AN: I didn't really have a plan for this chapter so I'm going to roll with it. Tell me what you thought of the chapter at the end…thanks.
Chapter 10
Thursday, January 2nd
I knew today was going to be hard. Callie and I went to the roof early this morning and watched the sun peek through the trees. If we were going to make it to San Francisco and find shelter by night, we would have to make our departure soon. Eighty to ninety miles didn't seem far on the map, but it was an entire world away from my love.
Callie grabbed my hand and squeezed tightly as we descended down the steps. Everyone was gathering our packed supplies at the door. Jackson was equipped down with weapons including a gun, army knife, and axe. Stephanie and Carlos had their own set of back-up weapons; a bat or two and a shovel. We all had backpacks with enough food for a few days in case something happened and we were split up or stuck. After I loaded the pockets of my cargo pants and slid on my pack, I turned to them.
"You guys ready?" I said it in a calming tone because this was all me. If a horrible incident occurs for some reason, I'm to blame. They were willing to risk themselves for my brother, who everyone except Jackson hasn't even met. I was scared to turn around. The rest of my friends along with my beautiful girlfriend were waiting to say goodbye. My body hesitantly twisted around. Owen and Teddy were holding each other close as was Derrick and Meredith. April and Jo looked extremely disappointed, trying to look in different directions. Bailey was holding the baby to her chest, rocking back and forth, while Callie held hands with Aria.
Callie was the first to break away and slowly walked up to me. In her last few strides, she picked up speed and quickly wrapped her arms around me. As the others exchanged goodbyes with each other, Callie and I continued to hug. We moved away from the crowd to whisper what hopefully weren't our last words for one another.
"I love you, Arizona." she said in a whimper.
"I love you too." I followed with a shaky breath. We leaned back and took the other's features in. Her eyes were red and puffy; the way I assumed mine looked. I felt her hands clench my shirt in a bunch before they came to my face, pulling me in for a kiss. It was a kiss different from our others. Our lips moved slowly together, and I made sure to take my time, capture every inch of her. My hands rested on her hip as we stood for minutes, letting us feel through our motions. After running out of breath, I leaned into her too much and almost lost balance. I caught myself with my foot and brought Calliope up with me. We put our foreheads together and let the tips of our noses touch. "I'll be back by Saturday morning, okay?"
Callie nodded. "Arizona…if things start to look bad, say you'll turn around."
"I'll turn around." I said sweetly with a smile and another kiss.
"You'll come back. Promise me you'll come back." I could hear tears fall from her eyes and hit my jacket.
"I promise." We kissed once more.
Carlos silently walked up. Callie stepped back from me and engulfed her dad in a hug. I gave hugs to April and Jo, Bailey and the baby, Derrick and Meredith. Owen stepped up next.
"Don't forget this." He handed my brother's knife to me.
"Thanks." I looked down at it in my hands.
"Be careful, Arizona." he said firmly.
"I will." I shook his hand and gave Teddy a hug. Someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around to find Aria giving me a look. I'm not sure what it meant though. She grabbed my arm and tugged me to the corner of the room.
"Look. First you want to break my sister's heart by going out there and then you decide to take my dad with you..." Her tone was scary as hell.
"He volunteered to go…" I tried.
"It doesn't matter, but you did save my life and I'm thankful. You seem to know what you're doing. Please, come back. Come back with my father." Her voice calmed and she gave me a pleasing hand gesture, both hands together, shaking back and forth.
"I'm going to do my best. I know he's your father, but this is also my brother."
"I understand. Just come back." She gave me a quick hug and went to her father and Callie.
We all moved outside into the yard. My group gathered at the gates which lead to the decaying world. Carlos was lagging behind, giving his daughters one last hug. I could hear Callie mutter "I love you, daddy." Jackson opened the gate and filled my car with our things as Carlos caught up. I started to walk backwards as I waved to my awkward family. I saved my last glance for Callie. We both dropped our hands and gave each other a smile. Her right hand went over her heart and she mouthed "I love you." I returned the motion and blew her a kiss before I went out the gate.
