Endangered/Issue 14 (Old)

This is #14 of Endangered and is titled Old Friends, New Enemies. It is part 2 of Volume 2.

Old Friends, New Enemies
“Dad?” Sarah asks once again, hoping her voice can finally plead it’s way into James’s head. Sarah herself currently finds herself in tears, which slowly drip own her face, while she tries talking to her beat up, tired father. In front of Sarah was the body of Reck Thum, the man James’s just murdered.

James himself stands at the edge of the sink, fixing his eyes on the body. He stands there with a black eye, now dirty clothes, blood on his hands, and his wild eyes. He looked unhinged but in fact he felt calmer than he ever has. He however can’t hear the pleas of his daughter as his mind is all on one thing right now. His mind is focusing on what he’s done.

He just murdered someone in cold blood. After escaping the horrors of the city he arrived back here to find some man in his house. James managed to take care of him, with some help of Sarah. But what’s scaring James is how he felt so good while doing the deed. He broke all those moral rules but the thrill of danger, the energy he had, the way he let out all that stress by drowning him in the sink. He felt amazing. “Dad!” Sarah finally shouts and this time James finally looks up at his daughter, who stands at the doorway with the pistol still sitting heavily in her hands

“Sarah, honey. Put the gun down.” James commands Sarah, who after a moment just drops the pistol onto the floor, and upon hitting the ground it echoes a thump. Sarah then just stands there and James can see she’s still shaking; how terrifying it must be for a young girl to shoot someone, then watch her father drown someone. “Are you okay?”

Sarah shakes her head, not having the energy for speaking. “Come here.” He once again tells her and she instantly springs at him, to which she then proceeds to wrap her arms around him and cry into his chest, while James hugs her back. “It’s okay. We’re safe now.”

“You said that outside.” She contours back whilst crying, to which he only pats her head.

“I mean it this time.” She doesn’t respond and just hugs him tighter. “I told you to stay in the bathroom.” He finally speaks up. When he first noticed Reck, he commanded her to stay in the bathroom. Yet she instead got out and turned on the lights.

“Well I was in there and then the lights turned out. I thought--I thought maybe he turned off the lights so I turned them back on. I thought it would help you and--”

“Hey, hey. It’s alright.” James tells the scared girl. “You did help me.” James then remembers how she came in, and how she was forced to shoot him in the shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to do that. Shoot him.” James glances over to Reck’s body. “I’m sorry you had to see any of that.”

“I...I shot him.”

“I know, I know. You did good.”

“But, are you okay? I mean you-”

“I’m perfectly fine. Don’t worry about me.” It was the truth; James felt perfectly fine. The only bad things he had was his concerns about Sarah, and that the problems in the city don’t reach the suburbs. Just in case though, James was gonna take some precautions.

''“This is an Emergency Broadcast brought to you by your local news channel. We advise you to stay indoors and do not go outside. Barricade any areas of entry’s you have and please protect yourself. The city streets are in panic so please be safe. Please-”''

Sandra has finally had enough of the message, which has been playing non-stop for the past hour or two, so she picks up her remote and shuts it off. However instead of drowning the room in silence like she hoped, she instead can only hear the chaos going on outside more vividly. Unlike most people, Sandra had decided on staying in the safety of her apartment then go outside and get herself killed. Due to all the gunshots and screaming she’s heard Sandra can tell it was the right choice.

Taking out her cell phone she sees it’s only about midnight, there was still lots of time left to daylight. She had deduced that it was safer to go out in light then darkness so she had decided to wait to morning to go. Until then Sandra had locked herself in the apartment.

She has tried to get in contact with Haruka ever since the outbreak happened, but Haruka hasn’t been picking up which naturally worried Sandra; considering Haruka was probably the closest friend to a friend. Sandra may not interact much, or talk much, or socialize much, but she knew what a friend was at least. So knowing Haruka was missing for the moment made Sandra worried.

****

Making her way down the street almost like ninja, Haruka used the darkness to her advantage. With nothing but a camera to her assistance, Haruka has make sure to be extra careful when crossing the city. Curiously she watched the chaos that unfolded her around her, and she would even try to get it on tape. Such as car jackings, theft, or just random murders, Haruka wanted to make sure that every moment was documented.

