Ben's Pov.
We worked our way around the cruisers to enter the station. Once inside, we noticed that there were other people there besides the officers. Most were regular people that were probably rescued, but a few were doctors and nurses checking them over. The office we had talked to on the roof came into the room. He was an African-American man, probably mid-thirties, and had some high rank looking sigils on the shoulder of his uniform. "Hello, I'm captain John Matthews. I presume your Dylan, right?" He said holding his hand out to Dylan, to which he shook. "Yes, Dylan Jason. Where's my father?"
He led us to the back where the offices were. We walked into a room and he shut the door. "Dylan, last night we ran a mission to the hospital to rescue as many doctors as we could. You father was going specifically for your mother. Everything was going well, until one of the patients turned in the parking lot. Your mother was trying to revive her when it happened. She ripped her neck open." Dylan's eyes were turning red with tears flowing down his face. I put my arm around his shoulder to comfort him, tears running down my cheeks. Mrs. Jason was like another mom to me and hearing that she was dead reminded me I lost a parent as well and I couldn't stop myself from crying.
Dylan held back his tears long enough to ask "And my father?" Captain John continued. "Your father ran to you mother to help her. When she turned, he put her out of her misery. After that, one of the biters came at him. He pushed it on the ground, but it got his leg. He decided to put himself down before it happened to him too." By this point we were all in tears, even Joel. "He asked me to do something before he died." He turned around and grabbed a box from behind the desk. "He said if I ever found you, to give this to you." He said handing Dylan the box. Inside was a police uniform with his name on it. "He said you signed up to work here part time in the fall for some work experience, so he had this made for you." Dylan just clung to the shirt, his tears soaking into the fabric, and cried for several minutes.
After a little while, he tried to man up and wiped his tears from his eyes. He then slipped the uniform over his top and straightened it. We left the room and returned to the lobby. John stop and said "We're running low on space here, but I'm sure we can make room for you." "We can't stay." I said. "We have a group we have to get back to and there definitely isn't enough room for all of us. Thanks anyway." "If you ever change your mind we'll be here." "I'll keep that in mind. Let's go guys."
Joel didn't follow us. "Actually Ben, I'm not leaving." I turned around. "What do you mean?" "I think I'm going to stay here. I wanted to come here because I thought it would be safer. Sure it's not the safest place on earth, but there are cops here who will protect me and doctors who can save my life. I'm probably better off here than anywhere." "Are you sure?" I asked. "Yeah, I'm sure." He reassured. "Alright. I hope you live a good life here." "Thanks ben. I just need to get my things from the car first."
We walked out to the car and got the few things Joel had. "Good luck out there man. And thanks, you know, for everything." "Your welcome. Take care of yourself." With that we drove down the street waving back at Joel as we left. We hadn't known him for more than two hours yet and he was now gone from sight. I hoped he would be alright and that we might run into him again someday.
We were taking a different route out of Kalet as we hardly got passed the horde the first time. The engine was staring to splutter more and more as we drove, until it gave out altogether. I climbed out to check the engine. The dents in the hood had crushed some of the engine pieces and damaged the battery. Unless I were to come across a mechanic whose auto shop was still open, the old classic was totaled. "How are we going to get back now?" Dylan asked. "I don't know." Dylan pulled out his cell phone. "I know, I'll call the others and let them know we're stuck here."
He started to dial a number when he looked to me. "Do you know anyone's number?" "Yeah, Tara's." I told him the number and he called. When Tara answered he told her the rundown of what happened. After a quick back and forth chat on locations in the area he finished the call. "Okay, their sending someone to come get us. We just have to get to the Shell gas station on the corner of Benning and O'Brian." "And how are we going to get the supplies there without a car." "Simple, we carry them."
He walked over to the trunk and got the duffle bags, the weight of them nearly making him fall. I had to carry the cooler. Thankfully it had wheels for easy transportation. I also grabbed the gas canister. From my knowledge of the town, the gas station was about twelve blocks from where we were. With the walkers seemingly everywhere, the gas station could be overrun already, so we moved slow and careful. We could have been there in ten minutes, but with the supplies weighing us down, it took more like twenty.
There were very few signs of the dead or the living in the area. It was hard to believe it had been a regular town just days ago. The sound and smell of the dead clung to the wind as a breeze picked up. With it came the scent of smoke and burning rubber as several cars in the distance were still smoldering hours after the flames died down. Soon the big yellow Shell sign came into view. The sound of a car could be heard down the road as we came to the corner of the street across from Shell.
