Sorry for being a bit late, as per usual, with this update, but school, work, and other projects of mine do take up a lot of my time but I did want to get this chapter up before Halloween since this type of story does fit the mood for the season.
Also, just to clarify something asked in the reviews: The military doesn't know the exact location of either group, they're simply combing through the area in order to find them and being led by the named Generals shown at the end of the previous chapter. Expect them to have a larger role in comparison to rest of the military aside from Russ and Dave.
Feel free to ask any more questions you have about the story or your thoughts in the reviews or PM's, they're always appreciated! Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
"So what's it gonna be? Do we go for it or sit back and take our chances?"
As the men of Peach Creek exchanged glances and whispered amongst each other for a bit, they each shared nods of agreement before Mr. McGee finally gave an answer.
"Let's go for it. We don't really have any other options or time to waste."
"Right." Bob said with a shake of his head. "We'll most likely get spotted but let's try sneaking past them just to be safe. Those Marauder freaks are definitely going to spot these zombies and if we're lucky, both groups will go after each other and ignore us. Worst case scenario, we'll be fighting our way through."
"Either way it's not going to be easy." Terry grumbled. "Let's get this over with. Let's move out!"
Ed took hold of Mr. McGee's wheelchair as the group hurried past the sidewalk while crouched as low as they could go before stopping by an empty car that had been abandoned on one side of the road. Eddy looked over at the area ahead of the group, the group of zombies remained bunched up around the front door and area to the right of the entrance, some of them groaning to themselves as they lumbered around towards what seemed like nothing while others just stood completely still, unblinking and silent. Eddy wasn't sure which ones unsettled him more.
With one quick gulp out of fear, Eddy turned back to his team as the sound of galloping drew ever closer. Eddy wondered if that was why some of the zombies stood still as he motioned for the others to move.
Just as they were just a few meters away from the pharmacy, Eddy could feel the blood of his group run cold as they heard it...
"Over there!"
The men all turned to see the Marauders had caught finally arrived, grasping their weapons, they all prepared themselves to fight. The tension they felt was mitigated just a little bit as it appeared that the Marauder that called out hadn't spotted them, but rather the zombies. Eddy felt the collar of his shirt get yanked and pulled away from the ensuing brawl. With a quick turn of his head, Eddy saw Bob smash open one of the windows to the pharmacy. He wasn't sure if any of his enemies heard it but the shouts that they were spewing and the gunfire that soon followed appeared to cover the sound of the glass.
One by one the survivors jumped through the broken window, with extra care for Eddy's dad and his wheelchair. Once everyone was inside, they remained on their hands and knees in order to avoid any stray bullets from the outside.
"Alright, we're in!" Bob exclaimed, careful to keep his voice at a safe level. "Stay low just in case. Grab what you need quick and see if you can find a safer way out too. I don't think those guys are just looking for something to kill."
"You'd be surprised..." Eddy grumbled. As the five of them split up and began looking through the aisles, Eddy grinned to himself as he found several shelves of medicine, his grin quickly shifted into a confused frown when he looked at the boxes. All of these different colors, brand names, and chemical ingredients that he couldn't read, let alone pronounce. He sincerely wished Edd were here right now, if anyone knew what exactly they needed, it was him.
While Eddy was mulling over the medicine, Ed found himself in a section of the pharmacy dedicated to snacks and drinks. A granola bar with a picture of a cartoon bear on it caught his attention.
"Cool!" The young man chucked before devouring the bar, wrapper and all, taking handfuls of the granola and some other snacks and shoving them in the pockets on the outside and inside of his jacket. Once he couldn't fit any more, Ed stood in place for a moment and looked around... What was he supposed to be doing again?
Terry and his father made their way to the back of the pharmacy and were searching the shelves and cabinets behind the counter. Typically this area was off limits to anyone but employees as people's personal files were there, but given the circumstances nobody was there to object. Unfortunately, because the only sort of medication that was there were prescription, it wouldn't do Rachel any good... With his panic continuing to rise, Terry slumped down by one of the cabinets with his head buried in his shaking hands.
