I decided to name this after a lyric from Bruce Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad that did have a lot of meaning to this.
Chapter 6: Welcome to the New World Order
It was close to evening now in the quiet abandoned city. The RV that held Dexter, Hogarth, Danny, Arnold, Tut, and Davey was moving along the road in the dimly lit sky. Eventually it came to a stop in an old abandoned gas station.
The teenagers had fallen asleep in the back seat of the RV but they were rudely awakened by Davey.
"Come on ladies, get up we have to stop here for the night," he said.
Hogarth, not wanting to get kicked in the face again like he was this morning, especially by the guy who nearly murdered him on the road, decided to just get up.
"Alright, alright I'm up."
The others followed along and got up.
"Why do we have to stop here, couldn't we just keep going," Dexter asked
"Oh yeah we'll just keep going, and just lose all our energy and end up dead by the next morning, use your head shit-for-brains," Davey responded rudely.
"Stop it Davey," Arnold snapped in response, "he just asked a question that doesn't give you the right to.."
Arnold was then tapped by Danny who whispered in his ear, "don't pick a fight with him remember what happened when we first met him."
Arnold shut his mouth and just walked outside the RV to take a look around the gas station.
"What do you want us to do out here," Hogarth asked.
Davey pulled out a bottle of whiskey, "just go out to the gas station and get any shit we need, then get back here," he said as he started to drink down his bottle.
"Can't you come with us," Tut asked, "we could use the extra hands."
"Yeah sure, I'm hearing that from the guy who nearly killed me on the street today, HAHAHAHA" Davey cackled as he was now wasted.
Hogarth just sighed in disgust and stepped out of the RV. The others followed right behind him and they started to walk up to the gas station.
"I fucking hate that douchebag," Dexter said.
"The feeling's mutual for all of us I guess," Danny said in response.
"How'd you end up with that bum, and how come he doesn't have any problem with you guys," Tut asked.
"We'll have to tell you that a little later, let's clear out the gas station."
They didn't have the same experience as in the supermarket where a walker just attacked them. It was much more mild than that, but didn't have many rewards to offer.
It was cleared very shortly of nothing but extra water bottles and food from vending machines. After that the five boys went back to the RV and lit up a fire outside and just talked.
"So like I said before how'd you end up with him," Tut asked.
"Well I was the first to go with Davey," Danny said, "he and I lived in the same town and well he was kind of a close friend of my family, so he had no problem tolerating me."
"You actually trust him," Hogarth said in shock believing that that bum could trust anybody.
"Look he's been through a lot already just don't make it hard for him, but I can't stand how he treats other people he comes across."
Arnold took over the talking, "what happened on the road with you guys probably would've happened to me, I was low on my rations and I was lying in the middle of the road, they came up and Davey didn't want me to come but Danny helped me get into the group."
"Well where were you guys before all this happened?" Dexter asked.
Danny told them his story. His parents were scientists researching the supernatural and he just lived in Amity Park. "I just lived there with my girlfriend Sam Manson and my buddy Tucker." He laughed to himself remembering the good times.
"When the walkers came around and people started going to different shelters for survival, my parents thought we could hide it out so we sealed ourselves in our house. It worked for a while but eventually... they got to us and I lost my family." Danny looked down at the ground and covered his eyes. For several minutes he stayed like that until he pulled himself together and sat upright.
"So what you're parents were ghostbusters I guess," Dexter said finding it funny.
"Well sort of but not really, they believed that they could find a way to connect the human world with the ghost world and well something kind of happened with me..." Danny said falling back as if he was hiding something.
"What is it," Hogarth asked being the first to suspect something.
After a couple minutes, Danny cleared his head and decided to tell them. "Okay promise you won't freak out when I tell you this, I already told Arnold and he didn't take it that well."
"I did" Arnold snapped.
"Hell no you didn't dude, you probably would've shot me right there if you had the chance."
"Just tell us the secret," Tut said impatiently not wanting to have another argument on his hands for the third time today.
"Okay, here goes."
Out of nowhere Danny just disappeared and turned invisible. Everybody looked around trying to find him.
"Danny where are you," they all asked.
"I'm right here," Arnold said but he was talking in Danny's voice.
"HOLY SHIT" they all shrieked.
Immediately Danny appeared again coming back from nowhere. Arnold look at him with a frown.
"Hey why do you have to overshadow me," he said annoyed.
"Cause you're the only one I can trust."
"Dude, what the fuck did you just do," Hogarth asked, "are you just a ghost or something."
"Well partially, a while back I went into this portal my parents had made. When I went inside I pressed a button and the portal turned on. When that happened ghost ectoplasm went into my DNA and then I became part human and part ghost."
"Dude that is the most," Dexter said but stopped mid sentence, "fucking awesome thing I've ever seen in my life."
Danny couldn't help but smile at this, "glad to know you're not upset."
"So does that mean you can't die even if you're bitten?" Tut asked.
"Unfortunately no," Danny said as his expression turned serious, "I can still be bitten if I let my guard down when we come across the walkers. But with my ghost powers I will be able to get past them."
After that they turned to Arnold, curious about what happened with him when everything started.
"So Arnold, what happened with you," Dexter asked.
"I had already run away from home," he answered, "I was arguing with my grandparents about my future so I pretty much just said 'fuck it' and left."
He covered his face with his hand and sighed, "I shouldn't have done that, because my grandparents could be dead and I just left them there. Anyway I was on the road for a while now and when everything started I looted stores and stole weapons to fight and then I met Danny and Davey while on the road. Same thing happened with you guys except I was able to prove myself worthy of being rescued."
"Don't let it get to you Arnold, you fucked up, but keep positive and try to let it go and you'll feel better about it," Hogarth said patting Arnold on the back.
"Thanks Hogarth."
Tut had been silent most of the time, and looked on over to the woods, "do you think anything will get better?"
"I think it will, but who wouldn't want to go back to those days," Arnold said in response.
"Yeah who wouldn't want to go back to that, BBQ's, beers, girls, and everything a teenager hopes for," Hogarth said in.
"Welcome to the new world order dude," Danny said, "you have to endure any kind of pain and try to survive, because in this situation it's the only way to live."
"How do you know ghost-boy, we've only had this for six weeks, why won't it get better." Hogarth responded in frustation.
"I didn't say it wouldn't, but right now at this crucial time it's the only way to survive."
This conversation was interrupted by the sounds of moaning and growling coming from not so far behind. The five boys immediately turned their heads and turned to see a dozen walkers coming out of the forest, and from the look of it the numbers of them were growing by the second.
"Jesus Christ, give me a break," Arnold sighed, probably having gone through so many of these things so far.
"Get out your guns," Hogarth commanded.
"No" Danny shouted, "there's too many, we've gotta hide in the van."
"I don't care what we do, let's just get out of here," Tut screamed as he took off towards the van with the others following suit.
Davey was already so wasted that he didn't even hear them and just mumbled incoherent words. "Hey... dudes... did you get the stuff," he mumbled before passing out.
Danny locked the doors to the RV and went right to the back. They shut the blinds and turned off all sounds to not attract attention.
Hogarth looked out the window through the blinds and saw that over a hundred of these things have gathered outside already.
For several hours the group just laid inside the RV hearing the sounds of the walkers as they went by, making it hard for them to fall asleep. Eventually fatigue got to all of the and they all fell asleep. Despite that fear still plagued their dreams and made them even more fearful. They just hoped they would wake up safely the next morning without any worry whatsoever.
Well that played out good, we got some character development in and some more action on the way soon. The next chapter I will try to add more cool stuff in it as the group gets closer to the camp where they're missing allies are. Hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you soon.
VGA