The completed wall around the house, the lack of Walker attacks and the continuous presence of a guard on duty lent us a feeling of security. I decided that we spent far too much time inside so I arranged for a little three on three basketball game. It was Thomas, Justin and I versus Sarah, Sam, and Matt. Jason really didn’t like basketball, so he took guard duty. We could have had a regulation five on five games but the girls opted to take in some sun. Matt and Thomas were the tallest of our group, Matt was probably 6’2 and Thomas was only slightly taller at 6’3, so they were guarding each other. I had Sam and Justin was guarding Sarah. Things were going great, we were up by three points, a lucky shot made by Thomas, when Sarah started to play dirty. It started off as little things, a foot here, a little shirt pulling there, but it was enough to help them catch up. The score was twelve to fifteen and we were playing to twenty-one. I decided to call a timeout to change our tactics a little. I decided to switch with Justin and guard Sarah. He had been hesitant to retaliate against her because of the size difference but I had no such issue. Starting the game again things were clean for the first couple of minutes and then she started at it again. The first thing she did was to try and trip me. I had been watching for it and allowed it to happen, only I didn’t go down alone. While throwing the ball in the general direction of someone on my team I grabbed a handful of shirt and shorts and pulled Sarah down with me. I didn’t want her to get hurt so I made sure she fell on top of me. I grinned up at her when we were both on the ground.“You did that on purpose.”
“Oh come on,” I said smiling wider, “it’s not like I tripped you or anything.” She just huffed and climbed to her feet. Turns out when I tossed the ball it made its way into Thomas’ hands and he was able to make an easy layup, it was now fourteen to fifteen, still them. They scored another two-pointer while we scored a long three. We were all tied up with four points to win. All the while I was practically wrestling with Sarah, I even picked her up and carried her off the court. Our little competition started to get out of hand and we needed to end the game as soon as possible. Justin made a great shot gaining us the lead, all we had to do was make a single shot and the game was ours. It was their ball and Sarah was taking it out, I figured it was time to do something drastic to seal our victory. As Sarah raised her hands to pass the ball I grabbed her shorts and pulled them down. I had known she was wearing spandex underneath but what I did was shocking enough for her to drop the ball and reach for her shorts. I snatched the ball and took a shot from the top of the key, nothing but net. Our adoring, sun tanning audience broke out in applause.
“Hey, you cheated,” cried Sarah.
“Oh, so did you.” I retorted.
“Yeah but not like that.”
“Well if you don’t like it then we can have a rematch sometime,” I said smiling.
“No, now.”
A collective groan traveled through the players. No one but Sarah wanted to keep playing. We were all tired but it seemed that losing had energized her. “We’ll play some other time,” I said, “we’re all tired.” She was unhappy that she had lost but I think she was even unhappier about being beaten at her own game. Oh well, I thought, She’ll get over it.
Heading inside I grabbed a bottle of water and drained half of it. Wiping away the sweat on my face and neck I sat down to finish my plans to take the Safeway. As I was mapping out contingency plans Sarah came and sat next to me. “That wasn’t fair you know,” she said with a huff.
“Well I don’t know if you know this but life’s not fair. Just take a look around and you’ll realize that.”
“Yeah but…”
“But nothing. You lost,” I said smiling.
“Only because you cheated.”
“That’s true but all’s fair in love and war.”
“Yeah but that was neither.”
I just smiled and changed the subject, “So, you ready for the upcoming raid?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m moving up the raid on Safeway. I haven’t told everyone yet but I’m hoping to be ready in two days.”
“Who’s going?”
“Same team as last time, plus Sam.”
“Good.”
“Well, I’m glad that things meet with your approval. Don't worry, I wouldn’t dream of leaving you behind.”
“You better not,” she said smiling.
I offered up a pinky and we shook. “I won’t keep you out of anything if I can help it.” Leaning back over my hand-drawn maps and notes I started to tell Sarah the plans I would announce to everyone late that night. She listened, nodded and when she disagreed with something she let me know it. By the time I had finished telling her the plan I had made a few minor changes at her suggestion. After dinner, while most people were discussing the day’s events, mainly the basketball game, I brought up my plans for Safeway. A hush fell over the people at the table as I mentioned another raid. “The two aisles that we really want to focus on are the canned goods aisle and the drink aisle. That includes the water, pop, beer, whatever we can drink. The biggest problem we are going to face is the number of possible trapped Walkers inside. The doors open and close using electricity. If there were any infected when the power cut or even before then there could be dozens of them in the store.”
“Yeah but they’re slow, no big deal,” said Jason.
“Have you ever seen an ant colony swarm a mouse on the Discovery Channel?” I asked him.
“Yeah, but…”
“We’re the mouse, they’re the ants. With enough of them, they could overwhelm us. We don’t have enough bullets.” He just nodded at me. “Ok, the next biggest problem is going to be the lighting. It’s going to be hard to not only find our way around but also fight if we have to do it in the dark or even by flashlight. I don’t know about you but I’ve seen way too many movies where it ends badly for the poor bastard using only a flashlight. So, any suggestions?”
