Low on Time/Issue 37

This is issue thirty-seven of Low on Time, entitled: Hatchet.

Issue 37; Hatchet
Kelly, holding a pistol, and Ike, holding a shotgun, walked behind the defenseless Amanda, quickly going through the corridor. Amanda had just informed them of the two survivors, and now is not the time to be too trusting or relaxed. As they reached the end of the corridor leading to the main lobby, they readied their guns.

As they entered the room, they are met by the gazes of Trevin, Paul, and the two survivors two woman, all four of them sitting back, smoking a cigarette together.

"What the hell is this?" Kelly spits out.

"Oh, hey..." Paul says, a little taken back by her anger. "Want a smoke?"

"No! We just got run out of our farm by other survivors, and here you are putting your trust into these people we don't know?"

"You too, Trevin." Ike says, looking at Trevin. "Two people with bug guns walk to the door, and you aren't worried?"

"Hey, we didn't want any trouble..." one of the survivors said. "We just wanted to introduce ourselves-- we saw you move in, and figured we could trade or something."

"And what did you have in mind?" Kelly asks, as Ella and Ryker enter the room from the opposite side of the room, Olivia close behind them, assault rifle in arm.

"You give us ammo-- a gun or two. We'll give you some food." the other one says.

Kelly looks over at Ike, who is now definitely interested. They have absolutely nothing, this could set them on the right track.

"Well, we weren't planning on staying very long..." Kelly says. "But, that's a trade we'd definitely be interested in."

"Sounds good. We'll run over and grab something that'll be worth, I figured, a handgun and a box of ammo."

Kelly smiles, nodding her head. She's glad they're going to get something to work from, and now all they need is for the rest of the group to come back from the supply run, unscathed.

Jake falls to the cold pavement, blood covering his face. Around him, Langston, Manning, and Julia fight off the zombies which seemed to be coming non-stop from the front doors of the supermarket. He gets up quickly, making sure to grab his machete off the ground as he stands, then joining back in with the other three.

In the back of the store, Trent runs around, looking for an exit. He's opening any door he can find, most of which lead to a closet or storage. Trent, crowbar in hand, gives up after checking the whole back of the pharmacy, and runs to the front where everyone else is fighting. He quickly runs up to them, getting in front of Julia who was starting to lose her grip on her bat.

"Nothing back there." he says, as he take a swing, bashing in the brains of a zombie.

"We gotta fight our way through then." Jake says.

"That's what I was thinking..."

"Julia, stay close." Manning calls to Julia, who complies quickly, getting behind Manning.

"Stay in formation, don't break for anything." Jake says.

"Manning, give the bag to Julia." Langston says.

Manning quickly slips the backpack off his back, and Julia picks it up, putting it on quickly.

"Ready?" Langston asks.

"Yeah," Julia says.

"Alright, on three. One... two... three.... go!"

Oscar lied down with Sam inside one of the rooms, the two little kids curled up, side-by-side, asleep. But, soon, Sam broke out into a soft whimper, which quickly woke the sleeping boy. He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and looked at Sam, and then looked toward the ground, unsure what to do.

"Sam?" he asked quietly, shaking her body.

The young girl's eyes suddenly opened, and she started breathing heavily.

"Sam?" he repeated, as she looked at him. "Are you okay?"

Sam shit her eyes closed, and nodded her head.

"Was it a nightmare?" he asked.

Sam nodded her head again, and Oscar just looked at her, unsure of what to do. Sam just lowered her head, and Oscar just pulled his arm around her.

"It's okay," he said, as the crying girl holds onto him. "I got you."

Kelly, Ike, Paul, Amanda, and Trevin watched as the two survivors from before left, holding a couple of new handguns and some ammunition. In a corner of the main lobby sat a pile of food, something that'll last the survivors a week or two if they use it accordingly.

As the group wandered away from the door, and everyone disbanded, aside from Kelly and Paul, who stayed in the lobby.

"See, they were good people." Paul says, a big smirk on his face. "Nothing to worry about."

"Still, we didn't know that. What if they had taken you and Trevin by surprise, then killed Amanda before anyone could take them down?" Kelly asks.

Paul tenses up and clenches his fist, and Kelly notices it right away.

"Paul," she says. "When was the last time you got your hands on some of your medication?"

"It's been... too long." he says, taking a deep breath.

"Alright, just, calm down." she says, walking over to him, slowly.

As Kelly gets to the tense Paul, she cautiously puts her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. Kelly, in fear of Paul accidentally hurting anyone, reaches for his pistol which is in his back pocket. Sensing this, Paul turns around quickly, and hits Kelly across the face. She falls down to the floor, hitting the ground with a solid thud, clenching her jaw.

It takes Paul a moment to realize what he just did, and he looks down at Kelly, who's on the floor, spitting blood out of her mouth. He just backs away, and turns without notice and leaves the room.

Kelly just lies on the floor, blood dripping from her mouth, clenching onto her jaw.

"Oh my God, Kelly?" she hears the familiar voice of Ryker ask, and before she knows it, he's kneeling down next to her, looking at her. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine," she lied. "Just-- can you get me the medical supplies?"

"Of course." he said, before quickly walking off.

