That's On Me
"HELP! HELP US! OH GOD!" Someone started yelling causing the biters to be more aggressive and managed to push the door open letting them inside the room. Something inside Jazz snapped before she drew out her gun and swung the door open. Everything was a blur as groans and snapping of teeth was barely heard while continuous gunshots and screaming filled the room. Acting on impulse as she tried to get to the people inside the room, Jazz fought her way through the undead. As she got her way to the door and swung it open, Drew quickly dealt with the remaining biters and covered her back as she followed her inside. Jazz slightly jumped as a biter almost got her from behind the door before Drew quickly took out a small knife and plunged it on its forehead. Jazz took a step back as Drew pulled out his knife. The two studied the remaining people still alive inside the small room. "Shit." Drew breathed beside Jazz. The sight and smell was repulsive, bodies, guts and blood were everywhere. An old man with salt and pepper hair, stood in the middle of the room wearing a bloodstained uniform with a cutter clasped tightly in his hand, an old woman was in the corner with blonde hair. She was kneeling beside the body of a young boy who was pale as white.
Slowly opening her eyes, She heard noises coming from outside and a few voices. Groaning out, she sat up on her sleeping bag and rubber her temples. Jazz checked her watch on her wrists and realized it was already two in the afternoon. She threw the thin blanket off of her and revealed her white wife beater and cargo shorts and got up quickly. She then noticed her plate of food place on top of the table.
After eating her lunch and doing her morning routine, Jazz strode across the campsite and made her way towards the box-truck where everyone was crowded at the back. "Hey." a few greeted her as she passed and made her way towards Rea and Ritchie who was inside the truck. "You're up." Ritchie greeted her. Jazz avoided his eyes, "Yeah." she mumbled before Rea leaned close to her. "Did you sleep well?" "Why didn't you wake me up?" Jazz asked as she rummaged through the boxes. "It looked like you needed sleep." Rea peered at her as Jazz took two clips for her handgun. "Sorry you had to take my watch. I guess I drank too much, huh?" Chelsea apologized as she grabbed a radio. "It's fine. Besides I couldn't really sleep well." "Who would get some sleep after those biters yesterday." Drew butted in chuckling strapping a rifle across his chest. "Imagine if they reached the camp with no one on watch." Chelsea said nervously. Jazz quickly checked her weapons with her before turning to the rest and switching the walkie-talkie on. "We'll be on channel seven. Keep the chatter down and get this done as soon as possible.".
"Mother of.." Chelsea grimaced a she rummaged through a plastic bag. "Fucking disgusting." her face twisted in disgust as she drew out her hand with a piece of cloth. "Smells bad too." she added as she nailed the cloth on a tree. "I hate to you be you right now." Drew snickered as he scanned the forest with a rifle in hand. Drew looked around him before turning around to Chelsea, "I need to piss. Be right back." he said before jogging away from her. "Make it fast." Chelsea worriedly glanced around her before walking away and stopping by a tree marked by a number two with white paint. Chelsea took out another strip of cloth nailing it on the tree.
Jazz was quietly scanning the forest with a short black metal pole on her hand while Riley was nailing clothes on the trees. The sun was already setting. Jazz flicked the pole and it sprung to a bat-sized length. "Where the hell did you get that?" Riley gawked at the metal. Jazz grinned swinging the telescopic steel baton. "Isn't that illegal here?" Riley laughed. "I'm not really sure but hey, world's gone to shit so I don't really think it matters anymore." Riley gave a laugh turning away from her. Jazz then heard something coming from the trees ahead as Riley noted the last tree with a number three painted on the trunk. "Hey this is the last one." she called out jogging away from Jazz. Jazz who was distracted, stalked towards the tree with the expandable baton ready. Turning behind the tree, Jazz sighed in relief. Behind the tree was Chelsea holding a small knife. "Jazz..." Chelsea breathed as she stuffed the knife inside her pocket. "I could've smashed your face in." Jazz stared at her wide-eyed. "Sorry. I thought you were a biter." Chelsea said sheepishly giving a small shrug. Jazz shook her head, "What are you doing here? You're past your perimeter." Chelsea looked around her and noticed the trees marked the number three. "Oh right." The redhead frowned, "Never mind. Why are you alone?" Jazz looked around. "I thought Drew was behind me so I went ahead. "Chelsea?" Riley trotted towards them.
