"Hey, Alice. Alice, wake up." I opened my eyes slowly, the voice bringing me back from a rather pleasant dream about chocolate ice cream and wafers. Grumbling I slowly sat up, rubbing the remnants of sleep from my blue eyes, and tucking my long blonde hair behind my ears. Looking up I saw the smiling face of my friend, Addy. She gave my head a quick pat which I in turn grumbled yet again.
"You really aren't a morning person, are you?" Addy questioned with a smile.
"No. No I am not." I replied giving a huff, pushing myself to stand up and stretch out my aching bones. "And I never will be." I admitted, now walking over to my small fold out table. Upon said table were my weapons, two kukri knives, a standard 9mm pistol, and my favourite weapon of all, my tactical katana. The blade was black and around 24 inches long, the handle was wrapped in black cloth and a bit of rubber here and there to enhance grip. I smiled as I picked it up, holding it up to eye level so I could ensure there were no nicks or dents in the blade.
I could see Addy watching with envy as I placed all of my weapons on my body. My knives had a special holster on my lower back, making it easier to pull them out in an emergency. My pistol was simply shoved into a holster on my right hip, and my katana was sheathed across my back.
"I'm so jealous you won that sword." Addy admitted once I'd finished getting ready. I gave my friend a grin, thinking back to the bet we had made. Whoever could kill the most zombies in 20 minutes got the sword.
"I only managed two more than you, give yourself some credit." I spoke as we walked out of my tent. The sun was already high in the sky, but it never seemed to give off any warmth, not since day one of the infection. We wandered over to another tent, this one belonged to Addy and Mack.
"Hey Mack, you ready to go?" Addy called into the tent, we heard a few ruffles and a grumble, and then an 'ow'. Both I and Addy looked at each other with mock concern, she mouthed a 'What is he doing' and I gave my shoulders a light shrug, she simply rolled her eyes. "Go get Doc ready, I'll meet you at the gate." Addy said before walking into the tent. With that I made my way over to the medical tent.
Now, he may have been called Doc, but he wasn't your usual doctor. He was an addiction counsellor before the outbreak, but he seemed to know enough to be crowned the camps medic. As I approached the tent, I flicked my blonde hair behind my shoulder, taking the band from around my wrist and getting as much hair up as I could. I had always had long hair; it had been one of the things my mother loved most about me. I remembered when we used to sit on the sofa, watching movies and she would just braid my hair over and over, and usually I would end up falling asleep. I hadn't had the heart to cut it yet, and I wouldn't be any time soon. Addy was a dab hand at plaits anyway, and there was no doubt I'd have another one soon, but for now, a high ponytail would do.
"Hey Doc, you in there." I spoke after walking into the small medic tent, heading towards the back. I gave one of the patients a pat on the foot as I walked past, sending him a smile, which was weakly returned. The small section at the back was cornered off with a blanket, making it sort of Doc's office.
"Hey Alice, gimme two minutes and I'll be out." I heard the old mans voice. But then something caught my nose.
"Is that weed?" I had already poked my head through the blanket opening and saw the white haired doctor puffing on a blunt. He somewhat jumped as he looked around, his sheepish smile and shrug making me chuckle. "I thought you said you ran out. You liar." I scolded, walking into his little space. He gave a smile and shrug of his shoulders before taking a quick puff.
"Sorry darlin', I couldn't help myself." He admitted as he passed over the rest of the blunt. I took it gladly and inhaled the last of it, letting the smoke out slowly.
"Y'know, you were supposed to get me off of this stuff." I reminded him. We both gave a laugh at that as I dabbed it in the ash tray, making sure the embers had gone out. The high was smooth and slow, but not too much that it slowed me down. It sort of just, calmed the mind from thinking too much. Which was one of my problems.
After that Doc gathered up his things and we headed to the gates, Addy and Mack were already waiting, hand in hand.
