New Beginnings

by A. H. Frederick

  "Hey, people who broke down the fucking door down, you still alive!" I yelled over the corner as I leaned against a wall edge for cover. A few bullets found themselves inside the opposite side as I leaned away from the edge.

  "Alex, we came to save you!" The voice came back.

  "Trevor?" I questioned.

  "Yeah man, Sestra was the one snipping." Trevor replied. I looked out of the corner and a shot hit the wall.

  "Hey, Trevor, let's catch up later."

  "Yeah, that'd be a good idea." He replied. I then looked from my cover and saw that they were looking over at Trevor. I took that moment to take out one of them. I aimed carefully and broke the silence with a gun shot that went straight through his head.

  "James, No! You bastards!" I hear over where my kill fell. The other tried to escape by running through a separate building.

  "He's making a break for it!" I yelled, chasing after him for a short distance inside the building before tripping and getting light headed.

  "Stay there." Trevor yelled as he ran past me. I tried to stay awake, but I was unsuccessful. The last thing I remember is seeing Sestra kneeling beside me and wearing my cloak. The next time I opened my eyes, I was leaning against a wooden cabinet. I started to hear gun shots around me and I felt the metal of the gun in my hand and checked the ammo to find it full. Sestra must have known that I would like a full mag. I then looked over the cabinet to see what we were shooting at and found five guards as they popped their heads out and looked at me. I smirked as I sat back down.

  "Trevor!" I yelled; scanning the area.

  "Yeah?" He replied; his voice being heard from a room beside us.

  "Is Karla here as well?" I asked.

  "Present!" She yelled from cover in front of me.

  "Oh, good. Listen, I have a plan, I just need you three to cover me, ok?" I ordered, then looked up to see if the guards were watching and I caught one poking his head out. Sestra and the others aimed their way and I crawled to a wooden beam to get to a doorway. The guards turned their focus to me and opened fire towards my direction. The beam in front of me was getting full of bullet holes and I moved to the wall and took cover. When I stepped through the other doorway to where I could flank them, they had no idea I was there. I shot them quick enough to where only one of them shot off one bullet into the ceiling. I then laid my back against the wall behind me.

  "That's that." I said and saw my friends running up to me. My eye lids began to feel heavy again, but I fought it the best I could.

  "Alex, you need to rest." Karla said.

  "No, you may need my help." I said, trying to stand back up, but with no use. I passed out again only to wake up inside of a dream. I was inside the warehouse again, where the spider zombie. It's legs coming out of its back as before and its small body of the corpse reaches almost to the ceiling of a four-story building. It started to laugh menacingly at me, then jumped at me, waking me up again in a blanket. I looked up to find a woman staring down at me. I quickly lifted my gun up to her.

  "Who are you!" I yelled.

  "Whoa! Alex! Calm down man!" I hear Karla shouting. I didn't waiver my pistol.

  "Alex! She helped us out." Karla continued. I looked at her and saw that she was the same girl I gave mercy too in the cage. I let my arm fall back onto the blanket.

  "It's you, isn't it? The woman in the cage." I said. I looked up at Trevor. “You can put me down now.” I told him. When he did, I sat on the ground and forced myself to sit up and was struggling just to do that. Sestra then kneeled beside me with a bag of stale chips to put something in my stomach so it wouldn’t be upset. I opened the bag to pour them into my mouth. I chewed difficultly, and I pointed to the woman.

  "What?" She said and Sestra tossed some trail mix to her. She slowly ate them one by one before she was full.

  "What is your name?" I asked after I finished.

  "Becky. You can call me Jumkiin though." She said. I nodded and stood up.

  "We best be going." I ordered, taking my cloak off of Sestra and saw that she was looked sad to give it up. I put it on, but grabbed the cape to tear a ribbon from the bottom.

  "What's the deal with your cloak anyways? Does it symbolize something or what?" Jumkiin asked as I tied the ribbon around her arm, tight enough so it doesn't fall off.

  "It's stained in the blood of the people I had killed. Both infected or not." I answered, messing up Sestra's hair. She pouted and walked over to pinky and Jumkiin "So-" I started, standing up. "Where are my weapons?" I asked with a smirk, looking at Trevor. He smiled

  "We stashed them nearby in a duffel bag. That was one of our steps in our rescue. Follow me and you'll find them." Trevor said, walking towards the forest. We came to a disturbed patch of dirt.

  "You buried the weapons?" I asked.

  "Yeah, and a corpse right by it." Trevor said. I started to dig and the others started to help. When the handle was visible, I grabbed it and ripped it out of the earth, then sat it beside me to unzip it. As soon as I grabbed my sniper, I saw that it was covered in dirt from the holes in the duffle bag.

  "Aww man! It's gonna take weeks for me to clean this!" I complained, checking the bolt slide and it sticks half way opening.