"Shit, there's nothing here! Fuck!" He cursed, his voice growing louder as well. Mr. McGee looked towards the outside to make sure Terry wasn't heard but he couldn't confirm anything. With a heavy breath, the man laid a hand on his elder son's shoulder.
"Terry, son, panicking won't help us."
"I know, Dad! I know... But I love this girl and I can't lose her. Not like this!"
"We won't lose her. Don't forget, your brother and his friend are looking for what we need, too. Eddy's other friend, the one looking after Rachel right now, is one of the smartest kids I've had the privilege of watching grow up. If it weren't for this hell that the world's gone to, I swear that that young man would have gone one to cure cancer!"
Mr. McGee leaned forward, placing both of his hands on Terry's shoulders and making sure he was looking at his son right in his eyes.
"I know I ain't been the best father to you. I know that you'd be justified in hating my guts after I kicked you out of the house but I need you to listen and trust me this one time, alright. We'll make sure your girlfriend gets through this!"
For that single moment, everything was completely silent as Terry looked at his father. The two embraced as the younger man wiped away the tears that were starting to form in his eyes.
Eddy was just about to start worrying when something clicked in his brain. He didn't need to worry about if there was a specific brand of medicine he needed or anything like that. This was an issue that Eddy knew a simple solution to, one that was so obvious that only a real genius like Eddy could think of: take everything. Without a second thought, Eddy grabbed handfuls of the different medicine and other medical supplies and shoved them into an empty pocket in his bag, quickly zipping it closed with a pleased grin. Surely one of these had something that would help his brother's girlfriend, maybe Double D would give him some much deserved praise for doing something so genius! Now all he had to do was get back to the others.
Zipping his bag back up, Eddy looked around and saw Ed wandering around by himself, the taller boy looking around as if he were a lost child, which wasn't exactly incorrect. With an annoyed look now resting itself upon his face, Eddy walked over to Ed and yanked the back of his jacket collar to get his attention.
"Hi Eddy!"
"What are you doing, Ed? We're supposed to be looking for medicine, remember?"
The sci-fi lover placed an inquisitive hand to his non-existent chin and looked off into the air with a bit of focus for a moment until...
"Oh yeah!" He said. "...What does the medicine look like?"
"Don't you worry about it." Eddy sighed. "I already got some, now we just gotta get my dad and brother and head back.
"You called, Pipsqueak?"
The two teens jumped at the sound of Terry's voice behind them. The elder brother wheeling his father in front of him, with the man unable to hold back a laugh at the boy's reactions.
"Geez louise, Bro! I know you're a whiz at scaring people but this ain't the time!"
"This ain't the time for dilly-dallying either. We found some stuff that might help Rachel and we're ready to head out. You coming or what?"
"Yeah, let's get out of here." Eddy agreed, with Ed giving the two older men a salute with a serious look in his eyes. A crashing noise from behind them all stole everyone's attention. With a swift turn of their heads, the group saw that the front door to the pharmacy was completely destroyed, shards of glass littered the floor surrounding it and bits of metal that once made up the frame hung limply from the where the door once was or were among the bits of glass. The cause of the destruction was revealed to be a Marauder and his horse being blasted through. The poor animal was completely cut up and had several shards of glass stabbed into its head and neck, it thrashed around in agony while the Marauder riding it slowly stood back up with a groan of pain. Slowly, he began trying to remove shards that had stabbed into him as a member of his group ran up to him. More voices were audible outside, shouting at the Marauders who shouted right back at them.
"Surrender peacefully and you will be executed!" One voice called out.
"Screw you, government pig!" Another replied.
"Hey man, you alright?" The Marauder who ran up to his injured comrade helped the man back up to his feet. Before the injured man could even reply, the two were eviscerated by machine gunfire, spraying a red mist into the air in which they once stood as the two were killed before even hitting the ground.
"Holy shit!" Mr. McGee cursed.
"The army found us!" Ed whimpered, jogging in place as panic began setting in.
