Part II - Setback
-Day 20-
"Hey!" Marcus calls out. "Let's get movin'! We don't have all day!"
JuJu gets his Honey Badger, now with a sling, and puts it over his shoulder. He then gets his backpack and puts it on as well with his .357 revolver strapped to the side for easy access. He looks behind him and sees the campfire slowly being put out. Everyone gets into the same truck when JuJu first met the group. He sits in the back seat followed by CiCi and Byron. He looks behind him and sees John and Letty, another survivor in the group, sitting on the truck bed.
"Y'all ready to roll?" asks Marcus.
Everyone nods.
"Hey," JuJu says looking at the two he's sitting next to. "I never got to know y'all two. We only know each other's names, that's it. If we gonna be in this group together in the long run, we gotta have trust in each other, right?"
"Yeah," Byron responds. "You're right."
CiCi stays silent.
"CiCi and I are from Royal Woods. It's back in the Southeastern part of Michigan. We went to the same middle school."
"Oh, so y'all been known each other. Cool."
"We've been friends since like, first grade I think."
"Yup, our parents knew each other since they were kids as well," adds CiCi."
"So, how did you two get over here? You didn't go to the Safe Zone back in Detroit?"
"Uh, what Safe Zone?"
"Oh, do I got a story for you. But what were you sayin' B?"
"At our school, so much stuff went down," Byron continues. "We were in class until the emergency alarm went off. We thought it was a fire drill until our principal went on the loudspeaker telling us that it ain't a drill. We heard a scream outside the door and a teacher came in fighting someone, or something, turned out to be one of them undead fuckers. It was the janitor."
"Oh shit," JuJu replies. "What happened after?"
"Our teacher got a pencil and stabbed it in the head and it fell over. He tried to help the teacher that got attacked until she got up and bit him in the neck."
"We instantly ran out that door with everyone else but some didn't make it." Says CiCi. We locked the door and shut it. I got a phone call from my parents saying to get Byron and come outside. We saw people we knew dead on the floor while running but one I won't forget is Margo Roberts. She was screaming 'help me' and there was nothing I could do. We kept running toward the exit until we saw my parents."
"I asked CiCi's dad where my parents were and they avoided my question. Long story short, we got separated and it was just us two until we met Marcus. Ever since then, we've been here."
"Wait, so y'all don't know where your parents are?"
"I don't even think mine are alive honestly," says Byron.
"I don't know where mine could be," says CiCi. "What about you? We know your mom and little sister, but your dad? How'd he go missing?"
"I don't know. He just disappeared. I had to sneak out of the Safe Zone 'cause those rogue pendejos weren't legit. I got info from one of them telling me what they were gon' do to the place and thank god I got out when I had the chance."
"What else did the guy tell you?" asks Byron.
"He told me about some place in Maine. It's called Houlton. He said they keep prisoners there. Hopefully, my pops is there."
A couple of hours go by as everyone in the backseat is asleep. Marcus opens the glove compartment and takes out a map.
"Hey D. Where we at right now?"
"We just drove through Toledo," replies Desean. "Dead as hell if ya asked me."
Marcus nods.
"Keep following the road, we'll reach Cleveland in a couple of hours."
JuJu's eyes open up, noticing no one is inside the vehicle. He steps out of the truck and stretches his body after many hours crammed inside. He realizes the truck is off of the road but parked near a bunch of trees. He walks toward the back of the truck until he's grabbed in a chokehold and dragged into the woods. He's later thrown onto the ground when he sees Desean's body laying on the ground with his throat slit right in front of him. He turns and realizes it to be John.
"I've had enough of you people here thinking you're running stuff here," he says pointing a knife at JuJu.
"The fuck?" JuJu grunts with an angry look on his face. "What's your problem?"
"Your people are my problem, boy."
JuJu gets up and decides to throw a punch at him but fails. John answers back by swinging his knife at JuJu but he puts his arm in front of him to protect himself. The knife slashes his arm but it doesn't cut deep. John swings his arm again and he misses until JuJu gets a good hit in with a hard left hook.
"Oh," remarks John. "You know how to fight huh? Let's see what you can do."
He switches the knife to his left hand and swings again. JuJu tries to evade it but the blade slashes his right eye. He screams in immense pain and falls to the floor. He tries to scoot away to keep his distance until John stands right on top of him.
"I'm gonna enjoy this, just like I did with him," he says as he points at Desean's lifeless body.
