VI - City of Millions
-Day 74-
The red coupe drove along the polluted Hudson River. Tim gulped as he looked around the city, finding it worse than he imagined. But for Maria, it was petrifying. The sight of all the buildings with destroyed roofs or rubble in the ground, an empty city with corpses lying around everywhere, this was something that she never thought she would see. This was the true sight of a post-apocalyptic world.
"Mankind has really screwed themselves, haven't they?" said Bruna, lighting up a joint.
"Hey," said Tim. "No smoking."
Bruna looked at Carlitos and sighed.
Tim drove the car along a waterway and then parked it next to a giant wall of rubber tires. The survivors got out of the car and entered the pier through a narrow walkway, now finding themselves in the other side of the wall.
The survivors looked around, finding a yacht parked next to the pier and a giant red X on the wall of tires. Then, the survivors came across a terrible sight.
Tim began to tear up as he slowly approached a decayed corpse that lay by a large stick.
Bruna dropped her lighter and trembled as she looked down at the corpse.
Maria and Carlitos couldn't take their eyes off of the destruction that laid before them.
"This is definitely the last thing she wore," said Bruna. "That's her. I can't believe it. That's her!"
Sherry's clothes lay by the stick, as if the decayed corpse itself was impaled by the stick. However, it has years since she was dead, and thus her corpse was almost completely withered away.
Tim closed his eyes and let out a few tears as he reached into his pockets. He took out a tape recorder.
"Vonda, my baby girl, I don't know where you are, but I believe you're still alive. I know that you're going to feel lonely at times, but just know… I'll be home, waiting for you. This world is dangerous, but I know you can adapt to it. And the roamers… they adapt to the world as well, so it'll get harder the longer you live, but you've never been the type to back down from a challenge, right? I'll be home. I'll be waiting for you. I'm very sorry I couldn't find you."
Tim stopped the recording and placed the tape recorder down onto the clothes. He walked back into his car with Bruna, all while Maria and Carlitos looked around the dead city with a somber expression.
"Wanna go back to Royal Woods?" she suggested.
"Out of all places we could stay… why Royal Woods?" asked Tim.
"There are people there," she replied. "People we can trust. People I knew. People you met. Remember? They're thinking about putting up barriers, cleaning up the streets, arming some guards… they want us there. And you never know. Maybe one day, your daughter and my children will return to Royal Woods. I wrote a note. You should write one in your house too. Let your daughter know that you'll be in a community."
Tim nodded. He sighed and lay his head on his fingers, before receiving a warm hug of reassurance from Maria. He looked at a lonely cloud that hovered above the city.
-Present Day-
The lonely cloud hovered miles away from the horror that unfolded before the survivors in New York.
"How far did we park?" exclaimed Luan as she ran past the abandoned yellow taxis.
"Must be two blocks away! Or maybe eight?" panted Becky, holding her machete.
"You don't know?" Benny yelled nervously.
"I don't know, I've never been to New York before!"
"And the map?" said Luan, huffing and puffing as she ran away from the roamers behind her.
"Dropped it!" said Hana sharply, Kimi running beside her. "Gomen."
Becky turned around and swung her machete sideways, chopping off one of the roamers' head. Benny leaped over a flipped car, causing the roamer to run into it, before he thrusted his katana into its skull.
"How are these roamers so fast?" yelled Benny.
"There's more coming!" exclaimed Luan. "We have to get in our vehicles soon or else they're going to overwhelm us!"
"Take a left!" exclaimed Becky. "I remember now. I parked it by a Dunkin' Donuts. Go left!"
Luan, Benny, Hana, and Becky ran towards their vehicles. The running roamers were chasing them in packs, bumping into cars, shoving and clawing each other away. The group turned left at an intersection and found Vanzilla and Hana's RV in the distance. The group ran even faster as the running roamers reached the intersection.
"Wait, what about Luna?" gasped Luan. "We have to go back for her!"
"We can't," said Becky. "They're in the other direction. The roamers are in the way. They're gonna have to find their own way out. I'm sorry, Luan!"
Luan let out a frustrated yell as she entered Vanzilla with Becky and Benny. Hana ran into her own RV, closing the door as soon as Kimi leaped inside. The roamers were nearing the vehicles, but the engines grumbled and began to move away from them.