I started the car and we were off. The guys must have fixed her up nicely because there was a soft purr; no loud car noises to attract the infected. There was a full tank of gas and snacks in the floorboard. It felt like this trip may be easier than I thought.
After an hour of driving, we decided to stop by Oakland. Owen said they had left some men there too and I wanted to check it out. We came to a stop after running into a part of the highway blocked with concrete blocks and military tanks. It was almost like a wall that went off the highway and into the city as far as I could see. When Owen said they blocked off half of California, he meant it.
I pulled up behind an Army base tent that looked like it was set up during the outbreak.
"Okay guys, let's check things out in here and look at a few of those tanks. Don't slit up too far and if you see a mass group or are in danger, scream. We'll be able to act quicker than they can react to noise."
"Let's roll out." Jackson gave me an assuring smile.
"I'm going to leave the keys in the ignition. Make sure the doors are closed, but unlocked." I added.
We filed out and searched around inside the tent. There was one infected in the tent, but I took it down with a blow to the back of its head. There were papers everywhere and broken equipment on the floors. It seemed the Army had trouble trying to control this disaster.
"Arizona." Jackson called me over to the table he was standing at. "Take a look at this map."
I looked down and noticed a map of the western states. There were green dots I assumed where the Army had set up. There was one in the same area we were in. Red dots cover the majority of the map. A bundle of them were in covering San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. Other states were covered in red dots, but they were all around the coast. This must have had something to do with water. All the outbreaks were taking place at the inlets and beaches. "You see what I'm seeing, Jackson?"
"The coast was bombed with those things."
"Where was the coast guard during all of this?" I asked.
Carlos looked over our shoulders. "Maybe they had something to do with this."
"Why would the coast guard mess with infectious diseases?" I thought out loud.
"We should take this." Jackson suggested.
"You're right." I rolled the map and its papers up. There was enough room in my pack for them to fit.
We continued to look for any details to as to why this may have happened. Jackson grabbed a few more random things he thought was interesting before we went out to the trucks and tanks parked beside the concrete border. There were two trucks with a dead soldier in them. I paused before we moved to the tanks. I hurried to grab the soldiers' boots, gun, helmet, and tags. I took them all over to the edge of the highway in the grass.
"What are you doing?" Jackson asked.
"I'm honoring these soldiers." I explained bluntly, as if he should have known. Military is important to my family and this was something I needed to do. I sat their shoes a foot apart then leaned the gun against the back of them. I stepped back and looked at my display. I hung the tags around the barrel of their guns and saluted. "Let's keep going." I walked past them to the tanks.
We all entered the different tanks and confirmed they were empty. There was no use in trying to make them start because the keys were gone and I didn't notice any in the tent. There was an awkward moment we just stood there in silence.
"What do we do now?" Carlos chanced.
"We go to San Fran." I replied.
"You saw those dots, Arizona. We go down there, we're automatically surrounded." Jackson inserted.
"It's the risk I'm taking and the one you agreed to take with me. You backing out?" I questioned.
"No. I'm with you 'til the end, Robbins. You're like my sister, you know that?" His toned changed at his last few words, his eyes soft with care.
I knew he was right, we weren't related by blood, but Jackson was always a brother character to me after Tim left. "I know, but I need my other brother too."
"Let's go find him then." As he walked passed me, he patted my shoulder. It may have seemed like a simple act, but it was much more. A pat from Jackson was like a hug, a loving sign. He used to do it with the football team after winning games. The only people I've seen him actually hug are Stephanie and his mom, but she forced him to do it that time.
