Running or rather planning to run didn’t work before so you’re not even going to entertain the idea now.

“Donna, get the fuck back here! You might be about to outrun cops, but you can’t outrun a bullet!” you shout crawling backwards towards the bathroom.
“Suzy, you need to stop being so scared all the damn time! NOT running before is why you had to suffer through what you did last time! If you’re smart, you’ll come with me!”
“Donna, I’m telling you, it’s going to be bad if you go out there!”
“It’s gonna be bad if we stay…AAAH!”

You’re already inside the bathroom when you hear Donna scream, at first you think she got shot, but it’s something equally as bad.

The moment she was opening the front door, so was a soldier, trying to look for respite from the shooting. You peak around the corner and see him barge in and pick Donna up by the hair.

“Get up! Get up you fucking trailer bitch!” you hear the soldier shout.

Donna whimpers and begs to be let go. You think you hear a slap followed by another. You slink back into bathroom as panic wells up inside you.

“Fucking trash, you got a weapon on ya? Where the fuck is your boyfriend? He in the back waiting to ambush me? Well fuck that! Come on out you goddamn redneck! Got your bitch here or is it also your sister? Fuckin’ inbreds!”

You hear Donna continue to plead and exclaim she lives alone and that she has no weapons of any kind. The guardsmen doesn’t sound completely convinced and you hear him pushing Donna and exclaiming for her to head towards the bedroom swearing the whole time about his shitty assignment, you know its only a matter of time before he discovers that you’re here.

You hastily look around the bathroom, but there isn’t much here in the way of weapons except a can of your sister’s hairspray. Maybe you can blind him, though you’d need to time it just right.

Taking a deep breath, you get near the entryway of the door prepare the can…

Your sister passes by and sees you out the corner of her eye, but makes no indication that she’s seen you.

“Just keep going. If there really is nobody in the bedroom, then we’re just going to hide out in the back for a while and then…ARGH! SHIT!” the soldier exclaims as you unload the hairspray in his eyes as he starts to pass the bathroom entrance.

Fortunately he drops his rifle in the process of his sudden blindness, which you quickly snatch up. Donna is still scrambling to get up and get out of the way, meanwhile the blind soldier is backing up trying to fish his pistol out of his holster.

“Fucking…shit…I’m gonna kill all of you inbred trash! I’m…”

You don’t wait around for him to possibly carry out his threats; you don’t think about it, you just shoot. The rifle kicks a bit and you hurt yourself in the process, but your assailant with several new holes in him is in even worse condition. He drops his pistol and slumps backwards in a bloody heap.

For a moment you just stand there in disbelief on what you’ve done. You just killed a man. Even if it was life and death, you still killed someone.

“Suzy! Get down, they’re still shooting out there!” Donna shouts from the bedroom entrance.

You get down on the floor still clutching on to your killing tool and crawl to the bedroom. You feel a bit weird, but not sick.

You and your sister hide behind her bed, huddled close to each other as the shooting and general mayhem out there continues for what seems like a very long time, but in reality it’s only about fifteen-twenty minutes.

As the gunshots die down, you can hear the victory hooting and hollering outside which is then followed by more gunshots probably fired in victory.

For a moment you and your sister stay down for a little while longer, but eventually the pair of you get up. You just sit on the edge of the bed trying to wrap your head around everything that just happened.

Donna on the other hand peeks out one of the windows.

“Well, I guess our side won.” Donna says.
“Not sure if that’s going to be a good thing in the long run.” You say.

Donna doesn’t pay much attention to your statement, but instead heads to the main room of the trailer. After a few moments, you gather your strength and follow her.

She looks at the dead soldier on the floor and you do as well.

“Well, I guess it’s true what they say, you never know if you can kill someone or not until you have to.” Donna remarks.
“Or want to.” You add.
“Well anyway I’m glad you did. Shit, that was fucking intense. The weird thing is how well worked together in the situation I mean I lured him to the back and you ambushed him.”
“Yeah, well I suppose we already had several run-throughs of dealing with hostile assholes this week. We were bound to get it right eventually.” You remark.
“Heh, I suppose so…well no point in letting this asshole stink up the place, let’s drag him outside.”

Donna gets his legs and you get his upper body and drag the soldier out of the trailer. As you do so, you notice his rank is that of a high-ranking NCO. You wonder if he was the one in charge of this detachment.

When you get him outside, Tina is just walking up with a scruffy looking man wearing a cap and clothing that doesn’t look like its been washed in days. He carries a shotgun over his shoulder.

“Well fuck Donna. Did you actually kill one of those fuckers?” Tina asks.
“Not me, my sister did. This asshole barged into our trailer and Suzy shot his ass.”

Tina looks a little impressed.

“Is that so? Well maybe I misjudged you blondie. Maybe you’re not the innocent wallflower I thought you were.”
“I didn’t take any pleasure in it, if that’s what you’re implying.” You say defensively.

“Of course you didn’t. You saw a threat to your family and home and you took care of business. It’s what any right thinking American SHOULD do when the fucking government tries to impose its will on folks. They tried to do it here, well they didn’t fucking succeed. We showed them that, but I reckon there’s gonna be a lot more trouble comin’. Believe it.” The man suddenly says.
“Who are you?” you ask almost in an accusing tone.

Mel doesn’t really look offended, but Tina speaks up before he can.

“This is Mel, my…significant other.” Tina says.
“Significant other? What the fuck are we fucking faggots? Life partners and all that shit? Just say I’m your goddamn boyfriend. Shit, I’m practically your husband with as long as we’ve been together.”
“I hesitated to call you my boyfriend because I don’t know where we exactly stand right now and until you buy me a fucking ring and propose, you’re definitely NOT my husband!”
“Pftt, I told ya, I see no reason for a piece of paper handed out by some bean counter to tell me how I feel about ya, let alone some piece of jewelry. Besides, we fight all the fucking time and always get back together, so stop bein’ a fuckin’ drama queen.”

At this point Tina and Mel start to argue and not wishing to get in the middle of it, you and Donna start to walk back to your trailer. When you get inside Donna starts finding bags and begins putting away clothes.

“What are you doing?” you ask.
“What’s it look like? I’m packing up my shit and getting ready to get the hell outta here. It’s apparent that you were right again, about this place. It’s not safe here.” Donna says.
“At this point, I don’t think its too safe anywhere. At least the immediate threat here has been eliminated.” You say.

Donna stops packing.

“Wait a minute. Are you serious? This can’t be happening. I mean YOU of all people. Are you seriously considering staying here?”
“I don’t know. I mean would I like there to be a better option? Yes! But what options do we really have Donna? We don’t even have a fucking car to leave in and I doubt very seriously anyone is going to let us borrow a vehicle now. We’re going to be on foot, heading to god knows where. I mean WHERE are we going to go? Back to town? With all the bullshit going on there? Into that wilderness where we can slowly starve to death due to our lack of survival knowledge? Further down the road where we’ll run into who knows what? I mean everything seems so chaotic right now and I want at least a stable chance of survival. Your plan has always been to run and so far it hasn’t worked out very well either for me or you. Maybe we need to dig our heels in and tough it out if only for a bit.”

Donna sits down on the couch processing your words. She probably can’t believe you’re even thinking this way, and to be honest you can’t either. Maybe killing another human changed something within you and you’re not willing to just sit around and be a victim anymore. You’re going to DO something to improve your situation. Anything.

“Okay, I get what you’re saying. And yeah you’re right that it’s going to suck walking to wherever our unknown destination is going to be and we don’t know where we would go, but I’m just saying it HAS to be safer than staying here. I mean if we do stick around, what if the government sends another group of soldiers here? It’s going to look mighty suspicious that the last group they sent isn’t here and will probably be really bad for us. If we leave, we can at least distance ourselves from this mess. I dunno, I mean at this point I’ll stick with you no matter what you decide, I just think we oughta get the fuck outta here.” Donna advises.
> You stay in the trailer park
Honestly you don’t know if it’s a good idea or not, but you’re staying at least for now.

“I still think running on our own is a bad idea. I say we stick around at least for the rest of the day, I mean it’s no good walking off now with the sun about to go down. If it looks like things aren’t going to be too good for us here, I mean we can leave sometime tomorrow. I doubt if the military is going to send anyone else here THAT quick.”
“Okay, ugh. I still think this is a bad idea, but I suppose I could use that time to try to find someone who would let us borrow their vehicle. That would at least save us from walking.”
“Borrow? Didn’t know if we were leaving that we were planning on returning.” You snicker.
“Well, maybe other people will be getting ready to leave too, and maybe we can catch a ride with them at least.”
“Well that would make leaving at least more of an appealing prospect.” You say and start to leave.
“Where are you going?”
“If we’re going to stay, I should find out what the game plan is with the rest of these folks. If it looks like they don’t have their shit together, well that’s another mark in favor of leaving.”
“Hm, well I suppose I’ll go see if Tina’s done arguing with her boyfriend or whoever he is to her, maybe I can see if she’s receptive to the idea of leaving.”

At this point you and Donna split up. You mainly wander the trailer park a bit where you occasionally get some stares and a few cat calls, but mostly everyone is busily running around cleaning up or holding various weapons or building supplies in their hands. Mostly all the men.

While there is a lot of shouting in general going on, one of these trailer folk is standing around seemingly barking orders at the rest. It’s Mel, Tina’s boyfriend from earlier.