Jazz sighed inwardly as she took out her radio and started walking towards the campsite, "Drew? Where are you?" Jazz waited for a long pause. "Chelsea's missing." Jazz heard Drew' soft voice. "Wha-" "Dude-" "-you serious?" Several voices radioed at the same time. Jazz, Chelsea and Riley rolled their eyes at the same time. "Calm down. She's here with me. We're on our way back." Jazz said. "Ritchie, James? How's everything there?" A beat passed, "We ran into a couple of biters but we're fine and we're almost at camp." Ritchie's voice registered in the radio. "Alright. Rea?" "A couple of cars passed the highway but it's quiet here as usual." "Okay. We're on our way back. We're just a mile away." The three then quietly walked back towards the campsite. Chelsea finally spoke up, "So is this how we're going to treat each other?" Jazz and Riley stopped in their tracks. "Nothing's changed. Stop making such a fuss about it." Jazz rolled her eyes at Chelsea before resuming walking.
"I still don't believe what you told us." Jazz scoffed whipping around, "They did to me what those assholes did to Rea, Ritchie and Drew." Chelsea's eyes scanned her bruised face and scarred arms. "It doesn't take a genius to figure that what they did to you was different from what they did to the others." "Drop it!" Jazz snapped. The woman studied her before she sighed as she shook her head and walked past Jazz.
Rea sat on top of the box-truck eating chips casually. "How'd you lose her?" Rea laughed as Drew came in view from the woods. Drew scoffed, "She just disappeared. I just went to take a piss." Rea only laughed throwing Drew a piece of potato chip in his way. "Stupid." She sung on top of her lungs. "Hey, that's rationed food!" Drew exclaimed. Ritchie and James were snickering as they arrived in the clearing. "Just keep watch, fatty." Rea gawked at him. Drew had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by a water bottle. "Asshole." Rea mumbled before standing up, "Ritchie, it's your watch." She noted looking at her watch. It was already four in the afternoon. Ritchie handed James the empty cans they had filled during the task earlier. Rea scanned the camp, the forest, down the quarry and the highway. Rea squinted as she noticed something moving along the highway. "Hey, hand me a rifle will you?" She said not taking her eyes off the highway. "Scoped?" "Yeah. Yeah." Rea snatched the rifle as Drew reached up to her. "What's wrong?" Ritchie asked as he made his way to the truck. "Rea." he called out to her, as she remained quiet. "There's a car..." Rea informed as she squinted trying to keep the rifle steady. "Two actually. The other's an RV." she mumbled as two cars came in view. "Relax. It happens all the time. Now get down from there." Ritchie waved her off. "Yeah. They'll just pass by like everyone else." James nodded grabbing a feet long wire. "Maybe we could talk to them and trade the RV with some supplies." Rea offered half-joking as Drew glared at her. "What? It would be nice to sleep on a bed." Rea mumbled before peeking through the scope. "And an actual toilet to sit on.." James nodded. "It's a caravan." Rea said as numerous cars came in view. "Well, will you get down? They might see you." Drew hissed. Rea quickly got on her knees watching the caravan. "How many?" Ritchie asked feeling antsy.
