Chapter 6

Doubts and Ash

The next couple of days were relatively uneventful. I got to know Arya and Carrie and all of them a little better. They all seemed very kind, and everyone seemed to get along well. I also got to hang out with Alex and Pablo and everyone, which made life tolerable. There was always the constant threat of a walker attack to keep us on edge, but at the same time being around so many good people helped give me the energy to keep moving. I spent a lot of my time out in the garden, or inside talking or helping people out if the got a cut or something.

The main problem was that our supplies were finite. Some of the others organized hunting parties, but I usually stayed behind. I didn't really want to deal with hunting, especially after what happened with Maxwell. Angie took a group over to the Patterson's farm at one point. There were no survivors there, just a few zombies wearing the Patterson's faces.

Regardless, our supplies were dwindling again. We needed more food, clothing, medicine; basic things that you take for granted until they're in short supply. Eventually, Angie decided to take Miguel and I along with her and Arya into the nearest town. "You two are the ones who know the area best. It would be stupid not to bring you along." Reluctantly, I agreed.

Later that day, we got our supplies together and headed down the road towards Delaplaine. We made sure to close the gate behind us as we got onto the main road, which was even more deserted than usual. It took a while for us to run into any walkers, and an arrow from my bow quickly dispatched the first one we found.

As I went to retrieve the arrow, Angie gathered us all together. "Ok, we're going to need to move silently, so we should probably use hand signals. Agreed?" Everyone nodded. "Ok, so two fingers pointed forward means 'go there'. One hand held up means 'stop'. One finger circled in the air means 'regroup'. One fist held up means 'fan out'. Everyone got that?" She had been demonstrating each signal, so we all understood what she meant. We also agreed to keep from firing our guns unless we absolutely had to. We planned to be in and out quickly so we could be back to the farm by dark.

As we moved towards the town, we found more and more debris in and around the road. There was glass and metal everywhere, and some of the cars and buildings were charred and gutted. It occurred to me that the scene before my eyes was probably similar to the aftermath of what I had seen back on the highway. There were bodies too, littered along the road and in the windows and doorways of the buildings. A few had gunshot wounds, but most appeared to have been killed by blunt trauma. Shattered skulls and broken ribcages. In many places there were buzzards circling, feasting on the dead. They were huge and fat, almost obese from being so well fed.

The air was thick with smoke, which made it a little hard to see, but also gave us some cover for sneaking around. I had my spear in hand, tip up in front of me just in case I had to use it. We walked close together, in a straight line, looking around for any places that looked promising. Thankfully there were surprisingly few walkers, and those that were in the area either didn't see us or smell us because of all the smoke, or were quickly dispatched by an arrow to the head or a blade to the neck.

The first place we hit was a hardware store. Everyone started looking around, trying to find anything of use. Most of the shelves had been knocked down, and there were things all over the floor. Most of it wasn't of any use to us, but there were a few things that looked helpful. At one point Miguel came up to me with a hatchet asking, "Can I keep it? Can I keep it?" Like it was a puppy that followed him home.

I shushed him, but smiled and nodded all the same. As old as he got, my younger brother never really became any more mature. In fact at times he seemed even less mature. After he found the axe we looked around a bit more. They had one or two items that we hadn't already found at the farm, but nothing much. Most of it was either unusable or taken by scavengers.

After we had gathered up everything we could find, we moved on. The next store we hit was an electronics store. It was one of the first places to be looted, but we did find a few items. Angie came up to me at one point with a square-ish phone in hand. "What's that?" I asked her.

"It's a Nokia. They're supposed to be, like, indestructible. Besides, who knows what'll come in handy?" I smiled at her. She could often be just as silly as Miguel, if not more so. Age was not tantamount to maturity in this group. Then again, who needs maturity?

We gathered up a few items, and then moved out again. This time we headed for a gas station. We needed fuel for the generators, as well as non-perishable foods. There was still some beef jerky on the shelves, and a few crackers and other things that would probably last us a while. There were even some canned goods among the clutter. We also managed to find a small can of gas that was about half full, in between two empty ones. It wasn't much, but it was all we could find, so we took it.

The sun was getting lower as we headed towards the next store. I tapped Angie on the shoulder. "We should probably get moving after this store. It's a bit later than I would like it to be, and this smoke will make it even harder to see at night." She nodded, and then followed Miguel as he led the way to a grocery store across the street.

