Low on Time/Issue 31

This is issue thirty-one of Low on Time, entitled: Cellar.

Issue 31; Cellar
Olivia sat with Kelly, Paul, and Jake. The four were in a room, secluded from the others who were talking loudly in the next room over. Olivia paced back and forth, and the other three seemed calm; sitting in their chairs. The sun beamed on the group through the window, and in the background you could see a big group of the survivors waking up and emerging from their tents.

"Do we tell Kira?" asked Paul.

"About Sean?" Jake asked. "Hell no."

"Why not?" Olivia asked, she sounded ticked off. "We gotta tell her, and we gotta go get him."

"That's not an option, Olivia." Paul said, sitting back in his chair.

"And why is that?"

"They'll kill us all!"

"So, we don't tell Kira, and we don't do anything about this?" Kelly asked.

"Yes." Paul said, looking at Jake, who nodded. "It's for the best."

"We can't act like nothing happened though!" Olivia exclaimed.

"We're not." Jake said. "We're gonna double lookouts, have more perimeter checks. These people have tons of people."

"But--" Olivia started, when Grace walked in.

"I just checked up on Kira. She's doing fine." she said, looking between the four. "Just, she can't do anymore runs."

"Ok." Jake said.

"Thank you, Doc." Kelly said, smiling, as Grace left the room.

"We'll settle this later." Paul said, taking a deep breath and standing up. "I gotta check up on our new recruits."

Kira, Trent, Ike, and Amanda were all sitting in Ike's room. Ike lied down, Amanda sitting next to him. Kira and Trent sat on a couple of chairs in front of the bed, so they were facing them. The four all looked emotionally and physically tired. They could easily be looked at, as the weak links, minus the kids in the group.

"How's the ear feeling?" Trent asked, looking at Ike.

"Feels peachy." Ike said, sarcastically.

"Do you need anything?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Guys, we have a problem." Amanda said, and all three eyes went to her.

"And what is that, Ms. Mute?" Ike asked.

"We're going to be under attack."

The three looked at her confused, and then at each other, and back at her.

"What do you mean?" asked Kira.

"The bandits. We all know it's going to happen, sooner or later."

"We don't know that!" Kira said.

"Yeah, we do." Ike said, butting into the conversation.

"How do you know that?"

"It's what happens. We get something good happens, something bad is gonna happen. It's inevitable."

"What are you trying to get at?" Trent asked, irritated with the thought of losing more people.

"We leave." Amanda said, quietly.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too." Ike said, looking at her.

"What, we just pack everyone up and leave?" Kira asked, almost laughing at the plan. "We have a good thing going here."

"Back on the road, it ain't safe. We'll lose too many people for no reason." Trent said.

Just as Ike goes to speak again, the rapid sounds of gunfire pierces their ears. Kira, Trent, and Amanda immediately hop up, and run to the window, seeing Langston and another survivor shooting at something in the woods.

"What's going on?" Ike asked them, struggling to stand, as a loud ringing goes through his ear.

"I don't know." Kira said. "It's impossible to see; let's get down there."

Kira and Trent immediately back up from the window, and run out of the room. Amanda jogs over to the struggling Ike, who is now grasping his head.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Fine, just, my head." he says. Ike gets on his knees and looks under the bed, reaching under and pulling out a pistol. Amanda looks at him, warily. "Just in case. Now let's go."

The entire group of survivors, all thirty-two of them, were standing in a circle. Langston stood in the middle of them, with another survivor, who was on the ground, bleeding heavily. Langston, looked enraged. He had blood all over his hands, his shotgun pointed at the man.

"Is everyone here?" Langston asked, through his teeth.

The other survivors quickly counted each other.

"Yes." Jamie said.

"Good." he said, looking at everyone.

"Who is that?" Kelly spat out pushing herself to the front.

"One of those mother fuckin' bandits. That's who this is." Langston said, putting the gun closer to the man's head.

"They found us?" a woman said in fear.

"Yeah, they did. There was a few of them, and one got away."

The quiet murmurs of the group were quickly shut down by Langston.

"Guys, we need to make a decision. The bandits are obviously coming. So, do we stay here and defend what we have going, or do we leave?"

"Woah, woah, woah." Jake interrupted. "Are those our only options. There has to be something else!"

"No, they were scouting us out. They know we're here. They have surprise, numbers, guns, everything. Only thing we got is our knowledge of this land."

The group looked at each other, nobody knowing what to really say.

"So what is it gonna be?" Langston asked.

"We should go." Julia, who was standing with Ryker and Manning, quickly said. "I love this place, but there's no way we could take them all on."

"Let's stay." Paul said, looking at everyone. "We need to stay here for almost every reason. Power, food, water, everything."

Jamie stepped forwards, pulling Oscar and Sam up with her.

"For my family and the kids, I think we should go back on the road. Trust me, no one is gonna just fuck with a group of this many people on the road." she said.

"Yeah, I think she got a good point." Vince said, butting in.

