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Chapter 15:
Know Your Gun
Jamie didn't want to admit it but she was scared. Scared with a capital S, she had been excited to finally go out with her mother and see what the world was like now but was regretting it instantly, the walkers had gotten scarier in a week, they looked grosser and they smelled even worse.
"You okay honey?" her Mom asked as Shane cocked his shotgun and Morgan checked his revolver, Jamie was gripping the hatchet she was just given in her hands tightly as she answered trying to sound confident.
"Yes Mom." It sounded like a scared puppy.
"Don't worry honey, just stay close okay?" she said reassuringly and she felt that familiar warm feeling in her chest, the feeling of safety whilst her mother was there. Behind her Mom she saw Morgan and Duane walk behind Shane towards the rear entrance, a single door on the side of the building.
"Okay now everybody ready? Kids stay in the middle between your parents and stay sharp." He ordered before kicking the door hard, it flew open as he headed in shotgun-first, behind him her Mom ran in with her pistol up, Jamie stuck close as she entered gripping the hatchet tightly, the station was clean, nothing looked dishevelled or out of place and it even looked nice… Sparkly almost.
"What the hell?..." Shane muttered as Morgan closed the door behind them.
"Looks like someone's been keeping the place clean." Her Mom joked as she moved down towards what must be some kind of common room, it was well positioned with all the furniture clean, Jamie could even hear the faint hum of the minibar running.
"Why is that working? Didn't the electricity go out 2 days ago?" Duane asked, the lights had all snapped off in the Drake's house, they had been operating by candlelight and camping lights since then.
"The station has its own generators in the event of power loss, seems like someone has them running." Shane said looking confused, she still was aiming the shotgun as he kicked open a door and walked through briskly. Jamie saw something strike him and a shadow collided with him, Jamie screamed as Morgan darted forward and her Mom moved in front of her, through the doorway Morgan was hit by someone else and a fight erupted.
"Stay here!" her Mom shouted to her and Duane who was gripping his axe as hard as Jamie was gripping her hatchet. She ran forward and held her gun aloft and shouted in that dangerous voice that she usually reserved for when Jamie was in deep shit.
"Everybody freeze!" she all but screamed pointing the guns at the mess of figures, the all froze as they both stood up, both were cops, one was around Mom's age with red hair and a thin moustache whereas the other was an older looking black man with a full moustache, both stood up with their hands raised as another figure emerged from behind the door with their gun drawn.
"Drop the gun darling'." The woman said, she was also in uniform and was a bit larger than the men but looked fierce with the gun, however the officer with red hair put a hand on her shoulder as Shane and Morgan scrambled to their feet.
"Drop it Rosie, it's Shane." He said still looking at her Mom, Jamie saw the gun slowly lower as Shane dusted himself off and turned to the man.
"Christ man you couldn't just offer a hand-shake?" Shane joked stepping towards the older officer and shaking his hand before pulling him into a hug, the officer called Rosie holstered her weapon looking from person to person.
"You know them?" Morgan asked holding onto is gun, the red haired man broke eye contact with her Mom and turned to Shane who extended his hand.
"Yeah, saw them nearly every day. Guys this is Officer Lambert Kendal, best weapons expert in the force."
"Pleasure to meet you." He said with a charming smile shaking Morgan's hand.
"… and next here we have Officer Rosie Andersmith." Shane gestured to the woman who smiled warmly, the hard and threatening demeanour vanishing, the smile demanded an automatic smile in return which Jamie's face did all by itself.
"… and finally we have..."
"Leon Bassett." Mom chipped in, there was still an odd tone in her voice, Leon Bassett was back to looking at her Mom with a stern look on his face.
"You know each other?" Shane asked looking between one and the other.
"We dated a year or so ago, nothin' serious." He explained, Jamie cringed inside slightly… of all the things she doesn't want to know about her mother her dating life was pretty high up there.
"Oooh…" Duane uttered the noise managing to turn the head of every adult in the room including Jamie. Judging by the look on his face Jamie guessed he was aiming for something quieter.
"Sorry." He said quickly.
"You gonna introduce us?" Rosie asked with a cheerful pip in her voice, no sign of the she-hulk with a gun from 1 minute before.
