The Snipers of the Apocalypse

Misadventures Part 6 (Part 2)- "The Ferris Wheel and the Zombies"

In the blink of an eye, we had our rifles aimed at the two women that had walked around the curtain. They both had their hands up, and the only weapons visible on their person was a knife strapped to the older woman's thigh.

"We don't mean any harm, we're just lost!" The woman with the knife spoke calmly yet nervously, the younger one standing partially behind her.

The woman talking to us seemed to be in her early to mid 50's. She had salt and pepper hair, worn in a high ponytail to keep it off her thin neck. Her outfit was basic; a dark green tee shirt, the sleeves folded up to make them shorter, a basic pair of light blue jeans that had been stained with grass, dirt and gore, and tennis shoes that matched her shirt.

The younger girl didn't look much older than Tommy and I- maybe in her mid to late 20's. She too wore her dark hair in a high ponytail, with a thick black headband keeping her bangs back. Her shirt was a burgundy color, the sleeves had been torn off at the seam. Her dark blue denim shorts rested an inch above her knees, old dark brown combat boots similar to mine sat snug around her calves.

"Place any weapons you have on the ground in front of you- slowly. Any sudden moves, we shoot." I ordered, the two of us keeping our guns trained on them.

It's stupid to trust a stranger right off the bat, especially in the apocalypse.

Following our orders, the, what I assumed was, mother-daughter duo did as they were told. In total, they had two small handguns and three knives on them.

"Hands on your heads." I draped my gun over my back once again, nodding to Tommy to keep his up as I walked over to search them.

"Please, take whatever you want. We don't want any trouble." The woman begged us, fear in her voice as her daughter shifted nervously on her feet. I quickly checked them over as I spoke.

"We don't want anything, we're just cautious. We've met some pretty mannerless people out here." I spoke calmly, keeping my voice as authoritative as I could without scaring them too much, stepping away to stand in front of them when no other weapons were found.

"We were heading North, but we ran into a hoard and had to come back. There's at least a few hundred Z's- they're heading this way. It's not safe here." The daughter spoke for the first time, anxiety radiating off her in rays of uncomfortable energy.

"How long?" Tommy spoke up as he walked over, his rifle hanging from his shoulder.

"Maybe a day or two." She replied, her and her mother picking up their weapons; I appreciated how slow they moved to reassure us that they weren't planning anything.

"We have to tell the others." Tommy nodded in agreement to my statement as I turned back to the duo. "Follow us."

"By the way, I'm Barb. This is my daughter, Missy."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Alrrami, this is 10k." Introductions were set as we started walking back in the direction of the "Flying Swings", also known as our temporary home base.

"Nice to meet you, too." Barb gave us a soft smile as we walked alongside each other.

"You guys mentioned 'others', how many of you are there?" Missy questioned, adjusting her gun that she had tucked into the waistband of her pants. I'm not a total expert in body language, but I would say she's not used to carrying.

"Six."

"Are you guys close?" Barb seemed interested as we took the long way around, quickly checking anything that seemed worthy of our time; 10k and I making sure to grab more burnables.

"Very."

"We had a group, too. There were eight of us." Missy spoke quietly as she looked at the ground while she walked.