by Kris Weeks
“You’re gay?” Andrew questioned. “Well, yeah. That is that whole being with a man thing.” Willy
laughed.
“Wow, never would have guessed.” Andrew shot back.
“We don’t really go around with signs around our neck or anything.” Willy joked.
“I…I….wasn’t….saying anything bad about it.” Andrew stuttered.
Alex laughed at the stuttering of Andrew. “You seem like a pretty masculine Mexican guy, guess I just would have never thought.” Andrew replied without a stutter this time.
Alex pulled tight on the last bit of fencing they had to put up before placing the plywood up. Willy sent Andrew for some water while he and Willy finished up.
“That guy is a bit strange.” Willy stated.
“He seems to be up Eric’s ass a lot, not sure what that is about, but it is getting annoying, and Eric is about to get on my last nerve.” Alex confided.
“Yeah, I wasn’t real happy with the orders he thought we needed to follow. He is quite a bit bossy.” Willy whispered.
Eric entered the barn just as Bryan was sweeping up the floor. “Looking good in here, this will be where we store a lot of our materials and food if we run out in the house, so we need to make it fairly secure, you think you can fix this lock on the door?”
“Sure, I can fix a little bit of anything.” Bryan responded. “I used to be a security guard/maintenance guy at a hospital. I think they used me to mainly fix stuff, because there wasn’t much security unless they brought a drunk in or something. Anyways…”
Eric cut him off quickly. “I am not here to chit chat with you. I just came to instruct. Get to it” Eric spat before leaving the barn.
Bryan froze and glared at the back of Eric’s head. “Well, Mr. bossy, guess I will just do as I am told. Asshole.” Bryan said to himself and continued the motion of his broom.
Nate and the ladies had finished planting and had brought water up to finish up the garden. As they passed buckets along to each other to flood each valley and row they heard racket and hollering.
“Ándale Alex!” Willy shouted.
Alex squeezed through the gate and Willy slammed it shut just before a thud sounds on the board he was attaching to the outside of the flimsy metal.
Alex fell to the ground coming in. “This gate is going to be the death of us.” Alex heaved out.
The rest of the group came running all with weapons of some sort ready to fight off a horde.
“What the hell! Where are the drunks at?” Nate raised his shovel he had in his hand.
Alex half laughed while trying to catch his breath dusting himself off. “They are outside our new gate. I had to make a little noise to stabilize the gate and it attracted a few of them up here. But the gate is pretty much done. I need to run a couple of the pipes on the inside, but it seems to be holding well.”
They could all hear the loud bangs intensify, but the gate stayed stable and did not move as it had before.
“Good job buddy.” Andrew was the last of the group to run up from the back of the land. “Looks pretty damn stable.
Eric finally arrived. “What the hell are you doing?” He glared at Alex.
“As I JUST stated, I had to make a little noise to stabilize this flimsy ass gate.” Alex reiterated.
“How fucking stupid was that?” Eric yelled.
“How fucking stupid is it for you to stand here yelling as they now stand outside a gate that we are not having to hold up to keep them out.?” Alex got in Eric’s face.
“You better watch yourself boy!” Eric put his finger in Alex’s face and turned to walk away.
“Don’t put your finger in my face. I get that you led us here, but we all did a fair amount of work to get us here, save each other and now fixing shit. I am a grown ass man, I deserve a little respect from you as I have given you. You might think you are the almighty asshole around here, but I guarantee I can make decisions just as well to keep us safe. My son’s life as well as others are at stake. You being a dick doesn’t make anything easier for anyone.” Alex clarified in front of everyone.
Eric turned and walked away from the group, leaving them all with eyes wide.
Alex stood in disbelief that Eric had the gall to speak to him that way. They watched Alex’s face turn red. He stormed up behind Eric and grabbed his shoulder, he turned him towards him. “Who in the hell do you think you are?”
“I am running this shit, I invited you here.” Eric walked towards Alex with his finger in his face again.
Alex grabbed his finger and brought it down to his side and bent it backwards, which brought Eric down from his six foot tall height to his knees.