  "Oh, calm down. We also found a sniper cleaner in there, even some other weapons for choosing, we plan to choose and split up weapons and ammo once safe from here." He said.

  "These will just slow me down. You guys can take those. What about my uniform?" I asked, grabbing my Glock and set it beside my sniper.

  "Your uniform?" Trevor asked. I smirked, grabbing my rifle.

  "My clothes?" I answered his confusion.

  "Oh, no, but to be honest, your cloths were a little tight on you anyways." He said. I shrugged, taking a moment to think about it and tucked my pistol in the back of my pants. Suddenly, I heard a shot ring out from the compound behind us and I felt a slight pain in my arm, but Jumkiin suddenly fell over to her back. We gathered around her and I saw that she had a giant wound through her shoulder.

  “She’s shot!” I yelled.

  Chapter 12:

  New bonds.

  The others jumped into action and searched for the source as I searched through her bag and found rags. I quickly placed pressure on her shoulder. A sudden cloud of dirt strikes up from the ground beside us.

  “Sniper! From the enemy compound!” Trevor yelled, Sestra and Pinky took cover beside him.

  “Pinky!” I yelled to her. She quickly runs over and kneeled beside me, eager to help.

  “Yeah?”

  “Put pressure here.” I ordered, then took cover on a small hill of dirt with a tree almost uprooting on my right. I looked down at my sniper and hoped it could even fire. “Sestra, draw the fire.” I ordered, now looking at the compound. Sestra runs out in between my cover to Trevor and I saw a barrel flash from on top of an old hospital roof. I quickly looked through my scope and saw the sniper laying down aiming at us. I held my breath and took a faithful shot at him. I stared at him, seeing the bullet strike the side of the hospital wall and dust came off and carried away with the wind. I released my breath and laid my sniper on my lap to check how many bullets left, but noticed the chamber was jammed with a casing. I pulled the bolt and it was stuck from the dirt. I groaned and tried multiple times to fix the bolt and managed to get the casing out, but the bolt was then stuck.

  “Alex, what’s wrong?” Trevor said.

  “My sniper is jammed! Where’s my bag?” I asked as another plum of dirt struck beside me. Trevor then throws my bag from his shoulder. I quickly dragged it to me before the sniper could shoot it. When it got it in my lap, another shot strike where my hand was. I started to dig inside it and brought out a mini smoke grenade and a lighter. I lit the smoke grenade and tossed it in between Trevor and my cover, creating a wall of smoke too thick to see through it. I lit a few more to thicken the smoke before aiming back at the sniper. Trevor caught onto the plan.

  “Everyone follow my lead.” He said helped Pinky t
o pick up Jumkiin and went deeper into the forest. Sestra stayed by me and I had her aim fixed on the man.

  “Is your sniper dirty as well?” I asked. She put her thumb down and I sighed in relief. “Good. Try to kill the fucker. Top of hospital roof, right side.” I advised. She nodded and took a shot. I used my scope to see where it struck while she pulled back her bolt to reload. The bullet stroke right beside him. “Two inches to the right and you would of had him.” I advised. She adjusted and took another shot, but he shot first and hit our dirt hill, making us blind for a short second. I wiped the dirt from my eyes and looked through my scope to see him trying to make an escape. “He’s running, take a shot!” I yelled. She aimed and quickly pulled the trigger. I saw it hit his shoulder, making him fall. I rolled on my back and set my sniper on my lap again. Sestra looked at me and I nodded with a smile on my face. She smiled back and looked at the forest. I grabbed my bag and we caught up to Pinky and them. “We got him.” I greeted. Trevor nodded and we walked to a road. Just a head was an RV van that was big enough for all of us to fit. We got in and Jumkiin was placed onto the couch as I cleared the back of the RV. We heard wheezing breath from the driver’s seat. I sighed and Sestra stabbed her knife through its head when I turned swiftly to the sound. I continued to clear the RV as the others looked over Jumkiin. Trevor closed the door and was on look out. I quickly returned and pushed through the others to get to Jumkiin. “Trevor, see if the engine is working. Pinky, roof top to keep look out. Sestra, back of RV. I want this place secure so I can try and help Jumkiin as much as possible without worry of anything sneaking up on us.” I ordered. They quickly took their places and I kneeled down beside Jumkiin who was still unconscious. I got into my bag and pulled out a knife to cut through her sleeve. I then moved it to see that the wound wasn’t as bad as it looked, just bloody. The bullet had gone straight through her shoulder without a trace of fragments inside the wound. This is when I started to listen to how the engine was and I looked over to see Trevor struggling to turn it on.

  “Do we have any bandages in anyone’s bag?” I asked.