Haruka has been trying to make her way toward Sandra’s apartment, which had to be only a few blocks away. She would have called Sandra but the phone lines went down so this was naturally the only way to get in contact with her. However on her little journey Haruka is trying to get footage of the chaos, more specifically the infected. Since infected individuals were almost at every corner, and they were growing by the minute, Haruka was getting some good footage.

Ducking behind a nearby dumpster Haruka checks what she has on her camera roll so far, and she has some pretty good stuff. Most of her footage is her studying the behavior of infected from the way they walk, to run, to scream, to even how they eat people. She wanted to make sure she had all known patterns of them documented; and at the moment she does.

Smiling at her work she briefly puts down her one-strapped black bag, and after some digging, takes out two items. A small kitchen knife, which Haruka took from her kitchen, and a small pistol, which Haruka luckily found on the way here. Now Haruka wasn’t a fighting person and she has never even used a weapon, but she needed them just in case. It was a war-zone in the city and Haruka needed to be ready.

Digging the pistol into her pocket, she decides to just hold the knife and camera respectively, before running off again. Now back onto the chaotic streets Haruka is quick while running down, getting some stuff on video while doing so. She can see the infected up ahead, and their devouring of random citizens. Haruka made sure to catch it on film.

These infected were so damn interesting to her, and she just wanted to know more.

“Okay, okay. Clothes. Yeah, Clothes.” Vicky says to herself while dashing around her room, a school bag in hand. After escaping the library area Vicky made her way back to her dorm, with only slight trouble, to pack her stuff. She may have no idea what the hell was going on but she knew that she was leaving this damn college.

Making her way to her closet Vicky grabs random clothes of her and stuffs them into her bag, although she can’t put a lot in there. Only about two pairs; she had to conserve room. However it was while doing this that Vicky figured she should change into better clothes, since she was in a bloody shirt and sweatpants. Quickly changing into a better outfit with jeans shorts, a white tee-shirt, and a light purple jacket, Vicky looked good even despite the situation.

Once throwing on a pair of socks and sneakers, Vicky dashes over to the mini-fridge in the dorm. Opening it quickly she ripped out most things she saw in there like water bottles and snacks, which she tosses into her bag as well. She wanted to make sure she had everything for her trip.

The destination of this trip is to her mom’s house, which was a little far away but not that far. Of course it was gonna feel a lot longer with the all the chaos right now but it was worth. Her step-dad, Ethan, had already barricaded the house, even though another thought was telling Vicky that he was out there in his police car right now. She never really got close with him, but she just hoped her mom was safe.

With everything packed Vicky then lifts up her bag and throws it on, then grabs her cell phone before heading out of her dorm. The halls were a lot less crowded now but instead more trashed, so she had to move more carefully in hope of not hitting derby. This college was probably already deserted of students; although the one student she wanted to find, Lara, was no where to be seen. Vicky had searched, yelled, and called Lara but she was no where to be seen. Vicky knew she had to be out of the college and somewhere safe; she had to be. Once cell service got back up Lara was definitely first on VIcky’s list.

Making her way out the ruined front doors, Vicky finds herself standing on the once good looking campus. Now it’s a wasteland but Vicky had no time to reminisce on that. She had to get the hell out of here and to Ethan’s house.

Springing across the dark, almost red grass, Vicky finds herself running across the college’s ground with all the energy she can muster. She sprints faster than she ever thought she could, with the exit right in her sights. Along the way there she thought she heard the school’s speaker go off, followed by the voice of one of her fellow students, Vicky ignored it and just kept running. Soon enough she was at the exit and she exited the college’s ground, but still kept up her running.

Making her way down the road Vicky had a view of the city from where she was at and it looked like the biggest nightmare. Smoke, screams, helicopters, sirens, and everything imaginable is what filled the scene of the city right now, and she could only imagine how bad it was inside it. Luckily she was going nowhere near it for the moment. So instead she turned back in front of her to focus on the area she was in.

The area was almost deserted as it only had a few crashed cars and blood; she didn’t even what to think how bad it was here earlier however. She just kept running however, hoping she would come across someone soon.

Well she did come across someone. But not the person she was looking for.