Lori removed the binoculars from her eyes and ran towards Liberty State Park. With her hands on the flare gun, and a plan to distract the roamers, she ran with all her might and speed to the park. Watching over the flowing river, she lifted the flare gun and fired a burning light into the sky, a ball glimmering bright enough for the herd– now in Manhattan– to run after. She coughed as smoke and other particles blew out of the gun. After the flare died out, she fired another flare, keeping the herd distracted as the group struggled to escape the city. But the truth was that they still haven't found a way out. The situation was very dire, and their challenge seemed impossible to conquer.
Lisa ran inside the rundown Hearst Tower, the skeleton of its steel beams pointing upwards. The concrete walls were shattered and piles of bricks lied in most of the entrances. The lack of a roof, however, gave way to light in the center of the demolished ground floor. The corners were dark and the floor was scattered with concrete dust.
Lisa looked down at the sobbing baby in her hands, crying out of the agonizing pain she felt throughout her body. Lisa covered the infant's mouth as she coughed. She looked at her own hands and saw spots of blood on her palm. She reached into her fanny pack and grabbed a syringe, the bottle of quinine, and the vial of the unfinished NIRT cure prototype. There wasn't enough quinine in the bottle alone to save the baby, but if the genius girl was able to replicate the quinine in the NIRT solution and then extract it, then there was a chance that it would save Zoey's life.
"Okay, Dr. Loud. You can do this. Just… pour the the quinine into the vial and extract it. You installed a 400x magnifying glass in your eyewear for a reason. Like Nike says. Just do it."
The baby began to gurgle and cough even more violently as her bloodshot eyes began to glow softly against the light of the roof. Her pale face revealed the veins in her face. Upon placing her fingers on Zoey's neck, Lisa noticed that her pulse was slowing down dramatically. The baby began to whimper and cry out desperately, though the noise came out weak as if her throat was inflamed.
Lisa looked at her vial again, before closing it in her palm. She then dug deeper into her pack, taking out a tube of poneratoxin. But something else caught her attention. Something less painful. She took out a tube of potassium chloride and opened her palm, revealing the vial of the NIRT cure.
The dying baby received one last look from Lisa.
"Oh no. Please, god no," quivered Lisa as she placed the poneratoxin and the NIRT vial back into her pack. "I'm sorry, Zoey. I'm sorry, Carol. It's too late. I can't save you."
Lisa placed the potassium chloride into the syringe, weeping her eyes out. She then grabbed a scalpel from her bag and held it close to her. Her hands trembled as she finally accepted her failure.
The roamers grabbed onto the bars of the window and growled at the passengers. Jace yelled as he moved away from the seats, while Preston took out his pocket knife and thrusted it through the bars, stabbing a zombified-Feinstein. Lana grabbed her heavy wrench and began bludgeoning the roamers' hands into the bars, crushing them against the steel. Dr. White held onto one of the bus seats as the roamers' hands grasped through the bars. Lily lowered herself in between the seats.
"Where are all these roamers coming from?" shouted Jace.
One of the roamers reached his hands inside the bus and clawed a piece of skin off from a passenger's shoulder. He quickly shoved the hand away and leaped to the floor in the center of the bus.
"Son of a bitch!" he yelled. "Alright, a scratch ain't a big of a deal, right?"
Jace lowered himself, checking on the man's scratch mark on his shoulder. He raised his shoulders as he panted heavily.
"You gotta drive the bus now!" said Reggie. "Like now!"
Jeffrey nodded. He pressed the gas pedal and began driving the bus away from Central Park. He looked at one of the rearview mirrors and noticed a large herd coming from the left side.
"Oh, Lord, lend us your mercy," he whispered.
The bus sped up, running over a couple roamers, crushing their skulls, limbs, bones. The bus began moving southwards to Rockefeller Center where David's RV was parked at.
Suddenly, a roamer lunged towards the floor, causing Jace to leap out of the way. The roamer– a passenger who was dead for minutes– began chewing on the face of the screaming scratched man. Jace was paralyzed in fear as the man reached his arms out for help. Vonda shoved Jace away and kicked the roamer away from the man. She then grabbed her arrow from her seat and shoved it down at the roamer's skull.
The man choked on his own blood as parts of his face was ripped off. His eyes stared upwards as the bus began to sway uncontrollably.
"The roamers are putting too much weight in the back!" yelled Dr. White.
"What do we do then?" exclaimed Reggie.
"We got guns–" said Lana.
Vonda opened the emergency back door and kicked the roamer corpse into the herd, causing a couple roamers to fall down. She then dragged the man's corpse to the back of the bus and slid him out the bus, causing a large number of roamers to let go of the bus and feed on to the man.
