Chapter 2
"I'm telling you, it's just a little scrape. It looks nothing like a bite." A man on my left says in a calming manner.
"What if it is? Wouldn't she be a danger to us all?" a man panics on my right.
"Oliver... Oliver, she's waking up," the calm man on my left says.
"Oh God, Cloi, wait with Liam on the roof!" commands the man from my right. The same man who was panicking.
So it isn't just the two of them? How many could be watching me right now?
When I open my eyes, two guys have their eyes cautiously trained on me, one has a pistol in hand. They observe me from there and I try to sit up but find myself chained and buckled on the bed.
"Holy crap!" I begin.
"Don't move!" the guy who seems be in his late twenties ordered. He points the gun at me and the other guy, who looks older, rests his hand on the gun, slowly lowering it.
As he said, I froze with my heart beating a few times faster than the usual.
"Excuse us," says the older guy and wraps an arm around the other guy leading him away with a murmur.
A few minutes of silence later, the older guy came back and gives me an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry about my friend, Oliver. He's still paranoid about the whole thing." He sits down on the bed and glances worriedly at my left arm. "May I ask what happened to that?" He points at my left arm and I struggle to take a look at it, the position hurting my neck.
A gasp escapes my lips as I notice a new scrape just below my wrist. Holy crap! I could've been bitten! but it seems impossible since the closest a biter has gotten to me was only up to my feet during my climb for dear life.
"I-I don't know, but it couldn't be a bite," I state, my voice feeling dry. "The closest I got to a biter was only during the climb up the ladder."
"Don't worry, I never thought it was a bite too. It looks more like a scratch," he says. "I'm Sheriff by the way. But I ain't a police officer or anything. The other guy's Oliver."
"I'm Holly Culkins," I state boldly. "I would shake your hand but I'm kinda..." I wiggle my left arm, making a noise with the chains.
"Oh yeah, I'm so sorry about that. Just some safety precautions." He gets up and takes out some keys from his pockets before shuffling over to the chains and unlocking them. I unbuckle the belt around my waist and knees as he unlock the chains at my feet.
"Thanks."
"So would you mind telling me why you were being chased by a horde?"
I stand up and check my belts if I still had any weapons on me incase anyone tries to do anything funny. I don't have any guns left. Only a throwing knife which wouldn't do much for me since I'm a gun person.
I remember dropping two of them at the alley, and having a spare on my right boot.
"Where's my gun?" I ask coldly. It's the one dad gave me before they mysteriously disappeared.
"It's with Oliver. I'm sorry but it was also for precautionary-"
"May I have it back now?" I snap.
He looked surprised for a moment. "Of course."
He leads me through an isle with beds in each side. It didn't take long for me to figure that we're in the mall. Maybe that alley's at the back side of the mall.
We get to the rooftop where Oliver, a female about my age, and a boy about nine or ten are sitting on the ground under a shed.
Oliver looks calmer and less troubled than before. I see my gun hanging on his hand.
"What time is it, Sheriff?" I smile at the little boy's voice. It's been quite some time since I heard a kid's voice. I figured he was Liam and the girl was Cloi, as mentioned earlier.
I look at the sky before making a guess myself. I say around five in the afternoon.
"Five twenty eight," Sheriff announced.
Close enough.
Oliver stands up and walks up to me without saying a word. He eyes my appearance before handing me my gun. I take in his look too before he turns around and sit back down beside Cloi.
Black messy hair, a bit of facial hair around his dark red lips to the sides of his ears, fierce grey eyes with long lashes, thin lined eyebrows, finely defined jaw, and he's almost a head taller than me.
"What happened back there?" Cloi asks while she wraps my wrist with a bandage. I wince a few times. She turns out to be a fourth year nursing student, and Liam is her brother.
"I was going to grab a few goods from the mall when I caught the attention of hundreds of flesh-hungry bastards lollygagging around the front," I say.
"Oh, the numerous bastards are our fault. They were after us a few days ago and we accidentally ended up here after we had only two rounds of ammunation left." Oliver say coming out of nowhere.
"I'm gonna go grab some stuff now, if you don't mind. My sister's waiting for me at home," I announce as I stand after Cloi finished treating my wrist. "Thank you," I say as I look at her. She returns my gratitude with a smile.
"Do you need any help?" Sheriff, who is leaning at the edge of the building asks, dropping his binoculars to dangle from his neck.
"No thank you, I just need a ride." I say.
"Oliver can get you a ride," Liam suggests.
I turn my gaze towards Oliver and he nods once.
"Great!" I say.
"The Biters at the front of the mall are lessened compared to anywhere else. A few cars are also parked there, so you could just take one, but I gotta warn you, some cars set off alarms. You wouldn't want to attract more biters, yeah?" Sheriff informs me.
"Yeah, thank you so much," I say before walking away to enter the mall, Oliver trailing behind me.
I remember coming here with a bag. Must've dopped it off somewhere.
I hurrily make my way to where the bags were and take the blue and white High-Sierra backpack. I go to the canned goods isle and take as many tunas and sausages as I can. Then to the Chips section, Sam loves Ruffles and Pic-as.