Thirty to forty minutes later and we arrived to San Francisco. If there was an ideal picture of hell, this was it. Any area of grass that was ever green burned to blend with the mid-day sky. Oranges and yellows dominated the air with brown, burnt buildings struggling to stand up. Massive groups of infected roamed the streets, eating on corpses that lay on the sidewalks. I was starting to get worried because it was so hard to see through all the smoke and maneuver around the sluggish diseased.
"Damn." Avery responded to the intake.
"This is…there are no words for this." Stephanie added.
"We have to make it to a dock. Owen said they were moving in at some dock and they lost Tim near a boat repair place. I have no clue where it would be though." I handed a map to Jackson in the back.
"I don't know either, Robbins." he said.
"Can I see the map?" Carlos asked. Jackson sent it back to the front for Carlos. "Most of the repair places are north of all the docks. You need to follow this road to this area." He traced a trail on the map with his finger.
"Thank you Carlos." I smiled.
More infected began to crowd the streets as we moved turned to go north. "We need to ditch the car." Jackson announced.
"What?!" Stephanie sounded surprised.
"He's right. We have a better chance of getting around if we're on foot. We don't want to get stuck inside this car. It might be a while before Owen and Teddy come to save us." I giggled a little to lighten up the actual idea of being stuck inside my car surrounded by cannibalistic monsters.
I slowed down and let the car drift as we stormed up a plan.
"The boats!" Avery shouted. "The boats at the docks are at least a foot away from the piers. I'm sure we could just climb boat to boat." He seemed really excited to have thought of the idea.
I looked to Mr. Torres. "Does that sound like a good plan, sir?"
"It sounds doable." He nodded along.
I drove onto a pier and looked around. "Looks clear for now…let's move out." We hopped out of the car and threw our packs on. We ran towards the boat at the end and jumped on. "Just because we're off the land, doesn't mean they couldn't already be on here. Keep an eye out." I reminded them.
'I'd say we need to travel half a mile." Carlos estimated.
We hopped from pier to pier, boat to boat. There was no time to waist. It was starting to get a little dark and we still needed a place to set up for the night. I hopped onto the next boat first and began to walk to the side.
Out of nowhere an infected jumped onto me and took me to the ground. "Mother...Ah!" I reached back and pulled my knife down on his neck. I expected blood to squirt everywhere, but nothing came out.
"You okay?" Avery asked as he helped me up.
I was out of breath but answered. "Yeah. You see that?"
"What?"
"His blood was all dried up. How is that possible if he's alive or…partially alive?"
"I don't know." He mumbled and dusted me off. I looked back at his slit throat before we moved on. Why didn't he bleed?
We traveled at least thirty more boats up the coast. There was a huge surf and boat shop sign sticking up behind a tree or two. I could see the tip of a tin roof.
"I believe that's a repair shop up there." Carlos pointed to the roof.
"Yeah, you guys see that?" I could see a piece of white cloth sailing from the corner of the roof.
"Let's keep moving." Carlos suggested. He was starting to take more of a leadership and I didn't mind one bit; this is his area of expertise.
On the last boat, I noticed the building was surrounded. There had to be hundreds of them lining up the streets. I motioned my hands for everyone to lay low.
"Holy shit!" Avery whispered through his teeth.
We peeked over the edge of the boat. Under the flying shirt was an open window to what seemed like an attic of the shop.
"You think he could be in there, Avery?" I asked
"This is all you Robbins; I'm here to have your back." He paused for a moment. "What are your instincts telling you?"
"I'm thinking he wouldn't have stayed this long in an attic. He hated having to live on the second floor in a room beside me for eighteen years. Maybe it was just mom and dad, but…he wouldn't stay in one spot too long. I want to try it though."
"Then let's try it. What's our plan?"
"Hell, I don't know." I was starting to doubt my entire decision to come down here.
"Look." Stephanie spoke up and pointed to the side of the pier near the land. There was a huge sliding ladder lying on the ground. I'm sure it was long enough for us to reach the roof.
"Good eye, Edwards." I patted her on the shoulder and Jackson gave her a quick kiss. "We need to move quickly." I was starting to get very nervous and images of Callie started to run through my mind.
