What's left

Caden's P.O.V

The snap of the chain provoked the lurkers to move away from the window. I backed up behind Hunter as he threw the bolt cutters aside. Zakk had his hatchet at hand and Hunter unholstered his machete making a metallic sound.

"Let us clear the house out, Caden," Hunter said with his hand on the door knob. I stepped back a few feet away and watched as Hunter flung the door open. The bang of the door slamming resulted in the lurker's growls to grow louder. Both Zakk and Hunter disappeared into the house, and soon the sound of the lurkers halted.

It felt like a whole minute of silence had passed until a voice yelled, "Alright, come in!"

I felt nervous to go in without a gun but came to the door anyway. I turned the corner to see three dead corpses and two figures stood over them. The only light that came through the house was a glare from the window and door.

"Alright, Caden, we're going to check the rest of the house. Don't move. If you hear anything, yell," Zakk instructed, heading down a hall.

I shut the door behind me and watch as Hunter turns into a door frame that must've led up to steps judging by the sequence of thuds.

I really wanted to listen to Zakk and not move so I stayed where I was and inspected a beat up shelf next to the door. I was so intrigued with this stuff; pictures of a family, cool antiques, and some glass plates were placed on the racks. I blew the dust off of a small glass dragon antique. Being able to see stuff from outside the college was so different. I grabbed the dragon and put it in my pack.

I heard some thuds from upstairs but ignored them. I kept inspecting the shelf and saw the cookie jar on the top rack. Oh my God, no way. I got on my tippy toes and snatched the jar. It was glass and all blue with pink flowers on it. The lid was removable. I slid the lid off and my eyes shot open. I grabbed the handle of the object that was inside and revealed a pistol. Hunter was right; there was stashes in here.

I had no idea how to check if there was any ammo left in it and I really didn't want to accidentally shoot it off. I stuffed it in the secret pouch of my backpack.

I heard a slam upstairs that made me jump. "Guys, it's clear up here but come check this out!" Hunter's voice ran through the house.

Zakk walked from the room he was in and ran up the stairs almost tripping on one of the dead lurkers, "What'd you find?"

I followed behind Zakk, the creaky steps felt like they were going to collapse from under me. They were so dusty I could see my own footprint outline with every step.

"Where you at?" Zakk calls out once reaching the top.

"In here. All the way down the hall." We hear Hunters voice call back. I stay close behind Zakk as he heads down the hall, pushing the creaky door open when there.

We both step in and can't ignore the fact that every single wall of this room was lined with rows and rows of guns of all types. Pistols, shotguns, rifles, machine guns, and guns I didn't even know existed.

I look up to see what Zakk thought about all this. He just smiles and says, "Help me load 'em up."

"I can help?" I ask, wanting to be involved in something productive in this trip.

"Yeah, sure." He answers. "Just don't drop any or shoot 'em, 'Kay?"

"Sure." I start for the pistols and Hunter throws me the big backpack he carries around. I start carefully taking them off of the wall and switching them to safety mode just in case. Then I stuffed them into the bag.

They started with the strapped, larger gun, slinging as many as they could over their shoulders and carrying others.

"We'll need to make two trips." Zakk points out, just now realizing how many firearms were in here. Hunter put the gun straps around my shoulders for me, they were way heavier than they seemed.

Hunter grabbed the bag and grabbed two more guns with his other arm. We all almost waddled downstairs. We speed walk out the front door to the truck. When we got to the trunk bed, we dropped the guns on the ground.

"Caden, climb in and pull that crate to the tailgate," My stomach dropped as he pointed at the one Tatum was in.

"Uh, sure," I quivered climbing on the trunk. I slowly walked to the crate. Is there another crate I could give them? My mind raced and I looked around not seeing one.

"That one Cado, let's go," I hear Zakk from behind me with excitement in his voice.

I stepped near the crate and put my hands on the top of the lid, opening it slowly. I threw the top aside and saw Tatum with his knees bent looking up at me, he gestured a finger over his lips. "Zakk, these guns aren't going to fit in the crate, they're too big," I say still staring at Tatum now with his hands over his mouth.

"We can still put the pistols in there," Hunter said still smiling. "Here, we'll just hand them to you," He said plopping the stocky bag on the tailgate.

Relief fell over me, I walked back to the tailgate and grabbed the bag. I went back to the crate and set the bag down gently before unzipping it, unveiling at least a dozen different types of pistols. I look back in the untopped crate and still see Tatum covering his mouth with his hands. I grabbed one pistol from the bag and placed it in the crate on Tatum's lap. He smothered a giggle between his fingers, and I restrained myself from laughing myself.

Hunter and Zakk had put all of the weapons on the tailgate and slid some towards me. "We're gonna take that second trip," Hunter said as Zakk followed him toward the house. I waited until they were out of my view.

"That was so close. If they climb on the truck, just close the lid and sit on the crate," Tatum said as I scattered his lap with pistols.

"Ugh this is so stupid, you're going to get caught, Tatum," I said, gently placing the last pistol on the others. I picked the lid back up from the ground and sighed. "This better not get me in any trouble, I'm already grounded."

"You won't. Maybe they'll be so glad that we found all these weapons, they'll forget about me even coming!" Tatum said trying to believe it.

I laughed, "Like that'll happen." I realized I wasn't even mad at Tatum, he just wanted to come because I got to go. I heard the door slam from the house, indicating that they were coming out from their second trip. "Stay quiet, see ya," I said before snapping the lid back into place over the crate.