Part 5 (1/2)

The other two children emerged from the tent. They were both a couple years younger than the first boy. Bradley could tell they were twins. The eight year old boy had curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and suntanned skin. He had the typical California surfer look to him. His swimming trunks settled in just below his knees, showing off his dirty s.h.i.+ns and bare feet.

The girl was a mirror image of her brother only with longer, even curlier hair. She wore a pink one-piece bathing suit with a matching dress and leather sandals with a broken strap on the left one. Mud streaked down her face where the tears and dirt met while she was crying.

”My name is Bradley. This is Guillermo. We are with two others who are in another building just over there.” Bradley pointed slightly north-east of where they were. ”Are we looking alright to go?” He turned to Guillermo, who had been keeping watch from the side of the building.

”Si. It's now or never. They seem to be heading south still.”

”Good, here is what we will do. The two of us will go down first and cover the parking lot. The little ones come down next followed by you, big guy.”

”I'm Tyson. They're Andy and Amie.” Tyson introduced them as they moved closer to the ladder. Bradley could tell he was nervous.

”Just stay close and everything will be fine,” Bradley a.s.sured. ”Here we go.” He slid down the ladder, holding onto the sides with his hands and feet.

Guillermo patted Tyson on the back and gave him a friendly nod. Then he started down the ladder, using the rungs to climb. As he made it about half way down Tyson helped Amie over the edge and onto the ladder. When all of them were on the ground they moved as a group toward the gas station at the other side of the lot.

Stopping against the building, they waited out a couple of fiends who shambled down the opposite sidewalk. Once they were out of sight Bradley rushed them across the street and into the alleyway. The garage came into view as they came out the other side. Emalynn waved excitedly from the window as she saw them. Roger was waiting across the street next to the garage. The bodies of a couple fiends lay at his feet.

The small party made their way to the garage. Roger did not look pleased at all to see the children. This was a change from his usual look, so Bradley felt that he had at least accomplished something today. They helped the children up the ladder and into the window.

”This place is a h.e.l.l hole. Is this supposed to be funny?” Roger asked as they were all inside the building.

Amie held her nose to keep the smell out while Andy teased her about touching the blood on the floor. Bradley found himself smiling, as this reminded him of his own childhood. He would chase the girls he liked around the playground with frogs and salamanders.

”Just don't touch any of that,” He said in a fatherly manner.

”This isn't it. We go through to the next building. Just over there.” Guillermo showed his new guests the way to the office where his plank rested on the floor against the wall. With the help of Bradley they slid the board across the alley. Guillermo went across first and helped the rest as they crossed.

”Make yourselves at home. There are various rooms up above, and you can go all the way to the roof where there are fresh vegetables growing. You kids can eat as much as you like but don't waste anything,” Guillermo said.

”When I was a kid we had to eat everything we took. If we wasted anything then mi Madre would smack our knuckles with a wooden spoon and make us sit at the table until we cleaned our plates. ”

Guillermo went into his own room quickly after sharing that brief story. He didn't want anyone to see him cry. Thinking back on his childhood like that made him miss his large family. Back then he thought it was so hard to be a kid. Now he only wished he could go back.

Chapter 8.

Everyone had settled in peacefully as night set in over the city. The children went to bed with full stomachs for the first time in months. Bradley was the last one to fall asleep. He had been trying to plan their next move. Without really knowing where they would be heading, he found it rather difficult to come up with anything solid. They would have to think on their feet and just go.

The group remained in the apartments above the furniture store for the next eight days. At this point they wanted to remain comfortable and close to the food source. Also slowing their progression was the high number of fiends out in the streets. The best guess any of them had was that all of the commotion from the past couple of days had stirred them up. Bradley felt positive there were others out there, and what they were up to was a complete mystery.

After another breakfast of fresh vegetables, Bradley gathered Guillermo and Roger to discuss their plan. The fiends were out roaming the streets like an army. Their moans carried through the open windows of the building as they scuffled along in the streets.

The children showed no signs of being afraid as this has been a part of their lives for far too long. Emalynn sat with them while the men discussed their plan. Several board games were found, including Candy Land, which they played the most. An old Nintendo was also there, but there was no electricity to play it.

”I think the three of us can scout the area south-east of here. Either we move as a group or on our own. There is an apartment building south-east of us about six blocks out. That is the direction the gunshot came from, and where we heard the car. After the apartment it is only houses from there on out.” Bradley carved various shapes onto a desk to help ill.u.s.trate his plan.

