Chapter 5: Only Minutes Left
Grace Peters
The limbs of bushes and trees bounced up and down in the wind. The droplets of rain made a r… moreefreshing pitter-patter on the ground below them. The thunder struck moments after the lightning flashed in the night sky. The storm was upon them. It was moments like these that made Grace want to cuddle up by the fire with a blanket and a cup of coffee. I had no fire, I had no blanket, I had no coffee, and Leo was bleeding out.
"Fuck!" Grace yelled, dropping to the ground to help the man she had just met. She had just let one friend die. She wasn't about to lose this guy too. "Why didn't he tell us he was injured? What do we do?"
"Keep your voice down!" Noah said, frantically, gesturing toward the ground. "They can hear you. Normally, I'd rip off a piece of my shirt to make a tourniquet for the wound, but it's around the side of the body. No piece of my shirt could reach that far."
"Well, what … [view original content]
I guess, at least in my opinion, stealing from the dead is necessary to survive in this new world. Since buying stuff is not an option anymore, people have to simply take it. The rightful owners of most things are already dead. And stealing from the dead is not as bad as stealing from the living.
I guess, at least in my opinion, stealing from the dead is necessary to survive in this new world. Since buying stuff is not an option anymo… morere, people have to simply take it. The rightful owners of most things are already dead. And stealing from the dead is not as bad as stealing from the living.
Chapter 5: Only Minutes Left
Grace Peters
The limbs of bushes and trees bounced up and down in the wind. The droplets of rain made a r… moreefreshing pitter-patter on the ground below them. The thunder struck moments after the lightning flashed in the night sky. The storm was upon them. It was moments like these that made Grace want to cuddle up by the fire with a blanket and a cup of coffee. I had no fire, I had no blanket, I had no coffee, and Leo was bleeding out.
"Fuck!" Grace yelled, dropping to the ground to help the man she had just met. She had just let one friend die. She wasn't about to lose this guy too. "Why didn't he tell us he was injured? What do we do?"
"Keep your voice down!" Noah said, frantically, gesturing toward the ground. "They can hear you. Normally, I'd rip off a piece of my shirt to make a tourniquet for the wound, but it's around the side of the body. No piece of my shirt could reach that far."
"Well, what … [view original content]
Chapter 5: Only Minutes Left
Grace Peters
The limbs of bushes and trees bounced up and down in the wind. The droplets of rain made a r… moreefreshing pitter-patter on the ground below them. The thunder struck moments after the lightning flashed in the night sky. The storm was upon them. It was moments like these that made Grace want to cuddle up by the fire with a blanket and a cup of coffee. I had no fire, I had no blanket, I had no coffee, and Leo was bleeding out.
"Fuck!" Grace yelled, dropping to the ground to help the man she had just met. She had just let one friend die. She wasn't about to lose this guy too. "Why didn't he tell us he was injured? What do we do?"
"Keep your voice down!" Noah said, frantically, gesturing toward the ground. "They can hear you. Normally, I'd rip off a piece of my shirt to make a tourniquet for the wound, but it's around the side of the body. No piece of my shirt could reach that far."
"Well, what … [view original content]
Grace willed her body to cease its hesitation and bent down to pick up the gun. She opened the chamber like Noah taught her. It didn't have any bullets in it, but they could fix that. She would have felt bad for the stealing, but there was no time for that now.
She quickly ran to find the room that Leo and Noah occupied. In the hallway, he had kicked open the bathroom door, the closet door and the door to the basement. The last door he had kicked in led to the master bedroom.
Grace knelt down beside Noah and the blood-soaked bed. He had his hands placed over the gash in Leo's side. "What are you looking at me for?" He asked, exasperated. "Get the blanket!"
Standing up, Grace pulled a blanket out from underneath her friend. It was green with a floral pattern on it....not that that mattered. It was a bandage. She wrapped it over and under his body three times tightly, then tied the loose ends together. Noah withdrew his hands from the wound and applied pressure on top of the sheet.
Grace looked down into the man's closed eyelids. Even as this man had only spoken a few words to her, she still felt the urge to help him recover. She could see something of Ashley in Leo. They both had the same shade of blonde hair... He had entered her life just as Ashley left, and then he left again. Grace still couldn't understand why. "You're gonna be okay..." She cried to herself. "Everything's gonna work out..."
Noah shot her a glance and then turned his attention back to the man bleeding to death. "You known her long?" He asked. "The woman in the car?"
Grace was having trouble forcing out the words. "All my life..."
Noah opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again, deciding not to respond. She could tell things weren't looking good and didn't want to put so much stress on her at once. He wanted to spare her the pain of bringing up Ashley one more time. He sighed. "At least this guy isn't bitten. He won't be paying us a visit as one of them any time soon."