A van flew by at high speed just as we were about to cross the street. It tried to drift the corner, but flipped over, crashing onto the pavement and smashed into a building. We dropped the supplies and ran over to the van. I looked in through the cracked windshield for any signs of survivors. I spotted movement inside. "Dylan, get to the back and open those doors." He did as I said and tried to get the door open, but they were locked. I climbed up on the side of the van and pulled the door open. I reached my hand inside and helped an African man climb out. He soon pulled a woman and a boy out as well.
He turned to me and Dylan. "Oh thank you and thank the lord above for your kindness brothers. Without you we would have been goners for sure." He said with a mild African accent. The woman rolled her eyes. "Please ignore him. He's a soon-to-be pastor. Look, there's still a man in the back we need to get out. He's unconscious." We hoped off the van and got to the door as the pastor reached for the unlock button on the diver door. Once the door opened we pulled the man out and looked him over. He was still breathing, but was out cold. I looked to the woman. "Tell me what happened. Why were you driving like that?"
She held her head, blood streaming down from a cut on her forehead. "We were held up at the local swimming pool. There was fundraiser for a new church going on yesterday. When the dead started getting in and killing everyone, we locked ourselves in the up-stairs party room. This morning we managed to climb out the window and got to the church van. We lost about six people while trying to though. Because a group of those things were following us, he didn't want to slow down at the corner." She said pointing to the unconscious man. "That's when we crashed. He got knocked out cold so I pulled him from the driver's seat to check on him. Then you helped us get out."
I could tell that she probably didn't know who the driver was or at least didn't know his name as she only referred to him. "If you don't mind my asking miss-" "Penelope." "Penelope, why did you leave with these men instead of your vehicle or just going home?" "Because we saw how bad it was from the party room. There were fires all over. We thought it was best to just leave town." I nodded with agreement. No one would choose to stay if they saw a better option. Joel had stayed because he thought it was safer at the station.
"Look, my name is Ben, that's Dylan, and I can make you guys an offer if you like. There are two safe places you can go, the police station down the road or the motel we're staying at about forty minutes north of here. If you want you can come with us." She look at the pastor, who had come join us, and they thought about it. "How are you planning on getting to that motel?" The pastor asked. "We have some of our friends on their way to get us. They'll probably be here in ten, fifteen minutes and there should be room for you." They seemed to like the idea, but didn't say anything. "We'll think about it for a bit." "Uh, Ben. We should get somewhere safe right now." Dylan called. I looked over at him. Coming down the street was a large group of walkers, forty, maybe fifty of them. If we didn't get out of sight soon, we would be lunch.
I got Dylan to help me carry the unconscious man as we tried to get to the Shell convenience store. Luckily, the walkers didn't notice us yet. We slipped inside before they even got close. A fair amount of the food and materials were still on the shelves. "Dylan, try to fit as much as you can into those bags while we wait." "Sure thing." He said, but after looking around a bit he asked "Where are the bags?" I looked around as well. When I couldn't see them anywhere I looked in the only other spot I could think of. And sure enough, they were there.
There across the street, at the very corner we had put the down at, were the bags, the cooler, and the gas canister. Within moments the walkers started to walk passed. I turned to the others. "Okay, here's the plan. We wait till after they walk passed, then we sneak out, grab the supplies and get back in here." They each nodded. "Is there anything we can do to help?" the pastor asked. "Yes. In case something goes wrong, I want you to find anything you can use as a weapon. If it's sharp or has some weight to it, it will do." With that they quietly searched the store.
After a moment the boy came up to me. "Sir, are those things going to get us?" I felt bad for the kid. He looked only ten years old and was probably terrified of what was happening. "What's your name?" "Henry." "Don't worry Henry. We're going to be fine. You'll see." He gave me a doubtful look, but accepted it. "Ok."
Soon Penelope and the pastor came back empty handed. "We couldn't find anything." I looked around for something that could have been useful. I too could not find anything. If things made a turn for the worst, we wouldn't stand much of a chance. I glanced outside to see if the walkers had passed yet. They were starting to thin out, but there were still more. As I turned back to the others, the man, who had previously been unconscious, started to wake up.
He opened his eyes and looked around. Then it looked like his mind caught up with what had happened before he passed out. He quickly sat upright, but latched onto his right arm and yelled out in excruciating pain. "Aaaahhhhhhhh! Oooowwwww!" He was yelling very loud, too loud in fact. As Penelope covered his mouth, I looked out the window to see if the walkers had heard him. Unfortunately, they had. All of them turned in our direction and were slowly making their way over.
