CHAPTER 4: Into the Belly of the Beast

The group stood in silence, the girl they had all risked their lives for had vanished. Ben cleared his voice and broke the silence; he stood tall and made sure he was still in charge and the alpha figure before he spoke.

"Let's move out, the hoard should have been distracted and disband by now. They would be a lesser threat and staying here will cost us good time. We'll use a pack formation while moving though. Jewel, you and Roy will take scout positions up ahead, I know you're tired and all but we need your crossbow skills up front. Katie, if Kaseja is up for it we need her nose in case a walker sneaks up,Holden and Jem will stay with Scout and Pheobe in the center with the shotguns and Lannah you'll do what you do best, Atticus, you and I will hold up the back with whatever weapons we can find"

"Just hold on a second there Benvolio but Jem will not be handling any weapon" Atticus said firmly.

Ben dug around in his right pocket and then his left, his right coat pocket, and then his left before finding a lighter. He lit it up in the dark and moved to the back of the bunker and came back with a large grin on his face holding a sniper and a high quality hunting bow. Jewel gasped and nearly sucked all the air out of the bunker.

"Is that the Silvertip Mountain Cat?" Jewel exhaled and snatched the bow. She examined the fine details of the bow and the tight string. She pulled a glove attached to it off and slid it onto her hand, perfect fit.

"Oh yes, there is now a bright side to this situation" Jewel said as she tossed her crossbow to Ben and dragged a dozen or so arrows out of the dark in a nicely made quiver. Jewel slung the quiver onto her back and smoothly drew an arrow and set it to the bow. Ben opened the door and made sure the coast was clear before giving everyone thumbs up. Roy and Jewel took the lead and everyone followed as Ben demanded, except Jem carried no weapon. He gave up without a fight, understanding his father's wishes, but stayed close to Lannah.

"Stop it" Lannah growled as she caught onto Jem's little helpful deeds. Every time a branch swung out or a stump poked up he would hold it away or warn her with a horribly fake stumble.

"Just trying to help, Atticus is always a gentlemen, I should be too" Jem said carefully, trying to explain his deeds.

"Then go help prego or your sister" Lannah growled.

"Jewel is with Roy and Scout has Holden" Jem said "And I'm here for you"

"Oh, lucky me" Lannah sarcastically and quietly cheered. Jem ignored it.

"Lannah" Jem asked.

"What?"

"Do you miss television?"

"No"

"Lannah?"

"What?"

"Do you miss your home?"

"No"

"Lannah?"

"NO!"

"Bear!" Jem shouted and turned to run but the bear swung out its massive arm and caught his leg. Lannah swooped down and pulled Jem free before the bear got a good grasp and sent a shot into its shoulder at close range, it didn't even blink. Lannah knew it was infected and fired off a round at its skull just as it lunged for her. It landed directly on top of her and crushed her lungs. She could feel it was still alive, trying to get its useless limbs to move. It turned its massive head and opened its jaws over Lannah's chest to strike forward towards her neck.

THUD

Lannah grabbed hold of a branch and broke it over the zombie bear's head.

BANG

She reached for her shotgun and blew the creature's skull contents into the air. She shut her eyes tightly and closed her mouth as brain leftovers rained down onto her.

"Lannah are you alright?!" Atticus and Ben asked as Holden checked Jem's cuts. The two pushed the beast off Lannah and she got to her feet.

"I've taken down bigger" she chuckled and drew her hunting knife. She began cutting the bear's hide free.

"Oh god, I'm gonna throw up" Jewel said walking into a puddle of brains and then seeing Lannah cutting up the corpse. She ran out of sight and clear gagging noises could be heard.

"Lannah what are you doing?" Katie asked.

"Going to skin it, clean it, dry it, and make a nice coat or something" Lannah answered packing the blood dripping hide into a garbage bag she pulled from her backpack.

"Smart, but gross, let's keep going" Katie said and started walking. Holden carried Jem, his leg pretty torn and hurting too much to put weight on, Scout and Pheobe follow close behind and keep their eyes peeled for dangers. Everyone fell back into order.

