“Hey, he asked a simply question.” Anna said, defending her father.
Kim just shook her head and went back down stairs.
Winston had already pulled out a folded leather bag. He unfolded it, revealing a set of lockpicks and the appropriate tools for such task.
He picked up a screwdriver and put it in his mouth, then one of the slender bits of metal in his arm. He scanned the room with his eyes before going to work on the lock.
“Now you definitely don’t see that every day.”
“An old man picking a lock, or a one armed man picking a lock?”
Shaun thought about it, and said “both.”
After a few minutes a click came from the lock, and Winston chuckled to himself.
Will, Shauan, and Kim raised their weapons as Winston grabbed the handle the door. He waited for the nod from Will, and opened the door.
The first thing Kim noticed was the smell. The room reeked of death, the unmistakable stench of rotting corpses. It was one she knew well.
The three stepped inside, with Winston waiting just outside the door.
It didn’t take long before the source of the smell became apparent. Two zombies rushed the group from behind a wall.
“Shit,” Will shouted before firing his pistol at both of them. Blood shot out from their heads, splattering the wall behind him. He quickly walked behind the wall. “Clear,” he declared.
The room was small. Its walls were lined with shelves containing shotguns, sniper rifles, ammunition, and a small amount of food. On the floor sat several opened, and empty, food containers. There was also a bed in the room, which upon hearing of safety, Winston came in and took a seat on.
“Poor bastards ran out of food. Still, I wonder how they died. No gunshot wounds, ‘cept for the ones I gave ‘em.”
“Doesn’t matter. We have a place to say for a while and enough guns to get to where we’re goin’.”
“Yeah, but we still need food,” Kim said.
“She’s right. That should be our biggest concern. Alright, Shaun, go tell the others to come down, grab what they can and I’ll think of what to do next.”
Shaun went upstairs, as Kim and Will silently began looking around the room.
Kim noticed something hanging on the wall, it was a picture. She looked at, noting the man and woman who looked so alive and full of joy now lying on the floor dead. But something was off. There was a third person in the picture, a little boy.
“Will, we might have a problem.”
“What’s th- “
“AHHH!” Winston shrieked.
Kim looked up and saw Winston kicking at something under the bed. Will ran over and grabbed the old man’s leg, dragging a small zombie out with it, teeth sunk in deep.
Kim shot the zombie in the head. Its lifeless body fell to the ground, almost in slow motion, leaving its lower jaw stuck in Winston’s leg.
The old man fell back onto the bed, grabbing the jaw and ripping it out, creating a wide gash with more blood pouring out.
“Shit, you’ve seen the movies, you know what happens now. We gotta shoot him,” said Will.
“No, this isn’t a movie, Will. We don’t know if he’ll turn or not.”
“Like hell he won’t. We keep him alive he’ll turn when we least expect it, bite one of us and then the cycle will continue. How do you think these damn things have spread so fast?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s some kind of airborne thing.”
“Yeah? Then how come we’re not infected? Either way he’ll just slow us down anyway. We gotta do this Kim.”
Will raised his pistol at Winston, who was so rattled and in such pain he didn’t even protest. But Kim did. She raised her pistol at Will. “Don’t even think about it.”
Just then, Shaun came down with the rest of the group.
“What the hell’s going on?” Shaun asked.
“Winston’s bit, one of those things was under the bed. He’s gonna turn, I’m just making sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Bullshit,” Kim protested, “you don’t know if he’s gonna turn and you’re not doing it for anyone’s good but your own.”
“Is that what you think? You never could see the big picture.”
Without realizing it, the two were now standing face to face, nose to nose. Shaun stepped between the two and separated them. Will spat on the floor and walked up the stairs, Shaun following quickly behind him. Those two make a good couple, Kim thought to herself.
Ronnie, apparently feeling fine now, looked over Winston’s leg. He ripped off a part of his jacket and tied it around the wound. It didn’t look like much, but it stopped the bleeding well enough for now.
“How are you feeling?” Anna asked.
“Fucking peachy, let me tell ya.”
“Anna, go upstairs and see what those two are up to, we can handle this,” Ronnie said.
“Yes papa.” She quietly went up the stairs.
“Boyd, give me your belt. Kim, try and find any water around here, preferably bottled.”
She didn’t know what to make of the situation, but she began searching anyway.
Boyd removed his belt and handed it to Ronnie, who put it around Winston’s leg and tightened it tight. Admittedly Boyd’s belt didn’t have many notches it in, so he took out his knife and notched in a new one.
Kim found a bottle of water on the ground, hidden behind the many opened boxes of food and handed it to Ronnie.
“Ronnie, I’m sorry about Ellen.” He turned around and looked at her, eyes practically glowing read.
“Elizabeth,” he said, turning back to Winston. Shit, Kim thought to herself, way to sound sincere.
Ronnie lifted Winston’s head and held the water bottle up to his mouth. The old man took little sips from the bottle before lying back down.
“As long as the movies