After turning a corner she quickly notices infected at the end of it, and they just walked around in circles moaning. Yet, Vicky didn’t freeze up this time and just ran the other way; avoiding the infected. Simply she just ran down the road once more, until of course she came across more infected. These ones weren’t so dumb and they were quick to take notice of her. She froze for only a second before dashing around it, but it gave chase.

Now being chased by an infected, Vicky tried to make herself run faster; but this infected could run fast too. Plus, the infected didn’t have to stop for breathes. She only forced herself to run faster. It’s only been six minutes outside the college and she was already on death’s door. Knowing that she needs to breath she notices a nearby gas station and accepts it as her savior. Dashing toward the gas station she soon runs inside it, slamming the doors into the infected’s face once in. This bought her five seconds to hide, or scavenge some sort of weapon.

Running across the small station Vicky searched each aisle in hopes of finding a weapon to defend herself with. Unfortunately this gas station was weapon free so once the infected opened the door, Vicky was left weapon free. She cursed under her breath before looking back up at the approaching infected. Only one way to do this. Forming a fist with her hand Vicky swings at the approaching infected; only for it to smack Vicky across the face and push her on her ass.

So much for that plan.

She was prepared to kick it if it got any closer but there was no need as someone saved her. Before the infected could make another move Vicky jumped while two gunshots went off, each bullet hitting the infected in the chest. She watched while the dead body slumped over onto the ground, before looking at the front door to find her savior. She nearly gasped.

There she was. Lara fuckin’ Drake, and she was standing at the door with a revolver in her hands. “Well, I sure showed that fucker, huh?” Lara jokes about her shooting of the infected, to which then Vicky gets onto her feet and embraces Lara in for a tight hug. Lara returns it.

“I--I thought you were dead! I searched the college and you wouldn’t answer your phone and-” Vicky panicky says to which Lara laughs.

“Girl, Lara Drake can’t die.”

“You fucking scared me!” She yells happily before hugging Lara again, this time she can’t help but let a tear fall. “I thought you left me.”

“Relax, relax. I ain’t going anywhere.” Lara hugs her too. Truth was Lara was just as panicked as Vicky, in fact she’s been searching for Vicky this whole time. She wish she could just cry in happiness right now but she held it in. “I ain’t leavin ya.”

“Where the fuck were you?” Vicky then asks once escaping the hug, and Lara knew Vicky would eventually ask that question. “I woke up to find you gone as fuck. Where the hell were you when all this shit happened?”

“Well, after that little fight last night I went to a nearby bar. Figured I could use some drinks, ya know? So I’m sitting’ there drinking and then suddenly everyone goes into panic mode once some dudes break in and eat people. I ran, and ran, and ran but the streets were packed as fuck so I hid in some toy store.” Lara points in the direction of the toy store with her gun. “Was about a block from here.”

“And that?”

“And what?”

“The gun thing.”

“Oh that.” Lara shrugs. “Found it on the street so I figured ‘hey, why not?’.” Vicky nods slowly whilst biting her lip. She had so many questions for Lara right now, yet at the same time was just so happy to see her alive.

“Did you have to--well, you know.”

“Girl, I can’t read your mind. So speak up.”

“Did you have to kill any other of those things.”

“Only that one.” Lara confirms although she seems perfectly fine about having just killed someone, or something in this case. She didn’t even think about it and just pushed it to the back of her head. “You?”

“I um haven’t had the pleasure of doing it yet.”

“Well you ain’t missing out.” Lara jokes to which both her and Vicky laugh, despite the chaos that was surrounding them. It was good to have a nice little laugh despite all this chaos.

“By the way how did you find me? No way you just randomly stumbled across me, that’s just to damn impossible.”

“I saw you running a few blocks back. It’s damn hard to miss a scrawny white girl running down the streets.”

“True.”

“So anyways, where were you heading?”

“Ethan’s house.” Lara knew Vicky well enough to know that her stepfather was Ethan, so she nods. Considering Lara had no destination, and that Vicky was her only friend, the next choice wasn’t very hard.

“Alright well I’m coming with.”

“You didn’t have a choice.” Vicky says with a smile. “Looks like we’re having a road trip."

