Hey guys! Looks like it's time for another update! Sorry it's been kind of a long wait-damn summer procrastination :(! Anyways, it seems like a lot of you are liking this story, which is awesome :) It makes me so happy :D! By the way, a couple people have PM'd me/reviewed asking me the same question, so I'll answer it right here. We will NOT I repeat NOT be seeing North and Lia again soon. Maybe, MAYBE we'll see them again…but not for a long, long time, if it all. :)!
Alright, let's get it on!
THE WARNING: This story will be gory. Not so much I have to put it in 'M', but if your grossed out by that, sorry. Also, mild to severe swearing and mild sexual themes!
While the whole ordeal with Noah, Ezekiel, Aidan and Gwen was going on, everyone back at the main camp had decided to stay put for two days to see if the five missing people would show up. Chef declared that they would have no choice but to move out after those two days.
Early in the morning on the second day, Lightning and Trent were on guard duty. They heard some rustling in the bushes and out popped a lone zombie. This had happened about twenty-five or so times throughout the past two days, so everyone was pretty used to it by now. Lightning and Trent nodded at each other.
Trent walked in front of it and did a little dance, getting the zombie's attention. The creature, a zombified woman who looked to be in her fifties, groaned slightly and started staggering towards the musician. Meanwhile, Lightning took two logs and crept up behind it. The power house slammed the logs together will all his immense strength with the zombies squishy, vulnerable head in the middle.
"Sha boo-yah!" Lightning whispered as blood ran down the logs and the zombie's headless corpse thudded to the ground.
Suddenly, the heard another rustle in the bushes. Fearing a mass attack, Trent was about to wake the entire camp up when the figure stumbled through the undergrowth. "God damn, eh. We're finally here!" it said. Another five followed it out.
Trent's face lit up like the sun. "Gwen!" He shouted, sprinting forward and giving her the biggest hug you've ever seen in your life. Gwen, fighting tears, returned the hug and gave him a big kiss.
Cody and Sierra hugged and finally being back safe with the group.
"Good to feel the love, huh?" Noah quipped at Aidan, who was standing around awkwardly. The boy chuckled in agreement.
Chef, woken by Trent and Gwen's happiness, came out of the tent, fully dressed and fully alert even though it had to be not later than 7am. Despite the hard mask he put on, you could tell he was glad that the five were back…plus one extra.
"Who's this kid?" Chef asked Ezekiel.
"I'm Aidan." Aidan spoke for himself. "I was captured along with these guys, minus the girl with the purple hair and…Cody, I think his name is? We met those two on the way back."
Chef nodded, though he did stare at Aidan suspiciously. "You ain't gonna go apeshit if somebody up and dies, are you?"
Aidan looked confused, "Uh, no?" He turned to Ezekiel. "What's he talking about?" He whispered to the prairie boy as Chef turned and started talking to Noah.
"Long story, eh." Ezekiel whispered back, "I'll tell you some other time."
As Aidan nodded, Chef was grilling Noah about what happened while they were gone.
"Okay." Noah began, addressing everyone who was awake and had come to see. "So Ezekiel, Gwen and I were walking through the woods after the attack, looking for you guys. We see some firelight, so we stupidly rush in there, assuming it was you guys."
Chef scoffed at their stupidity, but didn't interrupt.
Noah shot him an annoyed glance, but continued on. "And after that there were these guys, and they cuffed me and the Zeke unconscious, so I don't really know what happened." He turned to Gwen. "Did they knock you out as well?"
Gwen, who was sitting on Trent's lap with his arms protectively around her, shook her head, looking queasy from the memory. "No, but I wish they had."
Trent's eyes widened. "Did they hurt you?" He asked worriedly, getting up and looking around Gwen for any signs of abuse.
Gwen quickly shook her head. "No, that leader guy, Bruce or whatever his name is, he wouldn't let them touch me. Though some guy did steal my leggings while I slept."
Everyone cringed on how perverted and creepy that was.
"Anyways, before I finally drifted off they were all just talking about how they were going to raid a nearby town for supplies and women." Gwen said sadly.
"Hopefully we delayed their plans, with all those bullets and stuff." Aidan chuckled.
Chef tapped his chin thoughtfully, something obviously on his mind.
"What's up, Chef?" James asked curiously, noticing the cook's furrowed brow.
