“Ready?” DJ said sounding nervous as he looked up from what looked like a cruelly drawn map.
Two days went by uneventfully. An eerie quietness and stillness had fallen over the house. Grace’s unimaginable death had affected us all. All of us grieving in our own little ways. I truly wrestled with the decision of leaving the house with everyone being in such a state, but I knew DJ needed me for our latest supply run. His mysterious friends were willing to trade for supplies and gas if we could produce some scrap metal, but to get such a thing we would have to visit the junkyard. A dangerous junkyard full of walkers according to Vince.
Thankfully, it wouldn’t be just me and him going. Vince would be coming along with his knowledge of the place. As much I hated to admit it, the one thing good that resulted from Ms. Wallace’s death was that Vince and I were no longer at odds. He was still grumpy as hell at times, but I was pretty sure that was part of his usual demeanor.
“Where’s Nate?” I asked looking from one to the other as we stood in the vestibule now. “Thought he was going.”
“Nah. I knocked on the bathroom door this morning and asked him, but he told me that he couldn’t go,” DJ said as he appeared from behind the map again. His face fully in view now. A cheeky grin then spread across his face. “He sounded busy. Sounds like he was in there with someone.”
“I would rather not know,” Vince huffed rolling his eyes. “Could we get this over with?”
He chuckled and folded the map stuffing in his pocket. “Well then, let’s go, gentleman.”
“Not so fast!” I heard a voice screech. We looked over to see Lin sprinting over to us. “I’m coming!”
DJ wiggle his brow. “Aren’t you busy with Nathan?”
“What do you mean by that?” she said sounding insulted.
“Nevermind.”
“Well, I’m going!”
I frowned. “Ok?”
“Don’t talk me out of it either! There’s no getting rid of me now!”
Vince shrugged. “Fine.”
“Nothing you can say can change my mind!”
DJ furrowed his brow. “Alright…”
“And don’t try any of that sexist stuff either. I’m going and that’s final!”
“Lin, no one is saying you can’t go you psycho!” Vince spat.
“Well…uh…yeah. I thought so,” she said half-stunned as a small smirk spread across her face. She crossed her arms confidently. “Well, you’re welcome!”
The three of us guys groaned. We all exit out the front door. There we found Madison waiting for us on the porch. She came up to me and kissed me. Her warn embrace tempting me to stay as she wished me luck. She hugged my cohorts wishing them luck as well. I was making my way down the stairs when I was welcomed with the sight of Omar at the foot of the stairs.
“Going out?” he said eyeing me.
I froze, only able to utter, “Yes.”
I came down the steps walking over to him and he shook my hand smiling. “Well, I come to wish you well on your journey. Try to come back in one piece.”
“Omar… I… I,” I stuttered.
“Don’t. Don’t be sorry. It wasn’t your fault. I know you blame yourself, but it wasn’t your fault” he said quietly. “It was my fault. I should have woken up. I should have heard her leave the room.”
I shook my head. “My God, Omar. Don’t think that way.”
“Yeah man. Neither of you can blame yourself,” DJ injected. He looked down sadly. “I was the one that was supposed to clear out all the dead.”
I then heard a chuckle and looked over to see Madison again. She shook her head. “How about we say it was no one’s fault. I’m pretty sure Grace would have agreed with that.”
“Grace…” Omar said trailing off. His smile fading as he said her name.
“Besides Omar, Grace thought the world of you. She wouldn’t want you to think that way. You protected her the best you could.”
I nodded. “I agree. It’s because of you she lasted as long as she did. You kept her going. She was lucky to have you.”
He sighed and smiled. “No, I was lucky to have her. But thank you I guess.”
He patted each of us on the shoulder and ruffled DJ’s hair. He then slowly walked back into the house. His heart still clearly heavy from the loss, but hopefully not bogged down with guilt now.
We quickly bid everyone adieu. The four of us now. Vince, DJ, Lin, and myself. Four people that couldn’t be any more different, but determined to survive and do it as a team. We reached the junkyard with little to no trouble. Some walkers here and there, but nothing we couldn’t handle.
The junkyard though was huge. Trash as far as the eye could see surrounded us. Old cars, appliances, and a number of large items could be spotted amongst the piles.
