Fight for your life

Chapter Two

I'm surrounded by the dead. There's no way to outrun them, and too many to just push past. The tree next to me is impossible to climb, to wide to wrap my arms around, and to smooth to get a grip, and there is no adrenaline filling me. Only the sense of hopelessness I often feel. I took out my machete and quickly took out the three closest ones, but one came up from behind me, and in grabbing me arm he sunk his rotting teeth into my arm, just above my bandages, as if it knew the bandages would block him. Searing pain tore threw my arm as the disgusting thing tore my flesh from my arm. I cried out and stabbed it in the head, but it was too late, and I was still surrounded. I took a step back and tripped, causing a knee pain up my other arm, and all the zombies around me collapsed to their knees, crawling towards me, all grabbing parts of me and sinking their teeth in. My thigh, my wrist, my calf, my neck, all of them sat ripping the flesh from my bones, causing me to scream- and then I wake up.
It's evident that I had not screamed in real life, but I did wake up in a cold sweat, tears falling from my eyes. Scout and Donnie are both no where to be seen, but Scouts clothes and Donnie's weapons are here, so I know they haven't gone far. I groan a bit at the light from the windows, and take my time getting up and getting dressed. Once I'm fully suited in my dirty cargo pants, belts, camo jacket and combat boots I make my way down the stairs.
"Looting houses is an easy way to live, yeah, but we're getting no where!" Barrett argues with someone.
"Yeah, but isn't it better to play it safe? If we try an rush things, we put all of us in danger." Scout answers, and I hear a spoon scrape a can.
"Scout has a point, if we rush into unfamiliar territory, we could end up in the middle of a swarm." Mudz says, walking past the stairs, where he sees me listening in. "Morning."
I narrow my eyes at him, reaching out and grabbing his sleeve.
"You took my shift, didn't you?" I ask, suspicious. He gives me a sly smile and keeps walking, making me roll my eyes as I walked the rest of the way into the kitchen, where Barrett and Scout are still arguing with each other.
"We don't even know if D.C. Is still standing," Scout whines, and Barrett shakes his head.
"The president is there, there going to have tons of back up and military people there!"
"The more people there are, the bigger chance that someone will mess up," I add, sitting down at one of the bar stools. "But we're still going there. There's a chance there are survivors, if not in D.C., there have got to be some on the way." Donnie hands me a water, a fork, and a can of beans in silence. "Thanks... what do you think, Donnie?"
She stiffens and turns around. "Um... I mean, going through all these houses is... kind of sad, knowing all these families are..." she looks down for a moment, then back up to me. "But at this house, there's no blood or anything, and a decent amount of food... we could stay here for awhile, couldn't we?"
I take a drink of water and think for a moment. Staying here could be okay, she's right, there's food and water to spare, and it's clean and comfortable, and we've only had to kill around a dozen or so zombies outside. But if we do stay, we risk getting comfortable. A false sense of security in this cruel and unforgiving world. But looking at Donnie's face, the thought telling her we have to keep moving breaks my heart. I didn't know I still had a heart. "I guess it couldn't hurt..."
"Do you want me to set up some traps?" Mudz asks from behind me, making me jump.
"Jesus, do you ever make noise?" I snap as he sits down next to me.
"Why would I make noise when I can make you jump instead?" He asks with a smile. "But really, do you want me to set up any traps?"
I turn to meet his intense gaze, thinking for a moment. "I think we're okay with the dead, I'd only be worried about the living while we're here. Setting up traps would alert others that we're here, but not having the traps could just make it easier for them to take us by surprise... What do you think?"
"I think we should set traps," Barrett butts in. "Better safe than sorry." He continues before stuffing more food into his mouth. "
"Jones's right, would the traps really be safer?" Mudz's words give me more confidence, and I nod.
"If someone doesn't know we're here, and they see a trap go off, or get stuck in it themselves, then they'll immediately know we're here, and if they're bandits or something, that wouldn't end well." I say, more thinking allowed than telling him something new. Mudz nods in agreement, reaching over and grabbing my can of beans and opening them. I roll my eyes, and seeing as I'm not really hungry, I don't argue. He takes my fork as well, and after a moment of silence, Scout sits up.
