Alex eyes squinted with joy as the RV rolled within sight of the green sign proudly displaying the words welcome to New Haven. Pressing his forehead against the glass window he focused hard taking the town in, the same town that was going to be there new home. Everyone on the RV was now chatting excitedly, every single one of them anxious to start there new lives. Silently he was thankful that Ralph had decided to collect tents from near by market stores since they were planning on staking it out on roofs till the coast was clear. He had his hands firmly around an M16, fully loaded and was preparing himself mentally to escort the population to the designated zones.
The town itself was what it seemed like a stereotypical small town, only one main road which ran dead smack into its downtown. The road itself was only a single lane road, which primarily was out lined by various plaza's. Alex was about as much as at ease with the situation as you could be, they had a planned already drawn out and it was just a matter of following it through. Alex was assigned to take one of the heavy machine gun's with Juan, the Mexican fellow who has been with him almost since day one. They were to establish it at the south end of the road, lodge it on one of the roofs and ready for action in case needed. It seemed like a simple enough task, they had pretty much all the ammunition they could possibly want and both of them had perfectly good M16's ready just in case if things hit the fan before they could mount the damn thing.
Apparently the North end was going to be secured by Kale and a man by the name of Christian. Christian was a pale mid thirties man, who always seemed to be on the thin side. Ironically to the name he was actually a youth pastor before the whole undead raised to walk to the earth started. He highly doubted that Christian was in fact still a Christian, though if anything had been proven by this ordeal, it was that anything was possible.
The RV pulled along what appeared to be a large warehouse, having almost its side scrapping against the walls, the people huddled inside hurriedly opened up the sunroof and started to climb up top. Stephanie looked at her finance and worriedly, she hated the fact that he volunteered for this but also knew he was doing what he thought must be done. The RV unlike the school bus that was trailing behind there convoy had only a few select people, well not really select but few indeed. Everyone by now in the RV had heard what had happened to the bus by via radio. The attack did nothing to help ease Alex's nerves, as he could start to feel the hair's on the back of his neck stand up. Unrealistically he had hoped that no confrontation with the flesh eating demons would happen until long after the town was set up. Now, things have changed and the plans that only took a few hours to brew up must be hastened. Even with heavy fire power, a feeling of panic and dread had spread amongst everyone. They were essentially putting all there egg's into one basket, an incredibly desperate move.
"Don't do anything stupid." Stephanie remarked in a stern voice, refusing to join the others on the roof just yet.
"You worry to much." Alex responded off handedly, as he was checking the M16 for the hundredth time, making sure it was ready when the time called. Giving Alex a hard pointed look, she too started to climb the ladder that led to the roof, looking down one last time she made a good point to remember the way he was now. She hated to think of Alex like that, but at the same time she knew this plan was just fucking too crazy to pull off. Alex could handle his own, that much was quite apparent, but still she always worried when he did something like this, and just the same as last time she made a note to remember the way he was.
"Just don't get killed." She spoke, determined to get the last sentence in and then pulled her on top of the roof. This message caught Alex slightly by surprised and let his eyes wander for a second up towards the roof, where she was most likely now.
"I'll try." He spoke slightly defeated.
"Ready amigo?" A voice sounded off from behind him, he knew it was Juan and had no need to look for himself. Juan was 26 years old, had only recently jumped the border a few years ago and then made way to Florida. He had family some parts around town, but never really bothered to tell Alex what had happened to them, though it was pretty easy to figure it out. His English was pretty choppy but it was good enough to understand. At times when he spoke to Juan you could see in his face him taking a moment and translating everything back to Spanish in his head before he replied. Before all of this shit had happened, Alex doubt he would have known someone like Juan. The truth is though, he wasn't quite comfortable admitting it was that he was slightly racist in general. It wasn't a hard core burn them at the stake Klu Klux Klan racist, but just one that he was generally off set by them and there unwillingness to learn English, to speak the language that everyone else was speaking. Instead, majority of the Hispanics that he had ran across to growing up expected him to speak there language, it was annoying to say the least. Still, when shit hit the fan Juan was one of the first who Alex had rounded up and provided safety for, and eventually became the most reliable. His English was starting to improve rapidly as he was making a serious effort to learn, but the accent was something that was never really going to go away.
"No, but lets get going anyway." They were suppose to leave the RV for the bus to come over to restock on supplies and then themselves to climb the ladder to settle in on the roofs. They weren't exactly sure on how to pitch the tents on the concert roofing but they were sure someone would be creative enough to figure it out. Juan grabbed the machine gun and started to sprint, but more or less jog with the weight considering, leaving Alex not to far behind with his M16 in ready position in case they ran into trouble.