"We're going to save him." Grace replied confidently, wiping a developing tear from her eye. The flow of them had started to decrease since they made it to the cabin. "He's going to be okay."
He lowered his eyes to the ground in solemnity. The brown hair on his head hung down past his eyes. They each sat in silence by the businessman whose life was draining away drop by drop, both knowing the likeliness of his survival was low. But they sat hoping that he would come out all right. They had done all they could. Hope was all they had left.
After a while, The pitter patter of the rain outside died down. The storm had stopped. The silence made the watery groan emanating from the next room noticable. They were not alone. Noah, hearing the sound, stood up and sighed. "Come on." He said. "Sounds like we got company." Grace stood up beside him and stared down at the gun she held in her hands. It was one of two. A few days ago, if someone had told her she would be holding these before her like this, she wouldn't have believed them. He noticed the second gun at Grace's side. "Where'd you get that?" He asked her.
"It was on the floor beside the dead man out in the living room." She replied.
"See?" He smiled. "He didn't need it. You did. Stealing is part of life, Grace."
As much as she wanted to disagree with that comment, she couldn't. Grace handed Noah the gun with the empty chamber. "It's empty." She told him. "You've got tons of bullets in your backpack though."
He took the gun Grace gave him and placed it in the holster on his belt after loading it with ammuntion. He exited the room and she followed. There was one door left in the hallway that hadn't been kicked down. "Get ready." He said. "On the count of three, I'm sending this door to the ground. That lurker gets close and you land a bullet in its ass."
"Got it." She replied. She aimed her gun at the door and sat waiting. Grace rubbed the side of the gun with her finger, feeling the cold metallic surface. She never wanted to hold one of these, but it wasn't the first time. She rubbed the scar on the side of her neck, remembering her life before it was there.
"Three..." He started. The sweat forming on Grace's brow dripped down to her nose before he was able to speak again. "Two...one..."
Noah sent the door plummeting to the floor. Grace flinched, expecting there to be something there. There was nothing. She lowered the gun and entered the room. It was a bedroom. The walls were painted a deep navy blue with animated planes speckling them. Plastic toys were strewn everywhere. The room looked to be that of a little boy. However, they were not the only things on the floor. There was a large pool of blood in the center of the room with footprints leading to the doorway. She could picture the scene in my mind. Grace had trouble choking down her disgust.
Her eyes were drawn to the ceiling. Hanging just above the bed was a rope tied to a hook. Underneath the rope hung a flailing body...one of the dead. It was a young woman when it was alive. Her blonde hair had turned gray. Her once charming smile hung in tatters from her jaw. Her eyes were full of the same colorless cruelty Grace saw in the man at the bottom of the hill. There were teeth marks on her left forearm. "Fuck..." She covered her mouth, eyes scanning up and down the undead woman. It was the first time she had gotten a good look at one. This was the world they were living in now. This was a walker.
"Yeah..." Noah sighed. He looked under the dead woman's flailing body and picked up a note that had been left there. He began to read the words written on it. "Dear Hugh, I'm so sorry about what I have to do. But, with our little angel gone now, I don't see how else to escape the misery. Know that, throughout the rest of your time on this earth, I will be watching over you. Signed, Anne."
Grace could picture the scene all too well. There little boy had turned, and when she went in to check on him, she got bit. She had to face the obstacle no parent should ever have to do, and put down their own child. It must have been too much for her to take. Then, the husband shot himself out of sorrow. This new world had taken an entire family into its grasp. "That's horrible..."
Noah breathed softly. She could tell he was feeling remorse, but trying to hide it. He turned to her with sad eyes and said, "I'll let you do the honors. I don't need no more target practice."
Grace looked feebily down toward the gun laying in her hands. She gripped it firmly and pointed it at the monster's heart. Her heart raced as she almost squeezed the trigger. She felt a warmth touch her shoulder. Noah placed his arm under her shooting arm and pointed it higher. "Noah..." She spoke softly, glancing back to him. The sadness in his eyes looked very genuine, and she felt a sense of trust with him.
"The head." He stated, avoiding my eye contact. "You have to aim for the head. That's what kills 'em. As far as I can tell, body shots only piss them off."
Grace followed the path his hand was guiding hers on. She put the barrel of the gun between the dead woman's eyes. All she could see behind that face was sadness, misery and anguish. In a way, she was helping by taking her away from this cursed form.
The crash of the gunshot echoed over the mountain.
100% of readers chose to [B. Take the gun.]
Grace willed her body to cease its hesitation and bent down to pick up the gun. She opened th… moree chamber like Noah taught her. It didn't have any bullets in it, but they could fix that. She would have felt bad for the stealing, but there was no time for that now.
