Chapter VI: The Unexpected
"You shouldn't have approached that guy!" bellowed Eddie to Michael while kicking his bike as fast as he could.
"I didn't know! He looked very normal at first, I didn't also see any bites on his skin," answered Michael, "and you should've said you really don't know exactly where the gas station is!" he added.
"If I became one of them, I'll tear you apart!" Eddie retorted.
"Then do so! I'll crush your head!" shouted Michael "WHEN DID THEY EVEN LEARN HOW TO RUN FAST!" he added.
"They are of the 'runner' type zombies!" answered Eddie sounding like he knew everything.
"There's the van!" said Michael. "Thankfully they saw us and the backdoor's open! Let's directly jump over with our bikes."
An arrow flew and scratched Eddie's cheek before hitting one of the "runners".
"I'M STILL NORMAL!" shouted Eddie grudgingly to Cass. They both jumped directly into the van's back. Xander and Shiela immediately closed the backdoor.
"DRIVE!" shouted Michael.
The van still had some diesel left because Dan stopped it earlier. He ran over two infected citizens. Cass lifted the ledge on the van's ceiling and poked her head out into open air. As she stood on Xander's shoulders further supported by Shield and Hitomi, she fired her arrows like there was no tomorrow. She hit two "runners" - only three more remaining. Dan turned left and Cass missed her target.
"SOME WARNING PLEASE BEFORE YOU TURN!" yelled Cass, and then she hit another one.
"SORRY! We're running out of gas here!" said Dan.
"TWO MORE!" shouted Cass. "ONE MORE LEFT!" The runner caught up and landed on the roof of the van.
"Pull me down!" said Cass, and she closed the door on top. The "runner" growled wildly as it kept pounding the top. The van decelerated and stopped.
"Sorry guys we're out of gas…" said Dan weakly.
"Someone should go outside and fight that creature," Shiela suggested.
"Let's crush them!" said Eddie and punched his other hand.
"Thought you were going to grab the spotlight," said Michael grinning. They got their baseball clubs and wooden stick. "Dan, you should be the one to fill your van with diesel."
"OK, ready 1… 2…" He opened the door, and they ran outside leaving Dan behind.
"W… wait where's 3?" said Dan, then he followed them.
"Close the door immediately after we go out," said Xander to Shiela.
"Ok," said Shiela.
The runner snarled viciously after seeing the crowd, it stopped pounding the van.
"You there stop messing with my beautiful van!" shouted Dan while pointing the diesel container to the "runner".
The "runner" jumped to him, Dan dodged backwards.
"You idiot! I told you, fill this van with diesel, you almost broke one of the containers!" said Michael furiously running to Dan and swinging his bat wildly.
"Oh, sorry…" Dan chuckled. "Everyone cover me!"
The "runner" jumped again to Dan but was hit by Michael's bat. It retreated to a near store. The other "runners" were catching up to them from behind.
"Look at those two other 'runners'," said Eddie pointing out the incoming "runners".
"It's really a pain when they growl like that," said Michael. "They're calling their comrades. ATTACK!"
Xander ran towards the retreating "runner" and it attacked also; it jumped towards him and was hit cleanly on the head and thrown a few meters back.
"You're getting the hang of this," said Michael complimenting Xander.
Xander replied, "It's just that their movements don't change, they just jumped and…" another creature jumped towards Xander which looked like it came above the store's wall. This was a different one; it had sharper claws and was trying to confiscate Xander's bat. Its pupil-less eyes were completely covered with blood, its nose kept sniffing him like a dog, and had two large front fangs that would surely pierce through its prey. Its head was bald like the other "runners" with some strands of hair falling from its face.
An arrow pierced through its bloodshot eyes from the back. Blood dripped at the head of the arrow and it dropped on Xander's cheeks. It shrieked out in pain, but it was still alive; another arrow was about to pierce the creature's head but it looked back, twitching it's neck like there's no bone and it dodged, jumped and crawled to the wall of the store like a spider and entered one of the windows. The arrow hit the ground and was three centimetres away from Xander's left ear.
"Th… that was close… thank you…" said Xander and he sighed.
"There are more coming!" Eddie warned.
"IS IT READY, DAN?" shouted Michael.
"Yeah, hop in quick!" The back door of the van was opened by Shiela and Hitomi.
"QUICK!" shouted Hitomi.
