Already Dead✔️

Chapter 6

The next morning, I woke the group up and instructed them to gather supplies and weapons. I had decided the night before that I would teach them some more skills outside of the Bass Pro Shop. Thankfully, they didn't protest and ask what we were doing. Kelsey and William walked beside each other holding hands.
            We were now back into the woods and I started teaching them to make a fire and build a shelter.
            "Ah, I remember learning this when I was a boy scout," William reminisced. "I was going to teach Evan, and Kelsey this skill before everything fell apart."
            I nodded. "My father taught me everything that I know about surviving in the wilderness."
            "Was he a boy scout, too?"
            "No. He was a Lieutenant in the Marines," shaking my head sadly.
            "What happened to him?"
            "He died while trying to save my mother, brother, and me and the group we were with from a herd of dead ones."
            William's face fell. "Oh. I—I'm so sorry, Hayley."
            "Thanks, William, but that's in the past. I've got to focus on what's happening right now in the present."

Before William could respond, I began to lead the group out of the woods. We headed back toward the Bass Pro Shop. I remembered seeing a black SUV on the side of the road while we were going to the Bass Pro Shop. I would've scavenged it by that time if I was alone, but since I was with a new group, decided to use that opportunity to teach them to scavenge for supplies. Just hoping that someone else hadn't got to it before we did.

            When we approached the black SUV, a dead one in the passenger seat slammed itself onto the window, startling us. Seeing the opportunity to teach them how to kill a dead one, I walked up to it, and before opening the door to allow it to fall out of the car, I turned to them and said, "Use your knife to stab it in the head. Under the chin and push up." Kelsey started panicking and screaming as it got up, attracting its attention toward her and the group, so I didn't have to use the car door to block myself from it. The dead one was once a young man who had died wearing a bloody, grimy blue sweatshirt, a dirty white t-shirt with blood stains on it, faded, ripped blue jeans, and gray sneakers. It had bites and dried out blood on its cheeks, a bite on its neck, sunken in eyes, and gray rotting skin. It shambled toward the small, inexperienced group while they panicked and struggled to decide what to do. It finally reached them and chose Kelsey, who was still screaming, as its meal. It grabbed her by the shoulders and started to pull her toward its mouth. William, Dylan, and Evan worked together to pry it away from her, but nobody had their knives out or tried to kill it.
            I sighed and watched them struggle with the dead one. Unsheathing my Ka-Bar and walked up to them. With a single stab to the back of the head, the dead one fell to the ground. William, Dylan, and Evan pushed it aside, so it wouldn't fall onto Kelsey. Evan and William began comforting her as she shook and sobbed.
             I didn't say anything to them about what I saw. I just told them to search the car for any supplies, weapons, food, and water and to only take what they needed. I opened one of the doors of the backseat, and underneath the seats, There was a machete. I checked the passenger seat and the glove compartment and found ammo.
            Suddenly, the sound of a gun being cocked and a deep, gruff voice behind me order, "Step away from the vehicle with your hands above your head."
            I slowly turned around with my hands up. There was a group of five men with guns aimed at my head, along with William's, Evan's, Dylan's, and Kelsey's.

"Please! We'll go if you free us!" Kelsey pleaded.

"Can it!" the man who was aiming at me shouted. He was obviously the leader. "One more word or one sudden movement and you're dead!"

Apparently, William didn't think he was serious, or he wasn't really listening or thinking since he yelled, "Hey! Don't you speak to—"

BAM

One of the men shot him in the head, killing him instantaneously. Blood and brain exploded out of the back of his head as the bullet flew out. William fell face first to the ground, like a sack of potatoes. Blood poured out of the new wound. Automatically before anyone had time to react, I took out my Beretta and shot the leader of the group and the man who had shot William dead in the head, killing them instantly. Then moved on to take out the other three men. Kelsey and Evan dropped beside William's corpse. Kelsey began to cry. Evan held his head in his hands, and Dylan placed his hand on Evan's shoulder. I immediately realized that William was Evan and Kelsey's father. I guess I didn't really think about it beforehand. I holstered my gun and went up beside Kelsey to comfort her.

            After about a half hour, I joined Evan and Dylan in digging a grave in the ground. Evan and I had gotten shovels from the Bass Pro Shop and brought them to where we had left Dylan and Kelsey. I had managed to grab gasoline and a lighter on our way out.

            When it finally came to bury William, Kelsey asked, "What about them?" She pointed to the group I had killed. "Do we bury them?"
            I shook my head. "Burn them. That's why I brought gasoline and the lighter."
          Evan and Dylan move the bodies together in a big pile. Dylan poured the gasoline onto them, and Evan lit the lighter and threw it into the pile of the bodies, setting them on fire.

"Let's go," I said, "before dead ones arrive. They'll be attracted to the fire. " With that, we gathered up what we had and went back to the Bass Pro Shop.