I quickly looked for another way out. I spotted a back door near the back-left corner of the room. "Over there. If we hurry, we can make it out before they get in." they quickly did as I said and got to the door and got it opened. We exited out into a fenced off alley way between the gas station and an apartment building. There was no way over the fences from this side, except for a garbage bin next to the gate. The gate was unlocked, but some walkers were almost to it and would get us if we tried to go that way. The sound of shattering glass told us the front of the store was compromised, so we shut the door. Trapped, we frantically looked for a way out. "There!" Dylan called out, pointing at a ladder which led up to the roof of the store. Quickly we climbed up the ladder, except the injured man, as he took his time.
When we all reached the top, Penelope took a look at the man's arm. "I don't think it's broken, but most likely fractured." "What are we going to do now?" Dylan asked. "We look for a way out of this." I said as I looked around. Then I noticed the building right beside us had a fire escape which came down on the other side of the fence. "Maybe if we can get to the fire escape, we can get down and make a run for it and wait for them down the street." "Or we distract them long enough for us to get down there and over to the fire escape and wait on that roof." Dylan offered. I agreed with his plan as it was easier to do and they could not follow us up the fire escape.
"Okay, let's do that. Now, what do we distract them with?" We looked around the roof for something. There was nothing of use we could find on the roof. "Looks like we're going to have to go down there to find something to distract them with." I went to put my hands in my pockets, when I felt something sticking out. Looking down I saw the magnum I had got earlier. "We can use this." I said lifting it up. "They're attracted to sound, so if I shot this off from across the street, they'll go over to the sound and we'll have time to escape." Dylan look at me like I was crazy. "Are you nuts. If you do that, you'll be stuck between us and them. You'll never make it by yourself." "Well, what other choice do we have?" "The one where I go with you." He said. "Fine, but if we don't make it these people have no one to protect them." "We'll mange." Penelope said.
We all climbed down the ladder and stood near the gate. "When you hear the shots go off wait about a minute then get to the fire escape and wait on the roof. If we don't make it, look out for a blue pickup. When they get here, get their attention and tell them we wanted you to go with them." Dylan and I opened the gate and, as quietly as we could, killed the few walkers nearby. As we snuck passed the pumps, the sign of a store across the street caught my eye. "The Beer Shop" it read. "Okay, we go there and shoot off the gun. Then we can use the cans and bottles to throw at them if they get too close." I whispered. Dylan nodded. "Agreed."
The walkers didn't even notice us as we crossed the street. When we got to the door, we found it was locked. "Shoot! Now what." Dylan said not trying to be too loud. "We're going to have to shoot this off sooner than expected." I said pointing the gun at the window and shot it. "BLAM!" The glass shattered and cracked in a small circle around the hole the bullet made. An alarm also went off as well. Dylan kicked the glass in as I watched what the walkers did. They started to pile out of the store and were making their way over too us. When he had smash a big enough hole in the glass, we crawled in.
"Go look for any vodka and bring back a few bottles." He was a little confused on why I wanted a specific kind, but did as I asked and went to look. As they started to cross the street, I noticed Penelope and the others starting the climb the fire escape. When he returned, he had four bottles of vodka. I took them from him and handed Dylan the gun. "You're a better shot. You should use it." We climbed out the window again and made a run for the bags.
When I got to them I opened them up and took out a fire starting kit. I took off my dress shirt I wear for work, leaving me in my undershirt and used my knife to cut pieces off. "What are you doing?" Dylan asked. "Making these do a bit more damage." I said stuffing a strip cloth in each bottle.
I tried to get the matches in the kit to light, but I kept breaking them. "BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!" Dylan shot at some that got too close then reached in his pocket and threw me a lighter. I was a little shocked to see he had one, but quickly lit the first bottle. Once it caught fire I threw it at the walkers. When it came down, the ones closest to it went up in flames, but after a few moment the flames died down, probably due to the alcohol levels being too low. The walkers just kept coming, even the burned ones. I lit a two more and chucked them into the horde. He picked up the bags and I rolled the cooler behind me as we ran for the gas station.
When we got to the pumps I stopped and cut two large strips from the shirt. Dylan had yet to notice I stopped and ran right to the fire escape. I took two of the pumps and tied the cloth around their handles to keep the gas pumping out. A large pool of gas started to form on the ground as I started to run for the fire escape. I saw Dylan was just getting to the first as I put down the cooler and ran back toward the pumps a bit. He yelled down at me. "Ben, what are you doing?" The walkers, which were no longer ablaze, were almost at the pumps. "Never mind what I'm doing. Just get down." I yelled back as I lit and threw the last bottle.
The walkers were right in the middle of the gas puddle when my homemade Molotov shattered and ignited the gas. The flames grew almost instantly as the gas continually flowed out of the pumps. I ran as far away as I could from the pumps. I knew too well what was going to happen. Within moment the flames worked their way down the hoses and down to the fuel chambers beneath the ground and spontaneously exploded in a massive fireball, knocking me to the ground.