When The Dead Came 2 (7 page)

"Alex
will," Holly responded and nodded at him. Charles gestured and
Alex was pulled up by the chestnut haired guy.

"Before
I go with you," Alex said," untie us first." Charles
stared at him then scoffed and ordered his group to untie them. The
chestnut haired guy cut the zip tie from Alex's wrists, freeing them.

"None
of you better try a thing though, or you will be killed,"
Charles said. Nick undid Holly's rope, Jeff undid Keith's, and Trevor
cut the zip ties from Avery's wrists. "Stay there while I talk
with your boss here." Alex followed Charles down the tunnel to
talk in privacy. Holly looked at Lucinda.

"Um,
should we worry?" She asked her.

“I
don’t know,” Lucinda answered,” but I’m going
to guess yeah, you should worry, after what your group had done.”
Holly sat back and looked at Avery, and Avery just looked down,
rubbing her wrists.

"I’ll
look out for the both of you,” Keith told Holly and Avery.

“…
What happened to Jenny,” Avery questioned and Holly and Keith
looked at each other.

"So
you're their leader," Charles said, he and Alex walking near the
now covered opening of the tunnel. They stopped walking.

"My
brother was," Alex responded," but he's gone now. So I’m
in charge."

"Alex
is it? That girl said your name," Alex nodded," look. Like
I said, usually we kill new people, because you just don’t know
who to trust these days; but, I see a little use in you four. But the
other reason why I don't plan on killing your group, is 'cause of
Trevor. He told me we can train you and your friends, teach you how
we do things and in general, make you part of our group, the SGO."

"SGO?"
Alex repeated.

"Survivalist
Group of Ohio," Charles said," and that would be an
honorary thing too."

"Honorary,”
Alex repeated, crossing his arms,” there’s nothing
honorary about killing people who are survivors. And it’s not
honorary to go through the trouble of hunting down those survivors
who are just trying to travel and end up getting beat by your group.
Besides, I don’t trust your group around our group.”
Charles smirked.

“What,
are you like family or something?”

"No,
we just look out for one another.”

"Then
that shouldn't even bother you if you don’t think of them as
family," he replied and stopped speaking, looking back at his
group," trust me, you should get used to that though, because
the world is just getting smaller each day. We need each other during
these times. Gather together and live. My group is my family. Since
I’m the oldest here, I’m like the father here. Lucinda’s
the mother, Drew is the older brother while Trevor is basically the
baby here. With your group, the family grows and we need that
number.”

"I
really don’t care,” Alex responded,” nor why we’re
even discussing families here. Because I see them as friends, not
family. My family is gone and the last bit of family I did have is
dead. But I do have some things to suggest. For one, if you plan on
killing us, don’t leave us without weapons to fight back with,
don’t beat any of us, and keep your people away from Holly,
Jenny, and Avery.”

"So
what are you trying to get at here then?"

"If
we stay then Holly, Avery, and Jenny are to be left alone. Keep that
Trevor guy away from Avery, and,” Alex looked back and noticed
Holly making looks at the guy named Nick,” well… All the
guys away from Holly in general." Charles looked at Alex and
looked down the tunnel at Holly and Avery.

"How
about you let them make that decision themselves instead of making it
for them." Charles then added," I'll let you and your
friends live. Just don't screw it up. Ya'll have freedom to walk
around, don't go near the weapons though;" he rubbed his chin,"
your group can live, but you gotta do as we order. That means going
out there with who ever actually cares to have you or one of them in
their group and doing as they say whether it's stealing, killing, or
anything else you can think of and don't try to make a getaway.
'Cause my group are accurate with guns."

"Funny,
because from what Avery and I witnessed, you and your three friends
missed us,"Alex challenged, arms crossed.

"A
few are, they'll gun you down as soon as you do make a getaway."

Later
that night, Holly looked around at the things the group had gathered
and she noticed Nick looking at her. She thought of John then Joel
and turned away. She looked back over at Nick and this time he held
up a beer bottle. “Let’s go drink,” she said to
Keith.

“Why?”

“Come
on, I want at least one of my friends to drink with me. I don’t
know if Alex drinks and we both know Avery doesn’t even drink
or anything. She’s basically like a freaking Saint or
something.” Keith looked over at Avery as she sat far away from
them, her head resting against the cement wall and staring off. He
sighed and stood.

Thinking
of the last time she had a beer, she stood up and walked over with
Keith, and the both of them took a beer. Memories came back of her
last party night. The week before it began, she had went out partying
with John and others from school, lying to her parents that she was
going to hang out with Avery for the night. Instead, she spent the
night partying and ended up at Avery’s house in the early
morning with a rough hangover and over a toilet all morning. But with
the things going on, she didn’t care. A hangover for her now
would make it worthwhile for once.

Trevor
walked over to Avery and held out a bottle. She looked at it then
shook her head,” I don’t drink.” He shrugged and
set the bottle down then sat on the floor in front of her.

“I’m
Trevor,” he said.

“Avery.
What do you want?”

“You’re
sitting by yourself, thought I’d come over and talk,” he
looked around, seeing what the others were up to but most were busy
drinking,” so you don’t drink?”

“No,”
she responded.

“You
like sitting alone?” All she did was shrug.

"I
was alone a lot. Let's just say where my life was before this began,
I really had no choice anyways," he stopped there and looked
down at the still closed bottle. Avery looked at him.

“…
Were you homeless or something?” He looked at her.

“No,”
he responded,” think I would’ve preferred being homeless
though. It’s just something that’s not really a concern
anymore. I’m free now.” She couldn’t help but start
to feel curious at what he meant. Was he in jail? Prison? Was he a
person who suffered with OCD and stayed alone to avoid others or
germs? She found herself really wanting to know now. It would bother
her from now on. “So, tell me about your group? How’d
each of you meet? Is that other girl your sister or something?”