Vince was in a state of relief, it seemed to him that the hardest part was pretty much over. Granted running a defense for a group of people trying to construct a wall in the middle of an Apocalypse didn't exactly seem like a piece of cake itself. Still, even now they had finally made it, unharmed even with death doing it's damnedest to find away inside there sanctuary on wheels. The town to him seemed an almost surreal quite about it, as if in some odd way the plague had never reached the town. Cars sill littered the street, parked peacefully on the sides, trade away the vultures with regular birds and you have almost a picture perfect town. Some blood was still caked on some windows, but he at least expected that much. The weaponry that they were anxious to get there hands on were put in the bottom trunk floor board of the RV, which now the old faithful school bus was pulling about 10 feet away. The doors winged opened, and the people rushed to the RV, half the battle had seemed won with very little casualties tied to it.
Vince was the first out, held the shotgun that he had used only about an hour before tightly within his grip. The warehouse seemed to be extremely large even for exactly what it was, looking over the back he saw an abnormally large AC unit leaning against the wall. Things were going to start to get good, he was sure after a few days of staking it out on the roofs that they were going to be real happy to be inside of AC cooled buildings. There was a few concerns that he had about the plan, one of them was the heat generated from the solid stone buildings, it was so hot that after a few hours in the sun seemed to drain almost all the energy out of most folks, now add in the heat element to it, it could get real miserable. The plan was a relatively simple one, they had simply took as many camping tents they could find, the shade should hopefully nullify the effect, at least a little. The second part of the plan was, if you weren't guarding or resting, you were building. If they perhaps had the time they could work out a system of working during the night, where it was somewhat cooled, and rest during the day, under the shade of the tents provided. To everyone's dismay, they also knew the longer they wait the more likely a chance that death was imminent.
Taking a quick look around, he was slightly perturbed by the scenery, as if something was amiss but yet he saw nothing. Assuming it was just his nerves getting the best of him he slanted down towards the luggage trunk underneath the RV and hatched them open to spread the weapons around. He assigned Kale to take the North end of the road and Alex to take the south as others were stationed along various of buildings with Sniper rifles in tow, ready to shoot at anything that could be considered a threat. Every guard grabbed what they felt most comfortable with, many of them didn't even hesitate with the M16's and quickly started to load them. He also made sure that some of the hand grenades were given to Kale and Christian which were to some relief to them. There survival pretty much meant the survival for the rest of the community. Those guns had to be established in well area's, and ready to fire in case the need be. The last thing they needed was a mob to come charging at a fully unexpected population that was doing there damnedest to build that wall. It would be a slaughter, and their numbers would be cut down to hardly anyone in a matter of moments. The plan would fail, the hope gone and the town would fall before it was even up.
The good thing was, but could just as well be taken as bad was the fact that the town literally seemed dead. There was no sound of any kind, no trouble lurking just an eerie silence that consumed the established area. Kale and Christian both grabbed there tripod that came with the heavy machine gun, Kale made sure he grabbed an M16 firmly within his grasp and both started to run towards the edge of town. Vince's job if you will was as actually simple to put in words, simply he would get on a roof with a sniper rife and wait it out. It was best to make sure the snipers were spread out over the town, in case if there was only one or two charging for the wall builders they could be handled quite easily without having to use there heavy fire power. Though the military convoy had a few sniper rifle's within its rather large confines, he felt perfectly content with keeping his old one that helped him get through of all the dangerous situations that he had been in before. He counted his rounds of ammunition for it to be at 85 he quickly picked his spot and started to head for it.
He picked a building that was not to far off from the warehouse, within a few minutes of running distance he could easily get back if something came up. Also looking around, Vince figured he would be able to get a good site on Alex and Kale with a quick turn of the head. If something went down, he would have a clear line of site to provide immediate assistance. The building its self was located to the left of the plaza, looking up towards the rest of the town. Vince was only one of 6 snipers stationed through out, and once up there he hope there line of site would just about cover everything. Running around the corner of the plaza and to the back he looked up steadily at the three story building. He knew that in order to station himself on the roof he would have to get inside first, and find someway up top. Running in full stride to the front door he could hear loud screams which caused him to come to a shuddering halt. Gunshots were being fired, yelling and loud animal like shrieks were piercing through the air, assaulting his ear drums in a violent rage.
