Between the buildings was a parking lot, full of vehicles, golf carts, and tents.
“Just how many people you got out here?” Will asked after seeing the tents.
“Too many.”
“Am I gonna be one of them?”
“Don’t count on it,” the woman replied.
She led Will to a gate, and the man standing beside it, carrying a machine gun no less, groaned.
“What’d we tell you about letting more strangers in?”
“He was gonna die out there, Tom. The least we can do is give him a bite to— “
“No, the least we can do its turn him away, just like everybody else. We don’t have the supplies to let in every lost puppy.”
“Perhaps I can help,” offered Will.
“Yeah, and how might you go about that?”
“I’ve got military experience, son.” The man looked about the same age as Will, but ‘son’ always helped to establish authority. “And you look like you could use some leadership around here. I wouldn’t go around telling strangers that you’re low on supplies for one thing.”
The man growled to himself and looked to the woman for advice. She nodded her head.
“Alright, I’ll give you a chance. But I wanna have a little chat with you first.” Tom said, and opened the gate.
“Of course,” said Will stepping inside. “And so it begins,” he said to himself.
The chain length fence around the area didn’t provide much privacy, but for the first time Will saw what would have made anyone else sick to their stomach.
“Like that?” Tom asked.
There were dead zombies tied up all around the perimeter of the fence. Some missing heads, some missing arms, but they all had blood splattered all over them. Will could swear some of them were still alive, too.
“They keep the alive… well, walking zombies out. Must be the smell or something.”
“Must be pretty gross seeing that everywhere you go.”
“Not really,” said the woman, “you get used to it.”
“Really?” asked Will.
She laughed. “No, not at all. But those are probably the things keeping us alive.”
“You know, I never did get your name.”
“It’s Amanda,” she said with a smile, “and before you ask, I’m with Tom.”
Will stopped in his tracks. Tom continued walking and gave a laugh as Amanda sped past him, into one of the outside tents.
He kept walking and joined Tom next to a large shipping crate. Tom took out a pack a cigarette, offering it to Will, who shook his head. He took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.
“So what were you doing on there?” Tom took out a lighter.
“I was trying to find my people.” Tom started shaking the lighter, and tried to ignite it.
“So you gonna keep looking?” He gave up and threw the lighter to the ground, and tucked the cigarette behind his ear. Will fished in his pocket and pulled out a book of matches, and offered them to Tom.
“No. I should have found them by now.”
“Well I think you should. A group is your only hope of surviving these days.” Tom struck a match and let the cigarette and took a deep puff.
“I’m not stupid. But I’m also not gonna leave. Whatever happens to them then so be it, but I got food and shelter right now.”
“No,” Tom blew smoke in Will’s face. “We have food and shelter, and there’s not enough to go around for the folks we already got. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to look elsewhere.”
“We’ll see about that.” Will walked away.
Tom didn’t follow him. He leaned back onto the container and took another drag from the cigarette, watching Will walk towards the group of tents, and he started to think.
“Ever use one of these before?” Victor asked.
“No, I stuck with my M16.” Kim answered. She had been given a shotgun, and the rest of the group was given pistols and knives. Shaun still had his crossbow and a seemingly endless supply of arrows.
“Military, huh?” Victor asked. Kim ignored him.
The guard who had to give up his shotgun, name still unknown to Kim, wasn’t too happy about having to switch to a machete.
On the ground, Victor drew a map of the compound in the dirt.
“We go in through here,” he moved his foot along the small X’s representing trees, “and jump over the fence in the back. We do this at night and they won’t’ see us coming.”
“That’s it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean is that all of your master plan? Move through the woods at night, then jump a fence? We need a little more to go on.”
“Like what?” snapped one of the guards.
“Aww, they speak,” said Shaun.
“How many people are inside, what their defenses look like, where they keep their supplies, and where they sleep. Granted it’d be near impossible to find most of this out if they aren’t letting anyone in, but we should at least get a rough head count and scout the perimeter.”
“Perhaps you are right. Alright, you go on ahead and scout as much as you can, the rest of us will hang back and wait for your plan.”
Nightfall was already approaching. It couldn’t have been any earlier than 8 P.M. Kim figured.
“Alright, let’s go ahead and do this tonight. No sense in waiting around.”
“I like the way you think.”
Quietly, with the exception of grumbling from Ronnie, the team of eleven exited the fort and entered the woods, with Kim leading the way.
Here we are, she thought, about to raid a group of innocent people just for some food, and maybe a few sleeping bags. Then we’re
