Peter's Journey/Issue 66

The convoy journeyed along the country road yet again, continuing until Kal honked the car horn, Peter leading the group stopped the bike and then the rest also stopped as well. Kal and Bow both got out of the Landie and started to walk forward to the rest, then the others got out of their vehicles, “Charlie, you’re on point, Henry, you’re on rear” said Peter, directing the two to their lookouts “we’re outta fuel” said Kal “well what I’ve been thinking is doing what we did last winter” said Scott “no chance” said Peter “what was that?” asked Bow “going from house to house” replied Peter “yeah, that ain’t going to happen” said Olivia “and why’s that?” questioned Scott “it’s Laura” said Olivia, then the group all looked at Laura who was still in the back seat with Gareth “what’s wrong with her?” asked Kal “she’s broken her leg, and it isn’t a clean break either” replied Olivia “and you know this how?” asked Shannon “Gareth touched it gently and she was in so much pain, the bone’s nearly sticking outta her leg” said Olivia “and you didn’t like to tell us this earlier? Asked Peter “no, sorry” added Olivia “what’s our options?” asked Peter “we have a few, first one to cut it off, if we can’t see to it sooner it’s going to get infected, so we need to get medical care seen to it, secondly we pop it back in, causing Laura a hell of a lot of pain, she probably will be alright in six months, thirdly we find a hospital and get the right equipment to put her leg in a plaster and then it’ll heal itself, eventually, but that’s the longest process, she won’t be able to move for at least three weeks, then she can move but the plaster can’t come off for another six months” said Olivia.

The group stood in silence “okay, here’s the plan” said Peter as he looked down at the map, which was on the bonnet of the Hyundai “we’ll double back on ourselves and head back to the coast, there’s a nice mansion just outside Colerain, while we’re there, Olivia you take a team to the hospital and get what you need there, then head back, work you’re magic and we’ll rest there until Laura’s back on her feet, then we’ll plan further afterwards” said Peter “sounds good enough to me” said Scott “I shouldn’t have said that I trained as a nurse should I?” joked Olivia “hey, the more medically equipped we are, the better” smiled Peter

The group then started back onto the road, Peter turned around and they started to head back to where they had come from.

“Ahhhhhh” screamed Laura from the backseat of the Peugeot “hold in there chum, we’ll get you sorted in no time” said Olivia, trying to reassure Laura. “We’re going to be operating on you, get that bone back to where it’s meant to be” said Charlie “how?” asked a worried Laura “don’t you worry about that you   just concentrate on something else, take your mind away from the leg” said Olivia “we should hit her on the head” said Gareth “what?!” Shouted Laura “you know, take your mind off your leg” laughed Gareth

Inside the Hyundai Jess sat beside Scott as Henry and Garry both slept in the back seat. “you think this is going to be a good place?” asked Jess “I think anywhere that we go is a good place, doesn’t mean it isn’t safe though” replied Scott as he looked into his rear view mirror and saw Garry and Henry sleeping “we’ve seen it all really” said Scott “what do you mean?” asked Jess “well, you know people falling, getting shot, killed, bitten, people change, no matter what, look at Peter for example. He couldn’t have done anything that he’s done for us three years ago, the cadets changed him, in a really good way though, before all of this even he was so shy, he couldn’t have done all what he did three years ago, none of us could to be honest” said Scott “I certainly couldn’t do what Peter’s all done” replied Jess “what we need is to find a place, to build on it, keep it walker free” added Jess “build a community?” asked Scott “I guess you could call it that” replied Jess “we’ve formed our own little group, to me it would pull us apart, looking after more survivors” said Scott “who said we’d be looking after it? What I really meant was to find a community and be brought into the fold” replied Jess “I still think we could’ve stayed at the forest, we could’ve kept the walkers out” stated Scott “rubbish, they were starting to break in, any longer and we could’ve lost more people. And we can’t afford to lose any more” replied Jess “I know, what’s going on?” asked a confused Scott as he saw Peter stopping the bike, he then put the brake on and took the key out of the ignition, I’ll be right back” said Scott as he got out of the car.

“What’s up?” asked Scott “look at it” said Peter as he pointed to the mansion that was on the right hand side from where they were, it was covered by land, with tree’s all over the place, a few tree’s scattered along the long grass, and at the top of the small hill sat the huge mansion, four floors with a huge wooden door. “It’s like that one in Downton Abby” said Scott “I know, it’s perfect” said Peter “for now anyway” sad Bow as she joined the boys “gather everyone over, and let’s bring the vehicles closer to the gate here” said Peter. Bow and Scott both went back to their cars.

Scott drove the car closer to the bike, Shannon then took her car past the bike, Olivia drove towards the middle of the gate and Kal took his car to the far end of the gate. They all got out and walked over towards the gate, which was as wide as the group standing side by side.

“okay, here’s the plan...we’re going to head up there, taking out any walkers that we see, this place looks as if it hasn’t been touched, but the inside may be completely different. We’ll leave the cars where they are for now, Laura, Gareth and Michael you stay here, to keep Laura company, any trouble give us a shout, the rest of us will venture inside and see what it’s like. There’s four floors in the house, we’ll each take a floor each, checking every single room. We’ll sort who’s going where in when we get up there, clear?” asked Peter, everyone seemed content with the plan so far. “Gareth get the bag please” said Peter. Gareth then jogged over to the Hyundai and opened the boot, he then took out two big carrier bags and closed the boot and went back to the others, handing setting the bag on the ground. Peter unzipped the two bags and inside them where the group’s melee weapons and extra tools. He then started to hand everyone a few things, including their own weapons, they had the following;

 Ø    Peter – Bow and arrows, machete,

 Ø    Scott – Machete, axe, kitchen knife

 Ø    Garry – Axe, wench

 Ø    Henry – crowbar and pipe

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1;"> Ø<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">    Andy – spear and hatchet''' '''

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1;"> Ø<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">    Shannon – machete and pipe''' '''

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1;"> Ø<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">    Michael – large crowbar''' '''

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;"> Ø<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">    Gareth – hatchet (his own spike) ''' '''

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;"> Ø<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">    Jess – fire stick, machete ''' '''

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4;"> Ø<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">    Bow – two swords and a crowbar

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4;"> Ø<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">    Olivia – two eight inch daggers

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4;"> Ø<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">    Charlie – baseball bat and machete

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo4;"> Ø<span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">    Kal – steel edger, a few knives

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">“We ready?” asked Peter “as can be” replied Scott “let’s do this” said Peter. The group, less Laura looked onwards to the mansion from behind the gate.