The Rot: Book 3

Chapter 5

 Ruby and I were headed to a man named Bradley's place. He didn't live too far away, but Ruby warned me that Bradley wasn't the friendliest guy around.

"So, do we just walk up to his place and knock?" I asked Ruby.

"Not exactly. When we get there, just follow my lead," said Rue.

"Will do."

We exited the house with Ruby leading the way. I made sure not to land on anything that might mess up my ankle when we hopped over the fence. There weren't that many stenches out and about, so I didn't have to hurry and drop down from the fence. I was being very careful.

"What's with that?" Ruby asked me.

"What's with what?" I asked in return

"You take your sweet time getting down from these privacy fences."

"Hurt my ankle a couple weeks back. It delayed my search for my friends for two weeks. I really don't want to go through that again."

"Oh, okay."

"And I highly doubt you'd be carrying my sorry ass around if I did screw up my ankle again."

"You're right. I wouldn't."

"On the positive side, the biters tearing into me would give you time to get away."

"Exactly."

I love making new friends.

Ruby led me down a side street and pointed to a large, brick house with a balcony sticking out from the upper floors. "There's Bradley's place."

"What's that on top of the balcony? Is that barbed wire?" I wondered. The tall, wrought iron fence surrounding the back yard had barbed wire covering the top, too.

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, it is. There's a balcony in the back too. Same deal with the barbed wire."

After seeing Bradley's fortress, I was having second thoughts, but I forced myself to continue. This Bradley guy might be the only shot I had at finding Mick and Cynthia or getting back to the office.

"We have to go around back. Bradley is usually sitting outside," said Rue. "Just let me do the talking, okay?"

"Just how do you know this Bradley guy?" I asked Ruby.

"We've had a couple of run-ins."

"Oh great," I said sarcastically.

"I told you, he's not very friendly."

"Yeah, but why is he not very friendly? What did you do?"

Ruby looked at her sneakers and didn't answer me.

"Ah shit. What? You didn't like, steal supplies from the guy, and now he wants you dead or something like that?"

"Define, 'stealing supplies?'"

I sighed, "Fuck."

"Well, I wouldn't say, 'stealing' his supplies, Reid."

"Then what's the deal?"

"I was just out looking for some stuff when I happened upon his house. I noticed the gate was open a little, so I slipped into the yard."

"And he didn't take kindly to that?"

"You got it. He was about to shoot at me when I tossed my weapon at him."

"Hey, you were defending yourself. What were you supposed to do? Let him shoot?"

"True. But I broke his nose."

"Lovely. Just lovely."

"And he tends to remind me of it every time we cross paths. I actually apologized to him, and tossed him a bag of food."