Hey everyone. For a long while, I decided to continue this story on Wattpad only. However, I randomly decided against it and will update this store here step by step, bringing it up to date. I want to avoid excluding readers who do not use Wattpad or prefer this site over the other.
Hope you enjoy.
### Molly ###
We have been out of Crawford for two days now, and I remembered how hard life was to be on your own. It is incredibly difficult to survive as a couple if you have lived in a society for a while, if you can even call Crawford a community. Looking for food, staying healthy without any medical experience, defending ourselves against the sheer endless stream of walkers that kept us on the run all the time. That was all a hundred times harder than when we left Crawford in groups of five to ten. But Crawford was the past now. At least for Hilda and me. Although I was happy to escape this cursed dictatorship, I had remorse. I felt guilty for leaving Dom, my best friend, behind in Crawford.
I understood there was no way for him to escape from prison. The walls were very thick and made of solid concrete. Guards keep a constant eye on him so that any suspicious activity would alert them immediately. But no matter how hopeless the situation was for him, it got me down to leaving him behind. Already after several hours, I began to think of him continuously. I missed him, his kindness, his sense of humour but also his rugged way of talking to those he didn't like. He showed self-confidence even though he was depressed. But he was only 1.74 m tall which made him a joke figure for many who were much taller than him. One of them was Vitali.
Vitali surpassed Dom in his body size by far. He was stronger than him and took full advantage of it. There were countless verbal and physical assaults from his side and Dom could hardly defend himself against it. Nevertheless, Dom did not retreat. Many would not come in such cases any more from their dwelling and avoid places where was known that Vitali often stayed there, but with Dom, this was not the case. He was a freedom-loving person, and he let nothing, and nobody took his beloved freedom from him. At least until the time, he was imprisoned.
The voice of my sister awoke me from the trance I had unwittingly fallen into. She looked at me, confused but sad as well. She most likely expected an answer from me to a question I missed. "Sorry, I was lost in thought." I apologised. "Did you ask me anything?". Hilda nodded. "What about Dom and Johnson? We can't just leave them behind.", she said. Her mention of the name Johnson caused me to freeze for a moment. I knew how well they got along with each other and how close they were. They were best friends just like Dom and me. "I would have liked to have taken them with us, but the situation didn't look good. We just had to get out of Crawford fast.", I replied, and I knew that the answer would not satisfy her. "I promise you we'll get them out of Crawford soon," I added, hoping she would be satisfied with my promise. "If they are still alive by then," Hilda growled stomping away.
We have been settled in a deserted Apartment building for some time now. Our goal was to find the little girl's group that Dom and I met in the Oglethorpe Mall. I remembered we never asked for their names. I sighed as my eyes followed my sister. I could tell that she was mad at me. Angry at me for leaving both of our best friends behind. "I know you're pissed at me, but we have to stick together. We won't be able to survive if we don't cooperate perfectly." I told her. "I'm not mad at you. I don't want to lose Johnson, he's too important for me," she replied, causing me to feel relieved. "I can feel it," I said grinning, trying to lighten up her mood. "What?" she breathed out, confused. "That he's important to you. Very important, indeed. Much like you..."
I said while grinning silly. "Freakin' hell sis, stop that junk," Hilda exclaimed blushing. "Denial. A crucial sign of something special." I continued holding back a burst of laughter. "Where is this going, Molly?" my sister said also having a hard time not to smile. "I feel like you have a little crush on little Johnson aye?" I teased her giggling. "Maybe," she replied with a cheeky smile. "But you are crushing on someone too." She added. "Not this again." I sighed fakely annoyed. "You see, you also deny it. That makes it so obvious." my sister said grinning.
A loud crashing noise from downstairs disturbed our funny conversation. I held my breath and tried to figure out what that noise was. It could be a couple of geeks breaking into the apartment. I grabbed my gun and silently stood up from the bed I was sitting on. I slowly walked to the door to the hallway with careful steps trying to be as silent as possible. As I was about to open the door, it suddenly flew open, and a man stood in the doorway. "Good evening, ladies I hope I didn't scare you too much." He said with a strange grin on his face.
Something about this man made me feel very unwell. He looked creepy. His skin was ashen, and his eyes were widely open. His hair was black and messy. "Who the fuck are you?" I breathed out sharply, glaring at the stranger with an angered expression. "Somebody who you shouldn't be afraid of. I will not do any harm to ya." He answered. "What are you doing here?" Hilda asked. "Surviving. Like everyone is doing it nowadays. I wanted to search for this place for any useful stuff, and then I heard you talking and decided to scare ya a little." He said and laughed a bit hysterically. Yep, this dude is fucking scary.
"So, what's your name?" Hilda questioned. "Woods." The young person answered plainly. "Any your first name?" I asked, sounding demanding. "That doesn't matter." He said and turned around to leave the room. "This guy is strange," Hilda commented as the stranger left the room. "Indeed, he is," I said.
