Don't Let Them Get You.

Lets go to the bar

After watching the bodies blister and bubble for a few minutes, Ripley, Gage and I went inside to see who these people were. The man and women looked to be in their 60's, and the little boy was maybe 4 or 5. He had tear streaks staining his dirty face. Ripley walked ahead of us and approached the mourning family who were standing in the living room.

"Where did you come from?" He asked them without hesitation.

"About three miles from here. We run the bar.. We were running through the woods towards the city and Charlie got grabbed by someone and... and.." The man stuttered as fresh tears fell to the floor. He wiped them away quickly.

"We've all lost someone." Ripley told him, and squeezed his shoulder. He was trying to be reassuring, but it didn't really come out like that. The old man seemed irritated.

"We thought we'd be safer in the city.." The woman said quietly. Pat glanced up at her, his forehead wrinkling up.

"We'll you're god damn wrong."

She stared at his arm and let out a sob, pulling the small boy closer to her legs.

"What are your names?" Ripley asked them, changing the subject.

"I'm Jack, this is my wife Shirley, and our grandson Michael."

"What happened to his parents?" Pat asked them.

The woman shut her eyes and the man gave him a dirty look. "What do you think happened.."

"You can join our group if you want.. Or we can drive you back to your house." Ripley offered them.

"Can you take us to our bar?"

Pat and Ripley exchanged a look, then Ripley nodded. He motioned for them to follow.

"Who else is coming?"

"We will." Gage told him. And then we followed Ripley and pat to the truck.

The family of three climbed into the back seat and Pat and Ripley took the front. Gage and I clambered up into the bed of the truck, which had been cleaned of blood the day before. The truck gargled and started, and Ripley pulled out onto the dirt road. We drove for five minutes until we hit a small stretch of paved road with buildings on either side. They all seemed to be small shops; An antique store, a party store, and a small grocery store. The bar was on the corner, at the end of the paved road where it started back to gravel. Ripley pulled the truck around the side of the building and killed the engine.

"We're gonna need to find some fuel soon. We're getting pretty low." Ripley told us as he walked around the side of the truck to let us out of the back. Gage and I both jumped out onto the dusty ground.

The family cautiously got out of the truck and huddled together on the side of the truck.

"We have to be quiet. They're drawn to noise. We were too loud when we went downtown and we had a swarm of them on our asses." Ripley closed the truck bed and spit on the ground.

"Alright. Well, let's see what we've got inside the bar." The old man motioned for us to follow him. We went around the side of the building to a side door. He pulled out a key ring and fumbled with them. His hands were shaking and he couldn't get to the key to turn. I heard the familiar grunting coming closer and closer to us. There had to be a few of them because it was a chorus of groaning.

"Hey, uh.. Can you hurry?!" I angrily whispered. We left our weapons in the back of the truck and I ran around the side to grab them. There were at least 20 of them shuffling towards us. "Shit!" I only had enough time to grab my crowbar before I sprinted back to the group. "There's a group of them coming!" I yelled just as he opened the door, and the roamers rounded the corner.

We ran inside and Gage slammed the door shut behind him and turned the lock with a slam. 

The little boy, Michael was completely silent. So was the bar. The old man, Jack ran to the front door and made sure it was locked. His wife, Shirley closed all of the open blinds and helped Jack move a table in front of the door.

Ripley wandered over to the bar and leaned over the counter, checking out what they had on the shelves.

"I think were safe here." Jack said. It was quiet for a second while we listened to the noises coming from outside.

"'More and more of them will come." Gage told Jack.

"They can't get in. The windows have bars, and we can barricade the doors." Jack and Shirley both walked over to a door, "This is the bathroom, if anyone has to go. It's unisex-" Jack opened the door and a very tall lurker flew out of the door. Another one followed and they pounced on the old couple. They tore at their flesh and ripped off chunks.

"Oh, fuck!" Ripley jumped over the bar and grabbed a few bottles, stuffing them in his backpack.

"Come on!" I screamed and ran into the back kitchen area. Gage picked up Michael, who had his eyes closed and was frozen in his spot and followed me into the kitchen. There was a ton of canned food, but we didn't have any time to grab it. I glanced around.

"Look, a ladder to the roof." I pulled the ladder down and quickly climbed up. I pushed the latch on the roof open and pulled myself on to the roof. Gage helped Michael onto the ladder and he climbed up behind him. Ripley ran in to the kitchen with the two zombies on his tail. He jumped onto the ladder just in time, and hurried up. I slammed the latch closed behind us.

We all had a moment of silence, staring at each other. Then I stood up and walked to the edge of the roof.

The chorus of the dead droned on. There were hundreds of them now, surrounding the bar. We were trapped.