by Weeks, Kris
“Is she dead?” Willy asked. Andrew nodded. Nate walked to the woman and placed two fingers against her neck. “Yeah, she’s gone.”
The three backed up from the woman keeping their eyes on her knowing that any moment she would be turning. Andrew crawled back into the back of the van, Nate got into the driver’s seat with a sigh of relief and Willy made his way to the passenger seat. All three doors closed at the same time. Nate started the van then looked in to the passenger side rear view mirror to see that the woman was gone. He popped the gear shift into drive and hit the gas without looking in front of him. The woman hit the front of the van with a loud thud and rolled onto the hood as he hit her. Nate floored the gas pedal and kept moving. With the woman stuck to the windshield, Nate could not see the road so he slammed hard on the brakes. The woman rolled off and onto the road. Nate backed up, turned the steering wheel and maneuvered around the wild woman they had just killed.
“Everyone okay?” Andrew asked from the back. Kindra and Edward nodded while Willy and Nate kept their eyes on the road. They drove another mile down and Nate stopped. He took a deep breath and began to search for another place to stop. Willy just pointed at a sign up ahead that read liquor. Nate smirked at the sign and began to move the van forward at a slow pace with the sight of a few zombies that were stumbling from side to side nearby. He turned in and again pulled up close to the door.
The group scanned the area looking for the undead that they had seen not far from there.
“There isa couple over there, but we can still make it in before they get here.” Nate said.
The group began to pile out of the van and all moved cautiously into the store.
“I’m all for some liquor!” Nate let it be known. Willy pulled the door and it came open. He watched the parking lot and let everyone in before making sure the door shut. They stood quietly to listen for any grunts indicating danger and went on tosearchfor somethingto take home. All of them were surprised that the shelves were so empty.
“There are other survivors close by, they have hit this store as well as the zoo. I wonder how easy it is going to be to find them?” Nate stated.
“Maybe they will come back for the few things they left.” Willy held up a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“I hope you are right, that would be great if they would take us, and we could get away from Eric.” Andrew thumbed through the few magazines left.
Kindra and Edward both made their way to the back ofthestore to see what was there; Nate headed behind the counter and picked up two packs of cigarettes that were left on the floor.
“Well whoever they are, they like to drink and smoke. They took most of the liquor and all of the cigarettes but two packs, anyone see a lighter?” Nate packed the cigarettes on his hand.
Andrew tossed a wrapped lighter to him, put another bottle he found on a shelf next to him and bent back down to gather more. Edward held up a case of very tall bottles of water. Andrew had moved on to find some snacks and found a few bags of chips.
“Not much here, let’s move on and see if the ones that took everything from here are around here somewhere, maybe we should make the block or look on another road.” Andrew prompted.
Nate looked around at the empty shelves. “Get what you can and let’s move on now while we still have plenty of light.”
The group gathered by the door, pausing before they moved any further as they watched a woman and man stagger passed the van. Nate quietly pushed the door open and allowed everyone out.
Loaded up, Nate started the van, grasping the attention of the dead couple walking as well as the other drunks in the area. Nate pulled out of the parking lot avoiding the zombies headed their way and turned on the next road. “Let’s see what we can find; or who!”
Everyone kept their eyes open looking for anyone. All they saw was a horde of the undead that forced Nate to stop and turn around and go the other way. He turned back down the main drag and planned on turning down the next side street to see if the other survivors were down that way, but with no luck, Nate made his way back to the main road, stopping at a Dillards store. He pulled up and put the van in park.
“Blankets and pillows!” Nate hollered to the crew. “In and out!” Everyone jumped out, ran in with everyone doing three sixties watching each other’s backs. Once inside, Nate shut thedoor behind themand watched the group of zombies come toward the van. “Looks like we may have some time to look around, we have a group coming toward us, but maybe they will be gone by the time we gather what we need.”
The group all went separate ways. Kindra and Edward stayed together and went upstairs, Nate, Willy, and Andrew went in opposite directions. After about twenty minutes, they were all back at the front doors with arms full of pillows, blankets, sheets, fold out cots, blow up mattresses that came with a manual pump, along with other items that would make them comfortable.
“Good job guys!” Willy tried to show what he had without dropping it all.
Nate headed to the door to inspect the outside and could still see a small group lingering in the lot, but they were out by the road thankfully. Nate scanned over the things that they had to load then looked back out at the shuffling drunks. “This is a lot to load with them trudging around so close.”
“We need two of us to keep watch while the rest load. Edward, can you take a couple of zombies out?” Andrew asked.
Edward happilynodded withasmile at Andrew as he pulled a knife from his boot. “Let’s get after it.” The big guy said.
Andrew and Edward stood in front of everyone with their armfuls. Edward nodded at Andrew giving the okay to open the door. Andrew pushed and slid outside with Edward following close behind. They placed themselves at the back of the van giving the others enough room to get the doors open and load everything up. Andrew readied his shovel and Edward took a fighting stance with his knife raised. Two were shuffling quickly their way. Edward took two huge steps and punctured the skull of the one on his side. Andrew swung his shovel hard and sliced the head from the shoulders of the other.
