Fear the Roaming Dead

Insanity (chapter 14)

Dex shoved Wally down on top of the wooden stand. Wally fell on his side and looked up menacingly at Dex. Dex rubbed his forehead and his face turned a really dark crimson red. Wally looked up at him and grinned. "I had to do that." Wally said with a booming voice.

The world seemed so silent after the explosion. Tinley and Veronica were looking down at their feet from below the wooden platform. Cam had her arms cross and Aaron was dumping water on a burning car tire that flung over the edge. Wally looked down on his friends and back up at Dex. Wally scrambled to his feet and took the radio out of his pocket.

He laughed maniacally. His voice gave the people of Norridge terrible shivers down their spines and their hair stood on end. He dialed a knob on the side of the radio, while maintaining eye contact with Dex. He held down the button on the side of the radio and held it up to his dry and swollen lips.

"Are you guys in position?" he asked. The other end of the radio bled out silence. Dex looked over at Tinley, who was boiling in rage. He looked back at Wally. The psychopath in the trench coat screamed into the radio. "You better respond or I will come back and slice your wrists until you bleed to death! Then I'll feed you to the raccoons! And you bet I'll-"

"Boss, I'm here," said the man with the deep voice. "I was taking a leak on a tree. Sorry, Wallace."

"Wallace!?" Dex yelled. Wally looked up from the radio and glared at Dex with evil intentions and cold, dead eyes. He nodded and stepped closer to Dex. "Yes, I am Wallace. Not Wally," the boy puffed out his chest and showed his teeth, while smiling ear to ear. "Wally is a child's name, while Wallace is the name of someone elegant and wise."

"So Wally?" Tinley blurted out. As soon as she said it, Wally leaned over the wooden rails on the platform and pointed his finger at her. "You are to call me Wallace! I am not Wally!" he shrieked. Dex's face turned pale. He'd never seen his friend act this way before.

Wally turned back to Dex and jammed his index finger into his chest. "You'll see what the power of psychology classes can do." He laid his finger on the button again. "You're in position, correct?" Wally asked. "Yes, sir." said the man. Wally clapped his hands and wiped the dried blood off of them onto Dex's jean coat. "We're gonna give them two options." Wally said with foul meaning.

"Yes, yes! Two options!" yelled the man on the other side. Wally stepped back from Dex and turned the sound up on the radio. "I've done this with three other communities. Two of them were smart and are apart of us now." "What about the other one?" Aaron asked. Wally jerked his head towards Aaron. "Whoa! Hold it there, boy! Save all questions until after the lecture!" Wally glanced at Dex but then fixed his eyes on Tinley.

The cool breeze swept over their sweating bodies. Fall leaves gently flowed in the wind and the wind chimes on the Norridge mansion clanged and made music for nature to hear. It almost calmed things down.

"If you want to know," he smirked. "They're community is nothing but ash and skeletons now." Aaron's face turned white then he blurted out in anger. "How would you alone and maybe one other person do that!?"

Wally had a blank face that slowly transitioned into a face of pure terror and malice. "Oh, I didn't start off this way. Hell no," he said. Wally eyed Dex up and down to see his reaction to Wally's triumph. "I joined in on a community that lays by an old shoe factory by the coast of Maine. They took me in until I realized their leader was a complete idiot."

"What did their leader do?" Cam asked trying to stay mature. Wally scoffed and flipped off the sky. "The man is dead now, but he did something really stupid," he scratched his head. "He gave food to the elderly and sick people! We all know they're gonna die anyways. Why not just speed up the-" Wally met Dex's fist once again. It slammed into his face and Wally tumbled down to the platform and landed on his rear. "You know it's true! They're not making it any longer!"

"I began making friends with high ranking members of the community. I kept gaining their trust and doing exactly what they wanted. Until, I made best friends with the leader." Wally cackled. "I made a pact with him. If the one dies then the best friend will take over." Wally looked at Tinley and spoke to her. "Guess what I did that night?" "Killed him?" she asked.

Wally gasped. "Pfft! No! A roamer somehow got to the upper floor without hurting anyone else and ate him in his sleep! It was a tragic accident!" he faked a tear by dragging his index finger from his eye down his face. "Of course, since the community loved me... I became in charge."

"So. Would you like Norridge to merge with my community at the factory?" Wally asked laying his hand on his cane sword. Dex took his hands out of his pockets and put them on the rails of the platform. He looked down at Veronica who had a pale face. Dex looked back at Wally and tried hiding fear. "How many people did you say you had?" Dex asked.

Wally scratched his side and pretended like he didn't know. "I don't really know. Just look over the wall and count." he grinned slightly. Dex's face turned paper white as he slowly glanced over the wall.

He could count more than thirty heads sticking out of the vegetation by Norridge's entrance. The exoskeleton of the car was still smoking and fuming but he could still see the majority of Wally's people. They all help some sort of automatic rifle. Dex looked back at Wally. "What're the options?" Wally stepped closer to him. "Join us. Sign a peace treaty to merge your community with mine, the only exception being I am the one and only leader because I know what is best for each and every one of you. And the other option; suffer as you watch everything and everyone you love around you get burned and or tortured by yours truly. I love my position, Dex, because now I can do whatever I want you cannot mock me."

"Face it. We've been friends but years but I have been the only one achieving true accomplishment. I have made an army and you have a bunch of farmers who don't know the first thing about firing a gun. I majored in psychology and you majored in drug trafficking and running from the police." Wally said bluntly. Dex stuttered. "Don't forget I was a police cadet in training."

"You called yourself a police bounty hunter. All you did was commit crimes that were excused by the state of Maine because they were 'for the good of the people'? Man, bite me. That is not what life is about. Life is about making true progress and what I have done is create an empire on nothing but pure wit and strategy."

"Now either you bow down to me and tell me I am Wallace or you will meet the end of my cane sword as I drive it through your neck."

Dex glanced at everyone slowly. He looked down at his shoes and sighed. He slowly looked back up at Wally as a smirk was growing on his face.

"You're not my ruler..."

"Wally."