"Finally, what took you so long?" Addy asked as we began to walk down the pathway, into the forest. She soon noticed the smell and rolled her eyes, "That's why you're late." She mumbled under her breath, but Doc and I heard, giving a small chuckle between us.
We continued on down the road until we came to a little blue car, that was pilled high with stuff. Sketchy and Skeezy were already waiting with a wobbly table filled with different weapons. As we approached Sketchy opened his arms wide and smiled, his teeth dirty with grime.
"Welcome my friends. I've got a wide selection of weapons for the best of zombie slayers, and of course, that just happens to be you lot." Another smile graced his lips as we approached the table, Doc walked over to Skeezy who seemed to be in charge of the drugs. Addy and Mack headed to Sketchy who was holding out weapons for them to browse through.
"Hey, Alice. Here's that whetstone you asked for." Sketchy handed over the small stone and I smiled, trading some throwing knives for it.
"Well if availability of ammo is all you care about then the .22 is the way to go." Sketchy spoke walking over to Addy and myself. "But if you really want to make an impression, check out this smoke wagon. You really make a Z's day with this." He handed a rather large gun to Addy, who took it and gave it a test aim. "Now the .22, that'll kill a Z, but it's gonna be about two or three shots before the things down and dead. This baby?" Sketchy pointed towards the gun Addy held. "You stop a car with this." I knew Addy wasn't liking the gun, while she could use almost anything you put in her hand, she preferred something silent. She handed the gun back, and then voiced her preference.
"I was thinking something more silent. Like a club. And sharp." She folded her arms over her chest and gave me a sideways glance, I nudged her in the side and we chuckled seeing Sketchy's concerned look. "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I like how you think. Silent but effective. Huh? Okay. Check this out." Sketchy spoke as he headed over to the boot of his car, pulling down the holder that held his long weapons. He then pulled out something that made Addy's eyes light up.
Sketchy handed over the weapon. "Hmmm. Made it myself. I call it 'The Z Whacker.'" Addy held the weapon in her hand and gave it a swing, testing out the weight and dexterity. "You start with an aluminium bat then customize it for the task at hand." Sketchy, Mack and I stood back as she twisted it around.
"Wow, it's light." Addy commented. "Yeah, the spikes are hand cast from beer cans. So they're long enough that they kill the brain but you can still pull it out. Cuz nothing is worse than getting your pike stuck into a Z's skull. Cuz then you got to drag them down to the ground. You got to put your foot on their chest. Then you got to yank the thing out. And by then you're dead. You know what I mean?"
"Gotta hate that." I joked giving Sketchy a nudge and a smile. With Addy seemingly happy with her purchase I headed over to a nearby tree, I had some sharpening to do. I settled down for just a moment before I heard growling.
"Behind you!" Mack yelled. From out of the trees came a zombie, this one was fast, just turned not too long ago. It headed for Addy who had her back turned to the Z, but as it came into her space and swung her new bat around and took the Z out with one hit. Sketchy was right, the spikes easily slipped in - killing the brain – and slipped right back out. I was happy that Addy and Mack could handle themselves so sat back down and pulled my kukri knives from behind my back. I was just about to start when I heard more growling. Standing up I began to approach the group, sheathing my kukri knives I pulled out one of my throwing knives. Twisting it between my fingers as I stood next to Doc.
"I wonder if his brothers know." Skeezy spoke, all of us looking down to Red Hanson on the floor, his face messed up due to Addy's swing.
"Yeah, I think so cuz here they come." Just as we looked up another one of the brothers came running out of the forest, Mack was already walking forwards with his gun up. One shot and the Z continued his approach but was already dead, Mack stepped to the side slightly and let the Z fall. Another Z, a bigger one this time, waddled for Addy. I stopped spinning my knife for a moment, Addy was my best friend, and there was no way I'd let her die.
However, with a stab to the chest to halt the Z's advance, she then swung like a champ. The Z was big and took the hit, but Mack was already there and shot the Z in the side of the head. He looked between Addy and me with a smile, giving us both a nod. I smiled as they turned around and made their way back, but before they could reach us another Z came from the forest. It grabbed Mack and tried to bite anything it could grab onto. I knew this knife would come in handy. Pulling my arm back I let the knife fly through the air, it skimmed past Mack and lodged itself in the Z's head.
