"Another mile. Maybe a little farther if we have to detour."
"It's going to be dark," said Megan.
"Yeah," said Carlos. "That is good and bad. Hopefully tonight it will be good."
They were about half way there. Megan had just finish crossing the street, when the truck full of men rounded the corner and accelerated after them.
"They saw us!" said Megan.
They ran down the alley way and turned at the first intersection. Megan looked back around the corner, the men were coming and they had flash lights.
She raised the shotgun and aimed.
"We should just go," said Carlos.
"We can't make it unless we drop the food," said Megan. "That would mean that we wasted the whole day."
"It is just time," said Carlos. "It isn't worth losing our lives over."
"They aren't going to stop," said Megan. "Until we stop them."
She heard Carlos moving off down the alleyway. She was aiming at the lights. There were at least six of them. She knew it was too many. Fuck!. She shot the first light. Racked in a shell and shot the second light. She heard the shouts of pain as she turned and ran after Carlos. The bag slowed her pace, but she wasn't giving it up.
A few minutes later there was more gunfire behind her. Could it be Josh? He should have caught up a long time ago. She looked back, but no flashlights were pursuing them.
She followed Carlos as he led them around a group of zombies. There was a lot of activity tonight. It seemed higher than normal for both humans and zombies.
A shape darted across the street one building over. Carlos paused. Megan looked around, but didn't see anyone else. Was that Josh? Or was someone else out here.
Carlos crossed the street and Megan followed him. They should be pretty close now. She kept an eye out for the other figure, but didn't see it again.
Megan could see the lights of a vehicle coming down the road that was in front of them. She and Carlos backed into the bushes that surrounded a nearby house. A truck full of marauders went by. She didn't see the pole with her dad on it though.
"Megan," whispered a voice.
"Josh?" she said.
"Yeah," said Josh. "You two almost ran over me. Thought I had better wait until the vehicle passed."
"You OK?" said Megan.
"Yeah. Had a close up with a zombie, but I came out on top," said Josh.
"Just like you to show up when we are only a couple of blocks from the shop," said Carlos. "Here's your bag."
"Wasn't exactly my plan," said Josh.
"Yeah. Still this shit gets heavy," said Carlos. "You run into any more of the marauders."
"Yeah, little ways back," said Josh. "Looked like they were out looking for someone. Heard a couple of shots and thought it might be you guys."
"Slugger shot a couple of them up," said Carlos.
"Thought so," said Josh. "I put a couple in them also. Don't think they will bother us for awhile."
They started walking again. Megan was relieved when the shop came into sight. The bag of food was really cutting into her shoulder. She needed a long rest.
They waited and watched the road to make sure it was clear. Then they crossed the street to the shop. Carlos pulled up the door Megan and Josh shoved their bags under and crawled in as Carlos shoved his bag in.
Megan was standing up, before she realized that they were not alone.
Fourteen
It was almost dark. Lisa had found as much soft stuff as she could to at least make a pillow and insulate her from the concrete, but there really wasn't much.
She saw Barry coming over. He was walking like he was something special. She guessed that anyone still alive was special, so why not him too.
"You got everything that you need?" said Barry.
"Unless you got a pillow and some blankets?" said Lisa.
"We can work on getting some of that if we are staying past tomorrow," said Barry.
"You find anything interesting?" said Lisa.
"No," said Barry. "It got dark really fast. Need a flashlight, but that would give us away to those outside right now."
"So you guys were with a gang?" said Lisa.
"The Jackals," said Barry.
"How were you guys surviving?" said Lisa.
"We hit some warehouses," said Barry. "Lots of canned and dry goods. Plus beer and liquor."
"You guys let girls in the gang?" said Lisa.
"We had girls at the hangout," said Barry. "Don't know if any of them made it out."
"That's too bad," said Lisa.
"You have a boyfriend?"s aid Barry.
"Nope," said Lisa.
"You saving yourself for someone special?" said Barry.
"It is the end of the world, it is a little late for saving yourself for anything," said Lisa.
"So you are free?" said Barry.
"Jesus, Barry! Stop wasting time. Whip it out already and lets get on with it," said Lisa.
"Too obvious?" said Barry.
"Don't get me pregnant or I'll hunt you down and put a hammer through your skull like that zombie baby," said Lisa. "And don't go getting all fucking attached and think that this means anything. Because it doesn't."
"That all," said Barry. She could hear him getting undressed.
"Yep," said Lisa. God please don't let him be the exception to the stereotype. She reached out her hand towards him in the dark. He wasn't.
Fifteen
Josh still had his shotgun in hand, but the black man with the 9mm pistol had the drop on him. This was bad, really bad.
"Who are you?" said Josh.
"I'm the one with the gun," said Marcus.
