The sixth chapter is here lads! I don't really have much to say so, enjoy reading!
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Still searching for the little girl's group, Molly and Hilda scurried between the flats of Savannah. They were still gripped by fear for their friends who were still stuck in Crawford. They hoped they were doing well. Although they were exhausted and frustrated and their rations of food and drinks were also slowly running low, they continued their search unhindered.
As fate would have wanted it, they walked past a supermarket that seemed to have not yet been looted. They decided without further ado to take a look inside. A few walkers stood in their way, but they were quickly eliminated by Molly, who had promptly eliminated them with ease. The supermarket turned out to be a real gold mine. Food rations that could last for months were stored here. The two girls soon realized that someone would have to live here. It would have been rather unlikely if no one had ever dared to come in here and take most of it. So they remained on guard throughout.
"Hello? Is anybody there?" called someone, putting Hilda and Molly on alert. "I don't want any trouble," the person added briefly. "Neither do we," Hilda replied, which Molly didn't really like. What if it was someone with bad intentions, just pretending not to be hostile. "I swear nothing will happen to you. Me and my men are just looking for a group member of ours. My name is Lee." the man said. "We're looking for someone too. Who are you looking for?" Molly replied. She wasn't going to trust anyone just like that. "A little girl, nine years old. Curly hair and wears a baseball cap."
When the man said this, Molly felt a beat in her heart. Were these the people they were looking for? The description matched the little girl they met with her assumed father in the south of the city. Should they dare to come out of hiding and meet them?
"Okay, we'll come to you, but lay down every weapon you have on you." Molly called out after thinking about it long enough. "I know that voice from somewhere," said one of them as Molly and Hilda slowly ventured out of the storage room. When Molly finally saw who it was, she was visibly relieved. Their long search finally came to an end; it was indeed the group of survivors they encountered in the mall south of the city.
"Wait a minute. We know you." said the man wearing the trucker cap. "You helped me and my friend Dom in the Oglethorpe Mall." Molly replied. "Yeah I remember. Where is he by the way?" Lee asked. "We had to leave him and my sister Hilda's best friend behind in Crawford. Dom was jailed for hurting another resident who had been harassing him." she explained. "Damn, I'm sorry. But seriously, somebody gets arrested for teaching somebody a lesson? For real now?" the capped friend of Lee answered. "They don't really like Dom. They treat him very unfairly." Molly said. "What? That's bullshit. My name is Kenny, by the way." he scoffed. "And this is Omid and Mark." Lee added pointing at a Persian looking man and another man wearing a leather Air-Force jacket. "Nice to meet you." Mark said. Molly nodded in reply.
"This is Hilda, my sister. She has been through a lot." Molly said. "I bet." Kenny chuckled. "So you said that you were on the lookout for your daughter. What happened to her?" Molly asked. "Um... she's not my daughter. I'm just taking care of her because her parents didn't make it." Lee replied scratching his neck. "When we woke up this morning, she was gone." he added. "Oh no. I hope she's fine." Hilda replied worried. "Me too." Lee said.
"Guys, I got an idea. How about we ask the soldiers at the army hideout near here if they saw anything?" Mark asked. "It's a start I guess." Kenny replied. The others also agreed. "Well then, let's go. The hideout is not far away from here." Mark said and they all left the supermarket together.
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"Clear man, let's go." Johnson whispered and stepped out of the basement with Dom right behind him. "We need to get the fuck outta here." he murmured as they were stepping through the uncomfortable quiet hallways of the high school building towards the exit. "It's quiet mate." Dom commented. "Yup, shit's about to go down, I tell you that." Johnson replied.
The closer they came to the exit, the louder the noise of the fighting that had broken out came to them. "Jesus Christ." Dom breathed out as they saw hundreds of people chanting slogans and burning US flags. The perfect cover to get to safety. "I'll take you with me to my apartment." Johnson said. "It's not safe walking around here." he added. Dom nodded and followed him.
They crossed the centre square and arrived at Johnson flat safely and without any unwanted encounters. The guards were busy enough keeping the riot under control. When they were in Johnson's apartment, they both took a deep breath. The turbulent events were giving them a hard time, and they knew that everything was far from over. "We're gonna get out of here. It's now or never!" Johnson said seriously. "What about Dr. Logan. I can't just leave Walt behind. No, he was just too willing to help. He's like a father to me," Dom replied immediately. "Well, let's just get him out of the nurses' station and get out of here. But it has to be quick!" Johnson urged.
"You'll have to disguise yourself. If Crawford people see you like this, it could cause problems. It would be best if you took off your bandanna and cap. No one has ever seen you without them. I think I have other clothes for you." Johnson explained. Dom did not answer. He looked out the window in an absent-minded way. After a while he sighed loudly and took off his cap, revealing his short silver-grey dyed hair. The hair colour was already a little faded. When Dom finally removed the scarf in front of his face, Johnson looked at him in shock. "Terrible view, eh?" Dom chuckled darkly. "Bro, what happened to you?" the younger teen asked, still absolutely shocked. Dom's face was full of scars and a large burn scar covered his left cheek. "That's what happens when you mess with the wrong people." Dom growled.
