Chapter 32: The Town
"Well, here we are. The 'historic' town of Riverside," Francis said sullenly. He was in a bad mood as usual.
Probably because Bill woke us all up too early, Louis thought, shaking his head.
The four survivors made their way into the dreary town of Riverside and found themselves amid a scene of devastation. A mixture of abandoned and wrecked cars was scattered throughout the streets, among piles of rubble and dead bodies. Some were riddled with bullet-holes, while others had been clawed to death. The stench was terrible.
"You know, for once, it'd be nice to visit a city without dead bodies everywhere," Louis deadpanned, crinkling his nose.
"Get used to it," Bill said crisply as he lit up a cigarette. As he exhaled, he noticed that there were a number of APCs (armoured personnel carriers, he clarified for the others) and various other military trucks amid the civilian vehicles. "Looks like the army was here at some point."
"So where are they now?" Francis pointed out.
"Maybe they're further inside the town." The war veteran flicked the cigarette to the road and lifted his sniper rifle. "Only one way to find out."
With that, the team made its way carefully through the silent streets. They cautiously kept watch for any signs of danger, but the area was dead quiet. The town was disturbingly empty; there was not a living soul in sight.
"Where the hell is everyone?" Zoey muttered.
"If I had to guess, I'd say that most of the infected ones came to the party at the church last night," Bill grunted. "That nutter sure invited a lot of 'em."
"But where is the army?"
Bill did not respond. From his experience, if there were not any soldiers out on patrol in the open, then the area was not secure. There could be hostiles watching them right now. He maintained a vigilant grip on his rifle.
"The main street should be around the corner," Zoey said after a while, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group. "Hopefully there's a – " Her words died in her throat as they came to the centre of Riverside.
The scene of destruction was heart-rending. Countless bodies, many of them in military fatigues, were strewn all over the street, expressions of pain and desperation frozen on the ones that still had faces. Craters, pot-holes and scorch marks attested to the abundance of explosives that had been deployed. In the middle of the street stood some sort of command centre, made up of several vehicles, all reduced to burnt-out shells. The command centre was completely encircled by a ring of corpses, military and infected alike. It was clear that the army made a stand here, but had failed to hold the line.
Louis hoped that some of the poor bastards had been able to fall back and escape from the town with their lives.
Zoey gazed over the devastating scene of the failed stand against the Infected and sighed heavily. "I guess Riverside couldn't hold out. The Infected must have come in through the same sewers that we used."
Bill grunted, as though recalling a bad memory. "Just like Charlie. Little bastards had a whole damn network of tunnels throughout the countryside to pop up right under our feet."
"Now what do we do?"
The older man was looking northward. "We're gonna die if we stay in Riverside. If we get to the river, maybe we can find a boat."
"Sounds good to me," Louis replied, glad to have a plan again. "Let's do it."
"Hold yer horses, son," Bill said, sitting down atop a small pile of rubble. "We need to stock up on supplies first. We're completely out of food and running low on ammunition. We should take the opportunity here to scavenge what we can."
Zoey and Francis walked down a grocery store aisle, with Francis covering the front with his shotgun. Zoey trailed along behind him, cramming non-perishable food items into every available orifice in her backpack. The store was trashed, but there were still some discarded food articles that had been left behind.
"This was a bad idea," she said presently.
Francis said nothing and continued to walk ahead. She struggled to keep up with him.
"We shouldn't split up like this," she continued. "What happens if Bill and Louis run into another Witch? Or a Hunter?"
"What happens if we do?" the biker said over his shoulder.
"Exactly!" Zoey exclaimed. "Bill's idea to try and find a radio outside was stupid! The army's not in Riverside anymore. We all need to stick together."
Francis reached into the shelf next to him and grabbed a chocolate bar. He tore it open and started eating without answering.
"I mean, I know we're on the clock here, but I still think that we can afford to take a little extra time to watch each other's backs," Zoey continued.
They passed a cooler on the right, and Francis began to prod cuts of steak aside in an attempt to find a piece of unspoiled meat.
"Come on, Francis," the college girl persisted. "Don't turn this into a monologue."
"I didn't make it past high school, Zoey," he said over his shoulder. "Usin' big college words don't mean shit to me."
"Francis," she said sternly.
He paused to look at her for a moment, gave a dismissive sigh, and then turned his attention back to the meats. He suddenly felt something hard hit him on the back of the head.
"Ow!" he yelped, turning back to see Zoey grabbing yet another chocolate bar projectile from the shelf next to her.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise I was cutting into snack time!" she said, fuming. "And I also didn't realise that me caring about the other people in our group was cramping your, oh so cool 'lone wolf' style!" She hurled the second chocolate bar at his face in frustration.
Francis put up his hands defensively "Hey," he said warningly.
"Just know that you're not impressing anyone with your 'don't give a shit' attitude. There are no dumb, blonde bimbos around here!"
"Hey!" he snapped sharply. The force of his tone brooked no argument, and Zoey fell silent, staring up at him with angry eyes. "I ain't tryin' to impress anyone. I'm just being me. If you don't like what you see, maybe you should find someone else to cover your ass-cheeks."
"Very funny," she shot back. "None of us would have made it this far without each other. I think that warrants a little respect, don't you?"
"Whatever," he replied, turning back toward the cooler. He heard a rustle of moment behind him and instinctively ducked his head, just in time to see a granola bar go flying overhead. "Goddamn it! Knock that shit off!"
"We're not done."
The biker's lips were pressed into a tight line as he ran a hand over his head, obviously trying to suppress some less-than-gentlemanly behaviour. "Fine," he finally sighed, leaning back against the cooler and crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm just kinda sick of goin' along with these plans that never pan out."
"And I'm getting real sick and tired of you doing nothing but complaining," Zoey shot back indignantly. "We'd be happy to hear your suggestions. But I'm sorry, at least seventy-five percent of the people in this group don't want to be fighting for the rest of our lives! We need to find an evac centre, before there are none left."
"Like Riverside, huh?" he snarled. "What makes you think anywhere else is gonna be any different, huh?"
She was silent for a moment, her eyes downcast. "I guess... I just want to believe that there are still other survivors out there," she murmured.
She moved off down the aisle and began to absent-mindedly pick more items off the shelves. Francis sighed and followed her. They walked in silence for a while.
"Listen," he began.
"Oh, peanut butter. Can't forget that..." Zoey said a monotone.
"I'm sure there are other people out there," Francis continued. "Humans are tough bastards. We'll find a way to pull through."
She looked at him, her green eyes had softening as she calmed down from their argument. She turned her attention back to her food scavenging. "Let's see… Peanut butter for me… Kit-Kats for Louis… What do you think we should get for Bill?"
"He was in the army, right?" Francis snorted, swiping an armful of cans from the shelf into his backpack. "There."
AUTHOR'S COMMENTS:
Thanks be to everyone for the kind comments so far.
I hope the chapters have been up to snuff, please take the time to leave a review, all that good stuff.
FEEDBACK:
Jason Valdor:
C: Does Zombieland not count as a good zombie movie?
A: My bad, I forgot what year Zombieland was made ^_^
He who is awesome:
C: So is this finally gonna have OCs again or what?
A: In a way. Later chapters are going to feature… not really OCs, but already-established characters in the L4D universe, in a big way. And they will be much more fleshed out.