Apocalypse Life/Issue 36

Issue 36 – Welcome
Paul sits on the stair steps of the building’s entrance, watching his son run around in the open space of the parking lot, an orange basket ball bouncing up and down against the concrete and into his hands. He liked seeing him like this; like he had no worry in the world.

That’s what Paul, and his wife Shannon, has actually been doing for their son. They’ve been keeping him away from this mess, this danger, as much as possible. Keep his life normal, like how it used to be a month ago.

His name was Ronnie, and he was Paul’s only child. Ronnie inherited his father’s looks a little bit more than his mother’s, but the bulk of his energy and demeanor comes from her. He had short, black hair, a complexion darker than his father’s, and all the energy and curiosity any kid can possess, and more. That’s why Paul loves him so much. Because Ronnie keeps him going, keeps him believing that hope shouldn’t be lost yet.

He watched Ronnie run around, giggling and bouncing his ball. His imagination was off the charts. He couldn’t help but smirk at sight of him.

He stands up, and walks over to Ronnie, hoping to watch him more closely. His eyes shift through the area first, and it promptly trails off his thoughts. His eyes stop at the parking lot’s entrance, a large distance away from them. And right there, a sudden sense of urgency rises in his mind.

He leaves Ronnie to his own world and hastily walks over to the entrance. He’s aware that runs always take time, but he continues to worry nonetheless. It was Xavier out there, with Toni and Lina tagging along. Three people he’s responsible for. Three important people.

He stops near the entrance’s sidewalk, looking to his right direction and squinting. The road led to the areas full of buildings, ending the long lining of trees that were present in this area. He stands there, hoping to catch them in his eye, for them to be returning by now…

The distance was too much for his eyesight to handle, but he kept his squint nonetheless. He roofs his eyes with his right hand, shielding it from the sun. Still, the distance was too far. He continued to stand there, hoping to see some kind of figure moving towards him. So far, he only saw some lumbering ones, which quickly vanished out of his sight. Walkers. Things that trickled down a bit of his hope.

He continued to stand there long enough for Ronnie to go back into the building. Long enough for the sun to move away above him, so that he can put his hand down. The best guess he can come up with for the time is probably two o’clock in the afternoon.

He decides to look away finally, stuffing his hands down on the pockets of his dress pants and pacing a bit. So far, the street he stood on was empty, save for a few stragglers who haven’t caught his scent yet. A few walkers were lumbering from the distance, in the twos or threes, having come from the other direction of the road. Though they were too far away to notice him, Paul was wary nonetheless. He’ll only deem them a threat if they somehow amass and head for the building’s direction. He stretches a bit and was about to sit on the curb, when he decides to have one more look at the direction of the building. There, he finally has something to note. A blot of figures, moving faster than walkers. He hops back up on top of the curb and tries to squint, but they were still too far.

He walks toward them and pauses a few times, until he chooses to stop, and make out whatever he can from where he stands. Their fast movement put him at ease.

He can see them more clearly now. Xavier was leading the pack of… other people. Others, besides Toni and Lina. He feels a quick surge of energy, but it soon subsides.

He’s talked to Xavier about new people. They have too many already, but he knows how much they need additional hands to gather supplies. He always insists on participating, but the added pressure from Shannon, Ronnie, and even Xavier make him think otherwise. He tries to put the other people aside and focuses on Xavier instead.

Once they were at a short distance, Paul walks toward them. They were apparently jogging, and once Paul got a little bit closer, they slow down to a walk.

They all looked like they just came from some sort of fight; there was a collection of heavy breathing among them. Xavier was sweating, and in his hand, the blood on his fire axe was still dripping wet. Bits of blood and matter stained his clothes. Toni, and Lina as well, were sweating and dirtied. Much of the huffing came from the three other strangers behind them.

The first thing Paul quickly notes are their weapons; the young man standing behind Toni and Lina had a metal bat gripped by his gloved hand. The girl beside him had her brown hair all tied up, and she carried a heavy-looking sledgehammer in her left hand. The other girl, shorter than the rest, had a blue hoodie on that was easy to spot. She lacked the blood stains and dirt the other two had, but the messy arrangement of her hair and heavy breathing accounted for her hard work.

“Xavier,” Paul quietly says, walking toward to meet and greet him. He couldn’t help but glance at the strangers behind him a few more times. “Good to see you in one piece.”