"Just thinking…for now." The black cook mumbled, still lost in thought.
Meanwhile, Trent and Gwen had gotten to kissing, and Noah and Ezekiel went to go take a nap after setting up their respective tents.
Cody and Sierra were talking to the main group. Upon seeing Aidan sitting by himself, Cody took it on himself to introduce him to everyone.
"Everyone, this is Aidan." Cody said, pointing at Aidan. He then addressed Aidan. "This is everyone else."
After going through the entire group of people, everyone sat around and talked, minus Noah, Ezekiel, Justin (who was still exhausted from the night before) and Chef.
After a couple hours, the absence of the black ex-cook became apparent to several people.
"Anyone seen Chef?" Mike asked, curious.
"Yeah, I haven't seen him for a while." James added.
"He might be in his tent, has anyone checked there?" Heather scoffed, rolling her eyes.
A quick silence fell over the group.
"Uh, I don't think so, actually." Geoff said with a chuckle.
"I'll go check!" Brick offered. He got up. "Be back shortly, maybe you guys can get dinner started?"
Harold hopped up. "I'm on it!"
Alejandro got up as well. "I'll help too!"
Brick grinned happily. He was looking forward to some roast venison, which had been shot by Chef a couple days before, and some roasted wild potatoes. He headed off toward's Chef's tent with a small spring in his step. Upon reaching the tent, he saw that Chef was indeed in his tent, looking like he was meditating.
"Uh, excuse me, Commander." Brick said nervously. "Is this a bad time? Some of the others were looking for you."
Chef, who had been previously turned away from Brick, moved so he was now looking at the cadet. He had a faraway look on his face, as if he was deep in thought.
"Are they?" he asked gruffly. "Well I'm thinkin' about something; though I haven't made up mind yet. Come and get me at dinner and I'll letcha know what I've decided."
Brick, puzzled, decided to leave Chef be and return to his fellow friends.
"Yeah, he's in his tent." Brick said, sighing as he stretched out on the ground. "He's acting rather strange. He's deep in thought about something…though I don't know what. He said he'd tell us at dinner."
"Well then we'll have to wait a while." Harold said, annoyed. "I'm having some trouble getting the fire to really blaze up. It'll be another hour at most."
Most of the campers groaned.
"Did someone say an hour?" Ezekiel griped as he exited his tent, freshly awake from his nap. "I just escaped rapist, murderous heathens and I can't even eat something?"
Mike tossed him an apple. "Here, eat this."
Ezekiel caught it and looked down at the fruit in surprise. "Where'd you find this beauty, eh?" The homeschooler examined the apple before taking a bite. "Delicious!"
Mike chuckled. "There are apple trees all over the place! Just look around."
"Yeah." James added. "We should be sure to harvest some before we move on."
"Speaking of moving on." Courtney piped up, snuggled against her boyfriend. "Where are we now?"
Everyone furrowed their brow in thought.
"I don't know." Zoey finally admitted. "I know where in the States but I don't know where we crossed, or what states are just south of Canada's border."
"The states that border Canada in the north east side are Vermont, Maine, New York and New Hampshire." Harold added from his place at the fire. "We haven't moved far enough yet to be in another state from where we first entered, and it's too warm to still to be Maine…so I'd guess Vermont or New York."
"The city that never sleeps." Beth sighed dreamily. "I was SO jealous when you guys got to go in World Tour!"
"Yeah, good times…" Izzy said sadly. "Chillin with my Big O."
A moment of sad silenced followed, and was only broken a few minutes later by Harold's cheer. The fire had finally blazed up, and Trent and Alejandro were getting ready to cook the meat as Harold set up the potatoes.
"Someone should go get Chef." Bridgette said as Trent put big strips of venison on the fire, the grease dripping into the flames.
All eyes turned to Brick. The cadet held his hands up defensively. "I already did that. Get someone else!"
"To do what?" Justin yawned, finally emerging from his tent.
"You need to go get Chef." Heather quickly said, before anyone else could say anything.
The male model yawned again. "Alright," He smiled, "Man that venison smells good!" He started to walk down the path. Once he was out of earshot, Jo voiced a question.
"Why'd you interrupt us all?" She asked, "We were debating who would go see Chef!"
