A Long Road to Fortune/Issue 29

This is the fifth issue in Volume 5 of A Long Road to Fortune. It is titled Reflection.

Issue 29
At dawn the wind always had a knack for blowing harshly, and this was very apparent for Ashton as he observed the palm trees within his home's property swindle back and forth lightly. It was so peaceful, so perfect, it was what he wanted...yet he wanted even more to leave it. Sitting in his desk, pouring his heart and soul into that single piece of paper like it would be the last thing he ever wrote, because it damn well could be. The words “I'm sorry” carelessly playing over and over in his head, so many times that they've lost all meaning. As he wrapped up writing his bitter note, he looked over to Liza. Peacefully sleeping, almost as if Ashton had never left their bed.

His actions had him deeply conflicted because here he was again, about to go off on his own and leave Liza behind. Strangely enough, Ashton smiled. The smile a result of thinking back more than two weeks ago, sitting at the school's courtyard hallucinating with that vision of Liza. The note was finished now, so there was no need to hold off on leaving any longer. He looked at Liza one more time before making his way downstairs. He opened the sliding door to the living room and the master bedroom, getting ready for the trip ahead of him.

After grabbing everything he needed, he made his way outside the home. He stuck his finger between a gap on the side of the door and moved the metallic bits of a handle, letting the door slide open. Peeking out to the street in front of him, Ashton couldn't help but breath deeply. It was still somewhat dark out as the sun hadn't come up yet but this was just fine, perfect. He was going to need this time after all, if he was to wrap it up in a day. He closed the door behind him, stepping outside, revealing a grosero hanging from the front of it. In fact, several groseros decorated the exterior of the home. All missing their jaws, feet, and arms. Just hanging there like scarecrows, succeeding in keeping other groseros away.

Making his way down the street, turning right, walking down, and finally turning left, Ashton walked down to make his way to his usual bus spot. He wore a pair of dark, gray blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and some terrain boots. His gun holstered and his knife in its satchel, he had the look of a warrior, ready for combat. From the serious look on his face, we could tell he wasn't to be played with. Cautiously observing his surroundings, he spotted a dark, worn down red truck practically calling out to him. Lightly jogging his way to it, Ashton peeked below it. Just a lone grosero missing its legs. Ashton ignored it, reaching to the side of it. The weakened grosero tried to reach for Ashton, but its decaying, rotten flesh was just too much of a burden. Ashton's hands had griped on to an assault rifle, kindly placed there by Valdez a day earlier. After retrieving this rile, Ashton strapped it on, now donning the weapon as part of his arsenal.

“Here goes nothing...” he quietly said to himself.

As part of the plan, there was only one thing to do now. He down south, all the way to the Apolonio. Once there, head down to the woods and eventually, the river. Seemed simple enough, right? Although, if there's one thing Ashton had constantly been reminded of was that nothing could be too simple in the apocalypse. Simple runs, leave men dead and simply duties, draw outside conflict. Ashton could only wonder to himself as to what would happen to further complicate his mission.

Without further ado, he commenced his trek to the Apolonio.

Liza had been standing there, devoid of words, struck by the contents of the note. He'd done it yet again, the thing he promised her he'd never do. What she felt was a convoluted mixture of erratic feelings brought on by she percieved as Ashton's selfishness. Anger, hatred, sadness, frustration, they were all present. Liza wanted crumble the note up and rid it to shreds just like Ashton had ripped hers...yet she couldn't. She still loved the fool despite everything. What to do now she thought? She needed to get dressed and clear her head. Before she could, she heard a knock on the door. She really hoped it wasn't Valdez.

“Who is it?” Liza called out.

“It's me.” Mimi replied. Liza sighed in relief, glad that it wasn't Valdez trying to sneak a peek of her.

“Come in...:” Liza responded. Mimi stepped into the room and immediately noticed Liza's eyes, filled to the brim with tears. The fact that Liza was nude didn't disturb her at all. In fact, she'd seen Liza nude a couple of times already...what disturbed was the reason she was nude.

