Slack and I took off our shirts and Riley couldn't help but run his hands down my sides from behind me.
"Come on, guys. Not here." Mouse said as he rounded up weapons for us.
"You can't stop love, Mouse." I said as Riley leaned over my shoulder and placed a kiss on my lips.
"Can't believe you're turning me into a fucking boy scout." Slack muttered as she pulled on another black shirt. I pulled on a tight white shirt.
"Not a boy." I said.
"Hey, you don't have to come if you don't want to." Riley said, pulling on his shoes. "Here, Lily." He handed me my 1911 colt and I stuck in my boot.
"I didn't say that." Slack muttered as she wrapped a black belt around her waist.
"Yo, Mouse, I need some stars over here." I said.
"Sure thing, Calla."
"Some shit though," Slack said. "going out to save Kaughman's ass."
"I'm not doing this for Kaughman." Riley said. "I'm doing this for the people in the city."
"What do you think is going to happen when Cholo fires that thing at the Greene?" I questioned her. Mouse walked over to me with a belt.
"Here, Calla." Mouse handed me the belt. "Twenty five Chinese stars, twenty five small daggers, twenty five clips for your gun and twenty five Chinese throwing knives."
"Thanks, Mouse." I said, taking the belt from him and wrapping it around my waist.
"Okay," Slack said, pondering the thought for a moment. "I'm with ya." I saw Chunky, a tall man walk over to Charlie with a gun. I never like Chunky. I hated him and he hated me. He was such an ass.
"Oh, no thank you." Charlie said. "I like the ones I already got."
"This piece fires fourteen rounds a second." Chunky said. Charlie looked over at me and Riley before speaking to Chunky again.
"I don't normally use that many." Charlie said, walking to the armory entrance.
"I don't normally talk to retards." Chunky laughed at him. I pulled out my gun and walked over to him. I pointed the barrel to his left ear and cocked it.
"How about I blow an ear and see who's laughing at who then?" I growled at him.
"Lily," Riley called behind me. I uncocked the gun and shoved it back into the boot.
"How about you show me a little respect?" Chunky said, towering over at me.
"I'll show Kaughman respect before I ever show you respect." A fist shot out and nailed me right in the left cheek. I did a 180 degree turn and fell to the ground. Riley was in front of me in an instant. He lifted my face to eye level with him and gingerly touched my left cheek with two fingers. I winced even when he just barely touched it. He held up the two fingers and I saw blood on them. "Kick his ass, please, Rye." He got up and went over to Chunky. I didn't have to turn around to know that Riley was kicking Chunky's ass. I stood up, slowly reached into my mouth and pulled out a tooth. "Ow." I tossed the tooth aside and turned around to see my man on top of Chunky, beating his face to a bloody pulp.
"Aren't you going to stop him?" Slack asked me.
"Nah," I said. "It turns me on to watch Riley fight."
"Can you make him stop, please, Calla?" Charlie said behind me.
"Sure thing, Char. Rye, baby, that's enough, come on, Rye." Riley got up off of Chunky, leaving his face bloody and bruised. I walked over to him and spat a mouthful of blood onto him. "Easy making fun of other people isn't it? Well, I can make a whole lot of fun out of you." I turned back to Riley as Slack bent over and picked up the gun that Chunky had before the fight.
"Thank you, Calla." Charlie said to me.
"Oh, what can I say? The guy's an ass and besides any friend of Riley's is a friend of mine." I held out my fist and Charlie bumped it with his. I smiled at him as he returned to the entrance and I sat down on the bench as Riley pulled out the first aid to clean up the cut on my face.
"Lovebirds," Charlie called to me and Riley as he bounced back over to us. Riley finished up my face, kissing it before he stood with me beside him. "these guys are coming." Riley and I turned to the door as a man with a brown trench coat stepped in.
"Gentlemen," The man greeted us. I cleared my throat and pointed at my breasts. "Ladies, Mr. Kaufman thought you could use some support."
"Don't need any." Riley said with me beside him and Charlie and Slack behind us.
