were a question.
    The man continued towards the woman but stopped once again. This time he fell to his knees.
    Beau whimpered again.
    Lexi looked at Beau and said, “You go.”
    Beau cocked his head.
    “Fine, I’ll go, I’ll go,” she relented. She stood, slung her rifle and hurried down the hill. When she found the woman, she could tell she was dead. Her eyes already had a grayish haze as they stared out into nothing.
    Out of the