Better off Undead

Chapter 26: Homecoming

For once in his life, Eli felt like a hero. Not just any hero, either. He felt like a soldier returning from the most dangerous mission of his career with unexpected success. Not only had he managed to succeed, he had managed to achieve objectives no one had even anticipated would be possible. So it was that when he entered the gates of the compound he was greeted by many happy faces and excited pats of affection and appreciation. Even Amber greeted him warmly, for Amber. This involved decking him across the chin, full force.

"I owed you that," she explained simply. He nodded his head in agreement and averted his eyes from the big black and blue welt on the side of her face. "If you ever try something like that again I'll kill you myself," she added, wagging her finger in his face for emphasis. Then, unexpectedly, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him warmly. "But I'm still glad you came back alive," she whispered in his ear before letting him go. Eli could only stare at her in shock. She turned and very quickly walked away.

The reason for the celebration was not just because he had come back alive. He doubted really if more than a couple of them would have even cared if he had come back at all. It was not even that he had managed to bring with him all the supplies that they had gathered but lost when they had been captured. It was because he had brought Mac and Robert back with him.

There probably would have been even more celebration if Ryan had also come, but apparently he had been killed when the SUV had been overturned back at the apartment complex. Rob had wanted to stay with his brother, but Mac explained that though it took some convincing and shooting down a fairly large number of zombies, he had been able to drag the elder brother away from his deceased sibling. "It's the kin'a stuff that happens when the world's gone tuh shit," Mac would finish simply as the story was told, not interested in saying much else about his experiences away from the group.

Robert would continue on, however, recounting how much of the time had been spent hopping from shelter to shelter, gathering food and ammunition where they could find it. They had even spent one night sleeping in a tree, using some rope they had found to tie themselves to the branches so they would not accidently fall out while they slept. Most of their journey they had been forced to spend on foot. Between that and not having a map to guide them, they had gotten off course and ended up further south than they had intended, finding themselves unexpectedly in the same town as Eli.

Here they had been relatively stopped in their progress. Between leaving the apartment complex and arriving in this town, they had run into relatively few zombies. Mostly they found themselves dealing with the occasional straggler, but never large groups like they had seen at the apartment complex. Not until they got to the town.

At that point they were forced into a dilemma. They needed food and ammunition to keep going, and maybe a map if they could find one, and the town was their first chance for such a resupply that they had come across in a while. However, the high volume of zombies in the town had certainly made the prospect of going in seem more like suicide than salvation. After watching the town for only a little while, though, they noticed that the zombies seemed to be generally moving in one direction: north. So they decided that if they mostly kept behind the zombies, moving quickly and quietly, drawing as little attention to themselves as they could, then they might just be able to get what they needed without getting into any real danger.

This plan worked fairly well for them, until they heard the sound of scuffling coming from a block or two away. They knew it had to be other survivors, so they followed the sounds. This came easiest when Eli was shouting and pounding on the front door to the police station. They followed him down the alley to the back of the station, where they soon saved his life. From there, it was a simple matter of quickly clearing out the police station. Though their guns were loud and drew the attention of a number of nearby zombies, between the three of them they were quickly able to pack up a car and drive away.