Rea's voice shook, "They entered the dirt road." Everyone then dropped what they were doing; Ritchie quickly hopped inside the truck. "This is the third time this week." he grumbled as he took a duffel bag and handing it to James, "And last week we got visited twice." He added. "How many cars?" Drew asked rummaging through the duffel bag. "About five… six?" Rea shook her head unsure. Ritchie quickly closed the door hiding the supplies and weapons. "Jazz. We need you here now." Rea radioed. "What's going on?" "There's a caravan heading here." "They entered the dirt-road?" Rea heard quick breaths from the other end and guessed she was already running. "Yes." Rea said as she got down from the ladder and grabbed a shotgun. Riley and Chelsea tried to keep up with Jazz as she swiftly ran through the woods.
"Fuck.." Jazz hissed as she slipped out of the passenger's seat of the pick-up truck and leaned on it for support. "Get them inside." She said as the strangers scrambled out of the car, carrying the unconscious young boy inside the cabin.
Jazz, Rea and Ritchie cleared their room to let Chelsea use it to nurse the kid. "Excuse me, Mr. Davis?" Chelsea called out to the old man as she entered the bedroom. "It's time for his meds." She laid her eyes on the young boy on the bed slipping in and out of consciousness. Jazz watched from the hallway as Chelsea injected some meds into the young boy's IV as Mr. Davis, still bloodstained, stood behind her watching quietly. Mr. Davis was a fifty-seven year old man, who owned the hardware store. His niece, Lewis, who was unconscious on the bed, was the one who helped him managed the business. The woman, Linda, was her sister. Chelsea started collecting the meds as she finished up, "He's gonna be okay, right?" Linda spoke up as she sat on the wooden chair in the corner. "He's running a fever. All he needs is rest, food and his meds." Chelsea laid her eyes on the young boy. "I'm sure in just a week he'll be better." Chelsea reassured the two.
Drew handed Jazz a rifle before they gathered by the truck, waiting. The caravan stopped in front of them as soon as Chelsea and Riley joined them. James knelt on top of the truck holding a scoped rifle. Finally people started getting out of their cars. A few men were the first one's to get out before they tensed up at the hostility of the group. "Stay here." a brute man instructed as he ducked down the car and slammed the door shut. "What do you want?" Jazz asked with the rifle strapped to her. The brute-looking man put his hand up, "I'm Officer Shane Wal-" "Who gives a shit?" Drew scoffed. "We were on our way to Atlanta. I'm sure you saw how they bombed the city from here." The police officer studied the group. Jazz's face twisted in annoyance, "Oh don't give us that crap, officer." "We just need a place to stay." the man said calmly but glared at the woman a few feet away from him. Jazz studied him, he wore a belted cargo pants up to his waist, black shirt and boots. "Let's just find some other place to stay." Another man spoke up with a spanish accent. "Them kids don' know how ta share!" Another man's voice boomed laughing obnoxiously. Everyone looked at the caucasian man wearing a biker vest. "Doubt you even know how ta use that." he leaned cockily against his pickup eyeing the gun strapped to Jazz. Shane glanced back at the man, "Dixon. Shut it." Shane gritted his teeth. "Find some place else. We don't take in strangers." Jazz said firmly but nonetheless dropped the rifle hanging against her side. "Hey ye kids! Ye know how ta use them guns?" the same man exclaimed snickering at the rest of the group. Drew glared at him, "We do."
"Come on, officer. Lets get out of here. There should be some place else." the other said again. "There is no place else. It's dark already, were running out of fuel and we don't have any food left." The man called Shane said roughly before taking a step towards Jazz. Jazz swiftly drew out her handgun from her thigh.
"Don't move!" "Back off!" "Woah! Woah!" "Hey!"