"Of course. This is Morgan and his son Duane and Hannah and her daughter Jamie." Shane explained in a quick voice, Jamie waved on mention of her name.
"Anybody else with you?" Lambert asked as all weapons were holstered.
"We have around 13 people with us. Lori made it and Carl." Shane explained.
"Rick's wife?" Lambert asked looking surprised.
"Yeah."
"What about Rick?" he asked and Jamie saw the same dark shadow cross over Shane's face, his voice came out deeper and more firm.
"He's dead."
"Damn…" Lambert said and Jamie saw Leon and Rosie exchange a look, they must have been Rick's friends.
"Anybody else here?" Morgan asked but Rosie shook her head.
"Nope. Just us three, everybody else either skipped town or was eaten, took us a week just to make the place habitable." She explained in a blunt fashion.
"Well then you think there's enough room for us and our friends?" Shane asked, the cops all exchanged glances as Lambert spoke up.
"What's your count?" he asked in a serious tone.
"13, 8 adults and 5 children and we have supplies of our own as well." Shane explained, the cops all looked at each other and they all nodded.
"Best get them moved in soon as we can. You far away?" Rosie asked.
"Only 20 minutes, we can go back and fetch them now." Morgan said but Rosie shook her head.
"No sense you all going back, how about only you two?" she said gesturing to Shane and Morgan, Morgan looked at Duane momentarily.
"No offence but I don't wanna leave Duane alone." He said firmly.
"Don't worry we're cops, we know how to keep people safe. Plus you will have Hannah here to keep an eye on us." Leon said with a weird smile at her Mom, Jamie saw her Mom return it.
"He won't have to worry I'll go with Shane, you can stay here my friend." Lambert said walking over to Shane, they fist bumped which admittedly looked a little lame.
"We won't be too long, maybe an hour or two just so we can get our things together." Shane said confidently to Leon.
"No problem, just don't tail the shifters." Leon joked as they began to walk out the door.
"Shifters? You mean walkers?" Morgan asked with a confused look.
"Call 'em what you want just don't 'em to us. Also Leon I need you on watch okay?" Lambert said.
"No probs boss." He said before taking off into the building as Shane walked out the door with Lambert.
"Stay safe guys." Mom said, they both turned and spoke in unison.
"We will." They both said walking out the door; Rosie closed and locked it behind them as Jamie heard the sound of the car pulling away.
There was a few moment of silence as everyone caught up to the situation.
"Well then," Rosie said, her cheerful voice returning, "Better give you guys the Station Tour."
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Sophia liked Billy, he didn't say a lot as they sat in the bedroom but he seemed nice enough for a young boy. He was only 8 or 9 (by the looks of him) but he wasn't completely nuts like Sophia's cousins of the same age.
"How long do you think they're gonna be?" Carl asked looking out the window, he'd been there for the last 20 minutes looking out the window, he claimed it was in case of walkers but Sophia knew that was bullcrap since they had Paula looking out, she knew it was because he was worried about Shane.
Her Mom and Carl's had taken it upon themselves to clean everything that the Drake's hadn't. The Drake's had seemed nice, well Cindy did anyway, Fred had seemed like more like one of the teachers at her old school.
"I don't know, you shouldn't worry so much about Shane he can take care of himself." She said calmly, she had noticed that for all the cool person Carl tries to be he can get seriously stressed.
"I'm not scared. I just want to know when they'll be back." He said, Sophia rolled her eyes to herself, typical Carl trying to act all brave, she didn't mind it but she knew most of the time it was a lie.
"I wish my Mom didn't go." Billy said from beside her, he spoke in a timid voice. Sophia put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"She'll be fine, and your sister to." She said softly to the small child, he looked at her with teary eyes and lay down on the bed, the bedroom was cluttered with three camping beds stuffed inside the small room.
"I hope we go to the police station, I don't like it here." Carl said randomly stepping away from the window, he looked very tired and Sophia knew the feeling. The electricity had gone out 2 days ago at Carl's house and the toilet situation was the same, they had had to use a camping toilet they had in the spare bedroom which was very uncomfortable.
"I know it's so… small." Sophia said quietly.
"The station is much bigger, I used to go there all the time with Dad…" his voice faded slightly on the last few words and Sophia felt the twist in her stomach, Carl had remembered once more that his dad was dead… Then she thought about her Dad… He was scary and mean but she had cried all night when she heard he had died, even a week later and the thought was bringing fresh tears to her eyes.
