Pennsylvania, Amish Country
10K POV
They didn't stop driving until they were miles from Philadelphia and pulled over for a bathroom break. Addy was passing out squares of toilet paper as everyone took their turn. Only once did they have to stop because of the Z's. Two of them stumbled toward the truck, dressed in old black and white clothing.
"Amish zombies." Addy said, "Really? Really?"
10K took aim from the bed of the truck with his slingshot and gave the two men mercy without any problems. Everyone else went back to what they were doing, going to the bathroom, stretching their legs, or checking supplies. Bailey however sat on the tailgate of the truck and pulled 10K over to her by the collar of his camo shirt making his eyes widen in shock and surprise at the sudden harsh move.
"You can't tell anyone what you saw in Philly." She said in an urgent whisper. 10K hesitated, especially since this was the first time Bailey had ever really said more than a couple words to him.
"You mean with you and that guy –"
"I had it handled." She snapped cutting him off and letting go of his shirt. 10K paused again before responding this time the harshness in his tone matching hers.
"It didn't look like you had it handled from where I stood." He said coldly making Bailey hesitate and look down at the ground before looking back up at him.
"Just please don't tell anyone." She said less sternly, it was almost like she was now begging him not to. 10K saw something flash in her eyes and his own defensive mood vanished, she didn't want to look weak, he realized. She wanted the others to believe that she could handle herself and if he said anything they might start babysitting her until her leg healed, maybe even after. He stared at Bailey for a long moment while she nervously tugged on the end of her hair waiting for him to respond, the girl was a survivor but she was young – a lot like him in fact. She probably had worked hard to prove herself and now that reputation she'd struggled to build was riding on his shoulders, whether it remained intact or came crumbling down was all on him.
"I won't tell anyone." He said and he saw the look in her eyes soften in gratitude. "I promise."
"Thank you." She said and it sounded like she really meant it to her core. She hopped off the truck and turned to him before joining Addy, "And thanks for the help back there."As she walked away 10K couldn't help but get a sour taste in his mouth, his promise to Bailey reminding him of the last promise he'd made.
Bailey POV
When they'd all finished their pit stop and had packed up again Doc and Cassandra had started a conversation about how alive the living dead really were. Bailey didn't care for it so she pulled out her notebook again and started writing.
"I'm telling ya, there ain't nothing there." Doc said, "No thoughts, no memories, no soul. Nothin'."
"Well they're not dead. They want something." Cassandra rebuked.
"Yeah brains." Doc deadpanned.
"You can't want something if you're not conscious, if you don't have a soul." Cassandra said taking a sip of water from her canteen.
10K was staring at his knife as he played with it in his hands slowing spinning the sharp tip against his thumb but not pressing hard enough to cut himself when he joined in the conversation, "When my Pa was wounded, he told me to tie him up before he turned." 10K said and Bailey looked up from her notebook watching him play with his knife while he talked, then he glanced up at them, "Made me promise to show him mercy when he died. Kill the brain, you know." He said before looking back at his knife, "I couldn't do it. I couldn't hurt my Pa. . . no matter what he'd become. I stared into his eyes for the longest time, just looking for some sign he was still in there."
"Did you see anything?" Cassandra asked softly and 10K looked up at them and only shook his head.
"What'd you do?" Doc asked.
"I killed it." He said sternly his voice cold.
"Damn, Kid." Doc said in awe, "You had to put down your own dad?"
"I didn't kill him." 10K snapped, "I killed it."
"But if it's not alive, how did you kill it?" Cassandra asked.
"Piked it. Right here." He tapped his knife to the center of his forehead. "My first kill." Then he looked back down at his knife again, "I always wish he knew, you know, somehow, knew that I kept my promise." Then he turned to look over the side of the truck clearly not wanting to make eye contact with anybody. He caught Bailey staring at him in his peripheral vision and turned to her.
"What?" he asked not as coldly as before and she looked back down at her notebook, but he noticed that she didn't write anything, just stared at a blank page.
