FRIDAY

“HEY BLONDIE! GET YER ASS UP!” you hear as someone pounds on the door waking you up.

It sounds like Mel, but at least it isn’t those awful Ground Zero commercials.

You groggily get up and through bleary eyes you see that it’s actually still morning. You haven’t been up this early in a long time…and it’s a horrible thing.

You hear more banging and yelling causing you to respond in kind.

“Alright! Alright! Goddamnit, I’m up! I’m up!” you say and go to the door.

“What?!” you ask though Mel doesn’t look too happy that you’re even asking that question.
“What? Whadda ya mean what? Yer fuckin’ sister and that cowardly motherfucker Jimmy Ray just skedaddled outta here with a perfectly good truck that was also actin as a temporary barrier! That’s what!”

This remark isn’t quite comprehended by you in your current groggy state.

“My sister fucked Jimmy Ray in his truck and what?” you say.
“Jesus fuckin’…I said…bah, I’m not fuckin’ repeatin’ myself! Shit!” Mel shouts and walks away banging on the door one more time. You briefly step outside and see Tina standing nearby.

“I’m guessin’ you didn’t know nothin’ about it anyway considering you’re still here.” Tina remarks.
“Okay, someone tell me again what happened? What about my sister and Jimmy Ray now?”
“Apparently your sister convinced Jimmy Ray to leave this place in the middle of the night. Guess she really laid it down good, but then Jimmy Ray’s always had a tendency to get stupid over a gal who knows how to work it.”
“Wait. Wait. Wait a minute she’s gone?!”
“Yeah, she’s fuckin’ gone with a perfectly good truck! I actually don’t even give a shit about Jimmy Ray, he was more useless than tits on bull, but we could’ve used that fuckin’ truck for…” Mel says.
“Oh for fuck’s sake Mel, we got a shitload of trucks here and aren’t you converting those army trucks into some sort of road warrior deathmobile anyway?”
“Yeah, but it’s the fuckin’ principle of the thing! Not to mention we still gotta find some medical supplies! Goddamnit, Dan was supposed to be keepin’ a look out and…”

You leave Mel to rant and head back inside trying to process this new information. You can’t believe that Donna would just leave you like that. There was no indication she was going to just take off like that.

You check her bedroom and see that her bag is gone. You don’t know if she took that just after you fell asleep, or if she came back for it before leaving or what. Was she planning it right from the start or did she just see the opportunity? None of it matters you suppose, she just ditched you and didn’t even have the courtesy to let you know.

So much for “sisterhood.”

While you’re thinking about this, someone enters the trailer and calls out to you. It’s Tina.

“Oh there you are. I’m guessing you’re pretty upset right now, but I found this in Jimmy’s trailer. Figured you should have it.” Tina says and hands you a note.

Dear Suzy,

Sorry, I just couldn’t stick around. Good luck to you in this shithole.

Sincerely,

Donna

You actually chuckle a bit and crumple up the note.

“What’s so funny.” Tina asks.
“Oh just thinking that she was the one that convinced me to come here in the first place. Anyway, it’s done and she’s gone. We were never really close to begin with, though I thought that was sort of changing this week, but I guess not. Still, at least it felt like someone was on my side. I imagine I’m not too well accepted around here.”
“Meh, I think you’re about as accepted as anyone else around here. I mean I think the general assessment of you is that you’re a big tease that thinks she’s better than everyone else, but I mean its not like you’re a nigger or something.” Tina remarks.

You give Tina a strange look.

“Um, lucky me then I guess. Just out of curiosity what do you think about Donna leaving? She kept going on about how you two were friends.” You say.
“Me? Eh, I don’t really care. I mean I knew your sister on and off for a few years when I use to do strip jobs over at the parties at the place she was livin’ at before. An while she was a funny girl that made that particular job a lot more enjoyable, so I didn’t mind helping her out with a job when she asked, but it wasn’t like I ever considered her a real friend. Hell, I didn’t even know she had a sister until a few days ago. Anyway, always knew she was flakey. To be honest I didn’t even see her lasting long as a stripper and living here either. She probably would’ve latched on to first sugar daddy she could find and ditched everything.”

“Sounds about right.” You say and toss aside the note.

“Well I’ll leave you alone blondie. And I wouldn’t worry about your status here or lack there of. Quite frankly so many folks here have died or are wounded that nobody’s really in any position to antagonize someone who actually has been making an effort to contribute around here. Speakin’ of which I need to go talk to this crazy man that’s probably still ranting about a fuckin’ truck.” Tina says and leaves.

You take a shower as you’re thinking about how you’re going to proceed next. You go back and forth on whether to do what your sister did, but knowing your luck, you’d end up getting caught so you ultimately abandon the idea.

As you’re getting dressed and figuring out what your next plan of action should be, you suddenly hear banging on the door of your trailer again. You go to the door and see it’s that methhead Dan.

“Hey blondie! You’re needed for a vote!” Dan exclaims.
“Vote? Vote for what?” you ask.
“We need a tie breaker to shoot the ones that got bitten or not. Billy Ray in particular ain’t lookin’ too good.” Dan remarks.
“So what are we doin’ if we don’t shoot ‘em?”
“Guess we’re goin’ back to town to try for medical supplies again. If that’s the case, I hope we have better luck, cause it was a cluster fuck last time.” Dan says.

As you walk with Dan, he’s looking at you a lot and while some of that is predictable ogling, he’s also doing a lot of twitching and it’s making you nervous.

“Dan, I know you have to take a glance at me every now and then, but between the staring and the twitching it’s making me uncomfortable. Makes me think of those things that attacked us yesterday. It doesn’t help that you’re about as clean as they were too.” You say.
“Oh. Sorry blondie. I just…I need a fuckin’ fix. Just to put me at ease. The shit that’s been going down for the past couple of days has really made me scared y’know? I went through most of my shit after the National Guard showed up and then I used the rest up immediately after the freak invasion.”
“So where’s the meth lab? Don’t places like this usually have one?” you ask.
“Hah, I wish. I mean we used to have one years ago, but it blew up and caused a lot of damage. After that, the old owner sort of cracked down on that sort of thing.”
“Well there’s no law anymore, you could just start making it again.”
“Hah, yeah. But again with everythin’ that’s gone on, isn’t like there’s been time to do that. Not to mention Mel’s been ridin’ everyone non-stop. He’s already pissed at me for fallin’ asleep yesterday. I didn’t catch Jimmy Ray an’ yer sister taking off in the night. Guess he figured if anyone would stay awake all night it would be me, but I just sort of crashed because like I said I didn’t have my shit anymore to keep me alert.”
“Yeah, well it’s tough all over.” You say unsympathetically.

Before you even get to the meeting, you can hear the arguing, which is mainly consisting of a lot of shouting and swearing. By the time you arrive, you’re met with mixed glances.

“These are our friends, we can’t just fuckin’ kill them!”
“We need to fuckin’ kill ‘em before they infect us all!”
“You’re one cold hearted sonofbitch you know that? What if I just decided to kill you?!”
“Try it bitch!”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP ALL OF YOU!” Mel shouts.

At this point all eyes are on you.

“As you can see blondie, we’re involved in the democratic process and are in need of a tie breaker.” Mel says to you.
“Aw Mel what the fuck we need her vote for? She ain’t one of us and her sister fucking stole a truck!” some redneck woman says.
“I said shut it! The only reason why I even entertained this process is so you fuckers would quit bitchin’ about me bein’ a so-called tyrant even though I’m the only one around he trying to do anything at all! So however blondie votes, will break the goddamn tie and we can move on. So what’s your vote?”

Not that you’re especially close to any of these people, but if you vote to shoot you know it’s going to cause a lot more problems and you being an “outsider” are going to catch all the hell for it. Besides, last you remember Mel was trying to keep these folks alive, best you vote on his side.

“Well I vote not to shoot because…” you start to say before Mel interrupts again.

