Maurice was the first of us to pull himself into the house through the broken window. Right as Carla was about to do so, the eater that was in the backyard made it over the fence and headed right for us. I managed to push the creature back with my axe handle and Carla got herself up and in the home.
Carla reached out a hand to me. "Come on, Reid!"
The dead thing from the yard reach out towards me and I jabbed the thing in its face with the top of my axe blade, knocking it back some. I grabbed Carla by the hand, Maurice reached out and grabbed the back of my jacket and the two of them started to pull me into the house.
The dead things from the road were filing in between the homes, and one of them grabbed my left foot.
"Shit!" I screamed as I felt the corpse's icy cold hands on my ankle. I started to kick at the biter wildly before the stench could sink its teeth into my flesh. I hurried into the house, flipping into the home and landing on my back. Well, landing on the rifle slung around my back. It felt a million times worse than falling on your keys.
I grunted. "Ugh. That hurt."
Maurice and Carla pulled me up to my feet. The group of eaters outside were trying to get into the house now. One of them managed to pull himself up and into the window frame and was about to step inside the house. Carla took care of that asshole with a spike to the forehead, hitting the corpse above his left eye. Carla pushed the dead thing from the window and into the group of corpses outside, buying us a little bit of time.
"Where do we go?" Maurice asked.
"Away from this fuckin' window, that's for sure," I replied.
I figured if we could get to the back door of the house, the three of us could get into the yard and escape the area that way.
"Follow me," I told Maurice and Carla.
The three of us headed to the kitchen of the house, I figured that's where the back door would be, and I was right. As we were heading for the back door to get the hell out of there, we heard the stenches outside, pulling themselves into the house.
Carla went for the back door and unlocked it. The first of the biters entered the kitchen. The dead guy snarled at the three of us and charged forward.
I used the top of my axe blade again, pushing at the stench's chest to knock him away from us. The corpse was forced back and in a sideways swing, I cut into the left side of the dead thing's head. I pulled my axe free just as another biter rounded the corner and stepped into the kitchen. I was about to take that dead thing out as well, but Maurice had grabbed me by the back and pulled me outside with him and Carla. We slammed the kitchen door shut, trapping the remaining biters in the house. But we had some problems that were in the backyard.
There was a dead thing eating a body in the yard. The dead guy heard our group and darted up from his meal to greet us. And by 'greet' I mean 'ready to rip the front of our throats out with their nasty ass teeth.'
The undead man lunged at Carla and grabbed the front of her jacket. He leaned in to bite her throat, but Maurice grabbed the eater by the back of his shirt and pulled him away. The dead guy stumbled around and then tried to grab Maurice. Before the biter could do so, I swung my axe and sent the blade into the back of the undead creature's skull, sending it face down to the ground.
I pried my axe free and that's when the dead guy's dinner sat up. She was a blonde woman and the dead man had been eating her neck and chest area. Freash, red blood spilled out of the huge wound in the front over her throat, spilling out onto the grass. She opened her eyes and looked at us with those empty, beige-colored eyes. Before she could even get up to her feet, I sliced her head off at the neck with my axe.
Carla, Maurice, and I took a few seconds to catch our breath. If we stayed quiet enough, I could hear the eaters we had trapped in the house behind us running around in there.
Maurice pointed to the newly decapitated eater. "Look, she was a survivor."
"Key word, Maurice. 'Was.' She 'Was' a survivor. Not anymore," I replied. And no, I wasn't trying to be a smart ass with Maurice either.
"What I'm trying to say is, there's more people around. There's probably some in these very houses."
I looked at the body closely, and the woman was wearing a pair of gray jean shorts and a light green tank top and was barefoot. She didn't appear that she was ready to hit the road as I didn't see any gear around. Backpacks, front packs, or anything like that. Hell, I didn't even see a fanny pack around. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen a fanny pack in years. When did those go out of style?
Anyways, it was time for the three of us to get the hell out of there before more biters arrived on the scene. Carla and I cleaned off our weapons and I had to get a bearing on where we were. We climbed a few yards away from the house we were behind just to get away from and eaters and then we started planning on how to get back to the apartments.
