The Mansion
Abby was on the back of a horse holding onto Rachel, shooting at the infected behind her. The horses were doing their best to outrun the horde, but the horses were getting tired. Thankfully though, the gate was in sight.
The gate opened just enough for the horses to get in and were closed just in time. The two men guarding the gate started shooting the infected to little effect as the infected hit the gate one after the other. Another male lit up a Molotov cocktail and threw at the center of the horde. The fire spread as more Molotov's were thrown at the horde.
Rachel, Ray, and Abby got off the horses and took gasps of air in exhaustion, the adrenaline wearing off. "Fuck." Ray said laughing.
Abby looked at him in disbelief. "Is he laughing?"
Rachel shrugged. "It's how he deals with stress."
The twins grabbed the reigns of their horses. "Do you mind if we take the horses into the garage? They could use a good rest." Rachel asked.
The group nodded and everyone entered the garage, and Rachel and Ray tied the horses to some posts in the garage. The twins were approached by a woman with short hair. "Do you need help removing the saddle."
"Nah, we will keep them on." Ray told her. "We will only be here a short while, give them a break after the storm and being chase by a horde of infected."
"Sounds good." The woman said as her and her group went up the stairs.
The twins followed the group up. Ryan and the short haired woman talked about the weather and the groups supply inventory.
Up in the front, Abby and another male talked. "Who are those people?" He asked.
"Owen, those two are from Jackson." Abby whispered.
"Abby!" Owen whispered in disbelief.
"It will be fine."
Owen was about to speak but Ryan beat him to it. "Thanks for opening the gate, we would have been mushroom food with your quick thinking."
"Hey, no problem, Abby is important to us." A Hispanic male said casually. "I'm Manny by the way."
Manny was giving Rachel a suggestive look. She scoffed and rolled her eyes. Manny turned around in confused.
"Don't take it personally, if you were a Latina and she wasn't in a relationship, your charm would have worked." Ray said earning a sharp elbow from his sister. "Ow, I made sure to mention that you are in a relationship."
"Yeah, I don't want my business aired out to people we just met."
Ray rubbed his side and sighed. "Good point."
After an awkward moment and seeing everyone looking at them, he decided to introduce themselves. "I am Ray, and this is my sister Rachel."
"I'm Mel and you had the misfortune of meeting Manny." The short haired woman greeted.
Manny shouted 'Hey' in indignation. The group in the room laughed. "Come on Manny most of us were waiting for someone to reject you in front of us." Abby told him.
"You all wound me." Manny said smirking.
Abby rolled her eyes before turning towards the twins. "Hey, uh thanks for saving me from the horde."
"You're welcome, happy to be at the right time and place." Ray said with a wide smile.
Owen then starts introductions. "I'm Owen."
"Leah." A woman with long black here introduced.
"Nora." A light skin black woman introduced.
"Jordan." A man with long black hair said.
"Nick." An Asian man said.
"You don't mind if we sit?" Ray asked.
The group shook their heads and the twins walked to the wall and slid to the floor. Ray would proceed to laugh. "Fuck that was close."
Rachel nodded in agreement. Her brother continued. "So where are you guys from?"
"Seattle." Owen said, earning subtle glares from his group.
The group were not the only one that tensed at what Owen said. Rachel decided to finally take in the groups appearance. She saw that they were all wearing coats from before the outbreak, Jordan wearing a baseball cap, Manny with a beard, only Nick being bald, the women with unbraided hair, and none of them have scars on their cheeks. 'These must be the wolves; we have to be careful.' She thought.
"My sister's girlfriend is from Seattle." Ray told them.
'God damn it, Ray!" She yelled at him internally but kept a blank face.
The information made the group even more tense. "Really." Manny said doing his best to remain calm.
"Yeah, she is nice when you get to know her, the scars can make her a little intimidating."
'I am going to kill you, Ray!' Rachel though tries to keep her face stoic while noticing that the group grew stiff.
"Hey Ray, lets wait a little with telling them about my girlfriend until after they meet." Rachel told him.
Ray was about to say something, but Mel decided to interject. "So, are you two from around here?"
There was a brief pause before. Ray decided to speak. "Des Moines, Iowa, we grew up in the QZ there."
"FEDRA set up one up in the middle of corn country?" Manny asked.
"Hey, the government needed food, what better place to get it then the Midwest."
"Whatever you say." Manny said skeptically.
"Kept everyone in the QZ feed at least." Ray said sadly.
"What happened?" Nora asked.
Ray's face turned to one of fury while Rachel tightened her hands into fists. "The fucking Fireflys."
The group widened their eyes and remained quiet as Ray continued to speak. "Apparently a division of them had moved close by and decided to attack the QZ to cut their food supply."
"Probably succeeded to." Rachel said.
"A truck bomb that attracted multiple hordes tend to destroy a community, fucking terrorists."
His sister continues to notice the group keep themselves guarded and tense. She is trying to find a way to deescalate the situation, but her brother continued to talk.
"Life under FEDRA may be grueling and oppressive, but it's better than being out in the wild being prey to the infected."
"A lot of them fell though, right?" Mel asked.
"True, a lot of the leadership in many of the zones was poor at best and they went too far in their brutality." Ray conceded.
"Why the hate for the Firefly's?" Owen asked. "I mean you mentioned that FEDRA went too far in their brutality."
"Some of the QZ's went too far, the Des Moines QZ was under our father's control." Ray answered. "He made sure there was a fair trial."
"What about democracy?" Owen asked.
"A luxury." Ray responded taking his backpack and scrummaging through it before finding what he was looking for a pack of cigarettes.
Rachel seeing this narrowed her eyes. "You said you quit."
"Hey, we just escaped a horde, those fucking bugs were brought up, and my girlfriend is pregnant." He said pulling out a hand rolled cigarette he was about to put it in his mouth and light it when cough was heard.
They looked over at Mel who looked nervous. "Can I ask that you don't smoke in here."
Looking confused, Ray asked. "Sure, any reason why?"
"I'm pregnant."
Ray looked apologetic and put the cigarettes and lighter away. "Sorry stressed."
"Yeah, I can imagine." Manny said with a forced chuckle.
"So, what brings you all Southeast?" Ray asked.
"We are looking for information." Abby said.
"Well… I don't know what information you can be looking for out here in Wyoming a state before the outbreak had a population below every major American city." Ray said in confusion.
"It's nothing about pre-outbreak." Jordan said testily.
"Then what could it be then?" Ray asked, amused. "Because to make your way all the way from Seattle, that information must be either important or personal."
"Why does it matter?" Jordan asked snidely ready to fight Ray only to be held back by Owen.
"If it's important, then I think leadership can offer a good deal." Ray said. "If it's personal, it could cause problems."
"We are looking for Tommy Miller." Abby said.
"Why, he hasn't left Jackson in years?" Ray asked, starting to get suspicious.
"Because he might have information on his brother." She answered.
"Why do you want to know about Joel?" Ray asked.
Rachel saw their glares. She slowly started to reach for her revolver she keeps strapped to her back but was noticed. "Stop right there." Nick ordered pointing a pistol at her.
Ray was about to move, but the sound of multiple guns clocking kept him from moving. "Hands in the air, slowly." Abby ordered.
The twins complied. Abby grabbed Rachel and pulled her up patting her down, finding the revolver. Manny followed suit with Ray finding a pistol. The two then pushed them back to the ground.
Abby looked down at the twins. "Now, tell us what you know."
Thank you all for reading. Sorry it took it awhile. Hope you all are doing well. Please leave a review.