"Closing time." Sketchy and Skeezy began packing away all their things with practice, it only took them a few minutes before they were heading down the road. I headed over to the brothers, checking they didn't have anything we could use on them.
"The way that big one moved he must have turned just a few hours ago." I could hear Addy speaking as she held her small camera out, filming the bodies around her. "Four brothers, recently turned, found on Miller's Road by Sutter's Farm. Given mercy, May 13, 3 A. Z." The brothers had nothing on them we could use, but I did notice the cuts on one of the brother's wrists. It seems he couldn't handle the apocalypse anymore. "You ready, Alice?" Addy called once she saw me hovering over one of the Z's, I nodded and stood up, following her.
It hadn't taken long to walk back, but as I approached the other side of the lake, I noticed something. "Smoke." I yelled back to the others, seeing the camp across the lake billowing smoke. The others were soon by my side as we stared out at our home. Doc was on the radio instantly.
"Mayday. Mayday. Calling Camp Blue Sky. This is Doc. With Thompson, Carver and Crowley. What is your situation? Over." Doc spoke through the radio. We hoped the camp would be the first to reply but we heard Garnett's voice.
"Hey, Doc. What's going on? What's going on?" Garnett called back, worry clearly laced in his voice. "Garnett? Thank God you're alive. We thought everyone was dead." I looked over at the place I had called home, it was one fire, everything was on fire.
"I'm not at Camp Blue Sky. What's happening?" Garnett wasn't there? I suppose that was a good thing. "Batteries dying. God damn it." Doc cursed hitting the radio, as if that would help. Before Doc could repeat his last message an explosion ripped through the camp, if anyone had been alive, they were sure to be dead now. "Blue Sky has been overrun. The whole place is on… fire." Doc informed Garnett on the other side. "Survivors?" Garnett asked quickly. "Well there was a ton of gunfire a while ago, but nothing since." With that the battery died, leaving us with no communication to Garnett. "Come on, let's go." I spoke, standing up from my perch and heading around the lake. If anyone was still alive, they'd be in the bus, heading down the road. If we got there quick enough, we could join them and protect the kids.
We made it to the road quickly, just in time to see the dirty yellow school bus racing down the road. We all stopped by the side, watching as it drove by. "Oh, there's the escape bus." Addy spoke relived, but I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Oh, they got the kids out." And then, as if in slow motion we saw the Z, its head sticking out of one of the windows. The bus continued to speed down the road before turning towards the forest. "Come on!" Addy yelled as we all began running towards the bus, if we could save at least one of them. But we were too late as the back door swung open and a Z leapt out, if it wasn't the apocalypse it would have been comical how we all almost turned on the spot.
Everyone on the bus had been turned and now they were chasing after us. "Come on, Doc. Get those legs moving!" I yelled behind me, seeing Doc lagging a little.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" He yelled back. We tackled the hill in front of us and all stopped at the top. Four Z's stood in the road, snarling once they'd realized we were there. Before any of us could move – inclusing the Z's – they were taken down by a truck. Garnett was hanging out the window.
"Get in!" Garnett yelled. He didn't have to say anymore as we all heaved ourselves towards the truck. A man I hadn't seen before opened the back door for Doc, who threw himself in. I, Addy and Mack jumped into the bed of the truck.
"Go! Go! Go! Go!" Mack yelled slapping the side of the truck as we sped off. We were silent for a while, the reality of what had just happened sinking in. How could that have happened? The perimeter was safe, Donna and Marion were on watch. It just didn't seem right that everything would go to shit so quickly. Frowning I looked through the window, seeing Warren and Garnett up front, Doc on the right back seat, and two new men. What looked like a soldier and a civilian were sat side by side. Had Garnett and Warren saved them? Or had they met before this had all happened. Whatever was happening it didn't feel right to me.