Having resorted to pacing madly around the room, Sandra begins to run her hands through her hair. The situation outside has only gotten worse and she’s in her apartment all along; she’s sort of nervous. She’s expecting those infected things to just break down the door any minute and attack her. Sandra usually expects the worst to happen sometimes. Grabbing a water bottle from the nearby fridge, she begins to drink it in hopes of calming herself. Luckily it works because she can feel the water give energy to her body and she instantly feels a little more calm, so she finally decides to sit down instead of pacing around.

Now sitting down on her couch Sandra just rubs her hands through her hair, before deciding to distract herself by working. By looking over the notes Haruka and her took; maybe this could distract her. So picking up the file off the table she lays down on her lap and begins to look through them.

Suddenly however Sandra hears a knock on her door and she cranks her head to it; both nervous and confused on who it could be. She pauses and after a few seconds she hears more knocks. Standing to her feet she instantly grabs the glass cup that was sitting on the table and just makes her way toward the door, while the knocks still go on. Once there she is quick to open the door but instead of seeing an infected like expected she instead sees Haruka, who stands proudly with her camera. “ちょっと女の子” Haruka speaks in japanese with a smile on her face, yet Sandra can’t understand her. Still, she couldn’t be more happy to see Haruka. “I said ‘Hey girl’.”

“Sorry I just don’t--well I don’t speak japanese.”

“It’s better than English I can say that much.” Haruka jokes before looking down the hall. It was still empty. “So can I come in or you just gonna leave me out here as bait?”

Upon saying that Sandra steps out of the way and opens the door further, allowing Haruka in. Once Haruka steps in Sandra is quick to shut and lock the door again. Once in Haruka instantly takes off her bag and puts it on a chair, while also lowering her camera on a table. “How did you get here?” Sandra asks. “It’s like a war-zone out there.”

“I walked.”

“You walked?”

“Yep. I must say it was fun.”

“Fun? You could of got hurt out there.” Sandra shows concern for Haruka, who only smiles. “It’s not funny, what if you died?”

“Well I didn’t so it’s all good. Besides if I did at least I got this.” She holds up camera in plain view for Sandra to see. “I got some good stuff on here.”

Handing the camera to Sandra, Sandra hesitates before finally taking the camera and looks through it. She scans through the pictures of infected and the videos. Haruka has been busy. “You risked your life for--for the infected?” “Yep. These things are just so interesting. I got every one of their behavior patterns, at least I think.” Haruka points to the videos on the display. “With this we can study them more, learn more about it.”

“It’s a parasitic infection, so we figured out what it is.”

“Yeah we figured out what it is. We still gotta learn how it works and why it works. There’s still so much to learn.” It was the truth and Sandra knew that. There was still so much to learn here, so she thinks. She thinks of how they could do it, how they can study these things. Sure this plan of studying them seemed complex but Sandra always set up complex goals. So she nods in agreement. Haruka smiles.

“Alright then, I want you to watch that why I set up.”

“Set up what?”

“Oh yeah, forgot to tell you. I’m staying the night.” Haruka smiles while Sandra just stares. “Hey unless you want me to go back out there-”

“No, no. It’s fine.” Sandra interrupts her. She just wasn’t used to people staying the night. “I don’t have a spare bed though.”

“Meh, couch is fine with me. Now lemme go get ready for out little ‘slumber party’.” Haruka jokes before heading off, grabbing her bag while doing so. However before heading off she decides to give Sandra something. “Sandra.” She calls her name before handing her the pistol. “If any of them try getting in.”

Sandra however just stares at the weapon. “Where’d you get it?”

“Found it, and I figured you probably can use it better than me. You do know how to use one, right?” Sandra does know how to use a gun since it was part of her law training. She just never exactly had to use one in a real life situation. Luckily she knew the basics; so Sandra reaches over and hesitantly smiles. “Alright Imma go get ready then.” Haruka walks off while Sandra just holds the pistol in her hand, staring at it, before putting it down on the table and going back to the camera.

Tapping his for nervously, McCoy once again hits the call button on his cell phone. For the past five minutes he’s been desperately been trying to reach hold of them but he always was met with the voice message. This time he hopes they will pick up but after a few moments of ringing he was again met with the same damn voice message. “C’mon, pick up.” He says in hopes they’ll pick up; he was starting to think the worse now.

McCoy has been trying to contact his parents, whom he hasn’t spoken to in awhile. Since he ran away about two years ago he thinks, he hasn’t spoken a word to them. He never regretted running away until this moment, because he doesn’t know if they’re dead or alive. So he just mutters something before trying to call again, in hopes they’ll finally pick up.

