The Walking Dead: A Broken Empire

Chapter 1: Nothing Else Left

It was a brisk morning, the sun rose up to light up the day. The woods seemed to shake in sorrow at the soil beneath. The dead crawled out from beyond the woods and onto a nearby road. A few miles down the road stood a small shack made from wood, along with a van sitting nearby. The door swung open as the driver landed onto the Earth's surface. The man wore a buttoned up, teal, long sleeve shirt. His scruffy beard started to slide down his face as his shaggy hair lay on his brow. His hand was gripping a pair of binoculars, which were quickly placed near his eyes. He scanned the horizon and quickly spotted the excessive amount of Walkers down the road.
"Damn it," He yelled, "There's more of 'em now."
Slowly, a hand was placed on his arm. He quickly flinched and turned around to reveal the person touching him. It was his brother's wife. She was wearing a plaid shirt with ripped blue jeans. Her dark hair was strewn about from the wind.
"Find anything, Javi?" She asked.
"Nothing helpful," Javi replied, "We have some problems, Kate."
"What? Is this about last night?" She asked.
"No," He replied, "It's not that. We have a herd of muertos coming through. Couple miles down the road."
Kate was shocked. She grabbed the binoculars from Javier and looked for the herd.
"Oh shit, there must be thousands of those things!" She whispered.
"I know. It looks like they're coming this direction too." He added.
"We gotta get the hell out of here, Javi," Kate yelled, "We can't stay here."
"Of course, but it seems you've forgotten why we were here in the first place. No gas, no vehicle." He commented.
"We can walk, I'm not risking this again, not after what happened last time." She demanded.
"Kate, just get in the van. I'll go find some fuel, there was a gas station not even a half-mile behind us. You watch over Gabe and Mariana. The muertos won't get here that quickly."
Kate was angered at Javi for trying to leave them behind.
"You always to this shit. Always running out on us to do some half baked idea that never ends good." Kate scolded.
"This was part of our plan, Kate. We waited for the sun to get up, now I can go and get the gas. I won't be long, I promise." He replied.
Javi hugged Kate and told her to watch over the kids and that everything would be fine. Kate walked over to the van, while Javi started marching toward the gas station. Kate watched Javi walk away, clearly annoyed with him. She opened the passenger side door and got in the van, waking the kids up in the process. Gabe got up, fixing his beanie and hoodie while yawning. Mariana brushed her hair out of her face and looked over to Gabe, then to Kate.
"Hey, where's Javi?" Mariana questioned.
"He went to go get gas. Nobody is leaving until he gets back." Kate replied.
"What? Why? What if he needs help?" Gabe asked.
"He told me to watch over you two, and niether of you are leaving my sight. There's a damn herd of Walkers coming and I won't let you get hurt by them." Kate yelled.
"A herd?!" Gabe screamed, "And you just let Uncle Javi go out there all by himself?!"
"They're still quite a ways away from us, so he should be back sooner then they get here. He can take care of himself." Kate announced.
While Kate and Gabe argued, Kate noticed something move through the trees at a quick pace. It was clearly not a walker, but no human could go that fast. Something fast was coming their way and Kate quickly grabbed her gun from the back. She loaded her hunting rifle with ammunition and locked the doors to the van.
The last drop of gasoline landed right into the gas can that Javi was holding. He siphoned the only three vehicles parked at the gas station. Javi lifted the can up to feel it's weight.
"Not too much," Javi said to himself, "but it's going to have to do." He gathered a chocolate bar from one of the broken vending machines. Mariana would love this, he thought. He managed to let a smile grow on his face thinking about how happy his niece would be about getting  this chocolate bar. He pocketed the candy bar and turned to walk back to the van. The walk back to the van felt longer than the walk to the gas station. Mostly because Javi was caught up in his thoughts about the past few years. Then he started to think about his life before the apocalypse. He would give anything to have that back. Javi quickly lost trance when he noticed something wasn't right. There was another vehicle by the van with some people holding guns up at Kate and the kids. He ran over to the van and quickly drew his gun.