“That’s all I need to know. Didn’t need the reasons. Hear that folks? We ain’t shootin’ any of them! I dunno why you pussies are scared anyway, we got ‘em all locked up and barricaded inside a trailer. They ain’t getting out even if they do turn into something.”

At this point there is more grumbling, but democracy has won this day and nobody gets violent about it, though you have a question.

“Um, has anyone actually looked in on these bitten folks since they got thrown in together?” you ask.
“Yeah, I did. Like I said, Billy Ray ain’t lookin’ too good. Neither are some of the others. They’re all mostly just lying there not doing much though.” Dan says.
“Well was any first aid actually applied to them? I mean maybe they’re not infected, but just really wounded. Any aid might help.”
“I threw in some bottles of whiskey an’ pain killers to ease the discomfort. I threw in some bandages in there, but I wasn’t gonna get close enough to actually bandage them.” Dan replies.
“And that’s it? Nobody else has seen to them since they’ve been shoved in a trailer?”
“Nope.”

This is nuts, these people that have been bitten could very well be DYING due to neglect more than anything else! Nevermind the fact that the reason some might not be moving is that they might’ve very well ODed from the alcohol/pill combo.

In any event Mel breaks up your question period.

“Alright what we’re gonna do is fetch us some more medical supplies an whatever else we might find. Thinkin’ we should hit up that carnival a few miles from here.” Mel remarks which sort of takes most by surprise. You especially since you weren’t even aware there was a carnival in the area.

“If the National Guard stopped here, chances are good they stopped at that carnival too. Maybe that detachment had more supplies and I also figure it’s gotta be easier than tryin’ to go back into town again.” Mel reasons.

Mel’s suggestion is met with mixed results, but the people seem to be okay with it. Probably because a carnival does sound a lot less dangerous than going back into town, which they assumed would be the case.

“Okay, we’re taking three trucks an’ y’all that came with me last time are comin’ with me this time as well an I’ll be pickin’ a few more so don’t nobody go too far. That means you blondie.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if I stayed here and looked after things? I mean you don’t want to leave this place totally undefended.” You say.
“Oh it never is. I’m sure you saw that everyone is fully capable of defendin’ themselves here when those freaks attacked. But I can’t just be takin’ mothers ya know? I mean it’s bad enough most of the snot nosed bastards round here that survived ain’t got fathers and that’s before all this shit went down. Can’t hardly deprive ‘em of mothers as well can I? Someone needs to keep ‘em out of my way and look after them.”
“Well isn’t someone like Butchie Billie better suited for something like this than me?”
“Butchie Billie is probably our best welder and mechanic. I’m not gonna risk taking her. Besides, she still needs to work on converting our newly acquired army trucks. And some of the other guys I’m not takin’ are better at workin’ on the generators or digging some extra outhouses.”
“I don’t have a weapon or least not any with ammo. I ran out of bullets during the last attack.” You say.
“Oh don’t worry about that, if there is one thing we’ve got a lot of, its weapons and ammo.”

As you struggle to think up another excuse. Mel stops you.

“Look blondie, you knew you were gonna have to start paying yer dues. And since I KNOW you were tryin’ to avoid bein the new fuck toy around here, it’s either this or you can just fuckin’ leave.”

You don’t see yourself making it on your own…at least not yet. You still need to be in the safety of numbers, so that means you’re going.

However you question if Mel’s plan is even a good one. You could very well get to this carnival and not find anything, you sort of wonder if it wouldn’t be a better idea to actually head back to town. You figure the town is probably already half looted and lawless by now, so you might well go in and get the best stuff you can before its completely gone. Not to mention you might know the town a little better as far as which side streets to take to get to certain locations quicker. Like say small pharmacies and other stores near where you live.

Of course putting yourself in more danger isn’t necessarily desirable either.
> You suggest going back to town
If you’re going to risk your life, it might as well be worth it and you’re not seeing a carnival as being worth it.

“I’m more than willing to be a productive member of this community, and far be it from me to question your orders Mel, but I don’t think the carnival is the right way to go. Assuming the carnies didn’t already pull up stakes and assuming the military even bothered to send a detachment to a carnival, I can’t believe that the detachment would’ve been any better supplied than the one sent here.”
“So what are you saying exactly, blondie?”
“I’m saying that it would be a better plan to go back into town. I know my area alone has a couple of pharmacies and even a grocery store. I could easily direct you to them.”
“Town? That was a clusterfuck the last time we tried that! Besides, how do we know those places haven’t already been looted?”
“It’s a risk, but I believe if you want a better chance at getting medicine and medical supplies, it would be better bet to go back into town. You’re better equipped and prepared for what to expect in town now too. It’s up to you though, you’re in charge after all.” You say.

Mel looks at you and then looks at Tina.

“Don’t look at me. I voted to shoot them.” Tina remarks.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re never fuckin’ supportive. (Sigh) Fuck it. You make a good point blondie. We’ll head back into town, nobody’s gonna like it, but like I said, fuck it. You go head over to the entrance, I’ll be over there soon.”

As you’re about to go over to the trucks by the entrance, Tina grabs a hold of your arm with a semi-forceful grip. You spin around and see that her face isn’t one of friendliness.

“So, you managed to change Mel’s mind. Pretty impressive. I have a hard time doing that at the best of times. Maybe he is fuckin’ ya.” Tina says.
“What?! Tina I swear I’m not doing anything with Mel!” you exclaim.
“Oh no, I don’t think you are, but you’re not exactly adverse to usin’ yer natural attractiveness to get yer way. Yer doin’ it to keep the rest of the slugs off of ya. I get it, but if Mel does some fool thing because it was his idea, I can handle that. He does it on a regular basis. Hell, if he does some fool thing cause one of his drinkin’ buddies thought it was a good idea, I can handle that as well since it doesn’t even happen that often and he usually realizes it before it gets too out of hand. However, Mel goin’ to do some fool thing because some tease fluttered her eyes at him is something else entirely.
“Tina, I…”
“Shut the fuck up blondie, fore I pull that pretty golden hair from your head by the roots. Now listen to me close, this is the LAST time you EVER influence Mel to do something ever again. Got it?”

While you’ve certainly “toughened up” this week and Tina’s actually shorter than you, but even now you doubt that you’d be able to physically take a trailer park girl like her that’s probably gotten into more fist fights than the number of years you’ve been alive.

“Got it.” You meekly say.

Tina doesn’t even acknowledge your compliance; she just shoulder shoves you out of the way when she heads back to her trailer.

With that unpleasantness out of the way, you head over to the trucks. When you arrive at your destination, a group of rednecks are already there checking various rifles and handguns. It really does look like they got enough to take on an army.

“Well now if it isn’t blondie. I’m surprised Mel is riskin’ his piece on the side like this.” One of the sleazier rednecks says.
“I know that’s right Ray. If she was mine, I’d be wantin’ to keep her safe.” Another says.
“Piece on the side? Is that what Mel told all of you?” you ask which is followed by a lot of snickering.

“Not in so many words honey, but we ain’t the idiots that he thinks we are. Why else would he tell us to lay off of ya if he wasn’t stickin’ ya? Sonofabitch already has Tina, don’t see why he gets ta have TWO fine pieces of ass while some of us ain’t got none.” Ray remarks.
“Nothing is going on between Mel and I.” you say.
“Oh? Is that right blondie? Well how about you get something going on right HERE!” Ray remarks while grabbing his crotch causing everyone to laugh.
“Sorry, I’m not a lesbian and I don’t eat pussy.” You remark dryly.

Your insult doesn’t quite sink in immediately, though Ray gets the idea he has been insulted.

“What the hell’s that mean?” Ray demands.
“It means she doesn’t think you got a dick and that you ain’t a man. Something we all knew a long time ago Ray, not stop givin’ the girl grief and hand her a pistol.” Mel suddenly says as he walks up with a few more people behind him.

After Ray grudgingly hands you a pistol and then Mel breaks the bad news to everyone that they’re heading back into town. There is predictably a lot of protesting and grumbling, but after shouting everyone down everyone complies with Mel’s orders. Everyone gets in their vehicles and you ride up front in Mel’s pick up truck.