"Want me to lead?" Jackson must have sensed my worry.
"Would you?" I asked.
"Of course I would."
Jackson confidently jumped from the boat to pier. He held up the axe and moved slowly, bending his knees and taking wide steps.
I fell behind him with Edwards on my tail. Carlos brought up the back, keeping his eyes out. Jackson grabbed the top of the ladder and I took the back. We managed to stay quiet and moved around the large group of infected towards the side of the building.
We were almost there when Jackson took his eyes off the path and tripped over a dead body. The ladder fell and made a huge clatter. I turned around and saw all the infected looking our way.
"Shit! Go! Go! Go!" I screamed at Avery.
He stumbled to his feet as we ran up to the side of the building. Close up, it looked sketchy, consisting of rusty metal sheets. I helped set the ladder against the side of the shop. The tip fell right under the roof. Perfect. Jackson was the first up and I wasted no time filing behind him.
"We need to get up there now!" Carlos shouted from the bottom.
It got to the point where we were all on the ladder, the infected gathering at the bottom. Jackson had made it to the top. "Come on!" He held out his hand. As I reached up, the middle of the ladder gave in. Jackson grabbed my hand and pulled me up. I leaned over the side and tried to reach for Stephanie's hand. She had to hang on to the top part of the ladder as her feet dangled.
"Stephanie, grab my hand!" Jackson held on to my ankles so I could lean further off.
"I can't!"
"Yes you can, come on!" I strained my fingers as far as they could. Carlos worked his way up the broken ladder and gave Edwards a push. Her hand met mine, but it wasn't a strong grip. She slipped away from me. "Damn it! Edwards!" Carlos caught her by her shirt, but the infect came up the side and took ahold of her legs. They started to take bites and rip at her clothes.
Her screams became muffled as I rolled onto my back. Tears began to run down the side of my face. Avery's screams were distant, as if miles away. He was leaned over the side, crying and screaming at the same time. A pair of hands landed on my shoulders and started to shake me from my trance.
"Arizona?!" I could tell it was Carlos' voice, but it was still distant. "Arizona!" It felt like he was hovering over me, but all I saw was a dark figure and a fading sky. "Come on, Arizona." With one final shake, I sat up. All the sweat gathered on my head dripped down my face and I slowly blinked my eyes.
"Avery?" I said slowly. I stood up and ran to the ladder. Jackson was about to step down on it. I grabbed his pack and pulled him back hard enough to make both of us fall on our backs hard. The roof gave in and we all fell through. Luckily, the second floor wasn't too far down. I stood quickly and clenched my weapon. When there were no signs of the diseased, I dusted myself off. "What the hell were you thinking, Jackson?!" I looked over to him sitting up in the corner. He stared off into space, not paying any attention to what I had said. Muffled whines slipped through his lips while his chest bounced from his fast breathing and crying. I went to sit beside him and put my arm on his back, rubbing it up and down for comfort.
Carlos gave him a sad look, then turned away to look through some boxes. "Guys…someone has been sleeping here."
I looked to Jackson and he motioned for me to go. When I stepped up beside Carlos, he pointed to a sleeping bag on the ground. There were a few other items scattered like a pair of socks and granola bar wrappers. I picked one up to examine. Peanut butter…had to be Tim.
"Tim loved peanut butter granola bars." I said.
"So he's here?" Carlos asked. I looked around for an exit, but there was only the window and hole we just created.
"I don't think so. It feels pretty cold in here." I walked over to Avery and bent down, resting my head on top of his. "We have to keep going. We'll leave in the morning instead of Saturday, okay? We'll leave sooner." He nodded and stood up.
I climbed out of the window and back onto the roof. I made sure we were spread out so it wouldn't break. Once on top, I could look down the entire street. There were two more buildings with a piece of white cloth hanging from the roof. "He has to be at the last one." I mumbled.