She quickly ran to find the room that Leo and Noah occupied. In the hallway, he had kicked open the bathroom door, the closet door and the door to the basement. The last door he had kicked in led to the master bedroom.
Grace knelt down beside Noah and the blood-soaked bed. He had his hands placed over the gash in Leo's side. "What are you looking at me for?" He asked, exasperated. "Get the blanket!"
Standing up, Grace pulled a blanket out from underneath her friend. It was green with a floral pattern on it....not that that mattered. It was a bandage. She wrapped it over and under his body three times tightly, then tied the loose e… [view original content]
100% of readers chose to [B. Take the gun.]
Grace willed her body to cease its hesitation and bent down to pick up the gun. She opened th… moree chamber like Noah taught her. It didn't have any bullets in it, but they could fix that. She would have felt bad for the stealing, but there was no time for that now.
She quickly ran to find the room that Leo and Noah occupied. In the hallway, he had kicked open the bathroom door, the closet door and the door to the basement. The last door he had kicked in led to the master bedroom.
Grace knelt down beside Noah and the blood-soaked bed. He had his hands placed over the gash in Leo's side. "What are you looking at me for?" He asked, exasperated. "Get the blanket!"
Standing up, Grace pulled a blanket out from underneath her friend. It was green with a floral pattern on it....not that that mattered. It was a bandage. She wrapped it over and under his body three times tightly, then tied the loose e… [view original content]
100% of readers chose to [B. Take the gun.]
Grace willed her body to cease its hesitation and bent down to pick up the gun. She opened th… moree chamber like Noah taught her. It didn't have any bullets in it, but they could fix that. She would have felt bad for the stealing, but there was no time for that now.
She quickly ran to find the room that Leo and Noah occupied. In the hallway, he had kicked open the bathroom door, the closet door and the door to the basement. The last door he had kicked in led to the master bedroom.
Grace knelt down beside Noah and the blood-soaked bed. He had his hands placed over the gash in Leo's side. "What are you looking at me for?" He asked, exasperated. "Get the blanket!"
Standing up, Grace pulled a blanket out from underneath her friend. It was green with a floral pattern on it....not that that mattered. It was a bandage. She wrapped it over and under his body three times tightly, then tied the loose e… [view original content]
Chapter 5: Only Minutes Left
Grace Peters
The limbs of bushes and trees bounced up and down in the wind. The droplets of rain made a r… moreefreshing pitter-patter on the ground below them. The thunder struck moments after the lightning flashed in the night sky. The storm was upon them. It was moments like these that made Grace want to cuddle up by the fire with a blanket and a cup of coffee. I had no fire, I had no blanket, I had no coffee, and Leo was bleeding out.
"Fuck!" Grace yelled, dropping to the ground to help the man she had just met. She had just let one friend die. She wasn't about to lose this guy too. "Why didn't he tell us he was injured? What do we do?"
"Keep your voice down!" Noah said, frantically, gesturing toward the ground. "They can hear you. Normally, I'd rip off a piece of my shirt to make a tourniquet for the wound, but it's around the side of the body. No piece of my shirt could reach that far."
"Well, what … [view original content]
100% of readers chose to [B. Take the gun.]
Grace willed her body to cease its hesitation and bent down to pick up the gun. She opened th… moree chamber like Noah taught her. It didn't have any bullets in it, but they could fix that. She would have felt bad for the stealing, but there was no time for that now.
She quickly ran to find the room that Leo and Noah occupied. In the hallway, he had kicked open the bathroom door, the closet door and the door to the basement. The last door he had kicked in led to the master bedroom.
Grace knelt down beside Noah and the blood-soaked bed. He had his hands placed over the gash in Leo's side. "What are you looking at me for?" He asked, exasperated. "Get the blanket!"
Standing up, Grace pulled a blanket out from underneath her friend. It was green with a floral pattern on it....not that that mattered. It was a bandage. She wrapped it over and under his body three times tightly, then tied the loose e… [view original content]
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck around or not. What do you have to say for yourselves, assholes?"
"We couldn't abandon the scene of the crash, sir." Usui answered him, maintaining his gaze straight ahead. "It's illegal."
"Son, I will tell you what's legal and what's not." Will told him, locking in eye contact. Thomas felt a bit glad Will hadn't forced him to speak. Usui was going to take all of the shouting, and by the time Will's attention was directed to him, his anger would be diminished. "We could have worked it out with the law. It would have saved lives..."
"Saved lives, sir?" Usui asked, seeming a bit concerned. He took a step out of the line, but then remembered he was in attention and stepped back into place. Will noticed and sneered at him, but he passed it off as it was nothing.
