Rise Of The Undead Part Two: An Arm for a Leg

CHAPTER TWO- THERE IS NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT

The next morning I woke up and felt different. I didn't know what the change was, but I knew if was going to be a slow change that would eventually just hit me. It was almost a powerful feeling, I felt like I did something good for my family for once. But I knew that wasn't the truth. Charlotte seemed to be avoiding me. I looked across the room and saw Charlotte brushing Izzy's hair. I walked over to them. "You ok?" I asked Charlotte. "...I'm just fine..." Charlotte said while she gave me a 'why did you do that' look. "Hey, Izzy, I have something for you." Luke said. Izzy went running away from us and over to Luke. "You wanna talk about yesterday?" I asked Charlotte in a quiet voice. "There is nothing to talk about..." Charlotte said. "No, something is bugging you." I said.

Izzy got over to Luke and he squated down on his knees to get to her height. "This belonged to someone very special, do you think you can take care of it?" He asked her as he held out the bear. The bear looked clean again, it didn't have a single blood splotch on it. "Yes, I want it!" Izzy said sounding like the happy innocent little girl she was. Luke gave her the bear and Izzy walked hugging it. It was like the bear had found an owner again, like the bear was going to be loved again.

"Charlotte..." I said trying to regain her attention from Izzy. I put my arm around her shoulder. Charlotte went out of her way to push my arm off and walk away. I replayed yesterday in my mind, trying to figure what I did to make her sad. Was it possible that Charlotte was mad because I shot Emily's riser. It didn't add up. Why would she want Emily's riser to just sit under that car and rot more and more everyday.

I wiped the sweat off of my face and then I looked up and saw Luke looking at me. I opened my mouth like I was going to say something but nothing came out. Luke gave me a look like "What were you going to say?". I looked away from Luke and I heard him start to walk away. "Wow, what a shame! The family is falling apart, isn't it, Mr. Brooks?" I heard Jackson say from his cellar. "No, my family is just fine, Jackson. Thank you for your concern." I said sounding sarcastic looking right at him. Jackson laughed a little and backed up in his cellar a little. "I just want you to know, I'm truly sorry for almost...well...killing you all." Jackson said with a chuckle. "No, you aren't." I said looking at him straight in the eyes. "You almost killed my family, that's not ok." I said to Jackson. Jackson raised his hands in the air as if he were dropping his weapon. "I get it, family is everything." Jackson said as he emphasized 'everything'.

"I have two cousins, and they are the world to me." Jackson said, but he didn't sound like he really telling the truth. "Your cousins are dead, Jackson." I said to him. "Woah there!" Jackson said with a laugh. "You don't know them, you don't know anything about me or my family." Jackson said staring right at me. "You're right I don't know anything about them or you," I said. "And I don't plan on it either." I told Jackson as I leaned in and looked right at him. Jackson just smiled again and started walking around in his cellar. "You think you have been through so much, well guess what, you haven't!" Jackson laughed.

"Yeah, I know I haven't been through alot, but ask me in two or three years and let's see if that answer changed." I said to Jackson. "Oh, uh huh, sure. I'm just interested to see if your still gonna be on this earth in two or three years." Jackson said to me. Why was I even talking to Jackson? It was all a waste of my time. "Shit's gonna get real, Aaron, you just wait... You just wait...." Jackson said pointing his finger at me. "I don't have time for assholes like you." I said. I walked out of the room and went outside to join the rest of the group.

Charlotte was standing by Izzy, but they were separated from everyone else. The rest of the group was standing in a circle and talking. Should I go talk to Charlotte? Should I try to see what was bugging her again? I decided not too. If she wasn't going to tell me when I had asked her earlier, she wasn't going to tell me at all. I walked over to the group's circle and stood by Becky and John. John gave me a "Did you think about what I said?" look. I did think about what he said. But I also thought about my family. Why was Charlotte so mad at me all the sudden?

"Are you feeling any better?" John asked me. "Yeah... at least I am..." I said thinking about Charlotte still. I looked back to see Izzy running around with the bear. She dropped it, but quickly picked it up and hugged it. "You know, Aaron, maybe you're right... Maybe we should turn this into a safe place. We can go out around the city and find people to join us." Becky said as I turned back to the group. "Sounds good to me, but we do need more food, and we need to clean this place up." John said to us. "You're right, we need to be able to feed ourselves and these people." I said to the group. "We need more cars... We can't carry everything in our one car." Becky said. Immediately thought about the car that Emily's riser was under. "I know where we can get another car..." I said to them. "Let's go get it them, we are gonna need someone to drive the new car and the old car so we need two people." John said to me. "Ok, let's go, John." I said as I started to walk to the garage.