“Get those vehicles to block the main entrance to this place and drag those fucking dead to the field behind this place. We’ll bury their remains there in a big ass pit. After getting everything useful out of those military trucks, we’re going to need to start stripping them down…hey you…blondie, this ain’t no place for ya, I’m tryin’ to get some fuckin’ work done an’ I can’t have you here.” Mel exclaims.
“What? I’m not in anyone’s way and I live in this place! Why can’t I be here?” you ask.
“Because like I said, I’m TRYING to light a fire under these fuckers’ asses, and I can’t do that, if half of them are staring at YOUR ass or are you so dainty that you haven’t noticed?” Mel says.
“Yes, I’ve noticed that I’ve been attracting a lot of attention. I can’t really help that though, all I’m just trying to do is assess the situation here and if it’s worth staying or not. So are you in charge here now?”
“Well considering the old bastard that owned this place got his fucking head blown off during the firefight, we are now officially free of any sort of authority whatsoever. However, since I’m only one that realizes what we just did was fucking treason to the highest degree even if it was necessary, I suppose I’m charge of trying to get us all out of this shitstorm. My first goal is to try to get rid of all traces that these soldier boys were even here and attempt to barricade this place somewhat. To be honest though, with all the shit that I’ve been hearing on the news and from what Tina told me yesterday, sounds like the whole world is going to shit and I doubt the government is even going to investigate one shitty little trailer park right away. Assuming if there even IS a government left after all this is over.”
“So you really think this place will be safe?”
“Fuck if I know. Probably safer than what’s going on in town right now. All I know is I ain’t running from my home unless I really have to. Look darlin’ I ain’t got the answers for ya as to whether or not you should leave. That’s on you. All I CAN say is I hope you’ve got some sort of useful skill if you intend on stickin’ around because if you HOPE to remain semi-independent and not sucking dick for supper, you’re going to have to pull your weight around here in a meaningful way. Well either that or hook up with one of many fine bachelors round here.”

At this point Mel smirks and raises his hand towards the many slovenly looking guys walking around as if he’s presenting them like they’re a prize on a game show. Except none of them are prizes and this isn’t a game show.

You desperately think about your skills and unpredictably you find them lacking, however you do think of one thing that you haven’t done or even thought about in years.

“Well, my mom taught me how to sew when I was little. Haven’t done it in a long time though.”
“Mm, seamstress might be useful, but can you do anything else?”
“…uh…I killed a man. That’s gotta count for something.”
“Mm, well in some places it might, but it isn’t like you’re the only killer here especially after today. Shit, some of these guys here probably killed before today anyway. But I suppose if worst came to worst, you COULD potentially help out as a guard in a pinch when we get all set up seeing as I know you have the capacity to kill something or someone threatening if need be. Lord, I can just imagine how all these fucktards will be wanting to be paired up with you though. (Sigh) Look seein’ as you’re a friend of Tina’s…”
“Actually Tina’s my sister’s friend. I don’t think she really likes me at all.” You interrupt.
“Well she’s going to like you even fucking less if she sees me speaking with you considering she’s a jealous type, but we’re getting off track. Fuck, what was I sayin’? Oh yeah, look since you’re the sister of Tina’s friend and don’t seem like a complete stuck up cunt, I’ll try to keep the boys from harassin’ you too much. Can’t speak for any of the ladies though. They’re probably going to hate you just as much as Tina…well except for Butchie Billie, who’ll probably be harassing you right along with the boys. I’m just glad Jed and his retarded giant ass brother aren’t here. I think those fuckers were rapists and they would’ve LOVED the likes of you. Anyway, now could you please fuckin’ leave so some work can get done?”

At this point you leave Mel and return to your trailer where you find Donna.

“I thought you were scouting for a potential vehicle.” You say.
“Apparently none of these hicks are leaving and neither is Tina. Nobody is willing to let me borrow one either.”
“None? Didn’t you offer anything?” you ask hintingly.
“Offer?...Oh yuck! Suzy! Seriously? Do you think I’m just that much of a whore?!” Donna asks.
“Well I mean I know you’re free spirited enough not to give a shit about that sort of thing. I mean that IS how you got this trailer up front isn’t it?”
“Okay, first that was different. Second that was REALLY unpleasant!”
“Well you’ll be happy to know that old dude is dead now anyway. Mel seems to be in charge of this place now, or at least he alpha male here. Good thing you’re friends with Tina, he said he’d keep the sexual harassment to a minimum while we stay. He’s actually a lot smarter than he appears. He’s currently trying to eliminate all traces of the military being here and making this place more fortified.” You say.
“So, where does that leave us?”
“Well in the long term I don’t know. In the short term, we need to pull our weight around here to be useful. So far I’ve secured two possible jobs as a seamstress or a guard.”

Donna looks a little surprised.

“Seamstress huh? You talking about how mom taught you how to sew when we were little? Thought you hadn’t done it in a long time and didn’t care for it.”
“I haven’t and I don’t, but I don’t relish the idea of blowing anyone here for food and water if things get bad. I’ll probably end up being a guard though. Seems a lot easier to potentially shoot people.”
“Geez Suzy, you’re starting to sound like a completely different person.”
“Yeah well a lot of shit has happened. Anyway, I’m done for today, I’m just going to relax for the rest of the night, since I’m guessing I’ll be doing a lot of work in the near future. It appears I’ve found a job at last, gotta love the irony.” You say.

The remainder of the night is fairly uneventful if somewhat noisy at times. Donna doesn’t say too much to you and eventually goes to bed, but she once again thanks you for saving her from that soldier. The pair of you bailing each other out of trouble seems to be a reoccurring theme this week.

You can only hope it isn’t a necessary theme tomorrow.
> Next day...
THURSDAY

“…your family will feel right at home in one of our…”

“Agh, shut the hell up.” You instinctively groan at the Ground Zero ad. You call out for Donna to turn her tv off, but considering she doesn’t, you assume that she must not be here.

You look around for your phone to check the time, but you can’t find it. You can only assume that you dropped or misplaced it somewhere. Hardly matters, you don’t have too many people to contact anymore at this point. Your relationship with Bobby is over. Julie’s probably dead and who the hell knows what’s happened to the rest of your family in town. It isn’t like you need to call anyone or anyone needs to call you. You’re more pissed about your laptop, which apparently somehow caught a bullet during the mayhem yesterday. So much for keeping up on what might be going on in the world.

In any case there’s a clock in the trailer and the time indicates that you’ve slept through the morning as usual. Weird, since you fell asleep fairly early. You wonder where the hell Donna could’ve went to, but you’re guessing she might be with her friend Tina.

After turning the TV off in Donna’s room, all you’re left with is the noise that’s going on outside. Sounds like the good ol’ boys are still at it. You take a look out one of your windows and see several men in the field taking apart the military trucks, or rather severely altering them. It almost looks like they’re going to build a whole new vehicle out of them or something.

Since there isn’t anyway to entertain yourself with your laptop being shot up, you aren’t in the mood to watch Ground Zero infomercials, and you don’t want to risk the possibility of Donna suddenly walking in on you with your vibrating boyfriend (Thankfully nothing happened to that form of entertainment, though you do worry about batteries for the future) your only option is to head outside and try to find Donna or find something productive to do. You never thought such a day would come where you’d be leaving the comfort of a couch to potentially do some work, but here you are.

After going through your routine of washing up and changing clothes, you decide to take the rifle and pistol with you, just in case.

You exit the trailer and head on over to Tina’s place.

You knock on the trailer door and hardly recognize Tina without all her makeup on. Not that she’s ugly, in fact she’s actually less trashy looking without it on.

“What the fuck do you want blondie?” Tina asks.
“Um, is Donna here?”
“No, she’s not fucking here. Try a few trailers over, I think she took a shine to Jimmy Ray and is over there.”
“Oh. Okay then.” You say.
“If you see her, tell her, she better not be distractin’ him all fucking day with her pussy, cause Mel wants him to be workin’ on somethin’. I dunno what, exactly, but I don’t wanna have to listen to him bitch to me about it.”
“Got it.” You answer and begin to leave, but Tina calls out to you.

“Hey, you ain’t after, Mel’s dick are ya?” Tina asks which completely catches you off guard.
“What?”
“He told me yesterday, you and he spoke and said you were sweet on him and he had to tell you to stop flirting so much.”

Tina looks at you as if she’s detecting if you’re going to lie to her, but you have no intention of doing so since you’re defending yourself from a horrible lie!

“Uh, with no disrespect, but Mel is NOT my type and I did not flirt with him.” You answer.
“See, I knew that bastard was delusional. I didn’t even believe him when he told me that shit. Any retard can tell that a girl like you would have nothing to do with the likes of him in that way.” Tina says.
“Did I do something that he could’ve mistaken for flirting?
“Yeah, you were talking to him. He probably told all his friends that you were flirting with him. Hell, he might’ve even said he fucked you, but he tends to keep his tall tales a little more realistic nowadays. Whatever, he’s getting old and likes to think he’s still some sort of chick magnet. Still, I love the sonofabitch despite everything.”

As you’re about to finish your illuminating conversation with Tina, you suddenly hear gunshots and yelling.

“Oh shit!” you say believing that the military has returned already.

Several of the trailer park crew start running towards the noise with weapons in hand. Tina calls out to a skinny one who looks like methhead.

“Hey! Hey Dan, what the fuck’s goin’ on?” Tina shouts
“A bunch of fuckin’ zombies or some shit are attackin’ us! Mel’s called almost everyone to defend the east and south part of the park. Looks like a shitload of them are comin’ from town!”
“Wait, did you just say fuckin’ zombies?” Tina asks.
“Yeah. I mean shit, I dunno what they are, I just know Bobby Ray got all bit up by one of them. Maybe they’re just cannibals or high on bath salts. Remember like that one time I…”
“Dan, whatever! Just go! Go! Go! And you, get inside here, quick!” Tina says waving away Dan who continues to his destination.
“But I gotta find my sister.” You remark
“She’s probably safe with Jimmy Ray.”
“Didn’t Dan say he just got bit by zombies?”
“That was Bobby Ray! Now get yer ass in here, we’ll bar the door and hunker down inside here until Mel and the boys take care of this.”

You’re not going to leave your sister’s potential fate in the hands of some redneck who you know nothing about though. You’re going to make the effort to at least find her; besides, you’d rather not barricade yourself in anywhere unless you have to.

“Where is Jimmy’s trailer again?!” you ask.
“You’re a damn idiot blondie. (sigh) it’s more towards the entrance and has a badly spray painted picture of a naked woman on the side of it. I suggest you get a move on.” Tina says and slams her door shut.

You follow the advice and start heading towards your new destination, which has considerably more gunfire and shouting coming from that direction. You feel like you’re in one of those video games that you played on your computer sometimes, except this is unfortunately very real.

With your rifle held in front of you the whole time, you continue to move at a quick yet cautious rate. You keep half expecting one of those freaks to suddenly jump out at you every time you pass one of the trailers. You catch a glance of people peeping out their windows of said trailers, sometimes you hear one of them shouting at you to “find some damn shelter.”

Eventually you hear a voice calling at you from above.

“Hey blondie, what the hell are you doing down there?” you look up and see a shirtless young man with a shotgun standing on top of the trailer.