Heather bristled, "Because instead of sitting around arguing for fifteen minutes on who would go get him, I just commanded Justin to do it so we could save time and actually get something done around here! Got a problem with that, shemale?"
Jo stood up. "Say that again, bitch. I fucking dare you."
Heather thought about it, but the irritableness caused by hunger overpowered the reasonable voice. She stood up as well. "You got a problem, shemale?"
Jo started to advance towards the Queen Bee, but was held back by Lightning. Despite Jo's impressive athletic abilities, Lightning more than doubled her strength.
"You stupid cunt." Jo spat.
A couple gasps was heard, and Geoff tried to peace keep before 'shit got too heavy.'
"Look, we're all a little hungry and a little crabby, let's just calm down." Geoff said sternly, glaring pointedly at Jo.
Unfortunately for Jo, no one was keeping an eye on Heather, and she crossed the distance between herself and the jockette in a matter of seconds.
WHAP
Heather slapped Jo across the face with all her strength, creating an instant bruise and splitting Jo's lip.
"Don't you dare call me that!" Heather screamed at her, attempting to continue hurting Jo. Alejandro quickly restrained her, and the screaming of the two girls quickly accelerated the arrival of Chef and Justin.
"What the FUCK is going on here?" Chef roared, instantly silencing the two fighting girls.
"She called me a she male!" Jo hollered, pointing at Heather.
"She called me a cunt!" Heather yelled right back.
"She hit me in the face!" Jo exclaimed.
Chef took a deep breath and mentally counted to five.
"Well, why don't you just forgive each other before I seriously hurt someone." The cook said in a dangerously low voice.
Jo and Heather, incredibly intimidated by Chef's anger, each said 'I'm sorry' to each other without looking at each other.
Cher walked over to the fire and sat down. "Now, if you would all be so kind. Let's eat some dinner, because I got something to discuss with you."
Harold and Alejandro started serving people, and the people who got their roast venison and potatoes gathered around Chef to hear what he had to say. After everyone got their food, Chef cleared his throat.
"Well maggots, I've been thinkin." Chef started. "Gothball overheard those asswipes talking about raiding a nearby town. I don't like the sound o' that. No indeed."
Dawn sighed, "I knew he was going to do it."
"Let me finish!" Chef said impatiently. "I looked at those maps and the town's about five miles to the northwest. Those baddies are going to pass through here anyways trying to reach it!"
"So what exactly are you suggesting?" Duncan asked, raising an interested eyebrow.
"I say we get there first. And surprise attack those bastards." The cook punched his palm with his hand. A shocked silence fell over the group of survivors.
"Us?" Cody inquired, his voice cracking from fear. "We're just a bunch of kids!"
"We're not even adequately armed." James pointed out. "We'd take seriously risk of casualties."
"Don't think I haven't taken that into account," Chef said.
"Are we outnumbered?" Izzy asked, cutting off Chef.
"No, actually." Noah said. The bookworm was leaning against a stump, his brow furrowed in thought. "I didn't get a very accurate count, but there was no way there could've been more than a dozen. And a couple of them were shot whilst we were escaping."
"How many firearms do we have?" Duncan asked, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully.
"Seven." Chef answered. "Five handguns, a hunting rifle and a shotgun."
"I also have this." Aidan said, pulling out the Desert Eagle.
Chef whistled through his teeth in admiration. "What a beaut! That means eight guns!"
"I'll be damned." Noah chuckled.
"This just might work." Harold said, completing the bookworms sentence. "If we can actually surprise them, we can take out more than five-sixths of their personnel at once, and with the shotgun and the hand gun we might be able to finish them off before they even get a shot off…"
"Yeah, that sounds great." Eva piped up, "But how much ammo do we have? Didn't North make off with a bunch of it?"
Chef's face darkened at the teen's name, but he answered calmly enough. "It is true that North took about two-thirds of the handgun ammunition, but we still have a lot of shotgun ammo and a decent amount of hunting rifle ammo." Chef looked at Aidan's Desert Eagle. "How many bullets does that thing got? Cause the 9mm won't work in that."
Aidan slid out the magazine and checked. "Only six." He said, disappointed.
"That's six bad guys!" Geoff said optimistically.
"Only six zombies though." Bridgette added, pessimistic.