As the trucks pull out from the trailer park, Mel fiddles with the radio, but he doesn’t get anything except Ground Zero ads.

“Goddamn Ground Zero shit. I’m tellin’ you like I’ve said to everyone else, it’s a fuckin’ conspiracy goin’ on with them. In fact all of this shit goin’ on is government related.” Mel says turning off the radio.

The rest of your drive to town is mostly a quiet one. Mel doesn’t bother speaking to you and you’re a little too pre-occupied by what you’re going to do about your current situation because between the incident with Tina and the one with Ray you can’t help but think that you’re never going to fit in or be comfortable there. Your sister might’ve just ditched you, but you’re starting to think she had the right idea about leaving.

When you do finally get to town it’s predictably a warzone. A war in which it appears the military did NOT win. You see overturned vehicles, dead bodies and destruction, but there is no semblance of organized order anywhere.

The only thing that is “organized” are the cannibal freaks and there are large groups of them roving the streets or already feasting on the dead. They naturally start attacking whenever your group drives through an infested area. Shooting and running them over becomes the order of the day as you direct Mel to the best way to get to your own neighborhood area.

When you finally do get to your area, the number of freaks severely decreases. It’s sort of odd, but where you lived seems relatively safe. There are still signs of devastation here and there are certainly dead bodies to be seen, but so far it’s a lot safer than the rest of the town.

“Guess the military cleaned up this area, before they got their asses kicked. How much further is our destination?” Mel asks.
“Just make a left up here and you’ll be there.” You remark.

Following your directions Mel makes a turn and then pulls into the parking lot of what looks to be a completely deserted pharmacy with a few broken windows. The other two trucks park nearby. The pharmacy across the street looks deserted as well. No telling what’s inside either of them, but you sort of get the impression the noise of the vehicles would’ve attracted freak attention if any were lurking about.

“Where’s the grocery store?” Mel asks.
“That’s a few blocks up the street.” You reply.
“Okay guess it’s time to tell everyone the next phase of this plan.”

Mel gets out of the truck and calls attention to everyone.

“Alright, we got three locations to search, which is good because there are three big groups of us. I’m gonna search this pharmacy. Ray, you go search the one across the street. Dan, your group can get back in your truck and search the grocery store up the block.” Mel says.
“What? Aw Mel, why I gotta drive all that way?”
“Goddamnit Dan it ain’t that fuckin’ far! Just fuckin’ do it! Besides, I know you. If you’re searching one of these pharmacies, your junkies ass is gonna pocket all the med for yourself and claim you didn’t find anything.”

While Dan is in the middle of protesting, you’re coming to the conclusion of your earlier thoughts on the ride over here. Namely, you’re tired of this group and you’re going to risk going it alone. You figure you’re already close to your house, you could probably sneak away and head there for temporary relief to plan your next move. Though if you went with Dan you’d be even closer to your home.

When Mel finishes ordering everyone about, you go up to talk to him.

“Hey Mel, I think I should go with Dan.”
“Huh? What the fuck you wanna go with that junkie asshole for?”
“Well grocery stores do tend to carry a small supply of medicine too, I figure I can keep an eye on him if he decides to not be in a sharing mood.”
“Hmm, good point blondie…hey Dan! Don’t go yet, blondie’s comin’ with ya so make room in the front!” Mel shouts before Dan pulls away.

You hop into Dan’s truck and you’re soon on your way though Dan’s attention is half on the road and half on you.

“Sort of surprised you wanted to come with me blondie.” He says scratching himself.
“Well, Mel doesn’t entirely trust you. He thinks if you find any medicine in the grocery store, you’ll just keep it for yourself. So he’s sent me to keep an eye on you.”
“Oh.” Dan says.
“Don’t worry Dan, I’m not gonna rat you out if you take some things for personal use. I know it’s not really your fault and that you’re just sick.” You say in an empathetic tone.

Dan smiles at you revealing his horrible dental conditions.

“See that’s what I’ve told people before! I’m glad you understand darlin’. I mean I’ve really tried to quit before, but…”

At this point Dan goes on with his pathetic sob story about how he’s tried to kick his drug habit, but you’re not really listening. Your thoughts of escaping these ignorant redneck assholes are filling your mind.

When you get to your destination, the grocery store is in much the same condition as the pharmacies were. Dan, you and the rest get out of the vehicle.

“Seems like this place could be clear, but keep alert anyway. Could be somethin’ as big as a Butchie Billie, or it could be as small as Wade’s dick!” Dan laughs causing Wade to swear at Dan and others to chuckle.

Still set on your plan of escape, you think about how you’re going to do it. The easiest way would be to just sneak away at the earliest opportunity and run home. You’re fairly confident you could do it.

Of course you’re also wondering if you shouldn’t just get away from these assholes, but the whole forsaken town in general. Staying here even in the “safety” of your home still isn’t going to eliminate the problem that you’re going to be located in cannibal central.

Of course if you want to leave town the safest way to do that is by vehicle which means you’re going to have to engage in the riskier endeavor of stealing Dan’s keys.
> You sneak away
You’re likely going to get shot or worse if you try to steal the keys or the truck. There are too many rednecks around and they’re probably better with their weapons than you are. It’ll be much easier to just sneak away. At best they might call out and search for you, but eventually Mel or their own common sense will tell them that you aren’t worth risking their lives sticking around for.

Your group goes into the grocery store, which must still have on some sort of emergency lighting where upon everyone begins to carefully search the place. While there has been some looting and even signs of fighting that went on here, the place is in better shape than anyone thought.
You grab one of the hand baskets and gradually start distancing yourself from the rest. You start loading up on some nearby cans, which you aren’t really paying much attention to since you’re more focused on what the other members of your group are doing.

When you see that you’re far enough away from them and they seem preoccupied with other things, you take the opportunity to head back outside. Still making the effort to not look suspicious just in case, you put the handbasket into the bed of the pick up truck and then when you’re sure nobody is watching that’s when you run.

You run from the grocery store and don’t even look back. You half expect to hear some shouting telling you to stop, but you don’t hear any.

When you get far enough away you keep a quick pace, but slow down a bit since you’re losing you’re breath. You’re really going to have to get used to exercising on a regular basis to boost the endurance you think.

The one thing that sticks out as you’re walking through your neighborhood is how eerily quiet it is. You still see signs of destruction and even dead bodies, but you’re not seeing a living soul. On one hand it’s great that you aren’t being assaulted by cannibal freaks, but on the other hand it makes you wonder what the hell happened in your neighborhood to result in it being such a ghost area. At this point you’re worried that maybe somebody hidden is watching you.

Despite all your concerns, nothing attacks or otherwise hinders you by the time you get home. You’re anxious to get in as well. You know it’s only going to be a temporary respite, but at least you’ll get a bit of peace while you ponder what to do next. Maybe you can look for that hidden shelter your brother built in the backyard.

As your tired feet hit heavily on each front step, you briefly wonder if either of your siblings are home. Peter’s car isn’t in the driveway, but then you did leave it at Julie’s. If he’s still here, you suppose you’ll have to explain what happened on that front. Kelly’s vehicle isn’t here either, so maybe your home has been abandoned.

The front door of course is predictably locked, but fortunately you still have your key to it in one of your pockets. It’s amazing how you instinctively put it in there despite you not really ever expecting to come back here.

You open the front door and find that your home has not been abandoned, you also see your sister Kelly standing front of you holding a shotgun.

“I heard you clomping out there on the steps. Figured you might be one of those psychos or something. Didn’t expect to see you though. While I’m a little impressed that you obviously managed to survive this fucking chaos, you never should’ve come back here sis. I told you before this is MY house.” Kelly says.

Your eyes widen as she aims the shotgun at you.

“Kelly, I’ll just…go…okay?” you say holding your hands up and start to back up.

“Now Suzy…what sort of big sister would I be if I let you stay out there to potentially get raped, killed or eaten? You underestimate my mercy.” Kelly says with a smile and that’s when you know this is going to end badly for you.

