Where Do We Go From Here
Fluffy-142
Chapter 8: I Tried
The town was like any other. Overgrown, falling apart and downright desolate. Either way, we need supplies, and we need them know. Walking along what was left of the road, we reach the downtown area.
"Well, where do we start?" Rebecca sounds a few feet behind me.
"We should split up into two groups, and meet back here in 2 hours." For once, Alyssa is making some sense.
"Alright, that's a plan." Splitting into the groups, I take James, and we head towards the café across the street, while the girls kicked open the door to the office building opposite to us. Grabbing a chunk of asphalt from a crater in the road, I throw it through the large window of the café. I could hear the girls' yelps of surprise as the loud Crash resounded through the main street.
"Sorry." I call to them with a flinch on my face. It's a good thing too, because 2 clickers stumbled out of the office, and lumbered towards the mutilated glass that now littered the checkered floor of the abandoned diner. Pulling out a shiv from my belt, I whip it towards the fungal face of the closest clicker. The shiv is one of three, specially balanced shivs that I had made last week, they do come in handy. James gives a grunt of disgust as the dark liquid splattered from the forehead of my first victim, and another chunk of asphalt nailed the other in the back of the head, stunning it long enough for James to vault the windowsill, and beat it down with the modified bat from his backpack.
"I still hate these things." James really hates jump scares, and clickers are relatively known for their unexpected visits. Then again Stalkers are the worst, with their concealed movement, and near silence until it's too late. But I don't think that we'll be seeing anymore infected till later. Following James, and hopping the low windowsill, we search the isles for anything useful. Other than the three cans of fruit, and some freeze-dried meals, what's left of the bodies the clickers had been feasting on, and some shotgun shells behind the counter, this was a real score.
James and I had ransacked the surrounding three houses, and found some more ammo for the others' weapons. Along with some more canned food, another 3 runners, and a note to someone named Emile, there really wasn't much left of the town. As we walked back to the entrance to the town, to wait for the girls, what's left of the world went to even more shit.
"Where are they?" The question was asked half an hour after the predetermined meet up time.
"Well, wherever they are, they're in trouble." Right on cue, a loud grunt came from the third floor of the office building, and in a shatter of glass, a clicker was thrown through the window, and hit the ground with a definite crunch.
"Found them." Sprinting towards the door, and kicking it open, we run up the steps. And we run up the steps; still running up the steps; a few more steps. Grabbing for the knob, the door explodes open, and we're greeted by our friends, all of us toppling down the steps; and back down the steps; and still going back down the steps. THUD! We roll out the open door, and collapse in a large heap on the street.
"What. The. Fuck!" Jessika's scream was the loudest of the noises that followed our wonderful trip down the steps. No matter, the only reason I'm on the ground with my rump in the air, is so I can listen to the vibrations of something very big thumping down the steps after us.
"Oh shit. We gotta move." Hearing the roars of a bloater charging down the steps is no time to be lying in the road directly in its path. Pulling everyone to their feet, and persuading them to sprint down the road, it crashes through the too-small doorway of the office building.
"Oh SHIT!" We only got a glimpse, before a spore was launched 500 yards down the road, and exploded into powder in the window of the blue house to our right. Rebecca pulled out a Molotov and hurled it back in return fire. What a shot, that thing started thrashing around, and launching spores in every direction. Everyone else opened fire on its horrible head. There wasn't much to say, but it decided to charge at us blindly.
"We gotta move!" yelling over the roars of the bloater, as it reveled in the thought of fresh meat. James and I dodged to the left, Rebecca and Jess to the right, and Alyssa slowly pulled up a rocket launcher. Wherever the hell she got that will always be a mystery, but that thing looked bad, ass.
She fired the first of her two rounds, and it exploded in a burst of flame and fungal meat. There was practically no shoulder left on the left side of the charging monster. How the hell was that thing still up and ready to fight? But no matter, Alyssa was a goner as soon as she fired the rocket. She tried to dodge to the side, but the bloater was on top of her before she hit the ground. We all looked away as the following sickening scream and ripping sound followed her capture.
The only thing that happened next was the least expected from all of us. Jess hopped onto the back of it, and repeatedly stabbed her knife into the back of the bloater's head. All we heard was her screams of hate, as the bloater slowly sank to its knees, and fell face down onto the pavement. Jess continued to mutilate the last few remnants of brain tissue that it still contained, and picked up the rocket launcher. Blowing apart the rest of the corpse, she collapsed on the ground with sobs of ultimate suffering. She was Alyssa's closest friend. To see her like this would be enough to shatter the strongest heart.
No one said anything, as she cried herself dry, and continued to sob for another 10 minutes. Finally, with a lot of persuasion, we got her to calm down enough so we could get out of here.
"This is your, entire FAULT!" She trains her pistol on me.
"Jessika, this is no one's fault." James tries to calm her down so he can get the gun before she hurts anyone.
"Yes it is! We wouldn't have been here if it wasn't for your stupid idea!" This is getting out of hand.
"What else could I have done? Huh? Was I supposed to let us lose everything, after we've come this far?"
"You said you would keep us safe!"
"I Fucking Tried!"
"Well look where that got us! Alyssa is dead, Kaitlin is gone. Debra too!"
"Well I'm sorry that I can't control other people's actions. If Alyssa wanted to save us, she was gonna either way! This is not my fault!"
"And this is the reason I didn't want to be here!" James has done it again.
"Well, if this is what you knew was going to happen, why didn't you tell us!?"
"I did tell you, but you never listen!"
"WILL ALL OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!" We all stopped mid-sentence. Jess stood up, and put the gun away. Rebecca is standing in the middle of us, and takes Alyssa's backpack. Shouldering it, she walks away.
"You can all decide for yourself, whether you go back, or keep pushing on." We all decide to keep going. Why are we going in a random direction, with no destination? Because there's nothing left for us back in the quarantine zone. We can survive off the land, and be all badass and other stuff like that. Maybe we can settle down somewhere, and just live. That is if Jess doesn't kill me in my sleep first.
Sorry it took so long, I kind of derped out last week and really just didn't want to write anything. But, I got bored, and I hope you enjoyed this new chapter.
Fluffy-142