I looked down to the smaller building beside us. The cracks between the buildings were packed with zombies. Impulse took over and I leaped for the next roof over without talking to the group. The grunts I heard behind me were signs to continue. A few buildings down and we were across from the second piece of cloth. "How are we supposed to get across?" I asked.
Avery slowly lifted his hand to a power line that started beside us and crossed the street to the building. He put his hand down and turned away to wipe his face. The line descended down so we could zip line. I took my jacket off and got on the edge of the building. I decided not to look down with all those things staring back at me like I'm a steak. I flung my jacket over the line and intertwined my hands in the sleeves. My heart started to speed up and with one more deep breath, I pushed off. Within seconds, I was hovering over the second building. I dropped down and put my jacket back on. Carlos was up next.
He hesitated a few times before finally stepping off. When he was pretty much in the clear, I turned around to fix the weapons in my pockets. I heard him scream and turned to find the line and both buildings clear of the older man. I heard his screams come from the sidewalk.
"Arizona!" Jackson yelled to me and pointed at the bottom of my building. He hopped on a fire escape ladder and made his way to me, slashing infected left and right to get to Carlos. I ripped my jacket into a rope and tied it to the roof so I could repel down. I landed messy and fell on my side, but put the pain aside and quickly got up. When Jackson and I got there, he had two infected gnawing on his limbs.
"FUCK!" I ran up and slung my hatchet into the zombies one by one until Mr. Torres was cleared. "No, no, no, no, no…" I kept mumbling to myself as I tried to shake him awake. There was a massive amount of blood coming out of a bite on his neck. Realizing, he wasn't coming back, I hung my head and sobbed. It was an ugly sob that took all of my energy. "Callie needs you! Come on!" I kept shaking him, but nothing happened.
Avery pulled me up and began to back away from him. "Arizona…" I looked up with blurry eyes and saw the mass of infected coming our way. I slowly reached into to my pocket and pulled out my handgun.
"You…MONSTERS!" I screamed and started to shoot multiple times into the crowd, not taking my time to aim. A rage had taken over me and I went completely numb. Soon, the click of an empty chamber rang in the air multiple times.
A gunshot came from behind us, getting our attention. One of the zombies dropped at our feet. It must have been coming up from behind us and we didn't noticed. We looked up and noticed a figure standing on one of the surf shops with a sniper's gun.
"I'll cover you!" He yelled. I knew that voice, but I might be hearing things from a concussion I might have gotten.
"Please be him, please be him." I whispered in Avery's ear as he held me up. We walked together in the path the guy was clearing out for us. We finally made it to the door and were let inside. I collapsed on the floors with Avery and let out a loud cry. "We have to get him, we have get Carlos! Ah-ah-haah." My cries grew worse.
"Arizona? Jackson Avery?" the guy asked.
I knew for sure now. I glanced up. "Tim?"
"Oh my god! Arizona!" His arms wrapped around me tightly.
"Ouch." I lifted my jacket and found bruises over my side. "It's probably just a rib."
"I have some medical supplies." Tim said.
I started to cry. "Oh god…Callie! I'm sorry." Jackson pulled me close.
"Who was that man? And how did you guys find me?" He searched through some bags.
I tried to piece together a sentence. "He was Callie's father."
"That chick you were dating?" He continued to grab supplies.
"Yeah, it was her dad and we lost Avery's girlfriend. Damn it! I'm so, so sorry Jackson." I looked to him, blinking away tears.
"We found him." he stated, avoiding the topic. I sat back into his chest and tried to take deep breaths, but it was extremely painful. Jackson's arm rested on his leg beside me and I noticed a huge gash on his arm.
"How did this happen?" I picked up his arm.
"I cut it climbing off the roof." He spoke of it as if nothing happened.
"So how'd you find me again?" My brother walked over and started to wrap Avery's arm with gauze after a sprinkle of alcohol. He and Avery took turns wrapping my rib cage up.