"Guys, you just don't realize what's at stake here." Kelly said, looking at Jamie and then to Vince. "We might not be able to find food with as much ease as we do here."

"But, guys with guns is a lot scarier then lack of food." a woman said.

"Alright then. If we do it like this, we're going to be killed before we can make a decision." Langston said, firing his shotgun, shooting the bandit in the face, killing him. A few shrieks from the kids and women instantly makes Langston regret doing so; but they have a bigger problem on their hands. "We'll do this by a show of hands."

"Yeah, fine." Ike muttered, standing with Amanda.

"Ok, if you think we should hit the road. Raise your hand." Langston said.

Ike, Amanda, Julia, Ryker, Jamie, Grace, Patricia, Vince, and Olivia, among six other survivors raised their hands.

"Ok, now if you wanna stay." Langston said, raising his hand as he did so.

Kelly, Jake, Manning, Drew, Kira, Trent, Nolan, and Trevin, and the remaining eight survivors raised their hands. Olivia, and the other survivors who had raised their hands previously, looked absolutely defeated.

"Fine." Langston said, smiling. "We gotta get ready. Trevin, Ike, Paul, start getting some of these people to train. We gotta be prepared."

"Sir, yes sir." Trevin said.

"The rest of us, be on constant lookout. Don't let your guard down for one second."

As he said that, the group quickly dispersed; most of them going to the three trainers; wanting to learn how to shoot before the bandits would soon come.

Patricia sat on a chair, with the group of four children, who lived on the farm. Ryker sat next to her, watching over the children too. He was visibly scared, unlike Patricia's calmness.

"Don't be scared, child." Patricia said.

Ryker turned to her, almost immediately feeling better from her warm smile.

"Yeah, it's kind of hard not to." Ryker said, looking back to the kids.

"You know what'll help you?"

"If you say 'The power of Jesus' I might just die."

Patricia chuckled, "No, I was gonna suggest, maybe, some emotional guidance. You seem to be stressed."

Ryker sat back, putting one leg over the other. "No thanks. I just met you, and I hope you forgive the lack of trust."

Patricia smiled, and sat back. "Of course."

Kelly walked with Langston and Ike, hurrying through the farm.

"Should we send scouts up ahead? See where and when they're coming from?" asked Ike.

"No, I don't want anyone out there alone." Langston said.

"C'mon, we can't just sit here and wait." Kelly said.

Langston turned around, quickly, looking at the two. "We have to. They're gonna attack soon, and we need to be ready."

"But, we're sitting ducks here!" Ike exclaimed.

"We're armed sitting ducks. And as long as we're armed, we got a shot."

As Langston said that, he walked ahead of the two, leaving them. Kelly turned to the confused Ike, and grabbed his attention.

"We gotta do something." Kelly said.

"Yeah, I know. But your boyfriend is psycho."

"He's taking this hard. What we gotta do is keep him out of this for a little bit. We gotta get a plan going, and he's in no need to talk."

"So, what kind of plan do you have in mind?" Ike asked.

"Follow me." Kelly said, walking past Ike.

Manning, Julia, Amanda, and Kira were with Paul, shooting at bottles as targets. Paul walked along the line of them, adjusting their stances or whatever he needed to do to make them hit their targets. When they got to the point where they kept hit all their targets with ease, Paul signaled for them to stop.

"Alright, good job everybody. If it was up to me, we could keep going; but we need to save the ammo for the bandits." Paul said.

The group nodded, looking around at each other. Manning was easily not in touch with reality at this point. He was staring blankly into space, right at the gun in front of him. He felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped back, looking back, only seeing Julia.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Manning looked behind him at Amanda, Kira, and Paul, who were now looking at him too.

"I'm fine." he said, standing up quickly, as he started to walk away. "I'm gonna go wash up."

"I'll come with you." Julia said quickly, following him.

Kira soon left too, leaving Paul and Amanda alone. The two looked at each other, in silence for a moment.

"So, you ready?" Paul asked.

"No. Not at all." she said, quietly, looking at the dead trees around her.

"Everything's going to end up going well." he said, and Amanda didn't have anything to say, she just looked silently into the sky. "Hey," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "No matter what happens, I want you to know something. I am going to protect you."

Amanda smiled, quickly pulling Paul into a hug. "I miss her so much." she said.

"I miss her too, Amanda. And I will do anything to make sure I don't lose you too."

As she hugged Paul, tears slowly rolled down from her eyes to her cheek. "I can't help but think that this might be my only chance to see her again. If I die here."

Paul quickly pulled her shoulders back, out of the hug, so that he can look into her eyes. "No, don't say that. She'd want you to keep on going. For both of us to keep going."

Amanda nodded, as Paul wiped away a few tears from her cheek. "Hey, listen to me. You have absolutely nothing to be scared of."

Kelly led Ike into the backyard of the farm, pushing past Nolan along their way. Kelly quickly stopped, and pulled on his arm causing him to turn around.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Come with us." she said.

