Z-Day Chronicles: Genesis

Chapter 9

Jake searched high and low over the base looking for Nick. He arrived in the mess hall where the other survivors took refuge, and found Nick helping Sam tend to the wounded.

"What do you want?" Nick asked. "Can't you see I'm a little busy here?"

"As a matter of fact," Jake answered. "I thought I'd come help you out with some of these people."

"Well, you did help us get rid of those bikers. I suppose I can trust you to bandage up a few wounds."

Jake proceeded to give aid to a child that took a bullet in the arm.

"That man that saved Alana... the guy that was shot... was he a good friend of yours?"

"Arnold? Yeah, he was. Mainly Brandon's."

"Who?"

Jake chuckled a bit. "The sniper. By the way, sorry about what happened earlier. Me and my group actually thought this place was abandoned a week ago. We didn't expect anyone here"

"Well, as long as you don't try any funny business, you can stay. Not for long, mind you."

Jake turned his head to Nick. "We were only planning to stay for one night. We were just passing through. If it's too much trouble, we can always head out and find somewhere else to hunker down."

Nick shook his head and nodded. "No worries," he responded. "It's no trouble. Honestly, I thought about leaving as well, but I don't know of any other place that would be safe."

Jake was finished patching up the wounded kid, then handed Nick a map.

"You're in luck," Jake reassured. "Because I do. Me and my group are heading to Fort Benning, Georgia. They are taking in survivors."

"Yeah, right," Nick scoffed. "That place is also rumored to be overrun, just like everywhere else."

Jake showed Nick his radio. "I've been keeping in contact with them."

"So you are military," Nick responded. "I mean, I kinda figured with the get up and all."

"Navy. So is David Miller, the older guy, and Matthew Stewart. Brandon Peterson is a Marine, and Arnold Lancaster..."

Jake hesitated for a moment. "...Was SWAT."

Nick was finished patching up an elderly couple that was wounded.

"Look, Nick," Jake continued. "This place is not safe. Me and my group, we have quite a few supplies and a lot of firepower. You have supplies as well, and people that need to be some place that's a lot better than this. Come with us. We can pool our resources in...."

"No," Nick interrupted. "If we go out there, then there's a good chance that we'll be overrun by the undead."

"Nick," Jake persuaded. "I know this sounds blunt, but you have a much better chance out there with the undead than you do here if more gangs show up. If my group wasn't here today, then you would've lost a lot of more people, or everyone at that."

Nick thought about Jake's offer for a moment. "Let me talk with the others," he suggested. "Better yet, I'll set up a meeting tonight so that you can let them know your plan. Me personally, I'm not comfortable with the thought of leaving at the moment. But I believe everyone deserves a say so when it comes to their well being. I'm pretty sure that, as a leader yourself, you know what that's like."

That night, Jake, Brandon, Matthew, and David went to Nick's meeting that he called. Nick, Sam, Alana, the older man, who everyone called Sean, and the African American, who everyone called Jamal, were at the small meeting, along with a few others as well. The rest of the survivors were asleep. Nick called Jake to the middle to plead his case.