“Oh no...don't tell me you guys had sex.” Mimi asked. Liza simply looked at her, crying. Mimi was putting the pieces together and this drove the impatient Liza nuts but eventually Mimi pieced everything together.

“He left didn't he. God damn it why is he so stupid? When he gets back I'm going to pound him!” Mimi continued to say, raging tremendously. “And not only did he leave, he fucked you too? What a dick!” she continued. Liza dressed as Mimi went on to ramble more obscenities as a sister would to support her fellow sister. Liza went on to ignore most of them as she continued to get dressed. Mimi suddenly stopped talking, placing her eyes on the note. She gave it an angry glance with her mouth open as she approached and grabbed it. Carefully, she began to inspect the contents of the note.

''“Hey Liza. If you're reading this I know exactly how you will feel. I've left to find life beyond the collapsed bridge, to our preparatoria. It's been on my mind ever since I woke up. I know there are people there, I just do. I won't be able to keep calm until I've verified this. I've come to terms with the fact that I may not come back but I've armed myself readily to make sure I do. In case I do fail to come back however, know that my love for you is sincere and unadulterated. I value you more than anything else in the entire world and my life would've probably ended many years ago had you not been there for me...”''

The note went on longer but Mimi felt she'd had enough of Ashton's bullcrap so she simply skipped to the end.

''“...Thank you for everything, Liza. I'm determined to return, just to lay eyes upon your face and hear your voice again. -Ashton”''

“Ugh...god damn it Ashton...” Mimi simply said, shutting her eyes and palming her forehead with annoyance. Liza was about done dressing up at this point and when Mimi turned to face her, her rifle was strapped.

“What the hell?” Mimi asked her, sticking both of her arms out in confusion.

“I need to clear my head. I've come to realize that the best medicine for that is some target practice...” Liza replied calmly.

“Well shit, at least eat something first! Jesus...” Mimi replied. Liza shrugged and complied, following Mimi to the kitchen.Valdez was already there chowing down on an energy bar. He was smiling, completely savoring the bar as if it were the tastiest thing he'd ever eaten, laughing amongst his meal. However, as soon as heard the sliding behind him open, he knew this is where his moment in heaven would end. With the energy bar still sticking out of his mouth, Valdez turned slowly and met the gazes of two angry women. Liza's face was that of an angry Mr. Chet's, serene and quiet yet with fear expelling put from the glare. Mimi's was more of an angry pout, it was clear that her anger was nowhere near as great as Liza's. Valdez ackwardly swallowed a piece of his energy bar before opening his mouth to speak.

“You don't look too happy today...” he commented. Liza simply walked to the side, retrieving a granola bar from the entertainment center. Mimi kept her gaze on Valdez.

“Stupid Asston just up and left! Can you believe that? I mean what is his deal? Why is he still acting like he has no one who cares about him?” Mimi ranted on to Valdez. Valdez simply gulped, something Mimi didn't notice but Liza did.

“How long has he uh- been gone?” he asked nervously. Liza fixed her eyes on Valdez, beginning to question his mannerisms/

“I guess he left early in the morning, I don't know.” Mimi replied, prancing back and forth in a line in front of Valdez.

“Yeah I- um- why would he do that? I mean he could die for sure going there right?” he commented, trying to keep his cool. The anger in the room was unnerving to him mostly because he's had bad experience with angry women for as long as he could remember. His mother quickly came to mind.

“Right...right right right. Say, Valdez, pardon my intrusiveness but I've got this crazy idea that you might've have had something to do with this...” Liza said calmly but menacingly. It didn't take long for Mimi to catch on either.

“Yeah, what the hell? You said “going there” like you know he was going to the prepa!” Mimi exclaimed, all up in Valdez's face. He knew he was screwed but decided to press on with his facade, hoping he'd get himself out of the woods.

