When The Dead Came 2 (4 page)

“That’s
just a fantasy Holly,” he blurted,” all of you are living
in a fantasy world. What Justin said isn’t what we should be
doing, because saving others is just going to get you killed or to
become one of the undead. And either way, all of you are going to die
soon.” Holly remained silent and looked out the window.

“...
He's right Holly,” Jenny spoke up,” we should be enjoying
life while we have it.”

“Seriously?
I can't believe the two of you. You with your freaking lip gloss and
you,” she gestured at Keith,” with your cigarette
smoking. The rest of us are focused on survival while all you two
care about is whether you have enough lip gloss to wear or enough
nicotine to smoke all day long.”

She
wasn’t sure what has become of Keith. He was helpful at first,
he had believed that they would make it in this world. And now he’s
become harsh, hateful toward all of them. And Jenny... Well, she
actually expected this of Jenny. She wasn't helpful much. The rest of
the ride around the streets remained silent, Jenny staring down at
the tube of glitter lip gloss in her hand before putting it away in
the bag. She knew how they seen her: useless. Maybe it was time to
prove something.

She
felt the car jolt as he came to a halt in a parking lot, the building
they were about to check showed posters of guns on the windows. He
looked at them,” Come on, pansies.” He left them behind
and walked inside the store, Holly shaking her head.

“What’s
wrong with him,” Jenny asked her.

“I
don’t know,” she responded,” but if he keeps acting
this way, he’s either going to end up injuring himself, getting
attacked, killed, or harming one of us. We should keep an eye on
him.” They sat out in the car for a minute, Jenny looking
around at their surroundings.

"There's
not many undead here on the north side," Jenny said out loud,
Holly responding with only a nod and began to stretch her legs and
arms after a while. The sun had left them with a full moon, lighting
the streets for them. Looking around for a moment, feeling the cold
air hit her, Holly gestured," c'mon, let's go help Keith."
The two of them walked into the gun store to help their friend. While
Holly closed the door as softly as she could, she jumped when Keith
began to throw empty boxes. She and Jenny looked over at him.

"Argh,"
he let out in frustration, anger.

"What's
wrong?" Holly asked, holding her hands out and almost
whispering, hoping he'd get the hint and quiet down. He stood in
silence a moment.

"There's
nothing," he looked around," Nothing's here. It's all
gone." Finalizing his outburst with one final throw of an empty
bullet carton and kicking shelves. He threw more things, breaking a
glass case at the counter, and he walked out of the store. Jenny
looked at Holly, obviously frightened.

"Let's
do a double check," Holly said softly," he probably
overlooked something." They began to rummage through the debris
of boxes and broken glass, but like Keith, they found nothing.

"Is
Keith okay? He's been acting different since we left Kansas,"
Jenny asked while searching the floors, almost cutting her hand on
the broken glass.

"I
don't know," Holly responded," but he is really starting to
get on my nerves. Being hateful and withdrawn. Drinking, smoking, and
I’m sure if he could find it, he’d be doing drugs too.
He’s an idiot with no more sense in his head."

"...
Or maybe it's jealousy." Holly stopped searching and looked over
at Jenny, wondering what she meant until it finally came to mind.
Amidst everything happening, she forgot how Keith liked Avery back in
school. Now that she's been hanging around Alex this whole time, she
understood why he finally figured it was only Justin who got away,
because deep down, he didn't want it to turn out to be Avery and
Alex. He was acting like a child just because his high school crush
was traveling and spending more time with Alex than with him. She
shook her head, jealousy has no place in this world now. They stopped
searching and they decided to go join him, Holly wanted to have a
word or two with Keith anyways.

