I have attached a file I made using Photoshop and bit strips. Now don't kill me, I hate bit strips too but I'm not exactly a top artists so I couldn't draw them myself. I just wanted everyone to get the idea of what each character looks like. As you can see we have Turner in the middle and all of the other characters. Hope you enjoy this longer chapter. New characters as well, you might be able to guess who they are from the picture :) enjoy the chapter.
"So when you go out there things will be dangerous. This is the biggest place we've hit. It has over 200 stores and we want to check EVERY single one" Turner explains standing on the podium from church.
Luke walks up beside me and joins the meeting. He was late.
"Where have you been?" I whisper to him.
"Saying goodbye. Anna hates my guts for this" he mutters back.
I continue to listen to whatever Turner has to say.
"You will find coffee shops, take the coffee beans. You will find bed shops, take the beds. You will find electrical shops, strip them for wiring and other various parts. You find a clothing shop, you bring back as much as possible. We need this stuff, if you see another lorry on the way you take it. The more we can carry at once the better. On the first day one team will be in the parking lot to make sure all of the gas is out of them cars, we need that as well. The second team will begin to force entry on the mall and clear any walkers in slight. Good?" Turner explains.
"Good" everyone says and nods back.
"I expect you all back here in less than two weeks time and for the love of God don't die" Turner says as he knocks on the podium with a small hammer.
We all begin to pile up in the trucks and lorry. Luke was driving one of the trucks and me and Josh were going to sit in the back of it. Everyone began to pulls away and go out of Wellington. Me and Josh bounced around in the back of the truck as it went over the dirt bumps.
Loads of people were waving us off. It was nice but there wasn't many, the majority of Wellington was on this mission, around 25 people some whom I had never spoken to before.
“You ready for this?” Josh asks me. Luke was driving silently in the front, I don’t think he was pleased about coming along.
“As ready as I'll ever be, it’s not that bad. I’m actually excited. ” I admit
"My dads never let me out like this before, he must be really serious about this operation. I have no idea why he’s not coming, he must be worried sick.” Josh explains.
"Well he's trusted you to go out. I'm pretty sure you're old enough for this stuff now" I say holding onto the side of the truck as we get onto the main road.
"Yeah, I guess." He sighs and we end up playing cars in the back of the truck for a couple of hours before we finally come to the mall. It was interesting going down all of the empty roads just passing a walker every now and then. I had brought my infamous hatchet along with me, I missed using it and I couldn't wait to kill a walker, sounded strange but I missed the excitement.
We pulled up in the carpark of the shopping mall. Everyone began to pile out of the trucks and lorries we had spent hours in. Luke immediately got out of the drivers seat and stretched out by the door.
"Gather round everyone, we need to speak quickly before we do this!" It was Edith, she was standing on top of one of the old cars about to instruct what is about to happen alongside Harrison and Danny.
"We get everything we can as fast as we can. We don't want to be here longer than a week. Watch your six, we don't want any accidents. Stay alert and for fucks sake don't die. Kill as many as you can and report what you can back to me, Edith or Danny" Harrison said from upon the truck.
"What you waiting for? You know your teams, dispatch!" Danny says stomping his foot on the car.
Me, Luke, Jamie and Josh head off to start cleaning out the mall. The mall was eerie and dark, a skylight roof allowed the afternoon light to seep through. We began to pick off a few walkers one by one a swift kick in the knee and a chop in the head, dark liquid spilled out when I removed the hatchet from the coconut like skull. It was my first walker kill in months. It felt normal again.
"Its going to take ages to clean this shit up" Luke says sticking his machete into the brain of a corpse coming towards him.
"But I bet there's good loot!" I say back as I watch Josh stab a knife into the top of a lurkers head.
We continue to clean the main section of the mall out, revealing the different shops. A few Starbucks, clothing stores, a bed store, a toy store, a bookstore, a restaurant and a card shop all in the section we were in.
"Where do you want to check first?" Luke asks both me a Josh. Jamie stands there awkwardly cleaning the hammer he had.
"I don't know about you but I want to go in the toy shop" I laugh.