"I was involved in gang crime before all this shit here. It wasn't by choice, but I was in it anyway. Some people didn't really like me for it. I got my ass kicked once. Almost got my ass kicked to death. My mates still saved me, but they couldn't prevent one of the bastards from wiping me out with a heated iron rod. Well, scars tell the story of the past and the stupid mistakes of poor slobs." he explained. Johnson listened to him spellbound. Shock and empathy was written all over his face. "Holy shit, man. You've been through something like this." he gasped. "It was my fault" Dom whispered and ran his hand over his forehead. "I was just idiotic in the past. If you grow up without parents and never had any real friends, you make many serious mistakes." he said. "You have no parents?" asked Johnson, again totally terrified. Dom just nodded silently and stared out of the window again.
"Molly... She was, uh... like a God-sent angel to me. Even though I am an atheist," stuttered Dom, who was now staring at the table in front of him. "When you've been on your own all your life and then fate really kicks you in the face again and you're ready to end even your life because you just don't know what to do and then suddenly a person comes along who cares about you more than anybody ever had in the past..." Dom said softly and laughed a little. "You fall so hard in love with that person that you just can't get the thoughts of that person outta your mind." he continued whereupon Johnson looked at him with wide eyes. "I knew it." he breathed out. "I knew you had a crush on Molly." he laughed and bumped Dom's arm who smiled sadly.
"I have confessed. Now it's your turn." said Dom, grinning at Johnson. "Idiot." Johnson growled amused. Sighing deeply he decided to be honest with his buddy after all. "Okay, I admit it, I'm in love with Hilda. But not as much as you love Molly." he said honestly. Dom nodded and stared out of the window again into the grey sky over the city.
"I'm gonna get the clothes for ya." Johnson said after a short while of silence. He came back with a white and red coloured jacket and dark blue jeans. "That's what I have for ya. Old clothes of my bother's. You can change in the bedroom." he said and handed the clothes to the taller boy. Dom nodded to him, took the clothes and walked towards the bedroom. Before entering it, he stopped. "One thing mate. Even though I haven't known you for long, you're like a little brother to me." he said. Johnson answered with a big grin. "Yeah, man, we are crazy and super cool brothers for life." he laughed and raised his fist a bit. Dom also laughed and shook his head as he entered the bedroom to change.
Not long after, Dom came out again. "Fits perfectly man." Johnson laughed. "Still, I'm gonna miss wearing my great jacket. It's a tough one. Small calibre can't get through that." Dom said. "That's a protective jacket?" Johnson asked. Dom nodded. "Okay, let's go get Dr. Logan out." the younger teen said and loaded two pistols. "Yeah let's go." Dom replied and grabbed one of the guns.
They left Johnson's flat and went back to Centre Square. They decided to go to high school separately because the guards knew Johnson was friends with Dom. There was a danger that Dom would be discovered after all. The Centre Square was in chaos. Although peace had returned, the devastation was now all the better to watch. Destroyed furniture and rubbish lay everywhere. Some dead people lie around and were thrown into a pile by cleaning teams. These would soon be incinerated, a procedure Crawford had ordered since taking power.
To Dom's surprise, the "disguise" worked perfectly. No one recognized him. Not even Vitali, Dom's sworn enemy. The latter hurriedly walked past him, and looked him straight in the eyes. He didn't recognize him anyway. 'As I once said, only fools in this club here' Dom thought and grinned. Both teenagers arrived at the high school building without any problems.
"I never thought it would work out so well." Dom said to Johnson when they eventually got to the school building. "I suppose, I'm just a genius." Johnson laughed. "More a gobshite." Dom chuckled and slapped Johnson lightly on the back of the head. "What?" Johnson asked, confused by Dom's use of British words. "Nothing." Dom replied grinning. Johnson sighed and shook his head but couldn't help but smile too. They made their way to the nurses' station and kept joking around. They forgot that they were actually in a very dark era.
Their jokes stopped when they realized that Dr. Logan was not alone in the nurses' station and, as it sounded, was threatened by rebels. "Give us the damn stuff and you won't get hurt," they threatened. "I won't give you anything. You could blow up the entire district with this stuff." Walter resisted. "Do you have a death wish? You're begging to be mauled." one of the rebels murmured.
This triggered uncontrollable rage in Dom's mind. He reached for his gun and kicked the door down. "Leave him alone!" he shouted, targeting one of the rebels. Johnson took aim at the other rebel. "What the hell!?" the bigger rebel gasped and pointed his gun at the teenagers. "You better get the fuck out of here before things get ugly." he said. His colleague pulled out his gun and held it to Walter's temple, which drove Dom even more into a rage. Without further ado, he shot him.