Xavier firmly returns his handshake, and looks along with Paul behind him. He catches the rest of his breath and says “They helped us get outta that place… we—we owe them.”

Paul nods, and he circles his familiar crowd to meet the others. His expression starts to become more stern as he looks at the three. “Paul,” he just says, and he lays his hand out for them to shake. The nearest person, the girl with the brown hair and sledgehammer, just looks at his hand and shifts her attention away to the young man beside her. The air becomes silent for a few seconds, until the young man decides to step up.

“Julius,” he says, and he shakes Paul’s hand. He follows with an awkward “P-Petero” soon afterward, and he quickly retracts by looking away as if that didn’t need to be said. He looks left and right to let the girls step up.

“Marina,” the blue-hoodie girl says, its brief loudness a display of her hesitation. “Alice,” the other girl follows, her voice below audible, yet Paul catches it and nods. Julius didn’t know how they got out of there. The walkers were all creeping up to their sides, close to surrounding them. He thought it was nearly impossible for them to make it out, but they somehow managed to reach the door. But that would be the first of their worries.

They encountered a few walker “pockets”; walkers who have gathered in a single, hidden spot. He hasn’t been seeing them much, since the only other occasion he remembers was back in the night of the outbreak, when he was trying to leave his uncle’s suburban neighborhood.

They hacked and slashed their way to get through them. They kept on moving, because they were always outnumbered. His still-burning chest made him feel like they’ve been running all day.

“That’s the rental building,” Paul says to them, looking and pointing at it briefly. “Come with us.”

Julius nearly forgot about their discussion on hoping to stay. He knows he has to speak for all three of them. He tried to gauge the man named Paul, yet so far, he was unreadable.

They followed the rest of them toward the building; it stood right in the middle of a wide, open-space parking lot. It was easy to describe the building as gray and rectangular, because that’s all it was. Its color made it look like its exterior was unfinished.

Julius looked at Alice, who was walking beside him, to see how she was doing. He hasn’t spoken to her for a while now, and he’s been meaning to compliment her hairstyle. He tries to show this with a brief, subtle smirk that accompanied his look. She responds with one of her own.

They go past the steps, into the set of glass double doors that lead into the building. The inside was not too dark, and wooden doors line their sides. The end of the room led to a narrow set of stairs. Toni nonchalantly walks off and vanishes into one of the doors, while Paul, Lina, and Xavier stop in the middle.

“You guys come with me,” Paul says, pointing to an opening without a door to his left. Xavier was waiting beside him, while Lina chooses to head for the stairs.

The room they enter in had a faded-brown wooden table right in the middle. A few cardboard boxes were arranged in one side of the room, against the bare, cream-colored walls. Paul and Xavier enter first, while the three others head over to the opposite side, where the boxes lay. A yellow piece of folded paper was on the table.

“How’d Shannon do today?” Xavier asks; the two have been doing some quiet talking on their way here, mostly about what he’s missed since this morning.

Paul stops on one side of the table, looking down on it while he thinks. “Right. Shannon…” Paul looks at the door, then to Xavier. “She chickened out. Again. You should probably talk to her.” Xavier, sensing a bit of urgency, nods.

“Paul here’ll take care of y’all. See ya guys later,” Xavier says to the rest, and they all watch as he exits.

“Alright…” Paul takes the folded piece of paper, and looks at the three briefly. He then unravels it, flattening it against the surface a few times with his hand. The paper takes over a medium-sized portion of the table. It was untouched for the most part, only containing a few markings of red dots, X’s, and circles here and there. A quick glance, with all its lines and small text spread all over it, tells them that it’s a map of Portola, the city they were standing it.

“You guys couldn’t have come at a better time,” Paul says. Julius’s anxiety drops down, and he soon puts aside the ill-formed argument he was going to have to make in staying.

“This place, this— this rental building. It’s a temporary home. Just a small resting place we took…” Paul’s eyes shift to the map, scanning it and looking for something in particular. His right hand holds onto one of its corners. “We’re trying to move somewhere. It’s right over…” Paul pauses yet again, his right hand now scanning for the place in question.

His finger stops on a circle, which Julius’s assumes is the rental building, and it soon drags to the right. Paul moves past a few X’s, and finally taps on something. “There. Right there.” Julius and Marina lean in closer to look at it, while Alice stares at them for a few seconds and soon follows.