"Look we'll have plenty of time for that later, let's think about the more crucial things like food, Starbucks and the restaurant first?" Jamie says his point.
"Agreed. Let's do this" Luke agrees and we all walk into the restaurant it was dirty and had blood stained tables. Fine dining was not an option anymore.
"Mmm what's on the menu?" Jamie says picking up a crusted menu.
"Are you serious?" Luke asks folding his arms and looking around for anything to scavenge. Me and Josh just aimlessly walk around the tables with our weapons drawn. Jamie goes into the kitchen still holding the menu. We all follow and he looks in the cupboards.
"Knifes are on the menu, a can of beans and five cans of peaches. Your bill will be ready soon" Jamie says as he throws the menu behind him and pushes all the items on the counter.
"Nice find" Josh says feeling the butchers life in his hand.
We take the scruffy backpacks we all own and place the items inside. Me and Josh agree to going into the bed store for new mattresses that we can drag out later on. Jamie and Luke went into the Starbucks to look for coffee and stale granola bars on the counters.
Josh goes in front of me as he attempts to open the boarded up door.
"Why would you border a bed store?" Josh laughs bashing his shoulder against it to try and knock it down.
"Seems pretty stupid if you ask me" I say.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time." A voice said coming from behind us. It was an unfamiliar voice and made me jump out of my skin. I turned around to see a man standing in front of me with a blue and white cap, he held his hands in his pockets.
"Holy shit! I think I just shat myself" Josh says shaking as he holds up the knife we just found.
"Don't shit yourself, under wears not that easy to come by these days" the man says giving us a look.
"Nate who are you talki-" A girl comes around the corner with her hands in the pockets of a hoodie with an orange P on the chest. She stops talking as soon as she sees us.
"Its just a couple kids Brit, no harm" Nate says holding his arms to the side of him.
"Where did you come from?" The girl asks me. I knew I couldn't say anything about Wellington so I stayed quiet.
"Silent type?" The girl asks, the faded sunlight shines on her glasses which were surprisingly still in good shape even after the many years that this had been going on.
"I guess you could say that" I say in reply. I watch as Jamie and Luke draw their guns and sneak up behind the girl and this so called Nate.
"There's people with weapons behind us" Nate says to the girl, she shrugs.
"Were not going to hurt you" she insists.
"What's your name?" Luke asks pushing a gun against her back.
"Jesus Luke, give the girl some space" Jamie states and Luke removes the gun. The girl turns around and faces Luke.
"I'm Brittany and this is Nate" she points to the man standing beside her.
"Are you two....you know?" Luke asks awkwardly.
"Ergh fuck that, I'm a lesbian for a reason" Brittany says giving Nate a funny look as she spoke in a strange accent I didn't recognise.
Luke and Jamie look at eachother. I had no idea what a 'lesbian' was.
"Thanks so much Britt, hopefully it wasn't me that turned you gay." Nate sighs.
"Can't guarantee anything" she laughs
"You on your own?" Jamie asks.
"For over a month or two now, we lost some people. Part of a group, I found Nate and the rest is awkward stupid history." She explains.
We continue to talk to Brittany and Nate for the next couple of minutes.
“I come from England, I am...I mean was a student at Princeton. I was studying medicine and then this shit happened” she lifts her arms up and shrugs.
“Smart girl then” Jamie says
“You could say that, my professors could say different. I was good in class, when it came to exams it just blew right over my head” she explains.
“So, where are all you folks held up. You have a camp? More people? Two men, two kids. Sounds like a crappy sitcom.” Nate asks us.
Luke and Jamie look at each other unsure of how to respond. Would they tell them about Wellington?
************
Yes! Before you ask Nate is THE Nate. The one and only Nate from 400 days. A little back story not included in the story is how after being with Russell he travelled north, coming across a group of college kids. Thinking he could pull the teacher they were with he tried to join them. When he joined he watched some of the college kids die which changed him for the better. He decided to go with Brittany after everyone else died. They have been travelling for two months together, they came across the mall and cleared out as much as they could finding the bed shop. Boarding it up and taking supplies from the other shops they trapped themselves inside and had one opening door. Inside Nate is scared although he will never admit to it and keeps it locked inside.