As we walked further our boots sunk in the soft dirt. Some places were solid, but a dozen other places had large puddles of mud and pools of discarded chemicals. Then the smell was nothing to be desired. Strangely enough, there appeared to be no walkers lurking about. None that we could see at that moment. We even spotted a shopping cart to our luck. Both me and Vince practically fought over it like kids as we both went to grab it.
“We should split up,” Vince suggested as he conceded giving me the cart. He surveyed the dump before us. “Not really seeing any corpses like before, so it shouldn’t be too bad.”
“Man, you guys and the splitting up shit. Don’t you people watch horror movies?” DJ groaned.
I nodded. “He’s right. We should stay together.”
“Woah. Wait. You finally agree with me?”
"Yeah. I see Vince’s point, but this place is too big to be splitting up.” I then grimaced. "Besides, we can’t risk it. We can’t afford to lose someone else.”
“Then it’s settled. Let’s go, people,” Lin exclaimed.
She began walking as if in charge. She practically strutted as she walked ahead of us, but she stopped in her tracks seemingly stuck in the mud. We tried not to laugh as she struggled to free one of her boots. She waved us away as we tried to help. With one good thrust, she managed to dislodge one boot, but she went flying backward into the puddle.
The three of us couldn’t hold it in any longer. We bust out laughing and she sat in the mud fuming. She splashed at us and slapped at out her hands as we offered to help her up. She got up shaking herself off much like a dog and glared at us. She then walked behind us as we pressed on mumbling and cursing under her breath in Chinese.
“Can I be honest about something?” DJ said as he walked beside me. “I can’t understand how Grace got out.”
“What you mean?”
“The door was locked that night. I remember opening it that afternoon so Grace could do some gardening, but after that, I locked it and added some more boards for safety. You would literally have to move one of the boards to unlock it.”
I froze and stared at him wide eye. “Maybe someone in house loosen…?”
“No. I check the doors every night. No board was loose when I went to bed and like I said it was locked. Then when we found Grace, I checked again. It was opened and a couple of boards were loose from the outside.”
“Then someone…?”
“Hey. What the fuck are you two doing? Stop lazing about for fuck sakes!” Vince yelled interrupting us. “I think I found something. Get your asses over here!”
DJ hurried over leaving me hanging and I reluctantly followed trying to make sense of it. Did someone enter the house? A chill went down my spine just thinking about it. I was beginning to regret leaving Madison and everyone.
“Look at her,” Vince said gleefully pointing at a blue, but rusted sports car.
DJ open the hood and scoffed. “Yeah, a real beauty with no engine.”
“Yeah, we know captain obvious,” Lin said crossing her arms. “We can use it for scrap metal is what we mean.”
“Yeah, makes for great scrap metal. Still can admire it though,” the ex-con smirked.
She sighed. “Before Vince here got his car boner, he was saying that we should try to get the car doors, hood, and trunk for scrap metal. Large pieces are great for gates and shields. Maybe we can use some.”
“If we can carry it,” DJ said. He pulled out something from his pocket. “I’m glad I have a screwdriver. See if you can find some smaller bits while I work on the doors to this thing. But stay close.”
Vince grabbed the screwdriver and took it over to DJ’s annoyance. The two of them began working together though while Lin and I went off in different directions. Both of us still in the eyesight of the two of them. I only roamed a little further after several minutes of finding nothing. I glanced back as I did. I stood for a while lost in thought staring at an old oven for a moment. I started to call out to them realizing it could be useful, but then something touched me startling me. I jumped and looked down to see a rat running by. I laughed feeling stupid and started to walk back over to them when I saw a flash of something much larger run by. A walker? I pulled out my ax just in case and ran back frantically. They stopped what they were doing upon seeing me and stared at me looking alarmed.
“I saw something,” I said feeling out of breath. “Did you guys see anything? A walker?”
They looked at each other and shook their heads. Again, I felt dumb. I chuckled and stood close by watching them for a moment trying to gather myself. I turned around to look around again. Then I felt something. Not a rat. I felt something pinch me and then someone or something laughed.
“Ok. Real funny guys. Can you quit it?,” I said looking at them. I was sure it was one of them joking around, but they looked confused. “I know one of you did it. Stop trying to scare me.”
“Scare you?” Lin perplexed.
“Just now I saw someone run by and they pinched me.”
“Pinched you?” DJ said puzzled.
