Chapter 6
Days Gone By
Margaret
"Sierra you little ass! Get outta the snacks!" I barked at the light brunette, who jumped and spun around.
"Margaret! Jeez!" Sierra threw a cracker at me, and I caught it, shoving it in my mouth. Sierra spoke again. "You've developed quite a mouth! That language'll get you in TROUBLE!"
I mocked her catchphrase. "GOOOOOOD! Besides, who am I gonna get in trouble with anyways?"
"I don't know... just.. in TROUBLE!" Sierra poked my stomach, and I squeaked, backing away from her and watching her, fondness for the brunette flowing through me. She had become part of the family in my mind. The new kids all had.
The had been with us for six months now, and in that time, winter had set in and we were all freezing cold. The house had no electricity and therefore no heater; we had a fireplace and several sweaters and blankets. And that was it.
Sierra had taken up quite well with almost everyone; she liked Annie and I, she was friends with Emma, but where she really had settled in was with Sydney and Abbey. I didn't think someone could crack that shell, but she did, and the three were almost inseparable.
Meg was partial to Annie and I, though she was mostly a loner for the most part. Ethan and Thomas were both close to Kara, and Thomas was also mine and Annie's friend. We all were acutely aware of gender differences, so when we finally let them settle in upstairs, Ethan and Thomas got the fourth bedroom and the girls spread out through the bedrooms we already had. Sierra went in with Sydney and Abbey, Kristen, who's leg was fully healed, came in with us, and Meg went into Kara and Emma's room.
Right now, I was going to the kitchen to make breakfast, and Sierra was stealing my crackers. That's a no-no. My food.
"I don't CARE if I get in trouble!" I grinned and picked her up, throwing her over my shoulder.
"HEY! Put me DOWN!" She half laughed, half shrieked, hitting my back with her fists and kicking her feet.
"Shut up fool! You're gonna attract walkers!" I carried her into the living room and threw her down on the sofa and on top of a napping Sydney, who immediately awoke with a scream and shoved Sierra aside easily, getting her fists ready to fight a walker.
"Wha... is this a sick joke or something?" She glared at Sierra and I, and I held my hands up.
"I didn't do it!"
"Buull!" Sierra scoffed at me.
"All I did was drop her!" I turned away, laughing, and sprinted upstairs, back to the sleeping members of the family. I entered my bedroom and jumped on Annie's bed, straddling her and shouting, "WAKEY WAKEY! GET UP!"
"Get OFF of me you big mothafucker," Annie groaned and slapped my shoulders half-heartedly.
"Come on, you twat-waffle! Time to go kill walkers!" I started tickling her sides, and she twisted under me, then threw me off and sat up.
"That's a hell of a way to be awakened." She shook her head and combed her hair back with her hands.
"Oh, get over yourself and go put a bra on," I laughed, giving her a hand up out of her bed, then grabbing her in a quick hug (in which she snapped, "Let go!" and shoved me away like she always does) and then dropped my arms, turning back to the Chamberlains, who were sleeping head to foot in the same bed.
"Hey Kriiiiiisteeeen!" I shook her awake. "It looks like you and your sister had fun last night!"
Kristen sat up sleepily and looked at me, then at her Hailey, then herself, and sat thinking for a moment, then looked up at me sharply. "Shut UP! We did not!"
"Ya sureee!" I leaned down and growled, "Payback for six months ago."
"You hold onto too much stuff." She shook her head, then clubbed Hailey over the head. "Hey, wake up and stop sawing logs. Time to work."
I just shook my head as the two quickly got into a fight, and left the room to see Annie doing my daily rounds, waking everyone up with the warning, "Margaret's coming."
"Hey! Not fair! That's my job!" I whined at her, and she looked at me, her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"No, what's not fair is having to wake up to YOU jumping on me and tickling me. I'm just saving them from the same fate since you decided to be annoying today."
Uh oh. She was in a bad mood today. And that made me instantly miserable.
"Oh..okay," I looked away from Annie's flaming eyes and at the floor, scuffling my feet while she walked by and down the stairs. I stared after her, trying to figure out how she could pick days when she could treat me like trash and love everyone else like it was a fuckin' high school reunion, and then shrugged. She was the best friend I could ever have, and was entitled to have days when she was fed up with me.
"Well, you heard her, guys. Get up," I said shortly, sticking my head into Kara, Emma, and Meg's room and looking at them. Emma was staring at me, trying to figure out what had rained on my parade, while Kara ripped her sleeping shirt off and slipped into her daytime shirt, doing the same with her pants.
"Well Kara, taking it off right here I guess!" Meg laughed and collected her stuff, heading for the downstairs bathroom to change and everything.
"Who's gonna wake the boys?" Emma asked, looking past me and down the hall.
"I will!" Kara sprang to her feet, tugging a shoe on, and vanished past me, crossing the hall and entering Ethan and Thomas' room.