“I don’t need you to survive, I promise!” Alex stood over him.
Eric punched Alex in the nuts and stood. Alex fell to his knees and Eric took his place over him. Eric turned back to walk to the house as Alex fell over holding himself in agony. The group ran to help Alex up.
“You should not have done that.” Rue stated.
Everyone watched Rue walk away towards the house following Eric. Once Alex was back on his feet, he limped behind Rue and entered shortly after Eric and Rue.
“Look, I am not sure how you want to work this, but we are all a team and need to work together to keep
everyone alive.” Alex decided
calmness was better than anger.
“You are right.” Eric stated back as he sat at the kitchen table. “Tomorrow we make another run for the rest of the materials at the hardware store.”
Everyone else entered the house slowly expecting a fight to have already broke out.
“Bryan and Nate will stay with the ladies. I am making the outing team Willy, Alex, Tyler, Andrew, myself and Atora if you would like to go.” He half questioned and half requested.
Atora nodded, surprised that he would even ask her to go. She thought he seemed to think women belonged at home with children. “Can I ask, why me now?”
“I need to make a consistent team of us to go out, this will be the team from now on.” Eric told them.
“I think any of the chi ldren should stay here.” Alex expressed concern about taking his son.
“The children are staying here. Tyler is not a child. He has to learn the ropes in case something happens.” Eric expressed.
Alex was not fully in agreement, but knew that his son needed to pull his weight around the camp.
“We all need to get rest for
tomorrow.” Eric stood from the table and went to the shared room.
Alex went to pull Tyler from the room Eric had gone to so that he could tell him the plan. Tyler was full of different emotions, but willing to go so that he could be with his dad.
Alex and Tyler took first watch that night. They each took a station at the two windows in the living room and watched out.
“Dad, is it scary?” Tyler asked.
“A little, but you have to realize that these people have risen from the dead and they don’t know what they are doing. We are doing them a favor by taking them out and that we don’t want to become them. I don’t know if this world will EVER get back to normal, but whatever happens, we have to stay together and try to find out.” Alex explained to his son. “I am glad you are here with me.”
Alex began to tear up at the thought of all of the losses they have had. He had never been the emotional kind of guy, but this whole situation got to him. Alex had always worked hard for his family so they could have
whatever they wanted; never would he have imagined that his life of hard work and dedication would turn out this way. He had always been that guy that would rather work and give the closest ones to him what they wanted. He wasn’t ever a big guy, but he was stocky and taught all of his children that hard work would get them where they needed to be.
Bryan came to relieve Alex and Tyler at almost midnight. “If y’all are going out tomorrow, you two better get some shut eye.”
“You are probably right. Tyler, lay down ov
er there and get some sleep.” Alex demanded of his son.
Alex sat up with Bryan for a bit. Not that tired, a little nerve racked about taking Tyler.” Alex whispered to Bryan.
“I understand, it is good to see good dad’s in the world.” Bryan admitted.
“Did you have any kids?” He asked Bryan.
“Nah, I had a girlfriend, but no kids. I did security at a hospital and went home every day, saw my
girlfriend a couple times a week and that was it.” He explained his life.
Alex nodded. “Hey, a life is a life.” Alex grabbed a blanket and headed over to lay next to his son.
CHAPTER SIX
ALEX AND Tyler woke to the
smell of cinnamon. Both popped their heads up to look around and saw Rue and Ashley at the kitchen table passing out bowls. The two made their way to the aroma filled kitchen and grabbed a bowl sitting on the counter.
“That smells great.” Alex stated.
Ashley smiled. “Thought you guys could us something that sticks to your ribs.”
“This will do it. Gotta love some oatmeal with some sugar and
cinnamon.” Alex thanked them with a nod.
They gathered on the floor with the others that had caught the smell throughout the house and began to shovel it in. Eric came out with his bowl in hand instructing everyone to hurry up with a circular hand motion.
They all grabbed their weapons of choice and started making their way out of the door.
“Willy and Alex, go fill up the flat bed with gas as well as the van. Atora, Andrew and Tyler come with me to gather some things for the trip and get it into the van.” Eric gave direction.
