“Yeah, I think so.”
“You sure? We can wait if you want.”
“No, I’ll be fine.”
“Alright. Liz, you want to gather everyone?”
“Sure,” she said before taking off. I waited for her to leave the room before I grabbed one of the loaves. It was extremely hot, and I nearly dropped it, letting out a small gasp. “Told you to wait” Liz called from the other room. I only shrugged as Michael laughed at me.
A few minutes later we were all sitting in the living room again. “Where was I again?” asked Jasmine.
“You and Cory had just gotten into his room. You were yelling at him,” encouraged Sarah.
“Oh yeah, thanks. So like I said, I guess his calm attitude just got to me because I was yelling at him…”
Chapter 19
“Ok, I’m sorry. I didn’t know, but you need to calm down, or else more of them will hear you and come to investigate,” he said leading me to sit on the bed. I asked him what they are. He didn’t know. I asked him what we were going to do. “We’re going to stay right here and wait until the police figure things out.” I didn’t have a better plan, so I agreed. We ate some Ramen Noodles that he had already made and I told him I was feeling really tired. “It’s probably the crash from the adrenaline. Go ahead and use my bed, I’ll stay up to keep watch,” he said finishing his energy drink and picking up a bat that was leaning against the wall. I climbed into his bed and was asleep almost instantly. I didn’t care that I was in some strange guy’s bed, let alone his house. All I cared about was that my friends were dead and that I could have died too. I woke up later, and he was still awake, staring out his window. I asked him what he was looking at and he said “They’re still out there, just walking around” I asked him who. “The rioter or whatever they are. The ones who were attacking people last night. They’re everywhere.” How many I asked, “Dozens and they don’t look like they’re going anywhere.” I started crying then. Everything seemed to be falling apart. He sat down next to me and put an arm around me “Hey, I told you, it’s going to be ok. We’ll stay here until everything does, I won’t let anything happen to you.” I asked him how he knew me because he was starting to get a little too close. “We met at the Delta’s party. I guess you don’t remember me.” I was embarrassed because I really didn’t remember him, but I just told him that it was just because it was a stressful night and that I didn’t remember most of what happened. “It’s ok,” he said getting up and walking back to the window. He stood like a guard, and I watched as he swayed gently on his feet. He looked like he had been up all night. I offered to keep watch, but he said he would be fine. There wasn’t a lot to do in his room, and I was hungry, so we decided to go downstairs to grab some supplies. We were in the kitchen when I dropped a can of soup on the ground, and I guess the noise attracted them because they started banging on the door and smashing windows. I screamed which didn’t help and we ran upstairs with what we could grab. It was too late, they got inside and made came after us. We locked his bedroom door and moved a dresser in front of it. It didn’t take long for them to find us and start banging on the door. They were smashing it so hard I thought they were going to break it down and in the end, they did. We were able to stay in his room for another two days, two uncomfortable days. Like I said, in the end, they were able to smash through the door. It happened while I was sleeping. You’d be surprised how fast you can get used to the banging if you’re tired enough. Cory woke me quickly, and we climbed out his window using some sheets for rope. I didn’t know you could actually do that. I thought it was just in the movies. Anyways when we got on the ground, they started after us right away. Cory had his bat and was doing his best to keep them away. The noise of the bat hitting their heads was just so awful.” She gave a small involuntary shiver. “We ran across the street to another house, and I asked him how he knew it would be safe. “I don’t, but it’s our best bet. I’m pretty sure these guys are out of town.” He threw aside the welcome mat and grabbed a key. He unlocked the door, and we ran inside. We locked the door and started checking the house. Cory was right, no one was home. We were safe for a little while, and so we started talking. I learned that Cory was from Oregon. Some little town, John something.”
“John Day?” I offered up.
“Yeah, that was it.”
“That’s in Eastern Oregon, like seven or eight hours away from here.”
“Yeah, anyways he decided that he was going to go home, get away from people and hope to stay away from what we thought were rioters. He said I was welcome to come with him. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to get further from home, but I didn’t have any of my stuff, no money, credit cards or even my own clothes, I was wearing some of Cory’s. I was considering trying to get my stuff and get on a plane back home when something happened to change my mind. It was the second day in the new house, we were still trapped by the zombies when I looked out the window and saw a cop walking calmly down the street. Shooting everything that came close to him and I mean everything. I was going to run down to him, but then I saw some people who had the same idea as me. Two girls ran out of a house screaming at him, thanking him for rescuing them, and he shot them. He fucking shot them. They were coming to him for help, and he shot them. That’s when I decided that I would stick with Cory, I mean he had kept me safe and protected me, and I didn’t think he planned on shooting me. We stayed one more night in the house before escaping and heading for Cory’s home. Now the trip through California was uneventful, for the most part. We realized pretty quickly that they weren’t rioters and that it wasn’t a local problem. We stayed away from big towns and cities, only stopping to fill up, restock and use the bathroom but it was still slow going. We had to compete with the clogged roads, and our car broke down once. Luckily he was able to fix it. We took turns driving, and I thought we were going to make it to Oregon without any trouble. I was wrong. The first big problem happened when we ran into some army guys. Well, they weren’t all army guys, there were a bunch of guys that looked like gangsters with them.”
