A Dead World

Ch.6 Raiders

My body slighty shook pivoting on my side. "Kid. Kiid. Wake up." Light flooded my eyes,"Y-yeah. I'm up." I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Carmen was in a chair going through my can of ravioli. "Hey mi ravioli." She tilted the can back and plopped some pastas in her mouth. "Oh. Allí estaba tuyo?" The pastas already in her mouth. "Sí, ese estaba mío. Pero ese tuyo ahora." "Ooh, gracías." She dumped the remaining food into her mouth and scraped the sauce with her finger. "Well there goes your breakfast." "Yeah. Don't matter, seems like she needs it more than me." I stood up and stretched. I looked around, "Hey uh, Peach. Where's my canteen? I had my stuff here on the chair." "Aquí." A little voiced squeaked, and it held my canteen." Carmen smiled and placed it in my lap. "Oh, gracías." She giggled and ran off down stairs. "She seems ever so positive, during this time." She sat down in the chair that Carmen was in and rolled out the map. "Here. Come here." I helped Peach with the trek and found out where we had to go. "C'mon lets get our stuff and move out."

The walk was a little over half a mile but after a couple of turns, had found place. In front of a small private neighborhood. "So the gate's close and the power's out. What now?" Peach walked over to the gate and kicked it. "That's a real solid gate and a tall one too." I went over to Peach who looked the gate up and down.
"Look Kid, there's spacing between the bars but I don't know what to do that." "Hmm." I stepped back and held my chin. There's a box motor with a rusted arm connected to the gate. And only problem is it's on the other side. Maybe if-
Just then, with a loud yell, Peach kicked the middle of the gate. It opened just a tad bit and bounced back into the closed position. "Damn gate. Stupid piece of-" "Wait! Peach." I stopped her and she shot me a glance,"What Kid?" "I-I was wondering if you could do it again." I was a little scared. "What? Oh. Kick it? Sure this god damn fu-"
"Peach just kick it." I cut her off. She grunted and kicked the gate again. Ooh. That just might work. "Okay. Now what? I kicked the gate and-" "Carmen, vienes." I waved her over here. She skipped over here before putting down some sticks she had found in a brush, off to the side of entrance. "Qué?" She looked up.
"Así es que nosotros tienemos hacer. Okay?" I pointed to the gate. "Ella y yo estamos empujar la puerta grande. Y tu irás por la puerta. Okay?" "Sí." I walked over with her to Peach. "Peach, we're going to push the gate so Carmen can get through the gate. Then she's gonna pull the emergency release lever and we'll be able to get through."
She thought my plan over and said,"Sure but, does she has the strength to pull it. It's kinda rusted. And as far as I know, we don't have any lubicant." "Oh, yeah I totally forgot about that. We'll maybe she could break it but, I don't know. We'll just have to try." "Ok, Kid. Your the shot caller."
We got ready to push the gate with Carmen behind us. "Listos?" I asked. She nodded and stood close behind us. "Ready? Go." We put our backs into pushing the gate but It felt like she was doing most of the work. The gate opened just about 5 inches and Carmen was able to squeeze through. We let go of the gate and it bounced us back. Unfortunetly I wasn't ready and it bounced me back on my butt. Peach laughed,"Y-you okay Kid? S-sorry I wasn't expecting that."
She stuck her hand out and pulled me up. "Owie." I rubbed my butt and walked over to Carmen. "Así, ahora qué?" "Probas romper o jalar la palanca. Es en la caja." I pointed to the faded green box. "Abre el." She picked up the cover of the box and exposed the ripped wiring. "Que palanca. Encontras el camino romper el." She nodded and ran to a house out of my sight. She trotted back with a rock the size of her whole head. "Yo tengo una rocka. Yo probaré." She held it high and smashed it into the rusted arm. It went right through the arm. "Sí, sí. Lo hice, lo hice!" She jumped for joy and we pushed the gate open. "Great job Carmen." She high fived her and went to check the map. Carmen went to go stack rocks in front of a house.
There was a wall with a plaque and flyers on it. I walked up to it. The flyers were actually information about the whole apocalypse. A red one with the bold words 'Where to be safe and How to be Safe and a blue one with '!Provisions Provisions!'. Next to the safety flyers there was a map encased in glass. The neighborhood went in a sorta squarish circle so getting lost wasn't an option here.
"Hey Peach. C'mere." "What's up?" "Does this look any familiar to the map you have?" "She held the treasure map up to the one in the glass. "Yeah it does. So it should be the uhh." She followed the map with her finger and traced the other. "Ah ha. This one right here. 2806 Citrus. So." She spun on her heel. "Towards this way." She faced right and started walking looking at the house numbers. "C'mon Carmen." She looked up from her rock stack and jogged over to us.
"Damn, Kid look at all these houses. Big, two story houses with multiple triangular red or grey brick roofs. Looks like a two car garage with a two car wide drive way. Whoever lives here must be loaded." We walked further down, "Look they even have a park!" She pointed to the broken down park. "Well had a park but still, thought that counts."
