"Are we really doing this?" I heard a voice whisper behind me. It didn't matter who it was that said it this time, They had been whispering this question every couple minutes for the past hour. I haven't even bothered to give them a glare this time around.
Yes, we were fucking doing this.
I have been asking the same fucking question of myself as we marched down the only large road in this stupid fucking town. There was no guarantee they where hold up at the end of it. There base could be miles away and they had such a huge head start and they had a fucking convoy of vehicles they could be in fucking Columbus by now and I would be walking towards nothing, for no reason.
But it didn't fucking matter because I had to try. I couldn't walk away from this. Not without trying.
And part of me knew that I wasn't going to stop until I found her. Not even if she was in fucking Alaska. I'd find a way.
I owed her at least that.
"She's safer with them, they have weapons, guns, we should leave her with them." Even twenty paces ahead of her I could still feel Mercedes eyes on me as she whispered gently to whomever was closest to her. I could feel the head creep up the back of my neck. Lucky for her, it was Puck that answered.
"She didn't want to go with them." Puck said.
I kept my eyes painted on the hedges that lined the side of the road. I didn't drive down this way very often. Further down the road was the stupid fucking high school that ruined my life for four whole years and I avoided that place as much as possible. But I knew further down the road was a small neighborhood. It wasn't anything like the neighborhood I lived in but it had one of those cheesy white signs that said something about pines or some stupid shit like that when you drove through the entrance. It was probably just some stupid fucking scam so the developers could charge another 100k for their shitty generic houses but convince the chumps that it was a world class neighborhood with some fucking standards.
Maybe that would make the city assholes feel better about moving out to bumblefuck, Ohio.
I remember driving through here once in high school during Halloween. we had toilet paper, a carton of eggs and knew the address of that bitch from gym class.
There's always some bitch from gym class.
I remember it being a small neighborhood. Maybe twenty houses before it hits a park and then a dead-end and if I remembered correctly it would be a while before they'd hit anything else. Maybe we'd hit he high school but I doubted there would be anything really useful there. I didn't want to stop but we had nothing, no water, no food, and the only weapons we had managed to grab was a a couple of combat knives that Quinn kept stored in her ridiculous camo pants with the 9 million pockets. Though I couldn't really make fun of her for them anymore, without them we'd have fucking nothing.
"There's a neighborhood coming up." I said.
From the corner of my eye I could see Quinn's eyes slide off the horizon to study me.
"It's small, perfect place to make a quick check for supplies." I said.
I finally turned to find a hint of a smile on Quinn's face.
I stopped walking and turned to face her. "What?"
"Oh." Her smile only grew. "You just sounded a lot like me there."
I scoffed. "Fucking wonderful." I turned down the road and passed the sign with the golden letters. There was a brown stain that looked a lot like blood covering the R in the 'Rustic Pines' sign. I stopped at the street corner and scanned the houses.
I could hear Quinn barking instructions to the rest of the group behind me.
The houses looked untouched. Besides the overgrown grass you would have thought everything was just fucking peachy in the Lima town limits. But I knew fucking better then to believe the quiet.
Quiet was more dangerous then the noise those things created. At least with noise you were on your guard. In silence people get comfortable, they get compliment and that's how people get fucking dead.
And I didn't have fucking time for people and their stupidity right now, I needed to get in and out.
"Okay you and Puck are going left." Quinn said as she came up beside me, she held out the two combat knives for me to choose from. One knife was all black with a rounded ribbed handle. It was larger then the other but had a smoother blade The other knife was smaller but had ridges on both sides. Designed to do more damage on the way out then on the way in. I grabbed the smaller knife and handed it to Puck who was coming up behind me.
"I'm going to take Finn and search the otherside." Quinn said.
"Lets make this quick." I told Puck as we split from the group.
I headed to the first house without looking back and felt Puck fall in line behind me. Even though the sound of his heavy breathing and the smell of his sweat still made my skin crawl, I couldn't deny the rhythmn we had developed working together. We moved in unison. I pull the door open, Puck jumped in searching the house with quick movements. I followed behind him and we moved as one from room to room.
It seemed like the family had taken off at the first sign of chaos. Maybe they were part of the first wave of idiots headed directly for th big cities an certain death. There was a chance we'd get lucky and find an abundance of supplies. The part of down was away from the highway, not towards it. There's no real reason for people to come this way. Unless they were held up somewhere nearby. We move quick as we cleared the bottom level on the modest house, a small living room, a small kitchen with a dinning room table in the corner and a closet of a fucking bathroom.
"Okay it's clear." Puck said as he undid his belt.
I jumped backwards. "What the actual fuck do you think-"
He let out a sign as I heard piss hit water.
