Chapter 25: Requiem For a Dream
Chapter 25: Requiem For a Dream
As the truck drove at breakneck speed down the road, Ben and Carl bounced around in the back, dangerously close to falling out; Ben hammered on the roof of the cab.
"SHANE, SLOW DOWN!" Yelled Ben
The truck slowed but not much, it slowed from barreling down the road to just driving fast down the leafy back roads. Autumn had begun.
Ben checked the road behind them, he spotted a lone walker following them but it was very far behind and would probably lose them when they turned the corner.
After driving for a short while, the truck slowed to a crawl as it moved to a stop behind a corner which was secluded from the road. The two left the truck bed as the men exited the cab.
"What's the plan then?" Asked Shane
"I don't know, try the highway?" Asked Rick
"Will the others think to do that though?" Asked Ben
"I don't know, maybe" said Rick uncertainly
"It's our best bet" said Ben
"We have a fair bit of fuel left, if they aint there, we can siphon more fuel there and move on" said Shane
Rick looked torn; he either chanced the highway or moved on and possibly never sees his wife again.
"Fine, we go to the highway" said Rick
The men climbed back into the truck while Ben and Carl got back in the truck bed as lookouts as they drove. The highway entrance came in sight soon; they turned off onto it and were greeted to the sight of the RV waiting there with the usual figure of Dale on top surveying them with his rifle.
Oh good, they came here as well thought Ben as the truck slowed next to it. They exited the truck and moved towards the RV as Dale climbed down from the roof and greeted them.
"You guys are a sight for sore eyes, we were wondering if you were going to show up" said Dale
"Who survived?" Asked Ben
"Well, we have most of our group intact but we lost Andrea" said Dale with infinite sadness in his voice
"How?" Asked Shane
"We saw a walker fall on her, but the others were hollering to go so we had no choice but to leave her body" said Dale
"What about Herschel's group"? Asked Rick
"Much worse than ours, we lost Patricia and Jimmy, Patricia was grabbed as she was running to the RV and Jimmy tried to save her, but was surrounded by them" said Dale
"Damn, that's bad" said Ben "How did that herd of walkers find us though?"
"We think that all of the gunfire for the past few days attracted several smaller groups, and then they all met up and moved this way as a much bigger group" said Dale
"We really need to use suppressors and melee more" said Rick
"Whoa, Rick I understand using suppressors but hand to hand combat, with those things? Do you want us to die?" Asked Shane
"We don't have ammo to waste and plenty of them to use" snapped Rick
"We could ration the ammo to certain members, I know me and Carl need sniper ammo for when we need to cover you from a distance" said Ben
"Yeah, but going toe-to-toe with those things? I mean, most of us could but what about Lori, Carol and the kids?" Argued Shane
"That's why we should ration ammunition; give more ammo to the more vulnerable people" said Ben
The group contemplated this as the other survivors milled around them; Lori embraced Rick and Carl when she saw them while Herschel went to see his daughters. They soon started asking for plans from Rick as to where to go next, he said that he would think it over tonight. As night descended, the group found a small shelter in some ruins for the night, as they ate from some of the last remaining tins of beans; Rick emerged from the shadows like a wraith and crouched down next to them.
"I'm thinking that we should go house-to-house, collect supplies then head to Fort Benning like the original plan was" said Rick
Shane just nodded at this while the others looked more reserved.
"That's still about a hundred miles away, no way we can make it, we're running on fumes" said Dale
"Then we siphon fuel from vehicles as we go, any place with plenty of cars we stop and gather fuel, we get containers that can gather the fuel and then we stock up, only using it when we need to" said Rick
"There is still the chance that it is still overrun" said Ben
"A slim chance is better than none" said Rick
"Well, we have a fair bit of water, we looted that truck filled with water that Shane found when we first got here, we know how to siphon fuel, all we really need to do is find more food" said Daryl
"We're agreed then, Fort Benning it is, if it does turn out to be a pipe dream, we'll look for other places to settle down, until then, we move to the fort. Now everyone get some sleep, it's going to be a long journey" said Rick
Ben got up and said he would take first watch and would wake Daryl in a few hours, he climbed up the ruins onto a ledge were he could see the road over the lip, so he sat perched at the top of the ruins, the night was quiet, the wind gently blew the leaves from their branches, the moonlight lit up the surrounding area like a silver beacon. As he watched through the scope of his rifle, the only incident that happened during the watch was a lone walker that had walked towards the ruins only to be put down permanently by a bullet in the brain. He climbed down and shook Daryl, he jerked awake with a knife in his hand which he had drawn from under his bedroll, upon seeing Ben and not a snarling monster he sheathed it and got up.
"There's a nice little spot up on that ledge over there were you can see the entire road" said Ben pointing at his perch.
Daryl nodded and started the climb upwards as Ben got into his bedroll and fell into the land of dreams.
Ben was crouched down in the underbrush, his friend had been gone far too long so he had decided to survey the town he had gone to scavenge from to find out what happened, he had hid at the edge of the woods as it was good hiding spot was a good place to hide from prying walker eyes, he watched as a U.S military truck was parked outside the gun store with 2 armed infantry facing the door with rifles raised, the store had already been picked clean by Leon, he had walked out to be confronted by the duo. He crept forward so he could hear the exchange.