"Guys!" The four of them turned to see Bob waving over to them, a frantic look on his face. "I found another way out, there's army dudes all over the front. The zombies were wiped out and those Marauder guys don't look like they'll last much longer."
"Then we gotta book it!" Terry exclaimed.
From across town, Stacey was showing Sarah and the Kanker sisters the used car lot they had talked about. Thankfully their journey was much less stressful than that of the men. The dealership was littered with an assortment of different vehicles from different brands, most of them were sedans with a few convertibles, hatchbacks and motorcycles. A small building was situated at the far end of the lot with a garage next to it.
"So this is it?" Lee asked.
"Surprised we didn't run into anything on the way." Marie noted.
"Yup, damn near everyone left when all of this started, only ones left are all turned by now. But you guys said you needed an RV or a van, those should be... Aha! Over there!" Stacey explained. The five ladies approached an RV that looked to be in fairly good condition, a sign that said 'half price' clung to the windshield.
"The key's probably inside the dealership, you girls should get a good look of the inside and engine to see if it's exactly what you need."
"Thank you Miss!" Sarah replied as May and Marie headed for the small building in the back of the lot.
"No worries, I hope you and your friends stay safe." The woman said as she began to leave.
"Hold on, where are you going?" Lee asked, lifting up a bit of her hair and revealing one of her eyes as placing a firm hand on the woman's shoulder. Sarah never really noticed how much Lee actually looked like her mother until she saw her eye. It had that same 'no-nonsense' look to them.
"Oh, right, I don't think I told you. Look, you saw how much of an asshole Ricardo is. Bob and I can't stand him and we've dealt with him much longer than we should have. So we agreed that we'll ditch him the first chance we got."
"That explains why you and your man packed so much when you left with us." Lee pondered. "You plan on leaving him with us?"
"I mean if you want to take him. He's a dick, but he's actually really smart. He's the one who taught us basic survival skills and he set up that garage. But he's just so insufferable that I figure that it isn't worth sticking with him. Bob and I found some more advanced wildlife survival books so I think we'll be alright. As long as we can deal with the zombies I think we;ll be alright."
"Where do you two plan on going?" Sarah asked.
"Probably out west to California. I always wanted to go there. What about you guys?"
"We're heading further south." Lee answered. "We heard a rumor about a camp of survivors down there." Sarah raised an eyebrow just a bit at Lee's slightly untrue answer but kept to herself when she quickly caught on to why Lee gave that response.
"We got the key!" May called out. Marie pressed a button on the vehicle's key, unlocking the door and allowing the blonde sibling to enter with a skip in her step.
"Oohhh!" May cooed as she looked at the RV's interior. It was kept clean and in good condition, aside from the dust that was beginning to set in. The single bathroom was clean and the water from the sink was clean, albeit with low pressure, so even with the faucet at full power there was only a thin stream coming out from the tap. Marie followed her inside and tried out the bunk bed towards the back; it wasn't the softest bed she ever tried out but it was serviceable, though there wasn't much room around it, so one would have to be careful to not hit their head when waking up. The two redheads also entered and tried out the cushioned seats that were situated around a small table. Like the bed, it wasn't the lap of luxury but it would work. Lee then snatched the key from Marie, with an annoyed cry of protest from the middle sister, so that she could take the driver's seat and start the engine with Stacey taking the passenger seat. With a turn of the ignition switch, the RV's engine cranked for a moment as the alternator pushed itself to start before the vehicle finally started.
"Seems good to me." May exclaimed.
"Yeah, I think with a bit of work I think this will be perfect." Sarah added.
"It's gonna be more than a little bit." Lee grumbled as she turned the engine off and looked towards the other girls.
"Whaddya mean?" Marie asked.
"That alternator's starting to fail. It's a miracle this thing started at all. If that's bad then the battery might be bad too, plus there could be some other parts in the engine that might need some work." The elder sister explained.
"So it's no good?" Sarah questioned.
"I didn't say that. It just needs some work and that could take a bit of time. I think I saw an auto parts shop on the way here and there's a garage right here. I know a few things about cars but I won't be able to do everything alone. Let's head back and see if the boys made it back."
