II - Guns and Fuel
-Day 815-
The wooden door creaked followed by soft footsteps entering an apartment part of a longer complex building in Baltimore. The sunlight passed through the transparent curtains and lit up the living room with natural light. A finger rubbed through the couch and picked up a line of dust that has collected on the furniture for two years. The survivors passed by the plain walls, empty cabinets, dusty corners.
"It's a good place to hole up in, right?" Lori told David as she flicked the flashlight off.
"Maybe," said David. "Let's check the rest of the building."
The group moved to the neighboring apartments, clearing it of any roamers. They inspected every room and took whatever foodstuffs, water bottles, batteries, any supplies that could help them. While the group continued to move from apartment to apartment, Jace and Luan decided to stick around the apartment next to the one they made a shelter out of.
"Luna and I checked the kitchen," said Luan. "There are two roamers in there… and it ain't pretty. But they're not gonna move- I think it'd be great practice for you, y'know. Luna told me about your fear of roamers."
"It's not a fear of roamers," said Jace. "It's a fear of killing them."
Luan and Jace walked inside the kitchen of the cleared out apartment. Two roamers were tied together with ropes on their wrists. Their other wrists were tied to their chairs, in which their waists were also tied to.
"They were married," said Luan, showing Jace their suicide note. "They both pulled a Romeo and Juliet- except, Juliet here drank poison along with her Romeo. No dagger, but they did leave a gun in the table- something you're not gonna use if you're gonna kill this happily married couple. Boy, they really did tie the knot, didn't they?"
Luan looked at Jace, who stared at them with a distraught look on his face. He shook his head and turned around.
"I can't kill them. They look too… human," said Jace before looking at Luan. "Can't I just leave them alone? They're not going to hurt me if I walk away, especially with them all tied up like this. 'Sides, it's unnecessary. I only kill roamers if I have to."
"What about people?" asked Luan. "I don't want to either, but there's only one sure way to protect the people you love, nowadays."
Luan walked over to the kitchen table and lifted her katana, adjusting the blade slightly before letting a powerful swing slice off the skulls of both roamers. Jace took a deep breath and shivered before walking over to the table.
"I wish there was some other way," said Jace.
Jace took the Beretta Px4 that sat on the table next to an empty bottle of cyanide, two wedding rings locked together, and a dead rose. He placed it in his pocket and walked out of the kitchen with Luan.
After setting up their apartment for temporary comfort, members of the group left to scavenge for fuel and medicine in the city. In one of the rooms of the apartment, where David rested by a window looking out into the neighborhood clustered with vehicles, Carol walked in with puffy eyes, holding a yellow pacifier in her hands.
"Think we'll see 'em again?" asked Carol.
"See who?" groaned David, lifting himself against the bed frame.
"The monsters who murdered Reggie."
"I don't know. Maybe."
"They need to die. All of them. I'm tired of losing people- kids who don't deserve to die in this world. He didn't fucking deserve it."
"He didn't," said David. "I think it's best for the group to never see those douchebags again, you know, for our safety. But part of me wants to see them again just so I can kill all of them fuckers. But as you can see… I'm in no condition to do that."
"Think Lori's doing a great job at protecting us?" asked Carol. "'Cause I don't think she is."
"She's trying her best. The fact that no one else could do better- that's all that matters."
"We could've done better," said Carol. "If you haven't lost your wife and if I haven't lost my baby, we wouldn't even be in this situation. And then look at what happened to Simon Weber. Lori doesn't even know Lana was the one who took MY gun and killed that kid!"
"I understand you're angry, but Lori is not to blame."
Carol sniffled.
"I know! I just… I don't want to keep blaming myself…"
Carol sat down by David, allowing him to rub her back, comforting her. Lisa stood outside of the room, grasping her own hair as she held her tears back. She had no time for crying, though this meant she would always have to bottle her tears of guilt.
Lori and the others continued walking along the outskirts of downtown Baltimore, being careful enough to avoid the swarms of roamers in there but scattered around enough to inspect each abandoned car in the road.
