Dead But Not Gone

Three Girls

Derek

"Since you're the new leader, when should we start traveling to Home Depot?" Angelo asked me.

"Don't call me leader." I complained. "I'm only taking this role for a little bit. We should go back to Gunther first and get whatever supplies are leftover. We need ammo, food, and water."

"You're still in bad shape."

"I'll be fine. Let's let everybody know the plan. We should start leaving around noon."

Angelo and I informed everybody about our plan and nobody objected to it. Xander was upset about me taking the leader mantle at first but quickly supported me. He said I earned it. Alessandra brought me to the tent I was residing in to talk about things. I was kind of nervous, but overcame my fear when it was a question I prepared myself to answer.

"So are we a thing? Because I really like you and I can see that you really like me so are we boyfriend and girlfriend?" She asked with her hand on mine.

I squeezed her hand tighter and looked her in her brown eyes. "If you can find love when people are killing or eating each other then why the fuck not?"

Aless's face lit up as she tackled me to the ground. She got on top of me and our lips collided. I stopped our session before things got any more intimate.

"Huh? Why what's wrong?" She asked as I sat up.

"My leg's still fucked up." I told her.

She blushed in embarrassment and stood up. "Shit I'm so sorry I forgot."

"Don't worry about it. Maybe another time?"

Alessandra bit her lip and smiled seductively. She helped me to my feet as we exited the tent. The thing about my leg was a half truth. I couldn't have sex with Alessandra yet. I couldn't stop thinking about Alex and Hazel. I held myself responsible for their deaths.

Aless walked to Lucy and started chatting with her as Star came up to me and handed me my pistol, a glock. "You sure you wanna go back to Gunther? Are you okay?"

I took the gun and put it in my waistband. "I should be asking you the same thing. You've known the people there longer than I have."

"I mean it doesn't matter how long you've known someone. You've only been with us for 4 months and you care more than anybody else we've known. And for that, not only did you earn our friendship, you earned our trust. But other than that, I'm okay. I've exhausted all my tears and the best thing for me to do right now is move on. They wouldn't want us moping around all day. They'd want us to be strong. We'll do the right thing and avenge them. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually we'll make Rodney and his men suffer."

I hugged Star and looked back at our rag tag group. I had a new purpose. I let go of Star and walked back to the rest of our friends.

"Time to move out."

I was being helped by Xander as we walked to Gunther. I couldn't walk that well but I made sure not to slow anybody down. We got to the remains of Gunther and Angelo pushed forward with Lucy and Aless. Rotters surrounded the area, new and old, so they had to clear them out. Xander brought me inside and corpses littered the streets. Some "reanimated" while others were barely recognizable due to them being eaten. We got to where Hazel and Alex died. Alex's corpse was half eaten and I had to force down my bile. Xander on the other hand couldn't do the same and vomited to the side.

"You good?" I asked him as I patted his back.

"I could be better," He replied while wiping his mouth, "I just- I'll be fine."

He put my arm around his shoulder once more. Upon further inspection of the carnage that took place, we realized Hazel's corpse was nowhere to be found.

"Fuck no. No! Please don't tell me she turned into one of those shitheads!" Aless put her hands over her mouth as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"No. If she was a biter, she would've been eating the left over corpses here just like the other biters." Angelo concluded.

"How would you know? It's been two days since she died." Xander stated.

"Yeah well even if she did turn, she couldn't have gone far."

"Wait, everybody shut the fuck up." John yell whispered. "I hear something in the house."

Everybody went quiet as we walked to the building. John and Angelo pulled out their guns and took point as I stood behind with the others. They kicked open the door with their weapons drawn.

"Who the fuck are you?" John yelled.

Just then, someone kicked him in the head and he stumbled back. Angelo went to open fire but was stopped as another person hit him in the gut with a bat. Xander pulled out his pistol and the others followed his lead. Angelo coughed and John held his head. Three girls walked out of the house and saw the guns drawn on them.

"Don't move." Alessandra threatened.

The girls put their hands up. One was blonde, another had black hair, and the final one had purple dyed hair.

"Ah shit. Look, please don't shoot." The blonde pleaded. "The place was deserted and we needed somewhere to stay for a little bit."

"Shut up!" John ordered as he stood up with his gun drawn.

The blonde one quickly fell silent with her eyebrows furrowed. I let go of Xander and limped to the girls. John still had his pistol aimed at the blonde girl's head.

"What're your names?" I asked.

The blonde spoke up again. "I'm Riley." She then pointed to the black haired girl. "That's Stella. The purple is Violet."

"I guess her name suits her," I joked with a smile. "John, Angelo, lower your weapons."

"Derek they were-"

"Trying to survive." I interrupted John.

John shut up and holstered his gun. "I'm Derek as you heard. Our group is on edge because we used to live here. We got attacked two days ago, hence why the place looked deserted. But have any of you seen a tall girl with long light brown hair and grey eyes around here?"

"Not that we know of. We got here last night and there was nobody else around." Stella answered.

I looked back at Alex's corpse and took a heavy breath.

"Look, we're planning on going to a Home Depot and rebuilding a community. I can see you are struggling so why not join us?"

"Wait Derek we just met them. They could be spies. We already have a new guy but to add an extra three new faces is asking for another betrayal." Alessandra objected.

"Let them come. If they try anything detrimental, we'll kill all three of them." Xander compromised.

"Yeah. They're struggling just like us. Besides, we need to rebuild, right?" Lucy added.

Alessandra gave in. I turned back to Riley and offered my hand. She shook it and smiled.

"Welcome to New Gunther."