However once again he’s met with the same message, and in a mixture of annoyance and anger, and he picks up his phone and throws it across the room; watching as it crashes into the wall. He only sighs before rubbing his temple and looking out the window by his side. Recently McCoy has taken shelter in this old WaWa, and luckily no one has come in here. Probably because it was already empty by the time McCoy arrived. Still, he can clearly see the chaos outside.

Walking across the room and picking up his phone, McCoy begins to think about his parent.s Their last meeting didn’t go off the best so he only hopes they still love him, because he still has a soft spot for them. He never lost that in his adventure for humbleness, that’s for sure.

****

Due to his long history in track, Dre is able to run effortlessly down the streets unlike those around him. For Dre it’s been a long night ever since he heard the announcement on his car radio, and he instantly tried to drive to his parent’s house. However the ensure of chaos forced Dre to ditch his car which deeply hurt because that was the first car his parent’s ever got him. Still, his life did come first.

After vaulting over a crashed car Dre takes a quick survey of the area. The population of scared people had went down while the infected population went up, so danger was everywhere now. Luckily Dre had been careful enough to not face any infected yet so that was good, but he was also completely lost. He was somewhere in the city far away from his parent’s house, so he had no idea what to do.

Bolting down the street, Dre can’t help but notice a young girl being torn apart. The goodness of his heart tries telling him to try and help her but his mind tells her she’s already dead so he doesn’t bother. Making his way down yet another street Dre easily fits through the panicked people and keeps going. Dre’s current plan was to find shelter and make way for his parent’s house in the morning, when it should be less crowded.

Still, no shelter had come to Dre’s eyes yet. That was until he thought he heard someone call his name through the chaos.

****

“Dre!” McCoy stands at the door of the WaWa, screaming the name of his friend who he saw run bye. “Dre!” He once again shouts, this time waving his hands in the air. After a moment or two Dre looks over and sees McCoy at the WaWa, and he smiles. Dre then quickly changes his path and makes his way toward McCoy, who opens the door wide. Once over Dre quickly runs in and McCoy slams the door shut.

The two young men then enter the WaWa, to which Dre can finally breath non sweaty air. McCoy smiles at the sight of his friend, who luckily he saw running down the street by chance. “You okay there?” He asks to which Dre nods.

“Yeah just a little tired. I’ve been running all night, bro.”

“Good thing I saw ya then. This place is empty.”

“Thank God it is.” Dre now stands up straight and looks over at McCoy, to which the two do a quick bro-hug. In the midst of all this chaos it was always good to find an old-friend. “How ya doing my nigga?”

“Alright, considering the current state of things. You?”

“Well pretty shitty, but, hey, I’ll make it.” Looking around for a seat Dre just ends up sitting on the counter, while McCoy continues to stand. “How’d ya end up here?”

“I was at the movies-”

“What movie?”

“Does it matter?”

“Just wonderin’.”

“Fine. It was Gravity.”

“Any good?”

“Yeah it was alright. Actually--okay I’m getting off track here. So what happened was once the movie finished I went out to get some stuff for the go, and some dude working the stands suddenly went crazy and started--well you know what those things do.”

“Yeah, no need to explain that.”

“Anyways after that I ended up on the streets and I ran in here.”

“It was empty?” “Not exactly..” McCoy nods his head to the corner of the store, to which Dre turns and sees the dead infected. “I had to kill one.”

“Oh.” Dre scratches the back of his head awkwardly. “Well, good job, I guess.”

“Thanks. So umm how’d you get here?”

“Well I was driving down the streets after doing my DJ thing and the radio message came on. I tried driving to my parent’s house. Shit went down so I ditched it, I ran, then I ended up here. Not as exciting as your story is.”

“Yep sounds pretty boring.” McCoy jokes to which Dre smiles, before looking back out the window.

“Is it safe here?”

“There’s a room in the back that’s pretty safe, but not right here. We’ll head back there in a minute.” Dre nods in agreement to this and takes one last look outside at the chaos; pondering whether they should help others. After watching some more chaos he ultimately decides he can’t just leave them alone. Making a dash toward the door, before McCoy can even ask, Dre has already opened the doors and stepped outside. McCoy then watches while Dre ushers people inside, to which people accept and begin to flood the once empty WaWa.