  “Mine does.” Pinky said, throwing it down almost on top of me. I glared up at her, then dug inside the bag to pull out a roll of gauze. When I bandaged Jumkiin up tightly, I then walked over to Trevor who had his head on the wheel, giving up on turning the engine over. I placed my hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me and sighed. He then got out of the driver’s seat for me to reached over and unlock the hood. I then went out to discover that there was an old rat’s nest in the engine. I then slammed the hood closed and got back inside.

  “Engine’s trashed, rats chewed every line to the engine. Don’t know what else they could have bit through. We have to move though. I don’t like being out in the open like this.” I advised. Trevor nodded and I walked over to Jumkiin. I tried to wake her and when I did, she tried punching me in my face, but I caught her fist just in time. “It’s just me, Jumkiin.” I said. She laid back on the couch when she realized where she was and had a sigh of relief.

  “Where are we?” She asked.

  “In an RV not far from the hell hole we were just in.” I answered. Trevor walked past me and leans on the kitchen counter.

  “So, what’s the plan?” He asked. I stand up to sit on the couch beside Jumkiin’s feet.

  “That depends on where we are.” I ask.

  “New Orlando. They took over the whole city, a patrol might even be near so we must get a move on.” He said. I sighed and looked worrisome at Jumkiin. I then joined Pinky on the roof to look for a suitable vehicle. I saw one far out in the distance that looked like it could still run. I slid down the ladder and ran past the RV with my pistol drawn in case of any surprises. When I reached the car, I quickly looked inside only to find a man who shoot himself through his head. I lowered my pistol and opened the driver’s door. The corpse fell to the pavement and I took his pistol before getting in and trying to ignite the engine. I was disappointed when it didn’t start. I sighed, trying to collect my thoughts. I unlocked the hood to investigate the engine and found a big rat’s nest over the battery and saw that it was completely rusted and bitten into. I disconnected it from the car before throwing it behind me so I could inspect the rest of the system. Everything else was intact and so I slammed the hood closed and started to run back to the R.V. before I heard something in the woods beside the car. I drew my pistol and aimed it at a figure in the forest. I focused at it, trying to figure out if it was zed or man. I then whistled to get its attention. It turned towards me and walked out of the woods.

  “Ah, we found you.” A man, dressed in flannel and jeans, said as he exited the forest. I quickly looked around where he was. I quickly noticed a figure move slightly behind a tree and I assumed there was more than just the two of them. Hopefully they don’t know where the others are. I aimed my pistol right at his forehead and he stepped towards me with the wind revealing a glock tucked in front of his pants.

  “Your gun, drop it on the ground now.” I demanded. The man just smirked.

  “You’re not in the position of issuing orders like that.” The man said. “So, where are your friends?” He asked. I stayed silent as every fiber of my being is telling me to run away, but I couldn’t. Even if I could make it away and warn the others, they couldn’t move Jumkiin without being noticed.

  “They’re out scouting different routes.” I answered.

  “Well, that was a bit risky, don’t you think?” He replied as I looked back at the RV up the road. A barrel flash gave me a quick relief and a smile stretched on my lips. “Why are you so happy all of a sudden?”

  “I just realized something.” I said as I gazed into the forest and saw one of the hiding men fall to the forest floor with the splashed blood being heard from where I was standing.

  “Ricky! Noo!” yells a woman that cried out from within the dense forest. I then ran up to the man to take a handful of his shirt before shooting him through the chest. His friends opened fire, putting bullets into his back. I started to push him over to a nearby car and took cover beside him as they pelted the other side of the it. I took a look at him as he was still alive. I could hear his struggle for air and only had enough strength to look at me with hatred before losing his last breath. They marked up the car until they all had to reload, that’s when I popped out and picked them off one by one. There was only one left and she was struggling to put the mag in her AK-47. I then went to shoot her and my pistol clicked. I grabbed my knife and she looked at me, then threw her gun to the road and took off running with me right after her. We ran for a good two minutes until I pulled out one of my knives and managed to throw it into her leg. She tumbled onto the hard pavement, and got back up, but I got to her to quickly and stomped on her face to knock her unconscious. I looked around, realizing that I was breathing heavily from the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I picked up the woman to sling her over my shoulders to use the adrenaline to run all the way back to the RV and laid her on the table in front of Jumkiin. The others looked at me after seeing the knife in her leg. I sighed and sat behind the wheel of the RV to harvest some wires from underneath it, then hog tied her to leave her here as we walked to the car I took cover by Trevor as he was carrying the battery and I was carrying Jumkiin on my back. When we got to the car, I sat Jumkiin beside the car as Trevor was taking care of the battery. Once it was it was hooked up, we made our way through the grave yard of cars and to the enclave. James saw Jumkiin and immediately let us in. Once Jumkiin was safe, we all realized that we were safe and sound. We made ourselves at home.

  To be continued.

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