Part II: My Side
-Day 50-
"Hey!" says a voice as it hits the cell bars, grabbing JuJu's attention.
It stops him from doing pull-ups from a pipe hanging from the ceiling of his cell. He lets go of the tube and lands on his feet to see two soldiers staring at him. He grabs his shirt from the ground and wipes his face full of sweat as the scars on his side, now stitched cleaner by K.H.A.N. doctors, and his face is more visible in the light.
"The fuck do you want?" he growls at the soldier as he puts on his shirt.
"You have to go to the yard with the others. You can't stay in your cell the whole time."
"I don't care."
"Come out or we'll make you come out."
"Try me pendejos."
The guards open his cell and walk in. JuJu starts to throw punches until one of the soldiers gets his M4 assault rifle and hits him in the stomach with the butt of the gun. He falls over and grunts, gasping for air. He's lifted and led outside with the other prisoners. Once they get to the gates of the makeshift yard, JuJu is thrown in and it grabs the attention of the other prisoners and his friends.
"JuJu! You alright?" asks Byron as he runs to him and helps lift him.
JuJu gets up and coughs out a little bit of blood.
"I'm good."
He limps to an empty picnic table holding his side while his group follows him.
"I'm sick of this. We need to find a way out of here."
"And how are we supposed to do that?" says Marcus. "You know that means a lot of prepping and shit. Plus, we don't have our guns and we're outnumbered by a lot."
"Marcus, you always gotta be a smartass don't you?"
JuJu looks to his left and sees the Loud parents walking toward the three.
"Hi, Julian!" says Rita. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, it looked like a hard fall," says Lynn Sr.
"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Loud. I'm fine, don't worry about it.
"Well, you're holding your side, are you sure?"
He quickly removes his hand from his side and sighs. He lifts his shirt revealing his scar.
"Oh my god," says Rita as she puts her hand over her mouth.
"It's not bad, now at least. Those guys hit me with their gun and they got the right spot. I don't want to get into how I got 'em."
"I was curious about it."
"Lynn!" Rita yells as she hits her husband's shoulder.
"Ow! Sorry."
"It's fine."
The group's attention is switched when they hear a commotion to their left and sees other survivors running toward the sound. JuJu stands up, holding his side, followed by the others, and gets into the crowd of people sitting in a circle. JuJu walks through the crowd to see a woman on the floor screaming in pain. Her veins are popping out of the skin and she's foaming from the mouth.
"What the hell?" someone says. "What's happening to her?"
One of the survivors walks toward the squirming body until the screaming stops and the body stays still. The survivor looks around the body and lifts the body's arms.
"She got bit!" yells the survivor.
The woman's eyes open with a golden glow as she gets up and attacks the survivor, biting the neck and ripping the skin apart. The other survivors scream in fear as they run away. JuJu is instantly hit with memories of what he saw at the Detroit Lions' stadium when the outbreak occurred. Seeing innocent people getting mauled by the undead. He's then brought back to reality by Byron and Jogs away from the zombie until a shot is fired and the body drops to the floor. Soldiers run in and dispose of both of the bodies.
"Hey!" someone says. "How was this person even allowed in here? You didn't even check to see if they were infected? Who knows if anyone else in here got bit?"
"Quiet!" says a soldier. "Everyone, get to your cells. Now!"
Everyone starts murmuring while exiting the gates until the soldiers stop JuJu and his group.
"You, stay." says one of the soldiers as he points at JuJu. "The rest of you, keep walking."
Marcus and the others look at JuJu worriedly as they continue walking back toward the building.
"Hey!" JuJu says. "What do y'all have against me? Damn."
"The General wants to talk to you."
JuJu follows the soldiers to an interrogation room where it's just two chairs across from each other and split by a small metal table. He sits in one of the chairs and is told to wait there while one soldier stays inside with him, her M4 rifle in hand. It's the same soldier who gave him food in his cell weeks ago.
After a couple of minutes of complete silence, Black enters the room.
"Julian Rose," he says. "Nice to see you again."
"Go fuck yourself," JuJu replies. "Let's just get this over with. What do you want?"
"Information."
JuJu pauses. "I ain't tellin' you a damn thing. You think I'm a snitch?"
"I'm not asking for info on someone. I am talking about the Detroit Safe Zone. How did you escape? I am genuinely Curious."
"Really? That's what you want? How I survived an airstrike bombing?"
JuJu is then hit in the back of his head by the soldier behind him.
"Answer him!" she yells.
