An unstoppable cluster of moaning flesh, the sea of muertos stumble and crawl down from the treeline towards our position. Seeing them twitch about in the darkness is enough to make my heart flutter. I might need another pill soon.
"I can't believe they're coming south like this… I was sure they were heading east." Kate sighs. "If I'd known, I could've set up a campfire..."
"Campfire?" I ask, setting my focus on Kate, who's sitting cross-legged next to me. There's a big map sprawled over her legs and a notepad with a pen next to it on the ground in front of her. "What would you do with a campfire?"
"Use it as a marker. You know, with measurements, and everything…" I'm about to ask her what exactly that means when she suddenly turns away from her binoculars to look at me. "It's been about four hours since we saw them at that gas station, right?"
I scratch my head, still a bit confused. "I think so."
Setting the binoculars aside, she picks up her notepad and pen and starts writing. A bit curious, I peek over her shoulder to see if I can understand anything she's written so far.
It doesn't take long to figure out that it's an incomprehensible cocktail of x's and y's and triangles. "Hey, so- what are you doing?" Deciding that trying to figure it out on my own was going nowhere fast, I just decide to ask.
With a smirk, she glances at me and leans to the side so I can see the notepad better. "Can't you tell?"
I try staring at the notepad again. The words 'gas station' and 'here' on some edges of a triangle are all I can really understand. "Do I have to answer that?"
She laughs. "This is high school math, Javi."
"Oh, come on. Cut me some slack. I used to hit balls for a living, remember?"
She laughs again. It's a soft, soothing laugh- it helps me calm down and tugs my mouth into a smile. "Well," she begins, pointing the end of her pencil at one of the rows of numbers. "I'm basically trying to calculate how fast the muertos are moving using our spot here and the gas station as the points of reference. It won't be one-hundred percent accurate since I'm not using specific measurements, but it'll give us a rough estimate."
"...Oh." That makes a lot more sense than all the junk on her notepad, but her explanation just raises another question. "I thought you already did this, though."
"Up north, yeah. But since there's no cold weather down here to slow them down, I'm doing it again just to make sure we keep going the right speed to keep ahead of them."
Huh. "I can see where Mariana got all her smarts from."
She grins and shakes her head.
After scribbling a bit more, she closes the notepad and starts shoving her other tools under her arm. "Well, they're moving faster, but not as fast as I thought they'd be."
"Really?" Taking the hint, I force my tired legs to stand up. "That's great."
Shortly afterwards, she stands up too. "You think Mariana's still asleep?"
"Probably. She hasn't had a good rest in a while."
We move down from our observation point on the hill to our van, a hunky piece of machinery that's kept us alive for a few years now. With my limited mechanical knowledge and Kate's ability to- as she puts it- "borrow gas," we've been able to keep it running throughout this apocalypse.
Mariana's still sleeping when we get back so we slip inside the van quietly, myself in the passenger's seat. The van hums to life as Kate sticks and turns the key in the transmission. A few seconds later, the van starts rolling down the road, picking up speed.
"Do you think we should turn around and go back north?"
"Huh?" Her sudden question throws me off guard. "What do you mean?"
Her eyes dance between the road in front of her and my own. "We might still be able to head back north and dodge the horde if we're fast enough."
I shake my head. "We're low on supplies, and we've been driving south for a couple of days. I don't want to risk running out of food in a place we've already scavenged through. And besides, all we have to do is keep moving. It's worked so far. We'll be alright."
Her expression tightens. "I hope so."
The conversation dies down for a moment, the only sound being Mariana's light snores and the hum of the van engine. I take out my small container and start twirling it between my fingers, listening to the pills rattle around inside while I gaze outside at the passing scenery.
"You're still…" Kate hesitates. "You know, keeping it safe with that, right?"
"...With this?" I stop twirling the container, looking down at it.
"Yeah…"
I look her in the eye and smile to hide my lie. "Don't worry. I know firsthand how dangerous this stuff can be. Just one a day, if even that."
