Day One (Book 1): Alive (20 page)

“Hello. Is there anybody in there?” I asked. “I saw your light on through the window.”

For a few long seconds there was no response, no movement, absolutely nothing.

“I had to be seeing things,” I said and turned to walk away when a thump from within the little house caught my ears. I turned to see the curtains moving slightly, as if someone had been peeking through them and as I turned, they let them go and backed away. We all did it at one point or another in our lives. Hid from someone on the opposite side of the door that we didn’t want to talk to or see… it was low of us, but sometimes it was just better to avoid them all together than listen to them go on about their life to the point where you wanted to slap them across the face and say grow up.

“Hello,” I said once more and this time I could see a shadow move away from the curtains. “I know you’re in there I can see your shadow moving around. I live next door, I’m Brandon Ellis.”

“Go away!” a muffled voice from within said.

I moved to the porch and started up the steps when I heard the door locks engage or unlock, it was hard to determine which. At the top of the steps a shotgun barrel came through the partially cracked door and I jerked the SBR up. “Hold up, I’m not a threat! I just wanted to make sure you guys were alright!”

“We are, now go away before I shoot you!” The voice said and I could tell it was a male.

“Your wife or girlfriend and kids okay?”

“Go away!” He racked the action on the shotgun, chambering a round.

“Look, you’re armed and so am I. You can shoot me, but your flimsy door isn’t going to stop my bullets from hitting you. Is that what you want? Do you want us to kill each other right here? What will that solve?”

“I don’t want to shoot you, but you’re going to draw those crazy people back here. My girl is sick and I don’t need anything else to deal with right now, so please just go away.”

I backed down the steps and halted at the sidewalk. “I didn’t mean any harm. I’m still next door, not sure how long that will be, but if you need anything just come over. There’s more than enough room for all of us under my roof.”

No reply.

I headed back to my house and as I moved onto the front porch, Devin opened the door and smiled at me. “I knew you’d pull it off, man.”

Inside I grabbed Kember and picked her up, holding her as tight as I could without hurting her. I was feeling pretty good about myself and what I had done until Lloyd had to go and burst my balloon.

“What was that shit out there?” he asked.

“What?” I replied playing the dumb role...

He crossed his arms and looked hard at me, there was not a shred of humor anywhere to be seen. “The whole reason for a plan is so that it works and there is some sort of structure. You can’t just blindly go out there and do the first thing that comes to mind… that’s how people die!”

I wasn’t following why he was so upset. I had taken the plan and made it better, drawing all of the dead in the area far away and returning unharmed. “I made it back in one piece and took all those things with me,” I told him. “They are still heading away from us, searching for me, so what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that you didn’t follow the orders I gave to you. Orders that were crystal clear and easy to follow. That’s the fucking big deal!” He announced. “We had no idea if you were dead, alive… we knew nothing.”

I sat Kember down and gave her a doll to play with, and then stood back up focusing on Lloyd. “Let’s get one thing clear before we go any further, Lloyd. This is
my
house,
I
live here and I’ll be damned if you’re just going to come in here and start bossing me around,” I scolded him and pointed toward his people. “You want to boss them around then be my guest, but you aren’t going to do that shit to me, in
my
house! I did what I thought was right because my Daughter was in danger. I’ll die to ensure she lives… is that clear enough for you?”

Lloyd ran a hand across his lips and down over his chin, visibly irritated by my actions and more than likely what I had to say to him in front of his people. I didn’t really care how he felt, as this was my house and I didn’t make it a point to go around to other people’s houses and disrespect them… so no one was going to do that to me.

“You’re right, this is your place and you did make it back alive,” Lloyd said and now looked calm. I nodded to him thinking that things were alright between us and over. I pulled the used mag from the SBR and tried to count the rounds that were left, but Lloyd wasn’t finished with me yet.

“Who would have taken care of her if something happened to you?” he asked.

I looked to see him pointing at Kember.

“You are not going to let this go, are you?” I asked.

He shook his head and crossed his arms. “We aren’t able to care for a child – hell, we can barely provide for ourselves. The plan was simple and you broke protocol and went all crazy, which could have easily gotten you killed. And on top of that we would now be responsible for feeding and protecting
your
daughter.”

I raised a hand to speak, although everything he had said made more sense than anything I could refute or make up. He was right on so many levels and I had no defense whatsoever. I dropped my hand. “You’re right…”

“This isn’t about one person being right and the other one being wrong. It’s about following orders set forth and in place to protect not just you, but all of us. Your mistake could easily have meant that we all died… think about that next time before you fly by the seat of your pants. You actions affect us all.” He turned and walked away from me.

“There’s people next door,” I stated and he stopped near the couch and looked at me. “I spotted them when I was coming back here, but they won’t come out. The guy said his girl was sick, whatever that means.”

Everyone looked at me as my words faded. Lloyd spoke. “What do you mean she’s sick?”

“I don’t know,” I stated. “That’s all he said with a shotgun pointed at me.”

Ashley piped in. “She could be infected and she’s right next door!”

“Infected or not, they are over there and we are over here,” Lloyd said.

“I told them if they needed help to come over,” I blurted.

Ashley threw her hands in the air and shook her head with a disgusted look upon her face. “Great, now she’ll come over here and turn… just great!”

I looked at her, appalled by her callous words. “If I remember correctly, I never invited your ass into my house, now did I, which means you don’t have any right to be here in the first place where they do!”

She said nothing in return and simply left the room.

