Dead On Arrival~ Season 2- Episode 15: The Dinner (Part 2)

Episode 15: The Dinner (Part 2)

My mouth suddenly felt dry and I felt like every eye in the room was on me. I didn’t know what to say. Tell them I stole cars for a living? Tell them I was a professional thief and convict? Lie? Shit.“

"I’ll go,” piped Audrey raising her hand. She glanced over at me and winked. “Lady’s first.”

“Well if that’s ok with Vince,” Jones said sitting back in his chair.

“Yes. It’s… it’s fine,” I said finding my voice. I smiled feeling relieved and grateful, but I knew it would come back around to me. She had only brought me more time.

“Well, I guess you can say I was nobody,” she sighed she slouching in her chair now. “I stayed at home and mostly play videogames all day. Had a few minimum jobs, but they all ended up with me either quitting or getting fired. I wasn’t exactly responsible. Actually, the last time I saw my dad we were arguing about my future. Funny, how that panned out. Now we don’t even know if we have a future.”

“We have one,” DJ said winking. “You just got to have hope.”

I snorted and Madison hit me in the arm giving me a disapproving look. She then turned her attention back to Audrey. “So do know what happened to your dad? Did he..?”

“He’s out there. Somewhere. The morning this all happened I was at a friend’s house. He…he wasn’t anywhere to be found when I got home.”

“How about your mom?”

Audrey furrowed her brow and sighed. “My mother’s been gone for a while now. Way before this. Cancer took her.”

“Aw, I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” she said sorrowfully. She then forced a small smile. “Well, how about you, Grace? Omar?”

Grace grinned while Omar sat up at attention. He spoke for both of them. “Me and Grace. We were store owners. Owned a small corner store in our neighborhood. Was a popular little place. I still miss it.”

Grace then chimed in. “Yes, we owned a store. In fact, we were watching our granddaughter when…when they came.”

“Grace. Let’s hear from Lin,” he interrupted as his wife began to look visibly upset. “Lin.”

She sat beside Omar across from Wade now. She flipped her hair and sighed. “Fine. I was a lawyer. An attorney, but my father was part owner of a big electronics firm in China. That makes me an heiress I guess. He recently died, so I own the company now. Well, what’s left of it. Being a lawyer is more my thing though. I came here to America, so I can make a name for myself as one. Unfortunately, the dead don’t need attorneys so I’m shit out of luck now. Be lucky to survive nowadays.”

“My turn!” Tao exclaimed.

“Lin scoffed. "And what the hell have you ever done shit for brains?”

“I did plenty of things.”

“Like what? Get in trouble for defacing property with graffiti? Petty theft and pickpocketing?”

“I can think of plenty of stuff!”

“Yeah, right. Why your sorry ass got stuck living with me,” she growled leaving her brother brooding in his seat.

“Guess it’s my turn,” DJ said gleefully. “Listen here. I was an inspiring rapper and music producer. I got the skills man.”

“Yeah, he can totally freestyle,” Tao praised. “Wait. Wait. I can totally beatbox for you.”

“Yeah, you want to hear?”

Jones scoffed. “Spare us.”

“But anyway, I was going to college when everything went down. Was supposed to be staying here for spring break and the summer. My dad and my mom went on some cruise to the Caribbeans, but never came back,” he said suddenly looking sad.

“I doubt that this epidemic has reached that far. They’re ok I’m sure,” Matthew assured him getting approving nods from everyone.

DJ then seemed to regain his composure. He slouched back in his seat smiling and cut his eye at Wade. “How about you Wade, my man?”

“I was a truck driver. Delivering store goods all across America. It was just me, my rig, and the road. I was happy, but then everyone and everything went to shit. Was hightailing it to the Pentagon when I came across a little lady, named Lin. I saved her life,” he said winking.

“As much I hate to admit that, yes you did,” she said rolling her eyes.

“I saw her on the side of the road fighting and struggling with about three deadites. She was kicking and running all in high heels. Couldn’t leave the poor little thing to die, so I stop my rig, grabbed my handy wrench and went to work on those things. Then I grabbed Ms. Lin here and put her on my rig. That’s when we decided to go find her brother and her dad at the rescue center or sanctuary. Where we all met.”

Lin smirked. “You just love telling that story don’t you?”

“Yep. I do,” he said winking again.

“Nathan. Nathan. Your turn”, Matthew said as his brother remained silent as the table now focused on him now. He placed his hand on his shoulder affectionately. “Come on.”

He sighed. “Fine. I was an orderly. I worked at a nursing home giving out pills and checking on the elderly. So I’m familiar with death. When some of the patients began coming down with some strange virus, I didn’t bat an eye. I was probably too busy goofing off and seeing if I can make a profit off their meds. But some started bleeding from the nose and eyes. Some started acting crazy. I look back now and it makes sense now, but I was too stupid to see. Too childish. If I knew maybe our sister, Rachel could be sitting here.”

Lin chuckled. “Maybe Aaron could be sitting here too.”

“Lin!” Matthew snapped. He softened his tone. “Nate. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and last time I checked, you weren’t psychic. If I knew I would be halfway to Tahiti by now.”

The table laughed and he patted his brother on the shoulder. He then clasped his hands smiling. “Guess it’s my turn. Well, I was an advertising executive. Hard to believe I know.”

I chuckled. “You kidding right?”

“No.”

“I doubt that. There must be something more. You? A boring ass exec? Please.”

“You be surprised how much you change when you trying to survive,” he said glaring at me. He softened his tone and gaze at Madison. “Anyway, that’s about it. I was visiting my parents with Nate and our sister when everything went down. We had just come from a wedding and everything was normal. I still can’t believe we’re in the situation we’re in now.’

Madison rubbed his shoulder and she pointed to herself acknowledging her turn. “So my story. Well, I was a bartender. Worked late nights at a bar with a bunch of filthy and drunk men. Not too different from the dead out there.”

We laughed and she continued. “I had planned to go back to school and become a school teacher, but that fell threw. Feeding my family became priority and my sister…my sister was going to become something. I just knew it. With the pay and the tips, I was going to help her follow her dreams and get my mom… our family away from my shithead step-dad.”

She then sighed. “That didn’t happen of course. One night doing one of my late-night shifts at the bar, everything went to hell. It was just me, three of my regulars, and the usual random biker passed out in the corner. Things started off quiet. Was expecting a pretty easy night actually, but then two guys came in screaming something about zombies and some nonsense. Young hipster-looking guys. I thought they were drunk already. I thought it was some sort of joke, but I looked closer and saw they were bloody. One of them was hurting pretty bad even. I told them to sit down and offered them something stiff. Then I heard a lot of commotion outside and I got scared. I locked the doors and turned the tv to the news. The newscaster seemed to be saying the same thing about some crazed bloodthirsty monsters, but I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Didn’t take long for me to find out though. If only I knew that I had locked me and the boys in with one of those monsters. That night. Pure hell.”

“Holy shit! I want to hear more!” Audrey squealed.

“No. It’s Vince turn,” Jones said plainly.

“Nah. I wouldn’t mind hearing more of that, myself,” I said quickly.

Matthew then shot me a look with a devilish grin. “No. There be plenty of time for that one. I want to hear Vince’s story. Go on Vince.”

Part 1

Next episode is part 3 and it shouldn’t be as time-consuming as this one, so it should be up faster. It’s the conclusion and it only has one flashback (that’s if I don’t include Vince’s), so it’s easier for me to do. Plus it’s shorter.

Hope you like this one tho. I build all the in-game sets you see myself. Even made my first working child pose and quite a few customs poses for this one. So yeah it was a lot of work!!!