“Suzy?! What the hell are you doing?!” another voice shouts, but this one is coming from inside the trailer. Sounds like Donna.

You glance back down and look at the trailer itself and notice that this is the one you’ve been looking for. You’re guessing that’s Jimmy Ray standing on top of his trailer. You can sort of see Donna going for a guy like him. He’s got a rugged handsome look rather than a grizzled, unkept or outright disgusting appearance that some of the other guys around here have.

“Donna?! I was looking for you, that’s what I’m doing out here.” You say while swiveling your head in several directions to keep an eye on your surroundings.
“Well now you’ve found me, now get inside!” Donna shouts and starts to open up the door.
“Donna, don’t leave that door open too long, I’m watching the main fighting at the front of the park and it’s not looking good. The east side is doing better though.”
“Aren’t you suppose to be helping Mel?” you ask.
“Pfft, yeah right. I mean I don’t hate him or anything, but I’m not riskin’ my life for that asshole. Oh fuck! More of them are getting through, and I mean a shitload! Get your asses inside!” Jimmy Ray shouts and starts aiming his shotgun.

You look and see a couple of the…things Dan was talking about. This is insane. Here you were worrying about the military and some unexpected threat like…zombies shows up? They can’t be zombies, they just can’t!

Whatever they are, four of them are flailing about wildly and growling. They notice you and begin loping at you. The mere sight of them is troubling, but you quickly point your rifle at them and start firing.

Jimmy’s shotgun gets one of them in the leg which he then shoots again in the body. Another gets its head blown off. You use up the remainder of the clip to kill the two remaining. One of them didn’t even drop down dead until he almost reached you. They don’t look rotten (though they do look dirty and disheveled…which isn’t unlike some of the hillbillies here) and you didn’t even shoot one in the head, so while they may NOT be zombies, they’re certainly inhuman enough for you to be scared. (Some sort of sickness perhaps?)

Meanwhile Donna’s at the door and calling to you. You see now that she’s not wearing her own clothes, but rather a robe of some sort. Certainly not hers.

“Suzy, please! Get inside NOW!” she shouts as more of those things come running in your direction.
“Goddamn it, the pair of you need to get inside!” Jimmy shouts as he snaps off another shot.

While the freaks are definitely advancing, they’re also splitting up to attack several trailers. You wonder if you shouldn’t just get Donna and make your way out of here since it looks like this place is going to be overrun.
> You get in the trailer
As tempting as it is to just run, once again, you don’t really have anywhere viable to run to and now you’d have a horde of those things possibly dogging your steps if you did, so you’re going to just be satisfied with short term safety and keep optimistic that things aren’t as hopeless as they seem.

You run up the stairs and into the trailer. Donna slams and locks the door, and then you both shove a couch in front of it. You look up at the ceiling of the trailer and see the sun roof open which naturally explains how Jimmy Ray got up there. You can hear him firing and swearing.

“Okay, I think we should be safe now.” Donna remarks.
“I wouldn’t count on that. I mean yeah, they’d have a hell of time breaking through the door, and granted the windows are high enough that they might have trouble breaking and climbing into them, but I still don’t feel safe cooped up in here.” You say and start looking around for more furniture and start moving a table under the sunroof.

“Suzy, what’re you doing?”
“I’m going to go help your boyfriend if I can. You got a weapon down here?”
“There’s Jimmy’s bat and some knives in the kitchen, but he really doesn’t need your help. You should stay down here, I mean what if they try to break in like you said?”
“Well I’ll be able to shoot them from above a lot better from the roof. Climb up if things start getting grim.” You say and start climb through the roof.

When you reach the roof, Jimmy notices you as he’s in the middle of reloading his weapon.

“What the fuck are you doin’ up here, get back in the trailer with your sister!” he says.
“I’m here to help.” You say scanning the area.
“I don’t need any help, now…”

You interrupt Jimmy, when you look over the other side of the trailer, see one particularly sneaky freak skulking near it and shoot him.

“You aren’t even paying attention to the other side of the trailer. You need to be aware of your surroundings!” you say.
“Aw, he couldn’t have gotten up here, and I would’ve heard him had he tried.” Jimmy remarks. “Fine, stay up here, but don’t get in my way!” he then adds realizing that you aren’t going anywhere.

From on top of the trailer, you can see a good deal more of the park in general. You and Jimmy actually aren’t the only ones standing on a trailer, you see several women with guns doing their best at fighting off this horde. You even see Tina when you look back towards her trailer.

The situation isn’t quite as grim as it once appeared as you see a group of hillbillies from the east side of the park making their way back and soon start helping out with mopping up the freaks that have infested it.

Jimmy and yourself mostly keep to picking off the ones that come too close to his trailer. He actually compliments you or your shooting at one point. To be honest, it’s sort of weird to you how much of a natural you are at it.

After few more bloody minutes, it’s mostly over and the…well you still don’t know WHAT they are exactly, but they’re no longer the threat they were.

“Whew, I think we got the last of those sons of bitches.” Jimmy says.
“Yeah, well I’m not in any hurry to check. I’m out of bullets anyway, so I’m just going to go back into the trailer with my sister.”
“Okay, I’m gonna keep an eye out from here. Um… I wasn’t sure about you at first, but thanks for yer help.”

Suddenly Donna’s head pops up from the opening in the roof.

“What’s going on up here? The shooting has mostly stopped, is it over?” Donna asks.
“It’s over in the sense that I’m guessing we aren’t in any danger of being overrun. Was everything okay down there? We were trying to keep them from clawing at the trailer too much.” You say.
“Yeah, a few got as close as the door and then one of you guys shot them.” Donna says.
“Shit, let’s get back down in the trailer.” Jimmy suddenly says walking over to where you and Donna are.
“Did you just see more of those things?”
“No, I see…

“There you are, ya slackin’ piece of shit! Where the fuck were you when we needed help over on the east side of the park. Nearly got my ass eaten and not in a good way!” Mel shouts from the ground as he walks with a couple of other men behind him.

“Aw Mel, I didn’t even know about it until it was too late, I was uh…”
“You were thinkin’ with yer dick as usual. Is that…is that blondie there I see? Holy shit, didn’t think you were fool enough to fall fer this idiot’s charms.” Mel says.
“I didn’t…I was looking for my sister and I helped her and Jimmy out here.”
“Is that right?” Mel asks.
“Yeah, it’s true! I was with her sister…and um, by the time I knew what was goin’ on I couldn’t leave this trailer because it was surrounded by those things! I was pickin’ them off with the shotgun and then Suzy came here and helped out. Good thing too. There were a shitload of them, as you can tell by the bodies!” Jimmy says and begins pointing at them.

Mel stares at the bodies that Jimmy’s pointing to and doesn’t seem impressed.

“Jimmy, yer so full of shit right now, yer eyes are brown. By the number of bodies here and their various distances from the trailer, it wasn’t THAT surrounded. Whatever, doesn’t matter, come on down, you’re comin’ with us.”
“Where are we goin?” Jimmy asks.
“We’re gonna go try to fetch some medical supplies from town. We got some people hurt pretty fuckin’ bad an’ other than a few half used basic medical kits that a few people scrounged up, all else we got is a shitload of alcohol. You’d think those military trucks woulda had some medical shit in them, but no. I suppose SOME people here got some meth, crack and a few other unconventional drugs, but last thing we need is more goddamn junkies runnin’ around here.” Mel says glaring at Dan.
“Town? Um…don’t ya think it’ll be pretty fucked up there?” Jimmy asks.
“Of course it’s gonna be fucked up there, but it needs to get done. Or we at least need to try. So come on Jimmy, get yer ass down here, what about you blondie?” Mel asks.
“What about me what?” you ask.
“You gonna come with us? Obviously you’re good enough with a weapon to take care of yourself an’ we’re a little short on that at the moment.”

As Jimmy kisses Donna on the cheek and tells her something about coming back to her, you briefly consider Mel’s offer. While you’ve certainly “grown” past being the wallflower you tended to be, you know you’re not some action heroine badass.

“While I appreciate the offer Mel, I think I’d be better off staying here, I’m still not as skilled as you guys are when it comes to shooting. I wouldn’t want to be a liability.” You say.
“Hm, I guess that’s an honest assessment of yourself. Alright then, keep an eye out on things here. As for the rest of ya, come on let’s round up a few more folks and then let’s see just how fucked the town is.” Mel says and he and the rest walk off leaving you and Donna who duck back inside Jimmy’s trailer.

“I’m really glad you didn’t go with them. I mean that’s gotta be a suicide mission.” Donna says.
“Well it will certainly be dangerous that’s for sure.” You say.
“So you still think it’s a good idea to stay here?” Donna asks.
“Still want to leave huh?” you say.
“Don’t you? I mean we just went through TWO major attacks at this place now! Who knows what the hell is gonna hit us next! More of those freaks probably, but I’m thinking that we got a better chance if we do leave this time.”
“How’s that?” you ask.
“Well Jimmy Ray’s got a truck that he parked between his trailer and the next one as a poor man’s barrier of sorts and he didn’t take his keys with him. In fact they’re over on the table over there. That suggests to me that we can easily take his while he’s gone. In fact, Mel and most of those redneck assholes will all be gone and the others are nursing their wounds, so now would be the perfect time to get the hell out of here.”
“I used up all my ammo fighting off those cannibal things. What about weapons?”
“I guess we’ll have to get by on close combat ones for awhile, but Jimmy’s probably got another gun in his bedroom somewhere. Look, I’ll search this place and you go grab your bags from our trailer. I still got a bag packed near my bed from yesterday, so you can grab that one too.”

You chuckle a bit at Donna’s suggestion of completely robbing Jimmy Ray blind and take her plan into consideration.
> You leave the park
Given that you’ve been attacked by military, as well as a bunch of cannibal freaks… well sticking around here is looking a lot less desirable now and Donna’s idea is looking a lot more enticing.

Plus if you were planning on ripping off this place and running off, this would be the best time to do it while everyone is a bit disarray and Mel and the better defenders of this place are gone.

“Okay Donna I’m with you on this, but we really gotta do this shit quick.” You say.
“Well of course. Like I said, you run over to our trailer and grab my bag and your own and rush back over. By the time you’re done, I should have found Jimmy’s keys and whatever else he’s got here that looks interesting.” Donna replies.