”I think we have a greater chance traveling as a group. At least until we get there. After that we can maybe split up to investigate a couple of different options.” Roger's transformation was captivating. He looked alive again, and he was proving to be quite useful. Maybe the fresh air was good for him.

”I agree. There are too many devils out there though. How do we make it past them all?” Guillermo wasn't the only one concerned about this. Bradley had been watching the streets crawling with fiends. They have been moving haphazardly for days.

”We head out and down the garage, trying to stay between buildings as far as we can. Maybe even take out one or two of them as we go,” Roger suggested.

”It's up to you guys. I'll go with anything at this point. After being trapped in the news building for a year I don't really want to be confined to one building for very long. We just need to make sure not to get ourselves surrounded,” Bradley stated.

”Let's go now. I think we can test the waters, so to speak. Maybe kill a few of those fiends.” Roger seemed ready for action, his fists clenched tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

Bradley told Emalynn and the children the plan. She worried about all of the fiends outside, but for the children's sake she did not show it. He wanted her to watch over them from the roof. Emalynn would go up, but she would not be able to bring herself to watch as the love of her life walked into a town full of these dead cannibals.

Roger made it down the ladder first and signaled for the others to follow. They edged their way around the garage and crouched down behind a stack of planter boxes. The fiends moved along in the streets. When they had a large enough gap, they jogged quietly across to the buildings on the other side.

Emalynn peeked over the roof at them as they hurried across the street. She didn't want to watch, but she couldn't help herself. Her nerves were completely shot at this point. Briefly looking around the town, she spotted groups of fiends wandering in every direction. She turned her back to the horrifying scene below and watched as the twins played with some action figures.

Noticing that Tyson looked sad, Emalynn decided to walk over to see if she could talk to him. Realizing then that she hadn't really spoken much to him, she wasn't sure how to approach him. Just going for it, she sat down on the ledge next to him.

”How are you doing?” she asked.

”Fine,” he replied quickly and turned his body to look out into the street below.

Emalynn stood, preparing to walk away when Tyson said, ”I left Danni.”

”What do you mean?” she asked.

”I went with her for the first time. She wanted me to know how to help scavenge for food as it became harder to find.”

Emalynn sat back down next to him. Tears ran down his face as he turned back toward her. For a short while he couldn't hold it back any longer. Emalynn wrapped her arm around him as he wept. She let him cry for several minutes, shooing away the twins as they came over to check on their friend.

”I tripped. I wish I tripped over something, but I didn't. I just tripped, slamming into a shelf and knocking it over,” he said when he was finally able to speak again. ”The noise brought so many dead people out. Danni distracted them and told me to run back to the store. Then Bradley and Guillermo showed up-told me she was dead.”

Emalynn pulled him in tightly again as he cried once more. ”It wasn't your fault. She wouldn't have thought that either and you don't need to think that now.”

Several minutes pa.s.sed by and he stopped crying, sat up, and wiped his face off. ”I'm sorry,” he said, noticing the wet spots on the shoulder of her s.h.i.+rt. ”I won't leave anyone ever again. From now on, I leave n.o.body behind.”

Staring at the boy for a moment, Emalynn came up with an idea. She stood and walked away, leaving him to stare out into the streets below. When she returned, she handed him a tomato. He held it in his hand and looked up at her with a confused look on his face.

”Throw it,” she said. Looking down below, she picked out a wandering dead man and hurled her tomato at him. With a thud, the tomato splattered on the street about four feet away from him.

”Here goes,” Tyson said. He smiled, pulled his arm back, and flung the tomato. It too hit the ground near the man, who was standing over the first one now. As it hit, the dead man turned and walked toward the new red blotch on the concrete.

They both laughed, trying to keep it quiet, as they watched the dead man move back and forth between the two tomato splatters. Quickly losing interest, he began to wander aimlessly once more. Emalynn nudged Tyson and they ran to the tomato plants.

Down on the street across from Guillermo's apartment, the group crept through the busted gla.s.s pane of a door leading into a sewing shop. The large window was covered in dust, keeping it dark inside. Pa.s.sing by the counter, they walked into the back room where all the work was done.

Sewing supplies were scattered about making Bradley worry that he would have a needle driven through his foot at some point. The dark wasn't as bad as it seemed it would have been back here, but it was still tough to see. Sewing machines sat on a table against the wall.

Roger let out a scream as a fiend stepped forward into him. Its grotesquely mangled body didn't even have a head. The man pushed off the fiend's chest and plunged forward with his spiked club, bas.h.i.+ng at its frame.

Guillermo let out a laugh, much louder than he intended. ”It's not real man. It's a mannequin.”