I shook my head and headed to the front door where I signaled for the rest of the group to come search the bottom floors while Puck and I cleared the top floors. I could hear Rachel barreling her way through the kitchen cupboards excitingly filling a plastic bag as Puck and I made our way up the stairs.
"Well good news is if any walking corpse was up here it would be coming at her by now." He said with a smirk.
"Maybe we should just let it go by then." I said.
Puck let out a scoff of a laugh and turned right at the top of the stairs.
There had been a family of four that lived up here. A teenage girl and young boy judging by the blue spaceships that lined the walls of the smallest bed oom and the purple wall covered in posters of terrible boy bands in the second. The band's stupid smiling faces were already covered in a layer of dust. I wondered where they were when all this happened. We're they on tour in some large city, if so they were probably walking corpses or meatless bodies by now but maybe they were lucky to be home with family. Locked up in their mansions with the people they loved and struggling to survive like the rest of us.
Though I fucking doubt it. I don't really think singing and dancing on stage really taught survival skills that mattered today. This was the land for the Quinns, and the Pucks. Those used to taking care of themselves. Not someone used to having their laundry delivered and their expensive cars driven for them.
"You alright there?" Puck said.
"I was just wondering if-" I pointed towards the poster I had been studying.
"Oh, definitely." He said.
"Really?" I asked.
"Absolutely." He said. "I mean totally gay, just look at the hair."
He turned and walked back into the hallway.
"Wait-" I looked back at the poster. "Really?"
He was already standing at the last room we had to clear. If I had to guess this had to be the master bedroom. I reached for the door and pushed it open.
The smell of death hit me like a sucker punch as Puck jumped into the room. He instantly covered his mouth but it couldn't stop the coughing gags that left him. Now matter how many times you smell or see it, you just can never get used to it.
The entire family laid sprayed out across the large bed. Mother and Father sandwiched two smaller bodies. I could still see patches of pajama fabric clinging to their decaying bodies. There was brown stains at the top of each of their pillows. Everyone but the father had bullet holes in the side of their head. The male corpse had a blood stain above his head, blood had splattered against the headboard. The hand holding the 9MM pistol hung over the side of the bed.
He had killed his entire family and then put the gun in his mouth.
I could hear crunching as Puck tried to pry the pistol from the rigid bones. I turned my head away and looked around. There was a small Television in the corner. There was a pile of DVDs on top of the TV. I picked up the copy of 'Toy Story' that was on top of the pile.
There was a clicking sound. I turned to see Puck releasing the clip and checking its contents.
"Looks like the magazine was full when he-" He pushed the magazine back into place. The words he left unsaid held heavy in the air.
I put the movie back down on the pile and maneuvered around a large orange bowl on the ground. It had what looked like popcorn kernels lining the bottom.
"Looks like they had a family movie night before..." He picked up the 'Toy Story' copy I had just placed back on the pile.
"Lets just-" I began searching the drawers. "Lets just find whatever we can fucking take and get the fuck out of this room."
The second drawer had a small flashlight. I tested the batteries and put it into my back pocket. I couldn't stomach it anymore and left the rest of the search to Puck.
I stepped out the front door to get some fresh air into my lungs. I looked across to see Mercedes comforting Finn. He was using the mailbox to steady himself as he released the contents of his stomach onto the street in front of the house him and Quinn were supposed to search.
I crossed the street, ignoring the puking giant and strolled up the driveway where I found Quinn leaning against the door, watching Finn. She looked almost bored.
"They walk and its fine, but he finds a family laying harmlessly in a bed and this happens." She gestured to the scene at the mailbox.
I followed her hand to see Mercedes rubbing his back and whispering comfortingly in his ear. Rachel has just caught sight of the scene and dropped her haul on the front lawn as she sprinted across the lawn to comfort him.
"Your family take the ease route too?" Quinn asked almost casually. She gestured with a empty orange pill bottle I just noticed she was holding in her hand.
I nodded. "With a 9MM."
Something finally peaked her interest. She stood up straight and turned to face me. "Ammo?"
"Puck thinks the mag was full before it was used. He's searching the rest of the house now." I said.
"Excellent." Quinn said. "Maybe we'll luck out and he'll turn out to be some sort of hunting enthusiast."
For some reason the scene made me feel anything but luck, the hair stood up on the back of my neck.
"Do you think-" I looked down the rest of the short block.
"We're going to find similar scenes in the rest of the houses." She said. "It's going to be a long day. Help me clear the rest of this house so we can get the show on the road. We've lucked out with the one pistol. Maybe we'll hit the fucking jackpot and find the house of the president of the NRA." I followed Quinn up the stairs. "Or at least the fucking Janitor."
