Hope On The Rocks/Issue 47

This is Issue 47 of Hope On The Rocks, entitled "Nine Lives".

This issue is Peter-centric.

409, Nine Lives
“It was a one time thing.” Kerri says, as she begins to dress again. I look at her as she takes on her jeans and the dirty, blue shirt. I ignore what she says. I’d do anything for one more time like this. And I expect it will happen again. “Peter, you hear me?” Kerri says, now fully dressed, looking at me. I move my head, now looking at the sky. It’s late, slowly getting dark. “Yea, yea, I hear you.” I just mutter, not moving anywhere. Without saying more, Kerri walks away. I stay here, looking at the sky.

After an hour or something, I get up. I get dressed and begin to walk towards the farm house, where I see Chad and William discussing with Doug Tallie. His daughter is standing behind him. I slowly approach. I’m not a big fan of arguments. “We are truly sorry, I’ve already said that.” William says, sounding desperate. “But to be fair, you did kill her father.” “I am not going to argue.” Doug says casually, surprisingly calm. “It’s not safe out there.” William says. “If you kick us out... you’re going to have ten more lifes on your hands.” I am now standing next to Chad, who lately has been William deal with the difficult choices. We all still consider him the leader, though. “William.” Doug says, looking at William. He moves his head, looking at respectively me and Chad. “Peter, Chad. I want you off my farm. I understand what you are going through, but you have to understand that I am going through the same thing.” I don’t know what to say, and Chad apparently doesn’t either. So we let William talk. “We understand.” William says. “But please. We can help you. We can make this place even safer. We can...” He is interrupted by a girl screaming: “Just fucking leave!” Shocking, I look at Doug’s daughter, Kristen, who is pointing a gun at William, finger on the trigger. William slowly raises his hands. Doug doesn’t do anything. “Hey, hey...” William says with a smile. “Sorry if I said anything, but all I’m asking...” Again he is interrupted by Kristen Tallie: “Stop talking and leave!” I am stunned, just standing looking at the farmer’s daughter. She’s cute, actually. Of course, not right now, pointing a gun at my friend. “Okay...” William says, hands raised. “We’ll leave.”

And so we do. We’re walking in the opposite direction of the factory. We brought all of our stuff when going to Nick’s furneral, as we hoped that we could stay at the farm. I’ve been ashamed since I were kicked out of Rogersville. And I’ve been in need of a woman’s contact. In Rogersville I used Axel’s prostitutes. I know it’s wrong, but they were the only ones who never complained about me. “So, Pete?” I hear someone saying behind me. I usually stick with Axel, but he is talking to Esther right now, which leaves me with Ridley. Not that I don’t like him, he’s nice. We’ve just never really talked. “Yea?” I say, taking a quick look at the scottish man. “Just wondering,” Ridley begins. “what happened to your family?” I’m stunned. He’s the first person to ask about my family. It’s pretty tough stuff to talk aboug, but Ridley seems pretty casual about it. “Eh...” I look down. “My father has been dead for three years. My mother died the first day of the outbreak.” Ridley nods. “Sorry to hear.” “How about you?” I ask, trying to sound as casual as possible, though it didn’t succeed. “I’ve Eshter. Don’t need more than that.” He says with a big smile. “Besides, my family’s your guys.”

Deaths

 * None

Credits

 * Chad Bottom
 * Ridley Johnson
 * Kerri Mavis
 * Peter Armstrong
 * Douglas Tallie
 * Axel Durwin
 * William Seck
 * Esther Tricker
 * Kristen Tallie