"Jesus," muttered Jace.
The bus moved much faster as Vonda struggled to move to a seat. As she grabbed onto a seat, her hands slipped, causing her to fall to the floor and hit her head. She slid towards the open emergency door, though Preston grabbed her arms. He groaned as he lifted her unconscious body up, placing her into her seat. He buckled the seat and looked out the back door, watching the roads pass by at a fast speed.
"You hear that?" whimpered Clyde.
"Yeah, we gotta get you outta here real quick," said Ronnie Anne.
Gunshots were fired from inside the rubble. The car alarm continued to blare, eventually lighting up a few figures running in the distance from behind the group. Sweat broke out of the girl's face as she tried pulling out Clyde's from the rubble. The runners got closer and closer, until the flooding water slowed them down. Some fell into the ground, in which they began crawling, splashing their claws against the water.
Ronnie Anne took out her pistol and fired it at the closest roamer causing the gunshot to boom across the tunnel.
"Cover your ears, Clyde!" she yelled.
She aimed the gun at his metallic leg and fired a burst of bullets. Clyde kept his ears closed until she pulled on his arm.
"This might hurt a lot," said Ronnie Anne.
She stepped on the metallic leg and pulled Clyde up as he screamed. Blood dripped from the scratches in his stump, but Clyde quickly recovered and began limping away from the roamers, with Ronnie Anne assisting him.
Lynn fired round after around from her rifle, hitting a couple runners. As one lunged towards her, she quickly whacked it to the ground and crushed it with the butt of her rifle. She continued to thrust the rifle at the runners, quickly taking out their rotten skulls. Lincoln continued stabbing the runners until the two siblings were clear to move ahead.
Lincoln kept his flashlight on as he ran ahead with Lynn, who dropped her rifle. The two eventually met with Ronnie Anne and Clyde. Lynn looked behind at the blaring car alarms, and found the runners crawling at a rapid speed. She grabbed Clyde and placed him on her back before running ahead.
Ronnie Anne turned around and pulled the trigger to her pistol, lighting up the tunnel for a quick second. More runners dropped dead, and the teens continued to run out of the tunnel, speeding up when they saw sunlight peeking through the end.
Luna, Sam, and Kotaro carried their bags out of Radio City, the two girls holding each other's hand.
"That was definitely a rockin' discovery," said Luna. "We have to hurry back before Jace gets more ill, though."
"Hey!" yelled David in the distance. "Run for the RV! Go!"
Sweat poured out of George's long hair,dripping straight down from his ears. Bobby's shirt was drenched in sweat and his face seemed oily. Carol's face was red from the heat and exhaustion of running a few miles. They were all running, though Carol lagged behind.
Sam raised her AR-15 and shot a couple runners behind Carol. She was panting and gasping for air as she jogged closer and closer to Radio City. Behind her were groups of roamers, and before they knew it, Luna's group were staring at a herd, all lined up in the horizon.
"Yup, we're going," said Luna.
Luna, Sam, and Kotaro led the others a block ahead to the RV, before they found it overrun by roamers.
"Oh god, we can't get into the RV!" yelled Sam.
David, George, Bobby, and Carol ran past Radio City and saw the swarm of runners engulfing the RV.
"We have to run further ahead into Central Park," said Kotaro. "Take the other buses."
"No!" cried out Carol, desperate to catch her breath.
Two honks from the bus horn blared as Jeffrey ran over the roamers surrounding the right side of the RV. The bus slowed down to a stop, before a burst of gunfire popped out of the back of the bus. The runners were dodging bullets, though the closer they got to the bus, the more they were struck.
"Keep firin'!" exclaimed Lana as she reloaded her AKS-74u.
"That's all of them!" said Reggie, releasing the magazine from his M16.
The group ran for the RV, now cleared of roamers. Before David entered his vehicle, he took one last look of the driver. Jeffrey took out an MP5K with his left hand and began firing it wildly at the runners approaching the group. David gave him a thumbs up to which Jeffrey responded with a nod. He entered the RV and closed the door, pressing the gas pedal.
Jeffrey drove ahead and began to run over more roamers as he navigated through the cracks and obstacles in the road. David followed the bus, escaping from the pursuit of the herd.
The lonely sky was gone.