Everyone tensed up as they raised their guns ready to fire at the man. "Okay... Okay." Shane had his hand up in the air along with the other men. Everyone didn't move an inch, still pointing their guns at the officer. "Well? Pull the trigger." Shane taunted the auburn hair woman in front of him. Jazz chuckled bitterly, "Look, officer, we helped another group before and... well, they weren't very grateful." Shane narrowed his eyes at the woman, "If you're going to pull the trigger you better mean it." "Don't tempt us, man." Drew glared at the officer. Suddenly a door of a car swung open. "Sophia! No!" A yell came from one of the cars as a young girl came out. Jazz studied the girl before turning to the group, everyone looked at her questioningly. Jazz glanced at her group, raised a hand before lowering it. Chelsea, James and Riley sighed before they lowered their guns. Drew, Ritchie and Rea glared at Shane before lowering the guns. Jazz slung the rifle to her back before putting her handgun back to the strap. A thin woman with short hair got out of the same car before grabbing the little girl by her shoulders. The little girl stared at the group while the woman eyed Jazz, "Sweetie let's get back inside the car okay?" the woman pulled the girl away and ushered her inside the car.
The car of the RV then swung open. "Jazz, can't they stay?" Rea sighed in frustration. "Jasmine?" A male voice called out. Jazz whipped around to face Rea, "What?" The rest of the group stared at Rea, "They have kids with them." Rea said softly. "Jasmine?" the voice got louder before Jazz acknowledged the old man who stood behind Shane. Blinking a few times, confusion went to her face. "Dale?" Jazz squinted through the dark. "Jasmine." the old man repeated before taking a step towards Jazz and past Shane. Jazz stared at the familiar face a few feet from her.
"Dale Horvath." Jazz breathed
Ritchie and Jazz stood at the corner of the camp by the woods. "Jazz, I hope you know what you're doing." Ritchie said as he stood in front of Jazz. "I am." she nodded looking away from him and watching the other group. Ritchie pinched her cheek making her look up at him. Jazz winced, "Let go." she pulled away but Ritchie grabbed her face and waist pulling her to him. "Do you?" he looked straight to her blue-green eyes. "Yes." Jazz said softly before pulling away and walking away from him. Ritchie quickly took hold of her forearm, "Will you," Jazz snatched her arm back. "Stop touching me?" she hissed at him. "He's not like them. I'm sure of that." Ritchie shook his head, "You trust the old man? Okay. What about the others?" Jazz stood there glaring at him. "If anything happens, that's on me." She said firmly before walking away from him and heading to the RV.
"I can't believe we're doing this." Drew hissed as he got of the box-truck. They had just moved their cars and tents to the other side of the clearing. Their truck of supplies parked farthest from the strangers while their tents were circled around the fire-pit. "Yeah but they have woman and children with them." James shrugged as he padlocked the backdoor of the truck. Drew scoffed, "We have women too." "Let's just hope they're not like them." "Look.." Drew jerked his head to the fire-pit where Rea was cooking. "I bet they're cooking for them too." Drew scoffed before walking away and making his way to his tent where he sat on his chair eyeing Jazz who stood outside the RV. "Dale?" Jazz called out knocking on the opened door. Someone else then stepped out, "Oh. Can I help you?" A middle-aged woman who had dirty blonde hair studied Jazz. "Is Dale in there?" "Yeah. Dale, someone's here to see you." the blond woman then stepped off of the RV. The woman studied her, eyeing her from head to toe. Jazz smirked, "Yes?" she taunted the blonde woman as she only smiled at Jazz. "Nothing." She pouted before walking away. "Jasmine." Dale stood by the door. "I see you've met Andrea..." the old man pointed out before ushering Jazz inside the RV.
"Do you know what happened out there?" Jazz asked abruptly as soon as she stepped inside. Dale smiled a little at her before shaking his head, "I was on my way to Altanta when I found Andrea and her sister, Amy. After that we were just stranded on a roadblock along with the others." Dale explained as he studied Jazz. "How's Atlanta?" Jazz asked quietly fumbling with her shirt as she sat across the old man. Dale Horvath was a friend since her college years. They had briefly met at the same camp they were in now during summer time. At first, Jasmine felt weird having to talk to the old man as though he was just the same age as she was. "Jasmine, I know you want to see them but I don't want you doing anything reckless." "I'm not a kid, Dale." Jazz shook her head. "Jasmine, they napalmed Atlanta! They were trying to quarantine the virus! It's obviously much worse than we thought!" the old man exclaimed staring at the woman in front of him. "I have to know where they are, Dale." Dale shook his head again opening his mouth to say something. "I need to know if they're dead or not." And with that she left the RV.
