Zuflucht

9

Curt~

Milly licked her chops and started to whine which was my cue to give her some water. We were currently a little past dodge city and have been running into bandits non-stop. Today it seemed to be swealtering and a nice air conditioning from a running vehicle seemed amazing right now.

I did the usual routine and downed half a water bottle before giving Mills the rest. I wanted badly to just stop and rest until
it cooled off, but I knew better than that...

My current mission was to find a working vehicle so the trip would be a whole lot easier but with the way things are looking it's gonna take a while. Most vehicles here either have no gas, battery, or parts are randomly missing.

"Damnit!" I yelled out in frustration as I slammed another car hood down. Milly whined quietly and looked around anxiously.

"What are we gonna do, Milly." I sat down on the concrete road and enjoyed the slight coolness that the shadow of the car casted. I couldn't help but think about my brother and how grateful he is to have someone travel hundreds of miles for him. That was what my mother wanted and I know it's what my father would have wanted.

"Wake the fuck up!" I opened my eyes to a hard blow to my right cheek bone. In between my thoughts earlier I must have fallen asleep and gotten company. The man in front of me looked to be in his late thirties or early forties; he had a large work truck pulled close with his LED lights on full blare into my eyes.
He picked me up from my slouched position by the collar of my shirt and landed another blow this time to the opposite cheek bone.
My vision was blurry from the sudden punches mixed with my sleepy state and I found it hard to telegraph where he was gonna hit me at.
After he knocked the wind out of me with an agressive blow to the stomach, I collapsed on the ground to my knees and breathed in and out heavily after coughing harshly. Click, I looked up and a barrel of a gun was mere inches away from my forehead. Already, I thought about multiple ways I could get myself out of this situation.

"Do you know who I am boy?" His foul breath breathed into my face.  Once I didn't answer he cracked me in the nose with the butt of the gun and shortly after the crimson fluid started leaking out.

"You killed my two brothers Gene and Melton." As he placed the tip of the gun directly on my head I tried my hardest to keep my eyes on his trigger finger. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second to get my barrings straight before my fingers secretly fumbled with the item hidden in my right boot.

"Was thinkin' about keepin' you for some work, but my brothers would have wanted me to do the honorable thing. Maybe I ought to just cook you instead." He breathed out as his brown decaying teeth decided to make an appearance. His ran his calloused fingers through his greasy graying hair and sighed.

"Well, time to stop stalling. Makes no use...you don't even talk." I glared at him as he straightened out his arm that was holding the gun. I gripped the item in my hand and got ready for my cue.  A few seconds after, low growls erupted behind him and made his eyes widen. I already knew behind this man's body was Milly bearing her teeth while looking at him with determination in her eyes.
The man composed himself, but didn't look like he was gonna back down. He kept his movements to a minimum and continued pointing the weapon. I noticed his hand shaking slightly, but his finger was barely starting to squeeze the trigger. Before he could go any father, I yelled out a quick "now Milly!" And watched as she immediately went for his back and drew him back from getting ahold of his shirt. His gun cracked threw the dark sky as he shot his gun anyways. I brought my scalpel out from my boot and immediately buried it into the man's calve that was the closest. He screamed out and dropped the gun before dropping to the ground himself.

"Easy." I said sternly as Mills had now gotten her teeth around his neck. Cautiously, I forced myself to get up and take his gun and point it now at him. Deep breaths left my body as the pain from his blows earlier set in, especially in my shoulder.

"How did you find me." My husky voice sounded foreign even to me. He stayed quiet and gave me a reason to twist the scalpel buried into this leg. His screams echoed through the air and I couldn't help but hope no infected were around.

"I-I was still in the room my brother Gene was in before you killed him. I just followed you." He held his hands up in defense as he spoke. After a few seconds, I roughly pulled the knife out and wiped it on my pants before putting it back into the spot it was at previously in my boot. He cried out before he brought his leg up to his chest to hold it (cautiously of course since Milly was still at attention with his neck).

Out in the distance I could hear that all too familiar cricket noise and knew I didn't have time to ness around.

"This is what's gonna happen." I breathed out harshly and gripped my arm with the burning shoulder. Mills growled out loudly in particular which definitely scared the man even more.

"I'm gonna take your vehicle here, and you can keep your life. Now, those things are comin' and I know your not exactly one hundred percent." Milly clenched her jaws a little more for effects of course.

"So, I'd get going if I were you." With that I noticed the infected were a lot closer and could see them coming from the bright lights on the truck. I stumbled my way over to the truck and opened the door for Milly then climbed in myself once I grabbed my bag full of all my supplies.

"Wait, you can't leave me here!" He called out while trying to get up and make his way over towards the car. I simply ignored him and put the car into drive and dodged and weaved the remaining vehicles on the road as fast as possible.

"Ah, shit." I looked over and noticed the pool of red starting to now grow large on my shoulder of my shirt. It had been maybe five minutes since the altercation and my adrenaline was now coming to a close. I slowed down and ripped that small section of my shirt to see the blood pouring from the bullet wound. Milly whined and moved in her seat anxiously as she noticed something was wrong with me.
I looked around the truck and noticed some old rags in the back and used that to apply pressure until I could get some medical supplies.
My eyes felt extremely heavy and exhaustion was setting in along with the pain in my face. I needed rest for a few hours just until I felt a little better to drive.

If things like this keep happening I don't know if I'll be able to make it...