After hearing 10K talk about his father Bailey couldn't help but look at the sniper differently. So far 10K hadn't shown much emotion other than a drive to kill zombies. Bailey had tried to figure him out, it was something she exceled at, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get a read on him, which is what led to her suspicious attitude toward the boy. She was always cautious when she couldn't easily find other people's motives for their actions, usually those people always had something to hide and that made them dangerous. But when 10K talked about his Pa and having to kill him and the promise he'd made Bailey could see the pain in his eyes, even though he'd tried to hide it. He hadn't made eye contact with anyone since, leading Bailey to believe that 10K had had no one to confide in before meeting them. Many people who'd lived this long in the post-apocalyptic world all shared a lot, like understanding what it was like to lose people you cared about, having to go sometimes days without food, or having to walk for miles with no hope in sight. But being alone, as alone as 10K had been, was an experience Bailey never had to endure. She'd had Addy from the beginning, she'd always had Addy, even in the worst of times her red headed best friend had been there, supporting her, mourning with her, helping her any way she could. 10K had none of that, all he'd had was himself, his rifle, a slingshot and the Z's. The only other person with him was his father and the world had taken that from him too. Bailey looked back over to him in the bed of the truck, he was watching the landscape – no doubt checking for zombies to add to his kill count – and just by looking at him Bailey would never have guessed he'd kept so much pain bottled up inside. It made her wonder, in a good way, what else was 10K hiding about himself?
Not much later Doc slammed the side of the truck, "Humans, six o'clock." He called to the others as a small breaking down orange clown car appeared behind them on the road. It didn't keep up with them though, their truck was in much better condition so none of them were too worried about it, that was until the road block. There were several zombies milling around the road in front of them and as they slowed down the truck the clown car was starting to catch up. 10K hopped out of the truck before it even came to a halt and took off.
"Where's he going?" Doc asked as Bailey got up, swung her messenger bag over her chest and made to follow him. "Hey Kid!" Doc called then saw Bailey stand, "Bailey. . . "
"Don't worry Doc." She said over her shoulder, "I'll watch his back." And she hopped out and followed the sniper. There were some trees off to the side where 10K was headed, she saw him pick a good one for climbing and hoisted himself into the branches. He loaded his gun just as she caught up with him.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked.
"Figured you could use some back up." She said with a casual shrug.
"Thanks, but I do pretty well on my own." He said just as a zombie lurched from behind the tree going to make a grab at him. Before the Z could reach him and before 10K could grab his knife Bailey already had her hatchet buried in it's skull, pulling it out and leaving a grotesque vertical gash in the middle of it's head and 10K watched it drop to the ground, his expression seeming impressed. Then Bailey turned and saw the group at gunpoint.
"Shit." She whispered under her breath getting closer to the tree so the zombie impersonators wouldn't see her. 10K noticed her change in demeanor and turned back to his scope taking aim and getting ready to fire. Bailey saw the clown car pull up behind the group and more people got out with guns, it looked like they were with the fake zombies, which meant they'd walked right into a trap. 10K took a shot and hit a real zombie in the dead center of it's head he aimed again to take out one of the living this time but Garnett held up his hand in a closed fist signaling him to hold his fire. The two groups faced off for a bit and Bailey's fingers started to get twitchy itching to drive her hatchet and her knife into the thieves heads. Garnett ended up ordering their people to put down their weapons as they handed over their truck. 10K lowered his rifle and got out of the tree.
"Damn it." Bailey muttered.
"It could be worse." 10K said, "Someone could be dead." He reminded her as they headed back to the others. Warren went to grab the door of the clown car the thieves had left behind when it fell off the car completely.
"Beautiful." She said sarcastically as Mack took the door and threw it into the grass then they all piled in. Garnett, Warren, Cassandra and Murphy got in the actual car while Mack and Addy sat in the front where the hood was missing. Doc and 10K were perched on the back window and Bailey sat behind them on the trunk holding onto the sides so she wouldn't slide off. The car was slow but it was better than walking and in a relatively short amount of time they caught up with their truck again. It was parked while the thieves held a family of four at gunpoint and their group immediately stopped to help, each one drawing their weapons.
"Drop your weapons on the ground. Or the first shot takes your head off." Garnett warned coming up behind the man they assumed was the leader. The rest stood behind him Doc on Garnett's far right next to Cassandra, on Garnett's left were Addy and Mack then Warren. Bailey was close to Warren on the side of the road where the pavement met the dirt and 10K was farther off to her left a few paces up the hill.
"You heard the man, drop your weapons." The father said holding his machine gun while his wife held their two children close.
"Now." Garnett demanded and the thieves had no choice but to surrender. When he moved closer to take the gun on the ground he noticed something Bailey couldn't see and asked. "What's this?"
"A robbery." The father said before he opened fire on the thieves, his wife and kids also taking out guns and killing the men. Their group was too shocked to do much when the father turned his gun on them.