I wander around looking for anything I can use for defense against the biters but since this is the supermarket, the best I could think of are kitchenwares.
"I'm not surprised the knives are still here." The sudden sound of someone's presence made me jump and point my gun at him.
It was just Oliver.
I lower my gun and turn back to grabbing the stuff I need.
"People preferred to use guns back in the days and forgot about knives," he continued.
"Of course," I agree. "Desperate times call for desperate measures." I dig a few in the empty spaces on my belt. "Besides, the bang of guns attract biters."
"Any loud noise does," he says.
"I'm usually a gun person. I use a silencer for training."
"Where'd you get a silencer?" He asks.
"My dad's a cop."
"He gave you a silencer?"
"Only a gun. I just went through his stuff after he and mom disappeared," I explain.
"And you took the silencer." I answer with a nod.
I zip the bag close and turn to him.
"Time to go get a car."
He smirks and nods. "This way."
He leads me through the quiet mall and before we could even make it to the exit, the power went out stopping me dead on my tracks. "What's happening?"
"The generators are down. We feared this day would come." His calmness seems new to me since my first impression of him was a panic maniac.
We walk slower and I become more cautious each step even though I'm pretty sure there aren't any biters in here.
We go outside and see the sun setting. We need to do this quicker. I counted at least eight to ten biters. Many, but still manageable.
"You ready for this?" I ask taking out the longest knife I have.
"Lend me a gun?" Oliver asks.
I look at him in surprise. "Are you looking for more biters? The bang attracts more remember?"
"Oh, yeah."
I hand him the knife I was holding and bring out a smaller one for me.
"Let's switch," he suggests handing back the one I gave him and extending a hand waiting for the other. "You need it more than I do."
I look at him in mock and did as he said. I'll show him who needs it more.
We sneak up behind a few cars with him taking the lead. He sure was taking a lot of time and slow and careful isn't what I need right now. I'm in a race with dark here.
He comes across a biter and it takes some time for him to take it down. He wrestles with the mindless creature, trying to pin it down on to the ground and when he did, that's when he struck the knife into his head. Twice. He gets up on his feet and grins triumphantly at me.
I walk past him, shoving the knife back into my belt, replacing it with a smaller knife.
I charge at the first biter my eyes landed on, taking her into a head lock before pushing the knife into the back of her head. I look at the surprised face of Oliver before smiling.
"And that's how it's done." I mouth at him.
"That was female, no fair!"
I spotted a biter approaching him from behind. "Behind you!"
turns around and kicks the biter down before dropping his knee on her stomach and pushes the knife through her eyes.
Two more are coming for him so I run towards them and press my knife as I did into the one's left eye and kick him off just as Oliver was wrestling with the other. I grab the biter from behind and push him towards the wall before pushing my knife into his head with all my strength.
"That's three for me and two for you," I joke.
He groans in response, recomposing himself. "So this is a game now, huh? Challenge accepted." He runs towards a few walkers and takes three of them out with my technique.
"That's not fair!" I almost shout at him before taking on a few biters myself.
We clear the parking lot and soon, we're checking out the cars. The sky is filled with stars the time we find a white Toyota that doesn't have a light blinking from the inside. Oliver works on the lock while I keep watch in case any biters come.
"So what were you before all this?" I ask, breaking the silence.
"Gang mastermind," Oliver answers from under the steering wheel.
I freeze infront of the car upon hearing his answer. My heart suddenly beating faster, and my vision darkened. The memory of my dad being shot on the shoulder by a gang member during a speedcar chase two years ago comes into mind. The harsh picture of him being rushed to the operating room makes me feel a twinge in my heart.
Him? A mastermind? With that battle technique? "You've got to be kidding me!" He looks too young to be a mastermind!
He sits down on the driver's seat and starts the car while I make my way to his side. The engine starts smoothly. Nice.
He doesn't get up, but looks at me with seriousness in his fierce grey eyes.
"How old are you?" I ask without taking my gaze off of his.
"Twenty six." He states in a low voice.
"Ha-haven't you ever been busted?" I ask.
"Never. But my colleagues have. The cops would always mistaken them for being the mastermind in our gang."
His appearance became a few times more intimidating for me, and to my surprise, I feel threatened for the first time in a long time.
"Thanks for the help. Tell Sheriff and the others I'm going home." I tried to keep my voice calm and I didn't take my gaze off his.
"See you when I see you." I sure hope not.
He gets up from his seat and I take his place.
Honestly, I haven't had any experience in driving. Dad just gave me orientations and hopefully, I still remember them.
I discover that this is an automatic car which is supposed to be easier to drive than a manual one.
After dumping my bag on to the passenger seat, I shifted the gear to drive, stepped on the break before letting go of the handbreak.
I gave him one last nod before letting go of the breaks and gently pressing my foot on the gas pedal.
***
Chapter 2, PUBLISHED!
Hope you guys like it! Sam at the side!
CVF!
-Kat