Chapter 7 – Jeremy
Well, here we were again, my fatal flaw coming into play and nearly killing us all. My overconfidence and pride almost cost us more than one member. If I wasn’t so concerned about conquering the dungeon, we wouldn’t have been in any danger; in fact we would be at least a whole state away from this place by now. Maybe it was for the best that Haley took over as leader, it would give me time to work on my fatal flaw. We took off headed toward the RV, and I could sense that the mood was different. I guess it was tenser, because they were all probably mad at me. I couldn’t really blame them; they needed someone to blame for us nearly being killed, and to be fair it was my fault. We got back to the RV, at which point Ryan decided to tell us that the RV was almost finished and that it should only take him a couple more hours to fix. I went into the RV and headed back to the master bedroom. I sat on the bed and looked in the mirror, and I was trying to decide who I was. It seemed as if I was drifting away from myself. I thought back to when I heard Weir scream when I was climbing out of the dungeon. I hadn’t felt such fury and power coarse through my body since………….I dismissed the thought and laid back onto the bed. It felt like I had shut my eyes for only a few seconds when I heard the engine of the RV rev. I woke up and sat upright, facing the mirror once more. Only this time, I saw another figure in the mirror. Haley was sitting right behind me.
“Good morning” she said to me, in a slightly more serious tone than she usually speaks in. I turned to her and we stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.
“Haley, what’s going on with everyone? Are you mad at me? Because if you are I completely understand, just say so.” She shook her head.
“We’re not mad Jeremy, it wasn’t your fault, what we’re upset about is the fact that your changing so much.” I instantly knew what she meant. Lately, I have been more secluded, more rage has filled me, and I just haven’t been myself lately.
“Haley, I know I haven’t been myself lately, but you guys just have to trust me on this. Give me time, I just need time to cope with the situation. I guess the fact that I’m not the person everyone looks up to anymore doesn’t help, that kind of gave me some self-confidence, something to help me hold in all of these emotions. A bucket so to speak I guess, but now I’m trying to hold everything on my own. My father, Caitlin, The incident, I feel like I’m falling apart.” I hung my head, feeling so weak and so worthless. Here I was expressing I was feeling to my little sister, who thought the world of me. I was expecting her to get up and walk away, but instead she wrapped me in a hug and told me
“you never have to do anything alone, you should know that by now. What did we do when you were trapped in that dungeon, we got you out. Your never alone Jeremy, as long as you have all of us.” I thought on these words for a little bit, and knew they were true. I always thought I had to do everything on my own, when in reality I didn’t have to. I had my group for a reason, and my pride was telling me to be a lone wolf.
“Now where’s the badass big brother that kills zombies for a living and is a hell of a second in command?” she asked me. We pulled away and pointed at myself. It was kind of a juvenile thing to do, but I felt it was time to be a little silly. We got up and walked back into the living quarters, the RV was already on the move. Wilson, who was on driving duty, told me we were about 2 miles away from the complex.
“What about the land mines we found when we drove into town?” I asked him
“We took care of those when you were out cold after the incident.” He responded. I nodded and walked back into the living quarters.
“So guys, how do you think Haley’s doing as my replacement?” I asked them all. They were all taken by surprise at the question, but they all stated that she was doing a good job, and that if anything happened to me that they knew who to turn to.
“That won’t be necessary” I continued “because she’s holding the position for a while, if she wouldn’t mind.” She looked at me as if I were crazy. That discussion I had just had with her must have made her think that I was going to request my position back, but I knew it meant as much to her as it did to me.
“You deserve this Haley, your leadership can only be paralleled by me, and you’ve only been in the position for a few days. I have a feeling you will do better than I ever did.” I told her. The shock on her face started to dissipate and she finally choked out
“I’ll be happy to take over for a while Jeremy, but you gotta promise you’ll come back into the role someday.” She told me. I nodded and told her I would, but not for a while. Everyone was excited for Haley that she was being given this chance to prove herself, and from what I could tell, no one was going to doubt her abilities. About a half-hour later, we stopped at a convenience store where me and Wilson switched driving shifts. He immediately crashed on the closest couch and took a nap. A well-deserved nap as well, he has been under so much stress lately. As I was backing out of the parking lot of the store, I noticed something peculiar. There was a red line darting around the RV, kind of like a laser-pointer. It took me a few moments to realize what was going on, but eventually I realized it was a sniper. Not a moment after my mind comprehended the thought, I gunned the reverse. The RV flew backwards as the first shot fired. The bullet missed the RV, but it appeared that the RV wasn’t the assailant’s intentional target. There were propane tanks next to the RV that were shot instead. The resulting explosion caused the RV to tip back onto the two back wheels, still flying backward. I then felt a huge slam as the RV crashed into the building across the street from the store with the roof colliding straight into the front wall. The recoil put the RV back upright, but it wouldn’t start. In the back I could hear Haley yelling for everyone to get down to the ground. It seems she had noticed the sniper as well. I kept trying to turn the RV back on, but each turn of the key proved futile. More red sniper beams emerged by the second, and I knew we were running out of time. With each turn of the key, I got more and more anxious. After a few more turns, I heard Haley yell for me to get down. In order to honor the new leader, I obeyed and went back into the living quarters. I then developed a plan in my head, but it was easier thought of than done. I kicked the door of the RV down and ran outside. As I did so, I could hear everyone yelling my name, but I never looked back. I took cover behind a building beside the Rv. I saw red beams bouncing around from the store. I then sprinted out of my cover and back to the RV with my hands in the air, palms open and upward. This was now known to be the universal sign of peace and no harm is meant. A few seconds after I reached the RV, I heard a faint voice yell
“hold your fire!”. I was thinking that my plan had worked, but I couldn’t be fully sure just yet. Then came a louder voice magnified by a megaphone
“we request a meeting, send one of yours into the store, and we will send ours.” The voice wasn’t quite gruff, but wasn’t welcoming either. Kind of like a father having a serious talk with their kid. Haley and I looked at each other, and she told everyone to stay put, but with guns ready.
