30 Days of Undead Summer [Zombie Challenge]

June 23rd: #FridayFreeForAll

It was close to dusk when we entered yet another town. The back of the truck was already half full. Glancing to my left, I watched her chug another gulp before putting the truck in park.

I just rolled my eyes. Despite her bad drinking habit since before we met, she was really all I had left.

"I'll be back as fast as I can." I would have invited her along, but she had been drinking for hours. She had become a liability.

"If you really think I'm going to let you go out there on your own, you got another thing coming," she said, her words slurring.

She once told me that she never touched alcohol before the end. Never saw much point. Plus, her grandfather had been enough of a drunk to make sure she never tried it. Then the end happened, and she tried to drown her sorrows in a bottle of jack daniels.

Funny how things never work out the way you expect.

She grabbed the shot gun from the floor, checked the ammo, and cursed. Obviously the damn thing was empty. I already knew that. We saved three people in the last town. Our luck was bound to run out sooner or later.

"We still have our knives, sword, and the bow if it comes to it," I muttered staring out the window. The buildings were all boarded. A few red marks told us that this place had either once been with the national guard or people had hold up inside. Probably more the latter. It was common in these deserted towns lately.

"I'm no good with the knives," she whispered, dropping her head back against the head rest.

"You could just stay behind." Reasoning with her was like pulling teeth. She was too drunk to function with a knife and we lost half the batch of arrows the last time she used the bow.

"I'll go with her," said one of the men we saved three towns over. The entire back of the truck was full of people we managed to save. Honestly if it weren't for the people we saved, we would have both died. We saved people and they saved us. Some of them had food we could ration, bullets, and even something for her to drink.

"I'm going with ya, whether you like it or not. We can probably find a police station, get the ammo."

She cut the engine and tossed the keys to one of the girls in the back. Names were kind of pointless so we didn't really ask for any. As long as you were human and not a rotting corpse trying to kill us, you were good our book. Plus, more humans saved was just one less walking corpse.

We left the truck with her stumbling a few seconds. Though I had to admit we'd been in that truck for almost a full day. Even my legs had trouble holding me up.

I'd taken to calling the guy who volunteered, Mack, in my head. He was a large buff black guy with a saved head at one point. It was beginning to rise up a bit on his head. Reaching up, I shoved my hair into a band before twisting it under my hat. Too many times had we missed saving someone before the corpse had gotten hold of someone's hair.

"We better head out," I said, pulling out my knife. I really hated using the knives, it took a lot of strength to shove it into a skull. Not to mention getting that close, meant either death for you or them.

Walking behind Mack, I tried to stick close to her. The only person in our group that I even knew her name was a constant drunk. Diane. Though she preferred her middle name Regina or Reg. Almost everyone just called her Reg. Her dark gray hair was stuck to the side of her face.

"About to ready to cut that yet?" I asked her, moving behind her to pull it up. Normally she would have done it, but the booze had gotten to her.

"There's a few restaurants up ahead," Mack called, his voice low.

Suddenly I heard it, a creak from one of the buildings. Mack pulled out his box, ready in his hand. Reg turned, glaring into thin air just watching.

The sword was on my back, but I didn't think I'd need it. Towns like these were sometimes more empty than not. It had been three years of this already. More often lately, towns were mostly deserted. The only thing ever left behind was the literal dead, ones that just didn't make the transition or manage to get away.

"It's probably just an animal," I croaked. My fingers still gripped the knife however. Just because I assumed the town would be empty, didn't mean anything. Sometimes the dead left in droves but occasionally there were a few that stuck around home.

We group together for a few minutes just waiting. When nothing happened, we continued on. Eventually we entered what appeared to be the town square. I saw it before Reg, but as soon as she saw it, she immediately headed in that direction.

Yet another bar. That was the thing. Whenever a town was raided, alcohol, at least that kind, was the last thing anyone was looking for. They'd pick medical and food supplies before they'd ransack a bar. Anyone other than Reg that is would steer clear of the bar.

"Go with her, Mack. I'm going to check out the place next door. If it's clean in there, come help me out."

Mack nodded, uncertainty in his head. He'd been with us for a couple weeks. He had saved our asses at the time and he quickly joined us. It didn't take him long to realize that Reg, while she had a good heart, was a huge liability. Yet, I refused to let anything happen to her. After I lost my family, Regina became my unofficial family.

As they disappeared quietly into the bar, I headed toward the building next door. It was hard to tell exactly what kind of place it was. Either a clothing store or restaurant if I had to guess. Peering into the dirty windows didn't help much and I sighed. Glaring down at the knife, I removed the sword from my back.

With one last breath, I entered the store.