-0-
"Do you think we should wake Mariana up?" Kate has her home-made contraption for siphoning gas in her hands and one foot already out the van.
I give the junkyard a quick scan for any muertos. Thankfully the moon is bright enough tonight that I'm able to see the whole place pretty clearly. "Nah, she needs a break." I step outside, following Kate. "Can you stay close to the van? Make sure she stays safe?"
She nods. "I will. Be careful."
"You too. Just yell if anything happens."
We split up, Kate going to one of the abandoned cars while I scavenge around for food and batteries and anything else that looks useful. Even though the junkyard looked so big fenced-in area from the outside, I quickly find out that there isn't really that much space to search around in, since the majority of the junkyard seems to be filled by giant shipping containers. After giving the whole area a quick once-over, I find that the containers make kind of a 'U' hallway, with the van on one end of of the 'U' and the end of the 'hallway' at the other. It's inconvenient for making sure the girls stay safe since it's impossible see from one side of the 'hallway' to the other due to the containers' size, but Kate will yell if anything goes wrong.
I poke around some of the abandoned vehicles for a short while, finding nothing but junk, before coming across a ladder leaned up against one of the containers. "Might be food on the other side of this thing…" It makes me nervous going this far away from the girls, but the possibility of supplies can't be ignored. After going back to the van to give Kate a heads up, I go back to the ladder and start climbing.
It takes only a moment to get to the climb up and then get to the other side of the container, where a small area opens up. I immediately spot a few things of interest. There's a seemingly untouched medical vehicle- which I make a mental note of for Kate and her siphoning machine later- and a trailer. In one of the fences next to the trailer, there's a hole that's big enough to crawl through.
Deciding to scout out the trailer first, I walk up to its door and grab the knob. When I try to turn it, my hand freezes.
There could be someone on the other side.
Someone with a gun, ready to shoot.
Would you be ready to shoot back?
The veins in my hand touching the doorknob go cold. My head throbs, and my heart begins beating faster. The sudden physiological changes make me gasp. I reach into my back pocket, open the small container, pour out a single pill into the palm of my hand, and then pop it in my mouth.
A wave of relief, almost instantly, washes over me. After a couple of deep breaths, my body starts to relax.
"Okay, okay, easy…" I sigh and grab the doorknob again. When I actually try to turn it, it doesn't budge.
Locked. Of course.
...Could the crowbar get the door to open?
"Jav-!"
"What the fuck did I just say!?"
I freeze.
Kate.
That was Kate's voice just now, and another's. A man's voice.
That's… fuck!
I sprint back to the container and climb up the ladder. My head throbs. Slipping down from the container, I then creep towards an edge in the container pathway, then peeking out from that edge just enough to see half of the open entrance space. The van's there, but Kate and Mariana aren't. Instead, a masked man with a rifle leans up against the van's side, looking at something that's, from my point of view, blocked by one of the shipping containers.
Oh my god.
I have to grit my teeth together to keep from screaming. My head starts throbbing- They're going to die, something whispers in the back of my mind. I can see it- Kate and Mariana's bloodied figures. Their stiff faces. Their rotting skin. Their absolute lack of life. They're going to be killed.
My hands are shaking so much, I can hardly get the lid off the bottle this time. My fingers won't grip it. I have to shove the container lid-first into the nook of my palm to get the grip I need to open it. After that, I lift the container to my lips and swallow a handful of the pills, three or four of them.
"Gh-!" It's a hard swallow, but I can feel the effects of the drug instantly. The sound of my frantic heartbeat is replaced with a low buzzing noise. My whole body loosens up, all the burdens on my conscious start to fade into nothingness. With each heartbeat- as the pills begin to fill my veins- I feel myself relaxing more and more.
After a few seconds, I'm calm. Completely calm. It's an odd feeling, to be calm just moments after panicking- irrational, even. It's not an uncomfortable feeling, however.