"Do you want to know what happened while you two were sitting on your asses, waiting for your fucking ambulance?" He sounded very harsh. Usually, he was never this angry unless there was a reason.
"Yessir." Usui and Thomas replied at the same time. Will turned around and walked through the military base. They strolled past the armory, the barracks and the vehicle warehouse. This was where Thomas practically lived for the last few years. He had grown accustomed to its cruel, unforgiving environment. It was certainly more structured than his first home.
Thomas lived in a poorer neighborhood before he joined the army. His parents, Martha and Rob, were kind to him, and everyone else. They were good people. Thomas wasn't sure where they were now, but he knew, if ever found them again, he'd tell them he loved them. When he left, he did it in spite of them. It wasn't until a year after he left that he realized he was wrong.
In the schoolyard where Thomas would often play basketball with the other boys, they would tease him for being black. He remembered one time where Phil Wendell and his gang of followers jumped him one day after school. They tried to beat him up and take his lunch money...but Thomas didn't know why they were being so mean. He wanted to be able to restrain himself, but he was so angry that day... His aunt had only just passed. Three of them left with various cuts and bruises, and the last one...a broken leg.They took the boy into the principal's office afterwards. They wanted him to tell the boys sorry, and he did... But that wasn't enough for their parents. They had the young Thomas Garter expelled. That was the first and last time Thomas every got angry enough to inflict violence on someone else. He hated violence. It was disgusting.
Will pushed open one of the doors into a small room that was the morgue. It had a very light. Thomas had never been in here, and he wished he never had to again. There were four body bags lying in the center of the room. Thomas thought back to what he was doing when Will called him. He didn't remember doing anything out of the ordinary. Then he remembered the machine gun fire that issued from the radio...
"Care to open them, soldier?" Will asked Usui, masking his anger in disappointment. Usui obeyed his commander's order and stepped forward to the four black and green body bags on the table. He went to the one on the left first. He hesitantly reached out toward the zipper. "It's not gonna open itself, Ousawa..."
He unzipped the bag slowly and the pungent odor of death filled the room. "Agh!" Usui waved it away from him.
Gary backed away in disgust. "Is that what dead people smell like? It's, like, worse than a skunk!"
"Please shut up..." Will turned his attention to him, speaking very precisely and articulately. "Now, Ousawa, I want you to take the flaps apart. Show our good friends here what you all did."
Usui did as Will commanded and took the flaps apart, revealing the body inside. Slowly but surely, his friend revealed what was inside. It was Max Phillips, the guy from Ray Karsting's squad. Thomas had never really talked to Max, but seeing him inside a body bag still saddened him. "Max..." Usui gasped. "What happened to him, sir?"
"Open it farther, bucko." Will replied.
Usui bent down and separated the flaps on the entire body. The scene disgusted Thomas. The man's entire ribcage had been torn open in a scene of blood and guts. Everything inside the bones had been removed by something. Max's body didn't even have anything about it that looked like a body except his face. One of his legs was ripped off and there was no skin on what little did remain anymore. Usui took one look at the man and vomited his breakfast onto the floor. It took all of Thomas' willpower not to do the same. "What the hell is this?!" Thomas exclaimed.
"What happened to him?" Usui added
"You wanna know what happened to Max, Ousawa? Garter?" He turned to Thomas, as if he expected an answer, but then interrupted himself. "All right, I'll show you." He went to one of the other bags and unzipped it. Inside was another body, but this one looked rotted. The skin it did have was all torn away and in tatters. Its eyes were completely colorless. The pupils were almost gone. There were bullet holes riddled throughout its body and one in its head. "This is what happened to Max while you were away, boys..."
"What the fuck is this...?" Gary asked, obviously terrified by the sight of the two dead men. "What's going on here? I have to get out of here! I have to find my wife."
"Calm down, cupcake." Will told him, gesturing towards the ground. "It's gonna be no better down in the city than it is out here."
"And how is that, Sergeant?" Gary began to withdraw his phone from his pocket and was about to dial into it before Will interrupted him.
"There's more people down there." Will took the dead man with the white pupils by the jaw and swung it over to where its eyes made eye contact with Gary's. It disoriented the man a bit. "More of these."
"More dead people?" Usui asked.
Will sighed and scratched his chin with the hand that had not touched the dead man. "No. More walkers."
"Walkers?" Gary asked.
Will took his serrated knife out of the holster he had on his side and stabbed it on the table very suddenly, making everyone in the room flinch a bit, especially Gary, who had not been conditioned not to flinch. "The dead. I don't know if you fuckers have been watching the news, but the dead are up...walking among us. And they are eating us. That's what I said. They are EATING us."