"Nevertheless," The man continues. "Manolete," A tall black hair, Spanish looking guy stepped into the room.
"Named after the bullfighter." Manolete said. Yep, definitely Spanish.
"Monica." The man announced as a small woman with long brown hair stepped inside.
"You can call me Motown." She said in a bitchy tone. I'm not going to like her.
"I'm not going to like her, Rye." I whispered to Riley.
"Lily, please." Riley said and I sighed.
"Pillsbury." The man announced as a large, fat black man stepped in.
"Whoa." Slack and I said in unison.
"I'm here to do something, why are we standing around? Let's do something." Pillsbury said in a booming voice.
"I won't be able to work with these people." I said.
"Why not?" The man questioned me.
"Because I only trust two people here. My man, Riley, here and Charlie over here. This chick is lucky that she's fucking coming along."
"Mr. Kaughman insists that-" I cut him off.
"Well, you can tell Kaughman that he can come out of his paradise land and come kiss my fucking-" Riley placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Lily, please." He said softly. "Let's go." We all followed Riley out of the door to the truck belt and boarded in the back. Once we were all in, the truck carried us to the other side of the river where we got out and headed up into the surface.
"You taking that jeep?" Charlie asked Riley.
"Woody, right, Riley?" I questioned.
"Yeah," Riley agreed. "It's bigger and it has guns." We walked outside to the parking lot and saw a disaster. Small fires were alive here and there, barrels of gasoline were tipped over, dead bodies of human and zombies were all over the place and most importantly, Dead Reckoning was gone. For once, Kaughman wasn't lying.
"Jeez, Cholo made a mess." Charlie muttered.
"Cholo couldn't have done all this." I said as we walked into the middle of the parking lot. I pulled out my gun.
"This is stenches." Riley said. "And a lot of them."
"May be still here." Pillsbury said.
"That's where they came in." I said, looking to the left and saw a chain linked fence toppled over.
"That's where they went out." Slack said, pointing to the right of the parking lot.
"They're trying to get to the city." Riley said. "I better go get the ammo. Crank up the woody. Lily, you're coming with me. And, Charlie, make sure she doesn't hurt herself." Riley nodded his head to Slack.
"I can take care of myself, ok?" Slack growled.
"Fine. Charlie, make sure she doesn't hurt anyone else." Riley restated his order. I stayed close to Riley's right side as we made our way to the ammo shaft.
"Do you think they can get across the river?" I asked Riley.
"If you had asked me that a week ago, I would have said no, but now one way or the other, we gotta get our hands on Dead Reckoning." Riley said. I stopped, suddenly feeling scared and weak and vulnerable.
"There's more of them out there, Rye." I whispered. "I can hear them, Baby."
"They're always out there, Lily." Riley said. "You alright, Baby?" I shook my head to clear it and pulled myself together.
"Yeah, no problem, let's go." We began walking again. A door rattled and we headed in that direction. The door to the ammo shaft was opened and we walked inside and stood in the entrance, staring straight into the pitch black.
"Got a flashlight?" Riley asked me.
"Yeah." I pulled my flashlight from my belt but dropped. I bent over to pick it up. I turned it on and the light shined onto a brown boot.
"Brubaker?" Riley called into the dark. As I stood up, the light traveled up the leg to a point where the leg didn't have a body anymore. It was just a bloody stump. "Hey, Brubaker. Brubaker, you there?" I shined my flashlight over the shaft looking for any sign of Brubaker, besides the bloody leg that is. A thick, dripping noise sounded.
"Hear that?" I asked Riley. I shined my flashlight to the ground and tried to place the noise. A red drop fell into the light and another and another one. I rose my flashlight up and saw a zombie in an army suit, gnawing on a bone come into view. "Oh, Brubaker." Riley rose his gun and shot the zombie in the head and he fell to the ground.
"All right, keep that thing shining and let's get ammo." Riley said as we plunged into the darkness to the crates of ammo. "There's .50 caliber around here somewhere." Riley rummaged through the crates while I kept look out. "Right here, here's .50." I heard something to my right and I shined the flashlight in that direction. One, two, three, four, five, six zombies were munching on bodies.