In my new serenity, only a single thought echoes- two words imprint themselves into my very being with each heartbeat. Save them. It overpowers all other natural feelings and desires. In this moment, that is my only objective. Nothing else.
Moving slow enough that the man leaning up against the van won't notice me, I begin moving along the hallway's side to get a better vantage point. I also unsheathe my knife, just in case.
Voices begin to become clear as I sneak closer to the van.
"-as that just now? Who were you yelling for?" The voice from before growls.
"I-I'm sorry, I just-" That's Kate.
"Answer the fucking question!"
The path I take along the right edge of the junkyard's pathway allows me to reach a rather good spot fairly quickly due to the amount of abandoned cars I'm able to use as cover. It doesn't take long until I'm behind an old abandoned truck just a few feet away from the van. I'm able to see the whole clearly scene now. The man who was leaning against the van before is still there, opposite side of the van from where I am. In front of him, there are three men who have Kate and Marian backed into a corner created by two shipping containers. One of the three men has his arms crossed while the other two have their rifles trained on the two girls. Since he's the only one without a rifle, he must be either their ringleader or their interrogator.
Kate stands there, hands in the air, absolutely silent. Mariana does the same. The man without a gun takes a step towards Kate. "Hey, did you hear me?!"
"I-I-"
Kate yelps as the man suddenly lunges at her and grabs her arm. Mariana flinches back, horrified.
Now. I decide to act before the situation gets out of hand. Cocking my knife hand back, I sprint towards the van. "Wha-?" The man hears my footsteps and cranes his head back just in time to see my knife go right into the back of his neck.
The man releases a gurgled moan that's loud enough to make the three men cornering Kate and Mariana to turn around. The speaking one's eyes go wide. "What the fuck-!?"
"Run!" I yell. The two armed men instantly begin spraying at me, riddling the van and their pal with bullets. Kate shoves the man grabbing her to the side and makes a run for it, Mariana behind her.
The ringleader dives behind a stack of car tires and screams "Shoot him! Shoot! Fucking kill him!" It takes me by surprise. What does he mean 'shoot him?' They're already-
Crack. Bullets begin shattering through the van window, riddling the hood with bullets and glass. One of the bullets grazes my arm. "Fuck!" I pull the now dead bandit over the hood and to my side of the van. From the angle I got shot at, they must've been at the junkyard entrance way. I didn't even think about the possibility of there being more of them! Dammit!
The bullets, like a strong torrent of rain, begin to continuously hammer down all around me. I pry the rifle from the dead man's hands and move to the front of the van, where its angled just right to fully cover me from both the entrance way and the three men on the other side of the van.
"Javi!" I barely hear Mariana yell over the gunfire. I spot them on the other side of the junkyard, crouched down behind one of the containers. They're completely out of the bandits' sight.
"Mariana-!" A barrage of bullets spray the ground in front of me the second I peek out from cover. One of the van's tires starts deflating with a long sigh. "Shit!" I need to find some way to get back to them.
The gap between the van and my original pathway is too big, I'd be shot down. There isn't enough cover between me and the girls for me to just rush towards them. They'd easily pop me if I tried to get in the van, not like it'd work with a blown out tire anyway. I can't fire back- the moment I stick my head up I'd be dead. Even blind firing would be really risky since there's so many bullets; they're likely to shoot the gun out of my hands if I do that.
I'm stuck.
There's no way I can get to them. There's…
...Wait…
I look back at Mariana and Kate. The container they're behind completely blocks them from the view of the bandits. It's also one of the containers making up the 'U' pathway. If they were to go in the opposite direction, they'd get to the ladder, and then...
Save them.
The hole in the fence!
Get them out of here.
This is their only chance.
"Kate!" Kate looks up at my voice. "Do you see the pathway made by the containers behind you!?"
She glances behind her shoulder. "Y-Yeah!"