“Come on!” Edward told the others. Nate, Willy, and Kindra ran out. Nate threw the doors open and everyone threw everything in on top of the food that they had already collected.
“One more load!” Willy hollered behind him heading back in. Edward and Andrew stepped forward a few more feet keeping an eye on the four otherdrunks staggering toward them. “Let’s hurry it up guys!” Andrew hollered with a bit of apprehension in his voice.
Andrew swung at a woman that appeared to have possibly been pretty at one time, but now had her hair caked in mud and a dress that barely hung onto her boney shoulders. Without hesitation, he easily took her head off with his gore covered shovel as he had the last one. He followed through then swung back around and hit the man that was following close behind her, but only knocking him down, but Edward stepped up and took a knee, sliding his knife into his temple. Edward yanked out his knife, as another one grabbed onto his arm as Andrew hurried to the one that was moving at him. Edward grabbed a hold of the small man and threw him to the ground burying his knife in his temple as well. Both of them cautiously watched the few others that were dragging ass from the street into the parking lot.
The rest of the collected items were thrown into the back of the van and Nate slammed the doors closed. Willy jumped in through the sliding door and moved to the driver’s seat, Kindra and Edward followed him and closed the door. Andrew ran to the passenger side and joined Nate up front.
Everyone took in a much needed deep breath and let it out all at once. Willy fired up the van when a loud bang erupted from the back. Everyone jumped and turned around to see blood smeared across the back window of one of the doors. The van suddenly jolted forward, spinning the tires and flinging gravel and smoke into the faces of the undead.
Willy slowed the van as he rounded the next corner tothemain road. “Let’s just get back, we have enough for now.” Nate suggested.
Willy nodded and everyone else seemed to ag
ree. Willy pulled the van through the gate closeto the steep steps that they would have to carry all of their findings down.
CHAPTER 9
“YOU TWOare probably going
to want to wait here for right now so we can talk to Eric.” Andrew directed at Kindra and Edward.
They both nodded, watching as the others left them in the van. Nate, Andrew and Willy hurried down the steps to the front gate. Andrew removed the chain and allowed the other two in before following then securing the gate back . As they slowly approached the small building, Andrew looked at his two friends knowing the wrath they were about to endure.
The three entered one behind the other and glanced at Adrianna and Karlin sitting in the corner. Adrianna saw the look on their faces and stood quickly, she put up her hand to tell Karlin to stay put.
“Where is he?” Nate asked. Adrianna pointed to the back room. Nate nodded and readied himself. He dropped his head down, stepped slowly to the end of the room and hesitantly knocked on the wall beside the open entryway.
“WHAT!!” Eric hollered back rudely.
“Letting you know we are back…and I need to speak with you.” Eric’s head ap peared around a curtain that had been pinned up to block off part of the store. “What the hellis sohard about bringingin the shit you got and organizing it?”
“It isn’t that, we found others, we brought them back with us.” Nate blurted out.
Eric fully stepped out from behind the curtain now and began stomping towards Nate.
Nate knew that this could not be a good thing so he took a few steps backwards to keep out of arm’s reach; he knew he would not be able to hold back if Eric began getting violent.
Eric stopped, took a step behind the counter that the cash register had at one time been on, but now laid on the floor and placed his hands on it as though he were holding it down.
“Why in the hell would you do something so stupid?” Ericquestioned. Nate slowly dropped his eyes from being in contact with Eric’s. He knew that if he stared at Eric for too long and watched his expressions it would just make him angry and he would probably say something that would make everything bad on everyone.
“They were in the middle of town, we weren’t going to leave them there and they will both be good help, since we lost others that were good help.”
“I didn’t ask for you to go find more people, I asked to get necessities.” Eric shouted back with a bit of spittle coming from his lips.
“And we did, but I was not going to leave these people out there.” Nate tried to take the blame.
“None of us were going to leave them out there.” Willy added as he stepped up closer to Nate.
“They were in bad shape.” Andrew added and stepped forward next to Willy.
Eric scanned the three men standing in front of him. “I guess bring them in then.”
Andrew and Willy turned from Eric and headed to the door. Nate stepped back getting ready to follow.
“Nate!” Eric called. He made a come here motion with his hand. Nate walked to the opposite side of the counter from Eric. “We have had our issues Nate, so you would think you would know by now that my rules are what matters here. Why you would disobey them is beyond me. I understand you have your own thought process, but we do not need any more ignorance in this group, we have enough with the ones we have.”
Nate took a step back feeling his face turn red when Rue appeared in Nate’s sights.
He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before stepping back to the counter. “The onlyignorance I see here is you Eric and the way you think that you are the boss. We are all in the same world striving for the same thing; to survive. All you are doing is making it harder for everyone here.”
Eric smiled smugly . “One day son, you will understand what I have been doing. If you bring anymore ‘survivors’ in, make sure they at least have children that we can teach to carry on.” Eric reached up and patted Nate on the shoulder.
Nate studied his shoulder as though a poison had just been poured over it and then shot his eyes to Eric’s back as he walked away. Rue stood in the doorway until Eric approached her and broke her and Nate’s eye contact.