"Drop your weapons, now. I don't want to have to kill you." He said as those with guns put them on the ground while Bailey and Addy held their melee weapons down. 10K kept his rifle in hand but aimed it at the ground and took his hand away from the trigger holding it in the air. This was good enough for the family as they hopped in the truck and took off.
"Never get outta the boat." Bailey heard Doc mutter as they all piled back in the clown car. Bailey was in her old spot along with the four in the car but Doc and 10K had traded places with Mack and Addy for this ride.
"Stop the car!" Doc said when they'd driven a bit further down the road. "Oh, it's the family." He said as Bailey leaned over and saw Z's munching on the family for lunch. Everyone seemed too shocked to do anything so Bailey hopped off the back of the car and made her way over to the Z's. There were only six of them, one on each member of the family and two hobbling around like vultures looking for a good spot to dig in. As she passed the car she saw 10K move to aim his gun but Doc stopped him.
"Kid, let her do this. Trust me, she's got this."
Bailey grabbed her knife in her right hand and piked the two closest zombies who were too busy with their fresh meat to give her much trouble. The two hobbling vultures saw her and started to go for her but she tossed her knife aside and pulled out her hatchet. She swung and got the next Z right above its ear getting her ax in deep and having trouble pulling it out. The second Z that came at her she knocked off its feet by kicking it in the chest. Then her ax pulled out smoothly and she put her foot on the zombie she'd toppled over and brought her hatchet down in the middle of its skull. The zombie that had been chewing on the father got up and made his way toward her moving faster than the others but one good swing left him with a gash going horizontally through his face. The final Z she kicked off the kid's corpse and straddled bringing the handle of her ax through its eye socket. She then brushed her loose hair from her face and stood up. She put her hatchet back in its holster on her right hip and retrieved her knife putting it in its sheath on her left hip.
"We've got to get off this road." Garnett said taking in Bailey's freshly blood spattered appearance.
«»
They cleared the road of the bodies then hopped back in the truck. Warren drove with Garnett riding shotgun while Doc, Murphy and Cassandra took the back seats leaving Mack, 10K, Addy and Bailey in the bed.
"You're a mess." Addy said from beside her on the side of the truck opposite the boys. The red head ran her fingers through Bailey's tangled and bloodied hair as her friend shrugged.
"It's the apocalypse." She said looking off at the passing landscape trying to get the image of the family being chewed on out of her head.
"Still." Addy said as she began to pull Bailey's hair into sections.
"Addy please, no more braiding."
"Just a little one." She whined and Bailey stopped protesting figuring there was enough negativity in the world and if it made Addy happy oh well, why not? She took the top half of Bailey's hair and made a simple three plait braid down the middle leaving the rest of her hair loose, along with her bangs which were once again in her face. There wasn't much she could do about the blood but she tried her best to de-tangle her hair by running her fingers through it as they drove.
Eventually, the wide open fields became a small town and they started checking buildings for some means of communicating with Citizen Z. Addy called to Warren making her stop at an abandoned fast food restaurant. She hopped over the side of the truck and rushed over to the drive through. When Warren parked the truck Doc joined Addy with some tools and they started working on prying the back off of the metal clown face that had a microphone in its mouth. Addy started pulling at wires while giving instructions to the rest of the crew.
"Bailey can you get that cord, the one that goes with the satellite dish? 10K if you could hold the dish up, there aren't many trees or tall buildings so we might get a signal. Mack, I need my solar panel."
10K took the dish and lifted it onto his shoulder for better stability, Bailey plugged the wire into the end of it before unrolling the rest and taking the opposite end to Addy. Her friend took the cord and began cutting the end so she could get it to wrap around something inside the drive thru clown. She fiddled with a few more things before she determined the connection was secure.
"Okay, that should do it."
"Citizen Z?" Garnett said into the clowns face. "This is Delta X-ray Delta, looking for Citizen Z."
When they got no response Addy headed back to the truck. "10K try turning to the left a bit." She coached and Garnett tried again. It went on like that for hours, 10K shifting the dish while Garnett tried again and again to contact Citizen Z.
"This is Sergeant Charles Garnett calling Northern Light. Charles Garnett calling Northern Light. Come in Northern Light. Can you read me? Citizen Z, are you there? Over."
"Yes, this is Northern Light for Garnett. Citizen Z hitting you back. Go for Garnett."