Vanzilla and Hana's RV cruised along the road, with the runners on pursuit. Fortunately, the vehicles moved much faster, especially since Hana was tempted to drive sixty miles per hour. Realizing that Central Park and Radio City was a lost cause, they switched directions to drive west into the Hudson River, away from the herd. Once they got there, they had no clue what they would have to do.
Suddenly, they found a wandering survivor outside of the Hearst Tower.
"Stop! That's Lisa!" exclaimed Luan.
Becky honked the van and braked it. Hana stopped the RV too, before rolling down her window.
"Hurry!" she hissed.
Luan opened the passenger door and came out of the van. She ran over to Lisa, whose expression seemed exhausted as she rubbed her eyes with her glasses in her hands. The loud humming thunder of the herd could be heard down the street.
"Lisa, we have to go!" exclaimed Luan as she grabbed her hand.
Lisa nodded and ran to Vanzilla with Luan. She looked back and found a herd of runners crossing block by block every dozen seconds. Her heart began to pound against her chest again.
Suddenly, the bus and David's RV swerved from the intersection as more runners were on their trail. The herd overwhelmed the north and east part of Manhattan.
Luan grabbed the walkie-talkie in the glove department and turned it on.
"David, where do we go?"
"Just take a left and drive south!" he replied back.
"You guys found a road out the city?" asked Benny.
"No. There's… there's nowhere to go," said David.
Becky continued to press the gas pedal as sweat dripped from her face. The herd already overwhelmed the southern tip of Manhattan. The herd were filling the north and the east part, and were nearing west. A solution that have been sought for over a week now needed to come in the next few minutes.
"The Holland Tunnel," panted Carol. "The only reason Lori didn't go… was that it was too far. But it's not like the Lincoln Tunnel."
"Oh, that's right," said Bobby.
"What? It's clogged with traffic!" said David. "It always is!"
"Not this time," said Bobby. "I don't know what the nuke did, but it must've blown half of the tunnel off! And I mean like a hot dog slice half! And it's floating like one!"
David nodded and looked into the river in the distance. He gulped and spoke into the walkie-talkie.
"I got an idea," he said. "In the river– you see that long bridge looking road? Yeah, that wasn't a bridge. It is now though."
"You're shitting me," said Becky.
"I shit you not. I need you to hit top speed and drive over the rubble bridge into Jersey City."
"Won't our cars be too heavy?" shivered Benny.
"I don't know what else to do!" yelled David.
Another signal in the two-way transmitter crackled.
"I know what he's talking about," said Lori. "The rubble is very sturdy. It's tons and tons of steel and concrete and other materials, you know."
"We can abandon our vehicles then!" said Becky.
"We can't," said Luan. "The runners already reached the bridge. They'll catch up to us."
"Just drive through the bridge," said Lori. "Run them over and just drive with all your speed."
"That's fucking insane! We'll fucking drown!"
"It's the only option!" yelled Lori. "It's either that or staying back and dying! There are more than a hundred thousand roamers on your ass! Maybe even millions!"
David's RV drove ahead of Hana and Becky. It made a turn towards the docks by the Hudson River.
"Becky! Becky!" yelled Lori. "I trust you with my family! You're my friend! Everything we've been through– I know you can do this! Do you trust me? Please, do you trust me?"
Becky took a few deep breaths as she turned the van towards the polluted river. She nodded.
"Yes, Lori. I trust you."
Becky pressed the gas pedal and followed behind David's RV. The RV drove over the dented gates of the docks and drove along the padded trash that lied on top of the hardened rubble submerged into the river. Then, the RV made it to the floating road of the Holland Tunnel– the lower half of it. Vanzilla followed behind, rocking left and right as the road struggled to remain stable. David's RV then drove off the end of the road and into a road of bricks and concrete, popping the back wheels, as it grinded against the materials.
Vanzilla followed shortly after, the bricks damaging the undercarriage. Then, the two vehicles made it to the roads of Jersey City, taking a hard left.
Hana's RV quickly sped across the road as a couple runners ran after the RV. The brick and concrete road only damaged the outside frame of the RV, but the wheels and the undercarriage were intact. The brick and concrete road became more unstable, however.
Finally, Bus 1, the only surviving prison bus, drove across the road of the Holland Tunnel. The runners surrounded the bus, though Jeffrey continued to press against the gas pedal. Reggie and Lana continued firing their guns at the back of the bus as the roamers leaped inside it. Then, the bus was freed and accelerated to top speed as it reached closer and closer to the brick and concrete road.
"Brace yourselves!" yelled Jeffrey. "AHH!"