“I can’t do this.” Michael mutters to himself while sitting against the wall of the Burger King, his face buried deep in his hands. “I can’t do this.”

It’s been about thirty minutes since the events with that priest. That insane little priest. After getting sick to his stomach and wanting to puke his brains out, Michael escaped the church as quick as he could. No way did he want to stay in their any longer. So he instead made his way to this equally deserted Burger King; luckily there was no insane priest here. Only him and some dead people.

What Michael can’t take is this whole situation. The death, the chaos, the infected...he can’t take this shit anymore. Sure Michael has been through alot but this tops almost everything he’s been through. He’s on the verge of tears right now; he doesn’t even know if Sarah is okay. He had to find Sarah soon and that’s what he attends to do.

However he still can’t get the priest out of his head. The priest probably did good his whole life, always serving others. But when this shit goes down he just….he just snaps. It made Michael think about himself. His whole life he was bad and did nothing for other people; what’s gonna happen to him? Is he gonna snap like the priest? He hoped not.

Deciding to take his mind off things Michael looks up from his hands, and stands onto his feet. He slowly begins to tread across the room until arriving at the front windows, where he takes a look out. The chaos from earlier has slightly calmed down but it’s still a war zone out there. Definitely not safe out there.

Knowing that there was no where to go for the night, Michael figured that he’d have to stay here. Stay in this fat-ass burger place. Michael grunts before making his way back to his corner and collapsing back down, just hoping this night would end soon. However before he can do anything else he hears a noise coming from directly outside and he slowly stands to his feet, while both fear and confusion make it’s way into him.

Upon making his way to the window Michael looks outside to see a familiar young man out their, a bloody baseball bat in his hands. His blonde hair and dark eyes stand out to Michael, along with his sort of well dressed appearance. He was definitely familiar to Michael but he doesn’t know from where.

Michael then notices as an infected quickly rushes at him, and to his surprise, the young man shows no fear while swinging his bat at him. In a few mere hits the infected slumps over dead while the man still stands. Impressive. In that moment the young man looks up and notices Michael, noticing him immediately. This young man was Tate. Tate waves at Michael while he just stares blank. After a moment Tate just jogs to the nearby door and enters, then proceeds to walk toward Michael. “Hey Michael, right?” Tate says once entering, also lowering his baseball bat.

“Do I know you?”

“It’s me, Tate Levine. Remember, from the bar.” A flash of remembrance flashes across Michael’s face and he remembers him now.

“That’s right. The fellow immigrant with the pregnant fiance.”

“That’s me, front and present.” Tate says and notices the concern on Michael’s face when he realises Destinee isn’t with Tate. “My fiance’s fine by the way, she’s back at our house.”

“Yeah, that’s good.” Michael says despite the silence between the two. The two barely knew each other but Michael did pour his heart out to this man so Tate knew him good. “So what are you doing here?”

“I came out here trying to shop, when this shit broke out. I’m just makin’ my way back to the house. You?”

“Just staying here. I don’t got anywhere to go.”

“Oh.” Tate rubs his head. “So how’d ya end up here?”

“Long story. Rather not say right now.”

“It’s cool, it’s cool. So um what do you think of all this?”

“Worst shit I’ve seen in my life, that’s for sure.”

“Ah, same here.” Tate takes a look out the window and into the streets, which are now the aftermath of the war zone. It was clear however this shit wasn’t over yet. “Alright so I gotta get going-”

“Yeah, it was good seeing you.”

“Bro, you seriously think I’m just gonna leave you here?” Tate smirks. “C’mon, we have a spare room.”

“Thanks but I don’t wanna get in your space.”

“It’s fine, besides she’ll just have to deal with it. I ain’t taking no for an answer.”

“You sure?”

“Of course. I ain’t gonna leave an old friend behind.” Tate says before gripping his bat again, getting ready to go outside. “Now lets go.”

Michael nods and jogs over to Tate, to which the two give each other a firm handshake. Once that was done they begin to make their way out of the ruined Burger King and onto the ruined streets, Tate’s house being their destination.

And once stepping outside that door Michael was glad he at least had one old friend to help him out.