His soul ached with a dire need of helplessness. Someone was in trouble and there was no time to find a way on top of the roof. Going against everything planned, he turned back around, and dropped his sniper rifle and gripped the M16 close to him. The extra weight leaving his shoulders it provided more freedom to move about, to give him that extra edge that he knew was going to be needed. Running as fast as he could he reached in the life line of the town, Washington Ave that ran like a vein down the center of the town. The sites had done more against him than he thought possible, pure horror was coursing through his being.
On the North side Kale and Christian were both in a fight for there lives. The hoards of the undead were almost consuming them, where they came from was a guess as good as any. As if it were a video game they seemed to just appear, to spawn right in front of there eyes. Christian had let his grip go of the machine gun and now pulled out a pistol that was holstered to his belt. The swarm wasn't really that big but enough to cause a sweat, and to make death seem like a serious possibility. Kale aimed his M16 in more dumbstruck childlike manner than that of one with precision and started to fire, blood squirted from the plague stricken through there chest, necks and heads soaking the ground in an almost dry liquid state.
Still there was more noise than from the North end, turning his head to face the south he could see Alex and Juan in a trouble situation of there own. Alex had started to fire with a more lethal use than Kale but was also dealing with more of a problem then his own nemesis. Juan who was the gun carrier dropped the weapon and had withdrawn his own and started to fire his pistol, though it was inaccurate at best doing little to help there predicament.
Not even bothering giving his brain enough time to analyze the problem, Vince rushed to his friend side closing the distance rather quickly with his gun already pulled. His aim was more accurate than he could have hoped. Instead of holding the trigger down and using it more as a suppressing spray he would aim and squeeze for a split second letting a few rounds to go through and then stop and pick the next target. The mob was now reduced to a small group thanks for Vince joining in, Kale's spraying of bullets came to a sudden stop, and instead of trying to reload it he knew he had no time for such an action and just dropped the automatic weapon and pulled out a handgun that he kept with him at all times. Christian was started to pick off the rest which numbered 5 in number, with Kale now also doing the same they started to back track to give themselves enough time to handle the problem with there firepower.
Vince instantly turned around and started to head for his cousin, who's battle was going to be even closer than that of Kale's. Instantly while running Vince unhooked the clip from the gun and let it clatter on the ground as he fumbled around with his spare already loaded. His breath was cutting short as his endurance was already at his max, doing his best to ignore his body's plea's for a breather he jammed the spare in place and continued to cut down the distance with his sprinting. Pointing the M16 up at the undead that threaten his last remaining family member he pulled on the trigger, desperately hoping to give his cousin a fighting chance.
Alex was holding his gun a little tighter than what he normally would had. He would say that it was fear, but it really wasn't. To him, this was more like acceptance, its acceptance for what was happening. He knew as soon as the plan was formed, that certain danger's could and would not be avoided any longer. Now, at the moment where it seemed life was letting him live his last moments on this fucked up earth that he had grown to accept this. His aim was deadly, like what it would be in the movies. He thought of the times when he was on the ice during high school, the times where it felt as if he was truly dominating the opposition. He was in the same type of zone, time its self was seeming to slow down for him, to provide him a last glimpse of survival.
He knew deep down that these guns were the survival of the town, there Hail-Mary pass at the last play in the championship game. They were coming in faster now, he aimed once more and fired hitting two of them that were almost literally standing side by side. One got hit in the middle of the forehead the other right on the tip of the nose, both of there heads had a violent whiplash as there body's slammed down onto the concrete. Juan was standing by the ladder, with his pistol raised in a slight sideways stance, firing wildly but hitting everything other than the bullseye that was there heads. Alex allowed himself a split second to look at the strange Mexican man who he had become rather good friends with.
"Get the gun and get your spic ass up that fucking ladder!" He yelled an order that wasn't to be argued with. The insult had the desired effect, anger rose in the stomach of the Mexican which caused his reactions to come at a hair faster than normal, but still he obeyed, he wanted to live. The gun and tripod seemed to weighed a ton, but he still managed to latch it onto his back and turned. He felt a burning sensation at his right shoulder, screaming out he realized what it was only after his instincts elbowed the zombie in the face. Pain throbbed the wound, he figured at most he only had a couple of hours left, but that still didn't mean he was going to volunteer to let himself be eaten alive, so he climbed. Alex turned a split second as Juan screamed and put a bullet into the fallen creatures head, turning back towards the mass he pulled the trigger again only to hear a clicking sound emitting from his gun. The worst possible scenario had happened, he had run out of ammo. He so badly wanted to charge up the ladder, but he knew with out a shadow of a doubt that he did not have the time on his side for such a feat.