I looked at Sarah and then around at the group. “You didn’t talk to them did you?” I asked.
“No, but Cory did. He had me hide while he went to check it out.”
“You’re lucky.”
“Why?”
“Because if you had talked to them, you’d probably be dead.”
“What? Why?”
“Those men,” I nearly spat the word, “were led by a man named Sergeant Cole Shepard and let’s just say he was not a very nice man.”
“Why, what did he do?”
“He kidnapped women and held them prisoner so he could give them to his men.”
“Give them?” she questioned.
“Rape them.”
“Oh my God,” she gasped, “What happened to them?”
“Cole kidnapped Sarah and Christina after trying to kill Thomas. I went after them, and the Semi-truck that was acting as the women’s prison exploded, killing them.”
“That’s terrible. What about Cole and his men?”
“Dead.”
“All of them? But there were so many.”
“All dead, I killed them,” I said coldly and stared into her eyes. I wanted to gauge her reaction.
Fear passed across her eyes, but the only thing she said was, “Good.”
There was a moment of silence before Christina spoke up, obviously eager to change the subject, “So you ran into Cole, what next?”
“Well, it wasn’t as simple as just running into Cole.” Her eyes started to tear up, “Cory died.”
I nodded. I didn’t know anything about Cory, but the way she talked about him and the way he acted made it seem like he was a good guy and wouldn’t be caught dead with someone like Cole. “Tell us what happened,” I encouraged.
“Like I said he told me to stay behind when he went to check it out. It was late at night when we found their camp. They had big campfires going and guards around t
he perimeter. Cory told me to hide, and I did like he said. He went and talked to them, and it wasn’t a long talk because he came back real quick. When he got back, he told me about what he saw. “Most of them were armed, the army guys anyways. There were a bunch of tattooed Mexicans, but only a few of them had guns. There were some women too, but they didn’t have guns, hell most of them didn’t even have clothes on. They looked miserable like they wanted someone to kill them. They had all these cuts and bruises on their faces, and not a single one was on her own, they all had an arm around them. Their leader asked me if I wanted to join him, saying that not only would I be protected but that I would get all kinds of perks if I joined up. That’s when the other guys started laughing and chiming it, talking about how they do whatever they want. I told them that I would think about it. Their leader told me that I would have to make my decision quick.” They didn’t even give him the night. I guess they followed him to find out where his camp was. Two of the gang member and one of the army guys came after us after they found out where we were staying. Cory told me to run, and he hit one of the gang members with his bat. Before I took off, I heard gunshots and expected to be hit, but I heard several yells. We were near some national park, and I hid behind some trees and watched as the one army guy walked up to Cory and shot him in the head. He had been able to get the gang guys, but I guess the gun stopped working or something and he was just lying on the ground.” Her eyes were watering again, but she wasn’t crying, doing her best to keep them at bay. “After he killed Cory he started walking towards where I was hiding. He started yelling, telling me that they would find me and kill me just like they did Cory. Then he kept telling me what they would do to me, that they weren’t going to kill me but that I would wish I was. I didn’t think they were going to do everything that the threatened but now that I know they were…raping women, I’m sure that they would have followed through. Anyways, I ran for as long as I could. I just wanted to get as far away from them as possible. I left everything behind, and soon enough I got lost in the woods. I had no idea where the roads were or where I could even hide. I ended up climbing a tree and hoping that I wouldn’t fall. I tried to stay awake but I just couldn’t. I had been driving all day and was exhausted that I just passed out. I didn’t fall off the branch but when I woke I was wet and freezing. I learned to get used to being like that because by the time I finally found my way back to our car it had been stripped of everything useful. Everything that we had scavenged was gone, they even took the gas and the batteries from the car. I did the only thing I could and started walking, following the route that Cory and I had planned. I had no real desire to go to Oregon, but it wasn’t like I had any options and it was the only plan I had, so I would go through with it until something better came along. I didn’t have a car, and all the ones I found were either dead or didn’t have keys, and I didn’t know how to hotwire a car. I used a bike a few times, but I still wasn’t able to move very fast. I always had to run or hide from the Zombies. I spent almost a week making my way to Oregon alone before I met another living person. There was a group of people heading my way. I could tell that it wasn’t the same group as before because they had women with them and even some kids. They were mostly in cars, but there were a few who were on motorcycles. I followed them as fast as I could on my bike, staying out of the way and waiting for them to camp for the night. I got scared that I might have lost them when they didn’t stop right away when it got dark, but I kept going. Soon enough they stopped, and I got closer. I didn’t know if they were friendly, but the sight of the kids really encouraged me, plus I was cold and hungry, so I headed toward their camp. I almost died that night. I came up on one of their guards, and I guess I was too quiet because they turned and shot at me. I screamed in pain as I felt the bullet graze my shoulder” She pulled aside the collar of her shirt to show us a scar that I hadn’t noticed before. “I passed out from the pain, and the next thing I remember was when I woke up next. I didn’t know how long I had been out and I didn’t know where I was. All I knew was that my body hurt and that I was still