“Jeremy, come with me” she told me. I obeyed and followed her to the convenience store entrance, both doing the universal sign of peace. We opened the front doors and found 2 people among the empty rows of shelves. One looked like an elderly man, early 50’s, out of shape with pitch black hair and glasses. Beside him was a teenager dressed in camo, probably 15 or 16, with long blonde hair with black highlights, very much in shape.
“Are you bandits?” The elder one asked.
“No” Haley responded back “We just stopped here to change our drivers.” She explained. I found that the girl had her eyes locked on me, not in an intimidating way, more like an attractive way.
“I apologize on behalf of our scout, he sounded the bandit alarm, and we have had a few bandit mishaps already, we didn’t want to take any chances.” The elder explained. “My name is Harold Lunsford, and this is my daug
hter, Ashley.” He said, introducing the girl. She took a polite curtsey, but kept her eyes locked on me. Haley introduced her and me. “Would you and your group like to join us for dinner? We have plenty of food.” Haley contemplated on this for a moment, and then accepted the gesture. Mr. Lunsford told us to be back at the store at 6:00 PM for dinner. We then returned to the RV to fill the group in. It was 4:30; dinner would start in an hour and a half.
“We need to be prepared if worse comes to worse.” Haley told us. “We need to conceal as many weapons as possible, just in case this is a trap.” She then handed each of us a handgun fully loaded with an additional clip to put in our pocket, and a retractable dagger. We also put in our small ear pieces so we can contact each other if need be. By the time 5:45 rolled around, we were ready for anything that could possibly happen at this dinner. We went to the store doors and were let in by what appeared to be Mr. Lunsford’s son. He was short and stout, much like Mr. Lunsford, but much younger. He led us into an office room that probably served as the main office of the store in the days before the outbreak. There was a whole buffet on the table. Turkey, ham, and cheese sandwiches, mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli, assorted cheeses, and assorted drinks were all on the table. Mr. Lunsford sat at the far end of the table with Ashley right next to him. His son took the empty seat on the other side of him, while other members of their group started to file in. Everyone took their seats, and we followed their example. Mr. Lunsford started introducing his group to us. His son was named Justin; they had a tech expert, Noah Barkely; an engineer, Gabe Skiles; a storekeeper, Robert Maxwell; and a gun expert, Lee Chung. Haley then introduced our group to them, and also informed them that we lost one person. Personally, I thought this was a bit too much information to be released on the first meeting, but it’s Haley’s call. After the introductions, we started eating. The food tasted odd, I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but nothing tasted as it should have. I thought it may have been a matter of not having these foods in so long, until Weir collapsed. Then went Wilson and Ryan. Haley and I shot each other a quick look before we collapsed as well. I couldn’t put my finger on how much time had passed, but I awoke in a cold, windowless, white room in a haze.
“Ah Mr. Bene is awake” a voice coming from the speakers on the ceiling announced. “Good morning sir, I trust you had a nice nap.” I stood up in confusion, I had no idea where I was, where anyone else was, or how to get out of this place. “I hope you liked the dinner we spiked especially for you.” It was now obvious that Mr. Lunsford was the voice that was coming from the speakers. I didn’t know anything that was going on.
“The hell is goin’ on?” I yelled.
“What we fed you was the last of our food” Lunsford responded “What you have in your group can last us for 6 months at least.”
“Why the hell did you feed my group the last of your food?” I asked
“It was a simple trade really” Lunsford shot back “That food would’ve only lasted us for about 3 more weeks, we now have a food supply that will last us 6 months. Get it?” I was stunned. These men were cannibals; these men were out of their minds. Were they even human? How could one man eat another under any circumstance? Where were my friends?
Kinemortophobia (The Fear Of The Undead) Book 1 Page 7