You attempt to go for your pistol, but Kelly already has the advantage.

Kelly fires and a slug hit your chest, shattering bones and vital internal organs like your heart. Your lifeless body flies backwards off the porch and onto the concrete walkway.


If you’re going to risk your life, it might as well be worth it and you’re not seeing a carnival as being worth it.

“I’m more than willing to be a productive member of this community, and far be it from me to question your orders Mel, but I don’t think the carnival is the right way to go. Assuming the carnies didn’t already pull up stakes and assuming the military even bothered to send a detachment to a carnival, I can’t believe that the detachment would’ve been any better supplied than the one sent here.”
“So what are you saying exactly, blondie?”
“I’m saying that it would be a better plan to go back into town. I know my area alone has a couple of pharmacies and even a grocery store. I could easily direct you to them.”
“Town? That was a clusterfuck the last time we tried that! Besides, how do we know those places haven’t already been looted?”
“It’s a risk, but I believe if you want a better chance at getting medicine and medical supplies, it would be better bet to go back into town. You’re better equipped and prepared for what to expect in town now too. It’s up to you though, you’re in charge after all.” You say.

Mel looks at you and then looks at Tina.

“Don’t look at me. I voted to shoot them.” Tina remarks.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re never fuckin’ supportive. (Sigh) Fuck it. You make a good point blondie. We’ll head back into town, nobody’s gonna like it, but like I said, fuck it. You go head over to the entrance, I’ll be over there soon.”

As you’re about to go over to the trucks by the entrance, Tina grabs a hold of your arm with a semi-forceful grip. You spin around and see that her face isn’t one of friendliness.

“So, you managed to change Mel’s mind. Pretty impressive. I have a hard time doing that at the best of times. Maybe he is fuckin’ ya.” Tina says.
“What?! Tina I swear I’m not doing anything with Mel!” you exclaim.
“Oh no, I don’t think you are, but you’re not exactly adverse to usin’ yer natural attractiveness to get yer way. Yer doin’ it to keep the rest of the slugs off of ya. I get it, but if Mel does some fool thing because it was his idea, I can handle that. He does it on a regular basis. Hell, if he does some fool thing cause one of his drinkin’ buddies thought it was a good idea, I can handle that as well since it doesn’t even happen that often and he usually realizes it before it gets too out of hand. However, Mel goin’ to do some fool thing because some tease fluttered her eyes at him is something else entirely.
“Tina, I…”
“Shut the fuck up blondie, fore I pull that pretty golden hair from your head by the roots. Now listen to me close, this is the LAST time you EVER influence Mel to do something ever again. Got it?”

While you’ve certainly “toughened up” this week and Tina’s actually shorter than you, but even now you doubt that you’d be able to physically take a trailer park girl like her that’s probably gotten into more fist fights than the number of years you’ve been alive.

“Got it.” You meekly say.

Tina doesn’t even acknowledge your compliance; she just shoulder shoves you out of the way when she heads back to her trailer.

With that unpleasantness out of the way, you head over to the trucks. When you arrive at your destination, a group of rednecks are already there checking various rifles and handguns. It really does look like they got enough to take on an army.

“Well now if it isn’t blondie. I’m surprised Mel is riskin’ his piece on the side like this.” One of the sleazier rednecks says.
“I know that’s right Ray. If she was mine, I’d be wantin’ to keep her safe.” Another says.
“Piece on the side? Is that what Mel told all of you?” you ask which is followed by a lot of snickering.

“Not in so many words honey, but we ain’t the idiots that he thinks we are. Why else would he tell us to lay off of ya if he wasn’t stickin’ ya? Sonofabitch already has Tina, don’t see why he gets ta have TWO fine pieces of ass while some of us ain’t got none.” Ray remarks.
“Nothing is going on between Mel and I.” you say.
“Oh? Is that right blondie? Well how about you get something going on right HERE!” Ray remarks while grabbing his crotch causing everyone to laugh.
“Sorry, I’m not a lesbian and I don’t eat pussy.” You remark dryly.

Your insult doesn’t quite sink in immediately, though Ray gets the idea he has been insulted.

“What the hell’s that mean?” Ray demands.
“It means she doesn’t think you got a dick and that you ain’t a man. Something we all knew a long time ago Ray, not stop givin’ the girl grief and hand her a pistol.” Mel suddenly says as he walks up with a few more people behind him.

After Ray grudgingly hands you a pistol and then Mel breaks the bad news to everyone that they’re heading back into town. There is predictably a lot of protesting and grumbling, but after shouting everyone down everyone complies with Mel’s orders. Everyone gets in their vehicles and you ride up front in Mel’s pick up truck.

As the trucks pull out from the trailer park, Mel fiddles with the radio, but he doesn’t get anything except Ground Zero ads.

“Goddamn Ground Zero shit. I’m tellin’ you like I’ve said to everyone else, it’s a fuckin’ conspiracy goin’ on with them. In fact all of this shit goin’ on is government related.” Mel says turning off the radio.

The rest of your drive to town is mostly a quiet one. Mel doesn’t bother speaking to you and you’re a little too pre-occupied by what you’re going to do about your current situation because between the incident with Tina and the one with Ray you can’t help but think that you’re never going to fit in or be comfortable there. Your sister might’ve just ditched you, but you’re starting to think she had the right idea about leaving.

When you do finally get to town it’s predictably a warzone. A war in which it appears the military did NOT win. You see overturned vehicles, dead bodies and destruction, but there is no semblance of organized order anywhere.

The only thing that is “organized” are the cannibal freaks and there are large groups of them roving the streets or already feasting on the dead. They naturally start attacking whenever your group drives through an infested area. Shooting and running them over becomes the order of the day as you direct Mel to the best way to get to your own neighborhood area.

When you finally do get to your area, the number of freaks severely decreases. It’s sort of odd, but where you lived seems relatively safe. There are still signs of devastation here and there are certainly dead bodies to be seen, but so far it’s a lot safer than the rest of the town.

“Guess the military cleaned up this area, before they got their asses kicked. How much further is our destination?” Mel asks.
“Just make a left up here and you’ll be there.” You remark.

Following your directions Mel makes a turn and then pulls into the parking lot of what looks to be a completely deserted pharmacy with a few broken windows. The other two trucks park nearby. The pharmacy across the street looks deserted as well. No telling what’s inside either of them, but you sort of get the impression the noise of the vehicles would’ve attracted freak attention if any were lurking about.

“Where’s the grocery store?” Mel asks.
“That’s a few blocks up the street.” You reply.
“Okay guess it’s time to tell everyone the next phase of this plan.”

Mel gets out of the truck and calls attention to everyone.

“Alright, we got three locations to search, which is good because there are three big groups of us. I’m gonna search this pharmacy. Ray, you go search the one across the street. Dan, your group can get back in your truck and search the grocery store up the block.” Mel says.
“What? Aw Mel, why I gotta drive all that way?”
“Goddamnit Dan it ain’t that fuckin’ far! Just fuckin’ do it! Besides, I know you. If you’re searching one of these pharmacies, your junkies ass is gonna pocket all the med for yourself and claim you didn’t find anything.”

While Dan is in the middle of protesting, you’re coming to the conclusion of your earlier thoughts on the ride over here. Namely, you’re tired of this group and you’re going to risk going it alone. You figure you’re already close to your house, you could probably sneak away and head there for temporary relief to plan your next move. Though if you went with Dan you’d be even closer to your home.

When Mel finishes ordering everyone about, you go up to talk to him.

“Hey Mel, I think I should go with Dan.”
“Huh? What the fuck you wanna go with that junkie asshole for?”
“Well grocery stores do tend to carry a small supply of medicine too, I figure I can keep an eye on him if he decides to not be in a sharing mood.”
“Hmm, good point blondie…hey Dan! Don’t go yet, blondie’s comin’ with ya so make room in the front!” Mel shouts before Dan pulls away.

You hop into Dan’s truck and you’re soon on your way though Dan’s attention is half on the road and half on you.