I looked around the room and was greeted by furrowed brows and plenty of lip chewing. “What if you just fight them in the light?” I heard Michelle ask in her little voice. A small chuckle made its way around the table. I didn’t laugh.
“A simple solution for a major problem,” I said smiling. The chuckling slowed and stopped.
“You can’t be serious?” asked Justin.
“Why not?” I asked still smiling, “Do you have a better idea?” He shook his head. “Alright then, that’s the plan. We’ll enter the building and prop the doors open just in case we have to make a quick exit. We stay by the doors, kill what we can see then draw the Walkers to us if they aren’t drawn by the initial attack. After that, we’ll go through the store in teams and mop up whatever’s left. Then we get the food and get out. Sound good?” There were some muttered agreement and a few head nods. They were all thinking about what would happen in two days.
CHAPTER 10
Waking up the next morning the house was bursting with nervous activity. People were cleaning, exercising, checking weapons, no one could sit. Even I couldn’t help but get caught up in the nervous energy, so instead of eating breakfast I decided to workout. “Sam,” I called out.
“Yeah,” I heard him call out from the armory.
Walking over and peering into the room I saw him sitting on the floor, cleaning a pistol. “Hey man, are you almost done?”
He slid the slide back onto the barrel and slid the magazine back into the gun, “Yep.”
“I need to get rid of some energy. How would you feel about going a few rounds?” I asked with a grin.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
In high school Sam and I would spar using a mixture of boxing and Tai-Kwan-Do, which we were both decent at. We always started off at half speed until we both got used to it and then we would move up to full speed. More often than not we would pull our punches so neither would get seriously hurt.
Putting on some loose fitting clothes we headed out to the front lawn. The ground was hard but in lieu of mats, t
he grass would be much softer than the cement floor of the pool room, which was the only space inside that would have enough room. We ran a few laps around the house to warm up and then headed to the lawn to start. We circled each other, watching fists and feet, waiting for the other to strike first. In most fights, you should always force your opponent to attack. And so I waited, and waited, and waited until Sam finally struck. Unlike the last time, Sam threw a punch at me he was in complete control of every action. The punch was a faint, his real intention was to make a strike with his foot. I had expected it and shifted my stance so his kick would miss completely. I countered by allowing my weight to continue around to bring my right leg around for a sidekick. Sam blocked and returned with a punch aimed at my sternum. Blocking, we continued with attack, block, counter attack, block. By the time we were done we were both tired and sweaty. Near the end, we had started using only holds and grapples. Sam was winning because he was stronger than me but I was still able to throw him to the ground a couple times. When we were done we looked back towards the house where we heard some sporadic clapping. While we had been fighting, a small group had gathered to watch, Sarah was among them. She walked over with two bottles of water and handed one to Sam. I reached out to my hand to take the other bottle but she held it back. “Could I have some water?” I asked smiling.
“Teach me,” she said.
“What?” I asked letting my hand drop. I saw Sam smile and walk towards the house.
“Teach me,” she repeated.
“Teach you what?”
“Teach me how to fight like that.”
“It took me a long time to learn what you saw and even longer to get any good at it.”
“We’ve got nothing but time,” she said smiling.
She was right. I shrugged, “Sure.”
“Good,” she smiled and walked away.
“What about my,” She tossed the bottle over her head and I caught it, “water?” I finished laughing. Walking inside I grabbed a cup of cereal and headed to the bathroom. After wiping away most of the sweat I quickly changed and finished my small breakfast. I headed to the armory to make sure all the weapons were clean and had full magazines. I decided that we would take weapons for close quarters combat, knives, handguns, and shotguns. There shouldn’t be a need for rifles but we’d take one just in case. We’d be leaving around eight-thirty only because I wanted everyone to be wide awake when we got to the store. I didn’t want anyone half asleep or still dreaming of their bed.
The rest of the day was spent preparing packs, prepping the cars and rechecking weapons. That night at dinner I went over the final plans with everyone. “Ok, so I’ve decided that everyone except Liz and Michelle are going. You ok with that Liz?” Her answer was a grim face and a nod of determination. I didn’t feel good about leaving the two alone but it was unavoidable. “Good, so everyone knows what’s going down tomorrow, we’ve all worked on formations, this is going to be a walk in the park,” I said with a confident grin. “Alright, I want everyone in bed, no watch tonight.” I received a few looks those who took regular watch but I just shook my head and said, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll be fine. I want everyone well rested.”