"Hey, you alright?" I asked Addy, noticing she was staring at her hands. She looked up to me with a confused look. I knew she was thinking the same as me.
"I don't understand it either." I spoke, stretching my legs out. "It's almost like they were just overrun in an instant." Mack added, checking his gun out.
"Maybe they came from the water? But could that many all stick together, surely Donna or Marion would've noticed something." I offered. We sat in silence for a while again, it didn't matter now. Our home was gone.
We'd been driving for almost an hour before we started to slow down, I had already stood up in the bed of the truck, leaning on the roof. "Hey, we're here." I stated looking down to Addy and Mack. They stood up and Addy pulled out her camera, filming the scenes around us. It looked like we'd pulled up in front of what used to be a university, or at least what was left of it. There were bodies strewn everywhere, and a billow of smoke leaked from a truck which looked like it had rammed its way through.
The soldier quickly jumped out of the truck, followed by the other male, whom was quickly told to 'Wait in the truck.' He gave a grumble before doing as he was told. We all watched the soldier as he approached the front doors, checking the bodies laying around to make sure they were safe.
"Is it them?" The civilian asked, leaning out of the window. "Hammond?! Is it them?" he yelled. There was a small pause before we heard a small growl. Hammond looked down and saw the top half of a Z soldier crawling from under the car.
"Yeah." He called back, disappointment clearly in his voice. It seems like we had come here for a reason, and that reason was currently either Z or had been given mercy.
"I got to pee." The civilian admitted as we all began to exit the truck. I landed softly and began to look around, I couldn't see a Z so far, but there seemed to be some salvageable stuff around. Addy, Mack and Doc stayed by the truck, Doc hanging out of the door.
"My reinforcements are dead. We need to make a quick search for survivors and any supplies." I heard the Hammond order. "You! Zip it up and stay close to me." He pointed towards the civilian, who grumbled annoyed before indeed zipping himself up.
"Hey, where'd all the Z's go?" Addy asked.
"Movin' on, like locust." Doc replied.
"Nothing for them to eat." I added, getting a grimace from Addy.
"Yeah, but they'll be back." Hammond warned. Then he began giving out more orders, I wasn't exactly sure about following this guy. Garnett and Warren were my leaders. He spoke to them and they seemed to follow his orders. "And you four check the vehicles." He called back to us, I gave a scoff but caught the warning motherly gaze of Warren. I rolled my eyes and was soon pushed off with Addy behind me.
"Come on grumpy guts, get searching." She nudged me again and I groaned but began to salvage what I could. I headed around the building, picking up little bits and pieces. I then stood up to give my back a stretch, and something caught my eye. It was almost like the glint of someone holding up a piece of glass, or a scope. Holding my hand over my eyes to block out the sun, I caught the sight of something on the roof. I couldn't tell what it was, but as soon as I looked up there. The glint was gone. Frowning I gave a shrug of my shoulders before continuing my job.
I joined up with Mack, Addy and Doc again after I heard growling from around a corner. "Hey guys, you hear that?" I asked waving them over. As we turned the corner we could see a bunch of Z's crowding around what looked like a cage.
"What are they after?" Addy questioned as we approached the Z's. I pulled out my kukri knives from behind my back and spun them in my hands.
"Only one thing. Come on." I informed as we came up behind them, each of us taking out a Z. We cleared them with ease and when all was done, there was a girl. Yep. Crouched in the smack damn middle of the cage was what looked like a woman, she had tanned skin with long black hair. But other than that I couldn't tell much about her.
"Hey. Hey. You alright?" Mack asked as we all looked through the cage.
"Over here." I stood in front of the door where a padlock held it closed. Mack came over and broke the lock with his crowbar, before swinging the door open and walking inside.
"Careful. She might be dead." Addy warned from the other side of the cage, with Doc by her side. I made sure to stand by the door; in case it all went sideways.
