“Right, sure,” Becky snorted, clearly sharing the same doubt.
After breakfast, which was just oatmeal, Alvin took Susan aside to find out what all she had going for the Settlement. “With the XP we got from the new people joining, I was able to start each of the craft buildings. The turrets are dual barrel and fire .45 ACP ammo to start. They can be upgraded to improve target recognition as well as the caliber of the guns.” She leaned against the wall, shaking her head, “Everything takes XP and every upgrade costs more than the last one.”
“Figures. This system is designed to force people to make choices, especially early on.” Alvin chewed his lip as he considered all the options. “I think getting all the basics up is the way to go. Once that’s all set up and the roads in town cleared I was thinking of heading out to find more people and direct them this way.”
“Dangerous if things keep changing, like that scorpion.”
“Becky’s going with me, so I’ll have back-up.”
“She…” Susan paused, clearly choosing her words with care. “She seems a little… different.”
Snorting, Alvin shook his head, “She isn’t normal is what you’re trying to say. She isn’t, but neither am I. Better if we go out. Should cause less issues in the long run that way.”
“Okay,” Susan looked over at the guy in the kitchen with them, who was busy chopping vegetables. “Glad one of the tourists was a cook. I need to set everyone up with jobs today. I’ll be keeping the teens inside the walls building things for now.”
“Works. If enough people are willing to go out, see if any of them can drive a tow truck, or knows how to hook. I want to set up a bypass around I-70 and get Main Street at least cleared before I head out into the world.”
Nodding, Susan headed out. Alvin walked over to the Japanese man who had been preparing vegetables. “How did you sleep last night?”
“Better than any night since the Event,” the cook replied, a slight accent coloring his words. “On behalf of our entire group, you have our thanks.” Turning to face Alvin, the man bowed at the waist.
“Glad you all made it here,” Alvin replied. “Do you think the JSDF will have been able to save many of the citizens?”
“God willing,” the man replied as he went back to work. “My nephew is JSDF. He was in Osaka. I pray he survived the Event, though part of me hopes that he was one of those taken by God so he does not have to endure this.”
“Understandable. I hope you all can help this place grow and thrive. If you will excuse me, I need to get to work myself.”
“Sayonara,” the cook said as Alvin walked away.
He was looking for Becky, but changed direction when he saw Bill and Randy having what was clearly a disagreement. He headed that way.
“Look, all I’m saying is that we might need to think about who should really be in charge of this place. This tidy little dictatorship you have set up just ain’t right, man. I got people out of Provo, found even more people and brought them all here.” Randy motioned around at the people who’d gathered around to listen to the conversation.
“This is my place,” Bill snorted. “If you want to leave and try to find another place to set up a Settlement, you are free to go. As well as anyone who wants to go with you. But, Alvin is the only person I know who can get one started that has all the benefits we do.”
“Yeah, uh huh, the guy preying on the teenage girl. I heard he killed her father in cold blood. Does that seem like the kind of person we should listen to?”
Bill’s eyes narrowed, “You want to run this place?”
“I could probably do better than the stacked redhead. I mean yeah she looks good…”
Bill’s fist drove into Randy’s gut, driving the air out of his lungs and doubling him over. “That is my daughter, so mind your manners.” He looked around at the others, who all froze under his gaze, “Listen up, ya’ll. This is my home. I have opened it to you all so we have a chance to survive this bullshit apocalypse. It is, however, still my home. Susan is the Overseer, and I can’t think of anyone better suited to the job. Anyone else want to dispute that or offer commentary on her figure?”
No one else stepped forward, so Bill grunted. “Then get going. Susan’s looking for people willing to face the dangers outside the walls.” As people began to scatter, Bill reached down and pulled Randy to his feet. “Now look here, son, I don’t have any beef with you right now. Just keep it civil and don’t try that shit again. If you do, it will be much worse next time. Understood?”
Randy wheezed, “Yeah, I got you.”
Alvin stepped away, following others as he looked for Becky. Frowning, he wondered where she had gotten to, “Jarvis, do you know where Gothy is?”
Appearing next to him, Jarvis nodded, “She is in the Chemical Plant, sir. Claudia is with her.”
“Fuck,” Alvin hurried toward the building. Inside, he found Claudia on the ground with Becky standing over her. “Everything okay in here?”
Smiling, Becky met his gaze as she stepped away from Claudia. “Of course. I was just explaining things to little miss thing.”
His eyes dropped to Claudia, who was not moving. One of her eyes was starting to darken. “How are your hands, Gothy?” He took her hands, examining them. Her left hand had a small cut. “Hurt that one.”
“It will heal. Now maybe she’ll learn that trying to get a rise out of me is a bad idea. Especially when she succeeds.” Becky’s smile was vulpine.
“Works. But if it doesn’t, then what?”
