Chapter 5: New Discoveries

I squinted to try and make out who the person standing in front of us was. They were big, whoever they were. Easily six foot and they weren't exactly skinny. I'm guessing that they were in the neighborhood of 300 pounds. The person stepped forward and blocked the sun and I slightly chuckled as I realized who it was. It was none other than Carlos Martinez.

I had met Carlos back when I was a sophomore and he was a senior. We later found out that we were actually cousins. He was taller than me, about 6' and he was easily 300 pounds (I said that they weren't exactly skinny). He had pretty white skin for being related to me (he didn't get out much) and he had dark (almost black) hair. "Carlos, what're you doing?" I asked with a smile.

"What does it look like I'm doing? Knitting a sweater?" he asked sarcastically, "I'm fuckin' killin' zombies! What're you doing? Goin' out for a stroll? I can't say I blame you. It's a nice day."

"Quit bein' a smart ass," said Seth.

"Calm down there," said Carlos, "Put that rage away and enjoy the sunrise." He turned and looked at the rising sun and let out a sigh.

"So, seriously," I said, "Why do you have a bar stool?"

"I told you," he said as he turned back towards us, "I had to improvise. I didn't have a gun or anything else, but I just saw the bar stool and grabbed it. We work with what we're given. Not all of us are gifted with guns just like not all of us are gifted with an eight inch penis."

"Hey, hey, hey," said Devyn, "Don't be getting x-rated up in here. And by the way, I happen to be one of the lucky ones. I have the gift."

"Oh my God," said Zayna, "TMI."

"Yeah," I said, "this is gettin' a little outta hand."

"OK, OK," said Carlos, "now can you guys do me a favor and tell me what the fuck you're doing here?"

"Well, maybe if you asked nicely," said Zayna.

"Please, tell me what the fuck you're doing here," said Carlos. Zayna rolled her eyes.

"Whatever," she said, "I guess that's nice enough. We were on the way to the airport when Mr. Mohawk over there told us that it was a lost cause, so we decided to come here."

"Mr. Mohawk?" asked Carlos as he looked at Devyn, "That's a good one. Lemme write this down." Carlos set the bar stool on the ground and reached into his back pocket. He pulled out a notepad and a pen. He jotted down something and looked back at us.

"So you managed to get paper and a pen, but not a gun?" I asked.

"I carry this with me everywhere," he said as he put it back into his pocket, "ya never know when you're gonna need a bit of doodlin' paper."

"Surely you can't be serious," said Will.

"I am," said Carlos, "and don't call me Shirley."

"Wait…What?" asked Michael.

"Never mind," said Carlos, "I should've known you wouldn't get that. It was before your time." I looked at Carlos' blood-stained bar stool and saw that it was in pretty rough shape. One of the legs was about to break and the actual seat was covered in blood. I though for a second about what we could do. I glanced around at the team and stopped when I got to Zayna. I remembered that she had an extra pistol (and it's not like she needed both of them).

"Zayna," I said, "give Carlos one of your pistols."

"Are you serious?" she asked, "We're gonna give him a gun? Do you want to die?"

"It'll be alright," I said reassuringly, "trust me." She sighed and removed one of her holsters. She walked over to Carlos and handed it to him. He took the holster and took the gun out. He looked it over for a minute and smiled maliciously. He looked over at us and pointed the gun at us.

"BACK THE FUCK UP!" he screamed as we all pointed our guns at him, "GIMMIE ALL YOUR GUNS AND AMMO! NOW! I WILL SHOOT YOU! YOU TOO, PAUL! I'M NOT AFRAID TO SHOOT MY OWN COUSIN! NOW DO WHAT I SAID!"

"Um, Carlos, do you really expect this to work?" asked Amos, "Look at the guns we have and you have a pistol."

"I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!" he screamed, "I WILL MURDER YOU! I WILL-nah, I'm just messin' with you guys." Carlos laughed as lowered the gun and put it back in his holster. He strapped the holster to his belt and looked back at us. We stood there with blank expressions on our faces.

"See what I mean?" said Zayna.

"I'm kinda startin' to have second thoughts about this guy," said Devyn.

"Guys, guys," said Carlos, "It was a joke. Calm down. I couldn't shoot you guys. I love ya too much."

"Wait a second," said Devyn, "you don't even know me."