Nate pursed his lips, balled up his fist and slammed it hard on the counter. How he wished he could just knock the hell out of Eric, but knew that it would bring bad things to everyone including himself. He took a moment to remember all the ones they had lost along the way and wondered who was going to be next.
Nate turned to leave as the door opened and Kindra and Edward entered. Karlin and Adrianna stood as they peered up at Edward.
“Whoa, you are one huge guy!” Karlin let out. Edward laughed and introduced himself to Karlin and Adrianna. Rue walked out with Rowena on her hip and Barker by her side. She nodded to Kindra and Edward before grabbing a toy of Rowena’s then headed to the back again.
“That was Rue, her daughter Rowena and her son Barker. Eric is the, quote on quote, leader of the group. He is very harsh with his attitude and words and not a good people person.” Willy warned.
Edward and Kindra listened intently, figuring they were just exaggerating when Eric walked out and stared at them. “Thank you for your kindness sir.” Edward offered his hand to Eric.
Eric stared at his hand and looked back at him. “I am not thrilled with new people. So let me tell you the rules. Iamthe boss ofthis tribe. I make the rules and you follow them, end of story.”
Edward raised his eyebrows as Kindra stepped behind him. “Well, okay!” Edward shot back. “Do you turn into some lion, king of the fucking jungle if your rules are not obeyed master?”
Eric’s eyes got huge and he too k quick steps towards the massive man. Edward immediately extended his arm, wrapped his huge hand around Eric’s slim tattooed neck and picked him up from the floor with ease.
“Let me the fuck go now!” Eric heaved out with a surprised look on his face.
Edward released his grip, Eric dropped to his feet and stumbled backwards trying to act like he was not in fear. “You don’t understand big man, I have done away with people from this group that have done way less than what you have just done. If you want to be here and be safe from out there, I suggest you know your place with me.”
Edward gave a half salute to the small frame of a man with a glimmer of a smirk plastered across his face, trying not to laugh.
Eric turned and stomped off into the back stock room. Everyone snickered quietly as he left the room. “Buddy that was some funny shit, but I am telling you, he makes people’s lives a living hell. The only reason that we are still here is that we don’t have a vehicle to get everyone out; he keeps a close eye on the keys to the van and he always makes a couple of us stay when we are sent out. There have been some that are gone because of him. He doesn’t kill them himself, he gets rid of them by just leaving them out to the zombies. Karlin here lost her mom, we had a father and son, and quite a few others that were mysteriously killed. Even one of Rue’s children. So at this point we are just being careful on what we say and do until we can figure out a way out of here for all of us.” Nate explained.
“What i s the deal with Rue, what is she in the group?” Kindra finally spoke.
Nate gazed around at the others before speaking. “She is Eric’s wife.” He whispered.
Everyone stopped breathing and stared at Nate. “His wife?” Adrianna said out loud and then covered her mouth.
Nate nodded at the group. “Yep, his wife.”
“Wow.” Nate, Willy, and Andrew said in unison stunned at the news. “What is the big deal?” Kindra asked. “Well, Nate kissed Rue and Rue doesn’t seemto reallylike Eric, but she does what he says so we all have been trying to figure out what exactly Rue and Eric were….” Adrianna was interrupted by Nate.
“Long story to say the least, either way let’s just say I was surprised to find out that they were husband and wife with the way Eric is.”
“Let’s get some of the stuff out of the van and get settled so we can eat.�
�� Andrew prompted everyone out of the door.
Willy got to the van first and began divvying out things for everyone to carry, giving the pillows and blankets to Karlin, Adrianna, and Kindra then handed all of the heavier things to the guys. After everything was unloaded, the girlssetthe foodoutonthe counter. Everyone picked something to eat and settled in their picked spots.
Having the basic chitter chatter amongst each other was great and no one even took a peek outside or was worried about any zombies. They all enjoyed each other’s company until Eric walked in.
“Well, don’t we look like a little happy family?” He said snidely. Everyone shot their eyes to him and waited for his next ridiculous banter. “Karlin, time for your watch.”
Edward took a look at the small sweet looking girl as she raised from her spot next to Adrianna. “I am the new guy, how about I take watch and let the ladies stay in?”
Eric glared at Edward as he rose from the floor. “NO! I said it is Karlin’s watch, sit down.”
Edward sat back down and put his hands up at Eric. They, again all watched Karlin walk out of the door as Eric handed her a knife.
“He is going to get her killed.” Edward shook his head in disapproval. “He says that children are the future in this world and thattheyhave to learn to fight.” Adrianna stood to watch Karlin walk up the steps through the dark window.
Nate stood as well noticing Eric had a smile as she walked up the steps as though he were accomplishing something. “We all usually check on her fromtime to time. He always sends her, I guess because she is the oldest of the kids. It is like he is trying to teach them, but he is doing it in the wrong way. A fifteen year old girl should not be out there on her own.”
The door flung open as Eric started to rant. “You think I’mtrying together killed?I amjust trying to help her learn to be tough.”