Other houses used poison and died holding hands in their living room. Another family was found hanging by their necks in the basement. But they had only found one more family that used a gun, a revolver that had been used by a family of three and there was no other ammo in the house. In the end we managed to scrounge up haul was a few backpacks full of water and canned goods, one revolved with there bullets left in the chamber, one pistol with 12 rounds left in the magazine and another 50 9mm bullets found in the first house. They had a couple of butcher knives, an axe, a machete found in the garage of some weekend warrior, one of those nifty little hydration packs from the same outdoorsy guy, and I was particularly happy with the large camping knife I found tucked away in a box in the garage. It even had a sheath I could strap to my belt so it was always handy.
Quinn smirked when I walked up with the large knife protruding from my belt. She put her hand on her hip to proudly display her combat knife hanging from its black sheaf on her left side.
"Twinsies." Puck mocked as he fastened the axe he had been carrying to the backpack he had just found in with the camping gear.
I ignored him. "Okay we found all we could fucking find. We need to get going."
Quinn opened her mouth to respond but it was Rachel who spoke first. "We should rest here."
I didn't even bother looking at her. "We don't have the time, we have to catch-"
"There's no way we're going to catch up to them, they have vehicles and they have endless supplies. And how do we even know they came this way?!" Rachel challenged
I turned to face her. I felt the heat rise up my neck. I took a few steps forward before Quinn stepped in to stop me before I ripped Rachel's head clear from her stupid little neck.
"She has a point." Quinn said.
I stopped. That wasn't what I was expecting to hear from Quinn.
"It's going to get dark." She studied me for a second. "Even if we make it through a night travelling in the pitch black, we could walk right by their strong hold and not even know it. It's safer to travel in the daylight."
"We could use some of this camping gear tonight. Make a warm meal." She pulled a folded pile of paper from her pocket. "And figure out where those fuckers are held up." She tossed me the paper.
The map landed face up in my hands.
The yellow flames of the lantern danced off the walls of the small room. We had the map spread out among the kitchen table. Quinn has marked out our location with a red dot from a scented marker she found upstairs in a child's toy room.
"We know they're probably still in town." Quinn held the end of the marker to the edge of her lips as she thought aloud.
"Does your dad always take a large convoy out for a Sunday drive through town?" I asked.
"A commander never travels with less then twenty guns." Quinn said with her best impression of a gruffled voice. It did sound strangely like her father. "If they were traveling any distance you would have seen a water truck or at least a supply truck. It was just Hummers and small vehicles. Enough to carry a day or two worth of supplies for each man but he'd never travel that far without a large supply truck. And yes he would take that many cars on a Sunday drive through town."
"So what you're saying is that they could be stationed just down the road for all we know." I said.
The strong smell of chili entered the room as Puck entered balancing three bowls in his hand. He dropped one in front of Quinn before he handed me the second. The spoons clanged against the wood as he dropped them onto the table. I let the steam of the warm food fill my face. I had to savor this. After we left tomorrow morning, I didn't know when my next hot meal would come.
"What did I miss?" Puck managed to get out with his mouth full.
"Quinn thinks they're stationed somewhere in town." I said before taking my own bite.
"McKinley?" He asked.
"McKinley High School." I said when I saw the confused looked on Quinn's face. "It's just down the road from here."
I traced my finger a few miles down the road to a large structure on the map. She followed my fingers.
"Too small." She said. "And I know my dad would want to hold something of value."
"That wonderful public establishment isn't of value?" Puck said with mock offense.
Quinn ignored him. Her fingers traced the road further down. I watched as her hands landed on several structures on the map before she shook her head to herself and kept tracing. She stopped five minutes later, her fingers traced 'Lima Memorial Hospital'.
My heart jumped into my throat.
"You think he's at the hospital?" Puck asked.
"It's large, defensible, a necessity if he wants to-."
"Guys." Rachel was poking her head through the door.
"Not right now." I said waving Rachel off and looking back down at the map. If the army was holding down the hospital, my father could still be there,
"But Finn told me to tell you that he saw headlights in the street." Rachel said yanking me from my thoughts.
Quinn was instantly on her feet. "Tell everyone to turn off all lights." She pushed through the door and marched up the stairs to Finn's location overlooking the entrance of the neighborhood. I followed her.
She looked over Finn's shoulder from the boarded up windows. There we saw two headlights making their way slowly down the road. A spotlight was being shinned on the houses one by one. I could see the light shinning on doors we had left open during our search and abandoned supplies strewn across overgrown lawns. We had been slopping in our searchers and now I was cursing under my breath. If they were at all familar with this neighborhood then they knew someone was here.
"Of course they're be looking for supplies on the same night we searched it." Finn whispered. "That's just our luck."
"They aren't looking for supplies." Quinn said just as the search light fell upon the front door of our house and the light climbed up to our windows. We fell to the ground but it didn't matter much. I knew Quinn was right.
"They're looking for us." She said.
I heard a chorus of car doors slam.