"I have no idea where we are," said Maurice.
"I'm thinking," I replied. We did kind of get turned around, but I knew we weren't that far from the road that would lead back to the apartments. Actually, we were pretty close to the alleyway we had planned to head down.
"We don't have to go that far," Carla told us. "Look." She pointed to the row of buildings a few houses away. "We're right by the alleyway."
Our little detour over with, the three of us made it back into the alley and resumed heading for the apartments.
"I'm really looking forward to meeting your group, Reid," Maurice told me as we walked down the alley.
"Really?" I responded. "Yeah, they're three good looking women and all."
Carla shook her head. "You never, ever stop, do you, Reid?"
I smiled. "I do sleep once in a while."
"So, who's who back at the apartments?" Maurice asked me.
"Well, you have the sisters, Cynthia and Angela. And then you have the tall, skinny redhead, Janice. They can't stand me, like I said."
"I can't imagine why," Carla said sarcastically.
"Do they know how to handle themselves?" Maurice inquired.
I nodded. "Janice and Cynthia do pretty well. Ang on the other hand is a little bit iffy. Skittish even. I've had to rescue her twice so far. But she'll learn how to handle the eaters."
"Oh, okay. What other weapons do you guys have?"
"Cynthia has a survival knife, and Janice has a pipe wrench and a revolver. Only a few bullets left for it though."
"In my experience, shooting at these things isn't the best course of action. You could miss and the gunshot could alert more of the biters to your area."
"I know. Why do you want to know so much about us, Maurice?"
Maurice laughed. "Paranoid?"
"Just a tad."
"Don't worry, Reid," Carla told me.
"It's understandable, Reid. I'm just trying to see who we might be letting into our group," said Maurice.
"If they even want to," I thought to myself. I didn't say that to Maurice or Carla though.
"Gotta make sure we're not letting in any psychos," Carla told me.
"There's quite a few out here these days," I replied. "Actually, your group is the first 'normal' people I've seen in a little while. The last people we ran into tried to steal our shit."
Maurice raised his eyebrows, "Really?"
"Yep."
"Damn."
"Has your group always been that size?"
Carla and Maurice both shook their heads. "No. There was a married couple that was in the group with us early on as well," replied Carla.
"Stenches get them?"
"Yeah," Maurice answered in a quiet, sad tone. "This was early on in the outbreak. We had just gotten situated in that warehouse and the two of them decided that they were going to strike out and find their respective families."
"They were convinced that they'd be fine, too," Carla added. "They didn't even last a full day out there."
"Shit, really?" I asked.
"Yeah. Next day, they were wandering by the front of the warehouse as a pair of eaters."
"Did you guys take them out?" I asked Carla and Maurice.
"No," Carla answered. "We just let them stumble on by."
"Who knows what became of them," Maurice added.
Finally, we made it to the apartment. Carla made it over the gate first and she helped pull Maurice up and over. Then it was my turn.
"Wow, this isn't so bad," Maurice said when he looked at all of the apartment buildings.
"We've got most of the keys in our place, if you guys feel like doing a little apartment shopping. I left my real estate agent's licence in my other pants, though," I replied. "I'm sure Carla and Phil would love to have a place of their own."
"Yeah, we would," Carla replied. "Perverts listening in on us."
"That's hot," I quipped. Carla simply shook her head at me.
I led Carla and Maurice over to my apartment and knocked on the door. We were greeted by a smiling Janice.
"You're back, Reid," said a relieved Janice.
"In one piece and still among the living," I replied.
"Hi, Carla."
"Hey. Janice, this is Maurice," Carla replied.
Maurice smiled and shook Janice's hand. "Nice to meet you."
"How's Cyn and Ang?" I asked as we all walked into the apartment.
Janice pointed to the two sleeping sisters, "Sleeping. Finally."
"What do you mean, 'finally?'"
"They were just so worried about you, Reid. All three of us were. And..." Janice's voice started to trail off.
"And what?" I asked.