He lifts him and sits him by a tree. He then flips the knife and it stabs JuJu in his side. He screams even louder as he begins to cough up blood. Right before John does the finishing blow, a shot is fired and it hits him in the back of his right knee. He falls on one knee and another shot is fired in the other leg. John screams in pain as well. JuJu looks up, holding his side, with blurry vision seeing the blue hoodie he recognizes.
"I knew you were some bad shit when met ya racist ass," says Marcus. "Yo! Help JuJu up and get him in the truck, our medical supplies are in the truck bed. I ain't even gonna put a bullet in ya head. I'm gonna let him get you."
Marcus kneels and grabs John's head pointing at Desean's corpse slowly getting up, showing his golden eyes.
"No, no, NO!" He screams as he tries to crawl away but it's too late.
JuJu, being helped to the truck by Byron, hear's John's scream fade away while his vision fades to black. JuJu is quickly brought to the truck and set in the truck bed with byron as well.
"Keep applying pressure to the wound!" says Letty.
She opens the medical chest and takes out a roll of bandages a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and some stitches.
"Rip his shirt off so we can use it to cover the wound."
"You do know what you're doing, right?" asks Byron.
"Yeah, I was a nurse."
"And you tell us now?" Questions Marcus.
"My bad."
Byron rips JuJu's black t-shirt, revealing the stab wound with blood leaking out.
"Jesus, I can't believe this is happening. Look at his fucking eye."
"His eye is okay," says Letty, looking at JuJu's slashed and bloody eye. "It doesn't look like it was cut all the way through. It's just his eyelid."
They pour the alcohol onto the ripped shirt and slowly dab the wound with JuJu grunting with all the energy he has left but is barely heard by the others.
"He's still moving," says Marcus. "That's a good sign."
"Yeah, he didn't lose too much blood."
Letty goes on to use the stitches on JuJu. She slowly puts the wire through the skin's surface with the needle, closing the wound by the minute until each part of it is tied shut.
"I think we're good," sighs Letty. "No openings and it's not infected. We're good."
"Okay," says Marcus. "Hey B, say in the back there with Letty and JuJu, CiCi will be with me inside."
Byron nods.
"Don't go too fast," says Letty. "He'll go into shock."
Letty gets another cloth from JuJu's shirt and puts it on his now stitched wound. She then wraps around it with the bandages and uses a duffle bag as a headrest for him.
"You'll be okay Julian," she says. "I hope."
-Day 25-
The group decides to stop in Philidelphia. The truck is parked in a motel just outside downtown.
"Hey B," says Marcus. "Go find us some rooms for us to stay in. With no undead blood please."
"You got it," Byron replies.
JuJu's sitting in the backseat, still resting from his injury and his eye healing up as well, bruised and purple. It left a big scar coming from the top right corner of his right eyebrow down to the bottom left of his eye socket. He's now wearing a black tank top covering the bandages on his body. He's then lifted out of the seat by Marcus, followed by Letty. Right on time, Byron runs towards them with a grin on his face.
"Hey guys, I got the biggest room open. It has a bed for almost each of us."
"Nice," says Marcus. "Let's bring our shit in there and get settled so JuJu can rest for a couple days. He can't sit in the car the whole time."
JuJu puts his arm over Marcus's shoulder as he helps him to the room. Once they get to the door, Byron opens it, showing how big the room was. It had 4 beds with a bathroom and a closet.
"This is perfect."
JuJu is then laid onto one of the beds slowly as he continues to sleep. CiCi goes to the bathroom and looks at the mirror cabinet and finds a bottle of Ibuprofen. She checks for the expiration date and says that it doesn't expire until 2017.
"I found this bottle of medicine for JuJu," she says running out of the bathroom. "It doesn't expire until next year."
"Perfect," Letty replies. "We'll give him some when he wakes up.
The next morning, JuJu grunts as he tries to get up but instantly feels a sharp pain in his side.
"Aw fuck man," He grunts. "That shit was real? I thought it was a dream. How long was I out for?"
"Like three or four days," says Byron.
"Shit. Where are we right now?"
"Oh!" Says Marcus as he comes into the room. "Look who's finally up! We're in Philly right now. Just a day or so away from New York. We're staying here for a while so you can heal up. How you feelin'? Can you see?"
"My whole body hurt bro. John is bitch-made for what he did. Wait, what do you mean can I see? Of course I can."
CiCi brings out a Mirror and shows JuJu his face.
He's left speechless.