“Seriously? He's going to the prepa? Damn I didn't think he'd be stupid enough to go through with this...” he commented. Liza had had enough of Valdez's act and confronted him directly, butting her head with his. Valdez gulped again, as Liza's glare was practically charring him from within.

“If Ashton dies, Valdez, I'm going to hold you partially responsible. You could've stopped him from leaving yet you just....UURGGGHH!” Liza let out a violent yell, brashly digging her head into both of her palms. “How could you?” she simply stated before grabbing her rod and heading out the front door. Valdez was still petrified in the spot. Mimi gazed at him, disapprovingly. Valdez had never taken Liza's feelings into account.

“What do you have to say for yourself, idiot?” Mimi taunted him. Valdez was left deeply conflicted by his actions. In a way he felt grateful he helped Ashton do something he's always wanted to do yet he also felt guilty for Liza's reaction. It was a no win situation for Valdez.

“I'm going to wreck myself if he dies. Damn why did I let him go...I should've at least gone with him!” he replied. “All I gave him was an assault rifle to tilt the odds...I should've known that wasn't going to b enough!” he continued.

“Well, it's to late to start feeling sorry now. You made your stupid ass decision already.” Mimi went on to say, abandoning Valdez in the living room. He simply slumped back down on the couch, wracked by the guilt of his actions.

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A few hours had passed and the day had grown brighter. Liza was patrolling the streets of the town, leaving a path of corpses in her wake. She'd reloaded at least five times now and she didn't bother to begin counting the number of groseros she had already claimed. All this noise was practically calling every single re-animated corpse in the surrounding area. Liza couldn't care less though, she wasn't done blowing off steam. That was when the groseros grew closer and closer but they weren't a threat to Liza. About a dozen were threatening her, nothing she couldn't handle. After all, she had already decided that she was indeed made for this world.

So the first thing Liza did was smash the butt of her rile against a grosero's head and knock it down, finishing it off with a stomp. Then Liza simply punched away, also knocking it down and instead digging her rod into the skull of one behind it, completely impaling the head and turning the brain to mush. She took a couple of steps back and waited for more to get closer. She savagely rammed into one of the them and twisted her rod into its eye socket. She got back up and savagely maimed the rest until all that remained where their chomping heads. Her pink blouse and ocean blue jeans had become acquainted with a disgusting shade of dark red. Liza took a minute to absorb the carnage around her. She sat down and panted, smashing her fist into a nearby grosero head in the process. All she could do was take a breather before continuing. It really helped her that today had been a cloudy day and no sunlight was present to drain her energy much faster.

Paloma had sworn she heard several gunshots earlier apart from her silenced bullets as well. If it was a hostile, she would have to kill them, no doubt about that. So she kept her gun high and she moved with facility, eventually reaching the end of her street, one leading to the main avenue. She peeked at the left and saw a young woman. As far as she could tell she was sitting in a pile of her own blood. Yet she was breathing. Maybe she bleeding out slowly, who really knew? So with that, Paloma decided to make her approach.

Liza could spot a woman in the distance yet she couldn't quite make out who it was. Not a lot of women around Tecpan lately, specially women of such height. Liza rose to her feet and as the woman got closer, she could finally identify her as Paloma, that woman Valdez and the rest had rescued and brought back from el Cerrito. She didn't really know or care for her but at least Liza knew she wasn't going to be much trouble, so she didn't change herself to hostility. Paloma had finaly reached Liza's side and gawked at what a bloody mess she was.

“Hello. I'm sorry if I can't recall your name...Liza was it?” Paloma asked her, observing the carnage around Liza. In her eyes we could see the familiarity for her. She'd been there before.. Liza didn't want to be rude to the woman, so she gave her a proper response.

“Yes, I'm Liza.You're Paloma right?” the girl asked. Paloma nodded in response.

“Indeed I am. Are you hurt?” Paloma asked. Liza was thrown off by Paloma's concern.

