State of Decay✔️

Chapter 37: Unstable Times

When tragedy and terror struck, it usually did so without warning.

Two days after his interactions with the sheriff and those at the Grange, a call suddenly came out just after sunset. Marcus was hanging out in the watchtower with Maya, sitting in a pair of foldout chairs and staring out over the darkness of Marshall.

"Maya..." he began, then hesitated. They'd been talking for a good half an hour before and had finally lapsed into comfortable, companionable silence.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"I've been thinking..." He hesitated again, sighed.

"Something's been bugging you," she said. "What is it?"

"It's just that...I don't know. I've been getting this feeling, you know? This feeling like...maybe we should really start thinking about moving out of the valley."

Maya seemed to consider it for a moment, but as she opened her mouth to respond, she was cut off by a squeal of static over both their radios. "This is Sheriff Parsons at the courthouse! We're under attack by a huge horde of undead bastards! We need help from anyone willing! Please-"

He was cut off at about the same time a large plume of flame suddenly appeared from across the river.

"Holy shit," Maya whispered. "We've got to help them."

"Yep," Marcus replied, already scrambling over to the ladder. He slid down it and Maya was right behind him. They scrambled across the courtyard and into the main building, making for the supply area. As they did, others came into the room in varying states of confusion. Marcus and Maya immediately took control of the situation.

"Lily, see if you can get them back," Marcus said.

"Ed, Logan, Evelyn, you're coming with me and Marcus. The courthouse is under massive attack by the zombies. We're helping, so grab whatever guns and supplies you think you'll need," Maya said as she grabbed her own arsenal.

"Everyone else, gear up and secure the entrances along the chainlink. Make sure nothing attacks us while we're away," Marcus added.

There was a general sense of motion, of furious activity, as everyone scrambled to comply. Five minutes later, Marcus, Maya, Ed, Logan and Evelyn were driving towards the courthouse in a pair of SUVs, weapons in hand. Lily kept trying to raise someone over there but by the time they'd hit the bridge, there was no one.

An idea struck Marcus and he brought his radio out. "Lily, get hold of Doc Hanson, get him over here, we're going to have wounded."

"Got it," Lily replied and set to work on that task.

It was clear that the courthouse was burning. They raced across the bridges and up the street, slamming on the brakes and piling out of the two vehicles. There was a horde of creatures massing outside of the courthouse, having made it around and over the concrete barricades and funneling in through the alcove created by the stacked shipping containers. All five of them lined up in front of the twin SUVs, guns in hand, and opened fire on the zombie horde. For a solid minute, there was nothing but the sound of overlapping gunfire.

Maya had found a twelve-shot rifle in her travels and was putting that to use. Marcus, Evelyn and Ed all had their pistols out and were putting down zombies left and right. Logan had found a pump-action shotgun in the supply area and was banging through shell after shell. A dozen zombies fell, then two dozen, then three, and suddenly it was quiet.

"Let's go!" Marcus called, nearly deafened from the concentrated gunfire as he slapped a fresh magazine into the pistol.

Once it became clear that there were no more zombies coming from the street, the five of them hurried in between the concrete barriers and into the shipping container alcove. Smoke was billowing from several of the windows in the courthouse and there was movement obvious just inside the main room where, not all that long ago, Marcus had told Judge Lawton that she was nuts. The five of them burst into the room, falling on another handful of zombies that had made it inside and survived the initial slaughter.