"Take Mariana and and go down that path until you reach the ladder I mentioned earlier! Climb the ladder, go next to the trailer, and there should be an opening in the fence there that you can use to escape!"
She nods, and then hesitates. "Wait, but- Javi-!"
"Go! Don't stop moving until you find some place safe!"
"No, Jav-!" Mariana's voice is overpowered by the sound of a bullet whizzing right by my head. Peeking down to look at the situation from under the van, I find that some of the bandits are now filling into the junkyard, no doubt trying to find better positions to shoot me from.
If they take my position, they'll be able to kill the girls easily.
"Kate! Please go!"
They don't move. Kate shakes her head. "Javi, no-…!"
"Kate!"
"Give it up, you motherfuckers!" It's that man's voice. A burst of bullets hits the edge of the van, just a few inches from my head. The impact makes me flinch back. "You're gonna' pay you fuckin' assholes!"
They're getting close. "Kate, please!" I plead.
"God dammit!" Kate bows her head, and then grabs Mariana by the arm. A bullet hits the van, this one closer to me than any of the others, so I'm forced to move back. I can't see them anymore. I hope to god they've started moving.
"You're fucked!" The man's voice is getting closer. "Come out now and we might kill you quickly!" The gunfire isn't as intense as it was a moment ago. That must mean at least one of them is close enough to the van to warrant a fear of shooting their own.
"Fuck it." If I'm going to die, I'm going to bring as many of these assholes as I can with me. I prop the rifle above my head onto the hood of the van and start spraying in the direction of the man's voice
"Hey- shit!" I hear one of the men yelp. Did I get him?
"Fuckin' piece of shit-!"
"Hey, hey- watch it!" Something metal hits the ground- a fence?
"Someone get him up!"
"Fuck! FUCK!" The man I presumably hit starts screaming. "FUCK! FUCK! Oh my- GOD! FUCK!"
"Get him!"
"What are you doing!?"
"Look!" That sound of something metal hitting the ground, again… the way it rattles against the ground makes me think it's either a fence or a metal chain.
"SOMEONE- AH, SHIT-!"
A plethora of voices all at once, they're starting to blend together. The gunfire starts picking back up. There are footsteps; lots of footsteps. And then a growl.
...A growl?
"Hey, get outta' there! Hey-!"
"I'm movin' I'm-!"
There's a ear-piercing screech, and then something slams against the opposite side of the van with enough force to make it shove me forward.
"H-Help! Hey! Hey! Help! HELP ME! Oh- OH FU-!'
A sickening chomp, a blood-curdling scream.
I peek over the van to find a gruesome scene. On the hood, a muerto digs into a man's face with its teeth as the man himself desperately flails around. Instinctively, I glance at the spot the girls were hiding at earlier. They're not there. They escaped. You did it.
"Get to the truck!" The bandits start to panicking and sprinting towards the entrance as muertos begin filling the compound from all sides. They're sprawling in through places in the fence that're busted down.
This is my chance.
The van's tires are too shot to shit to move. There's now a growing line of walkers between me and the pathway that leads to the ladder, and there's still a swarm of bandits at the entrance, though they're fleeing and the muertos are more distracted there. I can hear the fence behind me creaking and swaying, a horde of growls and moans on the other side. I need to act fast.
I decide to take my chance with the bandits. Adjusting the rifle butt into my shoulder, I bolt towards the entrance.
"OH GOD-!" One of the bandits sprays wildly into the air as a muerto chomps down on his throat. Another one runs right by me without doing anything. A muerto lunges at me from a gap created by two cars. I narrowly dodge it by skipping back, and then I start bolting again.
After dodging a few more muertos and bandits, I make it outside the compound. A truck engine roars in the distance. There's a forest past the road. That would make for good cover. I throw myself forward over the road and into the thicket of trees. There's still a lot of gunfire, but I don't think any of it is directed at me.
Find Kate and Mariana. Make sure they're okay.