Dead But Not Gone

All That Remains

Derek

With the group back together, we started our venture to a new home. Rotters were proliferating, and it made me think the world would forever be fucked up. The trip was an hour walk and the weather was getting colder. I remembered the infection starting sometime in April. It was the start of November and we all wished the outbreak would somehow heat up the world.

"Ya know, I probably would've enjoyed this adventure if it wasn't Autumn and there weren't brain dead monstrosities roaming the earth." Stella said halfway through our trip.

"The weather isn't that bad." Xander commented on her statement.

"You don't understand the struggle because you have a beard."

Xander chuckled and Stella smiled at him. Hazel was walking alongside Alessandra, Star, and I. John stood behind us with Lucy and Angelo. Riley and Violet were talking about the infection and making theories about it.

"I think some country gassed us with toxins and caused our brain to barely function as we walk around eating other people." Riley thought up.

"Maybe some animal started the infection and bit some poor soul to cause him to turn and therefore, the virus spread." Violet theorized.

I also started to think about some possibilities. At the party, I noticed someone who looked sick to her stomach but I assumed it was because she was drunk.

"Angelo," Xander called behind him, "How close are we?"

Angelo pulled out his crumpled map and answered, "About 15 minutes maybe? We haven't encountered any disruptions so it should be fairly quick."

The trip was almost over and everybody looked relieved. Xander and I decided to walk ahead of the group to talk about plans for New Gunther.

"I know I was against the idea at first but now that I think about it, it'd be a good place to make makeshift weapons with the items there. Maybe we can do that instead of finding shitty guns or knives and whatnot." Xander suggested. "We're extremely low on ammo so guns won't be a viable asset anymore. Our knives are getting dull too."

"You're right, that sounds good. I might have you construct everything then. I almost forgot you used to be into engineering before the world went to shit so you should be good at that building stuff, right?" I remembered.

"Hell it's gonna be good to put my knowledge to good use. Besides, I wanna be helpful again. I need to redeem myself."

I looked over at him and put my hand on his shoulder. With a warm smile, I said, "Man just because everything at Gunther didn't work out doesn't mean its your fault. Stop blaming yourself for everything that happened. You're still an amazing leader and I'm sure Mike would forgive you, Xander. With this new chance at life, you'll better your mistakes and help the group out tremendously. I bet my life on it."

Xander looked pleased. I retracted my hand from his shoulder and we continued forward. Behind us, Hazel said she had found something that could be of use. I turned around and saw her holding a walkie-talkie. On the ground lay a soldier who had ended his own life. I hurried to her and she handed me the handheld transceiver. I turned it on and heard static, indicating that it still worked. I changed the frequencies and heard a garbled voice speak. I further adjusted the channels and the voice became clear. It was a woman speaking.

"If anybody is receiving this: There is a quarantine zone located in Midtown! A large military ship will be waiting for any uninfected civilians to evacuate the state. It will be located by the docks for 3 days. I repeat, any uninfected civilians should make their way to Midtown to be evacuated to another state. It departs in 72 hours and its first come first serve. You will be provided with food, water, warm beds, and more importantly, protection from the dead."

The transmission stopped and I was visibly excited. I looked at everybody and they were all cheering except for John.

"Rodney could be waiting there." John ruined the celebration.

"John, even if he does show up, what's he gonna do? The army will be there armed to the teeth and take him out before he can even gloat about Machton. " I stated.

"Do you really want to take that risk?"

"If it means a life without this bullshit, then yes."

John was visibly aggravated. He turned his back to us and inhaled a deep breath of air. He looked back at us and looked around at everyone. "I'm not going. I can't risk Rodney being there and attacking everybody. You think you're safe but the chance of him hearing that transmission and showing up to that god damned boat is higher than any of you surviving the trip there. So I'm sorry but I'm not going."

I understood where he was coming from but I didn't expect anybody to agree with him. However, I was proved wrong when Violet joined his side.

"Anybody else?" He asked.

Riley walked to him, Angelo and Lucy looked distraught but ultimately chose their closer friend in the end. All that remained were me, Hazel, Xander, Star, Alessandra, and Stella. The six of us looked at each other to see if anybody would be next but nobody budged.

"Are you sure you wanna do this John? Together we can-" I was cut off by John putting up a hand in the air to silence me.

"We'll take our chances. I'll rebuild our community and show that even the most basic survivors can be and make something great."

"Alright. Fine. You win. Good luck and be safe." I waved them goodbye as John led his group to their original destination. Riley gave Stella a look of disgust before turning away.

"That selfish prick..." Star said under her breath.

"Let's just hope they made the right choice. We have to survive too and Midtown sounds good to me. Besides, if I see Rodney, I'm killing him on the spot. We'll do it together." Hazel said with confidence.

I looked past the dead solider and saw the rear of a car behind a building. I walked towards it, keeping an eye out for any rotters and saw a damaged Humvee that looked operable. It still had the keys in its ignition. I looked back at my group with a smile. "It looks like them leaving gave us luck."

They ran over excitedly and also saw the vehicle. I hopped in the drivers seat and revved the engine. It purred beautifully and I noticed the tank was half full. Everyone else jumped into the car, Xander entering the passenger side and I switched the Humvee from park to drive.

"You know how to get to Midtown?" Alessandra asked from the back seat.

"Of course I do. Everyone ready?"

When a chorus of "Yeahs!" arose from the vehicle, I drove away from John and his group. I wasn't gonna bother driving them there. Besides, there weren't enough seats. The city wasn't that far away. I knew we'd definitely make it there before the time limit was up. I drove onto Route 32 and avoided left over cars on the street. I was going to make sure my friends were safe.

Even if it killed me.