The forest began to slope down into a valley and the earth grew boggy and muddy. Some places were almost impossible to walk through but eventually the group made their way to a small gas station by a large highway.

SHWOOP TA-WING SHWOOP SHWOOP TA-WING

Ben, who had taken Jewel's old cross bow, and Jewel shot down the only undead in sight and the group headed into the gas station and cleared it out. The place had been used as a shelter before but the last group had left some goods and medical supplies behind in a hurry of some sort. The windows were all boarded up and space behind the counter had been barricaded and secured. The sun was heading down so everyone slept inside the area behind the counter.

Morning came and left without being noticed, it had no way into the gas station refuge locked away from the hell outside. Jem was the first to wake and he woke Scout. They woke everyone else and the group got ready for what was left of the day. They ate the food they found in the gas station and headed out on the road. Roy and Lannah stopped and checked each car for supplies and if they would start us, most had been crashed or driven until the tank was empty. The gas station pumps didn't work so the chances of finding a working car with gas in the tank were slim.

The walk was not long before the city came into view, it was a smaller city but it was sure to have a large enough population of zombies to create dangerously huge hoards under the cover of night. The group moved in close without speaking a word and moved through the streets of a small neighborhood. And there, upon the horizon, stood a figure waving to the group like nothing was wrong.

"Wait" Holden said to Jewel as she aimed her bow at the figure "It's Anya"

The group moved carefully to the figure and it sure enough turned out to be Anya, unphased by the crash or the hoard that had chased her. The group stared at her for a long minute before she simply smiled and waved her hand for the group to follow her, and then ran away. The group hesitated for a moment but followed when Holden led the charge with Jem atop his shoulders. They found her waiting in front of a huge building with big bold letters across the front.

"Heaven" Roy gasped

"Sweet mercy" Jewel smiled

"Costco" Scout read out slowly.

"Well let's not just stand here!" Ben cheered "Let's go clear this place out of the dead and set up camp!"

BANG BANG BANG

Bullets rained from the top of the building along with flaming balls of toilet paper. The group instinctively ran toward the nearest shelter, which happened to be another gas station. Once inside the attack ended.

"What was that!?" Jewel shouted.

"Other survivors" Anya said calmly.

"I'll kill 'em!" Lannah shouted and cocked her shotgun charging the door. Ben stood in front of her and stopped her.

"I think we should stop and think a bit first, we don't even know how many they are or why they attacked us" Ben reasoned.

"tzzzzzzzzz beep * Stay away from our fort, you are not welcome* zzzzzzzzzzt" a bullhorn screamed over the city. Ben's expression went blank.

"What do we do now?" Scout asked with a whimper.

"We try and reason with them, but don't be scared Scout, it's not time to worry yet" Atticus said picking up his daughter and cradling her in his arms.

"I hope reason works because the sun is going down real fast" Roy said looking out the gas station window.

"I'll go out" Atticus said and put down Scout. He walked outside and stood in front of the building so he could see the roof.

"Excuse me?" he shouted with his hands cupped around his mouth "Is anyone there whom I may speak to?"

"Go away!" A woman shouted back.

"We mean no harm, we have children and are hungry and tired, and please may we enter just for the night?" Atticus shouted to the rooftop. There was a long silence and Pheobe crossed her fingers and then her older brother's fingers.

"No!" the woman shouted back.

"But Miss we ju-" A shot rang out and Atticus threw his hands up and hurried back to the gas station. Everyone decided to just stay the night there in the gas station, without a word everyone got ready to sleep and just sort of took shifts staying awake and alert for zombies. There really were no words to be said, food and shelter stood before them but it had already been taken by someone else.

The next morning Atticus woke the group to find Katie standing outside the Costco. She was speaking to someone and as soon as the group got outside the metal front doors opened and a boy ran out and Katie ran to him and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. She then rested her chin on his shoulder.

"Keep up the love act or every one of your friends will be shot down" the boy whispered with a smile towards the approaching group members.

"You sure as hell better keep up your end of th-"

"Don't worry sweetie pie, you'll get your foods and bottled water"

"The group too"

"Five cans, three water bottles"

"They can't survive on that" Katie hissed.