"Cheer up babe. We got this!" Geoff smiled. He wrapped an arm around his girlfriend and leaned her head on his shoulder, causing her to smile.
Chef continued speaking. "Now, I say first thing tomorrow we head out northwest. We get to the town, make peace with who ever lives there, then jump these bastards as soon as they arrive through the front gate. What do y'all think?"
There was silence. No one was sure what to say.
"I'm in." Aidan said, breaking the silence. "The less evil rapist douchebags in this world, the better."
James gave an approving smirk to Aidan. "I like this guy. He also has a point. I'm in."
Duncan nodded his head. "Let's do it."
And one bye one, everyone also agreed, though some were more reluctant then others. Half nearly agreed because after all the strong people agreed they didn't want to be left alone with no protection.
Chef smiled a genuine smile. "Good, now we should probably finish up supper and then get straight to bed. We got a long and dangerous day tomorrow."
Everyone nodded and went back to eating their meal.
"What to you think of this whole ordeal?" Sierra asked Beth. Beth had been one of the most reluctant people and one of the last people to agree.
"I don't like it." Beth said, shaking. "I don't want to go near those evil men or meet more people! I just wish life was back to normal!" She started sobbing.
"Aww, you poor thing." Sierra said, giving Beth a hug. "Ssh, it'll be okay. Don't worry! Cody and I will protect you."
Beth still sobbed on, and no comfort Sierra gave her could comfort her. Justin came over and took over, letting Sierra be able to go chat with the others.
On the other side of the campfire, Heather and Jo were glaring murderously at each other. Alejandro was glaring at Jo, whilst Brick was glaring at Heather. They stayed that way for a while, before Brick finally got tired and went to bed.
One by one, everyone went to bed until only Chef, James, Brick, Eva and Duncan were awake. The five sat around the fire; in silence until Brick broke it.
"So, Chef." He began. "How confident are you that his plan will go smoothly and swiftly?"
Chef shrugged. "Small, honestly. I think we got a pretty good chance of just takin' em and ending it before it begins. There's always a chance of something going wrong though."
Noah came up to the fire, dressed in his pajamas and a book. "What fascinating topic are we talking about?" He asked drolly, sitting down. His book remained closed.
"Tomorrow." James said, throwing another fistful of brush onto the fire.
"Ahh." Noah said, half-interested. The book opened. "Any chance that these people in the town are as bad as these scumbags we're going to go kill?"
"I was thinking the same thing." Eva admitted. "We have no idea if these people are going to even consider accepting our help."
"It's a risk we have to take, and a minimal one at that." Chef said irritably, his mood soured by the criticism of his plan. "I'm going to bed." He sat up and stalked off to his tent, muttering under his breath.
Eva yawned and stood up. "Me too, we got a day of killing disgusting human beings tomorrow!" She cracked her knuckled and sighed happily. "I'll hear that cracking sound tomorrow when I crack their necks." She went off to bed.
The remaining four people gave each other a look.
"I'm glad she's on our side, all I'm saying." Duncan smirked before going to bed a well.
James stretched his back and stood up. He addressed Brick and Noah. "You guys good for being the first watch?"
Noah shrugged and Brick nodded, so James went off to tell Chef. When he came back he sat down and looked out into the distance thinking hard. An uncomfortable expression was on his face.
Noah was reading his book, keeping one eye and both ears on his surroundings. His mind, however, was far away from his book, and was thinking on what was going to go down tomorrow.
Brick was keeping his eyes firmly on the woods. Knowing full well that he would be able to stay awake and alert, he also let his mind wander to the events of tomorrow.
The three boys sat in the dim light, two pondering the future, one regretting the past. The silence stretched on.
As does life.
Dead: Owen, LeShawna, Staci, Sadie, B, Sam, Dakota, DJ, Lindsay, Chris, Cameron Tyler, Scott, Anne Maria, Katie, Haley.
Alive: Ezekiel, Eva, Noah, Justin, Izzy, Cody, Beth, Courtney, Harold, Trent, Bridgette, Geoff, Duncan, Heather, Gwen, Alejandro, Sierra, Lightning, Zoey, Jo, Mike, Brick, Dawn, Chef, Aidan, James.
There you guys go! Sorry it was a long update, it'll be better now, I promise :)! Please review if you enjoyed, it's the fuel that keeps me going! :D!