"Benny, come here," said Bobby, handing him a packet. "I found some gum."
"They still got flavor to them?" scoffed Benny as he placed a stick of gum in his mouth. "Wow. Watermelon."
Benny continued chewing as he looked at Bobby's jerry can.
"Any luck?" Benny asked.
"Not really. Every car in this street's tapped out."
"Mmm. This gum's good."
"I know right. It was originally watermelon lime, but I guess the lime flavor has lost–"
"Guys!" shouted Luan from the intersection of the street. "Follow me!"
Luan, Benny, and Bobby met up with the rest of the group in a street infested with roamers stuck in wooden spikes, crushed cars, and nets. Lori stood in front of them, confronted by a group of survivors wearing body armor.
"The hell's going on here?" asked Benny.
"I don't know. Lori, me, and some others found them here and they kinda threatened us, but they decided that the leader, Brendan, will have a talk with Lori. I don't know, it's weird."
"How do we know you guys won't come back and raid us?" asked Brendan, a man with light-purple dyed hair.
"You'd be taking the main thing we use for defense," said Lori. "And all we'll be taking is the main thing we need to get out of here."
"That's true. You know, you shouldn't really be in this city. There are some terrible people that hang around here a lot."
"The X?"
"Yes, the X. So you know…"
Brendan looked back at his bodyguards and nodded. Lori looked back as both of the group's RVs drove slowly towards her, stopping behind the roamer traps.
"Now, how do we know you're not gonna raid us with our weapons?" asked Lori.
"There is no way to tell," replied Brendan. "You're just gonna have to trust us. And trust me, we're not assholes."
The mesh fence behind Brendan opened as a large tank truck slowly drove down the street.
"We got a couple people here that know how to refine the fuel we find around here," he said. "Old distilled gas becomes as good as new. You don't gotta worry about the fuel only letting your cars run for a couple feet before dying out."
Brendan motioned two of his people to pull out a tube from the truck, carrying it to the RVs.
"Shotguns, pistols, submachine guns- half a gallon of fuel per gun," he stated. "Rifles, automatic, semis, sniper rifles- a gallon per gun. Machine guns- two gallons. Rocket, grenade launchers- three gallons."
Lori nodded.
After a few minutes, the group members carried a gun from Hana's RV to the armored group, handing them rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and pistols. Their crates became empty.
"Seven rifles, five submachine guns, five pistols, two shotguns. That's thirteen gallons," said Brendan. "How much for each RV?"
"Five on the old RV," said Lori, "and eight on the new RV."
"Sure thing," said Brendan before turning to his men. "Fill 'er up!"
The men disposed fuel from the tank truck to the RVs as the group watched. Lori turned around and sighed. George cleared his throat.
"This is highway robbery," he said. "We don't know when we're going to hit another military base or gun shop."
"Maybe we won't need guns in Washington," said Lori. "Besides, this much fuel is more rare than guns. It's worth it."
George nodded as the men took their tube back to the tank truck. Brendan walked up to Lori and held his hand out. Lori turned around and glared at Brendan before shaking hands with him.
"Nice doing business with you," he said. "Stay safe out there."
"You too," said Lori before walking back to David's RV.
The group followed her, each member entering an RV. The mesh fence of the sheltered street was closed as Brendan and his men walked back inside with a wagon of new firearms.
Meanwhile, in another street blocks away from the sheltered street with the armored group, a couple members of the groups found a street with a tank truck in the middle of the road and a pharmacy in the corner. Dr. White, Luna, and Sam were inside the pharmacy while Kotaro, Becky, Lynn, and Preston hung outside in the street beside the tank truck.
Dr. White walked around the store with a backpack behind his button-up shirt. He looked around the cluttered packets of medicines and drugs in shelves, most of them empty.
"Anything ending with cillin is what we're looking for," said Dr. White. "I would ask you take everything we see, but we can only carry what we need."
"Definitely no Oxycontin, right?" asked Luna. "Even if it's necessary?"
"As much as I wish to prescribe it to Carol… you know her history."
"Not saying that you're wrong- I get it- but don't you think it's a tad judgmental of us to keep blaming her for what she did to us?"