"Oh… I'm so sorry." Carl said rushing over to her and hugging her, she returned it as she fought the tears, she really had to stop crying to much…
"My dad's dead too." Billy said from the bed and Carl and Sophia look at him, he looks distant and sad.
"Really? I'm sorry…" Sophia said not knowing what to say, she was still holding onto Carl's arms around her as she placed one hand on Billy's and squeezed gently, he responded with tears in his eyes as a silence ensued, no-one broke it for at least a minute… A knowing moment of sombre realisation passing between each child as a small but saddening truth passed between them.
All their Dads were dead.
The silence was broken by the faint sound of an engine, Carl let go of Sophia as he ran to the window, she was close behind him and shuffling behind her told her Billy was there as well, they looked out the window to see Fred's car pulling into the drive.
"They're back!" Carl shouted running out the door, Billy followed quickly but Sophia stood still as she watched the people getting out of the car. Only Shane and another man she didn't recognise in uniform got out.
Billy's mom and sister weren't there.
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Paula saw the car before the kids started shouting about it, judging by the noise they made outside the door they had decided to jump their way down the stairs. Paula looked closely to see Shane getting out of the car and another guy in a cop's uniform, Hannah, Jamie, Morgan and Duane weren't there.
Paula's heart was pounding as she jogged down the stairs, she saw the front door open and the two men jog in as the front door began to close. Cindy locked all the locks as Lori and Carol emerged from the kitchen.
"Where are Mom and Jamie?" Billy asked in a fearful voice, one that sent quivers through Paula's heart a she hoped they weren't gonna bear bad news.
"Don't worry bud; they're at the police station waiting for us." Shane said ruffling the kid's hair, Billy smiled with some relief as he sat down on the couch, the other cop looked older than Shane, maybe in his 50's? He was dark skinned and oddly enough looked like a slightly older version of Morgan.
"Hi, I'm Paula." She greeted the man with a handshake which he firmly responded with a kind smile.
"Name's Lambert, but you can call me Lam." He said with a smile, the guy looked like a nice fellow.
"You boys okay?" Lori asked moving passed Paula to Shane, she goes to touch him but Paula sees her noticeably recoil, if subtlety was her objective then she was failing. Badly.
"We're good. Good news everybody, looks like we have somewhere to go." Shane said with a smile, judging by the smile on Lam's face he wasn't thrilled by the agreement. However any distaste was lost in the collective sigh of relief.
"It's spacious enough?" Carol asked and Lam nodded.
"You bet it is, we have enough night shift beds for 10 people, the rest with have to bunk in the cells but we can make them comfy. You'd be surprised about how warm it is in there as well." He explained cheerfully, Paula smiled at the thought, this could be their big break.
"So when are we going?" She asked.
"No time like the present." Shane said.
"Might as well, we haven't unpacked any things whatsoever." Lori said.
"Okay everybody get your things together. Lori, I am gonna take you, Lam, Carol and the kids in the RV. Fred can take Cindy and Paula in his car." Shane said, Fred nodded catching the car keys Shane just threw across the room.
"Gotcha. Cindy I'll get the bags, you wanna get the weapons from downstairs?" he ordered, Cindy nodded and moved away.
"What weapons?" Lori asked in a concerned voice.
"We went through our things and found some more blunt objects that can be used as weapons... crowbars, hammers, those kind of things." Fred said, for all the ass this guy seemed to be at least he was resourceful.
"Good, Carl go grab our things from the guest bedroom with Sophia." Lori said firmly, the kids nodded and moved up the stairs.
"I'll help them, come on Billy." Carol said gesturing to the young boys; he followed her up the stairs eagerly. Paula grabbed the small bag she had packed earlier and swung it over her shoulder as Lam stood nearby watching the commotion. Paula grabbed the RV keys and threw them to Shane as he looked out the window.
"Still no walkers, we gotta be quick guys come on!" he yelled over all the movement in the house.
Paula smirked as she leaned in towards Lam and spoke quietly.
"That guy needs to relax." She remarked, Lam chuckled himself and spoke in the same comical tone.