Mack crouched in front of the female and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. In the blink of an eye the girl was up and holding a knife to Mack's throat. My blade was pressed against her throat in turn. Her eyes were almost black, filled with a mixture of fear and determination. My blue eyes dared her to make a move, but Addy voice stopped the both of us.
"Hey, hey, hey." Addy called holding her arm through the cage.
"Well she ain't dead." Doc joked, earning a glare from I and Mack.
"Hey, it's okay. Hey, hey. We're good people. We just saved you. Okay, don't hurt him." Addy pleaded. A moment passed before the girl slowly removed her weapon from Mack's throat. I followed suit but decided not the sheath one blade.
"Sorry. I didn't know where I was. I must have fallen asleep." She admitted standing back now. She still seemed to be on alert, which we all were.
"Asleep? How long you in this cage for?" Doc asked, shocked the woman could fall asleep with Z's surrounding her. Me not so much, I could sleep through anything.
"Two days." She confessed, her breathing now becoming erratic.
We all looked between each other before I moved, sheathing my other sword and pulling my canteen from my bag. I handed it to her silently as Mack left the cage, Addy walking round to give him a hug.
"Thanks." She gave me a gentle nod, I gave a shrug of my shoulders. "Us girls gotta stick together."
After we had introduced ourselves we found out her name was Cassandra, and that's all we knew. She agreed to come along with us for a while and we then headed back to the entrance. When we headed in I could hear the cry of a baby, we all looked to each other, shocked that a baby was still alive.
"Is that a real baby?" I questioned as we all walked in. Garnett was holding the small crying child, trying to soothe it.
"Don't ask." Warren sighed giving me a pat on the shoulder. I only rolled my eyes and went to sit with the others.
"Somebody better shut that kid up before he attracts Z's like flies." Murphy spoke up, clearly nervous of the whole situation. Garnett was trying his best to calm the child down, but nothing seemed to be working.
"Hey. It's a baby. He makes noise, okay?" Garnett informed Murphy, who clearly didn't know anything about babies.
"Shut up." Hammond ordered Murphy, then looked to Garnett. "And you, do what you can." I didn't like how this Hammond spoke to any of us, but Warren had caught us all up on the situation. Apparently, Murphy was the hope of the world, that he'd been given an experimental antidote to the Z virus and survived eight bites. We were supposed to help them get to a CDC lab in California. Like that was ever going to happen, it was literally miles and miles away.
"He's right about the Z's. Here." Hammond walked over to Cassandra, holding out a water bottle. She looked between him and the bottle before taking it quickly. She began to gulp what she could before Hammond snatched it away. I stood forwards, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving Hammond a glare, which he ignored. He then threw the bottle over to Addy.
"Why would somebody lock you in a cage and leave you to die? What did you do?" Hammond interrogated. Cassandra looked between everyone in the room.
"I didn't do anything. I locked myself in the cage for protection." She started, but I could tell she was nervous, she was hiding something. Then again we all had something to hide.
"You have the keys?" Hammond asked, standing over her.
"I lost them." She replied after a moment. I stood by Addy and gave a look to her. Then looked to Warren as she spoke up.
"Why are you dressed like that?" Warren asked, noticing the small amount of clothing she was wearing. Compared to I and Addy, who bore leather jackets and strong boots.
"I don't have to justify myself to you." She began but was soon cut off by Hammond.
"Maybe you do! We were supposed to meet the men in those vehicles. What happened here?" Hammond now bent, his hands on his knees as he tried to tell if she was lying.
"Those men showed up about a week ago. They cleared out the school and set up some kind of camp. But word got out that there was food. Lots of it from the bomb shelter. Yeah, it didn't take long. There was too many people. The soldiers shot some of the locals, and that brought the Z's." Hammond stood slowly watching Cassandra. It made sense, when you heard there was good food in the apocalypse, you followed the lead. "You can guess the rest." Cassandra finished.