“Yeah. On my ass. Lin? It was you wasn’t it?”
She snorted. “Don’t make me throw up.”
DJ laughed. “Well, it can’t be too different from Nathan’s…”
“DJ! Shut up! No, I didn’t. No way! I was over here anyway.”
I looked over at DJ and he scoffed. “Nah, bro. Don’t look at me.”
“I would rather gouge my eyes out with this screwdriver,” Vince grumbled as I cut my eyes at him.
“Well, I heard someone laugh,” I said feeling frustrated and worried.
Vince stopped and started looking around. He seemed to be taking me seriously now while DJ and Lin seemed to be on the fence still looking bewildered.
“Grab what you can, put it in the cart, and let’s get out of here,” Vince whispered breaking up the deafening silence.
“Seriously? What a bunch pussies you guys are!” Lin said frowning. "It could be nothing. A figment of Matt’s imagination.”
“Lin, the fact this place been practically cleared out of corpses is suspicious enough,” he said yanking one of the car doors off and throwing it in the cart. “We can’t chance it.”
DJ nodded. “Yeah. I think we should leave. Something..something not right.”
“Well, I didn’t come all the way out here to give up, because Matt here thinks he saw some phantom!”
“Well, I didn’t come out here to die either!” Vince shot back.
She then stormed off much like a spoiled child down a narrow path of junk disappearing. The three of us exchanged annoyed looks and abandoned our work to go after her. We found her not too far away looking over an old refrigerator luckily.
“We can use that right?” she said as we came up behind her starring daggers at her.
“Are you nuts?” Vince snarled taking the words out my mouth.
“I’m just trying to contribute.”
“Contribute?” I said angrily. “I don’t know what game you’re playing at, but this tough girl act gotta stop. This isn’t you!”
“You don’t know me!” she snapped. “This is me! I’m doing what needs to be done to survive!”
DJ scoffed. “Well, you’re not going survive long acting like this. What if we lost you?”
“Blah. Blah. You didn’t, did you?”
I wanted to argue more. I was furious, but something in Vince’s eyes stopped me. He seemed to be fixated on Lin now. Staring at her. A part me wanted to laugh as it looked as if he was looking at her chest, but then I saw a small red dot. It looked like one from a laser pointer or something.
“Lin, there’s…there’s a red dot on your chest,” I said hesitantly.
She looked down just as it disappeared and looked up at me as if I was crazy. She glared at me and crossed her arms. “You have some real issues.”
“I’m serious! It was a red dot or laser.”
“First Grace and now this.”
The red dot then appeared again just as suddenly as it disappeared. This time it was on her forehead.
Vince remained quiet focusing on something above. He quickly looked upward and back over at Lin. Then without warning, he jumped forward towards her pushing her. Guns shots rung out hitting the refrigerator. Both me and DJ jumped out the way. Vince laid on top of Lin shielding her. When the shooting ceased, he lifted his head looking upward again.
“What the hell? What was that?” she screamed pushing Vince off of her. She looked at the bullet holes in the frig and back at Vince. She looked utterly stunned. “You save my life?”
“Shut up all you,” Vince whispered angrily.
He grabbed Lin’s arm and signal for us to follow. He headed back in the direction of the car and the entrance, but more bullets came flying towards us. So then he turned around pulling Lin along with him as we quickly followed. His eyes darting from here and there as we ran. Then he stopped and pushed Lin down on the ground. He grabbed both of us by the arms doing the same.
“I think we lost her,” he said trying to catch his breath. “I’m pretty sure it was her.”
I sat there feeling like my heart could leap out of my chest. I scanned the area looking for the gunmen. Staring upward and then downward much like Vince. Then I heard laughter again. I looked over to see a masked individual staring at us menacingly now.
Before I could utter a word or even move, I heard a loud noise as if something large was shifting above us. Then I looked up. Trash. A giant mountain of trash careening towards us and then nothing. I saw nothing. Everything went black.
I know I’m bad. A pesky cliffhanger! And I’m going leave you hanging because we switch back to Audrey and Madison at home next episode. If it’s any consolation, the next episode was fun to write and is one I’ve been waiting to write. ;)
P.S. This was a bitch to shoot. Used the resizer mod for the junk piles to look huge. xD As much as I would like to complain, it turned out exactly like I wanted and made some gorgeous pics. :)
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