"He's had people telling him that since he started this job." Paula laughed at the comment as she picked up the machete that had been resting comfortably on the couch, she was beginning to like it. Everyone was settling into having their own weapons in a way.
For Paula it had automatically become the machete, since she had used it on the walker attacking Fred and held for the trip and back she had gotten used to it, she had even become disappointed when she had forgot it when going to the Drake's.
Shane had his shotgun obviously, Morgan had his revolver, Hannah had her handgun, Lori held on to Shane's spare but loathed to use it, Carol always held onto a kitchen knife from Lori's even though she never used it, Fred had his rifle, Cindy had another small revolver and even Morgan's kid had their axe close by just in case.
Just as she was thinking this Lori walked over holding a box she produced from a bag.
"Paula I need you to carry this, you're the only one without a gun who can use one." She said handing over the box, she opened it to find a large silver revolver inside practically floating on a bed of bullets.
"What's this?" she asked confused, it looked really valuable.
"It's Rick's old Python, I found it just before we left the house and kinda forgot about it. I was gonna give it to Shane but he already has enough guns, besides I've seen you shoot a gun before and you can aim…" she quietened when she realised where she had seen Paula shoot, Paula's inside shrivelled when she realised it was when she shot Tom but, to Paula's disgust, it had been a good shot.
"You sure I can handle it?" Paula asked and Lori shook her head.
"Don't know until you try. But until then hang on to it, I just don't want people unprotected you know?" she sounded genuinely concerned, Paula thanked her before eyeing the gun, Lam stood beside her and spoke in an amazed tone.
"A Colt Python, that's a truly amazing piece of weaponry, I remember Rick would never leave for a job without it." Lam said in a reminiscent tone.
"You know guns well?" Paula asked, Lam smiled.
"Practically my childhood, Pa was a police officer too and he used to show me all sorts of weapons. I can name virtually any weapon you present me with, it's important to know your gun." He challenged, he sounded very cocky.
"Challenge accepted… Um… What about that rifle? The one on Fred's shoulder." She said pointed to Fred who was holding onto two suitcases for him and Cindy. Lam squinted slightly before speaking confidently.
"Easy, that's a Remington 700 BDL. We have one of them at the station."
"Hmm… What about this one?" Paula said gesturing to the gun in Lori's belt, she withdrew it and Lam answered immediately.
"Glock 17, standard issue. Why don't you give me a challenge?" he mocked, Paula stalled when she realised that those were the only guns, then she saw Cindy emerge from the basement and remembered her revolver, it looked fairly small and compact.
"Hey Cindy, where did you get your gun?" she asked the woman, she withdrew her gun and looked at the small device.
"Um… Found it at the shopping centre, some poor guys with his leg chewed off." She said grimly, it looked very different from the ones she had ever seen.
"Okay then Lam, what about this?" the man looked at it and frowned, Paula's heart skipped a beat when she thought he didn't know but dropped when he smiled.
"That is a Colt Detective Special, you don't see many of them with the common classes." He remarked cleanly.
"Dammit." Paula said, this guy did know his guns.
"Guys come on, we gonna move or sit around making conversation?" Shane scolded marching over to the stairs to help the kids carry the suitcases.
"Killjoy." Paula seethed as she walked over to help as well.
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Hannah liked the station, although the people there were a different matter. Although Rosie seemed nice Lam had had come off as a little patronising and Leon was trying to be a smooth prick. It wasn't working but Hannah just played along, one thing she remembered about Leon was that he could be a right sour-puss.
"So you've been here since the beginning?" Hannah asked as Rosie showed them around, Morgan and Duane were in the bathroom right now as Rosie introduced Hannah and Jamie to the women locker room.
"Not really, we were here to start with but it became overrun, people came here when the hospital was full you see? Well I left earlier because there were emergency calls at the old folks home, by the time I got there it was lost so I came back here only to find Lam, Leon and another officer called Doug here. They had killed everything with their guns and had begun boarding it up." She explained in a wistful voice.
"Wait, who's Doug?" Hannah asked, Rosie sighed and turned to her.
"He was some rookie that got transferred here several months ago, not that smart… Kinda dumb actually. Anyway he had survived but didn't tell the guys he was bitten, turned just after I got in. Such a shame to see someone turn." She said in a sad tone, Hannah didn't know if she wanted Jamie hearing this but it was the unfortunate truth.