"Thank God we've been trying to make this work for hours."
"What are you broadcasting on?" he asked.
"Uh, Clowny the French Fry guy." Garnett responded. "One of our team, Carver, jerry-rigged a drive thru camera." He explained as Bailey sat on the side of the truck bed while Addy sat on the tailgate telling 10K whether to hold the dish higher or lower.
"Addy Carver?" Citizen Z asked.
"Yeah. . . "
"Is she there? I wanna say hi."
"Okay. . . " Garnett said turning and waving Addy over.
"Hi Addy." Citizen Z said when she approached the camera.
"Hey." She replied unsure as to why CZ wanted to talk to her though Bailey had a pretty good guess.
"How's it going down there?" he asked and Bailey couldn't help but snicker under her breath which caught 10K's attention as he looked at her over the dish.
"Um, it's pretty eff'd up actually. How's it going wherever you are?"
"Aw you know, same old same old. Busy keeping an eye on the world. What can I do for you folks?"
"Can we get a chocolate shake and fries for Ten Thousand?" Doc asked pushing his way into the group around the camera.
"Could we please get on with this before the Z's find us?" Murphy asked rudely pulling Doc back and away from the others. Bailey rolled her eyes at his comment and turned to 10K, doing her best to drown out the 'savior of humanity'.
"Fries and a chocolate shake?" Bailey asked him and she noticed his face turned slightly pink with blush.
"I've never had fast food before." He admitted adjusting the dish again to keep from having to make eye contact with her.
"Wait is that Murphy?. . . Outstanding, good to see you're still alive sir." She heard CZ say over the drive thru system.
"Yeah but he won't be for long if we don't get off this highway." Garnett said taking control of the conversation again. "We're in desperate need of alternate transpo. We're looking for an airplane, or a chopper or a hot air balloon. Anything airborne."
"Uh. . . there is one thing. I've been monitoring some random transmissions from what's left of the Emergency Headquarters for Infection Control. I can hear them but they don't respond when I reply. And it's pretty garbled. General McCandles might still be holed up there. . . You're in luck, I have visual confirmation on that chopper. It looks like it's still there."
"Where is it?"
"McLean, Virginia. Twenty clicks due west of Washington DC. Look for a high rise with structural damage. And a chopper on the roof."
"Now that's one hundred miles south from here. We're going west not south. West." Murphy complained.
"Do you want to get off the road or not?" Garnett snapped at him.
"Puppies and kittens!" Warren cried.
"We gotta go." Garnett said hurriedly into the mic before they all jumped into the truck and took off. 10K sat down and put the dish down in the bed of the truck swapping it for his rifle and holding it ready in case any of the zombies got too close.
Emergency Headquarters Infection Control
McLean, Virginia
When they finally pulled up to the HQ it was a mess, but really what could they expect? A few zombies were milling around the grounds while several others were already piked and decaying on the ground among broken cars and barrels and other debris. They pulled the truck up to the main entrance which was heavily equipped with a tall fence and barbed wire, it would keep out Z's pretty effectively – but not humans. 10K was standing in the bed of the truck with his rifle pointed at the sky while Mack, Doc and Cassandra hopped out. Bailey stayed in the truck standing by 10K with her hands on her hips - one on each weapon. Addy, Warren, Garnett and Murphy got out of the truck too and with their weapons drawn approached the entrance.
"Not exactly what I was hoping for." Garnett said as they approached the steps.
"One of these days you're going to learn to quit hoping for things." Murphy muttered.
"You better hope not cause that's when we leave your ass at the side of the road." Warren said with her gun pointed ahead of her, her finger on the trigger ready to mercy any threat that came her way.
"Halt! Who goes there?" A guard called with his gun aimed on them but Bailey saw something off about him. He didn't look nearly as ready to shoot as Warren did, his finger twitching back and forth on and off the trigger while his eyes scanned their small crowd.
"Sergeant Charles Garnett, National Guard. This is Lieutenant Roberta Warren, also National Guard."
"State your business." The guard demanded in a somewhat shaky voice.
"We're on a high priority mission to get this man to a CDC lab in California." Garnett explained, "We were sent here by an intel officer from the NSA to see General McCandles. We need his help finding transpo. We were told he has a helicopter."