"We were on our way to San Diego to get to Texas. We went through Sacramento when we got stuck in the middle of a mass. AH!" I flinched as he tightened the bandage. "If it wasn't for Owen and Teddy, we wouldn't have made it. They took us in and have really been kind. We were going to leave for Texas, but I found your knife and they told me what you did, told me you might be here."
"Owen and Teddy Hunt?" I nodded in response "So you risked your life to come here just to see if I was alive?"
"Yeah, and two of us died." I started to cry again.
"Hey, listen..." his hand brought my face back up. "Where are the others?"
"They're still at the house. We didn't want to bring the entire group or…the group didn't want to come."
"You guys drive?"
I could no longer speak properly, so Jackson spoke up. "Yeah, our car is half a mile south of here."
"Damn. You guys walked all the way up here?" Tim asked in disbelief.
"Kind of, we boat hopped 'til we saw the shop and your shirt waving." Avery hugged me in his arms. Normally, I would be opposed to this type of contact with Jackson, but I lost my coat and I liked his warmth. "How do we get back, man?"
"You're telling me. I've building hopped around these parts." Tim replied. "I set up some C-4 to get rid of those bastards, but I dropped the remote near that freaking ice cream store."
"The explosives still set up?" Avery asked.
"Don't even think about it." I said.
"It's going to be our only option." he fired back.
Things were quiet for a moment. "Yeah, they're still set up." Tim said softly.
"I'll get the remote." Jackson and I spoke at the same time.
"The hell you will!" Avery said.
"We can both get it." I suggested.
"Tim and I can get it."
"I'm sorry, but I'm staying here. I've watched too many men die out there." Tim was always a baby when it came to some things, but he kicked ass as a soldier. I couldn't blame him for not wanting to be around man-eating zombies.
"We can both get it." I repeated.
"Arizona…" Tim started.
"How far are they set up?" I asked. My body cried in pain as I got up from the ground
"They're set up until the building beside us."
"Okay, let's go. "
Avery and I stepped out. We immediately started slashing throats and faces. I heard someone following me. I looked back and saw my brother helping out. "You guys are some crazy bastards." he huffed after dropping another infected.
"I see it!" I slid between one of the monster's legs, slicing them as I went. I grabbed the remote.
"Oh my…" Avery's eyes went wide. I followed his glance and saw at least a hundred more coming around the corner.
"Retreat, retreat!" My brother yelled.
We worked our way back to the shop. The guys made it way quicker than me because I couldn't breathe. I stopped and held my side as I tried to get air into my lungs.
"Arizona!" They both yelled.
I turned to see four or five reaching for me. I caught a glance of Carlos on the ground across the street. Fuck it. I turned my back to the infected and closed my eyes with my thumb over the ignite button. I pressed it.
My head was throbbing. My head was throbbing and it felt like my spine had been ripped through my back. Everything else was numb. A buzzing noise rang in my ears over mumbled voices.
"Arizomma? Cun yuuu earrras." I couldn't make it out. Everything sounded slurred and was followed by the ring. I let a moan out so air could get into my lungs.
I tried to keep my eyes closed, hoping I would pass out and rid my pain. Trying to be somewhat aware, I let my eyes peek through a thin slit in my eyelids. I was hovering close over scattered, dead bodies. I didn't understand. I could feel my feet being dragged across something, so I wasn't flying. I closed my eyes and opened again to see blurry green under me. My chest hit a surface and I just laid there. I'm sure this would be my death, whatever was on my back. It had to be an infected biting me or something.
I heard mumbled voices and sounds of water splashing. Next, an extreme pain hit my arms and back. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Sizzling sounds filled the atmosphere behind me. Was that my body making those sounds? I wasn't sure because I was pulled into the darkness I had been hoping for.
This chapter was longer than I thought, but I didn't want to chop it into parts so I hoped you enjoyed it and where it went.