Finding Peace: a Sad Milk Apocalypse Story

Chapter 3

Warning- death and gore

It was early in the morning when the Milkmen set out for base. Morning dew sparked off of plants as the morning sun began to rise over the city of Denver. The sky was clear as the storm had passed late the previous night but, the air still had a musky damp smell to it.

Oz watched the sun rise for the first time in a while. The only other times he had seen the sun rise was when he pulled all nighters. So it was nice to see it for once having gotten some sleep beforehand.

He glanced over at Mini Oz, who was in the front seat with Casper on his lap. With the New Worlders after the kid, the group had decided to play it safe and try to keep him out of line of sight.

"Hey Oz," Topic threw Oz into the conversation, " Click and I were trying to figure out why the New Worlders are after Mini. You have any ideas?"

He shrugged, he was not at all awake to have his brain function correctly. "I don't fucking know." He rubbed his face with his hands trying to think up something. "Maybe his parents betrayed the NWL? Why are we talking about this?"

"Because we need to know. For all we know the kid could've killed someone." Click had a point, and Oz knew it.

"Once we get back to base I can ask him okay." Oz told the two so that the would stop talking about Mini Oz out in the open. It was too much of a risk if someone were to overhear. He didn't want to endanger Mini, or have the risk of it.

Something felt terribly off as smog started to get denser as they got closer to base. It only seemed to get worse as they reached the place where the gate should be, but the gate was on the ground, its metal bars twisted and blown off.

"Shit." Flinders whispered as they drove into the base, bloody bodies everywhere. Most of them shot, others seemed to have burned alive. It was a massacre, with both NWL bodies and Spark bodies littering the ground their blood staining the ground.

Nauseated, Oz vomited over the side of the truck. The smell of decaying and for some burning bodies was atrocious. It was by far the worst thing he had seen, it took the cake away from his experience seeing a neighborhood complex blown to smithereens from afar. This, unlike the neighborhood, was up close where he could see every detail of each and every body laying dead on the ground.

Soon some of the smog cleared out to show a message on their main building in red, 'long live the queen'. They were ambushed by the NWL, and they lost.

The truck stopped, Blair got out of it. "Click you have to come with me, we have to contact Capital." Click nodded, jumping off the truck to stand next to Blair. "Wonder, Salty, you two go get food that would last us for a while we might have to lie low. Topic, Flinders, get any guns and ammo from you know where. Oz you keep an eye on.. Oz, and grab sleeping bags. Everyone knows their job, we meet at the horse barn. Now break."

Everyone scattered, the pairs running off to their set destination. Oz was unsure on how he'd be able to keep lookout if there was low visibility as it was. He opened the door on Mini Oz's side. "Stay close to me." He told his smaller doppelganger. He wanted to get something from his room. "Come Casper."

"Do you know how to use a bow?" He asked stepping over a body of a woman, her brains spilling out of her head where the bullet hit her.

Mini Oz didn't seem phased by the amount of bodies scattered on the ground. "Yeah, all children learn the bow. I was at the top of my class." He smiled proudly up at Oz, Casper trotting next to him.

Oz smiled fondly, Mini was growing on him. "That's good because you're getting my spare bow." He wasn't expecting a hug from Mini, he really wasn't expecting anything, but Mini hugged him. He hugged back with one arm. "Lets get going, we still need to get  the sleeping bags and my pop up tent if I still have it."

In Oz's room, under his bed, there were loose floorboards that he put his sentimental values in if this were to happen. An extra bow with an arrow bag full of arrows, a photo album full of pictures of his friends and family, and a stuffed bunny he had since he was a child. He put the photo album in his book bag, and put the bunny in another. He gave the book bag along with the bow and arrows to Mini Oz, who happily took them.

"Now for the sleeping bags." Oz stood up taking one last look at his room, he was going to miss it. Hell, he was going to miss having a bed. He casted one last glance around his room before closing the door behind him. "Lets go get those sleeping bags."

The walk to the cellar where they hid their extra supplies was a long and tedious walk. It wouldn't be easy to get the supplies either, the cellar was hidden cleverly. It was helpful that Oz knew where it was, that was why he was assigned the job.

The cellar itself was hidden behind a trap wall in a church. Oz tried opening the door only to find the door was locked. A window was open next to the door. He knew what he had to do, but he hated that he was doing it. "Mini, if I lift you up into that window could you unlock the door."

Mini looked up at the window, analyzing the drop. "That would work." He answered pushing his hair from his face. Oz crouched down so that Mini could stand on his shoulders to squeeze through the window.

The wait for Mini to open the door was the longest minutes of his life. He let out his breath he didn't know he was holding as the door opened. He walked inside, "lets hurry they might be waiting for us."

The church couldn't have felt anymore sinister than it did as the two walked the winding halls only dimly lit by the windows. Religious paintings were covered in dust and cobwebs. The whole church felt like it was out of a horror movie. Oz didn't want to be in there for that long, the place gave him the creeps.

"It's right in here." Oz pressed against the wall in the last room in the hallway. Slowly it opened with a screeching groan, a wall of dust blasting into the air. "It hasn't been used in a while." He said, his voice strained from trying to not cough. "Lets just get the sleeping bags and tent then get the fuck out of here."

The two grabbed three each, their sleeping bags hooked onto their bags. Oz had to dig for a while but he found the tent in it's bag. "Guess we're going on a camping trip after all." He laughed to himself. He and his friends were planning to go on a camping trip over the weekend before the pandemic happened. Now in a way they were.

"Lets get back to the others." Oz closed the wall. Mini nodded because he too wanted to get out of the church. So the two got out of the church and away from it as fast as they could, heading in the direction of the horse barn.

The rest of the group was there, but not in the way that they thought. "What happened?" Oz asked Flinders who was prepping the horses for their journey.

"Someone murdered Simba." Flinders wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. "And Blare found Molly dead in the office. She was tortured then hung. She didn't deserve it."

Oz felt his stomach drop, Molly let them into the camp and was the first to show them kindness. He couldn't imagine how Blare felt, she was the closest to the General. With Click's cat, Oz wasn't that close to the grumpy ginger tabby, but he felt bad for his friend for the loss of his pet.

Salty walked over to the three. "I can put the sleeping bags on the saddles." He took the sleeping bags from Mini and went over to one of the horses that Flinders wasn't putting a saddle on. Oz decided to also hook up the sleeping bags he had to the saddle. Mini stood awkwardly not knowing what to do.

Blare wiped her face with her sleeve, she had a job to do and she wouldn't be able to do it if she was sitting on the ground crying. "We need to get out of Denver before nightfall." She stood up putting on a brave face. "We can't take all the horses, it would be too much if we each had our own horse."

"So who goes with who?" Wonder asked knowing that Topic could comfort Click without him.

"Mini is riding with me," Blare started, "I am leading the group so I thing none of you men would like being behind me. The rest of you, sort it out yourselves."

It was already a given that Topic and Click was going to ride together. The same with Wonder and Salty. This left Oz with Flinders. Not that Oz minded, he could see why Blair would want to have Mini with her.

"I can take the back if you want." Flinders offered. Oz shrugged, " that's fine."

So the group headed off, taking the back trails to get out of Denver. Then they'd figure out what to do from there.