“Sort of surprised you wanted to come with me blondie.” He says scratching himself.
“Well, Mel doesn’t entirely trust you. He thinks if you find any medicine in the grocery store, you’ll just keep it for yourself. So he’s sent me to keep an eye on you.”
“Oh.” Dan says.
“Don’t worry Dan, I’m not gonna rat you out if you take some things for personal use. I know it’s not really your fault and that you’re just sick.” You say in an empathetic tone.

Dan smiles at you revealing his horrible dental conditions.

“See that’s what I’ve told people before! I’m glad you understand darlin’. I mean I’ve really tried to quit before, but…”

At this point Dan goes on with his pathetic sob story about how he’s tried to kick his drug habit, but you’re not really listening. Your thoughts of escaping these ignorant redneck assholes are filling your mind.

When you get to your destination, the grocery store is in much the same condition as the pharmacies were. Dan, you and the rest get out of the vehicle.

“Seems like this place could be clear, but keep alert anyway. Could be somethin’ as big as a Butchie Billie, or it could be as small as Wade’s dick!” Dan laughs causing Wade to swear at Dan and others to chuckle.

Still set on your plan of escape, you think about how you’re going to do it. The easiest way would be to just sneak away at the earliest opportunity and run home. You’re fairly confident you could do it.

Of course you’re also wondering if you shouldn’t just get away from these assholes, but the whole forsaken town in general. Staying here even in the “safety” of your home still isn’t going to eliminate the problem that you’re going to be located in cannibal central.

Of course if you want to leave town the safest way to do that is by vehicle which means you’re going to have to engage in the riskier endeavor of stealing Dan’s keys.
> You steal Dan's keys
If you’re going to escape, you might as well escape it all. You can worry about what comes after later.

You already got an idea of how to get the truck keys from Dan, but it’s not something you’re looking forward to…

Mustering up your mental fortitude you prepare yourself for the unpleasant task ahead.

Your group goes into the grocery store, which must still have on some sort of emergency lighting where upon everyone begins to carefully search the place. While there has been some looting and even signs of fighting that went on here, the place is in better shape than anyone thought.

“Hey Dan, the medicine aisle is over this way.” You say while gently grabbing his hand. Dan is more than a little surprised by this gesture.
“Oh. Okay, lead the way then. Everyone else keep stockin’ up on whatever food you want. ” He responds.
When you lead Dan over to the aisle you remind yourself of what your goal is…
“Damn darlin’ it looks like this aisle is mgh!” Dan is interrupted when you kiss him directly on his meth rotten mouth. It tastes horrible and it’s only due to your strong gag reflex that you don’t puke.

Dan is flabbergasted; he literally is at a loss for words.

“I gotta suck your dick right now Dan. It’s all I’ve been thinking about since we were ridin’ in the truck together. Shit, I woulda went down on you right then had there not been an audience in the back of the truck. Come on we can go into the bathroom of this place.” You whisper in his ear.
Dan is still tongue tied, but at this point he’s not arguing and passively follows you as you lead him to the women’s bathroom in the back of the store. You make sure nobody has seen the pair of you enter and then lock the door.
“I…I…I can’t believe you felt this way about me darlin’. I mean this is gotta be a dream.” Dan says.
“Ain’t no dream, now back against that wall, pull ‘em down and let me get to suckin’ what’s gotta be a big ass dick. Gotta have it. Gotta have that juicy hot throbbing cock in my mouth.” You say.

Dan’s fantasies of an insatiable cock hungry hot blonde have probably been fueled for years by endless amounts of porn he’s no doubt watched. So it’s predictable that he doesn’t even question the unlikelihood of any of this at all.

He wastes no time in putting down his rifle and unzipping his pant. It’s an unimpressive sight. It’s even more unimpressive when you’re on your knees, eye level to it.

“Oh my god, this is gonna be better than drugs!” Dan says even closing his eyes as if preparing himself for the glory that is your mouth.

Unfortunately for him he gets none of that and instead receives a FALCON PUNCH to his balls.

Dan’s reaction causes him to practically crumple onto you. He manages to wheeze a few swear, but you then shut him up by smacking his head against the bathroom wall, he groans a bit and still tries to grab a hold of you, but you stop him completely by pistol whipping him in the face until he’s no longer moving.

You aren’t sure if he’s dead, but you’re not really paying attention to see if he’s breathing by this point, you’re too busy looking for the keys…jackpot.
Then you hear some banging on the door and you freeze with your pistol in hand.

“Hey, who’s in there? I heard some noise. Is that you blondie?” you hear a voice exclaim.
“…uh yeah it’s me! I had to take a shit and there were just some big ass rats in here that scared me so bad I almost dropped a load in my pants! No big deal though!” you shout.
“Oh…um okay.” The voice says. “Um, hey you seen Dan?”
“Thought I saw him still over by the drug aisle.” “Yeah he’s not…” the voice starts to say before you interrupt.
“Goddamn it I’m trying to take a shit that feels like I need a goddamn midwife for this thing! I’m not Dan’s personal fucking shadow, go look for him yourself!” you shout.
“Okay! Okay! Sheesh, you don’t need to be a goddamn bitch about it.” The voice says and then you hear some footsteps leaving.

Well that will have bought you a little time, but when you leave, you need to make a beeline for the truck and hope that nobody is lingering around it at the time. Since you get the impression you’re going to be shooting it out with the rednecks anyway, you take Dan’s rifle over your shoulder.

You exit the bathroom and look around to see a few of the rednecks still stocking up on some more food. You quicken your pace towards the entrance of the grocery store while attempting to keep your head down so nobody immediately sees you.

When you get to the entrance there’s one of the rednecks loading up something in the back of the truck. You think its Wade from earlier.

“Everything come out all right?” he asks meaning he must’ve been the one talking to you from outside the door earlier.
“Yeah, yeah.” you say looking around if there are any others you need to deal with.
“Y’know, maybe you wouldn’t be so backed up if you tried anal.” Wade says with a smirk.
“Excuse me?”
“Ass fuckin’, sweetcheeks. It’ll loosen you up back there. I’d be more than willin’ to help you out in that department honey.” Wade says with a grin.

And at that point, you’re done with stealth.

“And here’s a new hole to loosen up your useless brain matter shithead.” You say pulling your pistol blasting Wade in the head. You don’t wait for the body to fall, you run into the truck.

You get the truck started and you already hear the shouting and sounds of the rest from the grocery store. These sounds are soon followed by the sounds of bullets hitting your truck as you drive off. You keep your head down as much as possible as the back window is blown out and several sounds of bullets hitting the metal parts of the truck. While you’re glad none of them had the forethought to aim for your back tires, you just hope nobody hit the gas tank.

Your drive through your war-torn town is pretty stressful. Between trying avoid large groups of freaks and abandoned military blockades you are also constantly looking in your rear mirror thinking that you’re going to see Mel’s truck and the rest in pursuit, but that doesn’t happen. You don’t really relax a bit until you manage to get out of town.

“Holy shit, I made it. Fuck yeah I made it!” you shout in triumph as you continue to drive eastward.

You continue to drive for quite sometime. Maybe its because you never really left your basement, but you never really realized what a rural area you lived in before, a lot of wilderness on either side of you. The roads are pretty clear of traffic; you don’t see anyone else driving in the opposite direction or your direction for that matter. You do see a few abandoned vehicles, but nobody around them. You don’t even see any of the cannibal freaks. Maybe that’s a good sign.

You pass by a few gas stations, diners and the like and while you do think you notice evidence that there are probably folks at these locations, you’re not exactly in a trusting mood right now and quite frankly you don’t want to deal with anyone. If anything you’re sort of enjoying the solitude that you haven’t had for a few days.

Soon, the day starts to become night and you’re getting pretty tired. You have had a long day of escaping cannibal freaks and rednecks after all. You pull off to the side of the road near the edge of a “wall of trees.”

You clear off the broken glass from the seat of the truck and lay down to get some sleep, hoping that something doesn’t try to attack you in the middle of the night.
> Next day...
SATURDAY

You wake up to a noise in the distance. At first you think it’s something trying to cause you harm and you sit up with pistol in hand, but then you realize there isn’t anything near you.