All the passengers held on to a seat as the bus landed on the road. A couple bricks were sent flying while the blood of the runners splattered into the cracked windshield. The back of the bus hovered over the road, as the front wheels were stuck to the bricks.
Suddenly, the concrete began to crack, and the bricks began to disperse. Tiny streams of water flowed to the surface as the front of the bus lowered.
"We have to haul ass!" yelled Jace. "Now!"
Jace, Preston, and Reggie grabbed each other's shoulders and limped out of the bus. Lana held Lily's hands as she watched the runners approach the collapsing road. Jeffrey prepared to run out of the bus, before running back to a seat and unbuckling Vonda's seatbelt. Dr. White followed behind him.
"Where is everyone going?" asked Weber, still in the bus.
Dr. White turned around and saw the runners reaching the collapsing road. He face Weber.
"Danger is approaching us. Any second now– the dead will catch up to us, and we'll get bitten."
"But those things aren't really dangerous, are they?"
"Yes, yes they are. Your father is waiting for you in the other side. He doesn't want you to be in danger."
"But what about your medical stuff?"
"They don't matter. What matters is that you get out of there, now. I need you out of the bus."
Weber nodded. He leaped out of the bus and jogged across the collapsing road, following the doctor. Sweat covered his face, though it was almost entirely due to the heat. Any other sweatdrop would be the effect of anxiety from witnessing the panic unfold before him.
Moments passed. And Weber hopped to the docks of Jersey City. He quickly ran towards Hana's RV that awaited him and Dr. White. He did not look back as the runners struggled to keep up with the survivors.
The weight of the herd caused the Holland Tunnel road to be submerged into the water, eventually freeing up all the rubble before it. A huge flood of water washed over the concrete and brick road as it broke apart, scattering everywhere in the river. The herd continued to run and fall to the flowing river, washed away into the bay. The bus and the remaining medical supplies that assisted with creating the NIRT cure prototype sunk into the river, along with everything on top of the debris.
Lori sighed and placed her hand against her head. She placed down the jerry cans and struggled to catch her breath. Her vision became a little disoriented from the sight of the herd being washed away. Then, from the distance was David's RV. Next, Vanzilla. Finally, Hana's RV.
Lori smiled as she saw Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, Clyde, and Lynn come out of Vanzilla. They walked towards Lori as Luan and Benny joined them. Some of the siblings hugged Lori as she faced Becky, giving her a wink. Becky leaned against the van, sweat stuck to her face, her pupils contracted. But she smiled.
All the passengers stepped out of their vehicles and stepped foot on the small patches of grass growing among burnt grass in Liberty State Park.
"We lost a lotta people, didn't we?" said Lynn. "Is Vonda gonna be okay?"
"If we don't get any anti-malarial medication soon… then she won't be okay," said Dr. White. "Same goes for Mr. Taylor, Mr. Salas, Mister– Reggie Harrison, and anyone recently bit by a mosquito."
"Every little thing's gonna be alright," said Luna as she took out a bottle of chloroquine from her bag. "I told you I was going to save your life, Jace."
Jace's lips smiled before his eyes turned towards Carol.
"Where's Zoey?" she nervously asked. "This can't be everyone, right?"
Lisa began to breathe heavily.
"The lamented Zoey is no longer with us," she stated. "She's deceased."
Carol was at a loss for words. Bobby and Becky both grabbed her shoulders, rubbing her arms as they held her. Her lips quivered as her eyes began to weep.
"Wha– how did this happen?" whispered Dr. White.
Lisa held a small yellow pacifier. The flashbacks attacked her mind.
"I believed by getting the infant away from the pandemic in the buses, a chance to save her would have been probable. I had– have the quinine and the syringe… and the cure to replicate it. But it was too late. She already died in my hands before I arrived at the Hearst Tower."
Lisa held the infant in her hands while holding her syringe. She knew that the quinine was the best chance to save the infant. But she didn't want to risk losing the proto-cure and bring all the side effects that came with the quinine.
"I checked her pulse. Nonexistent. All her vitals. Her breathing. Everything. But she was gone."
Lisa placed the pacifier in Zoey's mouth as she closed her bloodshot eyes. She then stuck the syringe inside Zoey's arm. The baby didn't cry any louder– her agony came mostly from the malaria.
"So, what I did… was I opened up the bottle of Vulcan's Gel. And I wrapped her with a blanket before applying the gel on the surface of the blanket."