"Damn… So how are you guys on the weapon front?" Hannah asked and Rosie smiled surprising Hannah slightly.
"Oh that's the good part. We got enough guns to fight a small army, they're mostly in the lock-up but we got rifles, shotguns, pistols, revolvers… Hell we even got one or two grenades in there." She said and Hannah couldn't help smiling either.
"Sounds great. I only have this clip left but it's full." She said showing her gun.
"You know how to shoot that?" she asked and Hannah shook her head.
"Not really, I've shot a few walkers but I haven't really got the knack of a clean shot yet." She remarked.
"Well you're in luck, we gotta plenty of ammo and a shooting range, you and your group can practise there whenever you want."
"You sure that's a good idea? Won't it draw walkers?" Hannah questioned but Rosie chuckled.
"Not likely, the room's soundproofed." She explained, Hannah liked the idea of finally being able to shoot a gun properly.
"Wow that sounds amazing. Might give that a try later, you sure you and your friends are okay with us staying?" Hannah asked, she had recognised the less than thrilled looks that Lambert, Leon and Rosie had been exchanging. Rosie looked at Hannah then at Jamie and sighed.
"Personally I don't mind. This station has held more people it's just I know what we're all thinking."
"What's that?"
"I don't know how I feel about being responsible for what I make out to be 13 more people." She said with a grim voice.
"You won't be responsible though, we can take care of ourselves."
"I know I know… I just don't know if I can watch more people die that's the problem." She confessed, Hannah could strongly relate to the feeling.
"We're not asking you to. We are asking you to help stop that from happening." Hannah said looking the woman in the eye, the woman had very dark eyes, the shade of brown almost blending into the black pupil, she had a full face and curvy figure and looked like one of the jolliest people around, but right now she radiated stress.
"We'd very much appreciate it." Morgan voice said behind Hannah, she turned to see him standing there with Duane, both of whom were looking on seriously.
"I'm telling you now that you won't get kicked out. It's just… 13 people is a hell of a lot of responsibility, plus we don't exactly have a lot of food to go around." she began walking again and Hannah kept in line with her, she could hear the others behind her.
"Then we will find some more, we've done it before and now we got more people." Hannah said as they came got the reception desk, the surface was shiny but didn't reflect any light since the large glass windows were all covered.
"Well we got enough for a few days depending on the people you're bringing." She said, suddenly the walkie on her hips crackled into life.
"Rosie?" Leon's voice echoed from the other side, Leon has been a shock, when he and Hannah were going out he had managed to fall over a twig and yet here we was surviving the apocalypse where running was a supreme skill.
"Yeah Leon?" she asked in a worried voice.
"We got cars coming, a sedan and some big-ass RV."
"That's them." Jamie said and Rosie nodded.
"That's them Leon, guide them round back and keep an eye out for shifters, they might be following the noise."
"Roger that." He said back as Rosie moved in front of them towards the rear, Hannah followed close behind as they ran for the back door. Once they got to the back door Rosie unholstered her gun and opened the door checking the area, Hannah had her weapon ready as well as she held out her arm to keep Jamie back, the coast was clear as the RV and the Mondeo rounded the corner.
They came to a stop as the RV door flung open, Lambert was first with his handgun as Lori came out with the two kids and Billy and Carol, Fred climbed out the Mondeo with Cindy and Paula both armed with guns. Finally Shane emerged from the RV as Lambert made it to the door, Hannah and Morgan moved back as everyone started to pile in with their bags, Billy immediately hugged Hannah who squeezed him back with equal vigour.
"Hey baby boy." She said as he squeezed harder, she didn't even realise the door swing shut and Rosie locking the door and speak into her walkie.
"Leon, we got any followers?" she asked, there was a moment of silence before he responded.
"None that I see, I'll keep a look out." He said.
"Roger that." She replied as everyone stood around looking at each other, no one was missing. As everyone moved into the reception area they all took seats nearby in the seating area, Hannah sat with her children on either side of her, Lori sat with Carl, Carol sat with Sophia, Paula sat in between them across from Hannah who was next to Fred, Cindy, Morgan and Duane.
Lambert, Shane and Rosie all stood out front, Lambert stepped forward and spoke clearly.
"Welcome, everybody, to the Police Station."