"We need her back in the game," said Sam. "She's a really helpful member of the group and to see her just being… I don't know… dead weight- and I don't mean it in a bad way- it's just… sad."
"I see where your worries are coming from… and I think these drugs can help Carol… but they can also kill her."
"Right," said Sam. "Last thing we need is to find out she OD'd."
Dr. White removed his glasses and wiped them on his khaki pants.
"You understand," he said.
Sam nodded as she looked outside the pharmacy. Kotaro grabbed his siphoning tube and placed one end inside a jerry can. He placed it down and then held one hand on the tube as he hovered above the fuel door. He placed his hands on it and opened it. Suddenly, a large puff of smoke exploded out of the open fuel door, causing Kotaro to fall back.
Becky ran over to Kotaro and picked him up as smoke flowed out of the tank truck rapidly. She coughed and walked him away from the truck as smoke began to cover her sight of the rest of the group.
Sam looked at the street as the smoke began to sweep across the block, even clouding up the pharmacy window. Luna stood next to her, gasping as the group members backed away from the smoke.
"That was a smoke grenade," said Sam.
"Hella smoke, then," said Luna before turning towards the intersection. "Shit, look over there. Roamers!"
"I'll go out and help the others," said Sam.
Luna pulled out her crowbar.
"Hey, let me come with."
"No! You take Dr. White somewhere else. Wait for us."
Luna nodded and grabbed Dr. White's arms as she watched Sam run out the pharmacy. She then turned around and walked towards the back door.
"C'mon, doc. Ain't safe out there."
"You don't say," gasped Dr. White.
Becky took out her machete and struggled to look around in the smoke as she kept her arms around Kotaro, who continued to rub his shoulders against his eye. A roamer slowly approached her through the smoke, its face quickly folding within itself as Becky sliced his head off. Then, another roamer ran through the smoke, lunging towards Becky, knocking her down to the ground. Kotaro gasped as he looked at Becky with teary eyes fogged up from the smoke. Becky yelled as she forced the machete through its chest, shoving it away, but the roamer only pushed against the machete, causing the blade to pop out from its spine. Sam ran inside the smoke and kicked it away along with Becky's machete in it. Becky pulled out her Glock 17 and shot at the roamer twice, hitting its skull both times.
"I thought these running bastards weren't around here!" yelled Becky as she grabbed her machete back before grabbing Kotaro.
"Forget running bastards," said Kotaro. "The trap. It's from the X."
"The X? We have to leave now!" exclaimed Sam. "I got your back, Becky!"
Luna and Dr. White fled out of the back door and entered another store next to the pharmacy. They fled through the back door of that store and entered a clothing store with mostly jackets and sweatpants. Then, they ran towards the entrance and ran out of the store, finding themselves on the other side of the block. They found themselves surrounded by parked cars where a couple masked survivors stood up from behind them, revealing themselves to the two survivors.
"Shite," muttered Luna.
The leader of the X walked up to group with the butterfly knives in his hands. Dr. White moved his hands towards the handle of the entrance door of the clothing store before the leader flung one of the knives at his hand. The doctor screamed as he looked at his palm before turning his hand around, the blade sticking out.
"You two. You're coming with us," said the masked leader. "Get in the truck and we'll patch that up."
Luna looked at Dr. White and shook her head as he walked toward a white pickup truck. One of the X-Tribe members grabbed Luna's arms and handcuffed them behind her back as he shoved her toward the truck.
"Easy," said the leader before turning to Luna. "You gotta follow instructions. Makes everyone's lives easier."
Luna gave him an angry glare before he picked her up and placed her onto the bed of the pickup truck with Dr. White and a couple other masked survivors. The leader pulled the knife out of Dr. White's hand, causing him to yell once more as blood seeped out of his palm. A couple of men sitting next to him and Luna grabbed a roll of bandages and applied them on the doctor's hand. The leader got inside the pickup truck and the wheels turned, taking Luna away from the pharmacy and away from her group.
"Where the hell is my girlfriend?" exclaimed Sam.