You and Donna nod at the agreement of this plan then you slip out of the trailer and try to keep a low profile. It really isn’t difficult since the few people walking around don’t even know you and seem to be busy cleaning up the dead freaks lying on the ground. You do spot Tina, however and deliberately avoid her since if anyone is going to attempt to hold you up for any reason, it would likely be her.

When you get to your trailer, you pack what items and clothing you can in your bags, zip ‘em up and then sling one over your shoulder then with your free hand you go into the bedroom and grab Tina’s bag.

You leave your trailer and try to make it over to Jimmy’s as quick as you can.

You get half way there and then you hear a familiar voice…

“Hey blondie! Knew you survived, where the hell ya been, there’s fuckin’ work to do. Need all the help we can moving these fuckin’ bodies.” Tina shouts.

You silently say “shit” to yourself and slowly turn around thinking up a lie that won’t attract too much suspicion, while at the same time is going to allow you avoid whatever work Tina had in mind for you.

“Oh hey Tina. I’ve been…um just trying to recover from that recent attack just like everyone else. It was all sort of discombobulating you know?” you say.
“Discom…what the fuck? Whatever, you don’t look hurt, so yer ass is needed to help move some bodies…and what’s with all the bags?” Tina asks.
“Well, my sister Donna…”
“Yeah where the fuck is Donna? She ain’t bit is she? Cause they put all those fuckers in a separate trailer. Even though I think they should just shoot the infected bastards. We all know how those movies go!” Tina interrupts.
“Uh, no. She’s fine. Well not fine…”
“Speak fucking plain blondie!”
“My sister isn’t hurt physically, but she hasn’t handled the recent attack very well…she’s a wreck actually. Hysterical one moment, silent shock the next. Took me awhile to calm her down. She says she’d feel safer staying with Jimmy Ray, so that’s why I got all these bags with her stuff. I’m taking them over there.”
“Donna broke down? Always thought she was miss cool, calm and collected and got over shit fairly quickly…hmmm, guess a few days sober in the face of brutal reality might break someone normally living in a drug, alcohol and sex fueled fantasy realm. I don’t remember her having all that shit. In fact aren’t some of those your bags?”
“Yeah, she never brought that many clothes and I figured she could borrow some of my stuff. Figured I’d let her choose while I continued to talk with her. I mean I can still help with body moving thing, but I just really need to go help my sister first.”
“(Sigh) Fine. No point in having a hysterical bitch making life miserable with bouts of screaming. Do what you need to do, but as soon as yer done, you help out with moving these bodies.”
“Got it. I’ll really try to be quick.” You say.

After parting company with Tina, you continue to head over to Jimmy’s as quick as you can where Donna is sitting on a chair waiting for you.

“Would’ve been quicker, but I had to talk my way out of moving dead bodies with Tina.” You say.
“It’s fine, here.” Donna says and takes her bag while thrusting a pistol into your hand. “It’s the only one I could find. You might as well take it, since you’re obviously more experienced with shooting than I am by now.”
“Well thanks I guess. You got the keys too I trust?”
“Yep, truck’s right next to this trailer. Though getting out isn’t going to be as quick as I’d like due to the way its parked, but we’ll just deal with that as it comes. You ready?”
“Let’s do it.”

You and Donna run out of the trailer and turn the corner where Jimmy’s truck is parked. Donna was right about how it’s parked. Somehow he managed to wedge it between his trailer and the neighboring one pretty good. Donna’s going to have to do a lot of reversing and forward driving to get it out, but you’re wondering if you’re going to have time for all that.

Throwing the bags in the back of the pick up, Donna gets into the driver’s seat and quickly unlocks the passenger sider before starting up the truck. DOesn’t take long before Donna’s bashing the hell out of the front end AND the back end of the truck against the trailers, attempting to get it out of it’s parking space.

It also doesn’t take long before several people hear this noise.

“HEY! THOSE TWO BITCHES ARE TRYING TO STEAL ONE OF OUR TRUCKS!” a voice shouts.

Several of the trailer park residents attempt to rush at the truck at first, but after you fire a few shots at them, they retreat and re-think that plan.

“Donna come on! We ain’t got much time before they go and get their guns and start firing back!” you shout.
“I know! I know! Fuck! Shit! This truck is really wedged in!” Donna shouts.

The scraping of metal and the continued destruction of the truck’s front end is in full force as Donna decides to just give the truck a hard turn in an attempt to escape. It works and you’re soon free, now you just have to drive out of the vicinity of the trailer park altogether because now bullets are damaging the truck.

“Shit!”
“Just get to the road Donna and drive west!” you shout.
“It should be just a little, oh fuck!” Donna shouts as suddenly hits one of the rednecks with the truck. In fact she ran right over her.
“Go! Go! Just fucking go!” you shout ducking your head down as another bullet breaks the back window.

Soon, Donna manages to get back on the road though there are a few more shots fired in your direction.

“Goddamnit, I think they hit the tires! This thing’s getting hard to control!” Donna shouts.
“Well we’re going to have to ride the rims, because we’re not out of danger yet.” You reply.
“Got that right bitch!” a voice suddenly says and then a large arm with a hook comes through the broken back window.

You’re startled enough by this unexpected event that you fumble with your pistol and drop it on the floor. As you scramble for the pistol, Donna screams and attempts to simultaneously keep control of the vehicle as well as not get impaled with a large metal object.

When you finally get the pistol, an elbow goes into your face and a hand tries to grab your weapon. Donna slams on the breaks, which causes this unwanted hitchhiker to lose her grip on you and fall backwards a bit though she manages to hang on by embedding her hook into the front seat of the truck. Still, it’s just enough time for you to gain the advantage.

You swing around to turn to your attacker and see an angry looking woman with a buzz cut before you shoot her. At this range you don’t miss and half of her face is blown off before she releases her grip from the hook and her body falls backwards towards the tail end of the truck bed.

“She’s dead, get us the hell outta here before the rest catch up!” you shout seeing a few people coming from the trailer park.
“Holy shit, who the hell was that and how the hell did she sneak into the truck bed?!” Donna says flooring the gas.
“Dunno, doesn’t matter, like I said, get us the hell outta here!”

Donna’s a little shaken up from all this, but keeps her cool and by the time you put a lot of distance between you and the trailer park she’s a lot calmer. Still, you’re concerned that someone is going to give chase in another vehicle.

“Fuck, that was intense.” Donna exclaims.
“Yeah, well I knew it wasn’t going to be easy when you suggested it.”
“Still, we did it though. When me and you work as a team we seem to overcome all odds.” Donna says in a slightly upbeat tone.
“Well so far things have worked in our favor. Sort of worried about how far we’re actually going to get in this truck though. We’ve got at least one damaged back tire and who knows if they’re going to pursue us in their own vehicles.” You say.

At this point you continue to look behind you to see if anyone is following, but happily you don’t see anyone. You and Donna don’t say much for the next few miles. Maybe it’s because neither of you really knows what’s going to come next. You’re in a rural area with a truck that may or may not be drivable for very long. Neither of you has any money or anything really to barter with if you needed to fix it in someway. Well there is ONE thing you both have, but you’re not exactly willing to do that. (Though you imagine it wouldn’t be a problem for your sister)

If anything, your mindset has gotten a bit on the darker side of things due to the past few days. If the world is indeed going the way of chaos, you’re starting to think why not embrace it? You have a gun, and so far you’ve come to the conclusion that they’ve been solving a lot of problems for you.

As you dwell on these thoughts, your sister suddenly speaks.

“Hey Suzy, there’s a group of tents up ahead. Looks almost like a circus or something. I thought I heard someone mention at the trailer park about one up this way. Should we stop and see if we can get help there?” Donna asks.
“Hmm, nah. We should keep going. We still need to put more distance between us and that damn trailer park. Besides, I doubt if a bunch of carnies is going to be much better than a bunch of rednecks.” You answer.

Donna nods and continues to drive. Leaving you to your thoughts, which are now starting to envision improving your situation by robbing some idiot of their belongings.

You turn the radio on in an attempt to find something to keep your mind occupied, but its mostly Ground Zero commercials. You get a few doomsday religious preachers too, which is even worse. You turn off the radio in dismay and return to your introspection until Donna speaks up again.

“Hey Suzy?” Donna asks.
“Yeah?” you reply.
“Do you think the world is going to end?”
“I dunno. Maybe. Though as far as I’m concerned, it already ended for me when I had to leave my basement.”
“Yeah…I suppose it would. Hey, if you want we could turn around and go home. You could take back your basement and shoot Kelly in the face.”

You chuckle a bit at that suggestion.

“That’s definitely a tempting idea. I think we’re better off driving into the unknown though. Like you said, when we work as a team, it somehow works out for us.” You say which Donna returns your sentiment with a smile.

Eventually the day starts turning to night and you start to get tired. The stress of the day has finally caught up with you. Surprisingly Donna’s still alert. So far the truck hasn’t given any problems though you know you’re riding on a flat (or at least low) back tire by this point.

You honestly don’t know what you’re going to do next, but for now you’re going to try to get some rest as you drift off to sleep…
> Next day…
FRIDAY

“Suzy…hey Suzy…get up.” Donna remarks.
“Huh? What’s going on? What time is it?” you answer half asleep.
“I dunno, I think it’s getting up for the afternoon. Really I’m sort of surprised you didn’t at least stir a little since you fell asleep last night. You really are a deep sleeper.”
“Guess yesterday’s cannibal killing and grand theft auto really took it out of me. Hey we’re not moving.” You say looking around and seeing that you’re parked off the side of the road.
“No, I pulled over to sleep sometime after midnight.”
“What? That was dangerous! You should’ve woke me up then! I could’ve kept a look out or even taken over with the driving! I mean we could’ve been attacked by who knows what during the night!” you exclaim.
“We were fine. While I’ve seen a few abandoned vehicles, I haven’t seen a single person driving on this road since we started yesterday. Nobody behind us, and nobody coming from the other direction either.”
“I don’t care if we were driving in a fucking desolate wasteland, we’ve got cannibals running around, a break down of society and there’s still the potential of angry rednecks coming after us! Next time THINK!”
“Okay…okay…sorry Suzy.“ Donna says rather meekly.

You give Donna a dirty look, but tell her to forget it. Actually you’re sort of surprised she didn’t put up more of a fight since it’s not like her to back down from an argument, but maybe she’s becoming a little afraid of you.

