The Man from Riverside - Chapter 6
It was beginning to get dark as Dennis and Sheriff Michael walked across from the gas station and up the road that left town. There were a few men there, standing near a large pile of scrap metal. One of them was preparing a generator, which was hooked up to numerous lights and several power tools. Michael called out to them as they approached.
"Are you guys ready?"
The men looked at each other, seemingly reluctant to answer, before one of them finally answered.
"Yeah, I suppose we are."
"Good," Michael turned to Dennis. "So I need you to look after these guys for me."
Dennis just nodded and continued with the sheriff until they were standing with the other men, who were all wearing dark blue overalls. When they saw Dennis, they began to get a fidgety.
"Are you serious?" One of them exclaimed. "One man to protect us from those things?"
"No," Michael said gruffly. "I've got two of my men on their way and they should be here in less than an hour. Just don't use any power tools until they get here. You'll almost certainly attract more attention than Dennis alone can deal with."
Still somewhat discontented, the men accepted the sheriff's authority and began to shift the pieces of scrap metal, preparing them to be welded together into a strong barricade. Michael took Dennis aside and talked quietly so the men couldn't hear them.
"If things start to get out of hand, I want you to fall back to the church up there," he pointed up the road. "We've set up a safe house with a pretty decent door on there. Thick iron, you'd need a truck to break it down. You'll be safe in there and you can contact us on the radio if you need a rescue."
"Why can't I have one of your walkie talkies?"
"Unfortunately, I've given them all out already, but the officers that are coming shortly will have radios. If you need something, ask them to radio me."
"Ok then," Dennis said nervously. "Here goes nothing."
Michael slapped him on the back.
"That's my man! You'll be fine," he said with a big grin. "I'll come back to check on you later."
With that, he turned and walked back to the gas station. Dennis turned back to the men, who were all staring at him. Dennis tried to smile and just shrugged at them. He walked up the road out of town and stood guard. It was quiet and he couldn't see any zombies, but he could tell that the fog was going to thicken again when the sun set, so it was best to remain alert. After all, he'd never been responsible for anyone's life before.
Over an hour later, the sun set and it was getting extremely dark on the road and with no streetlights or other light source, Dennis was finding it becoming increasing harder to see any decent distance. He heard an engine coming up behind him and turned to see the flashing lights of a police car. The vehicle stopped and two officers got out. The two men strolled over to Dennis, one of them was carrying a shotgun and the other had a semi-automatic machine pistol. The man with the shotgun introduced them both as they approached.
"Hey! I'm Jeff and this is Leon," he said happily and turned to Leon, patting him on the back. "We're your helping hands this fine evening!"
Leon didn't look very happy about the situation he had been placed in.
"Why are we even out here?" he snapped at Jeff. "I was quite happy patrolling the river."
"Dude! Just chill. You'll be back there soon enough, sipping beers and playing bridge," Jeff said mockingly.
Leon gave him a hard glare. "It's solitaire you jackass! I'd be playing poker if you'd fucking do something I enjoy for once you swine."
"Sure," Jeff chuckled and turned to Dennis. "We'd better get this over with so he can get back to his old lady games."
Leon took a deep breath but refused to snap back. He turned and walked over to the men who were doing their best to assemble the barricade in the dark.
"Can't we have some light?" he shouted out.
Dennis, still smiling, went and sat down on a nearby abandoned car.
"So, you two are the help I was supposed to be getting?" he asked Jeff.
"Yes, sir. Ready and able. Sheriff said we were to keep these guys safe till they get this wall up."
"Yeah, that's why I'm here. I'm the hired help."
"Ah, well; better some help than none," he looked at the shotgun in Dennis' hands and the Beretta in his belt. "How much time have you had with those guns of yours?"
Dennis looked at the sky in thought for a moment before replying.
"Almost 24 hours," he replied. "I suppose I won't be that helpful."
"That's almost 24 hours more than everyone else in this town," Jeff said with a chuckle. "This town is mostly composed of rebellious teenagers, single parents and old people. I'd like to see them even stand here on a night like this, despite the circumstances."
Dennis nodded and was about to reply before the generator behind them began to chug before finally kicking into a gentle rumble. The lights flashed bright, blinding almost everyone there. Some of the power tools were tested out to make sure they were working, it almost sounded musical.