"You're lucky it didn't cut through the eye," Letty says. "It just got your eyelid. It'll heal in the next week or so. But, it's gonna leave a big scar though. Here's some water and take this Ibuprofen, it'll help. CiCi will care for you before I come back."
Letty leaves the room, followed by Byron and Marcus. JuJu looks at CiCi smiling at him.
"I'm glad you're okay," she says. "Let me help you sit up."
She holds JuJu's hand and back and lifts him with a little discomfort.
"I am too," JuJu grunts.
CiCi gets a cotton swab and soaks it in water for her to pat it on JuJu's eye.
"Ah!" he yells.
"Oh, sorry. Did I do it too hard?"
"Nah, it's good. No pain, no gain, right?"
They both laugh as they make eye contact with CiCi blushing but JuJu feeling a little uneasy. She leans in for a kiss until Letty comes in just in time as JuJu sighs in relief.
"Hey Julian," says Letty, I'm gonna take a look at your stitches. Can you lift your shirt for me?"
JuJu struggles lifting his shirt since his right side is stiff from his injury.
Letty removes the bandages slowly until the cloth covering his side falls, revealing his scar.
"It doesn't look bad at all," she says. "No infection or anything."
"I wanna see for myself," JuJu says.
He's helped up and walks slowly to the mirror in the bathroom. The scar was near his belly button, a little above his hip facing horizontally. JuJu touches it slightly and grunts in pain. He slowly walks back to the bed and lays down, putting a pillow over his head and screaming into it.
"Why does this happen to me?" he mutters as he removes the pillow from his face. "Not ONE good thing has happened since I got to Michigan man. FUCK!"
He turns his head to look at the others with Byron and Marcus entering the room, hearing what JuJu just said.
"Uhh, no offense to y'all, my bad."
"None taken bro," says Marcus, after a couple of seconds of silence. "I think we understand."
Just as that conversation ended, the roar of an engine got louder as it got closer to their location.
"Don't tell me it's them," says CiCi as she climbs JuJu's bed and peaks through the window.
She sees a black K.H.A.N. humvee parked right outside the building with 5 soldiers exiting the vehicle.
"They're everywhere. What the fuck?"
"Everyone get down," whispers Marcus.
He crawls near the door and takes out his knife, waiting for someone to come through the door. Byron takes CiCi and Letty to the bathroom and hides while JuJu quickly falls off the bed and hides under it. He takes out his knife as well and waits.
"Check every room in this place!" yells out a rogue soldier.
2 soldiers bust in the room where the group stays. The door swinging made Marcus's hiding spot more concealed while JuJu looks from under the bed and sees 2 sets of boots walking around the room. He sees one of them walk towards the bathroom and begins to jiggle the door knob, the other stands by one of the beds. Marcus slams the door and puts one of the soldiers in a chokehold.
"Put the knife down!" yells the other soldier, pointing his M4A1 assult rifle.
He takes a few steps closer toward Marcus until JuJu stabs the soldier in the leg from under the bed. The soldier screams as he gets a knife through his head and collapses to the floor. The soldier held by Marcus gasps for air until his throat is slit, choking on his own blood.
"Where's my shit?" JuJu asks.
"It's all in the closet." Marcus replies. " Are you good to go though?"
"Don't worry about me, we need to get out of here."
Marcus walks to the bathroom door telling the others that it's okay to leave.
"Hey B!" JuJu calls out as he hands him a FN Five-seveN handgun. "You know how to use this?"
"Uh," Byron says. "You just point and shoot right?"
"Good enough."
JuJu then hands CiCi another handgun from the other dead soldier's body but this time it's a. MP-443 Grach pistol. He then limps to the closet and grabs his backpack, followed by his .357 revolver and Honey Badger.
"I'm gonna need this," JuJu says as he takes an EOTECH Holo sight from the soldier's M4A1. The group exits the room and they see the last 3 rogues huddled together by Marcus's truck. The group moves and hide behind some abandoned cars.
"I got an idea," JuJu says as he grabs a rock from the ground.
He throws the rock blindly from behind the car as hard as he can when it hits another car across the parking lot.
"Get to the truck when they go follow the noise," he says.
The soldiers run to the sound of a car alarm going off when the group runs to the truck. JuJu stays behind to pick off each soldier one by one with his Honey Badger. He also shoots the tires out of their humvee to make it undrivable.
"Come on!" Marcus yells. "Get in before the undead get here!"
JuJu gets in the truck and they drive away with the car alarm still going off in the distance.