"So, what are you ladies doing here?" Woods asked as he came back into the room. "We are looking for someone. A group to be exact." I replied carefully. "Interesting, who's in that group you're looking for?" He asked. "What do you care?" I shot back. "Relax girl. Maybe I can help." He replied, calmly lifting his hands. I remembered that we didn't know their names. "We don't know their names. I met them with a good friend of mine, but we parted ways shortly after. We forgot to ask their names." I told him. "That's unfortunate." He said. "Well, there aren't a lot of people in this town anymore if you don't call those walking corpses in so it shouldn't be too hard finding them." He assured, and I hoped he was right.
After a while, the strange man left the apartment, leaving us with confusion. Who was this guy? He looked creepy with his pale skin and long, wild, black hair. As I looked out of the window, I saw that it was already nighttime and I decided to go to sleep. Hilda did the same.
The next morning we left the apartment as early as possible to continue our search for the group we're looking for. We had enough stuff for survival to focus entirely on them. But Savannah was a pretty big city, so the search was tough. Additionally, we didn't even know in which specific part of the town they are living in. I know that it has to be in the north of the town, but that was only minor help. "This is like searching a needle in the hay," Hilda complained. "I know, but we can't give up," I told her.
We kept searching and scavenging for the rest of the morning and noon until we decided to settle down in another abandoned house. Walking around town all day was very exhausting for both of us. "We'll never find them," Hilda said tiredly. "We will, sooner or later," I replied, hoping to keep her motivation up, but it didn't seem to work. Since we left the boys behind, she has been demotivated the entire time.
### Dom ###
The groovy beat of Big City Life was blasting through my headphones, making me feel free even though I'm trapped in a fuckin' prison cell. Thank fuck my player was battery-powered and I have a crap ton of 'em. Music always kept me happy and gave me the chance of escaping the worst times of my life.
This time the music was only a little distraction to the inevitable. I can't break out of this shit hole. But I will not give up! Never. I gave up too often in the past, but that's over.
Walt appeared in front of my cell, and I paused the music to speak to him. "Terrible sight, don't ye think?" I asked him. "Indeed," he replied silently. "I'm going to kill myself if I don't get out of here soon." I suddenly said. Oh god, not this again. My mind is acting on its own. The fucking depression is giving me a hard time again. "Please don't say something like that." Walt breathed out. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say that." I said shivering. "Dom, look at me. Please don't shock now. Everything will be fine soon." he said worriedly.
Mental shocks have been a burden to me since I was in puberty. The older I got, the worse it got. Suffering these psychological shocks was terrible, and when I did suffer them, the chance of me trying to commit suicide was extremely high. Since I met Molly and Walter, those mental shocks got rarer.
If I suffer a mental shock, it follows three phases that are always different. The first one is feeling alone and abandoned, the second phase is feeling guilty for the problems of me and even others and the last phase is blaming everything on me and sue myself for that. The last phase is the most dangerous. I've always hurt myself in it and I can't really do anything about it. It is also the most dangerous phase because I could just shoot myself to sue myself. But all of this wasn't my own thinking and acting, and that scares me. I actually feel happy all the time but that evil being inside me, makes me a violent, aggressive and always pissed idiot.
"I'm fine Walt. I won't do anything." I breathed out. "Are you sure?" he asked worried. "Yes, everything's under control." I replied. "I really hope so. I have to go back to the nurse's station now." he said. "Okay mate, no problemo." I joked. "I will check up on you tomorrow again." Walt said and left.
I laid down on a mattress that was laying inside the cell. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world but way better than laying on the ground. I closed my eyes and started thinking. Of course, the first thing blasting on my mind like a bomb is the thought of Molly. God, what a girl, I tell ya. I'm so happy that I met her. We didn't get along at first but just after a short time, I started to trust her a lot. We got good friends after it. Sometimes I question myself if it's actually just friendship between us. I have to admit, she looks very attractive and I often caught myself staring at her.
Her appearance does calm me down a lot. With her being such a good company for me, I finally managed to get over my psychological problems. But now, after I told her to leave and not knowing if we will ever see each other again, these demons inside me, were taking back control over me.
By thinking if her I could calm myself down a little again. I knew that she was very capable of surviving on her own. She was smart, quick and agile as a cat, something that I really enjoy watching. Don't judge, I love freedom and exactly that is what I call freedom.
Loud noises teared me out of my thoughts and made me jump. I don't know what is was but it clearly didn't sound well. It sounded like somebody yelling around and some people screaming. Suddenly Walt came into the basement.
"Dude, what the hell is going on up there." I immediately asked him. "Some guys have started an argument, it looks critical to me." Walter replied. "What do you mean?" I digged in. "There is a big fight going on between people who think everything is fine as it currently is and people who think they are suppressed. If you ask me, this will definitely escalate into something bigger." Walter explained.
The door of the basement opened and Johnson stepped through. "Holy shit guys. Oberson is losing control over his people and fights broke out. I guess this is it." he said worried. "Yeah, this is it. The beginning of the revolution. Let me the fuck out of here, so I can participate." I growled. "I can't, I don't have the key for the door. Why do you want to put yourself into so much danger?" Water asked. "They made my life here a fucking nightmare. I want to make them pay for that." I growled louder this time. "Keep it cool mate." Johnson said, taken aback by my anger.