As the two groups continued their tasks, Double D and Jimmy were just about finished in tending to Rachel, who was now breathing less heavily.
"Alright, I believe that's all we can do..." Double D sighed, leaning back as he readjusted the woman's clothing to cover the bandages the two boys applied.
"How is she?" Lenore asked, the middle Ed jumped in shock ever so slightly, he was so focused on Rachel that he forgot the Kanker's mother and Ricardo were even there.
"W-Well, her breathing has stabilized and her fever has gone down slightly, though without the proper antibiotics and medication there isn't much more we can do."
"And the group of guys are supposed to be getting those, right?" Ricardo piped up.
"That's correct." Double D replied as he and Jimmy removed and threw away the masks and gloves they wore while tending to their patient.
"Hmph, we'll you better hope they don't mess up."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jimmy questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing, I mean they have Bob with them and I taught him and Stacey some basic, and I mean really basic, stuff to take care of themselves since they couldn't do that on their own. Now, those two guys that look like brothers are at least able-bodied, aside from the bigger one acting like a love-sick idiot. But with them they have a cripple and..."
"And what?" Double D asked, a serious look on his face that made Jimmy's eyes go wide. "What about Ed?" Ricardo sighed before continuing.
"Look, I'm sure he's nice to you guys and he's built like a freight train, but let's be honest here. The guy is clearly retarded! I'm surprised he hasn't gotten you guys killed yet!"
Double D stood still in an absolutely stunned silence as his jaw hung agape at what he just heard. In a swift motion, the young genius lunged forward and punched Ricardo in the jaw, knocking the teen down.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Edd shouted, shocking Jimmy while Lenore watched with her eyebrows raised in intrigue. With his hands now balled up into fists that shook as he stepped closer to Ricardo, Double D could only see him and just redness. "Ed may not be the smartest, nor the most sanitary person I know, but he is one of the kindest people I have ever had the privilege to know, and for you to refer to him with that vocabulary shows me that you are just as bad as the monsters that currently roam this world! I suggest you leave!"
He wasn't sure why he stopped shouting or what had caused this tranquil fury, but Jimmy didn't even think about saying something. He knew that Double D had only ever became truly angry once or twice that he had seen and even then he just yelled at whoever his anger was directed towards. The only time he had ever chosen violence wasn't even his choice as memories of when he was falsely labeled as a bully came to mind.
But this... this was different. Not once had he seen someone as pacifistic as Edd throw a punch with intent to do harm. In a way, he completely understood why he did it. Ed really wasn't the smartest and Jimmy thought he definitely needed some fashion tips, but he felt as if Ed had a certain charm to him that not a lot of people had. He supposed that was why they appeared to bond slightly when he was forced to hang out with them the one afternoon when Sarah had a ballet lesson. Everyone associated that day with when Eddy taught him how to scam, but there was always a little piece of him that never forgot how he and Ed got along that day. He supposed that realization has the reason why he found himself smirking ever so slightly at the sight of Ricardo on the floor.
As the young man stood back up to his feet, he rubbed his cheek in pain for a bit before looking around the room and scoffing.
"Hey, this is my garage!... Tch, whatever! I wanted to go on lookout anyway!" He whined, grumbling as he headed over to a smaller room nearby that appeared to have a set of computer screens hooked up to cameras around the building, Jimmy pondered how he or anyone else didn't notice that before. A sudden knocking on the gate made Jimmy jump out of his thoughts.
"I just sat down! Ugh... Someone press the green button by the gate."
Doing as instructed, Jimmy pressed the aforementioned button as he noticed Double D sat down close to Rachel, his eyes glued to his still trembling hands.
"Hey Jimmy, we're back!" Sarah greeted cheerfully, Terry practically pushed everyone aside as he hurried over to his girlfriend's side.
"How is she?!" He half-shouted. Double D remained silent and Jimmy was reeling from the initial shock of seeing Terry bolt past him.
"Well?" Terry continued, finally snapping the hatted genius out of his stupor.