The
two of them walked out of the store, but instead of walking on to the
car, they were greeted with the sounds of guns cocking around them.
Four people were on one side of them, and only two on the other side.
One was a woman, possibly in her early thirties, blond and wearing a
pink tee, a blue jacket over the shirt with blue jeans and low heeled
boots. One guy's hair was a very light brown color, possibly almost
blond if he stayed out in the sun a lot to let it highlight and
looked familiar. He wore a grey shirt, a navy blue jacket, and dark
blue jeans with what looked to be Chuck Taylor shoes. And two guys'
hair was black, while the two on one side of them had dark brown
hair. Holly looked down and spotted Keith on his knees with his hands
behind his head.

"Get
down, now," instructed the taller dark brown haired guy,
possibly in his mid-thirties to early 40s, wearing dark clothing as
well. Holly and Jenny got down on their knees," Hands on the
back of your head." They followed the instructions carefully.
The other dark brown haired guy, very likely in Keith, Holly, Alex,
and Avery's age range-between 18 to 22 and also wearing all dark
clothing- got out rope and walked up behind Keith. He jerked his
hands back behind him and began to tie Keith's wrists together. After
doing so, he proceeded with tying Holly's then Jenny's wrists behind
their backs. The young guy went back into his position and started
aiming the gun at them again. "Lucinda, Nick, Trevor,"
spoke the thirty-something year old guy," take them into the
back of the truck. Nick, take their car and take Trevor with you."

The
three, who they now knew by their names-Lucinda the blond, Nick the
black haired guy wearing a black jacket, and Trevor the young guy
with dark hair-, grabbed them up by the arms and walked them to the
back of a transportation vehicle, a paddy wagon. They were thrown
into the back of the vehicle, only Lucinda and the chestnut haired
guy jumped in the back with them, leaving Nick to close the doors.

As
the other two guys began toward the Dodge, Evan stopped," Hey,"
he called out to Trevor and Nick," go help Charles and Jeff with
the other two." Nick and Trevor jumped into the Dodge, while the
other black haired guy and the dark brown haired guy got into the
front of the paddy wagon, the dark brown haired guy driving, the
Dodge going elsewhere.

After
he started the vehicle, a few zombies decided to come out and run up
to it. The dark brown haired guy pulled out his .45, aimed, and fired
a bullet into the forehead of the closest zombie and drove
away.
The other brown haired guy-with high cheekbones and a tan skin
tone-looked in the back of the vehicle. "What’s your
names?” They remained silent before Holly spoke up first.

“Holly,”
she said,” that’s Jenny and,” Keith nudged her.

“Don’t
tell our names.” She ignored him, he isn’t in the right
place of mind to do the negotiations.

“That
is Keith,” she fell silent as he shook his head.

“I’m
Will,” the guy spoke,” the driver here is Evan and that
is Lucinda and Drew;” he nodded,” where are your
friends?”

Holly
looked at him," Who are you talking about?"

"We
don't have any other people with us;" Keith added, finally
catching on to what Holly was doing, which was to save Avery and Alex
from facing this same treatment," it's always been just us
three." The guy slowly smiled then laughed.

"Don't
play dumb. We know there's two others. A young guy and a dark haired
girl, they looked to be around the same age as Trevor. Lying isn't
gonna help you, so where are they?"

"We
don't know who you're talking about," Keith said after a second.
The guy stared at him before turning away. He pulled out a gun, load
the clip, and climbed into the back.

"Hey,
Evan," he said to the now identified dark brown haired guy,"
stop." The guy pulled the vehicle over, allowing Lucinda and the
other guy to open the double doors and they jumped out. Will climbed
into the back and walked up to Keith, while Holly and Jenny began
watching what was about to happen. The guy, without warning, kicked
Keith in the face, causing him to fall out of the vehicle and hit the
pavement of the street.

The
guy then grabbed up Holly and shoved her out of the truck, no one
stopping her drop to the pavement either, landing on her left side
with a thud. And then finally, he proceeded to shove Jenny out, also
hitting the pavement on her back and grunting in pain her eyes
tearing up and trying hard not to cry. Holly glanced over at Keith,
who was bleeding from his mouth and coughing. The guy jumped out of
the back of the vehicle and stood in front of them.