"Doc, where are you, we need your help." a guard said, standing in the doorway of the basement. "Don't do anything stupid boy." Walter said to me and left the basement in a hurry. I never do stupid things. I do idiotic things!
As Walter left the guard remained in the basement doorway. Looks like he's gonna stay there. I sat in the corner of my cell and tried to get a good look on him. It hit me when I realised who it was. "Fuck off." I whispered my eyes glued on the guard. "Dom? What's wrong?" Johnson asked. "That fucker over there..." I began pointing at the guard, "tried to get into Molly's pants for weeks on. She always blocked it off but that didn't kept him from trying. But he made one big fucking mistake."
"What exactly?" Johnson asked.
"Well, he tried to have some fun with her, against her will, if ye know what mean." I explained to the teenager, who understood.
"Really!?" he asked in shock. I nodded causing him to stare angrily at the man. The guard didn't realize that he's been watched the entire time.
"He has the key y'know." Johnson told Dom after some time of silence. "For real!? Can ye tryna get me out? I mean without getting yourself hurt or killed? " Dom asked. "Jeez man I dunno, I just try my best." Johnson replied grinning. "You should because Hilda would hate me if something would happen to ya." Dom said plainly. "When's the wedding by the way?" Dom asked grinning. "I dunno what you are talking about." Johnson replied shrugging and made his way towards the guard. "Aww, come on. Don't hide your affection towards Hilda mate." Dom said and chuckled. "I could say the exact thing to you towards Molly, mate." Johnson shot back with a wink. Dom huffed. "No idea what ye talkin' 'bout." he grumbled.
"What are you doing in here." the guard said as he spotted Johnson. "I'm just visiting a friend, relax." Johnson answered. "Your friend here has done bad things, you should make yourself some other friends. This guy is definitely not a good influence on ya kid." the guard said. That immediately gave me the chance to kick in. "You aren't a Saint either." I chuckled, triggering confusion. "Trying to fuck Molly while she was unwell. Pathetic twat." I growled staring into his eyes. Unfortunately the guy didn't really get that I wasn't joking and started to laugh.
"Quit laughing idiot." Johnson barked. "You better watch your mouth kid." the guard shot back and stepped closer to him. "Mate, stay away from him." I called out. "What do you want to do about me? Hit me!?" he laughed. "You are kinda stuck behind these bars don't ya think." he added, looking at me with a disgusting grin on his face. "You could let him out so it would be fair." Johnson joked. "Pah, do you think I'm stupid?" the guard asked and started laughing again. What I've seen then, fascinated me entirely.
Johnson teared the keychain off the guards belt, who was distracted with laughing his arse off and feeling utterly powerful. The kid quickly hid the keychain in the pocket of his hoodie. "You are pretty brave boy. But now you have to leave." the guard said and stood upright in front of Johnson, probably trying to scare him. "I'll leave as soon as I've finished talking to him." Johnson said and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Whatever." the guard breathed out annoyed and turned to the door to leave. Johnson immediately came over to my cell door.
But before the guard left, he checked his belt for the keychain. "What the fuck." he yelled as he realized that it was gone. "Give me the fucking keys back. Now!" he yelled at Johnson and started walking towards him with aggressive steps. "Stay right there." I told him but he didn't listen. Johnson reacted quickly, grabbed the key out of his hoodie's pocket and unlocked the door. Thereupon he quickly dashed away from the door to clear the way for me. The guard didn't seem to have noticed that the door was no longer locked and ran straight towards me. At the moment he was close enough, I pushed the door open as hard as I could. As planned the door hit him completely and he fell over. But he picked himself up again very quickly. But before he could pull out his gun to shoot at one of us, I pulled out a knife I had in my pockets. They didn't really searched me after I stabbed that fuckhead at the centre square. They probably didn't expect me to have a second one. Dummies, everywhere.
What happened after that happened without me being in control of what I was doing. The anger at this guy and at Crawford, coupled with the energy to finally be out of that damn cell, dropped all the barriers in my head. With a tremendous momentum I stabbed the guard in the stomach area, who was roaring loudly. "I've been wondering for a long time when I'll finally get out of here." I murmured as I pressed him against the wall. My grip on the knife, what hung in his stomach, hard as a rock. Instinctively I tore it out of his body, whereupon he cried out loud in pain. "And that's for grabbing Molly," I yelled angrily as I stabbed him again. This time I hit his upper body and probably destroyed important organs, because the guy immediately started to rattle and collapsed under my grip. He made some incomprehensible sounds before he eventually stopped breathing completely. Also his heartbeat dropped off. The guy was dead as a doornail.
Frightened by my offence, I let go of his lifeless body and took two steps away from him. Breathing heavily, I looked over at Johnson, who looked at me quite perplexed but also thrilled. "You really explained it very well not to mess with us, didn't you, bro?" he said jokingly. "Of course." I replied with eyes wide open. I didn't really understand the situation. I almost ripped the guy's stomach out. Worse than that, Johnson was there and saw it all. "You didn't see anything," I said to him. "Don't worry about it, man. I've seen people die before. Not in that way but well," he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Fuck it, let's get outta here. I have to see what's going on up there." I said. Johnson nodded in response.