Murphy was clearly having none of this as he stormed over to Hammonds side. "What are we wasting time talking to her for? Give her the baby, and let's go." He offered. Garnett spun around from placing said baby in a carrier.
"You can't give this girl a baby and leave." He spoke strongly, the usual good side of Garnett shining through.
"Well they can't come with us." Murphy spoke, although I doubt he had any say in what actually happened.
"Listen." Hammond started but Garnett cut him off.
"No way am I leaving the baby and her behind. It's not gonna happen." Garnett stood firm in, looking past Murphy and to Hammond.
"It's just a baby." Murphy started. "It's not like he's gonna grow up and be a fine young man someday." Although it was harsh, Murphy did have a point. I wouldn't be likely the baby would survive either with us, or with Cassandra.
"You know what, shut up!" Hammond had had enough as he walked to Murphy, pulling him out of the way slightly. "We'll take them to the next safe outpost. God, I hate moral dilemmas." Hammond exclaimed walking off somewhat. For now the rest of us just sat in silence, I had moved to stand by the door now, the baby had been making a lot of noise and we had been here for too long.
"Yeah what's next chief? You wanna start a college fund for him?" Murphy asked snidely.
"Puppies and kittens. 200 yards away." Warrens information closed the conversation. I looked out of the window and saw a group of Z's heading our way.
"There's some coming on my side." I alerted everyone as we began to gather our weapons. However, Hammond wasn't moving, only looking to Garnett confused.
"Zombies." Garnett clarified and Hammond nodded.
"All right, everybody. Time to go. You five, I want you to grab all the food and weapons you can find." Hammond ordered pointing to I, Mack, Addy, Cassandra and Doc. "Load them in that truck. The keys are still inside." Before Hammond could continue Mack stepped forwards.
"Hey! We haven't talked about this." Oh Mack, you always read my mind. I looked between Mack and caught sight of Warren. She shook her head, and I knew for now we had to do what Hammond said.
"We can talk about it later. Right now you do what I tell you." Hammond spoke with a firm no nonsense voice and Mack had nothing else to say. I stood by him and placed a hand on his shoulder, giving a shake of my head when he looked to me.
"Garnett! You stay with the baby and Murphy until we get back. Warren. You and I are gonna see if we can start up that deuce and a half. Everybody meets back here in five." Hammond gave out orders as if we were his team, but after he finished, none of us moved. We only look to Garnett for conformation.
"Go!" Hammond shouted, and Garnett finally nodded.
"All right. Do it." With that our group headed out, passing a pissed off looking Hammond.
We headed outside and began searching yet again for food and weapons. Addy was checking the Z's on the ground, making sure they were all mercied. It was silent as we picked the dead. I had found some matches, a few aspirin and some tobacco.
"Score." I mumbled to myself, slipping the small pouch into my backpack. Then we all heard the growling, I was up on my feet instantly, my hands reaching behind me and pulling out my knives. A soldier Z was fighting with Doc, but there was no way we could get close. The Z began to spin Doc around, and there was no chance of getting the Z without hurting Doc. And then the Z's head pretty much exploded. A giant hole was left in the Z's head, I could see right through to the other side, where a surprised Mack stood. Mack and Doc turned and looked for the mystery shooter. I looked to the roof, remembering the glint I had seen. And there he was. It looked to be a male, skinny and covered in a red scarf of some sort. He made a quick retreat when he saw us all looking.
"Well, I hope he's on our side." Doc let out a shaky breath, patting down his shirt.
"Err, Alice." I looked over to Addy who was motioning to me, and then to her own shirt. I looked down and groaned.
"Really?! I like this shirt." Brain matter had been splattered over my 'Let's kill zombies' shirt. I tried to get as much as I could off using my hands, and the rag that Cassandra had offered me. "You owe me a new shirt." I told Doc, throwing the sullied rag at him.
We had been waiting by the truck for a while now, Warren and Garnett were taking their sweet time in there.
"Hey, how're you doing?" I asked Cassandra as she sat on the side of the truck, I stood next to her, offering my water, which she took with a smile.