"Did you guys hear that?" She asks, looking towards the back of the house.
"H-hear what?" Donnie asks, scooting closer to Scout.
"Shhhh!" She snaps, and we all listen hard. There's a slight thump, and Scout stands up, pulling a large pocket knife with hello kitty stickers from her bra. She flicks it open and starts to inch her way into the back room. Donnie looks anxious, Barrett seems curious, and Mudz is completely uninterested. He's honestly always been pretty uninterested, since day one, and it seems I'm the only one who can get any small talk out of him, even if it is usually sarcastic. I hear a sliding glass door open, the undeniable sluching-noise of a blade going into and out of a skull, and then the door again as it closes. Scout comes back in, heading straight for the paper towels, which she uses to wipe off her now-bloody knife. "Just one of them, found his way to the door. Do you think we were being to loud?" She asks, pouting a little. "He made his way all the way up a deck."
"Maybe we should be quieter," Barrett says, frowning. "The last thing we need is a swarm of them at our door."
"That's the last thing anyone needs," Donnie says, holding onto the table top for balance.
"Dizzy?" Scout asks, throwing the bloody paper towel away. Donnie nods and sits down in the stool next to me, resting her head on the table. I frown, patting her on the back for a moment. "Do you want to go lay down? It's not like we're planning on doing anything today, right?" She looks up for confirmation, and I nod. Donnie stays still for a moment before nodding her head against the counter, her greasy brown hair falling from its messy bun. As she starts to stand, Scout takes her arm and happily leads the taller girl up the stairs. "Once you feel better, we can dye my hair!"
Barrett leans onto the counter towards Mudz and I like he has something to say, but stays silent for a minute. After an uncomfortably long period of silence, in which I was pretending to be zoned out, staring at the fridge handle, he talks. "There's a window upstairs that leads to the roof, I'm gonna go try and open it." After hesitating for a moment, he nods to himself and makes his way upstairs, leaving Mudz and I alone.
After a moment of silence, he slides the half eaten can of beans towards me. I throw him a glance, and regret it as I'm ensnared by his intense gaze. "You need to eat," he says quietly.
"I'm not hungry-"
"It doesn't matter." He interrupts, not looking away. "You need to eat regularly."
I snort, pushing the beans back at him. "It's the apocalypse, Mudz, the only regular thing I need to do is carry a weapon."
He pushes the beans back at me, furrowing his eyebrows. "You need to eat, and sleep, and take care of yourself, Jones."
"I take care of myself," I snap, annoyed. It's true, I haven't eaten in about a week, but it's not because I'm trying to save rations or anything, I just haven't been hungry. "Isn't it better for you if I don't eat, anyway? More rations for you, which means a higher chance of survival, right?" It's more of an statement than a question, but I still want to hear him say it.
He makes a noise like a growl, standing up abruptly. "Do you really think like that, Ricky? Do you think I see you as an obstacle in my survival?" He looks like his pride has been wounded, but it's mostly masked by the anger on his face.
"Sometimes I wonder," I snap, rolling my eyes. He leans in, grabbing me by the chin.
"Did you ever stop to think that maybe you're the reason some of us are still alive?" He snaps back, causing me to wince. "That before I meet you, I was ready for things to be over. That Scout was reckless the way she was because she didn't care if she died? You're our leader, Jones. Sorry, but you don't have the luxury to die."

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A/N:
Hello!! I'm Baxter, the author of this lame lil story. So far it's probably been less than impressive, I mean they've only run into one zombie who posed a threat, (and she was killed pretty quickly). There was also the dream, but it was no real fight or anything.
Another thing, these characters are new and still in development, (I mean Donnie started out as a boy, but after some 'concept art' aka like 20 different draw the squad memes on my computer, I decided to make her a tall lesbian country bumpkin who gets sick at the sight of blood. (lol I decided to make her a country girl while I was typing that sentence)
Anyway, to my point. It isn't shown well, considering he was part of their morning discussion (even though he only said like 1 thing) and then the argument between him n Jones, Murdoc (Mudz) is generally calm, collected, and doesn't talk much at all, Jones is the only one who can get an entire conversation out of him, small talk or not...
I already ship them, just sayin'