Back at the orchard, the others were preparing to defend the walls, any way that they could. Rachel and Stella were keeping watch on the wall. Emma was down for a nap. Scarlett counted bullets, and loaded magazines. She listed to the chatter on the radio. Mostly, group members conversating. Some assured each other that, everything was going to be fine. Mrs S. came on the radio, “Everyone, Hazel, Heather, and I, will be bringing you all some food. We'll start our rounds at our front gate, work our way through the back. Then, Wills' place. Then, to Roses' place. We made you all sandwiches, and stew. We have bottled water, and we''ll need to know, if you all need any more ammunition, or anything else to help you out on your watch.”
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Nina said, “That is real sweet, Mrs. S.” Everyone put their orders in, while Aidan's aunt wrote it all down. Hazel, and Mrs. S. filled the bed of a small pickup truck with boxes of food, and bottled water. Hazel, and Chloe carried out thermoses of coffee, and watermelon-apple juice in milk gallons. Chloe had already brought ot a duffel bag full of magazines, and bullets. She had thought about what would happen if they were attacked, and ran out. She didn't want that to happen. The three women started off on their short delivery trip. They delivered the food and drink without issues. But, on the way back from Will's place, Chloe could have sworn that she heard someone yelling Will's name. She thought that she was losing it. Hazel drove back to the Orchard. Chloe said, “Mrs. S., Hazel. If those men get over the walls, you get to the school. I'm going to fight.”
“Chloe, Honey, I will need your help. You know how slow, and weak that I am.” said Mrs. S. Chloe said, “Then, I'll get you to the school, first. Then, I will fight. This is our home, we have to stand our ground.” Hazel asked, “Chloe, if something happens to you, your Mother has already been through a lot. Don't make her go through losing you, too.” Chloe studied the old woman. She felt a pang of empathy for this lady. She had heard that Hazel had lost her whole family, when the zombies came through her neighborhood. She said, “Okay, Hazel.” But, in her mind, she planned to fight. Will and Scott were positioned above the Raiders. They had been watching them for hours. The group was sitting around a campfire, talking and eating. Kyle was perched thirty feet to the side, behind some trees. The others were scanning the outer areas, through their scopes, while reporting back to Scott, Will, and Kyle. All of the sudden, Jessie saw Kyle sneak through some trees. He moved towards the Raiders. After coming up on one guy, Kyle slit his throat. He quietly, took the mans gun, and what looked like a knife. Then, Jessie watched Kyle creep through the trees, taking one man out, after another. Will whispered, “We have to be ready to move in, if one of them sees him.....” Scott cut in, “He seems to know what he is doing. But, you are right. Jessie, Sam. If one of them sees him. You shoot the closest to him. You cover Kyle, first. Because, he is on the front lines. We can't take a chance on any of the Raiders coming up on us, but he is right there in the middle of them.” They watched, as Kyle killed two thirds of the men in the camp. Kyle stood behind a truck, “Get ready, you guys.” Scott said to Will, “Come on, let's get down there. Quietly. We're coming, Kyle.” Jessie watched Will, and Scott move closer to the group. The men were starting to look for their comrades. Jessie whispered, “You guys, they are getting suspicious. Be careful.” Into the radio, Kyle whispered, “Just cover us. Are you all ready? ” Sam cut in, “I don't like this. You guys should get out of there.” Jessie said, “Cover them, Sam. We can do it. Just, don't freeze up.” Now, Will and Scott, were positioned opposite Kyle. Kyle held three fingers up. He mouthed, “Three,” he bent down one finger. “Two,” then, bent down the second finger. “One.” then, bent down the last finger. They were going to flank them. In spurts. Scott said, “Sam, Jessie. Cover us! Those left, are all clumped together.” Kyle started shooting. He hit two. The men started shooting back at Kyle. Their attentions were turned in Kyles' direction. Will started to shoot. He hit four men in seconds. They turned to Will, and returned fire. One bullet braised Will in the shoulder, he yelled out in pain. There were five men left, and now, they were all trying to kill Will. He had jumped behind a vehicle they had parked at their camp. Jessie started shooting at them. He missed, at first. But it averted attention his way from two of the men. Now, Scott started shooting from the other direction. He killed two men, right away. The Captains' son and two others were left . They were huddled between two vehicles.