"Ow! Damn, y'all need to think of something else to do. Fine. When I found out my dad went missing one day, I instantly thought something was wrong. Then when the 'terrorist', according to you, Black, came and went on a rant saying shit that was true about all of you but of course, y'all had to silence him to stay on everyone's good side. That BS did not work on me. After that happened, I knew y'all did something to my dad and you aren't telling me. The next morning, I woke up early and I decided to escape that hell hole so I snuck out. I killed 2 of your guys and made their weapons my own. There. You happy?"
"Interesting," says Black. "Have you ever shot a gun before that point?"
"When I was younger, yeah. One of my uncles taught me. Wait, you don't care that I killed some of your guys?"
"They were weak if they were killed that easily, they are nothing to me. Anyway, you got both of them with one shot each? That's impressive."
"You better not be trying to recruit me. The answer is no. Y'all killed my momma and little sister for no reason at all. Plus, I'm 14? Shouldn't that be a red flag?"
"Doesn't matter. You have the athletic ability and weapon skill that is better than some of my men. You'll fit right in. Plus, you'll be treated better than the others."
"No, Fuck that. Y'all don't deserve me. I'm loyal to my people, regardless of who the fuck you think you are."
"Very well then," Black says as he gives a head nod to the soldier in the room.
JuJu stands up when his hands are zip-tied behind his back and led out of the room walking toward his cell.
-San Diego, Day 10-
Ruben and Isiah are working out together at the school gym after a private football session.
"Hey," Isiah says. "Have you heard from JuJu? Like, at all?"
"Nah," Ruben replies, while out of breath. "Now that you think of it, shouldn't he be back by now?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna call him."
Isiah gets up from the bench press area and walks to his bag to get his phone. He looks at his messages and sees a bunch of news notifications about what's happening in the northern part of the U.S. He then looks at the top left of his screen and sees that he has no service.
"Uh, Ruben?"
"What? Did he answer?"
"I got no service, but you gotta look at this…"
Ruben stands up and walks toward Isiah to look at his phone. It reads: "Influenza Disease Hits Northern US and Turns Infected People to Rabid Cannibals"
"What the hell? I'm calling my Mom."
Ruben gets his phone and sees that his phone also has no service but also has multiple missed calls from his mother.
"I got no service too. We gotta go let our parents know."
"We'll go to your house first, Ruben."
The two grab their things and quickly exit the weight room and toward the exit of the school. They see in front a massive traffic jam down the main road toward the main freeway to their houses.
"Holy shit," says Ruben. "Could it be happening here now?"
"God, I hope the fuck not," replies Isiah. "We gotta take the back roads like we usually do."
"Good call."
The two instantly start running as fast as they can to their homes as they hear the horns of the cars and people yelling at each other blaring in the background as they get farther from the main road. After some time goes by, they get to an underpass and see the traffic jam continuing from over them. They hear police sirens, more honking, and lots of yelling from the drivers. They pass under the bridge and get to Ruben's apartment complex. It's quiet and it looked like everyone that lived there was evicted. They see children's toys on the floor, flipped picnic tables, doors left open, and broken class. Ruben grabs his house keys from his bag and goes toward the door to his apartment.
"Mom?" calls Ruben. "Are you here?"
He unlocks the door and is horrified by the first thing he sees. His dog was laying in a puddle of blood in the living room with scratch marks all over its body.
"Everything goo-" says Isiah before being cut off. "What the fuck?"
Ruben gets back to reality and walks toward his mother's room. He slowly opens the door and sees a trail of blood leading to the bathroom. He walks toward the door and as soon as he opens it, he sees something he never in his life thought he'd ever see. His mother with glowing eyes and one of her hands handcuffed to one of the bars of the shower. Her blouse was drenched with blood and she is growling trying to grab Ruben but he was out of her reach. Ruben takes a couple of steps back and sits on the ground staring at his mother, turned into a monster. Isiah also walks into the room and sees the emotionally broken face of his friend and is left speechless.
"I just talked to her this morning bro," Ruben says, starting to tear up. "I can't believe this."
"I'm sorry Ruben," says Isiah. "Wait, where are you going?"
Ruben stands up and ignores what Isiah says. He heads into the kitchen and opens one of the drawers to find a 9mm Beretta handgun with the magazine next to it. He loads it into the gun and cocks back the slide.
He goes back into the room and points the gun at his mother with his hands trembling and Isiah is standing there not knowing what to do. Ruben then pulls the trigger and ends his mother's suffering. He drops the gun and begins to bawl his eyes out.
"Isiah, leave. Please."
"What?" He replies. "Why?"
"Just leave! I don't want you to see this."
"Nah, you better not be doing what I think you gonna do."
"Get the fuck out of my house please!"
Ruben then picks up the gun and points it at Isiah with tears going down his eyes.