Everyone got up and headed to bed, in a few seconds, I was the only one left sitting at the table. I leaned back in my chair and propped my feet up and my hands behind my head. I let out a long breath and closed my eyes. I kept going over the plan in my head over and over and over, thinking of every variable. I must have had my eyes closed for a little too long because the next time I opened my eyes it was to a pitch black room and I could feel that someone had draped a blanket over me. When I got up pins and needles coursed through my legs and feet. Leaving the lights off I walked to my room while trying to calm my mind again so I could get the sleep I needed. I woke a few hours later from a fitful sleep, feeling like I hadn’t slept at all. Walking to the armory I yawned and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Amongst the stacks of weapons sat Sam, his gun in pieces and two cups of coffee on the floor next to him. “Morning,” I yawned to him.
“Morning,” he replied, “You couldn’t sleep either?”
I grunted in response as I pulled out my own gun, sat across from him and took the offered cup of coffee. After taking a long drink from the steaming mug I started to disassemble my gun, asking, “Everything ready?” It was Sam’s turn to grunt and nod his head. “Good.” With that, we fell into silence as we both cleaned our weapons and put them back together. The practiced motions allowed our minds to settle as our hands moved with familiar ease over the weapons. It took no thought and, little did I know, it would be the calmest part of my day. I pulled out my backup, the one which had belonged to my dad, and started the process over again. Once I had finished I stood and headed to the kitchen. Everyone was up by now, running around gathering last minute items for their packs and letting loose their nervous energy.
“Alright everyone, ten minutes,” I called out. I saw as people paused briefly before redoubling their efforts to get ready. They were moving faster but their faces were ashen and I saw some hands begin to shake. I fought down the urge to worry, the urge to doubt my plan and my friends. It’s human nature to worry but, just like that day on the roof, I had to be more than human, I had to be better.
Fear is a double edged sword, it keeps you alive, it lets you know when you’re in danger and keeps you from getting hurt. Fear can also be a bad thing, it can make you lose focus, it can keep you from reacting in time and it can get you killed. When I was learning to fight I learned to handle my fear. I never learned to ignore it but I did learn to control it. That’s what courage is. It has nothing to do with not being afraid, it’s being scared shitless but doing what has to be done because you’re the only one who can.
As everyone gathered outside, I glanced at how each of us was armed. Some were equipped with handguns, some with shotguns, Thomas with his rifle and Sam, well Sam was armed a little differently. “What the fuck is this?” I asked him gesturing to his weapon.
“Just something I cooked up,” he said grinning.
I shook my head as I took the weapon from him. Turning it over in my hands I could only continue to shake my head. It was as if a machete and a baseball bat got together and had a bastard child. Sam had taken a Louisville Slugger, wrapped the handle with duct tape for extra grip and fitted the blade of a machete into a carved groove along one side. I pinched the blade and wiggled it from side to side, it didn’t budge. I hefted it and took a practice swing like I was in the majors. I knew that after a few dozen good swings my arms would be too tired to swing a chopstick let alone this stocky piece of Ash. I was about to say something but then I looked at Sam, realized he was a fucking bear and handed him back his bat, grinning. “I think I’ll stick to my pistols,” I told him.
“Oh don’t worry, I’ve got one of those too,” he said patting his hip.
“Alright, let’s go,” I yelled. The eleven of us climbed into six cars and started down the driveway. Each car had a driver and a passenger, leaving plenty of room for supplies, Sam had his own truck, his bat riding shotgun, and Sarah was with me.
She rolled her eyes and said “Fine,” with a huff
We reached the Safeway and backed up to one of the entrances and we all got out. Walking to the sliding glass doors I saw that there were bloody and smeared handprints on the inside. Sam and I grabbed one door while Matt and Justin grabbed the other. With Sarah and Jason covering our front and everyone else covering our rear, we pulled the doors apart, holding them open with a healthy amount of duct tape.
After the doors were secure I drew my pistol and aimed it into the darkness. I waited. And waited. And waited. As we stood there we weren’t assaulted by a mass of Walkers, but by a wave of noxious odors. The first thing I thought was, Damn. We forgot the Vick’s. The second thing was that this was more than the smell of rotting produce, this was the smell of death, of rot and decay. There were definitely more than just a few Walkers inside.
We stoo
d there as a group, pointing or guns into the darkness. The silence stretched beyond tense and into awkward. “Well this is anticlimactic,” joked Jason. Without lowering my gun I turned to look at him with a frown. “What!?” he exclaimed, “It is.”
Still looking at him I fired off a single shot into the darkness and heard as my bullet struck something glass, shattering it, and waited. About a minute after my shot was fired Walkers began emerging from the darkness. I took aim and drilled the first one in the head. It was easy to pick them off on by one, but soon enough there was a wall of them and it was starting to get difficult to pick each shot and not get distracted. We backed away several paces to allow the Walkers to separate. We each stood our ground and chose our shots carefully, there wasn’t going to be any wasting of ammo today. I felt a trickle of pride creep through my emotional wall. My friends were doing great and at that moment I realized how much they had changed. I never thought the same people I was bullshitting with in my living room a few weeks ago could be the same people I saw standing next to me today.
Survivors Series (Book 1): Heroes Aren't Born Page 14
