On The Road - Dead before I met them

I was legitly dead for 2 hours.

Sara used a homemade defribrilator Nick made. It was built using a car battery and jumper cables with some pads attached to it.

Oh yeah, I killed all of them. Everyone who was in that hideout. I killed them. Amber, Spence, Nick. All dead.

I suppose I should explain.

The next morning (4:00 am), Amber woke me up from a rather peaceful sleep. As peaceful as a closet was anyways.

"What's up?" I asked groggily as I got out of my sleeping bag.

"We're going on a stroll," she whispered happily.

"You do know I'm a crip."

"Spence wants you to move regardless!"

She grinned.

A few minutes later, I was in the basement. The three of them told me to clean my guns and my laptop bag. With sickness mask and latex gloves on, I furiously cleaned my items. I swore I spent five hours on it (Actually half an hour). Can you imagine using q-tips laced with bleach to clean each part of my handguns (Handle, trigger, ammo clip, chamber, primer, hammer, etc.)? Spence was watching me the whole time to make sure I got every part.

I got a spray bottle full of bleach and cleaned my entire laptop bag.

When that was done, I told Amber and Spence that I needed to get back to my friends. Spence wanted me to start walking before I attempted a search in the zombie infested city.

He also said that he sent another batch of text invitations to all the cell phones in the area. My friends will probably get to me first.

Sometime ago, one of the cameras in town got knocked out. Spence wanted us to replace it before I went back with my friends.

Ten minutes later, I was limping heavily through an abandoned street. I held onto Amber's shoulder as if my life depended on it. Well, in a literal sense...

I hate limping. My leg hurt. I was grimacing the whole way.

She was smiling the whole way. She talked to me about how life in Alamogordo was before the infestation.

I decided to mention that this was my birthplace. She immediately squealed in happiness, which made me remind her of the undead that she might've alerted.

"My hospital was taken down a few years ago," I explained. "There's nothing left there."

Amber shrugged but made a thousand-watt grin.

After half an hour of travel, we finally got to the broken camera. It was hanging on the balcony of a hous. We stared at the contraption for a while.

"Hey Amber," I spoke. "Are you going to risk going into the house?"

"No, silly!" she laughed. She put her backpack on the ground and shuffled through it. She took out some rubber gloves, electric tape, pliers, a new camera, and a wheel of electric lining.

"How are you gonna get up there?" I asked.

She looked at me.

In a few seconds, she was on top of me. Well, standing on me really. I braced myself on the pillar in the porch l as she climbed on my back. She then stood on my shoulders and began working on the camera above. Everytime she needed some other piece of equipment, she jumped off me, grabbed the thing and stepped on me again.

She had me step on both my feet the whole time. It was hell. Who knew a broken femur would be that painful? Couldn't Nick make anesthetic or painkillers?

I turned my head in pain. That's when I saw one. A runner. Probably just turned.

"Amber!" I yelled at the girl above me. She looked at me then looked to the side.

It was a good ways up the road but I guess she didn't want to risk it.

Amber clambered over the metal bars in one vault. She then stuck her hand down to me.

"Waley!" she yelled "Grab my hand! I'll lift you up!"

"Why didn't you do that before?!" I yelled.

"Now's not the time! Give me your hand!"

I looked up and saw that her hand was barely out of tiptoe range. That meant I had to jump.

My first attempt was terrible. I put weight on my bad leg, forcing me to wince in pain.

"Waley! You can do it!" she yelled.

I then tried to stay on my good leg. The jump was pitiful.

"I can't do it!" I yelled, pausing to adjust my leg.

Amber then yelled something way too dramatic to type here.

Fine.

"Waley! You have to do it! I can't do this without you!"

As my nerd ego started going up, I felt a certain leg working again.

Okay, that was a lie. It hurt like shit.

Somehow, I grabbed Amber's hands and was hanging above the ground. The zed running at me began growling in random fits. I took out my handgun with my free hand and began shooting the zombie.

One. Hit the chest.

Two. Blew out the right eye but didn't hit the brain apparently.

Three. Jam.

I stared at the bullet caught in the chamber. It was sticking out, disallowing any future shots.

Between the sounds of the zombie pouncing and a certain curse word escaping my lips came a loud gunshot. The zombie's head popped like a balloon, ending its pursuit. I then heard someone call for me.