There was a squeal from further in that sounded like a woman. Another black man came out of the dark. This one was naked and carrying a shotgun. A moment later a Latina woman who was a little large came out of the back. She was rearranging some kind of work uniform.
"There is room for all of us here," said Megan. "We got food and water to share."
Carlos came under the door and closed it.
"Just the three of you?" said Marcus.
"Yeah," said Josh. "Three of you?"
"Yep."
"If we start shooting each other the marauders will come," said Josh.
"This your place?" said Barry.
"It's his," said Josh nodding at Carlos. "We just got here last night and he let us stay."
"You can stay too," said Carlos. "It is not much."
"Do you know him?" said Barry looking at the woman.
"Why would you think I know him?" said Lisa. "Do you know every black person in the city?"
"I didn't mean anything."
"I know I'm just messing with you. Always wanted to say that," said Lisa. "Well if you are not going to shoot each other, then I'm Lisa. This is Marcus and Barry. Barry needs to go put his clothes on."
"Oh shit," said Barry and went off into the back.
"I'm Megan and this is Josh and Carlos," said Megan.
"We got some burgers," said Marcus. "Lisa was trapped in a Zippy's."
"No shit," said Josh. "We got mostly junk food from a convenience store, but we got some water, soda and beer."
"Well I guess its time for a party," said Marcus.
That is when the bullets started coming through all the doors.
Sixteen
Megan had hit the ground. Fuck, how had they found us. Josh was crawling across the floor. He pushed aside a barrel and pulled out his bag of guns. He pulled out an AK-47 and loaded it.
He looked over at Marcus, who was watching them closely. Then he shoved the bag over to him.
"You are going to need more than a pistol," said Josh. "Take what you need, if we don't work together then none of us are getting out of here. Unless you are with them."
Marcus dug in the bag and pulled out an MP-5 submachine gun.
"Damn, you were loaded," said Marcus.
"Gun for every occasion," said Josh. "But it is hard to use more than one at a tim
e."
Lisa crawled over to Marcus and the bag.
"Is there something easy to use?" said Lisa.
Marcus pulled out a Glock and handed it to her.
"Just point and shoot," said Marcus.
Barry crawled back over from the bag.
"Any twelve gauge shells in there?" said Barry.
Marcus tossed him a box.
"What about exits?" said Marcus. "Anything besides the front and back of the office?"
"Nothing secret, if that is what you mean," said Carlos.
Carlos crawled up to the first bay door and locked it down.
"Now the only way in and out are the glass doors in the front and back. Unless they have explosives," said Carlos.
"This is bad," said Barry. "We can't even shoot back."
"They are firing blind," said Josh. "And its only coming from the front."
"Which either means they are stupid or that they are waiting for us to come out the back," said Marcus.
"So what do we do?" said Megan.
"We wait. If they have patience, then we are in a bad spot. Otherwise we have the advantage if they try to come in," said Josh.
"They burned our hangout today," said Marcus.
"Not much to burn here," said Carlos. "At least not much will catch fire from the outside."
"Well at least we got that going for us," said Josh. "Everything else seems to be against us."
"Won't the zombies come?" said Megan.
"Yeah," said Josh. "But there are probably ten of them out there now, with more on the way. So they will probably just shoot the zombies that come."
"But we would at least hear the guys shooting out back," said Megan.
"We should," said Josh.
The gunfire quieted down. Josh and Marcus positioned themselves so that they could cover the doors. Megan could hear people outside whooping it up like this was all a big party and not life and death. There were times when she really thought humanity got what it deserved. But really couldn't the revenge have started next century? All the evils of humanity were not her problem. She hadn't had a chance to commit very many evils.
Seventeen
Josh had a good position to watch the doors. He saw movement outside at a distance. Nothing close enough to shoot at with a shotgun. But they would come. Marauders always tried the easy way first. It seemed someone had to get hurt before they started to use their brains.
He heard the glass break on the front door. He waited until he heard someone step on the broken glass inside. Then he leaned out and shot low. Three round bursts as fast as he could until he was empty and then he ducked back.
There was a lot of yelling and screaming. Followed closely by a lot of shooting into the hallway, which of course hit nothing and then movement away. Josh heard no more movement in the hallway. That attack was over for now.
Eighteen
Lisa wasn't sure what to do with the pistol. Barry had showed her where the safety was. Point and shoot. To think she had thought this day might end pretty well. Leave it to the apocalypse to screw up her getting fucked until she couldn't walk. Well at least round one hadn't been bad. In fact it had been fucking great.
These Seventh Street fucks were really pissing her off. She was pretty sure that if she saw one right now she could actually bring herself to shoot him.
That is when she heard the vehicle coming. It was coming fast and getting closer. Then it hit the metal garage door. Lisa stared in shock as it buckled inward. The van came inside about ten feet before it stopped.
