"2 PM daily broadcast." Warren said looking at her pocket watch. We've been watching them for a while now. I haven't seen 10K out and about in the compound ,at least in the part we could see.
"What are you gonna do with all that zombie blood?" Hector asked ,gaining my attention. He was talking to Sun Mei ,who was working on a vaccine. I walked over and stood next to Hector.
"Murphy's immunity has something to do with him being bitten eight times just as he was vaccinated. I've been collecting samples of Z blood to add to Murphy's vaccine. My theory is that it will dilute his control but still make you immune." Sun Mei explained to Hector.
"Nice theory. Think it will work?" Hector asked her.
"Honestly, I don't know." Sun Mei answered.
"Well, I don't want to be the first to find out." Hector stated.
"He's adding more blends every day. We can't wait much longer." Warren walked back to us. Hector took the binoculars from her and went to look down at the compound. "We gotta figure out a way to get across that zombie moat."
"Hey, check this out. He's moving." Hector called back to us. We all walked over to him. Warren took the binoculars that Hector held out to her and looked to Murphy's compound.
"That's him alright." Warren said.
"Where do you think he's headed?" Hector asked.
"The one place he'll be alone. He's got a magazine. Only one reason Murphy ever reads." Warren said.
"Not that many zombies right now." Hector observed.
"We might not get another chance like this. We go now." Warren told us. She handed the binoculars to me. "Chris, you stay here with Sun Mei and Jeff. We'll be back."
"Are you sure? I could come with." I told her.
"No, I got this. You look after your son and Sun Mei." Warren told me. I nodded.
"Okay. You two be careful." I told them. They nodded before walking off.
***
"We've been at this for three days now. How much longer do you want to keep searching?" Sun Mei asked as we walked through the town. Hector and Warren came back fine. We've been looking for Escorpian since.
"'Til the Red Hand finds us or we find them." Warren answered Sun Mei.
"You sure you want to find them? Those people are psycho. Even by the apocalypse standards." Hector said.
Warren stopped. She was looking at the wall beside us. The wall had the red paint that I really don't like anymore ,because the Red Hand gets on my nerves.
'ONLY THE RIGHTEOUS HAVE NO FEAR' was written on the wall in red paint.
"You're goddamn right I wanna find them. We can't take Murphy alone. I need an army. I need men and women who will die for a cause. And yes, kill for a cause. And I mean without hesitation or remorse. Because that's what it's come down to." Warren answered Hector ,who just shook his head. She started walking.
"Listen to me. Listen to me! Listen to me." Hector ran forward and grabbed Warren's upper arm ,stopping her from walking away. She turned and looked at him with an angry look written all over her face. "I know we need help. But not by the Red Hand. Not Escorpion. You cannot control men like that. They understand nothing but pain and death. They're killers."
"And we aren't." Warren asked, getting Hector's hand off of her.
I heard a scream in the distance. Sun Mei and I looked in the direction that the scream came from. Warren was still saying something to Hector but I was listening in the other direction. Sun Mei started walking in the direction of the scream. I followed her.
"You see that?" I asked ,pointing at the smoke.
"Yeah." She looked back at Hector and Warren. "Something's burning." She said loud enough to get their attention.
Warren came this way. She walked past us and in the direction of the smoke. We all followed her.
When we were closer to whatever was burning, we heard people. Not any kind of people. They were enders. You could tell. They weren't talking ,they sounded like they were animals.
Warren and Hector had their pistols out. I put the ear muffs I got for Jeff on his ears. I held him close to me with one arm as I reached down to grab my gun with my other arm.
We hid behind a car to see what was going on. Enders were fighting over some stuff they must have found. Some of them were trying to tear stuff off the car.
"Zombies?" Sun Mei asked.
"Enders." I corrected.
Warren aimed her gun up. I turned so my back was to her to put some barrier between the loud gun and Jeff. Warren shot her gun a few times. I heard the enders start to run off as soon as she fired the first shot.
After the enders were gone, we walked to the car. There was a group of four in the car ,one looked like a kid. They all had nooses around their necks. There was the typical red paint on the windshield.
"Car thieves will be hung first ,shot later. No questions asked." I read aloud.