"Finally!" Leon shouted. "Let's get on with this thing!"
Dennis and Jeff felt a disturbance deep in the forest, they both knew what they were here for and it was time to face it.
They came. It was a trickle at first, only two or three at a time, but it grew steadily. There were occasional brief respites, where the three men would grab more ammunition from the patrol car, but they never lasted long. If felt like ages, but the workers managed to get the barricade up pretty quickly; the constant attacks probably hurrying them on more than the harsh words from Leon ever could. There was another small break for the men. Dennis began reloading his shotgun while Leon went back to the car for more ammunition. Slightly puffed, Jeff turned to Dennis.
"How you holding up over there?"
A completely exhausted Dennis didn't answer. He was pretty shook up with all the fighting; they may be trying to kill him, but they still seemed very human to him. Another few zombies came out from the fog; Jeff quickly dispatching them with his shotgun.
"Hey! This ain't so bad now is it?" Jeff said with a laugh.
Suddenly, a growling sound echoed through the fog shortly followed by a ghastly scream. Before Dennis could react, something lunged at him from the fog, making a seemingly super-human leap and landing right on top of him. He was flattened into the asphalt with such force that he was momentarily stunned, only before he began to scream in pain as the creature on him began lashing at him with its brutal claws. Dennis heard Jeff shout out as he ran at the creature and slammed into it shoulder first, putting as much force into the impact as possible. The creature stumbed off Dennis, whimpering like a wild dog, while Jeff caught his balance quickly and raised his shotgun.
"What the hell are you?"
It replied with a menacing growl as it righted itself and crouched down on all fours, preparing to lunge at Jeff. Without a moment's hesitation, he fired his shotgun just as it lunged. The force of the blast flung the creature back against the rock wall, whimpering slightly before falling motionless to the ground. Jeff smiled and turned to Dennis, who was still lying in shock on the ground.
"You alright?"
He groaned in response. Dennis looked down at his chest; shirt ripped apart, bleeding lacerations all across his chest. He was going to need some medical attention before he bled to death. Jeff turned to shoot a few more zombies that were heading for the workers using the noisy power tools. Once they were gone, he turned back to the still dazed Dennis.
"Looks like that might be the last of them," he said, reaching a hand down to help Dennis up.
From out of the fog, a long rope-like thing wrapped itself around Jeff's throat. The man reached up in shock, dropping his shotgun, trying to pull the cord from around his throat, without success. With a harsh yank, it pulled back and Jeff went flying backwards, still clutching at the thing that was strangling him. Dennis watched helplessly as he was dragged away into the fog. At that moment, Leon came around the corner, carrying a box of ammunition. Upon seeing Jeff being dragged away, he dropped the entire box and pulled out his weapon.
"NO! Don't you dare take him!" Leon screamed as he ran madly into the fog.
Dennis tried to get up, but the pain was too great. Before long, he could no longer see either man, but he could still hear the sound of gunfire from Leon's weapon. He tried to drag himself back towards the nearly completed barricade, but he was in so much pain he was becoming faint from the loss of blood. His vision began to get blurry and the last thing he saw were the workers putting up the final part of the barricade, abandoning him to his fate. He could no longer hear the sound of gunfire, only the distant grinding sound of something metal being dragged along the road.
Dennis awoke with a start. It was dark and he couldn't see anything, wherever he was, it was obviously indoors, unless he was dead. He sat up and groaned in pain from his wounds on his chest.
"Well, I'm certainly not dead then," he muttered.
"Got pretty close there though, sweetie."
Dennis tried to look through the darkness, to hear where to voice came from. It was a sweet, soft voice, obviously of a younger woman. It was half enthralling and half unnerving.
"Who's that?"
"Just a girl trying to do a good turn for once. It is allowed still, right?" she asked mockingly.
Dennis felt around his chest, his shirt was gone and he could feel the bandages wrapped firmly around his body.
"You helped me? Why?"
"Well," she paused to light a cigarette, the glow from the lighter lit up her face slightly, but all he could make out was her long blonde hair. "I've been hanging around town for a bit since I saw you last night. To be honest, I thought you were quite adorable."
Dennis was slightly taken aback.
"What do you mean you saw me last night? Where were you?"