It told them nothing; it was just named “179 Halloway Street,” and unlike the others, it was surrounded by less squares and names. Julius and Alice look back at Paul, while Marina keeps her eyes on it.

“What’s that place?” she asks, and she shifts her look over to Paul. He takes a bit of time to respond, his eyes looking down on it a few times.

“It’s… a house. Like, like a mansion.” Julius and Alice look at each other, while Marina gets glances at the map piece a few more times.

“A woman who’s with us owns this place. Says we can use it for shelter. But…” Paul measures the distance from this rental building to the place in question once again. “It’s kinda far, especially on foot. Gonna take a bit of work getting there…” He stops leaning against the table, straightens up, and folds his arms. His eyes scan the three.

“We… we really need help getting there. There’s a lot to be done. I know we all just met, but…” Paul tries to continue his persuasion by looking down the map a few times. “… really. It’ll—it’ll be good for all of us. The mansion’s pretty big. I’m sure there’ll be room for you guys…” He waits, for any objections they might have; now’s his chance to find out if they’re holding up anywhere.

The three look at each other, yet Marina takes the shortest time, as she was far more interested in the map.

“We’ll help,” Julius responds, backing it up with his certainty. Paul has just made it easy for him; he doesn’t need to argue anymore.

Paul’s stern expression softens. “Great—great.” He nods, and scans over the map one more time, hoping to fold it up when he notices Marina still busy with it.

“You guys just got here. Go ahead and rest up. Meet everyone else. We—we’ll talk about it again later tonight.” Somewhere, in a different part of the building, Xavier finds Shannon with Ellen. They were in the so-called “kitchen room”, where much of the cooking comes from, and where the food is stored. Of course, the room was as bare as every other one; their tools mostly consisted of portable cooking gear and mini gas tanks. Xavier finds both of them casually talking, no obvious activity in the kitchenware around them.

“… told me off! Bastard just left me there, all uncertain—but I had his card. You know what I was gonna do!” It was the familiar sound of Ellen’s gossip, something Xavier’s been aware of but never bothered listening to. He sees them take notice of him, glancing at him a few times, yet they keep on going.

“So… so anyway…” Ellen couldn’t help but wonder why Xavier was there, so she stops, and just looks at him. Shannon soon follows.

“Sorry Ellen, but I gotta borrow Shannon for a sec…”

“Sure, sure,” Ellen replies in a breezy manner, and she soon walks away. The two watch her walk out, with Xavier walking up to Shannon a little bit closer.

“Okay, so…”

Shannon looked at him with a bit of uncertainty; she can tell that this isn’t going to be good just from his expression and tone alone. She relaxes a bit by leaning against the counter top behind her, and folding her arms.

“Paul said he let you fight a walker today.” Shannon looks away, sensing her anxiety to rise up a bit. She shows this by not bothering to respond.

“And you… chickened out. Again.” The way he said it so matter-of-factly irked Shannon some, yet she continues to ignore him, instead thinking of her response.

Xavier pauses, trying to show his disappointment, yet she didn’t bother to look. He always sees this from her whenever something serious was being discussed. Her stubbornness.

“Look—y’ain’t gonna learn if you keep… backin’ out. Y’ain’t gonna be able to defend yourself. And you know how many o’ those things are out there—” He circles to her line of sight, to which she just looks at him with emotionless contempt. Xavier was waiting for an answer, yet she held up on it. “What are you gonna do if you get face-to-face with one? And you know how it is nowadays—sometimes you ain’t got a choice. What you gonna do? Huh?”

Xavier continues to wait for a response; her immature silent treatment was starting to bother him. “I’m talkin’ to you, hey,” he continues, and he nudges her shoulder. Shannon continues to stand there like a statue.

“W-we’ll find out once I’m put on the spot,” she soundly responds. “I don’t—I don’t need no practice…” Her look switches to displeasure.

“No, no.” Xavier shakes his head. “That ain’t gonna work. Look—we actually lettin’ you practice on one. When me and Paul were fightin’ them we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing… but we figured it out. We don’t want you on the same spot—”

“It’s simple. Just go for the head—”

“—It’s different once you actually on the spot, Shannon. Lots o’ things factor in—”

“Look.” Shannon straightens up, looks at Xavier, and unfolds her arms. “I’ll figure it out one day. Hell, maybe even find my own ‘walker’, on my own time. I just—don’t want to do it right now.” She steps into the other direction, but Xavier stops her.