“Well, seeing as things are deader than a tomb around here, we might as well take this opportunity to dump our passenger in the back.” You say.
“Oh, yeah.” Donna replies.

As you step out of the truck, you look at her to do likewise to help.

“Oh. Wait, you wanted me to help?”
“That was the idea.”
“(Sigh) Alright.”

You and Donna go to the back of the truck and open up the tailgate. The redneck woman’s head that was propped up on it slumps in front of you. Flies have already begun gathering on her face.

“Ugh. She’s already beginning to rot.” Donna says and chokes a bit.
“She was pretty tall that’s for sure. It is sort of amazing she managed to jump in the truck bed without us realizing it. Maybe it was when you ran over that other girl.” You remark.
“She fucking attacked us with a hook too. That’s like something out of a horror movie.”
“Everything about what’s happened to us this week is like something out of a horror movie. I saw Tina with one of those hooks yesterday, I think they were moving bodies with them. Y’know, I never officially met her…but I think this was the infamous Butchie Billie I’d hear about every so often. Anyway, let’s pull her dead ass out.”

Grabbing one arm and Donna grabbing the other, you pull what you believe to be the corpse of Butchie Billie out of the truck. Donna doesn’t have that great of a hold on her and drops her end causing you to nearly fall to the ground too.

“Goddamnit Donna, you can’t…argh. Fuck it. I’ll do it myself!” you say in exasperation.

You proceed to kick and roll the body further away from the road and into the brush.

“Good enough.” You say breathing a little heavy. “Whew, open up one of my bags, I’m fairly certain I packed a few bottles of water in there.”

Donna gets in the bed of the truck and starts unzipping bags. Eventually she finds the water and passes you one and takes one for herself.

As you drink, you notice both of your back tires are completely flat. You knew one of them was, but you guess the other one gave up during the night.

“Our tires are fucked. I mean we could still drive on them, but it wouldn’t be a pleasant ride.” You say.
“Doesn’t matter really, judging by the gauge last night we’re almost out of gas too. Jimmy apparently didn’t keep this truck gassed up in case of an emergency.” Donna says.
“Great.”
“I mean I suppose we could just keep driving until we can’t anymore or we possibly find an auto shop.”
“Auto shop? Out in the sticks?”
“Well I dunno, don’t they usually have those last chance gas mechanic things along roadsides like this? Besides I think we’re starting to get past the farmland and should be hitting more populated areas soon. Security City is this way after all.” Donna says.
“Given what happened to our town, that might not be a good thing. We still don’t know what the fuck is going on. All we do know is the government declared martial law and there are rabid people running around.” You say.
“Well I wasn’t suggesting we go to Security City, I was just saying we should be hitting more populated areas due it being close by. Look, obviously I don’t have a good idea of what to do next, so if you got a long term plan, then by all means let’s follow it.”

Before you can reply, you hear the sound of vehicle. You peek your head out from behind the truck and see a car heading in your direction. It’s going at a good pace, but MAYBE you can stop it.

“Donna, a car’s coming. Quick, tear your clothing and go out in the road and look like a slutty damsel in distress!” you say.
“What?!”
“Just fucking do it!” you say and check to see how many bullets you have.

Donna, gets the picture quickly, though you can tell she’s not entirely happy with this arrangement.

You hide behind the truck’s side away from the road, while Donna gets in the middle of the road and waves her arms. You can’t believe you’re actually enacting a plan you thought up in your head just yesterday.

You just hope whoever the driver is; they actually stop and don’t try to do something like say run over Donna instead.

The car approaches and actually starts to slow down and then eventually stops, but it does so at a distance. Someone then steps out of the passenger side armed with a sub-machine gun.

“Alright honey, if you want to live, I suggest you don’t move.” He says.
“Don’t shoot! I’m completely unarmed! This isn’t some sort of trick! Please, I just need help, my truck has flat tires and I don’t have any way now to get to Security City!” Donna exclaims.
“Security City? Hah! You don’t wanna go there trust me. The whole place is fucked! If the military doesn’t round you up and kill ya, the cannibal freaks running all over the place will.” The man shouts.

Well you know that place is definitely off the list now.

“Oh no! I don’t know where to go then! I’m just so lost by myself! Where are you guys going? Can I come with you?” Donna asks.
“Come with us? Look, I dunno if that’s a good idea. We’re pretty full up with shit and there isn’t much room in this car…”
“That’s okay, I won’t take up much room. I mean I’ll sit on your lap if I have to.”
“Sit on my…”
“Look I’ll do anything you and your friend want! I’ll suck your cocks and fuck you if I have to! Just I can’t be alone! Not after those things tried to kill and eat me yesterday!” Donna screams and starts to rub her eyes and sniffling.

At this point the man with the sub-machine gun pauses.

“Hold on.” He says and then converses with his driver buddy for a moment. You continue to wait patiently hoping they take this bait.

“Alright honey, you can come with us, but that payment you just offered? Well we’ll be taking it now, so I hope you’re ready to back up your promises.” The passenger shouts and then gets back in the car, which slowly drives up closer to meet Donna.

When they drive up near the other side of the truck, you wonder if you should wait a little longer to make sure they’re completely vulnerable or sneak around the truck and open fire now.
> You open fire now
You sneak around towards the front end of the truck and then see Mr. passenger get out of the car.

“Okay baby, where are we doing this? The back seat of the car is pretty full as you can see. We can do it in your truck if you want. Front seat or the bed of it. Doesn’t matter to me.” He says and then you come out from your hiding spot to blast him in the head.

“OH SHIT MITCH GET BACK IN THE FUCKING CAR!” the driver shouts. He must’ve seen you in his rear view mirror and it’s distracting enough that you miss your shot allowing Mitch to duck and scramble for the cover of the car.

At this point Donna screams and runs off and you start firing into the car. You aren’t sure if you hit the driver or not, but the car starts going in reverse. Not at an excessively fast speed, but you barely get out the way.

Falling back on your ass you watch as the car continues rolling past you with the driver slumped over the wheel.

Unfortunately you aren’t able to celebrate this good fortune because while you were falling and trying to get out a rolling car’s way, Mitch ran around the front of the rolling car and around your truck to get the drop on you.

You recover just in time to see a sub-machine gun pointed at you and then the muzzle flash of multiple bullets ripping your skull apart.


FRIDAY

“Suzy…hey Suzy…get up.” Donna remarks.
“Huh? What’s going on? What time is it?” you answer half asleep.
“I dunno, I think it’s getting up for the afternoon. Really I’m sort of surprised you didn’t at least stir a little since you fell asleep last night. You really are a deep sleeper.”
“Guess yesterday’s cannibal killing and grand theft auto really took it out of me. Hey we’re not moving.” You say looking around and seeing that you’re parked off the side of the road.
“No, I pulled over to sleep sometime after midnight.”
“What? That was dangerous! You should’ve woke me up then! I could’ve kept a look out or even taken over with the driving! I mean we could’ve been attacked by who knows what during the night!” you exclaim.
“We were fine. While I’ve seen a few abandoned vehicles, I haven’t seen a single person driving on this road since we started yesterday. Nobody behind us, and nobody coming from the other direction either.”
“I don’t care if we were driving in a fucking desolate wasteland, we’ve got cannibals running around, a break down of society and there’s still the potential of angry rednecks coming after us! Next time THINK!”
“Okay…okay…sorry Suzy.“ Donna says rather meekly.

You give Donna a dirty look, but tell her to forget it. Actually you’re sort of surprised she didn’t put up more of a fight since it’s not like her to back down from an argument, but maybe she’s becoming a little afraid of you.

“Well, seeing as things are deader than a tomb around here, we might as well take this opportunity to dump our passenger in the back.” You say.
“Oh, yeah.” Donna replies.

As you step out of the truck, you look at her to do likewise to help.

“Oh. Wait, you wanted me to help?”
“That was the idea.”
“(Sigh) Alright.”

You and Donna go to the back of the truck and open up the tailgate. The redneck woman’s head that was propped up on it slumps in front of you. Flies have already begun gathering on her face.

“Ugh. She’s already beginning to rot.” Donna says and chokes a bit.
“She was pretty tall that’s for sure. It is sort of amazing she managed to jump in the truck bed without us realizing it. Maybe it was when you ran over that other girl.” You remark.
“She fucking attacked us with a hook too. That’s like something out of a horror movie.”
“Everything about what’s happened to us this week is like something out of a horror movie. I saw Tina with one of those hooks yesterday, I think they were moving bodies with them. Y’know, I never officially met her…but I think this was the infamous Butchie Billie I’d hear about every so often. Anyway, let’s pull her dead ass out.”

Grabbing one arm and Donna grabbing the other, you pull what you believe to be the corpse of Butchie Billie out of the truck. Donna doesn’t have that great of a hold on her and drops her end causing you to nearly fall to the ground too.

“Goddamnit Donna, you can’t…argh. Fuck it. I’ll do it myself!” you say in exasperation.

You proceed to kick and roll the body further away from the road and into the brush.

“Good enough.” You say breathing a little heavy. “Whew, open up one of my bags, I’m fairly certain I packed a few bottles of water in there.”

Donna gets in the bed of the truck and starts unzipping bags. Eventually she finds the water and passes you one and takes one for herself.

As you drink, you notice both of your back tires are completely flat. You knew one of them was, but you guess the other one gave up during the night.

“Our tires are fucked. I mean we could still drive on them, but it wouldn’t be a pleasant ride.” You say.
“Doesn’t matter really, judging by the gauge last night we’re almost out of gas too. Jimmy apparently didn’t keep this truck gassed up in case of an emergency.” Donna says.
“Great.”
“I mean I suppose we could just keep driving until we can’t anymore or we possibly find an auto shop.”
“Auto shop? Out in the sticks?”
“Well I dunno, don’t they usually have those last chance gas mechanic things along roadsides like this? Besides I think we’re starting to get past the farmland and should be hitting more populated areas soon. Security City is this way after all.” Donna says.
“Given what happened to our town, that might not be a good thing. We still don’t know what the fuck is going on. All we do know is the government declared martial law and there are rabid people running around.” You say.
“Well I wasn’t suggesting we go to Security City, I was just saying we should be hitting more populated areas due it being close by. Look, obviously I don’t have a good idea of what to do next, so if you got a long term plan, then by all means let’s follow it.”