"There, that's the place 28,06. Here we are." The house was primarily the same than the others and also had a side gate. "So how do we get in? We could try to break the door in. There shouldn't be any power here so if they had an alarm, it wouldn't go off. Right?" Peach folded the map and put it in her back pocket. She folded her arms. "Well, we could go around the back. See if that way is easier." "Okay sure. Let's go Carmen."
We walked over to the left of the house and found a locked white gate. "Carmen, puedes escoges la cerradurra." She looked at the lock,"Si pero, yo no poder alcanzo." She took her lock picks out of her pocket and reached up with both hands and jumped up. "Okay little one, up you go." Peach picked up Carmen and let her pick the lock.
Less than a minute faster than a bunny could eat a carrot, she opened the gate. The side yard was only about two feet wide. I started to walk but Peach stopped me,"Wait, Kid. We don't know what's around the corner so, I'll take lead." She switched off the saftey, and pointed her rifle down the hall. I pulled out my sword followed her. "Carmen, se quedas aquí. Okay?" She nodded her head and leaned against the wall.
"Kid, stack up against the wall with me, I already checked the backyard out and looks clear. Seems pretty bare though, I don't wanna take any chances. Okay ready?" She looked back and gave my sword a weird look. "What?" I looked at my sword looking for a dent, or a big scratch. "Nothing, just wondering if a sword is really gonna do anything if the enemy has a something else like, oh I don't know a gun?"
"Hey, the sword has always done the trick for me." "Eh whatever. C'mon. Let's go." We rounded the corner and she looked all around the backyard with her rifle and I looked through the window. No alarm control panel but doesn't mean it's not somewhere else. Peach came back,"Well I don't see a backup generator anywhere so doesn't look like there's power here.
"Okay, I don't see an alarm system anywhere in the house so we should be safe here. Maybe even make this house our new base." She walked closer to me near the back glass door. "Hey Carmen. Come over here." She shouted but no Carmen. "Here let me try. Carmen viene aquí! Hm Weird. Maybe she-" A loud scream echoed through the side yard.
Peach aimed her rifle towards the side yard,"Who's there! Come out. Now!" Someone came out but it wasn't Carmen. A man with brownish rags and a cloth mask came out holding Carmen. One hand around her whole body locking her arms in and the other holding her knife to Carmen's neck. I gasped,"You let her go!"
His voice was raspy,"Well, I would but you and the big missus over there still have your weapons over there. So. How 'bout this you drop that little sword and she drops her rifle or she dies." Carmen was shaking a little but luckly wasn't doing anything stupid. "C'mon. You really gonna say that? There's two of us and only one of you."
She narrowed down her sights on the man. "Oh. I would take a better look of your surroundings more." I turned around, "Uh. Peach, do what they say." She turned around,"What you-. Aw you fucking assholes! That's dirty! You hiding sons of fucking bitches!" I turned around. Another man and a shorter one were behind us. The shorter one had a knife and the taller one, a metal bow drawn at Peach. "Alright Kid. Here's the plan. You take the one with the knife and I got the one with the bow. I'm no scientist but I'm pretty sure a bullet's faster than an arrow." I was suprised. "What! Kill someone?! I can't do that!" I looked over to her. Some sweat forming on my head. "Oh, don't worry my first kill wasn't so bad." The one holding Carmen spoke,"Oh yeah sure shoot one and slice the other. Then what? Then this little girl loses her neck. Carmen was teary eye'd. "Sure go ahead, do it." "Peach, just do what they say so she won't die!" I yelled-whispered. She grunted,"Fuck, fine." She whispered back to me then shouted, "Okay, Okay! Fine we'll give in to your damn demands!" I put my sword down and raised my hands. She did the same as well. The one with the bow ordered the smaller one, "Go get their stuff, Now!" He walked hastly over here and grabbed Peach's rifle. "Yeah, have fun with that rifle. I hope you look down the barrel and it goes off and takes your god damn brains out like a, FUCKIN' WATERMELON!" She sounded like Batman for that last part and kinda scary. She came to me and grabbed my sword with a *clink*. Then stared at me for a while. I gave him a mad look,"What are you looking at?" She skimped away and the one with the bow snatched the rifle away from him. The man with Carmen easily, dragged her to the other two. The smaller one now in the back. The man with Carmen barked, "Ooh, show me that rifle. Yes. Maintained, nice and shiny. And you. The smaller one flinched. "You keep the sword." He nodded and flipped it over. "And the rifle. Is mine." He pushed Carmen towards us and she fell to the floor. Peach picked her up and hugged her. Carmen wiped her tears on her pants. The man with Peach's rifle aimed at us. "And for the record, I only let her go so you could all die together. Any last words before you go to the new world?" I gulped, "Oh shit."