“Yeah. I was just blowing off some steam. I'm not hurt, this is their blood...” Liza said. Paloma looked at her with worry. She could see great part of herself in this girl, and she was following in her footsteps. She felt connected to this girl. Liza stood there, her glare now gone. Paloma's presence calmed her down just a little, so she decided to strike up a conversation.

“Are you doing the same? You don't look as messy as me.” she said. Paloma opened her mouth to answer when a lone grosero trudged towards Liza from behind her. Liza turned at the sound and simply grabbed her rod. With quick feet, she was already meeting the grosero's gaze. Gripping her rod tightly one her right hand, she impaled the side of the grosero's head and briskly removed the rod, leave the corpse to fall down to the ground. Paloma had walked over to see this with her.

“You're pretty good at this. Clearly you've had your fair share of experience. But as for me, I was simply having some target practice. Training for the real thing.” Paloma said to her, showing her the silenced weapon. Liza felt safe around the woman but felt the sudden inclination to ask the woman a question.

“Have you ever killed anyone?” Liza asked simply. A look of sorrow befell Paloma's face and she gave Liza a hesitant nod.

“If you want to know the circumstances of my encounter, I'll gladly tell you. I can tell I'm going to like you already!” Paloma said to her. Liza couldn't help but offer Paloma a half smile. She felt a little better now but the mix of anger and sadness still tore at her from within.

“I do.” she simply replied once more. A small herd of groseros began to tail the two women, both of whom looked back to see it. Neither of them were the least bit terrified.

“Come on.” Paloma said to her. “I want to see just how well you can shoot.”

Liza raised her rifle, aimed, and complied, pulling the trigger.

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It was the middle of the day and Yuri had given herself the luxury of waking up in the middle of the day since today was going to be a light day for the marketplace. She sat up straight, lightly rubbing her right eye with a fist. She yawned lightly, elegantly covering her mouth with her palm. It was clear to here where she was, her location. She ended up spending the night with Francisco, who she had just spotted leaning on his door. He was watching over her and now that she had woken up, he stood straight.

“Your clothes are over there on the night stand.” Francisco told Yuri, who looked to her side. They were there indeed, neatly folded and waiting to be put on. Yuri arose from the bed, covering her bare essentials with the blanket before making her way over to Francisco.

“Sorry about last night. I needed your company Frank, more than anything.” Yuri said to him. Francisco simply nodded understandably.

“I'll get dressed and be on my way.” Yuri said to him. Frank kept his arms and shook his head.

“It's fine Yuri. When you're done though, I think we're going to need to talk. I don't want things to stay like this between us.” Francisco replied. Yuri nodded as a sign of thankfulness.

With that, Francisco shut the door behind him and left the room. Yuri then turned her attention to her clothes, now letting the blanket drop to the floor. She observed the bed once more, it was a sign of her weakness. All she wanted now was to feel safe so getting getting so close to Frank only made sense to her. It was wrong though, this fake love she was giving him. It was hard to forget for both the way Yuri had rejected him weeks prior but at the same time it didn't seem to matter to her. She wasn't made for this world, she had known and repressed for all of her life. But with Frank, she could let the fear out and hide behind him. It was pathetic but Yuri was done lying to herself.

As she started to put on her clothes, her mind lingered on her past deeds. Stealing from survivors, killing groups of groseros, all under the command of Gustavo Texta. That Yuridia still existed within her yet now she couldn't find her. Maybe she didn't need her anymore. Maybe. She recalled the day Gustavo gave them the order to kill Ashton.

''“If you find him, gun him down. We're done with leverage and that fucking punk will not be missed by anyone. If you do get to him, leave his corpse for the malditos and make your escape. Is that understood?”''

Yuri could perfectly recall what she thought of that day, she could kill maybe, but not that boy. He'd proven to be good, like her. It hit her, the Yuri that Gustavo Texta had turned into one of his lieutenants never existed, all she had been was a ruse set up by the real, vulnerable Yuri.