"Maybe it's you that doesn't know you," said Carlos as he raised his eyebrow, "maybe I know you better than you know yourself. Maybe you don't even exist. You might just be a figment of our imaginations. Ever think about that?"

Devyn stared at Carlos for second, thinking about what he'd said. "Can I just shoot this motherfucker right now?" asked Devyn.

"Guys, calm down," I said, "we need all the help we can get, Devyn. We shouldn't be at each others' throats at a time like this."

"Alright," said Devyn, "I guess I can refrain from killing him…for now."

"Better sleep with one eye open, Carlos," said Amos.

"How do you do that?" asked Carlos.

"It's a figure of speech," said Amos.

"TEACH ME!" screamed Carlos, "I WANT TO KNOW!"

"Carlos, shut the fuck up!" I yelled, "You keep screaming like that and you'll attract some unwanted attention."

"Sorry," he said, "Lost my cool for a second there, but I'm OK now. I'm sorry you had to see that…never speak of this again."

"Speak of what?" asked Michael.

"Exactly," said Carlos.

"Alright, alright," said Seth, "we should get outta here before those fuckin' vampires get us."

"Seth, they're zombies, now vampires," said Will.

"Wait, there's both of 'em?" asked Carlos.

"No," I said, "just zombies. Vampires aren't real."

"Then tell me something," said Carlos, "Why the hell was I shooting people with silver bullets last night? And why the fuck was I hammering wooden stakes into their hearts?"

"Because you're insane," said Amos.

"I guess that's a good enough reason," said Carlos.

"Seriously though, we should get out of the open," said Seth.

"Yeah," I said, "let's get inside." We all began walking towards Wal-Mart and Carlos began following us.

"Shit," he said as he ran back to his bar stool. He picked it up and I could've sworn that I heard him mutter, "I didn't forget ya, baby." He ran and caught up with us as we arrived at the doors. The doors slid open and we walked inside. There were bodies everywhere, zombie and human.

"Damn, there was quite the party up in this bitch," said Seth as we walked over to a dead Tank.

"Holy shit," said Carlos as he stopped next to Seth and looked at the Tank, "What is this thing?"

"That would be a Tank," said Will, "Strong as an ox and hard as fuck to kill."

"Ahem," Seth pretended to clear his throat.

"Unless you're Seth," said Will, "Happy now?"

"Very," said Seth. I watched Zayna walk over to a dead body and kneel at its side. I saw her shoulders sink and I walked over to see what it was. Once I got a little closer, I could see that she was actually crying. I got even closer and saw what she was upset about. On the ground, in a puddle of blood, was Luke. He had been about my height, had a kinda average build, light skinned, and he'd had brown hair and blue eyes.

I knelt down next to her and put my hand on her shoulder. She turned her head and looked at me. "I'm sorry," I told her. She looked back down at Luke and began sobbing uncontrollably. Everyone looked over at us and I looked over to Seth. I motioned over to the door and he nodded.

"Come on, guys," he said quietly as he led the others into the store. I took a closer look at Luke's body. He had four huge slash marks across his chest. I looked to his left and saw a dead Hunter. The Hunter had bullet wounds under his chin. In Luke's right hand, he was holding a M9 pistol. He had killed the Hunter himself, but not before it had a chance to slash him.

"At least he went down fighting," I said. Zayna nodded and continued sobbing. "Hey," I said. She looked over at me, tears running down her cheeks. "It'll be alright," I told her, "Luke was a great guy, but he's in a better place now. It was just his time. I'm sorry." Zayna's lip quivered and she lowered her head onto my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her and she wrapped hers around me. "It'll be OK," I told her. She continued crying for a few more minutes, until finally she lifted her head. I let her go and she looked back at Luke.

"He's not gonna be one of them, is he?" she asked.

"I don't think so," I said, "It looks like he's been dead for a while. He would've changed by now." She swallowed hard and moved over to his side. She put her hand on his cheek.

"Goodbye," she whispered. She kissed her hand and put the hand to his lips. "I'll see you again someday," she whispered. She stood up and sighed deeply. I stood up and we both walked inside the store. All the guys were standing right there, waiting for us. Seth walked over to us and looked over at Zayna.

"I'm sorry," he said sadly. Even I was shocked by that one. Seth and Zayna had never really got along, but Seth was actually showing sympathy towards her. Zayna nodded and Seth held out his hand. "Friends?" he asked.