"Cyn and Ang aren't really speaking. And when they do they've been snipping and sniping at one another. Things have been really tense."
Because that's just what we all needed after being damn near eaten by a group of undead creatures: sisters arguing! Hooray!
Maurice sniffed at the air, "Smells like an ashtray in here."
Janice laughed. "Cyn demanded a smoke."
"Because of course she did," I remarked. "Maurice, if you have a no smoking policy at the warehouse, I don't think this is going to work out."
"We don't, Reid," Maurice replied.
"I don't know if that's a good or bad thing."
"Me either."
Myself, Janice, Clara, and Maurice decided to let the sisters rest up. We went into one of the back bedrooms to talk things over. We didn't get too much done as Maurice wanted to wait for Ang and Cynthia to wake up.
"How's Cyn's cough?" I asked Janice.
"It's getting much better. The medicine's doing the trick, Reid," Janice replied.
"And Angela's ankle?"
"Swelling's gone down and she's able to hobble around."
"See, Reid? Not everything's gone to shit," Carla told me.
"It almost did out there," I replied.
"What happened?" Janice asked me.
"Holy piss. We happened upon a small group of chompers out there, Janice. A couple of close calls."
"And, we just missed saving another survivor," added Maurice.
"You did?" Janice asked us.
"Bumped into a dead guy eating a body. Some poor woman."
"Did she turn into one of the dead things?"
I nodded. "Yep." Then I pointed to my axe, "I had to take a little off the top."
Janice frowned and shook her head at me. "Can you guys just take Reid into your group?" She asked Carla and Maurice.
"I'm not even sure if we want him," Carla replied dryly. It feels so good to be loved.
Cynthia and Angela then awoke and I introduced Maurice to them. After a little bit of dinner, we gathered around the kitchen table to discuss things further.
"Reid tells me that you know how to handle yourself, Cynthia," Maurice said.
"I do," Cyn nodded.
"What about you, Angela?"
Before Angela could answer Maurice, Cynthia scoffed, "Nope." I could tell that Cyn was not joking.
"Damn, Cyn. That was stone cold," I said.
"It's true."
"Okay, something's up," Carla said. "Sibling rivalry?"
Angela sat slouched in her chair with her arms folded in front of her and staring at the ground. Almost as if she was pouting. She didn't say a word.
"Janice, what am I missing here?" I asked.
"Cyn's pissed," Janice answered.
"Yeah, no shit. About what?? Then I remembered. "Is it about Ang taking off again?"
"Oh yeah," Cynthia answered coldly.
"I said I was sorry," Angie murmured. "I was just trying to help."
"Well, you didn't."
Angela looked up at Cynthia. "Are we gonna do this again?"
"If you want."
"Oh fuck," I sighed. I looked at Maurice. "Perfect timing, isn't it? Awkward dinner and everything. Like we're one fucked up family."
"It's okay, Reid. People argue," Maurice replied.
"Everyone just calm down for a second," said Janice. "You guys can resume arguing when Maurice and Carla leave."
"Fine," Cynthia replied.
"Yeah, fine," said Angie.
That awkward interlude over with, Maurice continued, "Reid assures me that you guys can handle yourselves. And Angela, even if you can't you can still learn."
Ang smiled at Maurice. "Thanks. Glad someone thinks so."
Cynthia started to stare daggers right through her kid sister. Before things erupted into an episode of Jerry Springer, I held my hands up, "Come on now. That's enough. We don't need to be at each other's throats." I had my fair share of awkward family dinners back when things were normal. I damn sure didn't want any with things gone to shit.
Maurice looked at Carla, "What do you think, Carla? Should we let them join us? If you guys want to, that is."
"I would love to have them. It's a cock fest back at the warehouse," Carla replied.
"Yeah, that will really make them want to join the group," I said sarcastically.
"Well, do you guys want to join our group?" Maurice asked the three other ladies.
"I do," Angela answered first.
"You're just saying that because you're pissed at me," Cyn snapped at her sister. Oh fuck, here we go again.
"Guys, please not now. Or ever again," I said to Cynthia and Angela. And I thought I had a shitty family dynamic being adopted.