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Sam blurted out, “They are trapped!” Will said, “We need to shoot at their feet. Don't let them get inside one of those vehicles. If they do, they'll get away.” Scott agreed, “He is right. We need to shoot into the drivers side front. Make them move the other way. Then, we confront them.” Kyle was moving closer to where they hid. He shot over the top of one of the vehicles. He nicked one man on the side of the head. He yelled, “I'm hit!” Kyle yelled, “We have you surrounded! There is no where to go! Come out, now!” Scott said, “Throw your guns down. Let us see your hands.” The men reluctantly tossed their weapons out onto the grass. One by one, they saw a show of hands. Then, they began to step out into view. All of the men were surprised. The first two, were teenagers. The third, was a young man in his twenties. He had a cocky look to him. They knew that, some within the Raider group were young. But, one boy, looked to be around twelve years old. He looked terrified. Will, and the others walked out from behind their cover, guns drawn. Kyle patted the boys down. Will, and Scott started to question them. Scott asked them, “Where are your parents? Did they make it?” He waited for one of them to answer. The two younger boys looked at the older, cocky, twenty-ish looking man. He shot them a stern look. An expression of warning. Neither boy, said anything. The younger stared down at his feet. Will said, “Are they forcing you kids to fight for them?” The older of the three, smirked. Kyle said, “Oh, this one must be the college runt.” He pointed to the young man who smirked. The young man looked at Kyle, and said, “You're all dead!” Scott said, “Okay. Okay. Kyle, why don't you have a talk with that one?” He pointed to the smirking Raider. Then, continued, “Will and I, will talk to these boys alone.”Just then, Sam and Jessie walked up. An expression of shock was showing on Sam's face. He said, “These are kids.” Jessie asked, “Are you boys here, because they made you?” Again, the boys looked away. Kyle pushed the smirker, “Come on, Smarty the Clown. Let's chat.” Scott said, “Jessie, that kid is a cocky thing. Why don't you cover Kyle? In case he tries anything. If he runs, take one of his knees out.” Will said to the boys, “Come over here, Boys. Sit on the car. Tell us how you ended up with this group.” The boys walked over to a parked car, then sat on the hood. As they looked up, they could see the elder of their group. He was turned their way, scowling at them, as he was being led away by Kyle.” Will and Scott, saw him, too. Scott asked, “What are your names?” Both, hesitated to look up at him. Will said, “Boys. We are not going to hurt you. We just want to know what to call you.” The younger boy looked up. “I am Jonah. This is Ricky.” Scott asked, “Do you want to tell us how you ended up with these people?” Ricky said, “Mr. If they catch us talking to you, they will kill us. And, you guys, too. They want your Orchard. Just please, let us take a car, and our guns. We'll be able to get away, if we hurry. We won't go tell them about you. I promise. We will be long gone.” Will studied the boy. He was serious. This was a scared young man. Will said, “Now boys, we have plenty of room for you two. That's only, if you want to stay? There are people in our group of all ages.” Jonah answered, “We can't. We have to get out of here, before they catch us, again. They want to kill you guys. They will come back here.” The boy was pleading with them. Scott said, “We have kids inside our walls, like you two. We will protect you. You don't have to run from them, anymore. We will not let them hurt you.” Suddenly, they heard the other captive yelling at Kyle, “Just wait until my Dad get's here. You're dead!” Kyle kicked his legs out from under him. He fell. “Shut up!” Will said, “We need to get their weapons, and bring the kids back home. Boys, we need your h
elp. Can we trust you? Ricky said, “Are you going to kill us?” Scott and Will, exchanged a glance. Will said, “You have our word. We don't kill people. Unless, it's in self defense.”
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Jonah, started to plead with Ricky, “Come on Ricky! They aren't like the Captain. We need help, too.” Will, Sam, and Scott watched the young boy. He looked so desperate. Kyle had planed to kill all of them. Now, he felt guilty. He heard the conversation. Jessie looked down at his feet, to hide his emotion. The cocky young man threatened Jonah. “Just wait, you little traitor! Ricky said, “Leave him alone, Omar.” Kyle kicked him in the leg, “Shut up!” Ricky said, “Okay. We'll help you. But, we need to hurry. They'll be coming, soon.” All saw the look on Jonah's face change from worry and fear, to relief and gratitude. The boys were happy to finally, get the chance to get away from the evil Raiders, and their Captain. They collected all of the weapons that the dead men had used. Then, they started their hike back. Kyle had tied Omar's hands behind his back. He walked behind him, pushing him forward, every time he slowed down.