However upon looking around you do notice something in the sky when even with your half sleepy eyes.

You step out of the truck and stare towards the westward sky in the distance and see the remnants of a mushroom cloud.

“They finally went and did it…” you say to yourself.

You guess that it might’ve hit Security City (Good thing you drove east). Who and why it was dropped is unimportant at this point, but you’re not really surprised given how things seemed to be going to shit here and the world in general.

Probably was a small one, since you’re not feeling any aftershocks or anything, but you are somewhat concerned if you’re within a lethal radiation zone. You suppose you’ll find out in the days to come, but that leads you to your more immediate concern of survival, namely you’re hungry and thirsty.

You check what those rednecks managed to load up on the back of the truck and hope that not all of it needs a can opener.

You see that a lot of it is cans, but fortunately some of them already have ring pulls on them. Other cans have suffered damage from the bullets that went through them. You suppose if you got desperate you could always suck out the remaining soup through the bullet holes.

You do find a couple bags of beef jerky, which is as quick of a meal as anything. You look to see if they loaded up anything to drink, but all you’re finding is cheap beer. You’ve actually never drank alcohol before, but beggars can’t be choosers so you sit on the tailgate eating your jerky, drinking your beer and pondering your potentially grim future.

While it’s good you have some sustenance, it’s not going to last long. Your truck only has around a half a tank of gas and the ammo you’ve got is what’s left in your respective weapons. Hell you don’t even have an extra set of clothes anymore.

You have no idea where you’re going to go. You suppose continuing east might be your best bet, but. this isn’t even taking into consideration the sort of people you’re possibly going to run into and if those infected freaks aren’t running around elsewhere.

With all these variables weighing on your mind, things aren’t looking so good right now…

“Hey! Hey miss! Did you hear a loud noise?” a voice shouts.

You spin your head to your left with your hand instinctively reaching behind you to pull your pistol, but you see a male and female couple probably a little younger than yourself wearing large backpacks. They’ve just come out of the “wall of trees” and they don’t look threatening, but you never know. In any case they don’t seem to realize you’ve got a pistol behind you, though the fact that you’re partially covered by the pick up truck’s walls along with some bags might help.

“Sure, it woke me up. Where are you coming from?” you ask.
“Oh, we got a campsite nearby. We’ve been sort of roughin’ it for about a week. No technology like cellphones or laptops. It’s been sort of liberating in a way.”
“Hm, yeah you never know when you might need to know how to get along without the creature comforts. Where’s you vehicle though, you couldn’t have walked all this way and I don’t see any roads leading off into the wilderness nearby.”
“Sure there is, look in front of you a few feet away.”

You look and sure enough the man is correct, there is a little dirt road that leads into the trees. You probably didn’t notice it last night because you were tired and you didn’t notice it this morning because you were more focused on the nuke that went off in the distance.

“Yeah, it doesn’t go very far in, but it was a good place to pull into so as not having to park on the side of the road. Anyway we’re going to be heading back to Security City soon, we both got classes starting on Monday.” The guy says.

You take another bite of jerky and drink of beer before breaking the unfortunate news to them.

“Yeah well I don’t think that’s going to happen. That noise you heard? A nuke just got dumped on Security City.” You say flatly.

At this point the couple look at each other in disbelief.

“Bullshit, that didn’t happen.” The guy says.
“Look, you don’t need to believe me, but I’ve got no reason to lie about something like that to two complete strangers. You said you’ve been fairly isolated from the world for the past week, well there was some serious shit going down this week. I should know I had to deal with it. Trust me, if things had been different I wouldn’t be stuck out here in the middle of nowhere eating jerky and drinking beer. I’d be in the comfort of my basement.” You say.

At this point the guy still isn’t sure whether you’re telling the truth, but the girl starts to break down a bit.

“Oh god…every time we tried to listen the car radio, all we got was those fucking Ground Zero shelter ads! She’s probably telling the truth! Oh shit! No!” she exclaims and begins hyperventilating.
“Honey, calm down we don’t know…”

At this point the girl begins to cry about her friends and family while her boyfriend attempts to console her. It isn’t working.

“Well look at it this way, you avoided getting nuked and you’ve probably got still got some supplies left over and you’ve got all that really useful wilderness gear right?” you say eating the last bit of jerky.
“Huh? Yeah, look just don’t talk to us anymore.” The guy says still trying to calm his crying girlfriend.

You throw away the bag and down the remaining beer from the can.

“How much gas does your vehicle have?” you ask.
“WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?! This is a fucking nightmare!” the man says while his girlfriend continues to be weak.

You crush the can and toss it in the middle of the street. You briefly think about not doing it, but then you think this is survival.

“Yeah, well it’s about to get a whole lot worse for the both of you.” You say and pull your pistol and shoot the man in the chest.

He falls to the ground and the girl now goes from crying to screaming though she’s so terrified she doesn’t attempt to run.

“Bitch, stop your goddamn screaming RIGHT NOW before I shove this gun in your mouth and shoot a load so hot down your throat that it’ll be the last time you ever give head again.” You say walking towards the scared girl.

Your colorful threat works and the girl just stifles her screaming to annoying whimpers. You look down at her boyfriend who is most certainly dead. You don’t feel anything about it either. You don’t feel joy, but it’s just nothing.

“Okay, you’re going to take your backpack and throw it in the truck, then you’re going to take his pack and toss it in the truck too. Then we’re both heading to your campsite where I’m going to take whatever I think I’m going to need. And if you’re lucky, you might come out of this alive. Now come on.”

As you bully your new captive into doing your bidding, you think if this is how things are going to be from now on. In your mind you justify your actions as ones of survival, though you were still pretty quick to shoot her boyfriend.

Maybe you’re just having a bad week and something had to give.

In any case things are starting to look up… or at least for you they are.
>
Wanted: Bandit Blondie

The future…

“Give it up Blondie, you got nowhere to go and you’re surrounded! Come out peacefully.” Justice shouts from outside.

“Justice” Why do these bounty hunters always have such silly names?

“Yeah I come out and then you lot take turns bending me over and horse fucking me before you just shoot me in the head anyway? Don’t fucking think so.” You shout back from the abandoned house you’re taking cover in

“Don’t nobody here wanna fuck your sandy STD ridden wasteland pussy bitch!” you hear someone shout.
“Holy shit is that Mary Liberty out there? How’s your husband doing? Oh right, he’s a charred corpse. Guess I saved you the trouble of a cremation…”

Your taunt is interrupted by machine gunfire causing you to take cover.

“Mary, stop it! You’re just wastin’ ammo!” you hear another voice shout.
“I hear Bounty Bill out there too. I gotta say I’m really touched that you came all the way out from the Iron Union just for me. Guess those teeth marks on your dick really left a lasting impression.” You laugh remembering how you got away from him last time.
“Keep laughing Blondie. I’ll soon have more fond memories of you when that pretty golden mane of yours is detached from your scalp and is hanging up on my wall.” Bill replies.

“Alright enough! This isn’t about personal vendettas! This is a Ground Zero job and we’re going to act like fucking professionals. Now Blondie, I counted how many shots you fired and you got exactly ONE left. You can’t win this and you’re not getting away. If you come out peacefully however I can assure you that you will not be harmed and you will get a fair trial.”
“Fair trial before a GZ Board? You must be huffing gasoline if you actually believe that. They’re more likely going to throw me in a cell and perform whatever fucked up experiments they do on me like they do with anyone that pisses them off. You’re working for the most amoral entity in the wasteland Mr. Justice. Your name has never been more hypocritical.” You shout back
“Yeah, yeah, look this is your last chance Blondie. You coming out or not?”

You look at your pistol and stand up near the window yet still remaining in cover.

“One bullet is all I need. Come and get my body bitches.” You yell, fire your pistol in the air and then fall backwards so they can see your body fall in the view of the window.