“Holly
is my friend, we’re not related,” she said,” and
Keith was in the same school as us. Alex just came along when it
began in Colorado.”

Trevor
nodded and began playing with the beer bottle, holding the lid and
spinning the bottle around on the floor,” is Alex your
boyfriend or Keith is?”

“No
way,” she responded quickly,” they’re friends.”
Keith, looking at the bottle of beer he hadn’t taken a drink
from yet, looked over at Avery, thinking of going over to talk; but
realized that other guy named Trevor was over there, sitting on the
floor across from her, talking. He stared for a moment then turned
away, taking a big drink.

Trevor
stopped spinning the bottle and started tossing it from his left hand
to his right hand. “My group are alright, maybe a little rough.
They enjoy drinking after searches, smoke cigarettes, and do drugs.
Like right now, Jeff over there is preparing some that they found the
other night.”

"Sounds
like such a group of winners then," she mumbled.

"...Most
of the time," he said," like I said, they’re alright,
they just drink too much. I’m sure if they got attacked, the
zombies would wander around drunk from how much they drink. But
they’re okay." After he spoke, they heard someone vomit
then Holly saying she's alright and that she's never drank vodka
before.

"That
doesn't shock me at all," Avery said suddenly. Trevor shook his
head.

"Well,
anyways, we usually get up sometime after 10 in the morning," he
said," once you get up, then Charles will likely tell you and
your friends on what's planned for today then have you and your
friends will join us in going out on supply hunting."

"Fine,"
she responded and Trevor stood back up.

“I
gotta go work on sharpening the knives for tomorrow.”

“You’re
not going to drink with your friends?”

“Like
you, I don’t drink,” he responded and left to work on the
knives. He threw the beer to Drew and instead of catching it, the
bottle slipped from his hands and busted.

“Don’t
waste the alcohol,” Charles shouted.

Holly, sticking to regular beer, noticed Trevor leaving Avery alone
Smiling, she grabbed up another bottle and walked over, nosy to know
what they talked about.

Avery
rest her head against the wall again, trying to think of something
else instead of the situation they're now stuck in. She wondered
about her parents. Whether they noticed she hadn’t come home,
but chances were they didn’t realize it and are likely dead
anyways. She looked to her left, seeing Holly walk over and offer a
bottle.

Avery
just looked at the bottle then up at Holly,"...you already know
I don't drink."

"Oh
yeah," she said, pretending to have forgotten," sorry,
forgot that. Just figured you took up drinking just like everyone
else has."

"Everyone
else?" Avery asked, she then looked down the tunnel and noticed
Keith drinking and Alex drinking too with a few of the SGO members.
She turned away, shaking her head. Although Alex talked with Charles
and now Holly, Alex, and Keith are drinking with the enemies, she
still felt that they were more of prisoners instead of allies. She
was also starting to realize Keith changing in personality. He never
smoked and drank before, but back in Lubbock after she bandaged his
arm, he had down a bottle of whiskey part way, then when they were in
the Dodge earlier, before they were aware they were being watched, he
had been smoking a cigarette. She couldn't understand it. Avery
looked at Holly,"... Heard you throw up earlier too."

"It
was my first time trying out vodka, don't judge me," she turned
away, and Avery already knew that Holly was embarrassed by that,
likely ashamed considering how much she used to party during the
weekends before Monday came for school all over again. "So,"
Holly began, dragging the word out a little," what's going on
with you? Do anything interesting?"

"Sure,"
Avery responded, shaking her head,” the most interesting thing
I’ve done is stare at that impressive wall across from here.”
Holly sat down, and looked at the wall to see what she meant when
she finally caught on that it was sarcasm. Holly did a little laugh.

"That’s
funny,” she responded, almost falling back against the wall,”
but, I saw you talking to that guy they call Trevor. What did you two
talk about?”

"Nothing
much,” she said,” he offered a beer, then sat here.
Talked about his group drinking and doing drugs. Then told me we
should be up around 10 a.m. for the plans for tomorrow.”

Holly
huffed and rolled her eyes," boring." She shook her head
and instantly looked bored.

"No,
it's called having an actual conversation about current matters in a
calm way, not in a rational way. That’s something I miss, real
conversations that doesn’t have someone yelling.”

"Well
what do you think of him then? I mean, I like Nick. Jenny had liked
that Zackary fella before he was killed. You don’t seem to like
anyone.” Holly looked over where Trevor was, he was busy
sharpening a large knife. “He seems nice though. His dark hair,
his dark brown eyes, high cheekbones, tall. Well, maybe not too nice
from how you said that whole thing went down when you and Alex were
captured.”

"...I
don't know," Avery responded," just like the rest of us,
he's just another time bomb, another walking snack for the dead just
like me."

"That's
an interesting way of labeling everyone," Holly said, making a
face when she had the image from her dream back at that gas station
of the zombie biting into her face. “Well, that’s a great
reason to try and seize life while it’s here. Why not! I think
Alex likes you if you don’t trust Trevor since he’s still
a stranger anyways.”

"No,
that's not ever going to happen," she said," relationships
just aren't worth it right now." She looked at the wall again.

"Maybe,
but, it's the apocalypse," her friend insisted," make the
most of it." Holly stood and walked away, going back to Nick and
instantly flirting. Avery looked down at the ground. She was sticking
to her choice. It’s not worth it. Hardly having friends is
worth it either.

"So,"
Charles said to Alex," where's the other friend of yours? Jenny,
is it?" Alex looked around, just now realizing she wasn't there,
and he looked at Keith.