"What's going on?!" Javi demanded an answer.
"Oh, there's more of you fuckers? Good, that's good. I'm gonna tell you right now how everything is gonna go. If you don't listen, I might just end up shootin' this bitch right here." The man yelled, while having a gun placed right into Mariana's head.
"Hey," Another man yelled, "It ain't suppose to go like this. We were just gonna be civil about all this, remember?"
"Fuck that, Alex! These people ain't gonna budge without a little encouragement." He replied.
"Hey, I'm the one runnin' this shit show in case you forgotten, Kyle." Alex explained.
"Give us Mariana back," Javi yelled, "or you won't get shit."
"No," Kyle replied, "we let her go and you'll just leave. We won't get anything. This ain't a debate, boy. You either give us all your shit and this van, or I put a new hole through your little girl's head."
Javi hesitantly grabbed the chocolate bar from his back pocket.
"Here," Javi held up the candy, "it's yours now."
Kyle scoffed, "A fuckin' candy bar? You gotta be shittin' me. I ought to shoot y'all just for that. I don't want no fuckin' candy, but I'll gladly take your bags and that gas can you set down."
"Would you just settle down," Alex commanded, "you ain't getting anything like this."
Alex and Kyle continued to argue while Javi maintained his aim fixed to Kyle's head. The arguing between the two got more heated.
"I don't give a shit what you think, Alex! I'm done fucking around. It's time to step it up a little." Kyle yelled.
Alex tried to calm Kyle down as he saw Kyle swinging the gun around. Eventually a loud, quick shot was exchanged from the barrel of his gun and went straight through Mariana's stomach. Alex scolded Kyle in disgust while Javi grew incredibly furious with Kyle. Javi shot his pistol and the bullet dashed through Kyle's neck. As a bleeding Kyle fell to the ground, Alex aimed his weapon and shot at Javi's hands. Javier dropped his weapon in pain, as Alex and his men came over and grabbed Gabe and Kate. Alex swung the butt of his gun into Javi's face with brute force. Javi's world started to fade as he could hear the screams from Gabe and Kate.

Javier woke up with his hands binded and was sitting inside a vehicle that had two men in the front. One was a big man with curly blonde hair, with very pale skin. The other in the passenger side had curly dark hair and black skin. He seemed very angry, most likely with Javi.
"Hey! Where the hell are my people?!" Javier yelled at the two. The man with blonde hair turned around and had a surprised look on his face.
"Oh great," He turned back to the road, "dipshit is awake."
The other man in the passenger side turned back to Javi.
"You're lucky to be alive. If it were up to me I would have shot you dead for what you done to Kyle." He said.
"He shot my fucking niece. I wasn't going to let him get away with that."
"Christ, really?" The driver said aloud, "Damn, I knew the guy was sorta a dick, but I didn't think he had it in him to shoot a kid. Sorry abou-"
"Connor, shut up." The man shouted.
"Well if this asshole ain't lyin', Kyle might've deserved it. Y'know what I'm saying, Lonnie?" He defended himself.
Javier stared right at Lonnie.
"Where are they," Javi questioned, "Please, tell me."
"You think we would fuckin' know?!" Lonnie interrogated.
"We just saw you, nobody else." Connor added.
"We gotta turn around! My family is back there." Javier demanded.
"The only thing we gotta do is get you to Mathis. Ain't shit else we doin'." Lonnie replied.
Javier looked for a way to escape the vehicle. He then quickly noticed that Lonnie had a gun strapped to his thigh, yet it the holster was undone. While Lonnie and Connor were chatting it up, Javi quickly grabbed Lonnie's gun. He aimed it at the headrest in the seat. Connor glanced back and quickly noticed the gun Javi was holding.
"What the fuck?! Where did you get that?" Connor yelled.
Lonnie looked over and saw Javi aiming a gun towards him. He checked his holster and noticed that his gun was missing.
"That little shit took my gun!" Lonnie yelled.
Connor pulled his gun out and aimed it towards Javi.
"Drop the fucking gun, motherfucker! I will fucking end you, you hear me?! I ain't letting you get away with killing another one of us!" Connor commanded.
"Just fuckin' shoot him, the hell you waiting for?!" Lonnie demanded.
Javier kept the gun held upright. He had to make a decision and quickly, before anything crazy happened.

Javier was aiming at Lonnie. Connor had a pistol aimed at Javi. This all was taking place inside a moving vehicle. Javier had to make a quick choice.

(Shoot Lonnie)

(Lower the gun)

Your decision will be reflected on the next chapter.