“We don’t have a lot of time, Shannon. Better to do it now, out here—while you still got the ch—”

“I’ll figure it out on my own, Xav, thank you very much.” Shannon stomps to the exit, leaving Xavier behind, uncertain. He watches, as she leaves, and it forces him to follow.

“Shannon!” he calls. She keeps on walking. “You gotta stop trying to ignore this!” Shannon stops, and faces him. The displeasure has all shifted in her eyes alone. She shakes her head, and walks away.

“Shannon…” Xavier sighs, and thinks. As much as she was his sister, he can never figure her out sometimes. He was just worried about her not being able to defend herself, like last time… especially since their big move was coming up.

He walks around, trying to think of why she keeps skipping out on this. Why she looked at him like that. He leans against the nearest wall with one arm, but he soon straightens up and faces the other direction.

Was it because of what happened the first day, when the outbreak came? The story was in her own words. Paul knows just as much as he does.

He starts walking, hitting the walls weakly with the side of his balled-up fist along the way, hoping to follow and ask her himself.

Paul’s taken the three to the third floor, after having walked four flights of stairs. Julius notices an elderly woman passing a glance at them, followed by a woman with braided hair who was walking hastily past them. Paul paused and stared at her briefly, as if he was close to calling her, but he keeps going up the stairs instead.

They soon find themselves in a room with nothing but railed storage doors to each of their sides. The white lights that lined the ceiling somehow surprised both Julius and Alice; it was the first thing they noticed.

“Vacant ones are at the end,” Paul says, walking through the hall and glancing behind him a few times to see if they were following. “This is where we sleep. Our bedrooms. We have plenty of sleeping bags so you don’t need to worry.”

Julius was at the halfway point of confusion and excitement; they’ve just been accepted by a kind group of people, with promises of a bed to sleep on. He hasn’t even factored the “mansion” place into this. He turns to look at Alice, who looked left and right at the numerous railed doors. He couldn’t tell what her reaction was.

They stop at the end of the hall, Paul looking at one door. A set of stairs was just to their side. “This one should be…” Paul bends down, and pulls the door up, revealing a bleak, gray room with a single sleeping bag in the corner, still rolled and tied up. “… empty. Yeah.” Julius’s exhilaration dampens a bit, mostly at the lack of windows. Nonetheless, it was going to have to do.

“Are you guys uh…” Paul points, and looks in between Julius and Alice. Julius nods quickly, giving an answer to Paul right away.

“Okay…” Paul then notices Marina standing behind them. “That storage unit behind you should be empty too,” he says, acknowledging her. Marina’s eyes widen a bit, pointing to herself and turning around to see. She pauses a bit and pulls the door up, revealing pretty much the same sight as the one across from it.

“Okay, good…” Paul strokes his chin, looking at the three young people before him. “Light switch is on the side, but we’re trying to conserve energy so you can just leave them opened…” He scans the two units one more time.

“Again, we’ll have a little meeting later. Just go to the same room as last time.” Paul starts walking toward the other side of the hall, looking over his shoulder as he did. “You guys should greet everyone else. Get to know everyone, let ‘em know you’re here.” Alice decides to unroll the sleeping bag, while Julius put away their bags and weapons on a corner of the room. Alice couldn’t help but note the bag’s size. The way it was laid out like this told her that it was fit for just one person.

“This is too small,” she says, and it catches Julius’s attention. “You’re gonna have to sleep on the cold, bare ground while I wrap myself around it and keep warm.” She tries to hold her expression, but after a few seconds, she gives in with a smirk.

Julius walks over to her side so he can see for himself. “Yep…” He tries to suggest something else by giving her a look.

“I don’t know if we can both fit…” She squats down and tries tugging the sleeping bag for any possible pockets or anything else of that sort.

“We can probably just sit on the corner,” Julius suggests. “Use this as a blanket or something…” Alice looks up to him. “Yeah, guess so,” she responds. She stands up, and idly scans around the room, looking at Julius briefly and noticing Marina on the other side in the process. She, too, was examining her own sleeping bag, and unlike them, she wasn’t going to have any trouble with it.

“Hey.” Julius nudges Alice’s shoulder, and she turns to look at him. He stares at her for a good second.