"Is that...?" Thomas pointed to Max's dead body.
"Yes, Garter." Will turned to the other two men in the room, pointing to the "walker" on the table. "See, at least someone here can figure this shit out. This...killed Max. And...do you know why this killed Max?"
"...Why is that, sir...?" Usui asked with a sigh.
"Because I was short two gun hands." Will stood there in silence that none of the other men in the room broke. He looked at Gary and frowned. "So no, soldier, they didn't save shit."
"I'm not a soldier, sir." Gary responded.
Will looked confused for a moment below his army cap. But when he realized the situation, he turned to Thomas and then to Usui. "You brought a citizen in here? What the fuck were you thinking? The things in this room are classified!"
"We didn't have a ride, sir." Thomas told him, maintaining focus on the air just above his commander's head. "He destroyed my car. Gave us a ride back here. To the base. Parker's injured you know. He's in the hospital right now."
"Don't talk to me that way. I am your squad leader." Will spoke in a firm tone he always used when he was trying to sound like a leader. "I know very well Parker is in the hospital, soldier. That's not the question. The big question is, what's to do with this guy."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not even here." Gary protested, annoyed at the conversation the rest of them were having about him.
"This man is a good man, Sergeant." Usui spoke up, stepping into line with Thomas. "He helped us when we needed it."
"The morality of the man is not in question." Will replied. "What is in question, is what to do with him now. He can't stay here. This base is authorized personnel only. See him?" Will tapped the man on the shoulder. "Not. Authorized. Personnel. So tell me, Garter, what would you have us do with this 'good man?'"
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
yeah. I was going to have it say [B. Let Gary stay.] But then I thought, Will's not just going to roll over and let him stay. The most you can do there is voice Thomas' opinion.
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
yeah. I was going to have it say [B. Let Gary stay.] But then I thought, Will's not just going to roll over and let him stay. The most you can do there is voice Thomas' opinion.
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
[C. Leave with Gary.] Yeah I know this won't be the choice since I'm probably the only one to choose this, but damn Will just annoys me. On the other hand he does seem kinda badass though...
Oh, looks like supersagig took C too, maybe there is hope
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he… more would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck aroun… [view original content]
Comments
[B. Take the gun.]
If you walk away, she just doesn't have a gun.
I guess, at least in my opinion, stealing from the dead is necessary to survive in this new world. Since buying stuff is not an option anymore, people have to simply take it. The rightful owners of most things are already dead. And stealing from the dead is not as bad as stealing from the living.
Yeah. I'd probably take it too.
[take the gun]
Gah damn...suicide already.
yeah. that part was difficult to write.
...Lace?
One offscreen vote for [B. Take the gun.] I'm just gonna put up the next part. I think this one's pretty obvious :P
100% of readers chose to [B. Take the gun.]
Grace willed her body to cease its hesitation and bent down to pick up the gun. She opened the chamber like Noah taught her. It didn't have any bullets in it, but they could fix that. She would have felt bad for the stealing, but there was no time for that now.
She quickly ran to find the room that Leo and Noah occupied. In the hallway, he had kicked open the bathroom door, the closet door and the door to the basement. The last door he had kicked in led to the master bedroom.
Grace knelt down beside Noah and the blood-soaked bed. He had his hands placed over the gash in Leo's side. "What are you looking at me for?" He asked, exasperated. "Get the blanket!"
Standing up, Grace pulled a blanket out from underneath her friend. It was green with a floral pattern on it....not that that mattered. It was a bandage. She wrapped it over and under his body three times tightly, then tied the loose ends together. Noah withdrew his hands from the wound and applied pressure on top of the sheet.
Grace looked down into the man's closed eyelids. Even as this man had only spoken a few words to her, she still felt the urge to help him recover. She could see something of Ashley in Leo. They both had the same shade of blonde hair... He had entered her life just as Ashley left, and then he left again. Grace still couldn't understand why. "You're gonna be okay..." She cried to herself. "Everything's gonna work out..."
Noah shot her a glance and then turned his attention back to the man bleeding to death. "You known her long?" He asked. "The woman in the car?"
Grace was having trouble forcing out the words. "All my life..."
Noah opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again, deciding not to respond. She could tell things weren't looking good and didn't want to put so much stress on her at once. He wanted to spare her the pain of bringing up Ashley one more time. He sighed. "At least this guy isn't bitten. He won't be paying us a visit as one of them any time soon."
"We're going to save him." Grace replied confidently, wiping a developing tear from her eye. The flow of them had started to decrease since they made it to the cabin. "He's going to be okay."