"Hm? Oh! Apologies, I was a bit distracted. Rachel's breathing has stabilized and her fever has gone done a bit. If you have the medicine we can administer it now and she should be perfectly fine."
Ed and Eddy looked over at the third member of their trio in concern, it wasn't often that he was so downtrodden, the only other times they could remember him looking like that were when they pretended to be well-behaved and the time when everyone mistook Edd as a bully. As the rest of the men handed Double D what they gathered, the hat wearing boy couldn't help but laugh a bit as he looked at what Eddy brought him.
"Eddy, most of this is general flu medicine and cough syrup. It won't help Rachel but I do still thank you for getting some, it never hurts to have more."
As Eddy grumbled to himself with a bit of a pout, Terry chuckled and slung his arm over his brother's shoulder, their dad and the others joining in on the laughter. As they did so, Double D opened a bottle of antibiotic capsules that Mr. McGee had scavenged.
'Just like Dr. Vincent showed you...' Edd thought to himself as he carefully took one of the pills in his gloved hand, tilted Rachel's head back and gently opened her mouth in order to administer the medicine with a bit of bottled water. He watched with apprehension as Rachel eventually swallowed the pill, how she was able to do so while not fully conscious was something that baffled Double D but in that moment he didn't really care, this procedure was already risky as is. Once he saw that she swallowed properly though, he let out a sigh of relief.
"If I may have everyone's attention please." Edd began, bringing the room to a level of silence that he admittedly wasn't expecting. "I'm happy to announce that the antibiotics have been administered and Rachel should be awake in... about an hour or so."
The relief and cheers from the rest of the group were a much needed relief for Double D after what happened earlier. Unfortunately, that frustration came back almost immediately when Ricardo reentered the room and began to speak.
"Cool, now that your friend is gonna be okay, I want to know where Bob and Stacey are."
The two groups looked amongst themselves, as they met up on their way back they informed each other of what happened to their guides but didn't really think of how they would tell Ricardo.
"We, uh, kind of got into some trouble along the way." Eddy replied, it wasn't exactly a lie though and Ricardo was a jerk so he didn't really feel too guilty about lying. "We had to fight our way into the pharmacy to get this stuff and Bob got taken out while we were there."
"We got jumped while we were looking for a ride, Stacey got slashed in the neck. She couldn't even tell us to run..." Lee added, Eddy was almost impressed with how quick she thought that up.
"So they're dead then, even after everything I taught them..." Ricardo sighed, taking a seat and running a frustrated hand through his hair. "Shit..."
"Speaking of a ride, did you girls manage to find an RV we can use?" Lenore asked.
"Yup!" Marie replied pridefully. "Lee says it needs some work done to it, but it looks pretty good.
"What kind of work? If it's something light then I can get it done before Rachel waked up." Terry inquired. As Lee began to go over what needed to be replaced, Eddy took Double D by the shoulder and brought him into another room where the others couldn't hear them and where Ed was already waiting for them.
"Alright Double D, out with it." Eddy began. "Something happened while we were gone. What is it?" Knowing that it was futile to object, Edd relented.
"As Jimmy and I were tending to Rachel, Ricardo interjected with his thoughts on your group. He referred to your brother as a love sick idiot and-"
"So what? I mean he kind of was acting like one but I guess this chick just means enough to him that he cares! Bro will probably laugh it off eventually, too."
"I'm not finished, Eddy..." Double D continued. "He also referred to your father as a 'cripple'."
"Dick thing to say, but again, not exactly wrong and my dad would laugh it off too, he's been kicking ass even without both legs!"
"Yeah! He's like the super skilled cowboy in one of my comics: 'Cripple Kane'!" Ed added.
"So he's talking shit about my family, so what?! He can-"
"It wasn't just your family, Eddy!" Edd interrupted, surprising the two boys. With his fists clenching again, he turned to Ed and gulped.
"Ed, he... he referred to you as 'retarded'. Ugh, even saying that words makes me sick!"