The group split up and went their separate ways. Once inside the barn, Atora and Andrew began loading Tyler’s arms with bottles of water and some food. They led Tyler to the van giving some to Alex to store in the truck and put some in the van. Eric got in the back seat of the van and waved Tyler over to get in and sit next to him. Andrew and Atora both crawled into the front seats.
“Well, guess we will see if it is true.” Tyler giggled.
“What?” Andrew asked.
“If women drivers are as bad as Dad says they are.” Tyler laughed. “He used to joke with mom about her not being able to drive
Eric and Andrew laughed at Atora rolling her eyes while she started the van.
“Wow, Mr. Baily, I have never seen you laugh at anything.” Tyler stated trying to break the ice between everyone.
“It isn’t very often I have had anything to laugh about.” Eric stated still smiling.
“You have driven this thing, f eel free buddy.” Alex climbed into the passenger side.
Willy started the truck and popped it into drive waiting for the van to pull to the gate. As the van pulled up, Nate and Bryan stood waiting to unlatch it until they were all ready to leave out. They pulled the gate open and closed it just as the trucks rear end pulled out.
“Glad the guys could fix this gate.” Nate stated. “Keeps those damn drunkards out of here pretty good.”
“Yeah, we need to make sure and check the fencing every day though to make sure there are not any weak spots for them to get in at. We
probably need to bring some water up sometime before dark and have it ready in case we need it.” Bryan told him.
Nate shook his head in agreement and split off to check on the garden. Bryan made his way to the barn to straighten things back up from what had been taken before the crew left.
Rue and Ashley both cleaned up the mess that had been made from warming up some water and oatmeal outside on the fire and bringing it in. They were glad it had turned out well as neither had ever cooked over a fire before. They wiped down the children and allowed them to play in the room that Karlin, Ashley and Atora were staying in.
“I think I will go help the guys and make sure everything is okay.” Ashley stated.
She made her way to the garden right as Nate was heading back in. “The garden is all good. Bryan is at the barn if you want to help him out.”
Ashley did as suggested and made it to the barn as Bryan was trying to straighten up. Nate back at the house, walked in to quietness. Feeling a bit strange knowing that people were there. He tiptoed down the hallway and saw the kids in the one room, he walked back to the last room at the end of the hall and again, there stood Rue.
She was wiping herself down with a towel, her dark hair was long and hung down her bare back as she wiped her arms. The bend of her back had a small tattoo that he couldn’t make out what it was. Her hips were absolutely perfect ass her body
moved. He watched every muscle on her as she wiped herself down. Her small frame of the made him wish he could just wrap his arms around it. He could not believe that he had gotten so lucky again to be able to see this kind of beauty.
He stood at the doorway and
watched the curves of her body move. He could not help but stare. He
pushed the door open and walked up behind her and placed his hands on her small hips. Rue jumped at the feeling of him and turned baring all of herself to him. The front was just as beautiful as the back. Here rounded breasts from breastfeeding stood out, and her stomach with only minute signs of having three children was perfect in his eyes. He reached out to pull her to him and held her body against his for a moment. She stood for what seemed like forever and looked into Nate’s eyes and then backed away.
“Nate, I’m sorry I can’t. I’m
married.” She stated.
Nate dropped his hands. “No, I am sorry. I just saw you and something took me over. Your curves and sexiness you have. I need to go.”
Rue stood in her own comfortable skin and watched him pull the door to. She finished her sponge bath feeling guilty that the thought was running through her head of wanting Nate.
***
Driving to the hardware store the crew seem to see more cars than there were before that had been abandoned and more hordes walking in the fields to each side of the road and some in the middle. Atora would miss them if she could, but would hit them head on if she could not.
“And that is how you drive through a horde.” Eric spat out. “You ready to help? Do you know how to kill a zombie?” Eric asked Tyler.
“No sir.” He stated.
Eric handed Tyler a large serrated knife from his boot. “Keep this with you at all times. Never set it down and stay on guard all the time. Always watch your back and keep an eye on your surroundings for any of them that might be wandering, because they will come after you. When one gets too close, you have to stab the knife into their brain. Either from the top or side or up through the chin.”