He lowered his eyes to the ground in solemnity. The brown hair on his head hung down past his eyes. They each sat in silence by the businessman whose life was draining away drop by drop, both knowing the likeliness of his survival was low. But they sat hoping that he would come out all right. They had done all they could. Hope was all they had left.
After a while, The pitter patter of the rain outside died down. The storm had stopped. The silence made the watery groan emanating from the next room noticable. They were not alone. Noah, hearing the sound, stood up and sighed. "Come on." He said. "Sounds like we got company." Grace stood up beside him and stared down at the gun she held in her hands. It was one of two. A few days ago, if someone had told her she would be holding these before her like this, she wouldn't have believed them. He noticed the second gun at Grace's side. "Where'd you get that?" He asked her.
"It was on the floor beside the dead man out in the living room." She replied.
"See?" He smiled. "He didn't need it. You did. Stealing is part of life, Grace."
As much as she wanted to disagree with that comment, she couldn't. Grace handed Noah the gun with the empty chamber. "It's empty." She told him. "You've got tons of bullets in your backpack though."
He took the gun Grace gave him and placed it in the holster on his belt after loading it with ammuntion. He exited the room and she followed. There was one door left in the hallway that hadn't been kicked down. "Get ready." He said. "On the count of three, I'm sending this door to the ground. That lurker gets close and you land a bullet in its ass."
"Got it." She replied. She aimed her gun at the door and sat waiting. Grace rubbed the side of the gun with her finger, feeling the cold metallic surface. She never wanted to hold one of these, but it wasn't the first time. She rubbed the scar on the side of her neck, remembering her life before it was there.
"Three..." He started. The sweat forming on Grace's brow dripped down to her nose before he was able to speak again. "Two...one..."
Noah sent the door plummeting to the floor. Grace flinched, expecting there to be something there. There was nothing. She lowered the gun and entered the room. It was a bedroom. The walls were painted a deep navy blue with animated planes speckling them. Plastic toys were strewn everywhere. The room looked to be that of a little boy. However, they were not the only things on the floor. There was a large pool of blood in the center of the room with footprints leading to the doorway. She could picture the scene in my mind. Grace had trouble choking down her disgust.
Her eyes were drawn to the ceiling. Hanging just above the bed was a rope tied to a hook. Underneath the rope hung a flailing body...one of the dead. It was a young woman when it was alive. Her blonde hair had turned gray. Her once charming smile hung in tatters from her jaw. Her eyes were full of the same colorless cruelty Grace saw in the man at the bottom of the hill. There were teeth marks on her left forearm. "Fuck..." She covered her mouth, eyes scanning up and down the undead woman. It was the first time she had gotten a good look at one. This was the world they were living in now. This was a walker.
"Yeah..." Noah sighed. He looked under the dead woman's flailing body and picked up a note that had been left there. He began to read the words written on it. "Dear Hugh, I'm so sorry about what I have to do. But, with our little angel gone now, I don't see how else to escape the misery. Know that, throughout the rest of your time on this earth, I will be watching over you. Signed, Anne."
Grace could picture the scene all too well. There little boy had turned, and when she went in to check on him, she got bit. She had to face the obstacle no parent should ever have to do, and put down their own child. It must have been too much for her to take. Then, the husband shot himself out of sorrow. This new world had taken an entire family into its grasp. "That's horrible..."
Noah breathed softly. She could tell he was feeling remorse, but trying to hide it. He turned to her with sad eyes and said, "I'll let you do the honors. I don't need no more target practice."
Grace looked feebily down toward the gun laying in her hands. She gripped it firmly and pointed it at the monster's heart. Her heart raced as she almost squeezed the trigger. She felt a warmth touch her shoulder. Noah placed his arm under her shooting arm and pointed it higher. "Noah..." She spoke softly, glancing back to him. The sadness in his eyes looked very genuine, and she felt a sense of trust with him.
"The head." He stated, avoiding my eye contact. "You have to aim for the head. That's what kills 'em. As far as I can tell, body shots only piss them off."
Grace followed the path his hand was guiding hers on. She put the barrel of the gun between the dead woman's eyes. All she could see behind that face was sadness, misery and anguish. In a way, she was helping by taking her away from this cursed form.
The crash of the gunshot echoed over the mountain.
End of Chapter 5
you are fast nice bound between Grace and Leo
Lol yeah. I'm trying to be fast. Make it feel raced and strung together like playing the actual game.
Wow...each chapter is so intense, I keep wanting to find out what happens next. God damn. This is awesome.
Awesome Chapter!!!!
[B. Take the fucking gun.]
Awesome Chapter!!!!
I'm trying to update quickly.
When will Ivan and Zayne POV´s appear?
Not til after part 1
Great chapter! !!