"You must admit... they know how to stage an atrocity." Hector said ,walking to the back.
"Signed by Escorpion himself." Sun Mei said, looking at the hood. She touched the red paint. "This isn't very old."
"Yeah, it has that new corpse smell." Hector stated.
"We're getting close." Warren said. She opened the trunk. "Come check this out." Sun Mei and I walked over to look. There was a dead family in the trunk.
Jeff started crying at the smell ,I don't blame him. The smell was awful. I walked away from the truck until I couldn't smell it anymore. I started bouncing him to comfort him.
"Who are they?" Sun Mei asked.
"I'm guessing our family of car thieves stole the car from the family in the trunk. Maybe the Red Hand got it right." Warren said before walking off.
"They probably didn't even look in the trunk." Hector said before following her.
I moved Jeff's head so it was buried in my shirt, I wrapped my jacket around him ,trying to protect him from the smell as we had to walk past the trunk to follow them. Sun Mei waited for me before walking with me after the other two. We caught up with the other two.
Then four zombies came out of ,seemingly, nowhere. Warren and Hector quickly shot two of them. I shot a third one. The last one tackled Sun Mei. It was trying to take a bite out of her.
I pointed my gun at her. At the angle I was at, I couldn't get a clear shot. I moved a bit to get the clear shot. Before I could shoot, someone beat me to it.
I looked at Warren and Hector to see them looking at something behind me. I turned to see a guy with blonde hair, dark facial hair, and sunglasses. He still had his gun up.
"No, no, no, no, no. Better not." Warren pointed her gun at him.
"Four against one ,bro." Hector said ,stepping up with Warren. I stayed where I was and pointed my gun at the guy.
"Oh, I can count ,but it's not really about the numbers ,is it? You don't want to trade this little lady just to make a Z out of me." The guy said ,still pointing his guy at Sun Mei.
"Too many in the world already." Warren stated.
"Exactly. Up 'til now, this is just a confusing little standoff. There's no need to get nasty. Besides, I did just actually save you." The guy said. The way this guy talks reminds me of Doc.
"We'd have been alright." Hector told him.
"That's easy for you to say and impossible for you to prove and I like my version." The guy replied.
"Is there something you want?" Warren asked.
"Can we ,uh..." He trailed off ,putting his hands up in a surrender position ,his gun pointing up. He put his gun away as Sun Mei got up off the ground. "Name's Hopper. You are?"
"You didn't answer my question." Warren stated.
"Oh, I'm just heading down the road like ,I bet, you. Don't look back ,right? Red Hand might be gaining on you." Hopper laughed lightly. I chuckled at how he thought this was funny. I feel like we could get along just fine.
"What do you know about the Red Hand?" Warren asked.
"Oh, they are a force of good in this sad and desperate times. And their methods, they're harsh, but can't really argue with the results." Hopper said ,motioning to the car with the dead car thief family.
"We're not safe here. We got to keep moving." Hector told Warren.
"One second. You know how to find Escorpion?" Warren asked Hopper.
"Possibly." Hopper chuckled. Warren stepped forward and pointed a gun at his head.
"Warren." I warned.
"You with the Red Hand?" Warren asked Hopper.
"No, ma'am. I'm a small business man." Hopper answered her.
"What kind of business you got with the Red Hand?" Warren asked.
"I'm their drug dealer." Hopper patted a container attached to his belt. "Ma'am, just between you and me, rippin' off the Red Hand ,probably not a good idea."
"Ain't nobody tryin' to rip you off ,fool." Warren told him. She lowered her gun. "And lose the ma'am."
"What do you want with Escorpion? People don't look for Escorpion. Escorpion usually looks for them. " Hopper stated.
"I've got a proposition for him." Warren told him.
"Oh, honey, I bet you do." Hopper said ,looking Warren up and down.
"Take us to him." Warren demanded.
"I could." Hopper said ,taking his sunglasses off. "For a fee." Warren and I both aimed our guns at his head. "Alright. Guess I'll take you to him. Besides, this is a proposition that Escorpion will want to see in person."
I lowered my gun. Hopper gently pushed Warren's gun away to aim at something else. She lowered her gun.