"Wow, Waley! You can't do anything without me?"

After Amber dropped me slowly, Landen opened the front door of the house across the street. I realized that Landen had broke the camera in hopes of contacting survivors. Well, that's what he told me.

So now it's Landen, Amber, and I walking back to the hideout. We had a conversation on the way.

"What happened to Joe and Sara?" I asked Landen.

"A horde rushed us while we were searching for you," he replied, adjusting his gun sling. He glanced at Amber. "I see you got detoured."

Amber quickly faced the other way. I chuckled.

"She saved my life," I said. "I wanted to repay her somehow so I followed her."

"Who do you think you are? Bryan?" replied Landen.

"Hey, at least someone was with me."

"We were looking for gas and food, you idiot. Have some faith in us."

"We had enough food and gas to get to Colorado."

Landen stopped.

"That was a lot of supplies already," he said to himself. Suddenly, he got into deep thought. "Joe probably wanted to be on the safe side and had us search for supplies."

"I thought he didn't want us to stop for anything if we were equipped."

Landen and I came to the same conclusion.

"More guns."

"Yep. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Yeah, he wouldn't tell us that after all the 'food first' preaching we've made."

"Completely logical."

"Of course."

Amber stopped in her tracks and smirked at us. Her hands were on her hips.

"Maybe he wanted alone time with that Sara girl!"

Landen and I stared at Amber with a WTF look.

"You mean to say," started Landen "That our zombie-mongrel buddy stopped us in the middle of town just to mack out with a girl?"

Amber nodded wildly.

Landen and I went into thinking again. We figured it out.

"He needed someone with gun expertise."

"He didn't ask you, Waley, cause he didn't want you to embarass him in front of a firearm-saavy soldier chick,"

"Now I get it."

"Makes perfect sense."

Amber walked away, yelling "I give up!" as she skipped along. Landen started chuckling.

"She doesn't get it, does she?" I asked Landen.
"Waley, you don't understand women do you?"

The two of them left me there in the middle of the street. I didn't get it.

Landen was greeted warmly by Spence and Nick. They said the same stuff that they said to me. Landen was offered lunch but politely refused.

"Can Waley and I go to your backyard?" he asked Spence. "I wanna reminisce about the old times."

Spence shrugged and let us out.

As we sat down on a kid's swingset, I decided to start the conversation.

"What'd you mean by me not understanding women? I completely-"

"Waley," said Landen sternly. "We're sorry we let this happen to you."

Landen had put on a serious cold look on his face. I felt the temperature lower, sending chills down my back despite being the middle of noon.

"Landen, what're you talking about? It's cool. These people took me in-"

"I can't believe they did that to you."

"Do what? The closet? I said it's fine-"

"They really did brainwash you huh?"

"Brainwash?! What are you-"

Landen put a finger to his mouth.

"We can't let them hear!" Landen whispered.

"What's going on?" I whispered back.

"Joe and Sara followed us. Don't worry, they have good positions."

"I thought you said you were seperated. And good positions-"

I stopped talking. I feared the worst.

"You can't. You guys can't do that."

"Stop siding with them Waley. They planned to backstab you from the beginning!"

"Backstab me? What the fuck are you talking about?!"

"All those guns in their house. All those canned foods. Do you really believe they took those from stores?"
Before I could muster any words, Landen continued.

"We checked every car and house in the city. The people inside were executed and stripped of their supplies. Every camera we found had views on escape points from the city. They plan to survive by killing others."

"How can you say that!?"

"Using texting to gain our trust. To get us off guard. They tricked you into submitting to them."

"Submitting to them? I could've left to find you guys anytime I wanted-"

"They didn't stop you?"

I thought about it. Everytime I wanted to leave, they wanted me to stay. Amber was the beggar using sweet innocence to get me to stay.

Spence was the supposed war hero that makes you think you're in good hands.

Nick persuaded me with nifty gadgets and supposed anti-zombie equipment.

What was their backstory?

Amber said that Nick used to have a friend named Chinto. What really happened to him?

Spence said that there was a pregnant woman there. Didn't he mess with her mind so much that she decided to walk outside and die?

How come I'm the only other survivor in the place?