They got inside the van and Dan immediately drove fast. He evaded a car skilfully that was about to hit them. Cass was once again on top firing arrows to the incoming "runners". It seemed that they couldn't catch up with the speed of the van; eventually they lost sight of it.
"YEAH!" said Dan with a victorious shout. "I'm the king of the roads!"
"So what really happened back at the gas station?" asked Xander.
"We really thought there was nobody at the gasoline station then," said Michael but was cut off by Eddie. "Th… that was a new type of zombie… I... can't even call it a zombie anymore… it's not in the book I read… no, wait, I'll look into it again…" and he took out "How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse", scanning for a word, something like a wall crawler. He didn't see anything. "I… It… didn't even die from the arrow that pierced its head," Eddie ended; he was sweating heavily.
"Are you ok, Eddie?" asked Shiela.
"Ok? After seeing that kind of zombie, you're asking me if I'm ok? OF COURSE NOT! Ha... haha… haha…"
"Guys… I think he's really freaking out…"
"I'm more than OK! To think that the author didn't thought of it! After I exterminate all those zombies I'll make my own book!" said Eddie getting all excited. "I'll name it the Exterminator's… err… no… no… 'Guide to Mr. Zombie Exterminator's…' well that's quite long… what about…."
"He's really is a zombie fan," said Hitomi.
"Michael, we're here," said Dan. He stopped the van at the front of the store.
They all went outside. Fire Place was a small single-storey store, its interior could be seen through a glass window that was now broken. It was at the edge of the city's establishments. Michael opened the door using a duplicate key he got from his uncle. Glasses were scattered on the floor. The glass containers of guns and other ammos for sale were completely empty, even the displayed guns at the walls at the back of the counter were missing.
"Uncle?" Michael called out while examining the place. "It's me, Michael!" he added. He had already anticipated this; because of the outbreak more people were trying to get as many weapons. Despite that, he did not expect a completely wiped-out store upon arrival. He still continued "Uncle! Where are you?"
He knew that his uncle only leaves the store on rare, special family occasions; he kept convincing himself that what he imagined was not true.
"There's someone lying here!" said Dan looking concerned on the cold body. The second room was apparently a room for other stocks, but was also completely empty.
"UNCLE!" shouted Michael. He came immediately to his uncle's corpse and turned it around; his uncle was wearing polo with opened buttons and a plain white t-shirt inside. He saw blood stains on his uncle's shirt. He ripped it off and saw a bullet wound on his uncle's stomach.
He still tried to wake him up. "I'm here, open your eyes! We need your help! You can't be dead! Don't leave me please!" His tears were almost falling from his eyes but he held them in. He remembered what his uncle usually told him in his childhood years when he lost his parents and other family members.
"Don't cry. You'll just make them sad when they leave. They'll be going to a very great place, so don't worry." Gathering his courage to face what happened he buttoned his uncle's polo, and saw a white paper peeking out of his Uncle's polo pocket
It contained a message for him, saying " Go to our underground basement and open the old refrigerator, there are guns and ammos there, it's a bit sudden, sorry for leaving you, but remember what I always tell you and be brave."
"Sorry…" said Hitomi tapping Michael at the back.
Michael stood up and carefully placed his uncle in a sitting position leaning against a wall. "Everyone, follow me," said Michael walking to the underground basement. It was completely dark so he switched on a light bulb at the ceiling. It was quite dirty, there were spider webs at almost every corner, and a mouse just passed by Shiela's feet and she almost jumped and hugged Dan and let out a scream.
"Just as I thought – you like me," said Dan while Shiela was looking at the ground, cautious if the mouse was still around. Then she slapped Dan in the face. "Pervert!" she said.
"You were the one who hugged me!" said Dan defensively. Xander and Hitomi laughed.
"Here it is," said Michael as he opened the old refrigerator packed with guns and ammos. Eddie immediately came forward and looked for a decent gun.
"Whoa… an actual AK-47! I usually use this in my favourite game! I always get a headshot from these - Now I'll definitely EXTERMINATE them all!" said Eddie sounding so fascinated.
"Since Eddie got the AK-47, I'll be taking this Stealth Recon Scout, I have been taught to use this, so it won't be a problem," said Michael.
"I'll take this shotgun," said Dan looking at the hole of the gun gauge.
"That's a Remington 1100 Tactical Shotgun. It holds 8 rounds in the magazine, and you better be careful or your head might get blown." said Michael.
