Ronny awoke to the sight of multiple guns aimed at him. He tried to stand up, but was thrown down. Once his vision returned completely, he saw that everyone surrounding him were wearing biter guts and skins. Some had blood painted on their face like one would at a football game. Before Ronny could speak, a deep, low voice said, "Who are you"? Ronny searched for where the voice came from. "Are you with Omar? We were sent from Omar". That's when the crowd of people moved out of the way as a tall brute man appeared. He had to be six and a half feet, his muscles were toned and bulging. The black man stood at the feet of Ronny and said, "That's not what I asked you. What's your name"? Ronny was intimidated as he said his name. Ronny looked beyond the man between his legs to see Thomas was still laying on the ground. The man never looked away from Ronny as he said, "If you are with Omar, there's only one way to tell". The man then signals for the people around Ronny to help him up and move him.
As they walked, the man said, "It was you my sniper saw across the quarry". Ronny looked up at the man who dwarfed him, "Yeah. He almost killed us". The man said, "We'll learn soon if he should've killed you or not". Finally, they stopped walking as they were standing in front of the entrance to the quarry. "If you are with Omar, then you should be able to survive". Ronny was confused but before he had time to think, they opened the gate door and pushed him through. As they slammed the gate behind Ronny, Ronny ran to the door and said, "What the hell? I'm on your side. Let me in". The man said, "Only the strong survive here. If you die then you were not worthy to be with my people or with Omar. We'll be watching you and get you out if you survive long enough". Ronny said, "I have to do this bare handed"? The man said, "Of course not". He then showed Ronny a machete, however, instead of handing it to Ronny, he threw it over the gate entrance as it fell down to the bottom of the quarry. Ronny watched it fall. He was frustrated and terrified as he looked at the thousands of biters walking along at the bottom.
By now the sun had long set, the chilling winds still bit at Ronny's face as he prepared to fight for his life. As he descended down the dirt path, he passed a corpse. The blood around it had dried as the person died a while ago. The growls that were mere echoes were beginning to grow louder. Ronny looked over the edge of the dirt path to see how close he was to the biters and to the machete. The bottom of the dirt path was, unfortunately not close to where the machete was. About half way down, Ronny heard, "Hurry up and die already so I can go home". It was followed up by laugher. Ronny wasn't about to die. He had gone through too much to make it here. He wasn't going to die now. After everyone who he helped, after all he endured, he would persevere. With that on his mind, he walked a bit faster, a bit tougher and a bit stronger. As he approached the bottom, he encountered his first few biters. They were no problem as he kicked their leg which made them fall. He would then stomp on their head until they stopped moving. After the first few, he killed another but this time he dug into the corpse to use the blood and guts as disguise. Once at the bottom, he saw the thousands of biters as he took a deep breath and walked into the herd. In search of the machete, Ronny slowly began to walk along the wall that the dirt path was on as he saw the machete near this wall. Ronny was nervous as if something went wrong, he would die. But of course, something did go wrong. A biter accidentally tripped another biter as it fell on Ronny. Both Ronny and the biter fell with the biter on top of Ronny. This biter seemed to have noticed that Ronny was human as it tried to bite Ronny. However, Ronny managed to get it off of him as he stood up, only to see that all of the biters in the near area noticed that Ronny was not a biter. He quickly ran to the machete, pushing all biters out of the way as he began to decapitate any biter that got to close. He held his back to the wall so none could get him from behind as he swung the machete. However, after slowly inching back to the dirt road, more biters began to try and attack Ronny as each swing was becoming more difficult. Despite all that was going wrong, he had made it back to the dirt road as he bolted to the entrance. When he got there only the tall dark man stood there as Ronny threw the machete to the ground. The man looked at the blade that was covered in biter blood. He then looked at Ronny to find any bites. Ronny said, "I told you. I'm with Omar. Let me talk to you". After a brief moment, the man opened the gate door and allowed Ronny to walk.
Elsewhere at Mount Vernon, Xavier was sitting with Nick and Suzy. By now most everyone else had gone to bed. However these three stayed awake because they didn't feel tired. Frank was dead and there was nothing they could've done to help him. Xavier said, "They don't believe me you know. Tyler thinks I lied about Frank's death. I think he wants people to believe that I killed him. I don't know why he hates me so much when I've been doing all of these runs for him". Suzy said, "It may have something to do with the fact that you were snooping around in their files". Xavier said, "They're hiding something from us. This three phase operations doesn't sound too good. Especially because they won't tell anyone what phase three is. So I thought maybe I could find out myself". Nick said, "And now they're watching your every move. Just looking for a reason to exile you". As they talked, they noticed someone in the distance had began to approach them. Once everyone noticed the person, they all went silent until they saw it was Kyle. "Hey guys" Kyle said, "What are we all talking about over here"? Nick said, "Xavier is gonna get himself exiled for snooping around". Kyle said, "Well do you blame him? This place seems shady. It's leaders doing shady deals and not believing Frank's death details from an eye witness. It's all so strange. Also, since we've gotten here, Gavin's been acting stranger. It's as if Tyler wants Gavin to distance himself from us. I don't like any of it".
Nick said, "Listen guys. Despite all of that, look at what they've given us. A great supply of food, fresh, clean water, and a properly built home. This is paradise. I'm sure a few shady happenings have to happen to make it work, but it's no different than our group back in Seattle. Kyle, I know you remember tying up Bikers and killing them for information to keep the group safe. Maybe it's the same here". Xavier shook his head, "It isn't the same though, Nick. I didn't see much when I was snooping, however, I did see that they are planning a war. I'm not sure with who. I just saw the letters UI and circled underneath labeled priority were the letters RP". Suzy said, "So they're preparing for a war". Xavier said, "It appears so and we're gonna be caught in the crossfire". Kyle said, "Who are they gonna use to fight a war with? They only have so many military officer and I know they won't use the vault people because they're trying to save them". Suzy said, "We're gonna be used as meat shields. They're gonna send us out to kill as many as we can so they can save themselves". Nick said, "So what do we do? Do we leave this place in the event that Xavier is right and war is coming, risking food, water and shelter in the process, or do we stay"? Suzy said, "Well Nick, you and I have no choice. Scarlett's still looking for us, we have to stay here. So Kyle, Xavier what will you guys do"? Xavier sighed as he said, "I'm not sure".
YOU ARE READING
After The End
Short Story"Ronny said, "So how did you guys find pigs"? Omar said, "There have always been a few wild hogs on this island. But otherwise, most of the ones here were from the local farms". Ronny took another bite as Omar said, "It's unfortunate Ryan, Walter, a...