“I also think it’s not a good idea to leave so close to dark. I’m thinking we should stay the night here and leave first thing in the morning,” I added.

“No, we have a vehicle and we are leaving as soon as we can gather enough supplies together!” Ashley said coming into the living room with anger blushing her dirty face.

“There’s a lot of open space between us and wherever we are headed. If we get caught out in the open for some unknown reason, we won’t last very long,” I replied.

“No one asked for your opinion,” she blasted.

Lloyd watched the dispute between Ashley and I. I’m sure he found some amusement in it somewhere and allowed it to go on for several more moments until he had had enough and cut in. “Ashley, that’s enough! He’s right. We aren’t going anywhere tonight, it’s too risky.”

Ashley spun her anger toward Lloyd and approached him hoping that there was some way she could change his mind. “Can I talk to you for a minute… alone?”

“No, you may not. If you have something to say then by all means say it. We are a family and families don’t hide things from one another.”

The anger burnt in Ashley’s eyes and she clenched both fists as though she wanted to hit someone. “So it’s not risky to stay here tonight, because those things could come back and the next time there could be double of them.”

“We stay quiet, take turns watching through the night and we’ll be fine,” Lloyd said.

She pointed toward Kember. “We have a loud mouth child now and she could scream if she doesn’t get her way and alert those things that we are in here. We might not be so lucky the next time around.”

I had heard enough and quickly moved toward her. “Then you’re more than welcome to sleep on the front porch, because this is
her
house, not yours! You are here simply because I haven’t kicked you out yet!” My temper was flaring. “So if you have a problem with my loud mouth daughter, then hit the road and go wherever you want!”

Ashley quickly backed down the second she realized she had no power and no one was going to listen to her. She went back into the kitchen and sat the dinner table, while myself, Lloyd, Devin, Johnny and Kember remained in the living room.

As the sun was slowly slipping away and daylight was fading, we had spent the last few hours making sure that the house was boarded up tight, all door and windows were properly locked and there was no one anyone from the street could see any amount of light from within. Still having power, Ashley had made herself useful and cooked dinner for us all.

She kept to herself and never spoke a single word to anyone – apparently still pissed that she wasn’t going to get her way.

Halfway through the silent meal, a question that had been running around in my head since first meeting these people was begging to get out. I sat my fork down and looked at Lloyd. “So where exactly is it that we are going?”

Everyone at the table looked at me, which wasn’t a good sign. It was as if they were surprised to hear me ask such a question as though I were being invited along and had become one of the gang. The further amount of time it took for Lloyd to answer the question, the more I understood that I wasn’t going with them.

“Well, the trip itself is pretty long and could get quite dangerous along the way. I don’t think it would be the perfect environment for a child, if you know what I mean,” he said and tried to smile to smooth things over.

I pushed back from the table and leaned my chair against the wall. “Ya, I know exactly what you mean.” I got up and took my empty plate to the sink, finished the last of my soda and tossed the can into the trash. They all continued eating. “But just so we are perfectly clear with each other. What do you mean, exactly?”

Lloyd dropped the fork into his plate. He hadn’t wanted it to go any further, in fact he was sure that I had picked up on his hints and would leave it at that.

“Do you mean that you are just going to use me for a safe place and then drive off into the sunset, expecting me to be okay with it?” I added.

“I didn’t plan any of this. I didn’t wake up one morning and be like, ya know, I think a good end of the world would be a great thing,” he said sarcastically, and then turned in his chair to face me. “You know exactly what I’m saying or getting at, but I’m trying to be polite about it as opposed to just being rude and blunt.”

“Kind of like if I told all of you to get the hell out of my house. But instead chose to say something along the lines of, I really don’t have room for all of you,” I said.

“You were on a mission way before our paths ever crossed. You and your daughter were doing your own thing, and still would be had we not picked this house.”

“But you
did
pick this house,” I said.

“We are continuing the mission we started almost a week ago, like you should continue on with yours,” Lloyd stated.

“Like I should have kicked your asses out when I first saw you?” I asked. “That would have been part of my mission, in fact it was, but I changed my mind and gave you all a chance. You helped me save my Daughter, to which I am grateful for, yet even with all of my hospitality I still haven’t earned the right to better my Daughter’s future?”

“The world isn’t like it used to be anymore.”

“Yeah, it is… the only change is that the people use each other more now, prey on each other like animals and can’t see two inches in front of their own damn noses at those around them. This world is not the same anymore, you’re spot on with that, but the people sure are. It’s a whole hell of a lot easier to justifying you selfish deeds, now!” I crossed the kitchen and entered Kember’s room, but stopped. “Make sure you’re all gone by the morning.” I slammed the door.

“Dammit!” Lloyd said and turned back to his plate. It took him only a few seconds to notice that no one was eating any longer and he raised his eyes to see Johnny and Devin looking at him. Their stares spoke without words.

“Ashley was right, she went about saying it the wrong way, but for the most part she was right,” Lloyd stated. “I don’t like it any more than the rest of you do, but the child would cause unnecessary drama.”

“Drama for whom?” Devin asked. “Because I’m sure we’ve caused him quite a bit of unnecessary drama since we’ve been here. Eating his food, making ourselves at home like we own the place… ya know, shit that normal people wouldn’t do to complete strangers. Especially ones that let us stay without question.”

“That’s not fair. You know as well as I do, it would be a mistake,” Lloyd countered.

Johnny put his two cents in. “Kind of like it was a mistake for him to help us?”