Before you can reply, you hear the sound of vehicle. You peek your head out from behind the truck and see a car heading in your direction. It’s going at a good pace, but MAYBE you can stop it.

“Donna, a car’s coming. Quick, tear your clothing and go out in the road and look like a slutty damsel in distress!” you say.
“What?!”
“Just fucking do it!” you say and check to see how many bullets you have.

Donna, gets the picture quickly, though you can tell she’s not entirely happy with this arrangement.

You hide behind the truck’s side away from the road, while Donna gets in the middle of the road and waves her arms. You can’t believe you’re actually enacting a plan you thought up in your head just yesterday.

You just hope whoever the driver is; they actually stop and don’t try to do something like say run over Donna instead.

The car approaches and actually starts to slow down and then eventually stops, but it does so at a distance. Someone then steps out of the passenger side armed with a sub-machine gun.

“Alright honey, if you want to live, I suggest you don’t move.” He says.
“Don’t shoot! I’m completely unarmed! This isn’t some sort of trick! Please, I just need help, my truck has flat tires and I don’t have any way now to get to Security City!” Donna exclaims.
“Security City? Hah! You don’t wanna go there trust me. The whole place is fucked! If the military doesn’t round you up and kill ya, the cannibal freaks running all over the place will.” The man shouts.

Well you know that place is definitely off the list now.

“Oh no! I don’t know where to go then! I’m just so lost by myself! Where are you guys going? Can I come with you?” Donna asks.
“Come with us? Look, I dunno if that’s a good idea. We’re pretty full up with shit and there isn’t much room in this car…”
“That’s okay, I won’t take up much room. I mean I’ll sit on your lap if I have to.”
“Sit on my…”
“Look I’ll do anything you and your friend want! I’ll suck your cocks and fuck you if I have to! Just I can’t be alone! Not after those things tried to kill and eat me yesterday!” Donna screams and starts to rub her eyes and sniffling.

At this point the man with the sub-machine gun pauses.

“Hold on.” He says and then converses with his driver buddy for a moment. You continue to wait patiently hoping they take this bait.

“Alright honey, you can come with us, but that payment you just offered? Well we’ll be taking it now, so I hope you’re ready to back up your promises.” The passenger shouts and then gets back in the car, which slowly drives up closer to meet Donna.

When they drive up near the other side of the truck, you wonder if you should wait a little longer to make sure they’re completely vulnerable or sneak around the truck and open fire now.
> You wait a little longer
You decide that it would be best if they were completely pre-occupied. If you shoot now, the driver could either manage to drive off or the passenger could start spraying the place with bullets.

Still, you sneak around towards the front end of the truck so you can at least ambush from behind when you do strike.

“Okay baby, where are we doing this? The back seat of the car is pretty full as you can see. We can do it in your truck if you want. Front seat or the bed of it. Doesn’t matter to me.” The passenger says getting back out of the car.
“Uh, no not the truck. It got all shot up yesterday, back window broke and there’s broken glass everywhere. Don’t want to potentially get cut up.”
“Hmm, well the hood of this car then?”

At this point Donna walks up to him and starts to do what she does best. Namely act like a slut.

“How about I do the both of you at the same time? That way you both get off and we can be on our way a lot quicker.” she says and starts rubbing up against Mr. passenger.
“Well now. That’s an interesting suggestion…how were you proposing the logistics of this?”
“Oh that’s easy… you see, first I take off my clothes…” Donna says and quickly takes her clothing off until she’s completely naked.

“Next, I just get on my knees in this front seat here… and start to unbuckle your friend’s pants…”

You can’t see the driver from your position since he’s never moved out from his seat, but he’s obviously okay with this since you hear a couple of moans of pleasure.

“And now…well don’t just stand there silly. My ass is right in front of you, start fucking!” Donna commands.
“Wait, you want me to fuck you in the ass?!” Mr. passenger asks.
“Well it’s not gonna fuck itself. Do what you want. I gotta concentrate on wrapping my lips around this nice hard cock…mmmmm…”

Holy shit, talk about taking one for the team…hell taking TWO for the team.

At this point Mr. passenger can’t err on the side of caution any longer. He places his gun on the roof of the car and presumably starts taking your sister in a way that you imagine many men have taken her before.

With one dick in her mouth and another in her ass, you’re fairly confident now that Donna’s distracted them both to the point that you have the complete advantage.

You step out from the front of truck and walk towards the car parked near it. Mr. passenger’s eyes aren’t watching as he’s focused on thrusting into your sister. His head is a perfect target and with a single shot, you end him as a threat.

“Oh shit! Oh shit! ARGH! MY DICK! FUCKING BITCH!” you hear the driver shout.

You rush over to the driver’s side and point the gun at his head before he can start beating on your sister’s head in an effort to get her off his dick.

“You move to your hands to hit my sister and you die. You try to start up the car and you die. If you want your life AND your dick to stay intact then I suggest you follow my orders. First thing, car keys.”
“OKAY OKAY! ARGH! JUST TELL HER TO STOP BITING MY DICK!” the driver shouts and hastily hands you his car keys.

“Okay, that’s a start. Alright, Donna, you can release his dick now, I’ll take it from here.”

Donna complies and then spits in the driver’s face before he staggers out of the car with his pants half down. You tell her to grab your bags from the truck and put them in the car.

“Okay, we’re going to be taking this car and everything in it. In exchange, you can take our truck. Granted it has two flat tires and is low on gas, but if you’re lucky, you might just reach a trailer park that has lots of people willing to help you. You ready Donna?”
“Almost.” Donna remarks.

You turn back to the driver who is still mostly holding on to his dick wincing in pain.

“Okay, well I guess this is where we part ways. Thanks for the info about Security City. We’ll be sure to avoid going there…and uh…bye. Oh, and watch your head.”
“Wha…?” is all the driver says before you shoot him and get in the car.

“I thought you were letting him live.” Donna says.
“What? And let a man who defiled my poor sister’s mouth walk away to brag about it? Not fucking likely.” You say and start the car up.

As you spin the car around to head back in your original direction, you ask Donna if she’s okay since she’s fidgeting a bit in her seat.

“So…um, are you okay?” you ask.
“I’m fine. It’s done. We worked together and we succeeded. I think we both know our established roles are in this team. We all have our talents. Let’s not talk about it.“ Donna says.

She doesn’t exactly sound angry, but she obviously isn’t leaping for joy about what she did. You almost want to talk more about what just happened, but given that your sister doesn’t you don’t press the issue and just drive.

As you’re driving, Donna suddenly speaks up again.

“Next time, don’t fucking kill the guy while he’s still inside me. Tell him to move away or something first. I had a dead man’s dick shooting cum in my ass for a split second before he fell. I’ll admit to being a free spirited gal comfortable with my sexuality, but I didn’t want to include necrophilia in my list of things I’m willing to do.”

Wow. You didn’t really expect to hear that graphic detail. It’s actually a bit nasty and you can see why Donna’s in the mood she’s in.

“Okay Donna. Damn, sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking.” You say.
“Well like I said, it’s done. Let’s just not speak of it again. (Sigh) Probably for the best he didn’t go the traditional route or else he might’ve impregnated me when he shot his load and I might’ve given birth to zombie babies or some shit.” Donna remarks.

The situation is pretty fucked up, but you’re having a hard trying not to laugh now.

“I don’t think it works that way Donna. Pretty sure you would’ve given birth to a normal baby.” You say with a stifled chuckle.
“Yeah, well that would be just as bad.”

You decide not to make any more comments even though there’s a really twisted part of you that is finding this all pretty amusing and wants to make jokes. It’s almost like you’re sort of getting a kick out of Donna’s discomfort. Maybe it’s pent up hostility you’ve had for her due to how she’s acted towards you in the past. Maybe it’s some sort of sadistic side you’ve always harbored and it’s just recently come out due to this week’s events.

In any case, it’s slightly worrying to you, since you’re starting to wonder how far you’re going to start abandoning “civility.” You’ve already committed murder on several occasions, and while the first time was in self-defense, the ones following it have been getting progressively more predatory.

A few more remorseless murders and you’re going to be just like your Uncle Ed. (Now you’re wondering if it’s genetic)

You and Donna continue to drive. A couple of other cars do pass you on the road. You imagine they must be coming from Security City or fleeing it from your previous information. You’re just glad you haven’t come across any military trying to block the road.

You continue to drive for about a half hour before you see something of interest in the distance. Namely a truck stop, which apparently has been converted into a minor fortress.

“Well that’s interesting.” You say.
“Is that a truck stop?” Donna asks.
“Yeah I think so. Looks like whoever is there are trying to block the place off by putting trucks around it. They even got people standing on top of the trucks with rifles as lookouts. “ you say.
“Are we stopping there?”
“I dunno. Whoever is there probably isn’t going to be too trustful of anyone. Though, we still don’t have that much of long term plan. A place like this might be a safe haven of sorts. I mean it already looks way better defended than that trailer park.”
“Well, it’s up to you. But I think we’re going to have to be more careful at a place like this.”
“We might as well chance it if only to catch a breather and maybe get some directions because I can honestly say I don’t know where the fuck we are or where we should be going. That’s assuming they even let us in.”

You and Donna drive to the truck stop, which immediately causes the lookouts to point and raise their rifles in your direction. When you stop in front of it, there are a lot of shouts for you to stay in the car.

“We’re not just letting anyone in here. Who are ya, and state yer business!” the lookout from above shouts.
“Just a couple poor souls trying to escape the chaos out there! Our home town was overrun by military and crazy people. We’ve also been attacked by others who would try to take advantage of us. Please, we’re just looking for some sort of refuge even if it’s temporary. We got some supplies in our car.”
“Hrmmm, well whatta you got?”

You turn your head to look in the back seat to actually see what you “inherited” since you never looked before. You see a first aid kit on top of a pile of bags.

“Um…we got some medicine. Maybe that could help?” you say.

There is a long pause and he tells you to wait before climbing down the truck and disappearing from sight. Eventually you hear his voice again which is now coming from behind the truck barricade.

“Okay, we’re gonna move this truck, but one funny thing happens and you’re the first one getting a bullet to the head. Alright, we’re letting this one in, everyone keep extra look out for those rabid bastards!”