“I’ll hurt her worse,” Becky shrugged. “She apparently isn’t fond of pain, so it should work.”
Kissing her hurt hand, Alvin chuckled. “Nut.” He dropped her hands to kneel down next to Claudia. He tapped her bruising cheek, “Dia, wake up.”
Groaning, Claudia stirred, “Huh?”
“Warned you to be civil, didn’t I?” Alvin asked as Claudia’s eyes fluttered open. “Now you going to let it go?”
“She fucking attacked me,” Claudia mumbled as she touched her jaw and eye. “She is crazy.”
“No, she’s suited for survival in this newly fucked up world, a trait you seem to be lacking. Now, are you going to continue to try to stir shit up, or are you going to get your shit together?”
Wincing, Claudia sat up, “Fine, fuck you both. I hope you get eaten by something. Just leave me alone, you fucking psychos.”
Laughing, Alvin stood up and offered his hand to Claudia. “Eh, close enough.” She didn’t take his hand so he dropped it, “Cold shoulder it is, then. Good luck.” He walked out with Becky, leaving Claudia on the ground.
“Glad you tempered your response, Gothy.”
“I figure she deserved the chance to learn, at least once. Besides, you didn’t kill the jock-guy.”
“True enough. I might have but you were on top of him, and it might have caused trouble.”
“Same reason,” Becky replied, giving him a peck on the cheek. “About the medical stuff you got for me,” she patted a belt pouch, “I can hold them.”
“Bought a bag after breakfast, I see. Good going. Is the shotgun in there?”
“For now,” Becky replied, one hand drifting to the 1911 on her hip. “Not a lot for me to take with right now.”
“Fair enough,” he handed her a regrowth potion and medkit. “There. Now we both have one, just in case.”
“Good. I can’t have my Hero dying on me,” she replied as they walked toward the front of the yard.
Chapter Twenty-Six
At least twenty people were climbing aboard the trailer behind the rig. All of them were armed, though not all of the weapons they carried had been upgraded. Bill and five people Alvin didn’t know were gathered near the tow trucks. Alvin called out to Bill as he closed the distance, “What’s the plan?”
“Those two are with you, Ramone is the driver. Megumin will be hooking. They both have pistols and reloads, but they’re not upgraded. You two are on guard duty.”
“Won’t
be an issue,” Alvin told him as he summoned the Mustang to him. “Our guns have armor piercing rounds now. That fucking scorp wouldn’t have gotten close enough to take a leg with the firepower we have now.”
Lips pursed, Bill sucked at his teeth, “Definitely need to get more of them upgraded.”
“The Armory will have those upgrades,” Becky added from the passenger side of the car. “I believe Susan is having the band kids working on buildings today.”
“Yeah, and half of the tourists volunteered for the cleanup crew. You good?”
“It’ll work,” Alvin said as he climbed into the Mustang. “Let’s get this done. I want to clear the main road all the way to I-70 in the next day or two.”
“Sounds good,” Bill replied as he walked towards the other tow truck.
Alvin got the Mustang started and drove it over to where Ramone was, rolling down his window. “Only fire if you have to. When you run out of ammo, you’re out.”
“We understand, Bill already told us,” Ramone huffed.
“Just keep me safe,” Megumin added as she met his eyes. “I trust you will, since you got us out of Val-mart.”
“He will,” Becky told her with a small smile. “My hero is the best.”
Nodding, Megumin climbed into the passenger side of the tow truck. Ramone eyed them for a moment before he got into the driver side and got it started. Alvin rolled out, looking in the rear-view to see the tow trucks and rig in a line behind him.
Becky pulled her shotgun from her bag. She rested it across her lap with the muzzle out the window. “I really do have shotgun.”
Snorting, Alvin shook his head, “Such a bad joke. Remember, even though you have slugs now, the damage still drops off over distance.”
“I know, but they also punch through armor now, so the bugs will go squish that much better.”
“Yep. Your shotgun is going to be even better than my rifle for close fighting.”
Alvin slowed as he noted movement out of Becky’s window. She brought the gun up and pumped a round into the two-headed dog that came lunging out of the shadows. Pausing to see if it would stand, they waited but it didn’t twitch. Alvin drove on down the road.
“Its weird that we haven’t found more animals before now. Now they’re coming out of the woodwork.”
“Probably getting hungry and looking for food,” Becky replied. “That cat the other day had a baby in its mouth, after all.”
“Point. I hope everyone is ready for this.”
Alvin parked the Mustang to the side when they reached the point they’d left off the previous day. Alvin and Becky got out, taking up guard positions. The tow trucks pulled up, James and David jumped off the back of Bill’s truck to join Alvin and Becky as guards while Megumin and an Asian man who’d ridden with Bill started hooking cars.
“How are you doing, David?” Alvin asked, keeping his eyes tracking for movement.