"I didn't see her ass anywhere," said Lynn. "Where did you tell her to go?"
"I don't know- just somewhere that wasn't here! Oh god, she could be anywhere!"
Lori walked through the cleared smoke in the street toward the tank truck. She found the canisters of smoke grenades inside the fuel door before checking her surroundings.
"The X must've been around here," she said. "Wherever Luna and Dr. White went- no doubt the X-Tribe took them."
"Took 'em where?" exclaimed Sam in a panicked voice.
"I don't know, Sam," said Lori. "Look, I want to look for my sister as much as I do but we have to calm ourselves just a bit. Remember, they want most of us alive for whatever reason. So we know that Luna is safe for now."
"How much longer though?" said Kotaro. "You've seen what these people can do. Luna doesn't have much time. We have to act fast."
"Lynn, Vonda, Preston, we need you guys to look for tracks. I know it's not all woods and forest here… but you guys are our best chances on finding the doctor and Luna."
Lynn rubbed her arms and looked at Vonda and Preston. She shrugged as she started looking around the pavement.
"We… we can try," she mumbled. "Let's find Luna, people. Let's go. F-Follow me. They couldn't have gone far."
The pickup truck drove along the road, passing by buildings, traffic lights, abandoned cars. Some roamers wandered the sidewalks and took notice of the passing vehicles, but the vehicles moved too fast for them to catch up.
Luna fidgeted as she struggled to pull her wrists through the handcuffs. She groaned as she tried breaking the handcuffs apart, though she sighed with defeat as she looked up at the X-Tribesmen.
"Where the bloody hell are you taking us?"
One of the masked survivors, wearing a yellow face mask spoke in a young male voice.
"Umm… are we allowed to tell her?"
The woman with dreads behind her mask shook her head. The young masked survivor turned towards Luna.
"Uh… I can't tell you."
"Can you take these handcuffs off of me?" asked Luna. "They're really uncomfortable."
"I-I can't do that either…" said the masked male.
"Please? I'm asking you nicely. Please, ain't we all human?"
The yellow masked survivor turned away.
"We're close to the X-Zone, can't we just take off her-?"
"No!" ordered the masked female with dreads.
"You heard the woma- I mean- you heard the rules. I can't-"
"Fuck it," muttered Luna.
She stood up as the truck prepared to make a turn. The yellow masked survivor leaned towards her to sit her down though Luna kicked him and leaped out of the moving truck. She gasped as she smacked her face against the pavement, her body rolling into the sidewalk where she hit a fire hydrant. She groaned as blood seeped out of her temple and a bruise formed in her left eye. She looked at the fire hydrant, which had scratch marks on it, and leaned her body against it.
The pickup truck stopped along with the other vehicles as Luna struggled to pick herself up with only her legs. The leader ran out the pickup truck and towards the teenage girl, pulling her upright as a couple of the masked survivors tossed him bandages.
"Jesus, what the hell was that!" yelled the leader.
"Don't… don't take me to where you're going," groaned Luna.
"You might have a fucking concussion. I'm gonna have to talk to your doctor about that."
"Why the hell do you care? You're gonna kill us anyways! Just do it now!"
"Get back in the fucking truck and don't pull that shit again. Go!"
Luna walked towards the truck, as one of the masked survivors held a towel over her bleeding temple. The other X-Tribesmen lifted her up and placed her back into her seat. The leader walked back to his seat in the white pickup truck, and the vehicle moved once again.
After a dozen minutes or so, the vehicles arrived at a neighborhood with densely-packed buildings, though most of them had shattered windows, broken doors, and blown rooftops. The mesh fences guarding the block was bent in some areas and ripped apart in other areas- though stacks of rubber tires acted as a wall in these damaged parts. Army vehicles and large tents were sprung up throughout a cracked road.
