Day 854
Russell
Russell's leg pulsed with pain every time he put his foot down. He was barely catching up to the group, but didn't want to slow them down.
It didn't help that he was carrying a huge plank of wood for a weapon, either.
Russell cringed as he remembered how he'd gained his injury. Bonnie had left him at the breach while she went to get Bill, Troy and the others. Carver showed up a couple of minutes later with bloody hands, and his goons looked afraid of him. While Russell stood on top of the building and pointed out the breach in the barrier, he had slipped and landed on his side. It made him feel stupid, and the laughter of Troy and the rest had only made things more embarrassing. At that moment Russell just wished his family were there.
Not that it mattered any more; this settlement was falling, he could see that now. He and the rest were sprinting in the direction of the stockroom, leaving the rest behind. Russell felt bad for leaving so many, but in the end, he truly had to focus on the survival of those he held closest; he'd survived a year in the wilderness with Vince and Wyatt, and another year on top of that in the settlement. They hadn't tried to kill him yet, and they weren't psychos like Nate was, so Russell elected to stick with them to the end.
The group halted as they made it to the stockroom. Miles, who seemed to be acting leader, began to speak.
"We gotta be careful," the blond-haired man said, "We don't know what behind this door, so stand back." He quickly grabbed the handles of the double doors that led to the stockroom, and pulled them open.
Instantly he reeled back, yelling, "Jesus fucking Christ!"
"What is it?" Shel asked, pulling her sister close to her.
Miles doubled over and retched, before finally forcing out words. "Holy shit… you may want to cover the kids' eyes."
He staggered away from the double doors, still hunched, as Vince and Laura took a peek inside. "Oh… man… that is just…" Vince stuttered, as Laura turned away and crushed her eyes shut.
Russell wondered what the fuss was about. "What is it?" He asked, pushing forwards, but he instantly regretted wanting to know what 'it' was.
'It' was Bill; Bill with a gaping, bloody maw where his face had been, no less.
Russell kept his eyes on it. It was quite a sight. "What the hell… who do you think did this?"
Miles pulled himself up briefly, and coughed, "No walker did that. They go for the stomach… Shel and I saw one of the guys from the Pen, but he was dead… maybe it was the rest."
Wyatt nodded, his movement constricted somewhat by the child hugging his neck. "Yeah, man, we haven't seen any of them yet."
Russell turned to Shel. "Becca doesn't need to see this." At his remark, the younger sister huffed. "I'm not a baby." She pushed the doors open, but instantly fell pale at the sight. "Oh… god it… smells…" she stated, and then proceeded to vomit onto the concrete floor of the room ahead.
Wyatt remained the only person who hadn't seen the sight, along with the kid he was looking after. Spotting a tarpaulin by a stack of crates, he pointed it out to the others. "Cover up whatever's over there with that." He said, "We don't need to see it, dudes."
Vince shrugged and jogged over to the tarp, carelessly throwing it onto Carver's caved-in head. The corpse's head tipped to the side with a wet flopping noise, causing more than one of the group to shudder and retch.
"Now that that's dealt with," Vince stated, "Let me propose something; we're in the stockroom, they keep a lot of shit here. Let's see if we can find anything before we run for the truck."
The group fanned out to search what had been left behind in the stockroom. Russell noticed that there were still three walkie talkies left in the charging dock and lifted one up. "Think these could be handy?" he asked, showing the group.
"Let's just take the whole charging station," Laura pointed out, "If we ever find a place with power we'd be able to use the radios more than once." Russell nodded and knelt down beside the power cord, giving it a gentle tug. "What're we gonna carry them in?" He asked, "They're too big to carry loose."
Vince patted him on the back and revealed some backpacks he'd recovered. "Put one docking station in here. We don't have enough space to carry both." He threw Russell one backpack and then sat down on a crate and put his head in his hands.
"How you feeling?" Russell asked, slightly concerned. Vince had been fighting for about fifteen minutes solid, and probably didn't have a lot of energy.
"Not gonna lie to you, I don't feel great." Vince admitted, "I'm not bit, I'm just… I'm exhausted, and we still have to make it out of this herd. Whoever's driving still has to get past all those walkers and get into the cab, so we're gonna have to make them a path too."
Russell shook his head. "Don't worry about that. The others and I will take care of it; you work on getting all this stuff into the back of the truck."
Vince didn't respond but pushed himself off of the crate, wiping his brow. He slowly gripped the backpack – now filled with the charging dock – and began pacing towards Shel and Becca, who were both packing canned food into backpacks.
"I can't believe we're doing this." Russell heard Laura mutter. He looked around at her, but she didn't realise he had heard. She was still speaking under her breath, talking about her disapproval of looting the place and then 'fucking off'.
Others in the group were starting to stand up and slide backpacks on. Miles replenished the ammo in his Glock, and then slid the magazine back into the weapon. "What did you all get?" He asked.
Shel lifted up her backpack. "Becca and I have two packs of food, bottled water and anything edible."
Miles nodded in approval, and then turned to Vince who showed him a backpack filled with miscellanea such as gas lamps, food and matches. Wyatt then lifted up several spare bedrolls which the community would have used for newcomers, and passed them around too. Russell displayed his set of radios, and Laura handed out a few weapons – most of them more dangerous than Russell's plank. "I also got some ammo for your rifle." She said glumly to Wyatt.
"Ok, we're stocked," Vince said, crossing his arms. "Now, how the heck do you suggest we get to the truck?"
"We need to clear a path for Wyatt," Russell confirmed, "but how to we do that?"
"Now I think about it, I should have turned off the alarm," Miles said, "That would've made them spread out more, making them easier to deal with. It'll take too long to go back and turn it off; we'll just have to go with what we've got."
Wyatt stepped forward. "I'm driving, but I've got this clinging to me like a lemur or something," he gestured to the anonymous child he had rescued earlier. "I guess she can go in the passenger seat, but I'm gonna need the rest of you guys to help me out then run 'round the back of the truck and get in."
Miles nodded. "Laura, Shel and I will cover you, then loop back round. Becca and Russell should help Vince chuck all the gear into the truck."
"But…" Becca began, but Miles quietly hushed her. "No. There's no time to argue; not when our lives are on the line. We have to get out of here. We all know what we're doing?"
"We'll go first," Wyatt said, looking at Vince, Becca and Russell who would be packing the back of the truck. "You guys bring up the rear, I have to unlock the door to the back part… or… whatever it's called."
Miles and Laura lifted their weapons, and began pacing towards the large opening that led outside. They crouched down and hopped off of the raised platform onto the ground, and then gestured for Shel and Wyatt to follow. Russell armed himself with a few packs, and then trailed the rest, Becca and Vince behind him.