Maurice placed his hands on the kitchen table and took a deep breath. "Okay. I can sense that things are pretty tense around here. How about we give you guys a couple of days, and then Carla and I will return and see what your decision is?" If Cynthia and Ang don't kill one another by then.
I looked at the girls. "Sounds good to me, because I haven't made up my mind yet anyways."
Carla nodded. "Yeah, I think you could all use a little bit more time. This is kind of sudden after all."
"Fine," Cyn said.
Angela just nodded and got up from the table and limped out of the room and went down the hall. Once more, totally not awkward.
Maurice and Carla got up from the table. Maurice shook mine, Janice's, and Cynthia's hands. "Thank you, Reid for introducing us to your companions here."
"You guys are hitting the road?" I asked.
"Yeah. We should get back and check on the status of the van."
"And Carla probably wants some more of Philip," I joked.
"How'd you guess?" Carla asked me.
"You don't have to escort us out," Maurice told me. "We'll be fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, Reid. We'll be okay."
"Well, thanks for taking me in for the night and I hope to see you two soon."
Carla smiled. "You got it, Reid."
"Be careful."
"We will."
As soon as the apartment door closed behind Maurice and Carla, I looked at Cynthia, "Mind telling me what the shit that was all about?"
"What?" Cyn asked.
"You and Angela."
"I'm pissed at her. Couldn't you tell?"
"No, I'm stupid."
"Come on, Reid. Don't you start with me too."
"They've been like this since you left, Reid," Janice told me.
I took off my jacket and stretched out. My back was a little stiff. Turns out, cardboard doesn't make the best kind of mattress after all. "I know that you're pissed at Angela for leaving, but she was worried about you, Cynthia. You were pretty sick after all."
"Reid, we almost lost her once because she decided to be fucking stupid," Cyn replied. "Then she goes out and fucking does it again."
"Need a cigarette?" I asked her.
Cynthia coughed a little bit and clutched at her sides. "Not right now. Ribs are a still a little tender. Thanks again for getting me that medicine by the way."
"Not a problem. I thought you'd be pissed because I sprained your sister's ankle."
"Fuck no. She deserved it."
Janice and I looked at one another, stunned. "Cynthia, seriously?" Janice asked.
"What?"
"You really are pissed off," I said. I left the kitchen and went to sit down in the living room.
I tried to see things from Cynthia's perspective. That was the second time Angela took off without telling anyone, sure, but Cynthia didn't really have to be that nasty to her kid sister. Cynthia took another swig of her medicine and laid back down. Janice went to go check on Angela, while I passed out in the recliner.
Early the next day, I was less than pleased to see Cynthia and Angela were still at one another's throats. Their arguing woke me up from a decent night's sleep. I sat them both down at the kitchen table.
"All right, we're talking this horseshit out right now," I told the sisters. "Before things really pop off. We get this out of the way so we can discuss joining Maurice and his group."
"What's there to discuss, Reid?" Cynthia asked me. "I'm not going."
Before I could reply, Angela said, "And I am."
"I'm going too," Janice added.
Oh shit.
"Are you two serious?" I asked Janice and Angie.
Janice gave me a nod and Ang replied with a resounding, "Oooh yeah."
"Are you just saying you want to go to piss off your sister?" I asked Angie.
"No. But since I screw everything up around here. I figure I might as well."
Before Cyn could snap at her sister, I stepped in. "Ang, you fucked up twice. Not even twice. The first time you took off is because you were scared and in panic mode. The second time, yeah, you did fuck up. It happens. Believe me, I'm king fuck up over here. I have several family members and ex girlfriends that can attest to that."
"Yeah, and she almost got her and you killed, Reid," Cynthia added.
I swear, if Ang didn't have the messed up ankle she would have jumped across the kitchen table and started strangling her sister.
"What about you, Reid? Are you going?" Cynthia asked me.
At that moment, I didn't have an answer. But with the way things were going, I was liable to take off and disappear altogether, maybe go live out in the wilderness. People in general were getting on my nerves.