Zayna looked down at his hand. She grasped it and they shook hands. "Till the end," she said. They released and they smiled at each other.

"So what're we gonna do here?" asked Michael, "Looks like the place is deserted."

"Some shit went down here a while back, but it doesn't look like anyone made it," said Devyn, "Those that did make it probably got the fuck outta here after the fireworks."

"Let's just look around," I said, "besides we could get some food while we're here."

"Get some Twinkies," said Carlos.

"Of course the fat guy suggests Twinkies," said Devyn.

"It's not just that," said Carlos, not even upset that Devyn had called him fat, "They take a long time to go bad. Those things could survive a nuclear war, so a zombie apocalypse is nothin' to them."

"Yeah, I could go for a Twinkie anyways," I said. Now, this Wal-Mart had been here forever and we all knew the layout of it, basically by heart. When you first walk in the doors, there's the registers. The whole left side of the store was food and the right a mixture between automotive, sporting goods, home improvement, and the pharmacy. The center of the store was where all the clothing was and in the back was electronics, toys, and shoes.

We all walked towards the food section to get our Twinkies. We walked past the registers and it just felt wrong. It was just wrong to not see a line at every register. It was wrong to not see little kids bugging their parents for a candy bar. It was wrong not to see all the old people in their little carts, yelling at you if you get in their way.

We passed the registers and walked into produce. We all froze. There was a mob of zombies that seemed to be waiting for us there. "Shit," said Seth. The zombies rushed us and we opened fire, except for Carlos who had to wait for them to get close enough so that he could "bar stool" them to death. I fired two shots from my shotgun, taking out two zombies (one shot, one kill). A zombie got a little too close to Amos and he pulled out his knife and drove it into the zombie's skull. Zayna fired the MAC-10 in full auto mode and she fired in a sweeping motion, just mowing them down.

Michael took a few steps back and pulled out his sniper. He shouldered it and fired, popping a zombie's head. Will rifle butted a zombie and fired a few rounds into its head as it was on the ground. Seth and Devyn had rushed forward a little and were right in the midst of a mini-horde. They fought back-to-back, totally demolishing the zombies. Carlos bashed in a zombie's head with his bar stool and one of the legs of the stool broke off. He threw the stool at a zombie, knocking it over. He drew his pistol and put the zombie down for good. Suddenly I heard a Hunter shriek and Michael fell to the ground, Hunter on his chest. None of us had a clear shot at him because we were kinda busy with other zombies. I heard three shots ring out and the Hunter fell dead on Michael's chest, three bullet holes in the back of his head. We mopped up the last of the zombies as Michael got to his feet and we all looked at each other then down at the Hunter.

"I didn't hit it," said Devyn.

"Of course you didn't," I heard someone say, "That would be my handiwork." We turned to our left and saw who it was. It was Bradyn Rogers. Bradyn was a Native American guy who I'd met back in seventh grade. He was about as tall as me, with dark, shoulder-length hair. He had brown eyes and dark brown skin. He was also as skinny as a twig. He held Steyr SPP (it's basically the civilian model of the TMP, and it can only be fired in semi-auto mode).

"Bradyn," we all said simultaneously.

"The one and only," he said as he walked towards us.

"What're you doing here?" I asked.

"Just hangin' out?" asked Amos.

"Yeah, pretty much," he answered.

"At Wal-Mart?" I asked, "In the middle of a zombie apocalypse?"

"Don't judge me," he said.

"I wasn't," I said, "I was just-"

"Fuck you," interrupted Bradyn.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"Nothing really," he answered, "I just felt like saying that."

"OK, I guess that's fine," said Will.

"You're damn skippy it is," said Bradyn.

"Damn skippy?" asked Carlos, "Gotta write that one down too." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his notepad. He wrote it down and put it back into his pocket.

"So Bradyn, you wanna hang with us for a while?" asked Seth.

"I guess so," said Bradyn, "besides, I gotta stick around, seeing as Michael would die without me."

"Hey, that Hunter blind-sided me, that wasn't my fault," said Michael.

"Hunter?" asked Bradyn, "That's what you call those things?"

"Yeah, we come up with name for all the zombies," said Zayna. We realized we hadn't really told Carlos about that either, so we gave him and Bradyn a quick run-through of the zombies. Once we were all good on that we walked into the food section. We looked around picking out all of the food we wanted. I had a feeling that we were gonna need it in the coming days.