"Come on sweetheart," I motioned to Emma to hurry. She was pulling her pants up, her shirt changed. She raked a brush through her hair and pulled it back in a ponytail, then stood.
"I'm ready! Gosh, you're in a mood!"
"No I'm not.." I looked at her quizzically, following her out of the bedroom and downstairs.
"Yes you are!" She laughed. "Com'mon, let's eat breakfast and then I'll help you clear the fence of walkers!"
"What? You?" I looked at her in surprise. "Emma Fullen, clearing fences of walkers?"
"Yes, Emma Fullen. I had to with Hailey; I went into town to rescue you even. So let me have a shovel and help out with the real danger for once," she smirked at my, and then pushed past me, my mind still spinning, and started to open the cabinet, pulling out an older bag of chips. She opened them and grimaced when the smell hit her nose, then grabbed a few and shoved them in her mouth. She shrugged; the chips must've been halfway decent, and then shoved another handful in and offered the bag to me.
I shook my head no, murmuring absentmindedly, "I'm not really hungry right now," and starting towards the back door, grabbing a couple of shovels and returning to the kitchen. I handed a shovel to Emma, then confirmed where we were going with Kara and Ethan, who were in deep conversation about... nyan cat? The old cartoon that was on the internet? Oh well. Kara nodded, and then Emma and I were going outside into the front yard, heading towards the fence.
"So tell me about the time you helped Hailey clear the fences," I grinned at her, opening the gates and letting us through.
"It was easy, really. I just got attacked, but Hailey chopped it's head off." Emma mocked being nonchalant.
"One attacked you? But they're usually dead!" I stopped at the first walker, who was so burned that you couldn't even tell the gender, and whacked at it's head. The head came off with a snap and the body fell back onto the ground, where other walkers had accumulated over time.
"Well, this one was alive. When Hailey went at it, it flailed around and flipped over the fence, and of course came after the unarmed girl. I almost got bitten, too, but then Hailey turned into God and chopped it's head off." Emma took her turn and used the shovel's side to slice through the next dead walker's neck, sending the head bouncing. The body slipped from the wires and fell, several bones snapping as the brittle frame crashed to the ground.
We carried on clearing the fence around the length of the property, and then returned to the house, starting to close all of the gates. I jumped when something crashed in the bushes, and then my jaw dropped when I saw the amount of walkers that were advancing.
"Get through the gates!" I yelled at Emma and started fumbling to connect the electric fence. Emma was already clear of all the gates, and I heard her turn the wire on as soon as I dropped it. I sped through the barbed wire and chain link, then shut the giant metal door that was hinged to the concrete wall and sprinted to the house, Emma right in front of me.
"Where did they come from?!" Emma asked breathlessly as we jumped onto the porch. I could hear the walkers frying on the fence behind us, the hungry moans and growls sending shivers down my spine. We hadn't left the house in three weeks; I forgot just how grotesque the walkers' noises were.
I flung the door open and ran in on a bunch of surprised teenagers. "Everyone upstairs now!" I half shouted, my voice panicky, and everyone was on their feet at once, rushing towards the stairs. Annie was the first one up, followed by the twins and then the boys.
I turned and shut the front door, getting a glimpse of the advancing hoard's feet from under the giant steel door. They had knocked the electric fence down, and were leaning heavily on the barbed wire, their shrieks reaching my ears. I shivered, slammed the doors, grabbed a couple of pistols and my machetes, and then took to the stairs. I climbed up, then shut the emergency door over the stairs and locked it in place.
I took a deep breath, slowed my pounding heart, and then walked to my bedroom and found everyone crowded into it, it being the only room facing towards the gates with windows low enough to see out of them. The boy's room windows were up high, where no one could reach them, and were useful only for light sources.
I looked out of the window and saw that around the gate, the barbed wire was down, too. The chain link fence thankfully stopped the walkers in their tracks, and they were reaching desperately through the wires at nothing, their teeth visibly gnashing, even from here.
Annie appeared behind me, her arm weaving around mine. "Where did they come from?" She asked, her gray eyes alight with worry.
"My question; how did ALL of them show up OUT here without us going into town in three weeks? We didn't lead them here." Meg joined us at the window, her eyes puzzled. "It's almost like someone led them here to wipe us out. But... there's no survivors in the area, is there? I mean, there's gotta be other surviving people, but I didn't think there was anymore in the city."
"Well, if someone did lead them here or at least set them on our trail, then they want us dead and out of here," Kristen muttered from behind us. She was sitting on mine and Annie's bed with Hailey, Emma, and Kara, shaking her head with her fists pressed to her temple.
"How are we going to get rid of all of them? There's gotta be at least a hundred!" Thomas was looking out the window as well. "And that's just in the front."