Jazz went from one side of camp to the other as she wrapped wire around trees. The rest was busy as they all moved the campsite to one side with their supplies secured and tents closer. The wires were tied to tin-cans that were filled with stones. Jazz wrapped the chest-height wire around tree when the wire suddenly jerked making her drop it. "OW! SON OF A-!" a loud cry was heard as the tin cans dropped to the ground. "Hey, watch it!" Jazz glared at the same obnoxious man from earlier. "The fuck's them damn wires for?!" The man was rugged build, wearing a biker vest and a smug expression on his face. He had short grey hair and facial stubble. "Biters." Jazz grumbled picking up the tin cans. The man eyed her up and down, snickering making Jazz stand up, "What?" she eyed him with an eyebrow raised and head tilted to the side. "Come on, sugar tits. What you need are muscles and guns!" Jazz chuckled in amusement, "We're not really lacking on that department." Jazz stated getting back to work. "Yeah? You call those bunch of pussies 'muscles'?" The man jerked a thumb to where the guys were. "Well I can't say really. I'm more interested with women." Jazz bluffed having a little fun. "Hoowee! That's hot! Two girls eating each other up, ey?! Hey, Darylina! Get your ass here! I want you to meet-" The man turned to her. "Foster." Jazz continued to untangle the wires. "Oh come on, sugar tits. How's about you give Merle your real name, huh?" Jazz ignored him. "Well, I'm not really sure you's gonna have some fun with him. How's about just you and me then, huh? What'd you say?" Jazz laughed rolling her eyes, "Is that him?" she jerked her head to a man who was struggling with his tent. "Merle, get your ugly ass here! Help me pitch this tent!" The younger Dixon yelled. "Pitch that tent yourself!" Merle laughed before turning to Jazz eyeing her up and down. "Well if you ever change your mind, yah know where ta find me. I'll see you later, sugar tits." and he walked away. "Merle! Where the hell are you going!?" Jazz heard the younger Dixon yelled. "None'a your damn business!" he yelled before disappearing in the woods. Jazz snorted. "Hm.. I'd play with that." Jazz whirled and saw Rea eyeing the direction Merle had gone to. Jazz recoiled, "What?" her face twisted in confusion. "He's cute." Rea grinned. Jazz glared up at her, "You're disgusting." She stated throwing a small rock at Rea. "Hey!" "Just help me with this." Jazz laughed. "Fine."
Spotting Ritchie seating by his tent, Drew slammed the truck shut before making his way to Ritchie. "Hey, Can't you talk to her?" Drew asked jerking his head towards Jazz who was helping Rea give food to the others. Ritchie looked up at him in confusion before realizing what he was talking about. "I don't own her, Drew." Ritchie looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "Yeah? Well she needs to stop being so friendly before she gets us into trouble." Ritchie sighed. "Leave it alone, man." Ritchie. "She already made the same mistake." Suddenly, Ritchie was on his feet. "Back. Off." He gritted through his teeth. "Does she want all of us to die this time?" Drew was suddenly on the ground with his jaw aching. Yelling suddenly erupted in the camp. Jazz dropped the plate on the table before running up to where the two was. "Hey!" She yelled trying to get the attention of the two as Drew rolled over and landed a punch on Ritchie's face. "Stop it!" she yelled along with the others while the group only watched. Ritchie quickly rolled both of them over before he punched Drew back. "Grab him!" Jazz yelled at Rea to grab Drew as she grabbed Ritchie from behind. The two continued wrestling on the ground as James, Chelsea and Riley helped in breaking up the two. Shane grunted as he marched across their camp towards the commotion. Drew was suddenly roughly pulled away from Ritchie. "Fuck off!" Drew yelled pushing Shane off of him, lunging towards him. Shane quickly dodged before grabbing him from under his shoulders and shoving him to the ground. Shane straddled Drew as he waited for man under him to calm down. "Get of off me!" "Nah." Shane shook his head still pinning Drew on the ground, face against the ground. Ritchie glared harshly at Drew as Rea tried to get him away from the camp. "What the hell was that for?!" Drew yelled towards Ritchie. "Can you get him out of here please?" Jazz sighed holding her temples. Rea quietly pulled Ritchie out of sight as Shane got off Drew. "Keep your people in line." Shane shot her a look as he passed.