"I'm alright, thanks." She took a sip and handed it back, before sighing and letting her shoulders slump. I gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, we should be out of here soon."
"What's the holdup?" Hammond asked holding his arms out when we approached the door. Garnett was holding it closed and Warren was stood to the side, her hands on her knees, out of breath.
"Where's the baby?" Addy asked concerned. I could already guess what had happened.
"Turned." Warren confirmed my suspicions and I gave a small sigh to that. It was for the best though, well not the whole baby Z thing, but what would it know living in this world. Maybe it was for the best.
"Huh, surprise, surprise." Murphy gloated. He couldn't say anything more as Garnett grabbed the front of his jacket and slammed him against the door he was just holding shut. Tension quickly filled the air as Hammond pulled his gun on Garnett, I tensed up and lifted my hand to the hilt of my katana.
"Let him go. Or I will send you to walk among the dead." I pulled the hilt out just a little, the click catching Warren and Garnett's attention. Warren held her hand out and shook her head, and begrudgingly I clicked it back in – but kept my hand on the hilt. Garnett finally let go of murphy and Hammond pulled him out of the way. Hammond looked between Garnett and Warren.
"Let's get in the trucks. We're moving out." He ordered, but Warren stopped him.
"What about the… the baby thing? We can't leave it like that." The sounds of the baby inside we weird. It was almost animalistic, but, stranger.
"Yeah, she's right. Even if it is turned." Mack spoke.
"It sounds so sad." Addy added. I looked to her and then Doc with a shocked look. How could she think that sounded sad? It was horrifying.
"It's not sad. It's a zombie." Doc voiced my thoughts for me.
"Amen brother. Let's go." Murphy spoke next, throwing his arms up. Clearly, he was done with this whole situation.
"We can't leave it like that." Warren exclaimed, her motherly instinct showing through. Garnett pulled out his gun, readying himself.
"I'll do it." He spoke softly, and all of us could tell he really didn't want to. Lately he had been giving all mercy jobs to Warren or me, Warren had mercied Nana this morning.
I was surprised when Hammond stood forwards, holding Garnett's arm back.
"I'll do it." Hammond spoke, now readying his own rifle. "I need you to pull it together." He told Garnett, who only stood back slightly. "Two minutes. Be ready to go." And with that Warren pulled open the door and closed it behind Hammond.
We could hear the baby inside, and then a few rounds went off. I looked to Addy as she grabbed my hand, worry on her face. I knew she didn't much care for Hammond, but she always had a thing for babies. Me, not so much.
"If we wanted to ditch these two, take the truck and run, now would be the time." Doc spoke up, looking between me and Addy. Clearly Garnett's face was enough of an answer. "Just sayin'."
Another few minutes of silence passed before we heard more screaming. And lots of it. We all slammed into the room and what was waiting for us was nightmarish. Lying on the ground was Hammond, being munched on by mother and baby. The look in his eyes was desperate, but he knew there was nothing we could do to save him. I followed Garnett's lead as he raised his gun, everyone following suit.
"We give you mercy." I spoke before we all let loose. The three of them were dead.
We all headed back outside to gather ourselves. Murphy leant against the door of the truck, his head down.
"You know, none of this would have happened, if you'd just left that damn baby." He finally spoke, now standing up and looking at Garnett.
"I didn't tell Hammond to go get eaten by a baby." Garnett spat back.
"Never mind that now." Warren cut murphy off before he could retaliate. "We need a plan." Warren told Garnett. She was right, we had no idea what to do now. In my opinion we should just ditch Murphy and remake Camp Blue Sky.
"My plan is I'm taking this truck and I am forgetting about vaccines and labs and all of you." Murphy informed us, waving his arms about. "I wanted off this train from day one, and now's my chance."
"Wait, wait, wait. You can't just go. What about California? What about the vaccine?" Doc spoke up.