"I'll check the back. Kara, come with me." Ethan stood and walked out of the room, Kara following. Emma watched them, puzzled, and then shook her head and put her legs up where Kara had been.
"God, we could be stuck here for a while," Sierra was sitting with Sydney and Abbey on Hailey and Kristen's bed.
"Ya don't say?" Kristen made the face, from the old meme, and the room broke into uneasy laughter.
"Well, I have about 10 boxes' worth of MRE's under my bed.." I told everyone. "Go easy on them and they could last a month."
"That might be long enough to let them clear out," Abbey agreed. "I'm glad there's a small bathroom on the end of the hall, even if we almost never use it. It's going to start being used A LOT in the next couple of weeks."
"Again, ya don't say?" Kristen started shaking her head again.
"Hey, be nice," Hailey bumped her arm. "Do you remember Olivia, from our old school? How annoying she was? You could be trapped up here with her."
"Oh GOD no!" I turned and stared in horror at Hailey. "I'd throw myself to the WALKERS before living with her!"
"Who's Olivia?" Thomas immediately popped the question.
Annie answered, "A fat ass white girl who thought she was black, talked like she was black, and danced and sang about as well as a whale. She was really mean and uber annoying."
"Ah." Thomas let it drop.
"Did you just say uber?" Meg was cracking up.
"So what if I did? It's a word. Look it up." Annie answered defensively.
"So.. in case they get in... is the concrete room still accessible?" Kara came back into the room with Ethan.
"I checked the door last month," Sydney replied quickly, speaking of the garage that we had converted into a solid concrete room. A heavy steel door hung in the front of it, making the room a safe haven in case the fences ever failed. We had stored years' worth of food and water in the room, and could live comfortably for almost a decade if we made the supplies stretch. Long enough for whatever walkers were around to move away.
There was a couple of beds and multiple couches and books and battery-powered stuff inside too, to keep us pre-occupied while we waited. We had made it along with the fences when we first moved into the place three and a half years ago.
"Does it still open?" Annie asked, looking intently at her with her gray blue stare.
"Yea, easily," she answered, imitating opening a door that had a round wheel for a door. "The metal isn't rusted at all."
"That's funny... it's out in the weather," Meg looked up from watching the walkers. "Wouldn't it be, like, brown from rust?"
"Nope. It's stainless steel. That doesn't rust fast," I shook my head, sitting down below the window with my back against the wall. "Anyways, tomorrow I'm going out there with my machetes and I'm going to start stabbing heads through the fence. Any volunteers? It's okay if you don't want to go too; I can manage on my own. If they break through the chain link fence, I can scale the concrete wall easily. I've climbed higher, and I'd be back inside in seconds."
"Margaret, no." Emma shook her head. "You are NOT going out there just to kill yourself."
"No ma'am," Thomas agreed. "If anyone should go out there, it should be me and Ethan. We're stronger and.. well... men. We can fight better."
I snorted. "Says the one who lost the arm wrestle with me. Besides, girls are faster and more flexible. And I'm stronger than you because I constantly do fitness exercises, which, by the way, anyone's welcome to join me in that. You'd be ripped in a month."
"And have a guy's stomach and arms? No thanks." Hailey held up her hands.
I snorted and muttered, "Trashing my life style.. see how that works out when I'm not defending your ass," under my breath.
"Hey, easy!" Annie kicked my shin, and then sat down on the floor beside me. "You know weaker species pick on the stronger because of jealousy!"
"Heeeey!" Hailey pouted. "You're mean!"
Annie and I burst into laughter. "You've lived with her for how long now, and you just realized how mean she is?" I gasped, hitting the floor with my fist, my body racking with laughter. "She's a pitbull in a sweater and mascara!"
"Well, technically not anymore... there isn't any mascara!" Kristen said in her most obnoxious voice, making everyone burst into a round of laughter.
"Oh wow, okay. We need to check the room downstairs!" Kara wheezed, standing up. "Who's coming with me?"
Everyone stood up at once. "Whoa, okay guys... let's go?" Emma looked around, surprised.
"I'll stay up here with Annie, Meg, Ethan, and Thomas. Annie and I will cover you from this window, and you other guys, get your guns and go into the other rooms, and cover them from there in case walkers manage to get through." I administered orders quickly, reaching under my bed and pulling my crossbow out, then slid the window open and set the crossbow on the ledge.
"M'kay," Ethan replied, getting up and grabbing his gun off the wall, walking out of the room. Everyone quickly filtered out, and I watched as Kara and her posse crossed the line, everyone's guns ready in case the walkers made it through our primary defenses.
"Do you think we can clear all of these monsters out?" Annie crouched beside me and aimed her rifle at the gate, where the walkers were growling and slamming their hands on it.
"I don't know," I replied, shifting my position and looking briefly down at where Kara and her group had disappeared around the corner. "But I'll die trying."