Her hands rubbed Zoey's hair as she settled down. Eventually, her cries and moans disappeared. Lisa swallowed hard as she held her scalpel and turned the infant over. Her heart throbbed with pain.
"Cremation. Prevention of reanimation. I know you wouldn't have wanted Zoey to come back as… a roamer."
Lisa dropped the stained scalpel. She took out her tube of potassium chloride, opened it, and held it above her mouth. But nothing poured out. She sobbed as she tossed the tube down, watching the remains of the dirty work she did.
"Here are her ashes," said Lisa. "You might not want to possess it. But maybe, maybe it will help with the grieving process."
Lisa grabbed the ashes from the ground. She looked for ashes that weren't tainted by the concrete dust. She then took one last look at the corpse covered by the small blanket. She grabbed the yellow pacifier from the ground and closed the lid to the tube.
She handed the tube of ash and the yellow pacifier to Carol. Lisa then walked away, placing her fanny pack into the back of Vanzilla. Carol fell to her knees and broke down as she held the tube of ash close to her.
A mockingbird flew across the sky, landing on a small patch of fresh grass. Weber smiled as it flew away before looking at Lori.
Lori felt her stomach gurgle. She vomited into an empty trash can in the park, before going into a coughing fit. Bobby ran up to her, but failed to catch her as she collapsed to the grass. Carol continued crying and Bobby shook Lori's unconscious body and cried for help, all as the mockingbird flew away. The heat continued its relentless punishment.
-Day 10-
A broken king piece lied on the floor of the deli market in the Bronx.
"Let go of me, you motherfuckers!" yelled Calvin.
The long-haired raider with a handlebar mustache chuckled as he continued wrapping his arms around Calvin's neck, not tight enough to ensure a chokehold, but enough to ensure no escape.
"Help me, daddy!" sobbed Sierra. "Help, please!"
"Keep screaming daddy," snickered another long-haired raider. "Makes this SO much more fun."
"I swear to god, I will kill all of you fuckers!" screamed Calvin.
"No, stop! Please!" sobbed Teresa, as another raider held her face against the floor. "Stop…"
The raiders violated Calvin's daughter and wife in front of his eyes. Their screams didn't make them slow down. Their blood didn't make them stop. Their tears didn't make them feel sorry.
"Shut up, bitch!" yelled one of the raiders as he smashed Teresa's face to the ground over and over.
"I'll fuck you up!" yelled Calvin. "I'll gouge your goddamn eyes out! I will kill you! I will kill you!"
"I had enough of this," said the fat, bald raider. "The kid's cries are hurting my fucking ears."
The raider aimed his pistol at the little girl and pressed the trigger. He then aimed it down at his victim. He shot the wife.
Calvin screamed at the top of his lungs as he flailed his head and legs.
"Jesus Christ!" laughed the raider holding him. "He is completely losing his shit! Go for the other woman and–"
Blood squirted out of his forehead as a bullet flew out of his head. Calvin flinched and freed himself from his corpse as he grabbed the raider's pistol. The two other raiders, holding Beatrice, were quickly shot by bullets bursting from outside the store. Calvin aimed his pistol at the raiders above the corpses of his dead family and shot them both.
He then ran towards their squirming bodies and grabbed a cleaver. He swung it down at the bald raider, chopping him apart.
The curly-haired Latino who shot the raiders bursted inside the store.
"Guillermo!" exclaimed Beatrice. "Thank god! Perfect fucking timing."
"Yeah, just glad I saw you two– Jesus."
Both Guillermo and Beatrice faced Calvin. He continued chopping down at the raider's face. And it went on for minutes. Both survivors were tired, and sat on the blood-soaked floor.
"Stop, before you tire yourself out," said Guillermo. "I'm awfully sorry about what happened to your family. Believe me, I'd be acting like this too, but–"
Calvin stood up and tossed his cleaver to the ground. He then grabbed a sharp knife.
"Hungry?" he asked.
Both survivors nodded softly. Calvin licked his lips and cut into the man's stomach. He went diagonally left. Then diagonally right. He marked an X in his stomach before dropping him. He looked at the two survivors and pointed his knife at the human corpse in the ground.
"Start cutting. We'll need to eat soon."
.
.
.
End Credit Song
Spanish Sahara - Foals
A lot of characters (mostly unnamed and nobodies) lost. Disease is cruel.
P.S. Credits to Moon5555 with helping me out with the chapter and ideas for down the road.