The captives were escorted out of the truck and into the neighborhood by the leader himself. The mesh fence was opened for the arriving X-Tribe and captives. As Luna walked inside the guarded neighborhood, she saw a sign that faintly read 'BALTIMORE SAFE-ZONE' though a large pink X was painted over the word 'safe.' Then, the fences closed, with everyone walking inside the community taking off their masks, including the leader himself. Luna looked at him, finding a burn mark across his right cheek where a stubble was growing. She then looked around as she followed the leader through the street, finding a woman walking with her husband, another woman planting flowers, and men throwing a football around. One similarity they all shared were the burn scars in their faces or neck. Small scars or large scars in cheeks or nose or forehead.
"What the hell is this place?" Luna whispered to herself, holding the towel against her face with her handcuffed hands.
"You seem surprised," said the unmasked leader. "You know, we don't just hunt people down, setting up traps 24/7. We actually enjoy ourselves."
The leader escorted the captives into a high school where a strong scent of iron and bleach filled the halls. Luna and Dr. White then entered a cafeteria, where half of the room had tables and the other half was a giant cell with makeshift metal bars. Chains hung from the ceiling and the floor near the kitchen was stained with dried blood. Sounds of knives clacking against metal and meat can be heard from the kitchen.
Luna snuck a peek at the kitchen and found meat hanging from a chain locked to the ceiling. The ribs were sticking out of what appeared to be a torso. She squinted before the squeaking sound of metal rubbing against metal came from the cell door being opened by a masked X-Tribesman. Dr. White and Luna were placed inside with the leader and another masked survivor following them inside.
The leader placed his hands over Luna's face, causing her to flinch and turn away.
"Relax," said the leader. "I need to treat your wound."
"When are you going to kill us?" growled Luna.
"I'm not going to kill you," said the leader. "As long as you don't hurt me, I won't hurt you."
The leader removed the towel from Luna's face as she opened her mouth, surprised by his actions. He grabbed a needle and began stitching the cut in her temple.
"I know we got off to a bad start, but I really want us to introduce ourselves," said the leader.
"Well, you burned our cabin and you shot at us," said Luna. "You killed one of our friends."
"Like I said. Bad start. But I promise you, I'm not going to hurt you. There are times when I don't keep my victims alive for this long. But you… you're not a victim."
The leader continued stitching the open wound on Luna's face as she looked away.
"My name's Woodrow. I never know the name of my victims. And it'll always remain like that."
Luna gulped as she looked at Dr. White, who was being treated by another member of Woodrow's group. She sighed and looked back at his captor.
"My name's Luna. And that's Dr. White over there."
"I don't think I asked for his-"
"You will know his name… after all, we all got off to a bad start, right?"
Woodrow smiled and nodded before his smile faded. He removed the needle from Luna's face and caressed his finger on the closed wound. She looked at him in the eye and exhaled softly as sweat formed on her forehead.
"Your skin is oily and has a bit of sweat in it… yet it still looks young and… beautiful," whispered Woodrow.
"Oh. I… I didn't expect that…"
"You know I wouldn't do this with anyone else, right? You understand?"
Luna continued to look at him in the eye as she nodded softly.
"Promise me you're not going to hurt the doctor."
"If that's what you want, Luna, then I won't. Maybe you two will join us one day."
Woodrow stood up and left with his friend, as he closed the cell door and locked it. Luna looked at Dr. White and crawled to him, looking at his hand.
"Hey, what was that?" asked Dr. White.
"Our key to surviving," said Luna.
"It look like he has it for you."
"I know he wants to screw my guts. I just need you alive at whatever cost."
"You know what Stockholm syndrome is, right?"
"I do… that's not what it is, I promise you, doc. I love Sam with all my heart, but I have to keep you alive."
Dr. White nodded as he looked around the cell, finding a pile of items in the corner. He sat down against the wall and sighed. Luna looked up at the ceiling.
"C'mon, dudes. Where are ya?"
The sun was beginning to drop down as Lori and the group headed back to the apartment complex. Sam sniffled as she walked by herself.
"We're gonna find her," said Lori. "She's alive somewhere. I'm hopeful and we should all be hopeful too."
Sam ignored Lori as she walked inside her apartment. Lori stood outside and looked up at the sky, her eyes fixated on the moon in the sky. She felt like she was lying to herself.