“I heard you were thinking of leaving soon,” David replied, not answering the question.
“Once we get the road cleared and get signage up telling people that safety is nearby. I’m going to head out and see how fucked the rest of the country is.”
“Are you going towards Nevada?” James asked quickly.
“I hadn’t decided which way to go yet. Any reason why you ask?” Alvin queried.
“My family lives in a small town out past Vegas. They might have survived the Apocalypse. If you head that way, I hope you’ll check on them.”
“What makes you think they would be okay?”
“They were friends with a lot of the retired military and the survivalists in the town. Lots of times those were the same people. Dad had a way of getting people to listen to him. If you head that way, please check on them for me.” James asked, obviously worried for his family.
“One way is as good as another to start,” Alvin replied. “Get me an address and a rough idea of how to get there.”
“I’ll do it tonight,” James replied, relief evident in his voice.
“Still going to be a bit,” Alvin added. “So don’t go getting too excited yet.”
“Contact,” Becky called out. Her gun was up, pointing at the Post Office building.
As the others turned towards the building, the front window smashed out and half a dozen zombies in postal uniforms pushed through it. Each of the figures carried makeshift weapons; a crowbar, the arm of a paper cutter, several carried what looked like broken pieces of furniture.
Becky was the first to open fire, taking the head clean off of the closest zombie. The round continued into the building, embedding in the wall. She pumped and fired again, the zombie she was aimed at jerked sideways in an apparent effort to dodge, but half its head still vanished in a spray of blood, bone and brain.
David and James fired next, each killing two more of the zombies with their shotguns. Alvin opened fire on one, his first shot hitting a zombie in the chest and knocking it back a step. The second round took off its head, and the third round missed entirely as the recoil caused the gun to climb.
“Fucking thing climbs badly,” Alvin grunted as Becky finished off the last zombie.
“That thing modified for burst fire?” James asked, looking at the rifle.
“No, just rapid fire,” Alvin replied shaking his head. “I see why they call it a spray and pray gun, though. I’ll get used to it or buy the damned upgrades to stop it from being an issue.”
Bill poked his head out the window of his truck, “We clear?”
“For now,” James replied. “Want me and David to sweep the building?”
“Not now, we’re focused on cars today,” Bill replied as he backed the truck for the next hook-up.
“How bad was it?” Becky asked Alvin as she pointed to the rifle.
“Not uncontrollable, just wasn’t expecting it to climb that fast. I won’t be using it on full-auto for a long time. Your gun was pretty awesome.”
She grinned at him, “I need to thank someone for that later.”
David coughed, “Please, sis, not while I’m standing here.”
Laughing, Alvin shook his head, “She is who she is, David. I promise not to fuck your sister while we’re in the middle of a zombie infested town, okay?”
David frowned at him, “Not really, but I guess I’ll take it.”
“You know Bridget is interested in you?” Becky added as she went back to scanning for more targets.
“She is?” David’s voice rose slightly.
James shook his head, “She hasn’t made a really overt move yet but she was hinting at it when she offered to be there for you, David. Maybe pull her aside tonight and talk to her.”
Becky winked at Alvin with a grin, bumping him with her shoulder. Alvin gave her a quick one-armed hug before he went back to scanning as well. “If she’s interested, then she’ll be happy to talk with you. If she isn’t, then you’ll find out easily enough.” Alvin added his two cents, “With all the new people that have come in, it might behoove you to act quick before she looks elsewhere.”
“Right,” David coughed as he looked around them. “I should just ask to talk to her, then? What do I say?”
Becky rolled her eyes, “We’ll talk later, okay, Davey? I’ll give you some tips on how to approach her without seeming anxious.”
“Thank god,” David sighed.
“Virgin,” Becky mouthed to Alvin before she spoke again. “That’s what older sisters do.”
“Older by five minutes,” David replied. “I hate it when you pull the older sister card.”
“Just means I care,” Becky chuckled.
They didn’t encounter any other zombies or mutated beasts over the next couple of hours. One battered mini-truck that started quite reluctantly was designated for hauling corpses, and they piled the dead zombies into it. Vehicles that were in working order they set aside to be moved to the compound. A few of them had keys still in the ignitions, though Alvin did need to use the screwdriver trick several times. They’d reached
an RV park when noon came and they headed back to the Settlement to get some lunch.
Everyone but Bill and Ramone drove one of the working cars back. Alvin drove the mini-truck carrying the zombie corpses. They came through the gate after parking the cars with the others to find the rig and cleanup crew there as well. Alvin backed the mini-truck carrying the zombie bodies into the Scrapper, before joining the others.
The cleanup crew had dealt with about a dozen zombies along with a strange cat that had two tentacles growing out of its back. The corpses, along with the trailer full of scrap they’d brought back was added to the Scrapper. After a quick meal of sandwiches washed down with lemonade they headed back out.
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