Repent! The End Is Nigh!
It has been four months. Four months, seventeen days and eleven hours to be exact. I've lost track of the date. No one here seems to remember the date. Last time I checked, it was April 4th, 1984. Of course, that was a three year old calendar made by Mike, the gas station guy. But that was four months ago. Four long months ago. Now I'm here, sitting in my pick-up with Charlie, waiting for something. We're not sure what though; some guy on the C.B. said that there'd be something we should see here. We've been waiting here for almost an hour now, and Charlie's getting impatient. "When is this thing coming? It's been an hour, and I haven't seen shit."
Charlie has always been like that, even before the outbreak. Now, to be honest, Charlie isn't the best partner to drag along with you. He's impatient, ignorant, and he has quite a foul mouth. So, why bring him with you? Well for one he's been my best friend since the 1st grade. That and he's one hell of a shot. He would've been a great soldier, but he has a criminal record. A long criminal record, so no army for him. He just has to stick to hunting stenches and target practice. Oh yeah, forgot, stenches is a slang term for them un-dead motherfuckers walking about. One of many actually. There's stenches, zombies, zeds, flesh-eaters, and walkers. "Seriously Kev, I think this is a set up."
"You always think everything's a set up Charlie." I finally said. I was getting fed up with Charlie's bitching. Finally, we saw something that was worth seeing. A convoy of military trucks shipping supplies somewhere. But where? I thought to myself. All the major cities got their asses handed to them by the stenches, yet it looked like there were going right into town. Right into stench territory. I started up the car engine. Charlie looked at me. "What, we're following them?"
I nodded. "Yep." I drove off onto the dirt road that leads into the city. Not the main road that the military was taking, another road. I gripped the wheel, and kept my mind on the road. Charlie dug through his backpack. "How's about some music?" He took out a burgundy CD. Written in gold letters was "Queen Greatest Hits." I chuckled. "Yeah, I could use some Queen." He pushed the CD into the CD player. He skipped a few tracks until he came to "Don't Stop Me Now." He began to sing along with the song. "Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time I feel alive and the world it's turning inside out Yeah! I'm floating around in ecstasy So don't stop me now don't stop me 'Cause I'm having a good time having a good time….." I couldn't help to sing too. After all, it is my favorite song. "I'm a shooting star leaping through the skies Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva I'm gonna go go go There's no stopping me…."
In my fit of singing, I wasn't paying much attention to the road. I didn't notice it standing there until it was stuck under my tires. I hit the brakes. "What the fuck?" I peaked out the window and tried to spot what I hit. I couldn't see anything, so I grabbed my shotgun, a Mossberg 590 to be specific; we found it at some army surplus store. I only have about 17 shells for it, but it makes me look like a bad-ass. I checked the wheel, and saw it jammed in there. A stench, stuck in my tires. It was dead, of course, it head got crushed. Charlie came out, his Springfield M1903 in hand. He only likes old guns for some reason. He looked at the tire. "Shit. I'm not prying that thing out of the tires." I went looking for a stick. I found a good, strong stick, and shoved into the bloody, pulpy mess. I pried the corpse out of the tires, and tossed the stick aside. "Let's go. We gotta catch up with the convoy." I climbed back into the truck, and Charlie sat in the passenger set. I set my shotgun besides me, and started the car up again. I hit the gas and we were off again.
It took about 15 minutes to get to the city. I hated the city. It was always crawling with two things, stenches and bandits. Now, the stenches are the least of your problems in the city. It's the bandits that you have to look out for. They travel in large groups, and kill anyone not on their side. Humans included. We drove around, looking for a good place to park when, BAM! WHOOSH! A Molotov Cocktail smashed against our windshield. The car went up in flames. Charlie grabbed his rifle and scope and jumped out of the car. I grabbed my shotgun and my Ruger Super Redhawk and dove out. There was gun fire, and bullets whizzed by me. I ran over to where Charlie was hiding. He was crouched down behind an SUV, attaching the scope onto his rifle. "Ok Kev, give me some covering fire. I'm goin' to find a good sniping spot." I switched my shotgun ammo to slug rounds. I nodded. Charlie ran like hell across the open ground. I saw the muzzle flashes from the bandits' guns. I aimed and shot off 2 rounds at one of them, hitting him once in the chest and once in the neck. "Look out! One of them over there!" They all turned to me, and continued to fire. I duck down behind the car and waited. I finally heard the familiar crack of Charlie's rifle over the bullets ricocheting off the car. I hear 3 more shots from Charlie, then the gunfire stopped. I peaked my head up, and saw 4 dead bodies lying on the ground. The one I killed, and the three I assume Charlie got. I looked around, and spotted Charlie, standing on the roof of a movie theater. He came down, and we collected the guns and ammo from the bodies.
We waited for the convoy to come. We hid in an alley, and finally saw the first Army truck begin to roll by. We came out from hiding and jogged along side one of the trucks. I tapped on the window and he lowered it. "Hey!" I said, panting a little. "Where are you guys going?" The driver didn't look at me when he answered. "We're reinforcing some troops down at St. Herald's." I nodded. "You know," I began again. "You shouldn't be driving around these parts. Bandits all over the place. We got in a scuffle with them, right Charlie?" I looked back at Charlie and he nodded.