As soon as the truck is moved out your way, the man who was barking orders at you waves you in and motions you over to a parking spot with some other cars. As soon as you drive in they put the truck back. Either they’re really safety conscience or they don’t want to risk having you get away.

“Well let’s hope these people are just normal people trying to survive and aren’t a gang of rapists.” You remark.

From this distance you see several more people in the building part of the truck stop. Looks like it’s a general store/diner combo. Most of them are watching you from the windows, though a few of them come out, one of them is an older man with a cane who walks directly towards the car.

“Okay, I want the two you in that car to exit it slowly. I don’t care if you got weapons, but don’t point them at me or anyone else in a threatening manner.” The old man shouts.

You take your pistol and shove it in the front of your pants. As for your newly acquired sub-machine gun, you just leave it in the car when you and Donna exit it. Naturally rifles are pointed at the pair of you, but the old man with the cane shouts telling them to calm down.

“You lot, stop pointing your guns and start unloading the car. Sorry about that, everyone’s a little on edge. Name’s Henry. I own this place.” He says.
“My name’s Suzy, and I get it.”
“So what are two pretty young girls doing driving around in this mess?”
“Long story, but I’ll just say, my sister and I are grateful for the shelter if only for awhile.”
“Hm, think nothing of it. Really though, if you two are willing to pull yer weight around here, yer welcome to stay as long as you like. Right now we’ve got plenty of supplies and whatever useful supplies you have can be considered payment for your way in here.”
“Well, that’s certainly an offer to think about, but I’m not exactly sure what we’d do around here.” You answer.
“We can find something I’m sure. Anyway, I just mention it because I’ve been trying to contact various places on my Ham Radio, and all I can gather is what’s been going on is pretty serious and I’m not sure if there’s any place I could direct you where to go that would be as safe as this place right now. Security City is completely overrun and the closest military Fort around here, Fort Timons doesn’t even know what the fuck is going on other than the obvious. Besides, I don’t think you’d get in there anyway, not being military and all.”
“This place is really safe huh?” you ask.
“Well not to brag, but we just fended off a big horde of those rabid freak things that I imagine wandered from the city yesterday. Didn’t even lose anyone either. Wasn’t fun though and I’m glad no more of those things have popped up, but yeah, I think we’re doing good job of keeping this place safe. Anyway, you’re good to stay for the night, unless you let me know you want to stick around longer and we’ll find something for the both of you to do. Okay, I’m going to go make sure these boys don’t take EVERYTHING of yours in that car.” Henry says and then walks over to oversee his people unloading your car.

Well it’s a similar situation you had in the trailer park. Pull your weight or get the hell out. Funny how that worked out.

Maybe you could try to do the “community” thing again. The trailer park wasn’t exactly filled with welcoming people, maybe things here could be different and you could actually feel safe here. This place does seem a little better organized and definitely better defended. Really, the only reason why you left the trailer park to begin with was at the insistence of your sister and the fact that it was getting pretty dangerous there.

Then again, this place could turn out to be just as bad where you don’t get along with anyone and everything eventually turns into a cluster fuck. Maybe you might as well save yourself the bother by leaving tomorrow.
> You make long term plans
While this place might very well not work out, you decide you need to at least make a go of it. Given that you turned to murder and banditry fairly quickly you think you need some semblance of law and order to keep yourself from becoming a complete savage, but more importantly you think Donna needs this more than you do.

This whole week, Donna’s been flip flopping a bit on the whole “trying to get her life together” thing. Granted she hasn’t had a great foundation, but if you stay on the road and just drift, about the only thing she’s ever going to be useful for is…well bait for whomever else you decide to rob in the future.

“Hey Donna, I think we should stay here and by that I mean try to do what we were doing in the trailer park until we ran out like a pair of thieves.”
“Suzy, you know that place wasn’t turning out good for us.”
“Yeah, I know, that’s why I ultimately agreed with your plan to leave it…but I can’t help think that if we’d done things a little differently…well doesn’t matter. My point is, I think we BOTH need some structure.”
“Structure? You’re joking right?”

At this point you grab Donna by the arm and go to speak to her away from the earshot of those nearby.

“No Donna, I’m not fucking joking. Thursday, we stole a truck and killed two people who were just trying to stop us. Earlier today, we basically did the same thing except it was premeditated. You see a pattern emerging?”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to run over that woman at the trailer park and I didn’t know you were going to kill those two guys with the car.”
“Donna, don’t play the babe in the woods routine. Granted I’LL take the blame for murdering those guys in cold blood, but you knew damn well that it was a possibility. You went along with it.”
“I went along with it, because you were practically shoving me in the road, telling me to strip to get those guys attention in the first place. It wasn’t YOU who had to role-play a pig on a spit to distract them. Besides, we had to do it for survival.”
“And that’s my point. First we’re doing it for survival, how long before we start doing it for fun? I mean…(Sigh) I don’t know about you, but for the past few days, my mind has been going to a dark place. Quite frankly a place I didn’t think I had. I mean I’ve killed several people at this point and I don’t feel particularly bad about it. Like I don’t feel anything.”
“Geez, Suzy…”
“Yeah, I’m apparently more fucked up than I ever realized, but what about you? I mean you’ve relied on your looks and sex to get what you want for the most part. Do you really think that’s a great way to go through life? I even used you as slut bait so we could rip off someone a lot easier. Hell, I pretty much pimped you out and I think it’s the only thing fucked up thing I’ve done recently that I HAVE actually felt bad about doing on some level. You shouldn’t have to be taking random dicks in the ass and mouth just so we can get by. And I’m really sorry for that. We both NEED a better plan for our future and drifting from place to place isn’t it.”

Donna’s silent for a moment.

“But what would we do here? How would we contribute?”
“I dunno, but I’m going to go talk to that Henry guy about it.” You say and then head over back to Henry who is overseeing his people taking all the shit out of your car.

“Oh hey there…Suzy wasn’t it?” Henry remarks.
“Yeah.” You answer.
“Well Suzy, you’ll be happy to know we haven’t taken much, save for the couple of first aid kits you had. We got tons of food and water, so we really didn’t need any of that. Oh, didn’t take your weapons either. Got enough of those too.”
“Um…thanks, but I wanted to talk to you about staying.”
“Good, we could use the help, so what skills do you have?” Henry asks.
“Well, I killed a lot of those cannibal freaks. I also had to kill a few regular psychos as well this week. Guess you could say I’ve become a fast learner in the ways of the gun…so do you need another lookout?”
“Wouldn’t turn one down if you’re feeling up to the task. Not many here actually want to do it. Anyway, I’ll make sure to get you a rifle, but what about your sister? What’s she do?”

Before you can answer, your sister Donna has come up to speak for herself.

“I’m a people person! I used to plan parties and other similar social events. Made sure people had a good time. Now while that might not sound very useful, I think given our current situation it could be. I mean I can’t imagine spirits around here are very high. And when spirits aren’t very high, everything else goes to shit. I think I could help out in making sure people stay positive.” Donna says with a chipper tone and a smile.

Henry scratches his head and returns a brief grin.

“Well now, that is an interesting proposal and I have to say you do have a pretty cheery attitude. You’re right in that everyone has been on edge and not in the best of moods. I’m really not sure how you propose to change that, but if you can do it, well that would be pretty helpful. Though you’re still going to have to do something else in the meantime, I think the wait staff in the diner needs help with going through the inventory. Go see Anne in the diner; she’ll be able to direct you. Okay, well that’s settled. You ready for your assignment Suzy?”
“Yeah, hold on. Just want to talk to my sister for a moment.”
“Sure.”

Once again you take Donna aside away from earshot.

“Donna, what was all that about planning parties and shit?” you ask.
“What? I did used to plan parties over Julie’s house remember?” Donna says.
“I didn’t think you guys actually planned them so much as you just invited a bunch of people over.”
“Well okay, yeah most of the time that was the case, but really I was the main one that got those parties going to be more exciting than they actually were. I also curbed the more destructive elements that actually occurred at those things by keeping people positive and happy.”
“So…what? You’re going to turn this place into a rave orgy?”
“No…well I mean I wish, but all I have to do is take my interpersonal skills and channel them in some way that will work here. Look, you said we need to try to start over. Well, I’m going to improvise with what I can so we can make a go of it here.”
“You’re right Donna. Okay, well I’ll leave you to it.”

Before you leave, Donna moves in to hug you. You weren’t expecting it, but you return the hug.

“Be careful Suzy, don’t get eaten.” Donna remarks.
“Don’t worry about me, you just focus on what you need to do.” You say.

With those parting words, Donna heads towards the diner and you go back to Henry for your assignment.

Henry apparently has already told some of his people that you’ll be joining them on the truck tops keeping a look out and hands you a rifle. Henry also mentions that this decision was met with mixed results. Some were happy since it meant they could take more breaks, others didn’t like the idea since nobody really knows who the fuck you are and don’t see why they should trust you yet. Still, Henry is pretty well respected you guess around here, because other than some grumbling nobody is outright making a major case out of it.

Henry takes you to the far back end of the truck stop. He says he hasn’t really put many guards up here since its away from the road and borders the wilderness and so far nothing has come out from there yet, other than the occasional wildlife.

“Now I don’t think anything actually will be coming up this way, since I imagine if we did have another cannibal attack they’ll be coming from one of the other directions, but hey we shouldn’t just keep our back completely undefended. Now you’ll be here until about midnight, I hope you’re up for that.” Henry remarks.
“That’s what I’m here for.”
“Hm. Well like I said, there probably won’t be much going on and about the most likely thing you’re going to have to fight off is boredom. Um, if you need to go bathroom, there are some port a johns nearby, though suppose if you REALLY need to, you can go run over to the diner if you’re a little more concerned with cleanliness, but whatever you do make sure you at least tell Larry over there so he can keep extra watch while you’re gone.” Henry points to a man over on top of a truck on the far side of where you are before continuing.

“Anyway, that’s about it, and if you see anything that looks dangerous, yell your head off and warn us.”
“Okay, got it.” You answer.

You climb up the ladder propped against the eighteen-wheeler and take you place as a guard.

A few hours pass and just as predicted, nothing happens. You’re not really bored yet though since you’re taking a mental count of the number of rabbits you see hopping around in the field and making up little bunny names and little stories about their little bunny lives.