Tyler nodded as he ran his finger over the side of the blade. Eric handed him a holster for the knife to attach to his belt. Tyler quickly pulled his belt from his loops and put the holster on and slid the knife into it.
“You seem like a smart kid, but you need to be taught how to live in this world. I will teach you, but you need to stay close to me or you will get eaten.” Eric told the youngster.
Tyler nodded and rubbed the holster on his hip as they pulled up to the store. Atora pulled to the front doors of the store and Willy and Alex pulled around back to the fenced off area where all of the big stuff was kept.
Tyler turned his head left to right and back again to look for any danger before wanting to get out. Eric already had the door open and was waiting for Tyler. Atora and Andrew headed to the door and stood scanning the area while Tyler and Eric made their way in. The two watchers followed behind them.
“We are going to gather all of the things that we had missed on the first run and Tyler, when you get a good armful of things, go ahead and get them to the van and stack them in the back.” Eric explained.
Atora cocked her head a bit at Eric’s instructions to the child, but went on to gather all of the goods to take back. Andrew headed to the back to look through all of the full shelves they had left before. He made a pile next to the front of the aisles. Tyler began p
icking up all of the things that everyone was laying out to take. He loaded up and headed for the door.
He pushed the door open without looking outside and headed to the van. He popped the back door open and dropped everything into the van. He began to stack everything up to make enough room for all the things they need to take back. Atora watched from the door as Tyler did what he was told. Eric was bagging up some screws, nails and other tools from a few aisles away. Tyler closed one of the doors and reached for the other when a man stepped around and stood in front of him. He growled and made his way for Tyler. Tyler grabbed for his knife and pulled it from its holster and held it up at the man.
“Back up! Tyler told the zombie as he chomped his jaws coming towards him.
The man didn’t stop, he growled even louder and grabbed onto Tyler’s shirt and started to pull him to him.
Atora hurried out to him and pushed Tyler back. “Get inside!”
Tyler backed in through the door and watched the man come to Atora, her dark skin on her knuckles turned a light color as she grasped her knife and slid it from the top of the man’s head and into his brain as Eric had told him he had to do. She grabbed the handle with both hands and twisted and pulled it back out as the man hit the ground. Another one came around the side of the van as she shut the door to keep their belongings safe, she thrust her knife upward through the second zombie’s chin, and tried to pull it out before he dropped to the ground, but the man was too heavy for her and he took the knife down with him. Atora reached to retrieve the knife while watching a woman come at her from a few feet away. She stepped on the man’s back and tried to pull the knife, but it was embedded between the man’s chin and the asphalt. She pushed him over with her foot and jerked the knife out of him and came back up into the woman’s head with a left hook without missing a beat. She pulled it out of her temple and two small children came around behind her from the other side of the van. Tyler saw them and hurriedly opened the door and with his knife held up in the air charged at the two children, he knocked one off of its feet and the other he thrust his knife into the top of his head. He fell to his knees as the child dropped to the ground and the other one had gotten up and slowly made her way over to him. Tyler used both hands and sent the knife flying upward into the little girls chin, picking her feet up off the ground. He wiggled the girl in the air for a moment and then set her down, he pulled it out when the little girl’s jaw dropped to the ground next to him, she stumbled at him without an attached jaw, her growls were much louder and her small hands grasped at his arm. He waved his knife towards the little girl and sliced across her neck before getting to his feet and losing his grip on the already bloody knife. He picked it up and backed away from the little girl and let her come to him. He took a stabbing stance and readied himself as she approached. Once she was within arm’s reach, he swung his arm as he had watched Atora do and buried the knife in the temple of the child that was much younger the he. He pulled out his knife; brain matter strung from the little girl and swung from Tyler’s knife. He watched her hit the ground and held the knife out in front of him with two fingers, not sure what do with it, he held it by the very end of the handle. He looked at the little girl lying next to the little boy and began to tear up at the thought of his smaller siblings. Atora had finished mutilating the zombies she was taking on and turned to watch Tyler looking for more of them.