The grocery store was relatively well stocked. We actually found some more canned foods, along with a couple of bags of chips, which were reduced to crumbs but still edible, and some oatmeal. Compared to what we had found in the other places, we had made out like bandits. Arya smiled as she put each item in her bag. Her stomach growled a bit, and that was when I remembered that she was still recovering from before. I took a piece of beef jerky out of my bag and handed it to her. She smiled at me now as she took it, and I smiled back. Then she ate it in a few bites and put the wrapping paper in her pocket, and we kept on working. It was a short moment, but worth far more than just the time itself.

We were just getting ready to get out the door when Miguel tripped. He fell into a mostly empty display case, which tipped over onto the floor. At the same time, some of the cans fell out of his pack, hitting the floor with a loud clanging noise.

A walker out on the street turned to look at us. It hadn't noticed us before because we were so far away, but now it was taking notice of us, as were some of the others nearby. We all tried to duck down and hide, but it was too late. The zombies were already shuffling towards us.

We started piling things against the doors as quickly as we could. Thankfully, there were a lot of fallen shelves to use. Most of us kept our weapons in one hand, just in case. We were only about halfway done when the first walker reached us. Arya was able to take it out with her sword, but there were more right behind it.

Angie and Miguel kept piling stuff against the doors while I helped her fend them off. I stabbed one with my spear, then used my makeshift knife to slash across into another. I sheared off some of the rotting skin on it's face, carving away a part of the façade and revealing the gristly bones beneath.

While I was occupied with those two, another one lunged out at me. It grabbed my arm, and I cried out as it moved in to take a bite. Just then, Arya swung around, blade glinting off the dying rays of the sun. She thrust her sword deep into the walker's skull, and I pushed it off me hurriedly. Then we backed up into the store as Miguel and Angie finished blocking off the front of the store with debris.

We all gasped for breath as we made sure that everyone was ok and we still had everything. Nobody seemed to be hurt and nothing was damaged or lost. After a few minutes we agreed that since we didn't have much of a choice but to stay the night, we would start setting up a small camp near the center of the store.

As we were setting up, I went over to talk to Arya. "Hey, thanks for saving my ass back there."

She looked up and smiled again. It was nice to see among all the rubble and chaos. "No problem. We're even now."

We ended up making a little clearing in the middle of all the junk where we could put down our stuff. We used our packs as pillows again, just like we had on the first night of the end of the world. I had a sudden flashback to Sharon, her smiling face, the way she told me she loved me, the light in her eyes. The light going dark. Her jaws open wide, ready to sink into my skin. Her blood on the forest floor.

I shook myself out of the waking nightmare. Angie looked over at me with more than a little concern. She made the "form up" sign, and we all gathered in close. "Guys, I think Keith and I are gonna take first watch," She whispered. "You can get to bed if you want. We'll wake you in about two hours or so." Arya and Miguel nodded.

Angie and I walked over to the border of our little clearing. "What's up? You had me scared there for a second."

I sighed softly. The moans of the zombies outside seemed a little too loud. And a lot too real. "I was just remembering the way things were. Back when she was alive. I miss having someone who can hold me, let me know everything's all right. Someone who can keep me anchored and sane in a world that's lost all semblance of sanity."

She nodded slowly. "I know what you mean. Back when everything went to hell, I lost everything, just like everyone else. Except for one very special thing. I still have Clayton. He's the one who's kept me going, even after all this. I really do know what she meant to you."

I turned to look at her. I could tell that she was being completely sincere. "I've probably said this before, but thank you for being such a great friend to me."

She grinned. "What, just great? Not amazing? Or spectacular?" I knew we were in a place where it wasn't a very good idea, but I laughed a bit.

"Yeah, those things too. I really-" I stopped in the middle of my sentence and raised my spear. She turned to see the walker that was roaming the broken aisles. I moved to attack it, but she held up a hand to stop me.

"I've got this." She took out her ice axe and crouched low so the walker wouldn't notice her. I kept my spear ready as she moved around it and struck it down from behind. Once we were sure it was finished, I walked over to inspect it with her.

"We cleared the place out, so it must have gotten in from some kind of back door," She said. "We need to find it quickly so others don't get in. Let's split up to cover more ground." I nodded. We both turned around and went in opposite directions, staying low and keeping as quiet as possible. It didn't take me long to find the door. I closed it quickly and found some debris to keep it from opening up again.

I went to find Angie and then we went back to the cleared-out portion of the store. We waited around a bit for our shift to finish, trading jokes and stories. Once the time came, we woke up Arya and Miguel for their watch. Then I lay down and slowly fell asleep, waking only when it was time for me to be on watch again.