Rose and Jimmy made it inside the other building. They crept through a long, hallway. Then, they came to some stairs. They walked up the stairs. After reaching the top landing, they saw a door. Jimmy cracked open the door, and peeked out into another hall. Rose said, “I hope they don't think that, we are going to hurt them.” Jimmy said, “We'll just talk to them.” They went into the hallway, and came to another door. Jimmy opened it, and peeked through it. He could see the children playing on the roof. To the right of the children, was another door. Rose whispered, “We can't just pop out there. We'll scare them.” Jimmy said, “We need to try to talk to them. They may have a parent, or others that we cannot see.” He stepped outside. Rose followed. They slowly walked towards the children. The little boy saw them, first. He jumped to his feet and pulled the little girl, while yelling, “Meg! Meg! They're here!” The boy was dragging the small girl, now. The older of the three came from around a corner. She had shot gun in her hands. “Get back! You're not taking us! Get out of here! Or, I'll blow you into pieces!” Rose, and Jimmy, threw their hands into the air. Rose said, “We are not who you think we are. We just wanted to talk to you.” The girl was in a state of panic. She and the children, were running from someone. The girl now, was focused on Rose. Rose kept talking. “My name is Rose Fox. This is Jimmy DeVito. We are stuck. We were looking for a way to get back to our home. And, we saw you guys up here. We wanted to talk to you, and make sure that, you weren't alone out here.” Jimmy said, “We are not going to take you anywhere that, you don't want to go to. But, there is a giant herd out there. We just saw you, and the children. We wanted to make sure that, you were okay.” Rose cut in, “He is telling the truth. We are trying to find some military stuff that is supposed to be here. We are just trying to get back home. That's all.” The girl hesitated. She looked over at the smaller children. “Brian, take Izzy inside.” The boy took the hand of the small girl, then led her inside the building. She turned to Rose and Jimmy. “How did you get here?” She still pointed the shotgun at them. Rose said, “We were trying to fight a group that, was attacking our group. A lot of the dead came. They heard the gunfire, and noise. So Jimmy and I, we led them off. Then, the truck that we were driving, stalled. We made our way into this place, and found some documents. The documents were from, before all of this. If we are reading them right, there are military vehicles here, somewhere. When we were trying to figure out how to get in, we saw you guys. We didn't think it was right to leave you and the children here, alone. Not with, what is out there.” Meg said, “My name is Meg. They.....” she nodded towards the children, and continued speaking. “....are Brian, and Izzy.” Jimmy asked, “Can we put our hands down, now? I promise no funny stuff. We just want to talk.” Meg felt uneasy. “Okay. But, if you try anything, I'll have to shoot you.” Meg held onto her gun. She did not trust them.
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The men had made it back to the group with their new guests. Kyle took Omar to the storage container. When the cocky, man-boy saw the blood spatters, and the mini-torture chamber that Kyle had set up, his eyes grew big with fear. His permanent curled lip, disappeared. Kyle looked down at him, and thought to himself, I'm going to scare the hell out of this little punk. He hog-tied, then gagged his guest. Then, he said, “If I hear a sound out of you, I'm going to go outside the wall, then I'll bring one of your dead buddies in here. I'll let him bunk with you. So, I better not have any trouble out of you.” Then, he turned around, and walked out. He latched the door, from the outside. He met with the other members of the group. The adults were already talking with the two young boys. Will said, “Jonah, and Ricky are going to stay at my place. I think they'll like the horses. Hopefully, they will be a little more at ease, after they know that we aren't going to hurt them. Scott said, “It will do them some good to work with the animals. If they don't like it, they can hang out at the school. It might be a good idea to introduce them to the other kids, here. Either way, you should watch them. At least, at first.” Will answered, “I will. I have an idea for keeping them busy, and getting them settled. The other teenagers are part of the plan. But, right now, we need to figure out, what to do with Junior?” Kyle said, “I am working on it. I'm going to scare the snot out of him. At least, for a while. Then, I thought, we could drive him a few miles out, and give him a message for the Raiders.” Scott asked, “What do you think that we should propose?” Will said, “They stay away from us, and our people. Or, we fight.” Kyle said, “Something like that. But, I have seen these types, before a zombie apocalypse. They never learn, until it is too late. And, right now, they are pretty desperate.” Scott agreed, “Yes. These types always come out of the woodwork, after a chaotic event. Every place I was ever stationed. Same thing, but with different faces.” Scott said, “Jessie.”
“Yeah, Scott.”
“Can you help me do rounds? Just want to check the perimeter. Then, we can all eat, and get some rest. And then, we wait and see if more come.” Jessie said, “Sure. But, I need to go check on Mary.” Will said, “When is she due? It looks like it's going to be any day, now.” Jessie said, “Yes. Imogen is watching her. But, all of this has put more stress on her.” Scott said, “I'll bet. Go check on your wife. Meet me by the swings, in a couple of hours.” Jessie said, “See you in two hours.” The men watched as Jessie turned, and jogged towards his apartment. Will said, “We need to be ready for another attack. I need to get the boys settled. Got to get them some clothes, and things.” Nina walked up, We have some things in the group closet. Maybe, there are some things they can use.” Will said, “Thanks Nina. I don't know the first thing about shopping for teenage boys.” She said, “I'll help you. Come on.” He said, “Thanks.” Will, and Nina left. Scott went home. He walked into the apartment. Devon met him with an exited hug. “Dad. I was worried. Mom is on watch.” Olive, who was sitting on the sofa, said, “He was really good, Major Scott.” Scott turned to Olive, “Thank you for filling in for Nicole, Olive. It was very nice of you.” She said, “ You're welcome, Major Scott. I'm going to go, now. Okay?” She headed for the door. Then stopped, and turned around. “Major Scott.” Scott said, “ See you later, Olive.” He noticed that, she hesitated to leave. He looked over at her. She continued, “I can help you guys fight. That's if you need me to. I know how to kill zombies. But, I need practice shooting people.” He stared at her, in surprise. Scott felt sad that, this young girl had to worry about shooting people, and killing zombies. She was a young girl, she still had the face of a baby. He responded, “Well, that is very brave of you, Olive. I think that, we could really use you to help with all of the children, right now.
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