Chapter 6: Bodybags
Thomas Garter
Will's eyes held a fury like Thomas had never seen in him before. During their training sessions, he would often get angry, but he never had the hurt he seemed to hold now.
"You disobeyed my direct order, soldiers." Will spat, pacing back and forth in front of Usui Ousawa and Thomas Garter. They stood at attention, trying their very hardest not to flinch while their Sergeant bellowed at them. "Or are you even soldiers?! No, you're not. You're cowards."
"With my permission, sir, they're not cowards." Spoke Gary from off to the side. He wasn't forced to stand in the line, but Thomas found himself thinking the man might have enough common sense to keep quiet. Will had never been a forgiving man. "They saved that other soldier, the one with the glasses."
"Shut up!" Will barked at him. Gary shrunk back into his shoes. "They didn't save shit! The ambulance would have shown up whether they stuck around or not. What do you have to say for yourselves, assholes?"
"We couldn't abandon the scene of the crash, sir." Usui answered him, maintaining his gaze straight ahead. "It's illegal."
"Son, I will tell you what's legal and what's not." Will told him, locking in eye contact. Thomas felt a bit glad Will hadn't forced him to speak. Usui was going to take all of the shouting, and by the time Will's attention was directed to him, his anger would be diminished. "We could have worked it out with the law. It would have saved lives..."
"Saved lives, sir?" Usui asked, seeming a bit concerned. He took a step out of the line, but then remembered he was in attention and stepped back into place. Will noticed and sneered at him, but he passed it off as it was nothing.
"Do you want to know what happened while you two were sitting on your asses, waiting for your fucking ambulance?" He sounded very harsh. Usually, he was never this angry unless there was a reason.
"Yessir." Usui and Thomas replied at the same time. Will turned around and walked through the military base. They strolled past the armory, the barracks and the vehicle warehouse. This was where Thomas practically lived for the last few years. He had grown accustomed to its cruel, unforgiving environment. It was certainly more structured than his first home.
Thomas lived in a poorer neighborhood before he joined the army. His parents, Martha and Rob, were kind to him, and everyone else. They were good people. Thomas wasn't sure where they were now, but he knew, if ever found them again, he'd tell them he loved them. When he left, he did it in spite of them. It wasn't until a year after he left that he realized he was wrong.
In the schoolyard where Thomas would often play basketball with the other boys, they would tease him for being black. He remembered one time where Phil Wendell and his gang of followers jumped him one day after school. They tried to beat him up and take his lunch money...but Thomas didn't know why they were being so mean. He wanted to be able to restrain himself, but he was so angry that day... His aunt had only just passed. Three of them left with various cuts and bruises, and the last one...a broken leg.They took the boy into the principal's office afterwards. They wanted him to tell the boys sorry, and he did... But that wasn't enough for their parents. They had the young Thomas Garter expelled. That was the first and last time Thomas every got angry enough to inflict violence on someone else. He hated violence. It was disgusting.
Will pushed open one of the doors into a small room that was the morgue. It had a very light. Thomas had never been in here, and he wished he never had to again. There were four body bags lying in the center of the room. Thomas thought back to what he was doing when Will called him. He didn't remember doing anything out of the ordinary. Then he remembered the machine gun fire that issued from the radio...
"Care to open them, soldier?" Will asked Usui, masking his anger in disappointment. Usui obeyed his commander's order and stepped forward to the four black and green body bags on the table. He went to the one on the left first. He hesitantly reached out toward the zipper. "It's not gonna open itself, Ousawa..."
He unzipped the bag slowly and the pungent odor of death filled the room. "Agh!" Usui waved it away from him.
Gary backed away in disgust. "Is that what dead people smell like? It's, like, worse than a skunk!"
"Please shut up..." Will turned his attention to him, speaking very precisely and articulately. "Now, Ousawa, I want you to take the flaps apart. Show our good friends here what you all did."
Usui did as Will commanded and took the flaps apart, revealing the body inside. Slowly but surely, his friend revealed what was inside. It was Max Phillips, the guy from Ray Karsting's squad. Thomas had never really talked to Max, but seeing him inside a body bag still saddened him. "Max..." Usui gasped. "What happened to him, sir?"
"Open it farther, bucko." Will replied.
Usui bent down and separated the flaps on the entire body. The scene disgusted Thomas. The man's entire ribcage had been torn open in a scene of blood and guts. Everything inside the bones had been removed by something. Max's body didn't even have anything about it that looked like a body except his face. One of his legs was ripped off and there was no skin on what little did remain anymore. Usui took one look at the man and vomited his breakfast onto the floor. It took all of Thomas' willpower not to do the same. "What the hell is this?!" Thomas exclaimed.
