Nothing But Dead (The Walking Dead Fanfic) Book 2

No Better

(Seven months after the previous book ended).

It was mid-June, and to William's surprise, they made it through the winter. He discredited Garrett before, in the dead of winter, he was going to leave. Garrett had become the supreme leader of some sorts of the group. He was making decisions that he would not have made before the cold and the snow set in. 

The rationing of food and water is understandable at these times. But there was no need for the dictator type feel to the house now. He remembered listening to the teacher in high school talk about Fidel Castro, and how a dictatorship changes people and their way of living. It sure did. Whether it was for the better or for the worst it was up for the individual person to decide. They were all alive, and that's all that matters technically.

The winter was hard on them but when you look at the cards they were dealt with, they did alright, they got by with what they had. Now, they barely had any food. Thats why he and Davie were out here in the first place. They needed a deer or something to eat. Or getting through the winter would have been in vain to just starve to death in the end.

He and Davie were out in the woods hunting about an hours drive to the West, they found a set of rail road tracks and decided to follow them. While Garrett led a party consisting of Oscar and Lakota; they went up North to a small subdivision a few miles away from the farmhouse. Mitchel, Dylan and Rebecca went South to find anything that could be useful. The others, Dave, Jessica, Melinda and her sister Maggie stayed at the house. 

William didn't need anybody to watch his back, but Garrett insisted that he have someone with him especially since he is literally in the middle of no where. The only thing that was no his side was the weather. He liked the dry, hot weather. If he believes he's right, the only rain that came down in June so far was a sprinkle that lasted maybe thirty minutes and that was just about a week ago. 

He held the hunting rifle in his hands. It was a Browning Bolt Action Rifle, .30-06 Cal. He loved everything about this rifle. From the highly refined, adjustable trigger system, with a chrome-plated sear. The barrel was free-floating, hand chambered, and target crowned, that together with a glass-bedded receiver and the precision trigger delivered the kind of exceptional accuracy needed for long range shooting. Whether it was for Walkers or hunting animals. Nothing got away.

Over the quietness of the woods, they don't hear anything and haven't seen a thing.

"This is pointless." Davie muttered from the back still following William along the tracks. "The only thing we have seen so far is a deer those Geeks brought down, and we can't eat that. "

William remembered the sight of the deer and its half eaten corpse. There was one Walker around the animals body, but it was too busy to notice the two of them walking along. So he came up behind it without it even knowing and quickly put his hunting knife through the top of its skull. It fell down with a splashing sound against the animals innards. A wet and disgusting sound.

"Yeah, yeah." William told him. He didn't really care for the complaining that Davie was doing. That's when they heard the sirens.

These weren't fire sirens or police sirens that the common person would hear throughout the day. These sirens had a low pitched wail to them. The alarm sounded like the horn of a juggernaut. Blaring. Unceasing. Crippling my thoughts and assaulting my ears. In the woods it was hard to pin point the area it was coming from.

"That sound." William said with his left ear towards the sky. "It's going to draw all the Walkers in the area towards it." He pauses listening to the noise again. "This way, come on!"

William bolted down the rail road track like an Olympic champion at the start gun, with his rifle held tightly in his sweaty hand. Davie followed suit. Their pace quickened to an all out sprint as the siren became un-muffled from the trees that surrounded them. The slapping noises of their feet came to a stop as they saw what was making the noises. 

The rail road track had a small clearing where no trees were, but the bushes would cover them from being seen by anybody. They stared at a fence maybe about a half mile in front of them across the field. In the middle of the field stood multiple structures, with watch-towers included. All these structures were surrounded by a double layered barbed wired fence. 

Through the sirens he could hear people shouting in the distance. William couldn't make out what the voices were shouting about, but they were clearly people.

Walkers were being drawn out of the woods from nearly every direction thanks to the sirens and their target was the complex in front of of them. While admiring the Walkers, William sees what he believes is a sign but he couldn't read it from this far of a distance. "Glasses." William threw is hand out too Davie. He wanted the binoculars that they had brought with them.

Davie took the binoculars off from around his neck. "What you see?" He asked as William pressed his eyes against the scope.

"I'm not sure." His eyes strained against the glass of the binoculars. "Pennsylvania State Correctional Vicinity." He took the binoculars away from his eyes.

"What's that mean?" Davie asked him looking at the fences. "That's a Prison right? Probably with prisoners with orange jumpsuits inside?"

"Probably." William spit on the ground. "Know what else that means?" He turned and looked at Davie, out of the corner of his eye he saw two Walkers approaching them from behind. "It means we don't have to deal with any of these assholes." 

The first zombie was blind. It's eyes had been gouged by it's last victim, one last desperate attempt to stay alive as it's jaws ripped out the poor person's throat. It's snake-like brown-grey intestines dragged in the dirt as it staggered toward me using only it's ears and nose for guidance.

William took out his hunting knife. It had an easy 6 inch long blade, it was perfect for skinning animal hid's and now, perfect for killing Walkers. He let the Walker come closer. This was going to be too easy. He grabbed the Walker by the neck and slammed it into the nearest tree. Then he jabbed the knife into the temple of the Walker. The creature instantly went limp.

The second Walker approached Davie. The emaciated man had dirt and grit all over his clothes and grimy body. His dark grey shirt was tattered and shredded mainly where his heart should be. He should have taken pity on the unfortunate wretch but instead he felt an unexplained loathing at first sight. This was a cruel, detestable monster with a disturbing smile in a permanent snarl looking for it's next meal. Sunken, milky white eyes stared into Davie's.

Suddenly, the skeletal looking Walker started shuffling towards me like a decrepit, decaying old man. As he got closer I could see that he had a dislocated jaw showing his torn tongue and blood-stained, razor sharp, savage teeth. Unexpectedly, a flame of anger seemed to ignite within him as he let out a loud moan. 

Davie reached into the back of his pants for his pistol. He fired the M1911  semi-automatic pistol straight into the Walkers head. The .45 Caliber bullet went through the bridge of the Walkers nose and it fell dead in a heap on the ground. "What do you mean we don't have to deal with these guys anymore?"

"Simple." William smiled putting his knife back in it's holder on the belt. "We have to convince Garrett to take that place from those guys in them prison dresses." He reached into his back pocket and brought out a can of snuff. "Not like we haven't taken things before." He smiled again as he took a pinch of the tobacco and placed it in his mouth between his gums and his lip. "We kill all those people in there, then it's ours." 

"That's killing people for no reason...."

"No reason?" William asked loudly just as the sirens went off. He grabbed Davie and pulled him closer. "It's either gonna be us or them out here. When the choice comes down to me making the decision you better damn well know I'm going to pick myself over the murders, thieves and rapists inside those walls."

"If we go in there and kill those people." Davie argued. "We ain't any better than those prisoners."

William spit on the ground again and blinked. He really didn't have anything else left to say to Davie. "Let's get back and tell'em what we found. We'll probably be back."