Surviving Today

Chapter Two

Day 643

Roy was a nice guy. This much I gathered from his little heroic act back at the city wall, and from the way he treated us like family from the get-go.

This is why by the time we reached his house I decided to trust him.

His house by the way, wasn't very impressive. I was actually surprised by how he had managed to live this long.

It wasn't your average sturdy house, no Roy wasn't even that protected. It was a simple wooden cabin on the very edge of town, a small one too.

As I learned more and more about him I wondered what was so special about this guy. Why were the bikers so afraid of him?

That question was answered with two things. One, as we strode up to Roy's house we heard the dogs.

Bloodhounds. Roy had a pack of fifteen bloodhounds in his backyard. All trained to kill at Roy's orders.

He told us later that he was a breeder before the big happening. That's what Roy decided to call the apocolypse. I liked that.

The second thing to answer my question was when we got inside, like right away, I noticed the collection of weapons Roy had acquired on his wall.

Guns, knives, grenades; you name it. His house looked like the inside of a military surplus, which also was explained.

Roy said he had a brother who owned a military surplus store not too far from his house that he had the keys to.

When the great happening...happened...Roy said he was paired up with his brother. They were a great pair being that they both were veterans and served at least two four-year terms in the Marines. Roy on his own had served for four.

Later on he said his brother passed from a corpse bite to the shoulder. Died in two days said Roy.

Lucky, I thought. My mom had to suffer for eight days. By the end of it she wasn't her angelic self. You can say disease brings out the worst in people.

After the sixth day of fever she hit the insanity phase. Spewing profanity with every breath, and even forgetting who I was.

I knew at the time that I shouldn't have watched her slowly deteriorate, but she was my mom. How could I just let her go?

After Roy invited us inside we sat at his large round kitchen table to talk.

"Sorry guys, I wish I had some more food to offer without cleaning out my cupboards completely." apologized Roy as he placed down two cans of beans.

Already my mouth was watering.

See food was a problem for us. We were always on the move, and almost never had enough to eat. The two cans Roy held was the most food we had seen in weeks.

"Oh, it's no big deal. You don't have to feed us." said my Dad politely. Roy laughed.

"You're kidding right? If Len didn't kill you back there starvation would've. I can see your boy's ribs from here." replied Roy.

My cheeks flushed and I looked down embarrassed. It was true. I didn't exactly have the body I would've liked.

I used to be just a normal toned fourteen year-old but after the malnutrition, and all the running from place to place I lost a few pounds. Okay, maybe a lot more than a few.

I practically lost all my muscle and then puberty did the rest. I grew four inches in the last year, so my body stretched out a ton.

I was a 5' 8" skeleton, with very little muscle sticking to my arms.