Landen's hand on my shoulder woke me out of thought. I shook my head.

"How? What?" was all I could say.

Before I could respond, a gunshot rang out. One of the windows in the house broke.

Landen got up and held his rifle.

"Come on. Time to get revenge."

Landen rushed towards the house and started shooting through the yard windows, shattering all the glass. Several more sniper shots hit the building, lighting the house with bullet fire.

I hobbled slowly towards the house. I was dumbstruck. What could I believe in? Everything I knew went ablaze. The trust to these survivors. My faith in my friends. Reality was crashing into me like a wrecking crew.

As I stood in the backyard. I heard faint moaning and groaning.

My will to survive the zombies. Was it worth it now? After having betrayed without a clear perpertrator, can I really keep living?

Somehow, I did.

I hopped into the house and saw that Spence had Landen pinned behind cover. Since the soldier was in the open to me, I took out my handgun and shot Spence in the chest. He thought he could trick me into giving him my stuff. He wasn't going to do it ever again.

I heard Amber scream. She was on the second floor.

I hobbled into the house and got to the stairs.

"What're you doing?" asked Landen as I climbed the ladder.

"I'm going to kill them for tricking me," I sneered. When I got to the second floor, I leaned on the wall after spending all my strength in my arms. I then walked into Nick's room.

His room was a complete mess. The computers were broken and pieces of hardware were dispersed on the floor. Sitting in the chair was Nick, who seemed dead. As I began leaving, Nick lept out of his chair in a rage. As he attempted to claw me, Landen came out of nowhere and tackled him. As the two rolled on the floor, I aimed my handgun at them. They were in the middle of an intense fight.

Landen grasped Nick's arm and twisted it onto his back.

Nick quickly elbowed backwards, hitting Landen in the cheek.

As Landen reeled back, Nick attempted to kick Landen in the side.

Landen caught the kick and followed up with a headbutt.

Nick fell to the floor, holding his head.

I took that opportunity to shoot Nick several times.

Amber ran into the room and saw Nick in his state. She vomited on the spot.

"Amber..." I remember saying weakly. Suddenly, Landen aimed his rifle at the girl.

I vaguely remember jumping Landen. His rifle shot the ceiling and was knocked away. I punched Landen repeatedly but he caught each hit with his palm. The mormon tucked his arm in mine and spun to my back, quickly chicken-winging me. He then kicked out my good leg, making me land on my cast. All the life in me was expended at the moment. The pain seered through my body, forcing me to a painful crawl.

I suddenly saw Landen fall into the computer rubble. Before I could guess what happened, Amber put herself under my arm and lifted me.

She was shivering. As we stayed like that however, I felt her warmth coming back.

Okay, maybe I really did get brain damage like Sara said. Oxygen doesn't go to your brain when the heart stops beating. So in those hours, my brain must've deteriorated a little.

I'm gonna type what I THINK happened just to avoid stressing my mind.

Amber led me through the hallway. Zombies flooded through the front door, squeezing through the kitchen and living room. A few tried to climb the broken stairs but both Amber and I shot the one's hanging on the edge. She then took me into a bathroom.

After locking the door behind her, she quickly hugged me. I saw her face get really close to me but we never got close enough to brush noses. She backed off and looked at the wound on her neck.

I think she said "Dammit" or something.

Then I think she said she loved me. I think.

Maybe I just wanted to fap. It was a long 2 days. Did I actually have a chance? No, no that can't be right.

Yeah, she said "Fuck you, Waley". Must've been it.

This was quickly followed by my drowning. She grabbed my head and dunked me into the filled tub. I struggled to get her off but she kept kneeing my bad leg. Seconds later, I blacked out.

Now I'm sitting in the humvee yet again. After Sara used that defribrilator, I found myself getting lifted out of the house. The environment around bobbed along with my pounding heartbeat.

In a few minutes, I was laying in the vehicle.

I guess everything's cool now. Sara and Landen refused to let me drive. Not in my state at least. Joe just glared at me the whole time, sometimes shaking his head.

How could I let all this happen? If I didn't follow Amber, we could've avoided the whole mess. Now with less ammo (possibly why Joe was angry), we went on our way north. Why do I mess up so much? Why can't I be a perfect zombie-survivalist like everyone else?

Am I hopeless in this war?