Second {Z Nation}

Chapter 12

Season 2, Episode 4 [Batch 47]

     We pull up to a large fence gate and everyone gets out. The fence extends between two large, metal buildings with glass roofs. Greenhouses, I assume. I jump out and grab my handgun, drawing it like routine. We walk up to the gates, a man stands behind them, he looks like a stoner with a long blonde hair and beard, ratty clothes and cargo shorts. He holds a rifle in his hands.

     "You guys harvesters here for the cure?" He asks.

     "Yeah, that's right," Warren tells him.

     "You're armed?" The man asks.

     "Uh, yeah," Addy tells him shortly.

     "Good," he says before opening the gates, letting us in.

     "Harvesters wait in the garage until you're called, the others inside will give you the rundown," he informs us as we file through the gates and he closes the gates behind us.

     Once we're in we all stop in a clump just inside the gates.

     "You think Murphy's here?" Addy asks Warren.

     "Yeah he's here- I can smell him," Warren says seriously.

     I take a large, comedic sniff. "Yep, death and weed-  that's Murphy," I joke.

     "Look at all that Z weed," Doc observes as he watches two men stack bags of something into the back of a van.

     "HELP ME! GET IT OFF!" A woman screams and all our heads turn to where someone in a hard-hat crawls out of a large hole in the wall of one of the greenhouses. As she scrambles to pull herself out she knocks her hard hat off.

     I run over to her before anyone else reacts and grab one of her arms with my hand, shooting the Z that has her with my other- but the Z doesn't die. I fire a few more bullets into its head- but it refuses to die so I holster my gun, grab both her forearms and pull. She bearly budges because she's being held back by the vines that seem to actively coil around her and a Z that clutches her ankles.

     "Get it off me. Get it off me. Get it off me," she repeats as the others join me and we pull on her.

     Vasquez grabs something from the ground and starts hacking at the vines that hold her back. The vines snap and we drag her away as Vasquez smashes the thing into the head of the Z that had her by the ankles. I now notice that what he picked up is some kind of make-shift weapon, made of what looks like curved, tined blades- somewhat like gears- on a wooden stick

     "Hey!" The hippie dude from the gate runs over with his rifle in his hands. "Told you people to move into the garage where it's safe," he scolds us.

     "Safety first huh?" Doc asks sarcastically.

     "You got a problem?" The man asks, stepping threateningly close to Doc.

     "No, no brother. Just here for the cure," he replies sarcastically.

     "He might not, but I do," I snap, taking a step forward. "What the hell was that thing? Huh? Why the hell did it not die with five bullets to the brain? They gonna brief us about that in the garage? And how the fuck did you not hear her screaming- or did you hear her but decide to just let her die?" I demand.

     Warren puts an arm in front of me and 10k drags me towards him by my shoulder. Warren steps forward; "I apologize for my friend, she has a quick mouth," she sends a sharp look back at me before turning to Addy.

     Doc and Vasquez push past the stoner and Addy and Warren follow, Warren gives him a dirty look and Addy helps the woman limp away. I spit at his feet before following them, 10k by my side. We don't have to walk far before finding the garage, Addy helps the woman limp inside the dark building and as the others enter I linger by the doorway, scanning the place. There's a little girl sleeping on a mattress in the middle of the floor, she stirs as we set the woman down on the mattress by her feet.