"Jesus Christ." Riley muttered. I started to pull my M16 off my back but Riley stopped me. "Whoa, no, no. Not in here. Think about where we are." I pulled out my colt instead while Riley pulled out two pistols. "Now, take a breath. Choose your shots." I took a deep breath and shot the three on the right while Riley took the three on the left. "Good job, Lily. Let's go." Riley grabbed the ammo and we bolted out the shaft to where Woody was parked. The engine started and everybody started to get in. Riley threw the ammo in the back and climbed in the passenger seat with me in his lap and Motown in the driver's seat. Manolete screamed in the third row and I turned around and saw a zombie. Before I could shot, Charlie fired and the zombie dropped to the ground. I looked at Manolete's arm and saw blood.
"Is he bit?" Riley asked. I looked at Pillsbury who was beside him and he nodded sadly.
"Yeah." I breathed, settling back down into Riley's lap.
"Go!" Riley yelled at Motown and she took off. We drove along the deserted road, dead trees surrounding us. I buried myself as deep as I could into Riley's shape, too scared to look out. I kept running my finger along his collarbone and I could tell he enjoyed it.
"Hey," Slack whispered to Riley. "How long does he have?"
"Had a little brother bit. Took less than an hour before he turned." Riley said, his voice making his chest vibrate against my ear.
"And then what happened?" Slack asked.
"I shot him." Riley answered.
"You said nothing bad ever happened to you." Slack said.
"That happened to his brother." I said.
"Yeah, dead is dead." Slack muttered. "And that ain't you or me. I'm sorry." I heard a gun cock and then Manolete's pleading cries and then a shot. I buried my head deeper into Riley's chest and he ran his fingers through my hair.
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"When you hit Route 6, take a right." Riley told Slack who had switch spots with Motown after we dumped Manolete's body out.
"How do you know which way to go?" Slack asked.
"Homing device." Riley answered.
"Cool." Slack awed quietly.
"How long since you've been out?" Riley asked Slack.
"I've never been out." She answered. "I've lived in the city since it was a real city."
"Pull over." Riley whispered to Slack. "Scoot over, Lily." It was then that was when I realized that I was half asleep. I sluggishly climbed out of Riley's lap as he got out of the car. "Charlie, cover them. Lily, cover me." Charlie pulled out two pistols and pointed one at Pillsbury and one at Motown while I pulled out my gun and pointed it into the woods where from a distance I could make out the outlines of zombies. "Now, you're working for Kaufman and you're working for Kaufman. My job is to stop Cholo. Your job is to bring the truck back with or without me, right?"
"Not without you." Motown said with a chuckle. "No."
"That means yes. Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna do my job, you're not gonna get to do yours. Kaufman is never gonna see Dead Reckoning again. And when I get it, I'm gonna do what I want with it. Anyone has a problem with, get out right here."
"Some choice." Motown said.
"No choice." Pillsbury said.
"Keep them covered, Charlie." Riley ordered.
"Hey, wait, you made us come all the way out here just to steal a fucking truck?" Slack questioned Riley.
"You made a deal, Riley." Charlie said. "You're going back on a deal. You never done that before."
"If Cholo shells the Greene, all deals off." Riley said. "If something worse happens, I don't know about you but I don't want to be out here in a car with no roof." Riley got back in and I put my gun away as Slack took off. I climbed back into Riley's lap and straddled his hips and buried my face in the crook of his neck.
"I know where Cholo's going." Riley said, looking at his tracking device.
"Where?" Slack asked.
"Mount Washington." Riley answered. "It overlooks the city but we can beat him there. In that truck he has to take the main roads, we can take the back streets. Make a right on Ivy then take a left on Westminster."
"You want to go up the hill?"
"Yes, I want to go up the hill."
"Then, let's go up the hill." There was a sharp right turn and a bump and I just had to open my eyes to see Slack driving up the hill in the grass.
