1 | I Am a Survivor of the Zombie Apocalypse | ✅

Chapter 9 - Unwanted Visitors

I don't scream. I just flatten myself on the floor of the kitchen area. I can hear Doyle's labored breathing, I know he's still alive. For how much longer, I don't know. I don't know where he got shot, or if he's even conscious. His flashlight is laying on the floor, the beam illuminating the wall.

I gasp suddenly. Seth! Is he all right? We shouldn't have left him alone.

"I got one!" Whoever shot Doyle shouts out to someone else.

"Great!" A voice, a woman's voice, calls sarcastically from the sanctuary, "You didn't have to shoot, now get back in here!"

I hear shuffling footsteps, and then the door is slammed shut.

I get on my hands and knees and crawl toward Doyle, panting and almost crying. This is the second time I've been shot at. Well, sort of.

"Doyle?" I whisper. I can't really see him, it's so dark in here. I grab for the flashlight.

I get a moan in reply. I get a hold of the flashlight and shine it where I think he is.

He's laying on his back, one hand pressed to his head. The hand is red with blood. One leg is bent, he's tapping his foot at on odd rhythm.

"Oh God," I mutter, crawling over to him. Is he dying? I reach him and put my hand on his shoulder. "Doyle?"

"Mmm.....I'm okay....." His voice is shaky, ".....Grazed.....I think......."

I sigh in relief. "Where?"

"Left side of my ribcage," he grimaces, struggling to a sitting position. "Cracked my head pretty hard when I fell, too."

I scoot around to the other side of him. "Here, let me see how bad it is."

He lifts up his shirt so I can see the wound. His ribs are very prominent; I could count every one of them if I wanted. Blood oozes from a long horizontal gash that runs between two ribs. It is bleeding quite a lot, and looks like it might need stitches. Not that we have anything for that, of course. Well, Doyle might, in his pack.

I lightly press my finger to it.

"Ow!" Doyle slaps my hand away and drops his shirt.

"Could've been a lot worse," I tell him, standing.

He pulls to his feet. "Yeah. Still hurts like a bitch, though."

We creep over to the door. I can hear voices on the other side. There are at least two guys and a woman, maybe more.

"They sure got some good stuff in this pack," One guy is saying.

Doyle curses under his breath. They have our food.

"Say, Sammy," another guy says, "you didn't kill that boy, did you?"

"Naw," Sammy, the first guy, replies. "'Course not, I ain't stupid."

"Could've fooled me," the woman says in a serious tone.

The second guy laughs while Sammy mutters.

"So, Lisa, what are we gonna do with this one?" The second guy asks. Seth?

Lisa takes a moment to answer. "Just leave him here, I guess. We got no quarrel with him, and he ain't got no quarrel with us." So Seth is okay. Thank goodness.

Sammy speaks up. "And the other one?" Do they not know about me?

"Leave him, too, though he might have a quarrel with you for shootin' him like you did," Lisa says, "Don't know why the hell you had to go and do that for."

"He's a big fella, had to disable him somewhat so he wouldn't fight us," Sammy protests.

"You got shit for brains, Sammy," Lisa sounds angry, "He wouldn't need disablin' if you hadn't made him mad!"

"Uh-huh," the other guy agrees.

Sammy just grunts.

They don't say anything for a while, and I'm about to ask Doyle what we should do when –

"Hey, look at this!" The second guy exclaims, "Pictures!"

Doyle's pictures. He mutters something angrily.

"Roger, just put those down, they ain't useful," Lisa says.

I whisper to Doyle, "Do you think we should show ourselves?"

"Maybe I could. They don't know about you and I think it should stay that way." He pauses, then adds, "But I might wind up hurting that Sammy guy."

"You probably shouldn't do that."

"Go get the big fella, I want to talk to him," Lisa is saying.

"Yes, ma'am," Sammy says sarcastically. Footsteps.

Doyle shoves me toward a closet. "Hide!" he hisses.

It seems the second I close the door, I hear Sammy enter the room.

No words are spoken, I just hear the shuffling of feet and then the door shuts again.

I stay in the closet, afraid to come out, afraid to hear what might be happening in the next room.

But it's quiet.

Eventually I do ease the closet door open. It's pitch black back here, the windows are boarded up. But the boards on one of them look loose. Maybe.......

         +++++

I creep around the side of the church, my Glock ready to fire if necessary. I don't know what I'm going to do exactly, but I just want to get Seth and Doyle out of there.

I inch up the stairs, slide the door open, and enter the lobby. I quickly hide behind one of the double doors that leads to the sanctuary. I saw them. They're at the end of the room, at the pulpit, rifling through our stuff. Two men and a woman, just as I thought.

Cautiously I peep around the door. The woman is talking to Doyle, who is sitting in the front pew. I don't know where Seth is.

"...apologize for Sammy here shootin' you like he did," Lisa is saying.

There's silence, then Sammy mumbles something like, "Yeah, sorry about that....."

"We don't want any trouble," Doyle says, "If we could just leave –"

"You can," Lisa interrupts, "If you give us all of your supplies."

Doyle starts to protest, but Lisa keeps talking. "We just need the food and the blankets. You can keep your weapons. We don't believe leavin' somebody completely helpless in a world like this is right."

"But leavin' 'em to starve or freeze to death is okay?" Doyle is angry. I hope he doesn't do anything stupid like I'm about to.

Lisa laughs humorlessly and says something, but I'm not listening anymore.

Take our food? We can't let them do that. Should I go now? Sure, why not. Now's as good a time as any to get killed or something.

I burst around the side of the door, my Glock aimed at Lisa, screaming, "Move one finger and I'll shoot her!"

Still having writer's block (ugh), so this chapter is really short. Hopefully I'll get over it soon and be able to write longer chapters again. :)

Hope you're enjoying my story, thank you SO much for reading it!