"What happened to him?" Usui added
"You wanna know what happened to Max, Ousawa? Garter?" He turned to Thomas, as if he expected an answer, but then interrupted himself. "All right, I'll show you." He went to one of the other bags and unzipped it. Inside was another body, but this one looked rotted. The skin it did have was all torn away and in tatters. Its eyes were completely colorless. The pupils were almost gone. There were bullet holes riddled throughout its body and one in its head. "This is what happened to Max while you were away, boys..."
"What the fuck is this...?" Gary asked, obviously terrified by the sight of the two dead men. "What's going on here? I have to get out of here! I have to find my wife."
"Calm down, cupcake." Will told him, gesturing towards the ground. "It's gonna be no better down in the city than it is out here."
"And how is that, Sergeant?" Gary began to withdraw his phone from his pocket and was about to dial into it before Will interrupted him.
"There's more people down there." Will took the dead man with the white pupils by the jaw and swung it over to where its eyes made eye contact with Gary's. It disoriented the man a bit. "More of these."
"More dead people?" Usui asked.
Will sighed and scratched his chin with the hand that had not touched the dead man. "No. More walkers."
"Walkers?" Gary asked.
Will took his serrated knife out of the holster he had on his side and stabbed it on the table very suddenly, making everyone in the room flinch a bit, especially Gary, who had not been conditioned not to flinch. "The dead. I don't know if you fuckers have been watching the news, but the dead are up...walking among us. And they are eating us. That's what I said. They are EATING us."
"Is that...?" Thomas pointed to Max's dead body.
"Yes, Garter." Will turned to the other two men in the room, pointing to the "walker" on the table. "See, at least someone here can figure this shit out. This...killed Max. And...do you know why this killed Max?"
"...Why is that, sir...?" Usui asked with a sigh.
"Because I was short two gun hands." Will stood there in silence that none of the other men in the room broke. He looked at Gary and frowned. "So no, soldier, they didn't save shit."
"I'm not a soldier, sir." Gary responded.
Will looked confused for a moment below his army cap. But when he realized the situation, he turned to Thomas and then to Usui. "You brought a citizen in here? What the fuck were you thinking? The things in this room are classified!"
"We didn't have a ride, sir." Thomas told him, maintaining focus on the air just above his commander's head. "He destroyed my car. Gave us a ride back here. To the base. Parker's injured you know. He's in the hospital right now."
"Don't talk to me that way. I am your squad leader." Will spoke in a firm tone he always used when he was trying to sound like a leader. "I know very well Parker is in the hospital, soldier. That's not the question. The big question is, what's to do with this guy."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not even here." Gary protested, annoyed at the conversation the rest of them were having about him.
"This man is a good man, Sergeant." Usui spoke up, stepping into line with Thomas. "He helped us when we needed it."
"The morality of the man is not in question." Will replied. "What is in question, is what to do with him now. He can't stay here. This base is authorized personnel only. See him?" Will tapped the man on the shoulder. "Not. Authorized. Personnel. So tell me, Garter, what would you have us do with this 'good man?'"
[A. Send Gary away.]
[B. Push for Gary to stay.]
[C. Leave with Gary.]
[D. Kill him.]
[B. Push for Gary to stay.]
yeah. I was going to have it say [B. Let Gary stay.] But then I thought, Will's not just going to roll over and let him stay. The most you can do there is voice Thomas' opinion.
[B. Push for Gary to stay]
That's good thinking.
Thanks.
Just so you know, the last one is a joke haha. Please don't pick that one.
[C. Leave with Gary.] I think it´s the right thing to do. Also Will won´t bother us more that way.
Awesome Chapter!!!
I'm surprised no one said anything about the last option :P
Ohh yeah that´s a better choice [D. Kill him.]. Let´s do it :P
(just joking)
I thought it was funny how in every other choice it specifically references Gary and in the last one it just says 'him.'
So guys, I'm going to start a regular schedule of releases, so see above in the thread description.
[push for Gary to stay.]
[A. Send Gary away.]
[C. Leave with Gary.] Yeah I know this won't be the choice since I'm probably the only one to choose this, but damn Will just annoys me. On the other hand he does seem kinda badass though...
Oh, looks like supersagig took C too, maybe there is hope
[C. Leave with Gary.]
Well great. It's a tie :P
Option B.
I still have hope for my boy, Will, to be nice.
But I think that ship has sailed
Did you seriously just ask that? Wow man that's just really...wow. I'm at a lost for words.
Oh it's your name. Never mind :P
Offscreen [B. Push for Gary to stay.]
It's five o'clock and the voting is closed.
Thomas will be pushing for Gary to stay.
Expect for it to come out at eightish