Riley stood on top of the truck keeping watch as Jazz and Rea talked in hushed voices. Jazz nodded at Rea before waking away from Rea and towards Drew's tent. Jazz zipped the tent shut as she carried a pale and a towel. "What're you doing here." Drew mumbled as he sat on his sleeping bag wiping dirt off himself. "What do you think?" The redhead snorted as she placed the pale and towel in front of him. Jazz stood there for a moment watching him stare at the pale in front of him. Drew sighed before starting to clean himself up, glancing at her. Jazz crossed her arms raising an eyebrow, "What?" Drew almost snarled at her. Pulling up the folding chair, Jazz sat in front of him. "You gonna tell me what happened?" Drew paused for a moment, "I just said he should try to talk to you." He shrugged. "Look." Jazz leaned foreword, "I don't like this as much as you do but we can't send them away. If we send them away Dale goes with them. The old man's stubborn." Drew recoiled, "We helped people before. Look what happened, Foster." He scowled at her. "We don't know that. They've got woman and children for christ's sake! We can't send them out there!" Jazz exclaimed as Drew rose up to his feet. "What if they take what we've worked so hard for?!" he almost yelled towering over her. "We don't know that. Now suck it up!" Jazz jabbed a finger on his chest before storming out of the tent.
Jazz stopped in her tracks as she almost crashed into Shane who stood outside the tent. "Were you listening to that?" Jazz stared up at the man. "No. I was looking for you actually." He chuckled. "Yeah right. What do you want?" She crossed her arms. Shane raised an eyebrow at this; "I wanted to talk to you." Shane led the way to their fire pit. Jazz sat in front of the fire as Shane followed. "I almost forgot, thanks for earlier." Shane nodded, "Well it didn't look like you could keep them in line." He stated. Jazz looked incredulously at the brute man. "They don't need anybody looking after them. They're not kids. We're not kids." She squinted at him. "Oh I'm sure of that." he nodded his sight briefly landing on her cleavage. Sitting up straight, Jazz snorted. "Some cop you are huh?" Jazz smirked bitterly at him. The cop ignored the redhead's statement, "Anyway I wanted to say thanks for letting us stay here." Jazz shook her head. "Don't thank me for that, officer. If Dale wasn't with you, we would've sent you away like everybody else." Shane kept quiet as he tried to process what she had just said. "You mean to tell me a lot of people came here before?" Jazz nodded crossing her arms. "'Course, This place isn't that hard to find…" She stated looking away thoughtfully. "How many?" Shane glared at the young woman. "You're the sixth group." Jazz stood, glaring back at him. "Also, the first and the last we're taking in. Have a good night." She then turned on her heel and left.
"But are you sure we can trust them?" Jazz stopped as she passed by a tent. "They've got guns! Not all of us here feel safe with those around." "Look, guns are pretty helpful these days. Just stay away from them and we won't have any problems" Snorting, Jazz rolled her eyes before making her way to their camp. On her shift, Rea almost fell off as Jazz climbed on top of the boxtruck, "You scared me." Rea breathed as she stood up. Jazz chuckled, "It's always easy to scare you, Rea. Now go to bed." Rea nodded handing her a scoped rifle, letting Jazz take the watch.
How many months till the new season? Sweet jesus. ;-;