There was silence for a brief moment, Dennis waited impatiently.
"Come on now sweetie. Let's not go into the details right now,"
"Can you please stop calling me that!"
"What? Don't you like it sweetie?"
"No," Dennis snarled, getting quite impatient with the girl.
"Well, I'mma have to start calling you stupid then, 'cause you ain't being very nice to the girl who just saved your life."
Dennis felt the bandages around his waist again. He was, in fact, very grateful for her help. Dying wasn't exactly on his list of things to do today, but today's events had shaken him up a bit and he was regretting staying in Riverside. Also the fact that, apparently, he now had a stalker was not exactly comforting. Dennis took a deep breath and tried to fix the situation.
"I'm really sorry. I'm not trying to be rude; I'm just not in a good place right now," Dennis said, trying to sound thankful.
"That's ok sweetie," she said, causing Dennis to grimace. "I'm gonna look after you!"
Her chirpy, cheerful attitude did liven up the situation, much to Dennis' surprise.
"Where are we? Can you help me back to town? Please," Dennis added at the last minute.
"Well, we're in a shed near the church. You're a heavy guy, so I couldn't drag you very far and fight the zombies at the same time; I just ain't a multitasking girl."
Dennis could sense she was smiling, even in the pitch black of the shed. He grinned slightly as she continued.
"If you're up to walkin', we can try to head back into town, but that barricade they put up is frightfully strong and so we'll need to find another way around."
"Those bastards," Dennis swore loudly. "They left me to die!"
"Oh sweetie," she laughed. "That barricade won't work; they'll climb right over it if you give them good reason to. Real good climbers they are. Just think! All your hard work and effort for nothing!"
Dennis did not care for her joke.
"Alright then," he said. "We can go up to the church. There's a safe house in there and a door that opens into town."
"Ooh!" she squealed. "One of those safe houses with the pretty red doors?"
"Uhh, I don't know. Maybe," Dennis said, confused by her sudden over-excitedness over a door.
She squealed again and clapped her hands together gently. Then she suddenly realized that if she could see Dennis' face, she would see that he was confused as hell.
"Sorry," she apologized innocently. "I like red things."
"Ok then," he said slowly and sarcastically. "Can we get moving now?"
"Can do sweetie. Can you stand up?"
Dennis pulled himself to his feet, nearly bringing a nearby shelf down on top of him with his weight. It still hurt a lot to move, but it was significantly less painful than earlier.
"Do you want some pain meds sweetie?"
Dennis grimaced, not knowing wether it was the pain or that she called him 'sweetie' again. He nodded his head, but realized she couldn't see it.
"Yes please."
"Here ya go sweetie," she said, passing him a small bottle of tablets.
"What are they?"
"Pain pills. You take the whole bottle."
"What! Are you trying to kill me?"
"No silly or I woulda done that before! Just take the whole bottle and you'll feel better right away!"
"But I'll overdose," he tried to look at the bottle in the dark.
"Don't be silly! I take them like that all the time and I'm still here."
"Yeah," he muttered quietly. "And insane."
Dennis felt a sudden rush of air in front of his face and the girl huffed, annoyed that he was too far away to slap.
"Be nice! Or I'm not gonna help you anymore. Now do as you're told or I'll take my pills back."
"Fine," Dennis said grumpily as he opened the bottle and swallowed every pill in the bottle.
Surprisingly, he did feel better; almost immediately. He threw the bottle to the floor.
"Ok, I'm ready to go," he said, vibrating with eagerness from the invigorating effects of the pills.
"Good for you! Come on then sweetie,"
"So, who are you anyway?" Dennis asked.
With that, the girl kicked the door open and the shed flooded with the bright moonlight, almost blinding Dennis while his eyes adjusted. He watched her standing in the doorway with her back to him, looking out into the now fogless night. There were at least half a dozen zombies wandering around, some of whom had noticed the sudden disturbance from the shed and had begun running towards it. She stood there, axe over her shoulder and handgun in her left hand, hanging down by her side. Her long, blonde hair blowing in the crisp breeze that filled the shed, blowing about some loose items inside. She turned her head slightly and spoke back to Dennis with her cheery, childish voice.
"I'm Charlotte sweetie, and I'll be your guardian angel tonight."