The larger rebel reacted in shock, but immediately recovered his composure. "Stupid mistake." he whispered before he shot Johnson. The bullet hit Johnson in the left upper arm, who then cried out, dropped his gun and pressed his right hand on the bullet wound. "Fucking asshole." Dom gasped before he shot the second rebel too. After the danger had passed, Dom turned directly to his friend. "Fuck, Johnson. Are you all right?" he asked anxiously. "Yeah bro, don't worry. Everything's all right. Luckily, he only hit me in the arm," Johnson gasped in pain and smiled weakly. "Sit down on the patient bed and let me take a look." Walter said. Johnson did so and let Walter check his injury. "Ouch." he cried as Walter tried to lift his arm. "It's going to be okay. But I need to remove the bullet. I'm going to give you some painkillers first." Walter explained and got to work.
After Walter removed the bullet from his arm, Johnson lay exhausted on the hospital bed staring at the ceiling. "How do you feel, kiddo?" Dom asked. "It's all right. I feel like I smoked four joints in a row." Johnson laughed. Dom grinned, although he was injured the younger teenager could not hold back his jokes. "When you feel ready, we'll get out of here." Dom said. "Lemme try to stand up." Johnson replied and lifted himself up from the sick bed. He ignored the nausea that came over him as he stood on his feet. He just wanted to get out of here. "Are you sure you're gonna be able to get through this?" Walter asked. Johnson nodded. "Well then let's go. I have to get out of this fucking shithole." Dom said.
They left the nurses' station and headed to the exit of the High school. In the main hallway they got jumped by a walker. "Holy crap. How did this guy got in here?" Johnson breathed out. "It's the dude I stabbed in the basement." Dom replied quietly. "What?" Walter asked shocked. "Long story, not relevant." Dom quickly answered and took out the walker.
After finally leaving the high school they headed to the outer areas of Crawford. They planned on leaving Crawford to the same breach Molly and Hilda escaped through. "This is going excellent so far." Johnson stated. Dom nodded and checked their surroundings. "No one's around us." he told the others.
In a flat behind them, Vitali's gang attended a meeting. They were talking about their future actions in defending the Crawford regime. Vitali has been a loyal supporter of Crawford since he took over the leadership. As one of Vitali's goons looked out of the window he spotted three persons sneaking towards the breach. "Vitali, pohlyanʹ na tse." he spoke. Vitali looked at him and came towards the window his goon was pointing at. "Blin. Ce brytanec' ta joho druzi. Vony namahajut'sja vtekty!" Viali growled. "Shoot these bastards!" he ordered. A heavy machine gunner smashed the window and placed the weapon on the windowsill using the bipod. He loaded at 200 round ammo belt into the weapon and took aim at the three escapees.
"Here we are. That's the breach we can escape through." Johnson said. They were just a few meters away from the big hole in the fence. "I can't wait to finally be outta here." Dom mumbled and took a few steps towards the breach. It was reinforced with wooden planks. "Those planks won't be a big problem." Dom said and started kicking them out. Johnson helped him while Walter stayed behind and kept watch.
The blockade was finally broken and Johnson immediately slipped through the breach right at the moment Vitali's colleague opened fire. "Holy shit!" Johnson cried out shocked by the incoming suppressing fire. "Get through here quick." he told the others and took cover behind the wall. Dom was the nest one who slipped through the breach into freedom. "Hurry up Walt." he yelled to his father figure as he was on the other side. Walter took a short break from the shooter as an opportunity to hurry to the hole. But just as he was about to go through, he was surprised by another hail of bullets. One bullet hit him... right in the head. He collapsed before the big hole and died immediately. "Walt!?" Dom yelled out as he lost him out of eyesight. "Walter!" he yelled again.
Johnson saw what happened to the doctor and immediately felt utterly guilty. "Bro, you're not going to like this but... he... he got hit." he stammered staring on Walter's lifeless corpse. "No. No fucking way. Walt! Fucking christ, Walt!" Dom yelled out furiously. "Shit man, he's dead." Johnson said quietly. "Oh my fucking god. It can't be... Fuck." Dom whispered completely disturbed. "Look, I'm really fucking sorry man, but we have to get out of here." Johnson told him. "Yeah... Let's go... Fuck man." Dom stammered.
With that, they left the area. They finally managed to escape Crawford. But the euphoria was brutally disturbed by Walter's death. It was a nightmare for Dom's psychological stability. At first, he was very emotional about it. But after some time he felt unbelievable rage towards everything that stands for Crawford. He wanted to seek revenge. On Crawford, on Danny, on Vitali...on every single one of those bastards that made his stay in the district a total nightmare.