The three walked into the backyard, and Kelly led them to the opening to a cellar. She opened it, and took out a flashlight from her back pocket. She turned it on, and slowly walked down the dark steps, Ike and Nolan close behind her. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Kelly shined the light onto the wall, until she found the light switch, which she flipped on. The cellar was practically empty, besides a couple of boxes and a hockey puck.

"What are we doing down here?" Nolan asked, looking around.

"If and when we get attacked, I want you to bring all the children down here." Kelly said.

"Woah, woah, woah, this could be an amazing tactical advantage here." Ike interrupted. "Follow me."

Ike led Kelly and Nolan to a small window. Ike put his pistol through it, ad it's barely big enough for it to squeeze through.

"See?" he asked, smiling. "We get people to shoot from these windows, it is absolute gold."

"What about the kids though?" Kelly asked.

"I can take them to the basement?" Nolan asked, awaiting approval from Kelly.

"Fine by me. Just, if anything happens, try to protect them."

"Of course."

Manning walked inside the farm house, pushing his way through Grace and another survivor, Julia close behind him.

"Stop! Manning, stop!" she pleaded, grabbing him by the forearm.

"What?" he asked.

"What is wrong? Can you please tell me?"

"I'm just-- I'm not in the right mindset, ok? I-I killed someone, and it's killing me."

"I know, but you had to do what you had to do." Julia said, putting her hand on his cheek. "You did it to protect Ike, you practically saved his life."

"I know, I know, but it doesn't feel right. It ain't sitting right."

"And that's okay, I'm happy you feel bad. It shows that you are not a psychotic killer. But, you don't have to worry about what you did, ok?"

Manning nodded, taking a deep breath.

"Now, come on. I need to talk to you and Ry."

Oscar sat with Sam, in her tent. The two were quiet, although Oscar, every now and then would get her to laugh in some way. Sam was a broken little girl, and it is very clear across her face, her whole body expression.

"How did it happen?" asked Oscar.

"How did what happen?" Sam asked, looking up at him.

"Your parents."

''Sam was being hold by a middle-aged woman, black hair, nose piercings, tattoos all over her body, who was running through the woods. They had just left their old camp, ten survivors, all highly trained killers, all dead. All it took was a herd to roll through, and all of them were dead. All, but this daughter and her mother. Sam was crying, blood all over her face, and her mother looked scared as well, but she wasn't going to let that impact her focus on getting her daughter to safety. Her mother, starting to lose her grip on her daughter, set her down for just a moment. Her mom wiped some of the blood off of her chin, forcing a smile to the young girl.''

''"It's okay baby. We're almost there." she said.''

''"Where are we going, mommy?" she asked, still crying.''

"Somewhere safe."

''Just as her mother says that, her chest suddenly explodes, a bullet flying out of it, and she collapses on her young daughter. Up on the hill, two men, both wearing ski masks watched, laughing. As they left, Sam hasn't had time to process what had just happened. As she realizes, all she can do is scream, shout, and cry. As she lied there, in so much potential, she didn't see a zombie quickly approaching her. She hears more gunshots, and a series of bullets hit the zombie. Trevin, along with a group of survivors from the farm, Nolan included, had gathered around. Trevin quickly pulled Sam's mother off of her, and picked up Sam, wrapping his arms around her.''

''"Are you okay?" he asked, trying to comfort the young girl; but it was of no use. All she could possibly do was cry."''

Oscar sat there staring at the, now crying, Sam. The young boy didn't know what to do, so he just kept his arm around her, as his mother entered the tent. Looking at the two, she smiled softly, and walked back out.

"It's okay, I lost my dad too." he said.

"From those monsters?" she asked, sniffling.

"Yeah, he got bit. From there on-- it's been rough."

"How do you deal with it?"

Oscar didn't know what to say. He had no idea how he dealt with it; even if he did deal with it, he couldn't remember. So instead, he just pulled the young girl into a deeper hug.

A man in his early-forties, looked out the window, watching as the young boys played in the streets with a football. A man burst through the door, and the man turned.

"What's the good word?" he asked.

"We lost three men scouting today. I was the only one who was able to make it back." he said, panting, out of breath. "But, it was not in vain. We got eyes on a group of survivors, a lot of them. They're at Mr. White's old farm. They got power, food, medicine, everything."

The man got a warm smile across his face. "Great news. Maybe we can get my boy some of those meds."

The man nodded. "How is your son?"

"Not well, he's getting sicker. Much sicker. I'm not sure if he'll make it if we don't get him anything."

"Of course, sir. We'll think of something."

"Thank you."

Credits

 * Kelly Gay
 * Olivia Bell
 * Jake Munoz
 * Kira Fulton
 * Paul Alexander
 * Ike Dennis
 * Amanda Dixon
 * Langston Otto
 * Julia Riley
 * Ryker Daniels
 * Trevin
 * Grace Rutherford
 * Nolan Fitzgerald
 * Jamie Manning
 * Manning
 * Oscar Manning
 * Sam
 * Drew Radke
 * Patricia Amador
 * Vince Dallas

Deaths

 * Sam's Unnamed Mom (Flashback)