***
"So how well do you know Escorpion?" Warren asked Hopper as she drove and he gave directions. Sun Mei was up front with Warren. Hector insisted that Hopper be back with him ,in case he tried anything. I was in my usual place with Jeff.
"Nobody knows Escorpion ,man. He's like a mystery wrapped inside a shadow in a ghost. Supposedly he was a big time shot caller with the Zeros down in Mexico. Apparently a few years back he had a come to zombie Jesus moment, and it enlightened him to a better way." Hopper explained to us. He was right about Escorpion having all of that. Except it wasn't a few years ago ,it was a few months ago. And the real Escorpion was sitting right next to him.
"Better way to what?" Hector asked, wondering what the person that took his old name was doing.
"The way forward ,man. The Apocalypse killed most of the people on the planet. But that was random ,you know? There was no responsibility. There was no-no judgement. Escorpion, he brings judgement to a lawless world. And the Red Hand, they're just- they're just executing his sentences." Hopper tripped over his words a couple times ,trying to find the right way to explain it to us.
"What if someday he judges you to be guilty?" Sun Mei asked him.
"Well, then I guess the Red Hands gonna have to deal with me accordingly." Hopper said. He tried to touch Sun Mei's hair but Warren snapped her fingers and pointed back ,signaling him to stop and get back. He listened to her.
Hopper put something in his mouth. I didn't care until I heard a lighter. I looked to see him lighting what looked like a cigarette he rolled.
"Hey, no smoking in here." I told him sternly.
He looked back at me with a questioning look. I motioned down at Jeff who was asleep in his makeshift bed of blankets. He looked down at the baby before looking back at me.
"Sorry, ma'am." He said and put the stuff away.
We stopped when Hopper told Warren to. I passed the bags that they needed forward. Hector took them from me and passed some forward to the girls up front.
"You sure this is the right thing to do?" Sun Mei asked.
"Don't have a choice." Warren said. We all got out.
I got in the driver seat and shut the door quietly ,knowing I'll get chewed out if I shut it loudly again. I set Jeff in the passenger seat. I leaned over and rolled the window down. I rolled mine down too.
Sun Mei and Hector shut their doors quietly too. Hopper was still getting his stuff ready again. Once he got his stuff, he slammed his door shut. The others looked back at him incredulously. I tried to hold in my chuckle at this. I knew they hated it when you weren't as careful as them.
"You people are paranoid." Hopper told them.
"We're alive ,ain't we?" Warren commented.
"Yeah. It's all because Escorpion wants it that way." Hopper said ,finally getting to light his cigarette.
Warren and Hector went to check it out. Sun Mei and Hopper stayed out by the car.
"Hey, sweetheart." I flinched at the name Hopper called Sun Mei, remembering Philly. "You partake? Z weed, mushrooms, krokodillo? Got some Oxy." Sun Mei just ignored her. "Oh, I see. You want something stronger." Hopper walked up to her. He put an arm around her shoulders. "You need a man."
I was going to get out to help Sun Mei. Before I got another second just to think about it, she elbowed him in the gut. She wasted no time in turning around and kneeing him in the groin. She moved and flipped him onto his back. I laughed loudly at what I just witnessed. Jeff was giggling beside me ,not knowing what I was laughing at but wanting to join.
I picked up Jeff and got out. It was cooler outside than in the car. Besides, this way, I can hear everything better so I know when to wish I had popcorn.
"Better save that Oxy for yourself." Sun Mei told Hopper. She walked over to Warren and Hector who were just coming back.
"Oh, baby. You are fantastic." He stated. He moaned in pain. I laughed at him again ,which caused Jeff to giggle again.
Warren walked over to him and held a hand out. Hopper took it and she pulled him to his feet. She stopped him from walking away though.
"Don't pull that shit again." Warren told Hopper sternly.
Warren then stepped away. She walked over to me. "We'll try to be quick. This shouldn't go bad but I don't want you or Jeff in there just in case."
I nodded in understand. "Thank you for looking out for us." I told her ,knowing I hadn't said it lately. "You be careful."
"Always." She replied before walking away. The group left my sight and I sighed.
"I guess we're on our own for a bit ,little man." I told Jeff. He just smiled up at me. I chuckled at him.