Dan immediately took off his eyes on the hole of the shotgun. "I… I'll be taking this…" said Shiela holding and examining the submachine gun.
"That's an Uzi. Try not to fire it continually because it has a high rate ammo expenditure," said Michael.
"You really know a lot about guns. How about this?" asked Xander holding a small gun he found inside a wallet size box.
"That's… a custom made derringer my uncle copied of Henry Deringer's Philadelphia Derringer. It's a pocket pistol; you can shoot with it three times. Try to take out the bottom layer of the box. There are a couple of ammos there. Anyway you can also have this Glock handgun. We have more ammos of this kind than that," said Michael.
"Oh… I think you should keep this. It's a memory of your uncle," said Xander while handing out the derringer.
"No, it'll just be too hard for me to let go of him if I hold unto that," said Michael, pushing the Glock back to Xander. "Keep that derringer to your pocket. This Glock will be your primary," he added.
"This is everything that's left, it's ok Hitomi, and we'll just defend you. Cass, I think my uncle has a crossbow here somewhere…" said Michael, searching the room.
"No need. I'll stick with my bow here. I'm more used to it," said Cass.
"There are Steel Force Broadheads you can use for your arrows. It's originally for the crossbow's bolt heads," said Michael handing out a pack from the freezers where the ammos are also kept. "Here are all the ammos; place them inside Dan's backpack. I'll show you the appropriate bullets for your guns inside the van," he added. The others came back to the van but Michael was still inside the store.
"Where's Michael?" asked Shiela.
"I think he's still inside. I'll go back and check on him."
Michael carried his uncle to the old bench down the basement and said, "Sorry… I'll be coming back to give you a decent burial after this chaos ends." Then he hugged his uncle; Xander who was peeking upstairs decided to go back to the van.
"Did you see him?" asked Shiela
"Ah, yes, he forgot something," replied Xander. "In the meantime we should be deciding our next destination. Does anyone of you have a house near here?" he asked.
"Umm… my house is just straight ahead about five hundred meters from here. I'll show you the way…" said Hitomi shyly, then Michael entered the van and closed the door.
"At Hitomi's house?" said Dan sounding so excited; he closed his eyes and tried to imagine something.
"Stop day dreaming Dan and start driving," said Shiela.
"So, where are we going?" asked Michael while he sat down and opened Dan's bag.
"To Hitomi's house," answered Shiela, and then her stomach gave a grumbling sound to which she blushed.
"Don't worry, Shiela. I'll cook for all of you. It's the least I can do," said Hitomi cheerfully. She stood at the back of Dan's seat. "I'll tell you to stop if we're there."
"Ok. At last I'll be able to taste Hitomi's heavenly cooking," said Dan.
"I… I'm not really that good."
Michael was instructing how the guns were used and what bullets were suitable.
"Are we there yet?" asked Xander, who was also excited but tried not to show it.
"We are now six blocks away from my house," answered Hitomi.
"I can see some of those things again. We should avoid being noticed. Hitomi's house might be destroyed," said Xander.
"As always; a very good insight." Dan parked the van three blocks away.
"How about your family Hitomi?" asked Michael.
"I'm the only child… My parents are living in Japan, so I'm alone here."
"Don't worry Hitomi. From now on I'll be by your side," said Dan bluntly.
"A… Anyway do you have a backdoor to your house? We could go there instead of the front door," interrupted Xander sounding like he was jealous; he had a hard time looking at Hitomi.
"Hah! I knew it! You like Hitomi too! But you are too shy to reveal it! I'll definitely win this!" said Dan with triumphantly. Hitomi blushed and looked at Xander.
Xander was lost for words and eventually pointed his finger at the road saying, "You should be concentrating on the road, Dan".
"Heh… coward," muttered Dan silently. Meanwhile Eddie was so fascinated with his AK-47; he even kissed and shined it repeatedly with his handkerchief. Cass was sitting silently at the corner; she was replacing the arrow heads with the one she got from Michael. The van stopped.
"Come on. Let's go," said Xander. On the road there were five infected citizens and were walking unsteadily, aimlessly. Eddie was ready to shoot but Michael stopped him.
"We need to be as silent as possible. We don't want more to know we're here," said Michael while he lowered Eddie's gun.
"Uh… yeah… you're right…"
They then silently run towards to the other houses.