alive. I checked out where I felt the bullet hit me and found that my shoulder was clean and bandaged. Next, I looked around and saw that I was in a tent and lying on a cot. I walked out of the tent and the first person to greet me was a woman. She looked really upset. I learned that she was the one that shot me and that she was really concerned for me. I was later introduced to everyone in the group, and they were all pretty nice, but one of them started taking more of an interest in me. His name was George, and he did a lot for me on our way to Oregon.” I could feel everyone’s eyes on me at the mention of George’s name, but I stayed silent. “A little while later,” she continued, “we ran into another small group who we teamed up. They were led by an older guy named Luke whose plan was to head further north to Canada. We stayed with them all the way to Oregon. We set up a temporary home at an army base near Warrenton. We had it pretty good there for a while. We were safe, had plenty of food and water and even electricity for some things. That all ended when George went all psycho and started killing people. He even killed Luke, I liked Luke,” she said, her tears breaking free from her long lashes. “When the killing started I did my best to hide. I didn’t want to be shot by accident. George told me that he would take care of me and that I would stay safe. Then he died too. After that, I ran away, hid in a nearby building until the gunfire stopped until I thought it was over. I walked back to the camp and found everyone dead, and I mean everyone. I was in shock, and I walked around a daze. I found a sign that was posted in the camp and it told me that there was somewhere safe I could do. I started following the directions to get here until I got into Astoria. I was able to find food and water in one of the houses and stayed there for a while. My luck ran out when I was out looking for supplies and attracted the attention of a bunch of Walkers. I don’t know where they had been hiding or how they snuck up on me, but they did, and they followed me back to my house. The noise they made attracted others, and by nightfall, there was a swarm outside my hiding place. Soon enough they got in after I passed out. I had been up for a long time keeping watch. I was able to escape again, but I was forced to leave everything behind again. Hell, I barely had any clothes on. I remembered the sign and started off again, hoping that it was still safe. It started raining, hard and I got drenched. I was getting colder by the second, and then I started getting tired. I passed out and the next thing I knew I was in some strange bed, covered in blankets and sweating my ass off. Then I met you,” she said finishing by nodding at me.
“Wow,” I said sighing.
“Yeah no kidding,” agreed Sarah.
“You’ve been through a lot,” I said. “But you’re safe now.”
She shook her head and gave a bitter laugh “I can’t count the number of times I’ve thought I was safe and really wasn’t. I don’t plan on getting my hopes up.”
“Don’t worry,” said Justin. “Nothing can get us here, we’ve made sure of it.”
“I hope so,” she agreed.
“Ok,” I said standing, “I think that’s enough story time for now. We should probably get to work on the storage. We probably have a bunch of water to shovel out of the cold storage.” The guys groaned at the mention of the unfinished project. “Quit your bitching,” I said gruffly. “You know it has to be done.”
“Fine,” complained Matt.
“Plus I want to start getting ready to hit the lumber yard for the fence and get more concrete for the new oven. So, let’s get to work.” They groaned again before getting up and heading outside.
I went to my room to grab my boots, and after I laced them up, Jasmine said, “Wow, they really jumped to work.”
“They know it has to be done so why complain,” I said looking out the sliding glass door at where they had already begun to shovel water from the storage.
“Yeah but they did it so fast, it was almost like they’re used to following orders or something.”
“Not orders,” I said dis
missing the notion. “They’re just willing to help.”
“Well so am I. What can I do?” she said smiling widely at me.
“Uh, I don’t really know. Sarah, maybe you could find her a way to help, I should really get out there before they start bitching about fair labor or something.”
“Yeah sure,” she said before directing Jasmine away from me and towards the kitchen. I went outside and spent the next several hours shoveling a mixture of clay and water into a wheelbarrow. It was tough, slow work, made worse by all the water and the minor collapse we suffered in the back of the room. No one was hurt, but it definitely put a strain on our moral. We broke for lunch and stopped as it got dark. We were all wet, dirty and very tired, but we got the job done and even made some progress on the project. After changing and eating an early dinner, there was little I wanted to do more than to sleep in my own bed. The others had a different idea. Since the girls had done little akin to hard labor they were still wide awake and eager to tell more stories. It was a nice night, so I said I’d build a fire if someone else wanted to set up chairs.
I built a sizable fire on the front lawn as a few of the girls, Jasmine included, helped to set up chairs. We talked for a while, and even roasted marshmallows to make s’mores. Most of the talk was directed at Jasmine, filling her in on everything that happened to us, but glossing over our involvement at Luke’s. Most were afraid that it was a touchy subject and didn’t want to cause any problems. While they talked animatedly to Jasmine, I held a smaller, much quieter conversation with Sarah and Michael. “So what do you think of her story?” I asked the both of them.
“It was…interesting,” Michael said, pondering his answer.
“Oh yeah? How?”
“She was really detailed in the beginning, but then she seemed to start leaving things out.”
“Yeah I noticed that too,” agreed Sarah.
“Yeah, she definitely glossed over a few things. Like how she was with George, and pretty much everything having to do with Luke’s.”
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 23