"What if it's real? What if there's a chance? And what if it's you?" Addy also spoke up. What in the hell were they thinking, there was no cure? Even if we did find a cure, the whole world had been reduced to nothing.
"I mean, he doesn't really look like the saviour of the human race." I added, getting a scoff and glare from Murphy.
"Addy. How do we know this isn't all just bullshit?" Mack asked her, his sense of reason showing through.
"How does anybody know anything anymore?" Murphy exclaimed, exasperated.
Then from the arguing we heard something. Addy returned into the school, with me behind her. I watched as she plucked Hammond's radio from his buckle, giving it a wipe on his trousers before we headed back out. Someone on the other end repeated the phrase 'Delta-Xray-Delta. Come in. This is Northern Light.'
"It's Hammond's radio." I informed the rest as Addy began to reply to this Northern Light.
"Hello?" Addy spoke into the radio and a reply was heard instantly.
"I copy you Delta-Xray! This is this is Northern Light. Who am I speaking to?" the voice on the other end asked.
"Addison Carver." Addy replied.
"Okay. I need to speak to Lieutenant Hammond." We all looked between each other as the stuttering voice asked.
"Hammond's dead." Addy informed bluntly.
"I'm… I'm… I'm sorry. I… I didn't copy that, Delta-Xray. Did you say that Hammond is dead?" the voice wanted confirmation.
"Yes." Addy confirmed.
"Is the package safe?" was the next question. The others looked between each other, but I could guess what the 'package' was. So, I looked to Murphy.
"Package? What… what package? Who is this?" Addy asked now confused.
"Listen. I need to speak to whoever's in charge." The male ordered.
"Who is it?" Warren asked, leaning over to Addy.
"They won't say. They want to know who's in charge." Warren then looked to Garnett.
"You are." Addy held the radio out to Garnett, who took it and turned around, his solider voice coming through as he spoke.
"This is Sergeant Garnett of the National Guard. Who is this?" He asked.
"Sergeant Garnett. Lieutenant Hammond was transporting a civilian named Murphy to California. Is he alive?" the male asked, clearly worried about what was going on.
"Yes. He's still alive." Garnett spoke back.
"Unfortunately." I mumbled to myself, getting a gentle slap from Warren as she gave me a stern look.
"Are… are you aware of Operation Bite Mark?" Bite Mark? That was one of the first operations to try and cure the virus when it first broke out.
"Do you mean the lab in California?" Garnett asked for clarification.
"Yes! Yes! Listen to me! It is imperative that you get Murphy to California. I repeat. It is imperative that you get Murphy alive to California. Do you copy?" The male spoke, but before Garnett could reply the radio began to fail.
"But we don't know… Who are you?" the scrambled words came through but I couldn't make them out.
"It's dead." Garnett grumbled, fiddling with the frequencies.
"So?" Warren asked, wondering what we were about to do. After a pause Garnett spoke.
"So… It looks like we're taking Mr. Congeniality here to California." We looked to Murphy as he scoffed.
"Says who?" he asked, trying to make himself bigger than he was.
"Says me." Garnett replied quickly, throwing the dead radio on the ground. With that we all packed ourselves into the trucks. Addy and Mack took one, while Warren, Garnett and Murphy took the bigger truck, and myself, Cassandra and Doc took the lead in the old truck. As we pulled out of the school we passed by someone walking down the path. He had a sniper rifle thrown over his shoulder, and I realised this was the guy would helped us.
"Hey. Hey there." Doc spoke, pulling the truck to a stop. "You're that sharp shooter that saved my ass, aren't you? Oh man. I want to thank you. Do you need a ride?" Doc asked the silent boy, after a moment he nodded and jumped into the bed of the truck with me. Patting the side we took off.
I now got to have a good look at him. He seemed to be around my age, maybe a year younger. He had short black hair, blue green eyes, and a small scar over his left eyebrow. He wore the usual get up for the zompocolypse, which was anything you could find. But he wore what he had on with style. He was kinda cute actually.
I gave him a simple nod as we took off down the road, to our new mission.