Every once in awhile while you’re walking back and forth along the truck, you wonder how your sister is doing. You also wave to Larry once in an attempt to be friendly, but he doesn’t return the wave and ignores you.

Eventually he has to pay attention when nature calls.

“Hey Larry!” you shout.
“What?!” he answers in an annoyed tone.
“I gotta pee!”
“So? Go over the side of the truck, its what I do when I gotta piss.”
“Yeah, I’m not a guy and I don’t have the luxury of the world being my toilet. I need to use a proper bathroom. Henry told me to let you know so you can keep an extra eye on things until I get back.”
“(Sigh) Fine, don’t fucking take all day though.”

With Larry’s acknowledgement of your bathroom needs, you go down the ladder and run to the diner. (You sure as hell aren’t going to use those disgusting port a johns)

When you enter the diner, you find a variety of people singing songs and joking around. You then see Donna dressed in a waitress uniform wave to you.

“Hey Suzy! You done with protecting all of us?! This is my sister Suzy folks! She’s the one that saved my life more than once this week!”

At this point everyone says hi to you.

“Um…hey. I actually just came in to use the bathroom” You reply caught a little off guard.
“That’s Suzy, always the social one.” Donna laughs and then goes back to talking to the crowd.

After taking care of business in the bathroom, you wash your hands and see Donna entering the room.

“Gotta hand it to you Donna, it hasn’t been a few hours and already you’ve got the people here in a good mood.” You say.
“Yes, and I didn’t fuck all of them to get them that way in case that’s what you were thinking.” Donna says.
“Sheesh, I saw some children out there. I know you’re not a degenerate Donna.”
“Well, I’m glad you don’t think I am. Never thought I’d say this, but your opinion of me has started to matter more this week. So how’s guard duty?”
“It is what it is. I’m not quite the people person you are though, so all I’ve managed to do is piss off the one person assigned near me. On the bright side, I’ve managed to stave off boredom by making up stories in my head about the bunnies bouncing around in the fields.”
“Heh, well you always were the imaginative one. Well I’ll see you later.”

You leave your sister and return to your guard duty, which continues to be uneventful. As the night comes your stories about rabbits give way to stories about wandering possums and raccoons instead. Thankfully no cannibals though.

Eventually someone comes to relieve you of duty. Some guy you haven’t seen before, but at least he’s a little more cordial than Larry.

You return to the diner where you find most people now asleep. Donna is still awake and sitting behind the food counter playing solitaire. She waves you over.

“Suzy, there you are. I waited up for you so I could show you where we’ll be sleeping. Come on.” Donna whispers and takes you through the back kitchen.

“Hey you didn’t eat today did you? There’s a lot of food here you know. There’s also a shower in the waitresses’ private bathroom if you need.” Donna says.
“Nah, I’m good for now. I’ll worry about that stuff tomorrow.” You reply.
“Okay, well here it is.” Donna says and opens up a small storeroom, which doesn’t have much space.

“I tried to make it as comfortable as possible with a few blankets I borrowed. There are our bags of clothing. I figured those might work as pillows of a sort.” Donna says.
“Well I guess it will have to do.” You answer.

You lay down on the make shift bed on the floor and try to get as comfortable as possible. Donna does likewise and you drift off.
> Next day...
SATURDAY

You wake up to a body spooning you, and an arm holding you tightly around your mid-section.

“Donna! Hey! Wake the fuck up!” you shout pushing your sister off of you.
“Huh? Wha? The hell are you pushing and hitting me for?” she exclaims groggily.
“Because you were about to commit incest that’s why!” you exclaim.
“Oh. Sorry. It wasn’t intentional I assure you. I probably was dreaming about Julie.”
“Excuse me?”
“Well one time over her house her heating system broke down and we had to sleep together for warmth for a week.”
“Okay, I don’t want to know anymore about your little lesbian encounters with Julie.” You say.
“Oh geez Suzy don’t be so heteronormative, we weren’t lesbians. We just had some fun on occasion. (Sigh) I wish she was here with us.” Donna says getting a little tearful.

You pat Donna on the shoulder.

“I wish she was here too Donna.” You say.

After that moment of silence to remember your friend, the both of you get up.

“You know what time it is?” Donna asks.
“No, but I know it’s time for me to take a shower. You said I can use the waitresses’ private one?” you say.
“Yeah, but you might have to wait for other people.”
“Damn, speaking of waitresses, what’s with the uniform?”
“Oh this? Well I needed to change my clothes yesterday and I was offered one of their uniforms. I figured I’d wear it to fit in a little better, besides its kind of cute don’t you think?” Donna asks.
“It’s kind of stripperish if you ask me. The skirt barely covers your ass.” You reply.
“Well I think that’s the point. This is a truck stop remember and they probably want the waitresses to look a little more on the sexy side.”
“Hm, well I’ll stick with my old non-stripper clothes.”
“Prude.” Donna snarks.

As you and Donna leave the storage room to start the new day you both suddenly hear a loud noise and a faint rumble. You then hear some screams and shouting from the front of the diner.

“Oh my god that was a fucking nuke!” you hear someone shout.

You and Donna just look at each other. Maybe its due to the week you’ve had, you’re not entirely phased by this.

“(Sigh) I guess they finally went and did it.” You say.
“Perfect way to start the day.” Donna replies and the pair of you head to the front of the diner.

When you get there, you see a waitress trying to calm her children down. A couple people are arguing. A few are just sitting in a silent state of shock. Henry is actually outside the diner looking in the direction of where the bomb must’ve gone off. You can see the lingering remnants of a mushroom cloud in the far distance even from inside the diner.

“Well I can only hope we’re far enough away that we aren’t suffering from horrible radioactive fallout.” You say.
“Yeah, I suppose not much can be done now if we are, just um…shoot me if my hair starts falling out okay?” Donna asks.

You briefly wonder if this bomb was the result of the nuclear war those Ground Zero ads kept harping on about or if this was just some internal thing to take care of those rabid people.

Either way, you suppose it doesn’t really matter, life is going to be severely different from now on.

At this point Henry steps back in the diner and after calming some of the arguing truckers. He begins addressing the situation and stating that nothing has changed and that the situation is still the same, namely if people help, then they are welcome to stay. If not or if they don’t want to stay then they are free to go.

A couple of the truckers who apparently have families elsewhere do leave. Everyone else stays and the work towards creating a permanent new “home” is begun.

After washing up and having something to eat, you head out to do your guard duty rounds. Donna comes to see you before you leave.

“Hey, Suzy.”
“Yes?” You answer.
“Whatever happens next, I just want to say…I’m glad we’re dealing with all this together.”
“I’m glad we’re seeing this through together too.” You say.

And with those words, you and Donna hug and go contribute in your various jobs in this new community.

Funny that it took the collapse of society before you re-connected with your family again.
>
Sisterhood

The future…

“Hey, those trailer park rednecks had been fucking assholes to us for years. It was high time that we burned that whole heap of trash to the ground like it deserved. It’s just too bad we couldn’t do it when we were temporarily stuck in that hell hole.” You exclaim.
“Yeah, I know I just sort of wish there had been another way to deal with them. Wiping out entire communities isn’t really something that is particularly popular you know. I mean there were children and other innocents there too.” Donna says.
“Well that’s why we can blame that shit on the Cult of Tiamat. They’re the crazies that took things too far, or whatever…I dunno, you know how to spin this shit, you’re the politician not me.”
“Oh yes, the alliance with the cultists. That’s going to be an easy spin…(Sigh) I can’t believe you convinced me THAT was a good idea.”
“Hey look, if we had gone head to head with those trailer park assholes by ourselves, it would’ve been a bloodbath for us. Considering the cult was also their enemy, it was a good opportunity to re-establish an old contact as it were. Besides, Bobby’s bitch of a sister Diana wasn’t around anymore so I knew I’d have more clout. Not to mention we’ve got a peace agreement with them now so that’s TWO less enemies in our immediate area now.”

Donna gets up from her desk and pours herself a drink. She downs the whole glass in one gulp and pours another shot.

It’s funny; she used to drink for enjoyment at one time. Nowadays she drinks to keep herself from being overwhelmed with all the shit she has to deal with. That party girl is long gone and when she took over New Security from Henry she disappeared completely.

Popularity was always her specialty, but you’ve always been the stronger one. Without you Donna probably would’ve failed at this community leader thing a long time ago.

Of course without Donna, you probably would’ve gotten lynched by an angry mob a long time ago. That “good girl” that once hid out in the basement is long gone too. While you didn’t become the “outlaw savage” that you worried about becoming, you still lost that “civility” and over the years as you had to deal with shitty things in this shitty new world, well it was just easier to be the cold bitch that would kill someone without hesitation.

And that’s why you’re a team.

“So Suzy. You and Bobby rekindle something?” Donna asks putting down her glass.
“Hah, no. Bobby’s one true love nowadays is his blessed Tiamat. Followed by his sister Helen. Still, it doesn’t hurt that I was an ex that I imagine he still has the occasional fond memory.”
“You think he’ll leave us be?”
“Sure. I mean we’ll always keep an eye on his group, but now that those rednecks are gone, more territory has opened up for Bobby. He’ll be satisfied in the foreseeable future.”
“Okay…(Sigh) ugh, I don’t feel like going out there and giving a fucking speech right now…”
“Look, I know you’re stressing about this, but I promise you the people of this town aren’t really going to be that upset by the destruction of a bunch of hostile trailer trash. Some of them will probably throw a party. This isn’t the old world anymore where you got the U.N. or some shit waggling their finger at you for war crimes. People are back to the mindset that their tight knit communities come first and fuck everyone else. Besides even if you do have some idealistic fools screaming about injustice or some shit, you’ve still got the support of our militia of which I am currently head of. I’d say you’re not in any danger.”

Donna smiles and shakes her head.

“Jesus Suzy. I’m sure glad you’re on my side.” Donna says.
“Hey, sisterhood forever right?” you say extending your hand.

Donna nods and grips your hand followed by a hug.

“Sisterhood forever Suzy.”

And with those words, Donna straightens her clothing and heads out of her office to address the public and you follow close behind.

A few winks, a few smiles and a few lies later and Donna has the public in the palm of her hand just like you knew she would. She just needed your support for that extra boost of confidence.

Not bad for a party girl and a basement dweller.