"Look, if you care as my friend, just leave, please. I'm done. I lost my brother years ago, my dad killed himself, and I had to kill my mom."
Isiah takes a step closer and Ruben keeps the gun pointed at him.
"Listen, It's not worth it."
He shoots a bullet at the floor near Isiah.
"You think I'm playing? Suit yourself then."
Ruben pushes Isiah out of the room and locks the door. He gets up from the floor and tries to bust through the door until he hears a shot go off and a loud thud on the floor.
"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck," Isiah says.
He quickly leaves the apartment and heads toward his house. While running from the apartment complex, the sound of his friend pulling the trigger on himself keeps replaying in his head. He will never forget that one moment for as long as he lives.
After some time goes by, Isiah arrives at his house and is met by his older brother, James. James was tall, had dark skin, and had a durag on his head. He is part of the local gang.
"Isiah!" he yells. "Where have you been? Moms has been worried about you."
"I'm here now though, am I?"
"What's with the attitude? You know what's goin' on?"
"Yeah, I do, world is ending. I already lost 2 of my friends."
"I lose people every day. That's how life is."
"If you weren't in the streets, that wouldn't have happened."
"Watch who you talkin' to like that."
"You think you're big and bad now? Shut that shit up."
"I should smack both of you boys," says their mother coming out of her bedroom. "Now is NOT the time to be arguing. Help me get the things in the car."
"Yes ma'am," they both say.
Isiah and James give each other dirty looks and go on to grab the rest of the things from their mother's bedroom.
"Where are we going anyway?" asks Isiah.
"Somewhere far from here," she replies. "Somewhere there's no problems."
They get into the car and drive away from their house.
"There's no way we're taking the freeway," says James. "Too much traffic blocking everything."
Their mother listens and decides to take the city streets where there will be fewer cars. She takes one of the exits and drives by the grocery store where they always shop at. Almost every window was shattered and looked empty inside. Everything was picked clean.
"How does all this happen in just a couple of hours?" asks Isiah.
"That's what the end of the world does," replies James. "I mean shit, survival of the fittest."
"Watch your language when I'm in the car!" yells Nicole, their mother.
"Yes, ma'am. Sorry."
Isiah laughs quietly when his older brother looks back at him and mouths, "Shut the fuck up."
After a couple of minutes of driving, they see a row of abandoned cars blocking the main road toward downtown. Their car stops and it's completely silent. James exits the car and tells his family to stay in the car. He pulls out his pistol from his waist and looks around for people or an opening for the car to pass through. Suddenly, a man jumps out of nowhere screaming, "Help me please!" he was limping toward James covered in blood and what looked like a broken leg as he was dragging it through the concrete. James raises the gun.
"Yo! Back the fuck up! Don't touch me!"
"Please, help me."
Then, an engine rumbles louder and louder as it gets closer to them.
"They're here," the man says.
"What? Who's here?"
Nicole and Isiah both exit the car and see what the sound was. A Humvee with a mounted machine gun.
"Oh shit," says James.
"Sir!" yells the soldier on the gun. "Put your weapon down, now!"
"They did this to you?"
"Yes, they rammed my car and the impact killed my wife and daughter. She was pregnant."
"I will not ask again!"
James throws the gun away and backs up to the car.
"Stay where you are!"
The soldiers exit their vehicle and unholster their rifles. Two of them walk toward James and the injured man while the other two walk toward Isiah and Nicole, pointing their weapons at them.
"Leave the vehicle and walk toward the others."
They listen and walk toward the middle of the empty street.
"Get on your knees! All of you!"
They comply and they are all handcuffed behind their backs in a straight line. One of the soldiers walks behind the injured man and with no hesitation, shoots him in the back of the head with his pistol.
"What the fuck!" screams Isiah.
"Shut up," a soldier says as he hits him in the back of the head and he falls over."
"No, please!" yells Nicole. "They're my sons!"
Isiah looks up from the ground, his vision a little blurry, and sees both his mother and his brother with guns to the back of their head. Nicole looks at her sons.
"I love you both."
Two bullets are fired and Isiah sees both his family members drop dead in front of him.
"No!" Isiah screams. "Why did you do this!"
One of the soldiers walks toward him and cocks back his pistol. He tears up and doesn't say a word. The barrel of the gun touches the back of his head and the trigger is pulled. He falls to the floor with blood leaking out of his head.
Hey, it's me. I apologize for taking so long for this chapter. Just school, work, and the Gym take out most of my time, mostly procrastination tho lmao, but one thing I know for sure is that imma finish this story. Thanks to those who took the time to read this and I will have the next chapters out as soon as I can.