"Oh!... Oh..." Ed answered, his expression was enough to even take Eddy by surprise. The two had seen Ed sad and with dejected, puppy-dog eyes before but... this time he just looked... hurt. But what truly surprised the two shorter Eds was seeing Ed give a genuine smile almost immediately after. "Well that's okay!"
"What?! Ed, it's not alright at all! It's very offensive!"
"I gotta agree with Sockhead here, Lumpy. We gotta get back at him for this!"
"It is okay!" Ed assured, pulling his brothers into a big group hug. "Because people can say whatever they want, for as long as we three are together, we are unstoppable! For our powers combined, we are Ed, Edd, and Eddy!"
While uncomfortable with the tight hug, Double D was just glad that Ed took that insult in stride. In a way, this was why he considered Ed such a close friend in the first place, he had a heart three times his size.
"Hell of a title drop, Ed!" Eddy laughed, wriggling himself out of the group hug.
"You boys think you're slick, don't you."
The three Eds froze almost literally as they turned and saw Lenore Kanker looking at them, a smirk on her face and her shotgun slung over her shoulder.
"How m-m-m-much d-d-d-did-" Double D stammered as he was shaking so much that he might as well have turned to jelly.
"I heard enough." She answered with a bit of a laugh. "You boys can relax, I don't bite. But I couldn't help but overhear ya' and honestly, I think I get why my girls are so into you three." She looked over the three boys with a smile, starting with Eddy. "You, you're the leader of your little trio for a reason, takin' charge and not letting anyone get to you. If anyone does you look for a way to get even, just like Lee."
As she looked at Double D, still trembling at the sight of the woman before him with a sly smirk. "Hehe, Marie's right, you are a cutie! Smart enough to handle a lot of what comes your way, but with a fire in ya' that comes out when you need it the most. Anything you can't handle, Marie would."
Lenore's smirk turned into a smile that looked like a mother tending to her young child. Ed couldn't explain why, but seeing it made him calm down just a little bit.
"And you, big guy, you're a sweetheart. Even if you ain't the sharpest out there, you got a strong heart and a strong body that fights for people you love. That right there is why May's into you. Honestly, I wasn't too keen on finding out that my daughters were into boys so soon after moving to Peach Creek, but what do I know about love? I'm ramblin' though, I ain't come back here to tell you about why my girls like you."
Lenore's soft expression changed to one that was much more cold, the same look Lee would give anyone who crossed her.
"That Ricardo punk actually wants to join our group on account of having nowhere else to turn to. Everyone's got mixed feelings about it and we're talking it over right now. I saw you three come back here so I figured I'd let you know."
"Well I refuse to have him join our group!" Edd snapped almost immediately, surprising his best friends.
"Woah, hold on a second Double D!" Eddy replied.
"Eddy, you can't seriously think that adding that... that cad into our group of survivors, do you?!"
"I don't like the guy, but... he's from this country and might now how to safely get to where we need to go. Plus Bob mentioned that he's good with survival skills or something and we don't really have much of that aside from Jimmy and the kid's not exactly Rambo now, is he."
Edd was about to continue protesting when he stopped himself and instead turned to Ed.
"Ed... I don't think Eddy and I will be able to come to a decision very easily. Ricardo insulted you, but now he needs our help and wants to join us. Would you want his help, Ed?"
Ed looked at Edd, Eddy and Lenore before looking into the distance at nothing in particular. As he scratched the back of his head, he hummed to himself as the question worked its way into his head...
This choice may carry more weight than you may expect...
Should Ricardo join the group?
Choice A: No
Choice B: Yes
And scene!
Admittedly I'm still trying to plan on exactly how long this story will be. I don't want it to drag on for too long, but at the same time I don't want it to be moving too quickly either. I'd love to hear some feedback as to how the pacing feels right now. I know it left the starting line running and slowed down a bit but I want the pace to be comfortable. But I don't want to go on and on, this chapter is going up during Spooky Month.
So as this goes up I hope all of you readers enjoy your trip to Spooky-ville and have a nice, safe, but mostly scare-filled Halloween!