Chapter 10: The Good Life

After our first target practice on the roof a few days ago we've decided to lay low and enjoy things for a little while. We played video games, watched movies, the kids raided the toy aisles, we all got changes of clothes, and we got drunk on occasion. Every now and then Otis would come out from the back and visit for a little while, drink a couple of beers, or watch a movie, but mostly he played with the kids. Said his grand kids had moved with their parents to New York and hadn't seen them in a couple of years, but he loved kids, and hell the kids loved him. Anyway though, we kept checks on the news whenever we could, on the radios or on the one TV that had a Satellite hook up. Nothing new, every day another city or part of the world fell to the things, but nothing useful. The second day of the outbreak the "Safety Shelters" were all out of commission, and from our trips up to the roof we saw how. They were everywhere. Not just in the parking lot, granted there were a shit load in the parking lot, but through binoculars and rifle scopes we could see hundreds and hundreds just walking around the town itself. On that first day we ended it with a zombie-death toll of about 200. The amount outside had doubled.. Maybe even tripled. Some had started banging on the doors, and it seemed every day more and more knew we were in here. If only it were only the zombies who knew we were in here.

We had set up our entertainment station in electronics, considering it made the most sense. All of us except for Donnie, Sidney, Phil, and Rick were hanging out there. I was playing Modern Warfare 2 with Nic when Sidney came running over to us. "Hey guys, there's some people down there! Live ones! They shot Phil!". We were all shocked, just a few seconds ago we were having the time of our lives, it seems even in the times we escape reality, death always seems to find its way back in, Phil was our first casualty. As soon as we heard, me and anyone who knew how to use a gun were getting ready to get up to the roof. The kids stayed with my mom and Cheese and Donnie opted to stay behind and protect them. We got up to the roof and we saw Rick holding his brother as he bled out in his arms, trying to tell him it would be okay. "Okay…" I said quietly, but loud enough for them to hear, "We need to get over there and check the situation, Long rifles spread out and try to get a bead on our situation below.". My dad looked at me and said "Who the fuck died and made you Sergeant?", I quickly retorted "Damn near everybody, just do what I'm saying please". We all spread out at the edge except for Rick, who was still consoling Phil, and Roger who was trying to help stop the bleeding.

As soon as I got to the edge I saw that there were 3 Humvees, and about 12 people inside of them, one sticking out of each roof with a long rifle except the one in the front, he had a bullhorn. "We need a place to hole up! And we ain't much for company! Get the fuck out of the building or we'll take it our god damned selves. It don't matter to us if you live or not!" He started laughing after he said that. Apparently that pissed my dad off because the guy's laughter got cut short when a bullet hole appeared in his throat and he fell out of the Hummer. "Take that by force you shit lickin' son of a bitch!" my dad yelled down to him. For a second everything went silent. Then as quickly as the calm came the silence was invaded by a volley of gunfire. We ducked down and shot periodically, but whoever it was down there had automatic weapons. We killed all of them in one of the Jeeps and two in one of the others. But before we could reload and start shooting again the dumbass in the forward humvee tried driving it into the front of the store. Luckily our reinforcements held somewhat, and he trashed his hummer. We reloaded and took out the rest of them before they knew what happened. The only problem was that where the jeep had hit, apparently our barricade hadn't held as well as it seemed. Zombies were beginning to climb in through the opening. Luckily the steel gates were down so we had some time to get down there and solve the problem, but how the fuck were we gonna close that hole up before too many of them got in? We got up and started to run when we heard a scream. We had forgotten all about Phil. Rick sat still holding Phil, now screaming because Phil was trying to make a fuckin Scooby snack out of his brother. We got over to him and tried to pull him off but he fell over onto Sidney. We finally got his head up to shoot him after a minute or two of struggling. We tried to get Rick to come with us but he refused, and on our way down we heard a gunshot ring out. Casualty Number two.

As we got downstairs we got Donnie to run to the front with us. Katie was one of the first to reach the front and she started shoving her shotgun barrel through the holes in the grating and blowing the fuckers apart. We all kept shooting but there were too many of them. They just kept pouring in. "We've gotta get the fuck out of this place!, Somebody pack some bags, we'll stay up here and fend em off, we head out the back and commandeer that hummer and a couple of cars and get the fuck out of here in 10 god damned minutes!" My dad yelled.

Sidney and Cheese ran to the back of the store and started packing the duffle bags we had set aside in just such an occasion. 5 were empty, one was filled with my meds, enough to last me a while. They got all the canned food and basic first aid and med supplies they could find quickly and packed each bag to the point that they were still carry-able but almost bursting. Once we packed our shit we all headed to the back of the store.

The idea was to send 4 people out to find a car a piece and bring them over to the side exit door in back. Most of the zombies were either inside or trying to get there, most of the parking lot by this point was only showing scattered amounts of zombies. My Dad, Donnie, Sidney, and My Brother went out. Donnie came back with the hummer, which cheese and two of the duffel bags went with him, my dad came up to the loading dock with his truck and we loaded wooden pylons of canned food into the back of it, while my brother and Sidney had brought my mom's van around. Me, My brother, Katie and the Kids piled into the Van, my mom got into the truck with my dad, and Sidney, Donnie and Cheese all got into the Humvee. We got out of the parking lot with relative ease, got out onto the highway, and started driving. We heard a beep come from up front, and saw my brother had a Walkie Talkie. My dad, who led the entourage, came to life on the radio. "Where the fuck are we going?", my brother replied with, "Head towards Concord.."

With that we continued on in relative silence, all of us wondering where we were going to end up. All the pictures of Concord showed us that the destruction had taken its course… most everyone was either dead, dying or undead. But where we lived we had nowhere else to go, it was a choice of which population center we wanted to go to… we opted for the one we knew best. I opened the window a little and lit a cigarette. As we drove through midland this time, the death and destruction was all too apparent. There was little in Midland before… but now there was nothing… just burned out buildings and walking dead people. I don't know what was more depressing about it, the fact that my home was gone, or the fact that it didn't look much different gone than it did when it was alive.

A/N: I know a lot of things got kind of squished together in this chapter but I'm not the type that likes the characters to have it cushy for too long lol. I want them on the run the majority of the time. So I hope you liked it, thanks for the reviews, the next chapter will be here soon.