The man licked his lips and his face twitched a bit and even from her far position in the bed Bailey could still see it. She tried to hide her smirk, whoever that guard was he was an open book for Bailey, though there wasn't much to read, and Bailey leaned over to 10K and whispered in his ear, "Druggie." She saw him look at her out of the corner of his eye and when he saw her cautious gaze his grip on his rifle changed from casual to ready to fire at any given moment and she stepped back out of his personal space.
"Yeah, he's got a chopper." The guard said, his voice still wavering but it didn't match his expression which was stern. He must be having a serious withdrawal, Bailey thought. "But General McCandles is a very busy man. He's got the entire east coast under his command. He can't worry about some raggedy-ass group of civilians on a suicide mission. I suggest you move on before the infected find you."
"Nothing raggedy-ass about this group of civilians, sir." Warren said with an edge in her tone, "And this man has important information about a vaccine for the zombie virus."
The guard didn't lower his gun as he walked down the stairs and approached them.
"He smells like a damn Z." he said when he got closer to Murphy.
"You don't smell so good yourself septic tank." Murphy snapped back at him sounding offended.
"You gonna help us or not?" Garnett asked getting tired of the guard.
"You want to see the General? You're going to have to pay a tribute. Gesture of goodwill to show him you're serious."
"What kind of tribute you have in mind?" Garnett asked.
"Our medic has been MIA over a year." He said and Bailey rolled her eyes, the guard probably killed the medic so he could take all the drugs for himself, she thought, "We need painkillers, antibiotics. Anything you've got." The guard said and Warren and Garnett turned to Doc who was standing only a few feet behind Murphy.
"I'll get my bag." He said sounding saddened that he was about to give up some of his stash. Bailey felt a pair of eyes on her and noticed 10K was staring, it was intense like he was trying to figure her out, good luck, she scoffed internally. If he hadn't fully believed her about the guard before he definitely did now seeing where the guard had taken the conversation. She noticed his knuckles become white as he gripped his rifle tighter ready to use it. Doc grabbed his bag from the truck and brought it over, resting it on a barrel and opening it up.
"I got aspirin, tetracycline, Cipro. That should knock out most any infection." He said but the guard only nodded for him to go on not impressed by what he had. "And OxyContin –"
"The Oxy." The guard said instantly perking up, "We need painkillers." He said his voice now desperate.
Doc gave him one but the guard didn't look satisfied, "You want to see the General or not?" he asked and Doc reluctantly pulled out another three pills. "That'll do." The guard said and immediately threw all the pills in his mouth.
"Hey!" Doc said as the guard chewed before he swallowed. One of his eyes twitched and he craned his neck and exhaled deeply before looking at them like he was in la la land, "The General will see you now." He said smiling like a moron.
He took Warren, Doc, Garnett and Murphy up the concrete steps to the intercom. Mack followed with Addy and they stayed on the steps with Cassandra while 10K and Bailey stayed in the truck, 10K turned and checked the area for Z's, none of them were too close yet but he was still ready for them.
"Why are you wasting my time?" Bailey heard from the intercom.
"General McCandles sir, we have a National Guard unit and several civilians requesting permission to speak to you." The Druggie said.
"Is sweet Jesus with them?"
"No sir, I don't believe so."
"Then tell 'em to go to hell! I've got a war to fight!. . . Where's that close air support I ordered? Tell the Admiral I need those subs in position by 0800. Bravo Company hold your position at all costs. Repeat all costs."
"You heard the General." The guard said still sounding spaced out.
"General McCandles sir," Garnett said pushing the Druggie out of his way and speaking into the intercom himself. "We're on a mission of extreme importance, by direct order from the President. It's imperative that we find air transport to Mount Wilson CDC lab in California."
"Sorry I'm busy. . .Where are my reinforcements?"
"You heard the man time to go." The guard said.
"That's it?" Doc asked stepping forward and grabbing the guard by his protective vest. "I've a good mind to make you barf up my OxyContin!"
"Doc, Doc stand down-" Garnett said not wanting trouble with a man who had a full automatic rifle and was soaring on cloud nine.
"Did you say Doc as in doctor?" the General's voice came back on the intercom.
"Yeah our team includes a medical doctor." Garnett said.
"Well why didn't you say so? Send him up. I have a wounded man in need of medical attention." Warren and Garnett tried to go through the main door but the guard stopped them again.
"Just the doctor, the rest of you wait here."
"I got this." Doc reassured them grabbing his bag off the ground.
"Hey, hey, talk to him about the chopper." Garnett said.
"All right." Doc promised before heading inside.