“How’re you liking this so far?” She’s been wordless since their stop at the warehouse. Alice takes a bit of time, scanning the ceiling for a bit while deciding to groan and stretch. “It’s… pretty good.”

Julius nods. He’s pretty much convinced by this point that safety in numbers is always a best bet. It was proven over and over when they were fighting their way here, having three other people defend them like that. And he’s just been welcomed to a potential new home, with a livable shelter. For a second, Julius hated the thought of being solitary.

Alice was thinking of something else. Something a little ways down the road. Something they were going to have to do to earn their keep here.

“Wonder how long it’ll take…” she says. “The mansion, I mean. And how bad it’s gonna be.”

Julius thinks about it, but he was still too caught up with the rewards. He still can’t wrap his head around having a much better home than here.

“Best if we find out ourselves,” he replies, shrugging. Alice’s delayed nod was a response enough for him.

She continues to look at the bed spread, while Julius’s eyes start to wander around. He stops at the corner of the room, where their bags and weapons sat.

“By the way—how’s your back?” he asks. Alice turns to look at him with one brow up.

“My… back?”

“Yeah.” He walks behind her and starts pressing on a spot of her back with his thumb. “You’ve been swinging that sledgehammer all day. No, not just all day…” He presses his thumb, and Alice responds by stretching it away. “… since you found it.”

“My back’s fine,” she replies. “Thing’s lighter than it looks. Go ahead, see for yourself.”

Julius puts his hand down and approaches the sledgehammer, with heavy weight noted in his mind. He picks it up on one hand with ease. “Wow, you’re right…” The thing he could compare it with at that moment was to a fifteen-pound dumbell.

He turns around toward Alice, holding the hammer with both hands this time. Alice looks at him, noticing Marina in the corner of her eyes. She was leaning against the wall, staring blankly in front of her with her hands stuffed in her pockets.

“Hey,” Alice calls. Julius notices it and looks on with her. “Marina,” she continues.

Marina takes a bit of time noticing them, eventually turning to look at Alice with her brows slightly up.

“What are you doing?” Alice walks toward her and stops near the entrance of her storage unit. “You were all just… staring at the wall.”

Marina keeps her brows up, trying to contain her growing embarassment. “Oh I was just—I was just remembering some things.” She tries to shrug it off by looking away.

“Remembering some things…?” Alice looks at her a bit apprehensively, and keeps it up to let the look speak for itself.

“Y-yeah…” She doesn’t want them to know that she’s been thinking. Thinking a lot about her now old group. Cara, Leo, Herbert… how they just vanished in a matter of a night. It felt like it’s been days already. Like they were a past memory she needed to bury.

“Yeah it’s—it’s nothing. I’m fine.” She looks at Alice, waiting for her to stop worrying. But she kept her look up nonetheless, and her anxiety rose.

“Really?” Alice continues to ask. “You sure…?”

Marina maintains her awkward stare, almost on the verge of giving up because Alice’s look was so convincing. “Yeah…”

Alice looks at her apprehensively for a few more seconds, not getting her intended effect. “Okay then…” She continues to look at her for any signs of difference. Marina just nods, and starts looking away.

Alice glances at Julius behind her. “Hey, you know you can… I don’t know. Bunk with us later.” Her wordless response made her feel uncertain. She just knows something’s bothering her.

Marina’s eyes grow. “W-what? No…”

“No no, it’s fine.” She points behind her with her thumb, at Julius. “I don’t wanna feel alone with a… with a dude. And I know you’ll feel miserable sleeping by yourself in the dark, in this… gloomy room.” She scans around and confirms it, with the bare, gray walls and lone light-bulb. “It’ll be fine. Like… a sleepover or something.”

She smirks, and tries to look sincerely at Marina, eager for her response.

She does make a good point. These two have been nice enough to let her tag along, after all. And she’s already refused her once.

“O-okay,” she replies. Alice’s smirk grows a little bit wider.

“Yo Julius,” Alice calls, turning around half-way. “Marina’s going to room with us, alright?”

Julius, who was now comparing his bat and Alice’s sledgehammer in his two hands, looks. “She is?” He puts the two weapons aside and walks a bit closer to them. “Sure,” he follows.

Marina tries to wrap her head around this. It’ll just be like a dorm room, with roommates she barely met… even though she’s never been to a dorm before.