This post though, is part of a thing called Zombies Write II. Its an unofficial fanfic writing type thing that plays out like a Secret Santa. I was giving a prompt by Pamela over at http://www.tumblr.com/blog/pamelamella. Her prompts were really fun to play around with, and even though I wanted to do every one of them, I chose:
- Haven't heard much from Molly since season 1- any request or needs from the children of New Canton or Able?
((P.S. Don't worry, the Ballad will return at its normal day and time next week! ))
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Another day, another run through the zombie infested lands around Abel. It was odd to think about how much had happened since you were saved by Sam and the rest at Abel. But today, your thoughts were on someone you had saved yourself.
Molly was one of the many children at the daycare in Abel. It had been hard to set it up, as New Canton was more equipped for children, but the new Abel township was growing quickly. Fact is, they needed Ed here, his skills as a mechanic and sharpshooter were second to none. So like many other important people, they were loath to leave their children at another town.
You could hear Sam talking to other runners in the field. It had become a sort of routine, standing in front of the gates, stretching, while listening to the chatter. But it seemed distant. Ed had been happy to see you last night. He had Molly in his arms, the child was growing so fast, almost being too big for even his arms. During lunch, he told you about the daycare, how it was growing, how they needed little things.
He had said their requests kept getting denied, there were far more important things for their runners to be doing than collecting art supplies and coloring books.
“Opening the Gates! Covering fire!” It was like a fanfare every time you left Abel Township, running down the corridor of zombies getting picked off with head shots. Not to mention Sam telling you what your mission is for the day. “Just a typical scouting missing today, Runner 5. You’re headed into an urban area cleared by New Canton yesterday to see if its truly clear. The cameras they have place in the area seem all quiet, but...just be careful.”
Fact is, it was a quiet run, though a few kilometers longer than you would have expected for a simple scouting mission. Sam kept interrupting the radio station out of New Canton, whatever they were calling themselves this week, with updates on zombies in the vicinity that you were easily avoiding without his help.
Finally you reached the urban area and slowed down. It had been a good run, and you had a good sheen of sweat going. But now the dangerous part was about to begin, when suddenly the mission changed a bit. “Runner 5, we’re not sure, but keep your eyes out for an unauthorized Abel citizen there.”
It was easy enough to ask who it was, and Sam’s answer was a bit shocking, “Ed Harrison. It appears he heard about New Canton’s raid, and took it upon himself to supply the day care.”
It was easy to pick out Maxine’s and Janine’s voice in the background arguing. “We can’t have just anybody leaving Abel, breaking protocol, not with all we have to deal with now.” “I agree, that motorcycle of his might draw some unwanted attention.”
Sam tried to struggle to ignore them and give you some more instructions, “Just...keep your eyes open, 5. We’re afraid that the noise from his motorcycle might have brought in some...unwanted attention.
How in the world did he get out of the gates? So many questions bounced through your mind, but you pushed them aside, an easy scouting run to make sure New Canton did its job turned into something else entirely.
Jogging through the vacant village was surreal. It always was, every time you went on one of these scouting missions. There were all sorts of apocalyptic signs everywhere. Rotting corpses with holes in their head and over turned and burnt vehicles littered the streets. Bullet holes riddled the buildings and shattered glass had replaced almost all of the windows. And silence ruled it all.
You turned off the music station on your comslink and listened and looked. Ed’s bike was actually hard to spot. It was as dirty and dingy as the rest of the vehicles, and it had a side car. He had obviously thought ahead. The bike itself was parked in front of a line of stores, and there was no sign of Ed. A hand on the engine was all it took to realize the bike was cold, it had been here awhile.
“No, 5, we’re not sure when he left, but it had to have been awhile ago, maybe just before dawn.”
It was hard not to shout his name. A look in the side car showed it to be empty. He had obviously been here awhile, but hadn’t gathered a thing? Something had to be wrong.
The art supply store was easy enough to find. Stepping through the shattered front door into the darkness was always a terrifying thing. You waited for your eyes to adjust and started looking. This store had hardly been touched by any looting that occurred during the outbreak of whatever had caused the zombie plague, for obvious reasons. Its not like anyone was going to go out and paint a beautiful painting now-a-days.
Some of the stuff had been picked through though, and towards the back of the store, there was a shopping cart that didn’t belong in the store. It was full of coloring books and other art supplies for kids. This is exactly the sort of thing Ed would have come here for...but where was he?
As if on cue, there was a noise. Sam’s voice said, “Be careful, 5.” As if you really needed to be told. It felt odd to reach for some form of weapon, being how your main weapon had turned into your ability to run for long distances. But reach for something you did. A pole. It has a threaded end, so it was probably used as an extension to a roller to paint high places. It would suffice.
The bathroom in the back of the store was empty, as was the office. But where had the noise came from? The office had a back door. Behind the building was an area that looked to be completely untouched by the violence on the main street. And because of that, there were zombies. Though oddly...there were all surrounding a single trash container. A quick look told you there were at least ten zombies, all so interested in the trash container, that they were paying no attention to the door several meters away.
“He has to be in there, 5, there’s no other reason why they are so preoccupied with it.”
Janine stopped Sam and said, “Yes, but that man is a sharp shooter, besides being a talented mechanic, he can head shot zombies from a hundred meters with a pistol.”
Speaking of the pistol, there it was. Not just a meter from you. “Well I’ll be,” said Sam.
Being a simple runner you hadn’t had much gun training, but you knew that Ed’s pistol had enough fire power to not only get rid of some of the Zoms but allow you to get their attention so you could lead them away.
Janine’s voice was clear, “Be careful not to hit the garbage container.”
Sam then said, “Why? Its not like the bullet will penetrate that thing, its solid iron...or steel...or look it won’t go through.”
“They might Sam, but I’m more worried it would bounce off.”
A loud growling hiss from a Zom made you push their silly argument about ricochets away and take aim, as all ten plus zombies turned towards you and seemed delighted at their new prey.
They were close enough that it was relatively easy to hit them in the head. The gun went click after you dropped the 8th zombie. The others, turns out your original number was short by about three shambled on completely unphased. It was easy to out jog them down the side of the building. As you turned you were rewarded by seeing a very messy and disgusting looking Ed climb out of the garbage bin. He ran into the art store and vanished.
You reached the end of the long line of stores that made up a sort of strip mall building and rounded the corner as Ed and his motorcycle pulled up next to you, holding out a hand for his gun. You handed it to him, he quickly reloaded it with a clip in his belt and made short work of the zombies coming up behind you.
The aroma was...well...unbelievably bad. “I was in that garbage bin for hours. And you don’t even want to think about how old the garbage was that was in there.”
Sam said, “Oh dear...Maybe we should get the hoses ready before he gets back into town.”
Janine then said, “If we let him back in....”
You turned down the transmitter as they started bickering again. “I’m gonna have some explaining to do, but they’ll let me back in when they see what all I’ve got.” The side car was indeed full of supplies. Not only of art stuff, but texts books. “Yeah, there was apparently a community college in this sleepy little town, because they had a text book store. Anyways, I guess that rescue kinda makes us even, huh?”
After a bit of a conversation, in which Ed realized that he was indeed not even due to you having to run all the way back to Abel later while he rode his bike, yet again, you got back to the mission check for surviving undead in the sleepy little abandoned village that was a sad allegory to what the world had become....