"You
know," he began," we don't really want to do this. But,
you're in the middle of a zombie plagued city, no one else will hear
your screams. See," he got out his gun again," you don't
tell us where they are, I will shoot each of you -just to injure- and
leave you for the dead right here in the street;" he paused to
allow that thought to sink in," But, if you tell us where they
are, we'll let you back into the truck, bite free, bullet free."
Lucinda fired her gun at a nearby zombie, dropping it instantly,"
We'll keep them away for now, until you give us an answer."
Holly struggled with the rope around her wrists.

Keith
knew the consequences of it, he knew that for Jenny and Holly's sake,
he should tell them where Avery and Alex are. But yet, he wanted to
make sure that they never find them, just so his friends could be
safe, and possibly get a chance to leave Ohio before they do find
them. He looked at Holly, who
looked
to also be weighing the choices. He looked at the guy,"... No."
He said. The guy gestured to Lucinda, and she began to point the gun
at Jenny. "Don't," he insisted," she's a kid!"

"Well
then you better tell us or else she's gonna be a dead kid!" As
if God was watching, all of a sudden, a small group of zombies began
to come toward the shouts. The small group of zombies distracted
their assailants, shrieking out loud and running toward the group in
the street.

Instantly
thinking, Holly kicked out her left leg at Lucinda, kicking as hard
as she could against the blonde's left knee cap and causing her to
fall onto her back in pain. Keith managed to stand and just when Will
turned and aimed his gun at him, Keith tackled him, knocking the guy
down onto the ground. The other guy, Drew, was more focused on the
zombies, killing them as they became closer with each shot while the
driver remained in the vehicle, firing his gun from the window.

"Run,
Jenny," Holly screamed out. Jenny managed to stand and began
running. Evan came out of the truck, took his other gun off safety
and aimed; when he fired the gun, the bullet traveled at high speeds
and lodged into Jenny's left leg in the back of her shin. She
screamed out in pain and fell, struggling to get at least one arm
free. "No," Holly screamed out, seeing the 15 year old girl
hit the ground and she began to kick out at Evan, but received a
couple kicks to her ribs.

Jenny
managed to get her left arm free and she got up as fast as she could,
round the street corner and kept limping down the street, away from
the crazed survivors. "C'mon," Evan shouted to Drew and the
two of them left to go pursue the 15 year old girl. Jenny continued
running, and noticed a chance to take shelter in a phone booth,
completely spray painted on, reading in large print "THE DEAD IS
HERE, THEY ARE WALKING AMONG US". She locked the booth and sat
on the floor of it. Jenny looked down at her leg, seeing the blood
trickle through her jean leg and she swallowed, fighting not to cry
out in pain. She peeked through the spray paint, and she saw Drew and
Evan looking around for her. She leaned back and closed her eyes,
whispering and hoping that they'd go away and not come near the
booth. She peeked out again, seeing them leave finally.

Leaning
back again, she took off her jacket and held the sleeve to her wound.
Groaning in pain, she tried her best to dig in her pockets of her
jeans, and found her sanitation wipes that she had found in a store
back in Missouri. Doing her best to clean her right hand, she
swallowed, raised her free sleeve to her mouth so she could bite
down. And trying her best not to scream, she lowered her right hand
down to the bullet hole, and painfully, dug her fingers into her leg,
attempting to dig the bullet out. Eventually, what seemed like hours,
she got the bullet to surface and drop down onto the floor. Taking
deep breaths at the blinding pain, she looked out the window again,
seeing only zombies walking around as she cried silently before
finally fainting, no longer feeling the pain.

"Okay,
we'll tell you," Holly shouted at them through tears, feeling
like her ribs were broke. The whole time after Jenny managed to
escape, they were being beaten by Lucinda and Evan. Holly looked over
at Keith as he was bleeding from his nose now," last we knew,
they were heading south or east, to look for supplies and weapons."

"Are
you telling the truth?" The guy asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm
as sure as I'll ever be," she responded, wincing each time she
breathed.