Days Of Dust

Chapter 4

Rick made his way back to his room, when everyone had first got here, they had separate rooms, but as more people came they needed to share more space. Rick had been the first to offer his room but everyone had said he deserved his own room since he was the leader. They had quickly started the barricade when two boys turned up, Arthur and Darcy, they helped with the barricade and were very smart, and they even led the construction of the gate. Rick had put them down as the architects of the group and they said they had big plans for the mall. They constructed the lookout and most of the time Kyle was up there keeping an eye out for grown-ups and signalling other kids, he even hung a hammock and slept up there. Rick opened the door to find Roxanne in his room, she was sitting on the bed with a scared look on her face.

"Wh-what are you doing in here, Roxy?"

She turned around and looked at him with a sad face, "I-I had a nightmare again and came to find you."

He dumped the bag of guns against the far wall of the room, then walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulder.

"You alright?" he asked.

She smiled "I'm ok now." She said in her sweet voice.

They sat there for a little while until finally she got up,

"I'm going to get dressed."

She walked out the door leaving Rick to his thoughts. I need to find somewhere where we can plant more crops, if more kids keep turning up at this rate, we'll starve. At least with the new weapons we can secure more places, after all Matt wants to head off with his group and start their own place.

There was a knock at the door, "Come in." Rick said.

Matt walked into the room with a solemn expression on his face, "We've lost Ryan and Zach." He said in a croaky voice.

"How?" Rick asked.

Matt sighed, "They were on patrol around the fence when four grown-ups burst through a weak spot, I came just as they were being ripped apart, I killed all eight of them, I was so angry."

He looked at Rick with an expression beyond sadness, "They were good fighters, we can't afford to lose any more like them, and the new kid, Jack, brought us these." Rick went over to bag of guns and unzipped it.

Matt's eyes widened, "We definitely need to learn how to use these."

Rick smiled, "Jack said he can teach us the basics but that's all he knows."

Matt smiled, "This is gonna be sick!" he said excitedly.

Matt was practically jumping up and down.

"Go and round up the fighters except Butch and his group, they don't like guns, they'd rather their clubs and bats." Rick had to get organised as he couldn't afford to lose anyone else.