Another zombie charged in, Alex grabbed the M16 and swung it around hitting the pale being with the butt of the rifle hard against the head. The thud also came along with a new resonating sounds as pops started to fill the air, the beings that were charging were starting to get trimmed down. Another went straight for Alex, placing his hands on the creatures neck he did his best to keep it from biting him, though he knew it to be futile. The army was amassing around him, it was only a matter of time, the time being seconds. Still his free hand roamed his pant leg until he found the knife that held so dearly and jammed the creature on top of the head with it, causing the fight to leave its body. A sharp pain ripped through his back and came out of his stomach, looking down in shock his stomach was covered in a dark red pouring out of him like someone turned on a fountain. Falling to his knees he felt a similar sharp pain rip through his shoulder, he bothered not to look and rather not know. He wanted to stare his death into its face. Looking up he could see the undead, many of them having dark crusty dried blooded baked on there faces. Then he blacked out.
Vince stood there in shock, his M16 still held out pointed at the group. Firing started to erupt from the roofs of there buildings, as the snipers finally got into position. Still he was trans locked into place, not daring to move. His cousin, his own flesh and blood, someone at one time he considered to be a brother of his just collapsed under his own weight. Alex was just delivered death by Vince. The M16's were joining in, making short work of the group, feeling the gun being to much to bear it slid out of his hands and crashed down on the hard asphalt. After a few moments of lost composure he headed back to the warehouse, his fight in him gone.
He climbed the ladder where everyone was waiting, he needed time to think and sort things out. He didn't feel like talking to anyone, just wanted somewhere to soak. He was partially guilty though for wanting to know someone was near even though he didn't want to be bothered. As soon as he got up on top a loud echoing sound erupted from his cheeks.
"You fucking killed him! You fucking killed him!" Stephanie shouted, her second scream was turning into sobbing. Vince looked on and in silence as she balled up her fists and started to slam them on his chest and face. He simply just took it in utter silence, hoping that this new pain would some how begin to redeem the sense of guilt inside of him that was welling up. Finally, with blood seeping down his face, blood in his mouth and one of his eyes swelling up she stopped assaulting him and just sat there and starting to soak in her own tears. He had no idea what to say to her, what words could calm her down, or for him for that matter. He just murdered his cousin, he deserved much worse.
As soon as Kale and Christian had it under control, Kale made the decision to leave his assigned post and to head to the warehouse to talk to Vince. He seen what that frail few moments had did to his best friend, seeming to suck the life from his body. Vince walked the same way the undead did, his liveliness and compassion completely quelled by now a deep seated depression. It seemed to him that he was now dying from within, it was something Kale knew he had to try and get him to snap out of it.
He grumbled at climbing the ladder of the warehouse, it was something he was looking forward to already about getting the town up and running. No more ladders! Finally he reached the top, it was the first time he was up there even though pretty much everyone settled at that one spot.
Looking around everyone was by there respective tent, some were talking unable to catch a little rest before they were required to start building. He looked off towards the ledge and saw Vince sitting by him self, just looking down at the street below. He saw Nicole with Michelle and Heather and walked up to them.
"Hows he doing?"
"He wont talk to anyone, just told me to leave him alone." Nicole answered slightly depressed but also a hint of anger. Kale was sure he wasn't exactly polite when telling her to leave him alone. Finally he mustered himself over and looked down at Vince who was turned away from his good friend.
"Hows it going?"
"How the fuck you think its going!? My cousin's brains are fucking splattered all over the street thanks to me!"
"He knew the risks when he volunteered for this shit, so did everyone." Kale responded.
"Risks? What fucking risks? I feel like I have to do fucking everything!"
"You!? Okay mister fucking superman. Did it ever occur to you that perhaps your not the only one with such luck on his side!?"
"You call this luck? Looks like shit to me. Big pile of heaping stinking shit!"
"You don't have to do everything Vince! If you can remember I was there for just about everything you got out of. We can do this bro."
"We!? You think this is a fucking committee!!? If I didn't have to come charging over there to save your ass, Alex would probably still be alive!" Kale took a step back in shock and took a deep breath. Vince set himself up for it and he was going to let him have it.
"Get it through your thick fucking skull Vince, I can handle my self! I had things under control, me and Christian were fine! Perhaps, just perhaps it was your fucking dumb ass cousin that needed the rescuing!" In what seemed like a split second later, fire returned in Vince's eyes as a deep hatred poured through him. In one swift moment, Kale was lying on his back unconscious.