"Drop your weapons" ordered one of the soldiers
"Who are you?" Asked Leon, dropping the bad
"U.S military, here to help" said the other
"Oh good, thank god It's ni-". Leon was cut off when a soldier moved forwards and at point blank range shot Leon in the heart with a sidearm which caused Ben to flinch and was about to scream in fury when he stopped himself and continued watching, quaking in silent anger. Leon fell to his knees, his face shocked as he fell face down in the dirt as the blood pooled around his body, as the walkers emerged from the side streets, one of them scooped up the bag of guns Leon had retrieved and stripped him of his equipment and ran back to his truck, his comrade spouting off bullets in the walkers general direction. The truck sped west out of town, Ben ran after it, following as close as he could through the woods, he managed to follow it as it moved slowly, probably to maintain the fuel, they drove carelessly, moving from lane to lane smashing into the infected humans. He was starting to lag behind when he saw it turn into an almost inconspicuous sheltered driveway. He moved through the woods as low as he could when he found their camp.
It turned out that the two soldiers were part of a fire team of five soldiers, he looked through Leon's old binoculars to see the two who killed Leon were privates, the other three were a lance corporal, a sergeant and a lieutenant.
"What's this? Where'd you guys find this haul?" Asked the Sergeant
"Found a gun shop, ransacked it and found the weapons and ammunition" said the soldier who had shot Leon.
The lie made his blood boil but he continued eavesdropping.
"Right, you earned yourselves extra rations for this guys, well done" said the Lieutenant
The two saluted and moved to a small row of tents, they went inside and didn't come out. The Lance Corporal grabbed the gun bag and moved it into a stockpile of guns and melee which were stockpiled into a corner of the camp closest to Ben, he then moved back to his post by the radio while the Sergeant and Lieutenant conversed by a map of the region on a table, they all had their backs to him, so he took the opportunity to sneak forwards and grab the first weapon he could get his hands on: an M9 Beretta with a suppressor attached to it, he crept backwards and stayed in the shadows while the sky darkened.
He waited for the soldiers to hit the sack for the night, posting the private who had shot Leon on patrol. He waited for him to do a full circuit of the camp before he crept out of the darkness and moved back to the stockpile, as he waited as the private got steadily closer to his hiding spot he drew a knife from the pile: a kukri and waited, he passed by without incident and Ben moved behind him, the private was holding his M16A4 rifle casually by its handle as he walked, Ben leapt up, and as he turned, stabbed deeply into his neck, blood flowed outwards as he drew it from him, he gurgled once more and was still. Ben looked at the knife, during the stabbing, he had cut off the privates dog tags, they read:
Patterson
Anthony B
587-15-0666
O NEGATIVE
CATHOLIC
Ben looked at Anthony's body in disgust.
"You got what was coming to you, scum" said Ben
He retrieved Leon's gun bag and filled it with equipment, ammo, rations, melee and military grade weapons, he also noticed something odd.
"Must be Star Wars fans" muttered Ben as he picked up several toy lightsabers and examined them, he looked at a list which called them 'Melee training tools' so he took a couple of them for practicing, he collected as much as he could and stuffed it into the bag, he grabbed some optics and took two last items: the list of equipment so they didn't know what was gone and a katana which he found under an L96 rifle, he turned and left the stockpile, strapping the sword over his left shoulder with the handle over his right. He was about to walk back to the woods when he noticed the Lieutenant going out of his tent and moving into the woods, he followed him to the vehicles where he was sat, smoking a cigarette when Ben walked past the door, M9 raised. The officer was shocked and put up his hands in surrender.
"Relax sir, I just want to talk with you" said Ben
"About what?" Said the Officer in a shaky tone
"Anthony Patterson" said Ben
"What about him?" Asked the Officer who was sweating slightly.
"He told you that those weapons were from a gun store in the town down the road" said Ben
"Yes, go on" said the Officer
"He lied" said Ben
"Why? What actually happened?" Asked the Lieutenant
"The bag was my friend's, a guy called Leon, he had managed to procure some weapons when Anthony and the other private cornered him, they made him lower his guard with false hope and Anthony shot him in the heart" said Ben angrily
The Officer looked shocked at the story but then his features clouded once more as he regained his composure.
"How do I know that this is true?" Asked the Lieutenant
"Grill the other private, he will tell you the truth, eventually" Ben said
"What happens now?" Asked the Lieutenant
"I walk out of here, because justice has been done" said Ben
"You killed him?" Asked the Officer
"Yeah, but I have no qualms with you or your other men, just Anthony" said Ben
The Lieutenant sighed and finished his cigarette, flicking the butt away in the gloom.
"Go then, sorry this happened" said the soldier wearily
"Thank you" said Ben "I won't trouble you or your men again"
As he walked out of the woods back to his camping spot he lay down and looked over at the empty bedroll.
"Requiescat In Pace, Leon" said Ben as his eyes drifted closed.
Ben opened his eyes to see people rushing to and fro, gathering items to place into the RV; he picked himself up, placed the sleeping bag into the bag and got into the RV as they drove towards the nearby town.