"You left me for dead, you will smile and kiss me and like what you get" he growled.

"Matt?" Lannah asked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry you guys, I tried to get them to open up but the best I could get you was a few cans and some water, they saved my life though" Matt smiled.

"Thank god for that, I missed you so much" Katie said in her best cute girl voice and kissed his shoulder. He grabbed her hip and pulled her closer to him.

"I didn't realize how much I hurt you when we broke up and when I didn't come with you guys" Matt said kissing her forehead "They said I could bring you in but you're friends can't, I'm sorry guys but I'll try and send more food out"

Holden stared at Matt until their eyes met and burned into each other's as the tension rose to an unbearable heat.

"Unless you'd rather fight with the people here and try a take what is not yours" Matt growled and Holden broke eye contact, Matt wasn't talking about food and Holden knew it. He met his eyes to each group member until they all stared at the ground. He turned to walk inside but something caught hois arm. He pulled it loose and felt heavy breath in his ear.

"You hurt her and I will make your life a world of endless pain" Lannah hissed in his ear and he chuckled at her holding around Katie's waist and walking her inside the Costco. The doors slammed shut and heavy metal on metal locks could be heard grinding to a secure lock.

"She doesn't love him" Holden growled back in the gas station.

"Love is never predictable" Anya said blankly.

"She wouldn't really choose him over me would she?" Holden asked rhetorically "Like, come on, he dumped her"

"Yes but perhaps she still has feelings for him and he learned, being away from her, that he too still had feelings for her?" Anya asked.

"Oh shut up, He's just a big phony, his feelings for her are phony, and everything about him is just phony" Holden growled.

"Holden you said you'd stop calling people phony" Pheobe whined.

"Well it's true!" Holden shouted and got up to inspect the cans they got "And all he gave us was canned fish and beans!"

"Holden cut it out and get a hold of yourself; you never had any intentions of getting intimate with her did you?" Ben asked.

"Well maybe I did" Holden hesitated "I don't really know"

"Exactly, so stop freaking out and bake the beans for dinner already" Ben growled and Holden opened a can of beans and heated them over a grill in the back of the gas station that had been used to make hot dogs. Kaseja whimpered staring out the gas station window at the Costco. Holden whistled to her but she didn't move.

"Kaseja come here, mommy's going to be okay, just lay here by the grill and warm up" Holden said and made Roy and Lannah gasp as Kaseja got up and lay at his feet by the grill wagging her stub of a tail.

In aisle four Jewel lay on her back and poked her belly. Roy rolled onto his side and watched her. She would poke her belly then hold onto it waiting for something to happen.

"What is it?" Roy asked.

"I'm jiggling, Im getting fat" Jewel pouted.

"You need to eat more; you're going to be feeding two mouths"

"So you agree? I'm getting fat?"

"Not fat, babe, pregnant, and not just pregnant dear, beautiful"

"So I wasn't beautiful before? Is that what you're saying then?"

"Oh no, but now you're holding the beauty of two"

"So what? When our baby is born I'll be ugly?"

"No..." Roy said running out of things to say, he knew he was talking to a time bomb and he was cutting every wrong wire and lighting every fuse.

"Hey is that the beans I smell? I'll go get us a bowl" Roy said quickly when he saw Jewel's mouth opening again. He jumped to his feet and rushed over to the grill leaving Jewel to mutter and mumble to herself in anger.

Inside the Costco Matt kept Katie blindfolded and made sure she didn't take it off by telling her that if she did, Kaseja would be the first to go, then Lannah and Holden following. She didn't dare anger him, as he made sure she knew, even though she could not see, that there were at least a dozen people inside the store all ready to shoot on his order.

Matt tried to force Katie into making out with him but she bit his lip. He spit blood and grabbed her wrists as she tried to hit him.

"Just let me sleep already" Katie growled "I know you don't want to kiss me, you just don't want Holden to get to"

"Fine, but you better make those idiots believe you are crazy about me" Matt hissed and Katie went to sleep on a soft mattress with feather blankets and memory foam pillows. Though she could not sleep a second with everyone she held dear in danger and not knowing their very lives relying on her actions.