Lisa smelled gasoline. She could see a man lying outside on the pavement wearing a motorcycle helmet. She shot at him twice. Then she saw the flare arcing down from across the street. It hit near the van and flames immediately shot up. Oh fuck the van was loaded with gas!
"Fire," she yelled as the van erupted, knocking her to the ground.
Oh god, she didn't want to burn to death, better to be a zombie. She backed away from the fire. The flames had shot up to the ceiling. She could feel the heat rising as she backed away. She saw the others picking themselves up off of the floor. They were dead now for sure.
Nineteen
Megan picked herself up off the floor. She was still holding the shotgun. She looked around. The fire was blazing. It wasn't going out. When the roof burned it would cave in and they couldn't survive that. They needed to leave.
She grabbed the bag with her bat and stuff. She was always ready to go. But the food? What a waste. She opened the bag and tossed out all the soda and all the water except one bottle. That would at least keep it light. Nothing else seemed very heavy.
Josh was fishing in his bag of guns. He pulled out the scoped rifle. Megan saw him moving so that he could see out the broken door through the fire. He started shooting.
"We need to get out of here!" said Megan.
"How?" said Marcus. "There is no cover and the fire is lighting everything up."
"We will die when the roof falls on us," said Megan.
"I know. But they will just shoot us as we exit," said Marcus.
"What about the car?" said Lisa.
"What car?" said Megan.
"Our car was parked out back?" said Lisa.
"Which door was it parked in front of?" said Carlos.
"The first I think," said Lisa.
"So we can crawl out using the car as cover," said Marcos. "Then what?"
"We run for the houses," said Carlos. "Just need to make the fence across the parking lot."
"I can't jump a fence," said Lisa.
"Drive the car through it," said Josh. He was still looking out into the dark.
Megan looked over at him and saw him reloading. Bullets started hitting around them and Josh started firing again.
Carlos went to the first bays garage door and unlocked it. He pulled it up a foot and a half. Blood shot from his leg and he fell as gunfire came from the back.
Barry went prone in front of the door and opened up with his shotgun. He shot four times before the gunfire stopped and he began to shove more rounds into the shotgun.
"If we are going, it has to be now," said Barry.
Marcus left his position covering the hallway and came over towards the bay door. He clicked on the keys. The BMW chirped. He crawled under the door.
Megan went to Carlos. She found a fan belt and wrapped it around his leg as a tourniquet. But it didn't work very well.
"Don't worry Carlos," she said. "You're going to make it."
"No I'm not," said Carlos. "Go. Even if we get away, I will likely die from this. I'm just a lead weight now. I'll hold them off as long as I can."
"You can make it," said Megan.
"No."
"Well at least let me get you outside. You don't want to burn to death," said Megan.
Carlos nodded. He gripped his pistol tightly.
She crawled under the door and dragged Carlos out. Lisa was already in the backseat. Marcus and Barry had the front.
"Josh let's go!" she shouted and crawled in the backseat.
She still heard him firing inside the building. What the hell was he doing?
Bullets smashed into the front windshield. Marcus floored the car and it raced across the small parking lot. The car bounced as it jumped the curb. It began to lose speed in the grass, but hit the fence and skidded sideways.
Megan was hit by the side airbag. She felt woozy. She hit it and reached for the door handle, but couldn't find it. Lisa was already out, so Megan just crawled across the seat and got out her door.
Marcus hadn't got out of the car yet. Megan slung her bag and set her shot gun against the car. Then she pulled on his door. It opened.
"Let's go," said Megan.
Marcus stumbled out. "Fucking airbags, who said they were safety features," he said. "Thanks."
"Barry you OK?" said Megan. She picked up her shotgun.
"Yeah, just getting the door," said Barry.
She saw him get out. Then she heard the gunshots. He fell. More gunf
ire was coming from around the shop. The roof was on fire. Megan didn't see Josh. Carlos lay flat next to the shop.
Lisa screamed. "Barry!" she cried.
"He's gone," said Marcus catching her. "We need to move."
"You see Josh?" said Megan.
"No," said Marcus. "We need to move. Come on Zippy. Let's get a move on."
Marcus started off. Lisa seemed reluctant to leave Barry, but she went after him. Megan looked back at the shop one more time. She didn't see Josh. Then she followed them into the night.
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This is William R Rohn's entire book library at the time of publication, but more books are coming out all the time.
People Are Not Your Friends #1
People Are Not Your Friends #2
People Are Not Your Friends #3 -- Coming Soon!
About the Author
William likes computers, Frisbee, football and bikes. He has written in fiction, sci-fiction and fantasy. He plans on breaking many hearts in the years to come while fulfilling his extensive bucket list.
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William likes writing stories that make people think and grow attached. He hopes you will become entangled in one of his tales.
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People Are Not Your Friends [Book 2] Page 4