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Ashton's trek hadn't been very long. He had reached the river bed an hour earlier and was now carefully navigating alongside it, looking for the perfect spot to cross to the other side. His supplies were holding him back a bit, he had to admit but it wasn't like he could do without them. He was ready to spend the night at the school if need be. It was awfully serene as the cloudy, gray sky engulfed the town completely. It was beautiful to Ashton but he did not dare to be distracted. Lingering on about in the open was incredibly lethal nowadays.

Eventually Ashton's walking led him to small path of stones submerged in the river, leading almost to the middle of the river. It was the perfect ranger Ashton would need to toss his stuff across the river, as he could not risk getting his firearms wet. He stepped on the trail and made his way all the way to the end of it, with his boots being fully submerged in the clear water. The first thing Ashton tossed across was his assault rifle, which landed lightly of a bed of soft dirt. Soon his smaller firearm was thrown, followed by his bag of supplies. All were neatly dry and across the river, just like he had planned them to be all along.

His excitement could not last however, as a blood curling scream erupted from behind him. Ashton gripped his knife and turned to face the unthinkable. A large grosero, hideously mutated was running at him. It's right arm was huge yet the rest of his it's frame remained the same. It was too fast for Ashton to react and soon the mutated grosero had gripped onto Ashton's neck, crushing the life out of him. Ashton's face was already a shade of reddish pink as the life was being strangled out of him by the giant arm. In a fit of despair, Ashton reached high and sunk the knife right into the grosero's temple. Soon after, Ashton was dropped into the water and the grosero collapsed on its back. The knife had fallen into the water as well, permitting Ashton to retrieve it. Upon swimming to the opposite shore, Ashton laid himself down on the dirt and gasped for air. Nothing on his neck had been crushed and he hadn't been scratched. Still, he couldn't help but wander as to why the grosero chose not to eat him but rather simply kill him by strangling him to death.

It is this terrible encounter that made Ashton realize, the groseros were beginning to mutate into something even more horrendous. He couldn't keep thinking about this though, he was in the midst of a mission and the prepa was very close now. All he had to do was continue to move and he'd be there before the middle of the day. Some groseros began to cross paths with him as he regained his stance, seemingly attracted by the scream. He couldn't help but sigh in relief as these were the old groseros he was used to. He gripped his knife and began to brutally dispose of them. He was very good at it at this point and his vigor was far from over. After all, he finally had a cause, to make it back to Liza in one piece and satisfy his urge to feel proud of himself, as he thought Mr. Chet would have wanted him to.

He was strangely ecstatic as his journey continued, running and colliding his knife with skulls. It was something that brought him legitimate joy and happiness. Eventually, the walls surrounding the high school came into view but this was not enough for Ashton, he needed a better view. Atop of branch of the tall tree, Ashton could make out what exactly went on in part of the school. Groseros were everywhere, dispersed but still everywhere. Ashton grit his teeth in worry. He needed a sign of life, just one, one to call him in. But alas...there was none. Ashton looked down in defeat. His gut had been wrong and his purpose for leaving Liza was now null. It was time to head back now.

But no, this wasn't it for him. He wanted to sit down and relax as his aching body demanded it. While clutching his abdomen, he spotted a window shattering, breaking. Soon, he could make out a feminine figure, distinguishable by brown curly hair. She was ducking down, probably trying to pick something up. Ashton's hopes returned to him in an instant. His gut had been right all along.

Now it was up to him to plan his final crusade...

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Peeking through some binoculars, all sights were on the zocalo. The view shifted from Mendoza and Pepe arguing to Sandra scolding Max for playing with matches. The continued to spot others like Daniel and Mario on sanding duty. The man behind the binoculars had been doing this for about a week now and no one had ever noticed him, as his position from atop a tall apartment building two streets away from the zocalo secluded him very well. It was the perfect location to spy on the inhabitants, them not suspecting a thing.

As the binoculars pull away, their lids are closed. What they reveal behind them is a man. His face, covered by a bandana and his neck, stylized by a tattoo...