Welcome, Nick Webb!

Recovery

My eyes slowly open to a deployed airbag and a sputtering engine. I lift my head to see a tree embedded in the front of my truck.
“God Damn It!” I mutter to myself as I turn the motor off. I reach for my radio and bring it to my mouth.
“Yo! Anybody alive out there?” A long silence follows. I sigh and get out of my truck to assess the damage. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. In fact there was nothing major, other than some bent bars and missing paint. “Huh…I LOVE THIS TRUCK!” I say aloud. A screech comes from the radio…
“Calling all survivors from the raider attack on the Springfield Armory……forces are re-grouping. Contact us on channel 4. Good luck out there!”
I limp my way to the driver’s side door and switch on the radio to channel 4. “You guys still alive?” Silence….
“Are WE still alive? How the Hell are YOU still alive?” James responds.
“Nice to hear from you James…” I say sarcastically. I reach for the key and turn it. My grin spread as my truck rumbled to life as steam rose from the exhaust in the chill air. I pulled the gear shift into reverse and hit the gas. I heard a thump and felt a slight jolt. “Wow! I’ve already hit something! That must be a record!” I smiled broadly. I soon got the truck moving again.
“Hey Nick…we’re all re-grouping somewhere along the side of Highway 53, you’ll know us when you see us,” came James’ voice from the radio.
“Copy that.” I reply.
The road looked nearly untouched except for the occasional abandoned car. After a while, I finally found an un-devastated gas station. I stepped out of the truck. I felt as though my leg was about to fall off due to the bullet hole, but my thoughts were focused on the work at hand. I lock and load both weapons and walk toward the station leaving the keys in the ignition not realizing im not alone. my truck starts up and takes off.

“Nice try!” I say with a snicker and push a button on my watch. The truck stalls and rolls to a stop. I move towards the truck with my gun held high.

“Get the FUCK out of MY TRUCK!” I yell as I approach. Two hands are being held out the window.

“Don’t Shoot! Don’t Shoot!” the man yells. I walk to the driver’s side door.

“GET OUT!” I said, demandingly.
The door opens, and I pull him out by his shirt. I lift my gun to hit him out cold when he screamed, “I’m a doctor!”
“What?” I ask surprised.
“I can patch you up Dude! Please don’t kill me! I’m just trying to survive!” he pleads.
“Get up!” I say as I give him my hand and pull him to his feet. “You’ve got yourself a deal!”
“Wow! Really?”
“Yeah…just don’t piss me off!” We get in the truck and drive back to the station.
I park the truck, dramatically snatching my keys from the ignition and limp inside. He follows. “You got a name? “ I ask.
“Hunter.”
I smile, How appropriate. “Nice to meet you. My name’s Nick….So…you going to patch me up, or what?”
“Oh yeah….sorry…grab a chair.”
He began wrapping my gaping holes and we talked about how it all went down. Sometimes I seem to forget all the crazy shit that this world has harbored lately. We decided to stay together for the night and I began raiding the store. "Seriously?" Hunter called to me from the front of the store. "More soda?"

"Don't judge me," I called back. "I'm a man, and men have needs."
I say browsing the refrigerator aisle, looking for a few bottles of Coke, when I heard the shattering of glass back towards the front of the store. I looked back over the small shelves of merchandise to see a zombie trying to walk through the door. He had already broken through the top half of the glass panel, and was well on his way to breaking through the rest. Hunter looked like he was about to shit a brick, standing in front of the counter with the Glock I gave him shaking in his hands.

"Dude," He said. "You gonna take care of this or what?"

"You're kidding, right?" I asked. "Stop being a pussy and just shoot the fuckin' thing."

He said nothing. I waited several seconds, and didn't hear anything.

I sighed. "Hit the switch on the side of the gun, then you can fire."

"Thanks."

The gunshot was loud, but I was used to it.

"Ah, there you are." I said to myself as I spotted the drinks. "Yo, hunter, you want a few to go?"

"S-sure." He said. His voice was shaking. He was probobly sick to his stomach. I made sure to grab a few bottles of Ginger Ale, and walked back to the counter. I set the rest of the bottles on the counter, and held out one of the green ones. It was still cold, and he took it with a shaking hand.

"What's this for?" He asked, looking a little green himself.

"Soothes the stomach. Or are you not about to throw up?"

He shrugged, and twisted the cap off the bottle. He took a few sips, and some of the color returned to his face.

"Good, now stay here, I've gotta go get a bag for all this shit.".

I left him where he was, and went back to the truck. I stepped over the corpse in the doorway, which had crushed the rest of the glass panel when it fell and made pulling the door open impossible. I kicked the things back, and took a gander at the hole in the dead guys forehead, about the size of a quarter. Not bad of a shot under pressure I thought to myself about hunter. I'd have to ask him about himself sometime. I stepped back out into the parking lot, and heard a clap of thunder. The rain was sure to come soon. I walked to my truck, and pulled open the back door. Among other assorted crap, I had a black duffle bag just for emergencies. I figured that my sugar addiction was as much an emergency as any, and headed back to the store, bag in tow.