“Goddamn it, she offed herself.” Someone shouts.
“Move it, but remain alert! It could be a trick!” Justice shouts.

Well at least Justice is still thinking a bit, but he’s still severely underestimating you if he thinks he’s got you trapped. You wouldn’t have run in here had you not had a plan. This isn’t just some random abandoned house, it’s one of the many places you store supplies. Some of which are fully loaded weapons.

Several bounty hunters cautiously enter the front entrance of the house, but it doesn’t do them any good when you cut down most of them with an assault rifle before they can take cover.

Hearing more pour in from the back, you throw a smoke grenade to cover yourself and retreat elsewhere into the house where you have a trapdoor that leads under the house.

“Goddamn fucking smoke. Can’t see shit!” someone shouts.
“Fuck this, burn it all down.” Another says and you hear footsteps starting to exit the house from above you.

Meanwhile you continue to crawl under the house, eventually making your way under the backsteps. There you see in the area is Bounty Bill and a few other hunters.

“Shit, she’s right there!” Bounty Bill shouts before you riddle him and his buddies with bullets. Doesn’t take long before more hunters run around from the front to the back to flank you.

You barely manage to escape unscathed, but fortunately luck is still with you this day. You notice the house is starting to emanate black smoke from the front and the distinct smell of fire is now in the air. You also hear a vehicle revving up.

You pick up a couple of the pistols off the dead and cautiously head around the front of the house. You get there just in time to see Justice driving away like a little bitch. However, revenge is still very much here and Mary Liberty opens fire. You feel a painful sensation of a bullet going into your left leg.

“Fuck!” you exclaim and dive for cover and crawl behind one of many now abandoned vehicles.

“You’re a dead bitch Blondie! You hear me!?!” Mary shouts while spraying your cover with bullets.

You and Mary have an old fashioned run and duck shoot out for several minutes, however unlike what happens in old movies, it does not ultimately result in some physical catfight with lesbian undertones where upon you proceed to rip each other’s clothes off.

You just manage to get lucky again and shoot Mary in her right tit causing her to go down with the utterance of swears coming from her mouth.

You limp over to where she fell and see she’s still trying to grab her pistol that she dropped. You shoot her in the hand blowing off a few of her fingers and causing her hand to recoil and she screams in pain. You pick up the pistol and train your own weapon on her. Already having a hard time breathing from the hole in her chest, she clutches her bloody hand with the other. The look in her eyes display a hatred you’ve seen many times before.

“I…I …I’ll see you in hell Blondie.” She utters, spitting blood.
“Probably.” You say and then end Mary’s life with a shot to her dome.

With all your enemies dead you sit on the trunk of a nearby car and watch your stash house burn down while you ponder what to do next.

The bullet wound in your leg will have to be seen to, so you’ll have to make a run to another location where you’ve stashed some medical supplies. The bullet went through so at least you don’t need to worry about digging something out. You’re just glad she wasn’t using hollow points and tie off your leg with your over shirt.

In any case, you’re sure Justice will be back to chasing you around when he manages to scrounge up some more mooks. Honestly you’d like to catch a break where you don’t feel like you have to look over your shoulder every other day, but this is the path you chose and as they say there ain’t no rest for the wicked.

Didn’t start out that way though you think. You honestly were just trying to survive, just like you continue to do today…but you suppose you really did start having a bit too much fun in doing what you did and still do. You wonder if it’s genetic. Your uncle was a serial killer after all.

In any case you’re a far cry from being the “good girl” that once hid in the basement.

All this self-reflection does give you an idea for your next destination after you patch up your leg.

Home.

It’s been years since you’ve been anywhere near there. You’ve deliberately avoided it for several reasons, but you figure since you seemingly have more and more places where you’re wanted dead nowadays you figure hiding out back in the old hometown might be worthwhile or at least interesting.

You loot Mary’s body for her vehicle’s keys and leave the dead and burning behind you. As you drive you wonder who is in charge of the town, is it still in shambles infested with those freaks (Though you haven’t seen any of those in years now), did someone actually rebuild it, and is that redneck community still around?

“Well doesn’t matter who’s there or in charge, but they all better hide in THEIR basements, because Suzy’s coming back home.” You say to yourself.


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 run away
This is different than the police or the military, these things are mindless, possibly crawling with disease and seemingly without end, you really do need to get out of here!

“Donna, get the hell out of there! These things are gonna overrun the place!” you shout and begin pulling at her arm.
“Wha…Suzy, lemme go! It’s not safe out there!” Donna says attempting to pull away from your grip.

Jimmy Ray is doing his best at blasting the cannibal freaks, but he’s not exactly using the quickest of weapons and those things are definitely picking up their own speed.

“OH MY GOD! SUZY!” Donna exclaims pulling away just in time for one of those things to suddenly lunge upon you which you don’t see due to it jumping on your back and tackling you to the ground.

You hear snarling and gnashing in your ear and somewhere between that, you hear Jimmy Ray yelling at Donna to lock the front door.

The next thing you hear is the crunching sound of teeth going into your flesh. You cry out, but the freak is placing all its weight upon you, preventing you from struggling too much. With your face in the dirt and blood spurting out of your neck you’re not going too far, though when you’re partially hit with buckshot from Jimmy Ray’s shotgun you’re at least put out of your misery from the thing eating you alive.


While you haven’t quite ruled out the possibility of living with Donna, you don’t think you’re quite ready to go driving over there yourself and putting up with some old guy perving on you today. If you do decide to go over there, you’ll do it later tonight.

Besides, you want to see just how bad it might be over at Julie’s before making a decision.

A few minutes of driving to your destination and you’re sure of one thing being pretty bad, the roads! Once again there are cops everywhere, but also ambulances and fire trucks racing to their various destinations too. You nearly turn around and head back home, but eventually you make it to Julie’s neighborhood, which is thankfully not in the midst of anarchy.

You pull up to the driveway and get out of the car. You figure you’ll assess the situation before making a decision of whether you’re going to stay or not.

You sort of expected to see a few people drinking on the porch or at least hearing loud music as you walk up to the door, but so far it doesn’t sound like any sort of party going on or at least not an overly rowdy one, which is odd considering how people have been acting in this town for the past few days.

You knock on the door, but get no immediate answer. After a few more bangs you finally get an answer, but it isn’t Julie.

“Hello.” A man says in a flat tone and almost seems to be studying you. He looks like he might be around your age, but he doesn’t look like the sort that would be at one of Julie’s parties. He’s very “ordinary” looking.
“Hey. Where’s Julie at?” you ask.
“Julie? Oh yes, the owner of this house. Well, I don’t really know. I remember seeing her yesterday, but then she left with some guy and I haven’t seen her since. Of course this being her house she has to return sometime right? Would you like to wait?” the man asks opening the door further to invite you in.

Something about this guy feels a little “off” to you.

“Wait, who are you?” you ask.
“Oh I’m sorry for not introducing myself. I’m Johnny. I was at Julie’s party yesterday. Guess you could say I got a little tipsy and decided I shouldn’t go home in that condition, so I flopped out in the basement. I’m not the only person who did that apparently considering some of Julie’s other guests are still here as well.”

You peer inside and see that Johnny is indeed speaking the truth. A couple of people are on the couch playing some sort of video game.

“So now that you know who I am, I have to ask who you are.” Johnny says.
“I’m Suzy and I’m Julie’s friend.” You say.
“I see, well come on in, I’m sure when Julie gets back she’ll be pleased to see you.”

You enter the house and the place is in a lot better condition than you would’ve thought for a party house. Johnny quickly closes the door and locks it. Causing you to immediately look back.

“You never can tell what weirdo will show up with unlocked doors and all, right?” he says.
“Indeed.” You say still getting an uneasy feeling about this guy.
“So, you’re one of Julie’s friends. Guess you’re a real party girl, just like she is huh?” Johnny remarks almost in an accusing fashion.
“Hardly. Are these all the people in the house?” you ask, pointing to the stoners playing video games and completely ignoring you and Johnny.
“Yeah, I mean there were some other people here earlier, but these lot are all that’s left, beside myself. Julie’s pretty cool about letting people just crash here even if she’s not around.”