I stepped back through the door, and set the bag down on the counter. I glanced at hunter, who was leaning against the side of the counter.

"Can you do me a favor and put all the stuff in the bag?" I asked him, shaking him from his daze. "I'm gonna go peruse the aisles for anything else we can get." He nodded. I and walked off into the aisles.

When I said anything we could get, I really meant anything we want. I was grabbing chocolate bars, bags of Skittles, Sour Patch candy, giant bags of chips, and several dozen packs of gum. I even headed back to the refrigerator section and stocked up on energy drinks. I managed to drag all of the sugary goodness back to the counter, where hunter had finished putting the sodas in the bag.

"Don't forget these," I told him. "And be careful. I doubt we'll find a haul like this anytime soon."

"Haul?" He questioned. "Seems like a lot of sugar to me."

"Exactly." I replied

He chuckled to himself, and I picked up one of the assorted energy drinks lying across the counter. Lost Planet I thought to myself, These are rare. I'd been sucking down energy drinks for several years, and few times had I come across the legendary Lost Planet. Any time I found them, I immediately bought them all. The chugging of two or three, and the subsequent chugging of the rest over the course of a few days usually followed this. Unfortunately, given the current situation, I'd have to pace myself. Yeah, right. I popped the cap off the can, and drank at least half of it in one go.

"Something tells me you're gonna be doing that alot." Hunter says ignorantly.

I shrugged. "Well, hunter, if you haven't already figured it out, I like sugar And caffeine. And just about anything that'll give you a Grade-A mindfuck given enough is consumed."

He shook his head.

"You want some?"

"Hell yes I do," He said as he took the half-empty can. While he was busy guzzling down the drink, the truck radio decided to interrupt the moment. I left hunter where he was, and walked back out to the truck. I pulled the radio off the dash.

"Y'ello?" If anyone was speaking, I couldn't hear it. The sound of gunfire was overwhelming the volatile mic.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"nick, it's me!"

"Who's this?"

"Bob Barker, who the fuck do you think it is?"

"Ah, james fucking rolow, how've you been?"

"Fantastic. Now, tell me, WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

"I'm at 7/11, chillin' out with hunter here."

"Who?"

"Long story."

"Right. Anyway, (a large bang grabs his attention.) OH SO HELP ME GOD-" he yells away from the mic. And the radio goes silent.

"bye." I say shaking my head.

I walked back into the store in time to see hunter toss the empty can to the floor.

"What was that about?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing. But we should probably barricade up. Don't want to get caught off-guard.

I grabbed the duffle bag, and gestured for hunter to follow me.

"Nice shooting by the way." I said.

"What? Oh, yeah, I guess."

It looked safe, but we still needed to take shifts around the building. We made make shift beds from the blankets we found in the back office
About midnight came an abundance of noise. I jump from the bed and run to the window. The lot was filled with military personnel. Spot lights illuminated the area.
“Canvass the area! No one goes in or comes out without my say so!” said a familiar voice.
“What the Hell is going on?” Hunter asked as he ran for the door and swung it open.
“No!,” I yell, but it was too late. Hunter gets immediately surprised.

“Get on the ground NOW, or you will be fired on!” a soldier says.

I run to the door. “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” I yell.
He lowers his weapon.

“We found him sir!”

“Copy that. Give him a nice greeting,” the familiar voice says again.

“But Frank, he has someone with him.”

“Good! More hands!” Frank says, very obviously.

I now realized that this was my search party.

“Tell Frank to get his ass over here,” I demand and help Hunter up, then wander out to my truck. After waiting a bit, Frank eventually showed up.

“Glad we found you! I had heard you were shot to Hell by the raiders, so we followed the homing beacon in your truck,” Frank begins.
“Wait theirs a homing beacon in my truck?” I interrupt realizing I’m the one who put it there.
“Thanks Frank, I appreciate it!”

“Yeah. I brought the medic to fix you up, but it looks like you did a pretty good job yourself.”

“It was all Hunter,” I reply.

“Hunter..huh? Nice to meetcha, I am the leader of this here armada; Name’s Frank,” he said as he shook Hunter’s hand.

“Nice to meet you sir,” Hunter says in respect.

“Yeah, Yeah! This little reunion is touching and all,” (James yells from the communication truck.) “but we are still being hunted down here!”

“He’s got a point, we’d better get going…Bad Company! Load Up! We’re out!” He yells at the men as they all load into their designated vehicles.
James walks up to my truck.

“What, in God’s name, did you do to this thing?” he exclaims.

“A tree attacked me, I guess; get in! I say as I turn the key and nothing happens.

“Nice truck you got here Nick,” James says sarcastically.
I give him a glare and turn it again, with the same result.

“WTF!” I scream. Hunter reaches over to my right arm, and pushes the button on my watch.

“Try it now,” he says.
I turn the key and it fires right up. We all smile.

“thanks for that Hunter!”

“Yup.” He replies hoping in the truck.
I accelerate to the front of the convoy. “Yee Haw!” Hunter says happily. “Damn this thing goes!”