With Johnny creepily hovering near you and the stoners babbling about inane shit, you already realize that this is not going to work for you.

“Alright, everyone get out.” You say, but the only one who even hears you is Johnny.
“What?” Johnny asks.
“Look I hate to be rude, and you probably didn’t know this, but I’m moving in here. Now when Julie is here, she can have all her little drug addled party friends over as much as she likes, I mean its her house after all. But I’m not going to put up with them while she isn’t here! So I want everyone out, you all can come back later when she’s here. Whenever that is.”

Johnny’s still the only one who is even paying attention and his facial expression on your stance hasn’t changed.

“But if it’s Julie’s house doesn’t she have final say in what goes?” Johnny asks.
“Yeah, well when I see Julie, I’m going to have a little discussion with her about our new living arrangements.” You remark.

Once again Johnny just stares at you, it almost feels like he’s staring through you. It makes you uncomfortable to say the least.

“All right. You’ve got a point. I wouldn’t want a bunch of strangers just wandering around in my home either. I’ll get out of your hair, as for these guys, I can get ‘em to go.” Johnny says and then suddenly shouts at the stoners that everyone has to get out of the house and starts ripping controllers out of their hands.

“Hey!”
“Not cool dude!”
“You dick!”
“Sorry guys, but as the old saying goes, you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Come on, let’s move it.” Johnny says and eventually the stoners grudgingly shuffle off to leave. Johnny follows behind them.

“When you see Julie, tell her it was an excellent party last night.” Johnny says and flashes a brief smile, which comes off more creepy than friendly. You don’t even reply, you just shut the door and lock it, glad to be rid of everyone.

Remembering that your sister said that if you did live here, you’d be sleeping in Julie’s dad’s old office. You explore that room first. When you get there it looks pretty much like the same office you remember being in a few times when you played over here. It’s definitely convenient that it has a small private bathroom leading from it as well as a couch that apparently folds out into a bed.

After assessing your possible new digs, you decide to go retrieve your bags from the car. You unpack your bags and haul them into the house and head on into your new room.

After getting a little bit settled, you figure since you’re all alone in the house, you might as well do something that usually puts you in a better mood. (and you sure could use it)

While you’re in the middle of it, you suddenly think you hear something. You call out thinking that maybe Julie is finally home, but when you get no reply, you just check to make sure the door to your room is locked. If Julie does come home, you don’t want her suddenly walking in on you.

After getting back in the mood and taking care of your needs you wash up a bit and return to your usual routine of…well doing nothing at all.

Hours pass and eventually you start to get hungry so you head to the kitchen in the hopes of finding food. You manage to find a few bags of junk food and some unopened drink in the fridge. Once again while you’re doing this, you swear you think you hear noise. You call out again to see if anyone is here, but there is no answer.

Given that it’s now nighttime you’re a little on edge. You know its probably just the house making creaking sounds, but with all the bullshit that’s been going on out in the streets lately you’re just a little paranoid.

Just as you’re heading back to your room, the front door suddenly opens! It’s Donna and some other young woman who looks a bit on the trashy side.

“Shit! You scared me.” You say.
“Why didn’t you pick up your phone? I tried calling you before I got over here.” Donna asks.
“I…I guess I had it on vibrate and didn’t hear it.” You say.
“Hm. Well I see this place is practically a tomb. I take it Julie isn’t home?”
“Nope, I haven’t heard from her either.”
“That’s really odd…”

Suddenly the trashy young woman speaks up.

“Hey Donna are we picking your shit up or what? You know how fucked up it is out there right now and I’d like to get home before it gets worse.”
“Oh yeah, better get to it. Suzy, this is my friend Tina.” Donna says and heads upstairs.

“Hello.” You say to Tina, but she just grunts at you and heads back outside to her car.

Remembering that Donna wanted you to help her move some of the stuff, you head upstairs to her room.

“Your friend Tina isn’t very friendly.” You ask.
“Yeah, well if you were a horny guy with a hundred dollar bill, she’d be really friendly towards you. Anyway, she’s always been cool with me ever since I’ve known her, plus she helped me get the current job I have.” Donna says as she packs away items.
“You need anything for me to carry down?”
“Yeah, but not yet. Really I’m thinking I’ll get most of this stuff later when I have a day off. Right now I just want to get the hell out of this town, it’s getting nuts out there!”
“Yeah, it was pretty chaotic out there earlier on my drive here. So how was your first day?”
“Not bad. As strange as it may seem, it actually was calmer in the club than it was outside. Though having bouncers helps in that area I suppose. Still a couple of fights did break out.”
“Shit. You okay? Are you sure the job is safe?”
“Oh I’m safe. Like I said, there’s good protection there. Honestly I’m more concerned with the drive TO the club, but I imagine whatever is going on will die down eventually.”
“Hope so.”

Donna finishes packing a bag and starts to pack a new one and you stand there silent until you hear a noise from downstairs causing you to jump a bit.

“Are you okay?” Donna asks.
“Yeah, what the hell’s that noise?” you ask, briefly stepping out of Donna’s room to look over into the living room.
“Probably Tina.”
“No, she’s not down there and besides she went back to wait in the car.”
“Well maybe she wandered back in briefly…you seem a little stressed.”
“I dunno. The shit’s that’s been going on in town and I guess being alone in the house at night has got me a little jumpy. Sort of concerned that Julie hasn’t come back either.”
“Mmm, well that IS odd. I tried calling her again earlier too with no luck. Have you thought anymore about coming to live with me? I told you it would be fine and I know you think the trailer park isn’t safe environment, is this town really any safer right now?”
> You stay at the house
“I’m still not sold on the trailer park, Donna. I think I’ll be fine here. I just need to get used to the new living situation.” You remark to Donna.
“Hm, okay then. Well my offer will always still stand as long as I live there.” Donna replies.
“Okay. Thanks Donna. So you said you’re good? You don’t need my help with anything?”
“Nah, not tonight anyway. Like I said, I’ll come back and get all of my stuff proper, another day. Hopefully when the mess in town dies down.”

Saying a few more goodbyes, you leave Donna to finish her hasty packing and you head back to your room and close the door. A few minutes later you hear the slam of the front door indicating that Donna has left, leaving you by yourself again.

You try to call Julie again, but once again there is no answer. Giving up on that particular concern you go back to amusing yourself on the Internet until you start reading erotic stories which puts you more in the mood to amuse yourself with your battery operated boyfriend again.

Having no distractions this time, you orgasm twice before having enough fun for the night. As you lie there in your afterglow, you briefly think about Bobby and how you sort of miss him, or rather his dick. Masturbation is fun and all, and it definitely gets the job done, but your time with Bobby has made you appreciate the human touch a little more. You really liked some of the tricks he did…

Since you still aren’t one hundred percent sure about living here, you decide that you’ll call Bobby tomorrow and see if you can’t talk some sense into him and possibly make up.

With that goal for tomorrow decided, you call it a night and roll over on your couch to sleep.

At some point in the middle of the night, you hear a noise close by. You groggily open your eyes and see a figure standing over you with a large knife. Before you can scream or do anything, the person is on top of you and choking you with one hand. You can see his face right up to yours and he’s recognizable now with your eyes wide with fear. It’s Johnny.

“Fucking whore! I heard what you did in here! I heard the dirty thing you did! I’m going to punish you like I did your friend!” he snarls with a look of pure hatred upon his face.

You punch and struggle and just as you think you’re having some success, Johnny proceeds to actually use his knife and stabs you repeatedly with it. With a last bit of strength you manages to push Johnny off of you and roll on the floor yourself, but your attempts to crawl away are short lived due to the combination of your wounds and the fact Johnny quickly recovers and begins stabbing you in the back.

As the life starts to fade from your body, you hear the heavy breathing of Johnny who is apparently starting to get aroused by your condition and begins ripping at your clothes.

Fortunately you die before you feel the pain of being raped on top of being murdered.