Manning ran through the streets, carrying the screaming and crying Julia over his shoulder. Jake, Langston, and Trent ran quickly behind them, killing any zombies they need to. Manning suddenly takes a sharp left into an alleyway, and the three follow him.

As they enter the empty alleyway, Jake closes the gate, and very quickly, with the help of Paul, the two keep the zombies at bay there. Manning puts Julia onto the floor, where he takes a look at her ankle-- a huge bite mark imprinted there. Trent sat next to him, as Julia lied there crying.

"What do we do?" Trent asked.

Manning looks up from Julia's wound, seeing a hatchet a few feet away from her. He quickly reaches over, grabbing it, and looking at it, before looking up at Trent.

"Give me your belt." Manning says, in a panic.

Trent complies, quickly taking off his belt and passing it to Manning. Manning takes the belt, and wraps it right above Julia's ankle, taking a deep breath.

"What are you doing?" Trent asked.

"I gotta cut it off. Hold her down." Manning quickly says.

Trent complies, holding down the crying Julia by her shoulders. Manning takes one last at the hatchet in his hand, and then back at Julia's ankle, before taking a big swing, which connects with the area right above the ankle. As Julia screamed, and the blood spurted out, Manning did it again. He did it again, and again, and again, until Julia's ankle was completely separated from the rest of her body. Trent looks away grossed out, and Paul and Jake watch from their spots at the gate. Manning quickly takes off his shirt, and wraps it around the area he cut off from Julia's leg, in an effort to stop the bleeding.

Ella sat on one of the beds from one of the jail cells. She hummed a song silently to herself, as she read a book entitled, "The Great Gatsby".

"Hey, Ella?" Ryker asked, entering the cell.

"What's up, nerd?" she asked, smiling.

"Haha, very funny." he said, sarcastically. "I got that enough from the other students..." quickly noticing everything was getting awkward, he quickly looked back up at Ella. "I was just told to come in and check on your wound."

Ella nodded, "It's fine."

"Good," he said, nodding his head. "Good... are you feeling better?"

"Definitely."

"You don't need anything? Any food... water?"

Ella chuckled, "I'm fine. What about you?"

"Huh?"

"How are you doing?"

"Oh-- I'm good."

"Hmm... I don't think you are." she says, setting her book down, and hopping off the bed, walking over to him. "Something's wrong... let me guess... you're worried about your girlfriend?"

"Girlfriend?" he asked.

"Yeah, Julia!"

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Don't matter, what's wrong?"

Ryker sighed, "I don't know. Something isn't feeling right, y'know? I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach... something's off."

"You're thinking too much, nerd." she said, still smiling.

"I don't know... I hope so."

"Trust me on this, go sleep or something or talk to that hottie Olivia, eh?"

Ryker smiled, "I guess I'll go talk with Amanda."

"Just go have some fun or something. You look like a train wreck."

"Yeah, thanks..."

"No problem." she said, turning around and climbing back up onto the bed, as Ryker turned the other way.

Kelly sat in front of Olivia, who was taking a look at Kelly's face, inside of the infirmary.

"How'd this happen again?" she asked.

"It was an accident." Kelly says, sighing. "Stupid on my part."

"Uh-huh, sure..." she said, not believing anything Kelly is saying. "Luckily, I was always the better looking one, so no lost there, right?"

Kelly couldn't help but smile. "Not really the times for jokes-- but let's face it. With my swollen and bruised jaw I look better than you from your ninth grade prom..."

"Girl, you better watch yourself." Olivia says, smiling. "But, in all seriousness, you should be fine... may hurt for a day or two though, and if it doesn't get better... let's just hope we don't have to put stitches in."

Kelly just nodded her head in agreement. "So," Olivia continued. "I saw you and Ike cuddling over there..."

"Watch it..." warned Kelly.

"Just making a comment. I'm guessing the talk went well?"

"Yeah, went better than expected. Ike's a good guy, whether he knows it or not."

"Good to hear." Olivia says. "Now, tell me... how did this really happen?"

Paul sat next to Amanda on the floor in the main lobby, Paul rubbing his head with great stress. Amanda rubbed his back, trying to calm down Paul.

"So, you hit Kelly in the face?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, annoyed. "I didn't mean to do it-- it just happened! It all happened so fast-- I didn't even know I had hit her until she was on the ground."

Amanda nodded, trying not to show the fear that Amanda herself felt. "It's ok. I'm sure she'll understand."

"I think she will too. It's the others-- the others won't accept me."

"Yes they will, you just gotta let me talk to them beforehand."

Paul nodded, and leaned backwards so his head rest against the wall behind them. Amanda forced a smile, and hugged him, when suddenly the door burst open, and Trent, Langston, and Manning came in quickly, followed by Jake who was holding Julia. Amanda and Paul immediately hopped up, looking at the five.

"What happened?" Amanda asks.

Paul looks at the unconscious Julia, seeing her foot missing. "What happened to her foot?" he asks.

"We'll explain later!" Manning exclaims. "Where's Olivia?"

"She's back in the infirmary." Paul says, quickly.

"Good," Jake says, as he started rushing down the corridor, Julia in his arms.

Jake quickly runs into the infirmary, where Kelly and Olivia were still chatting. The two look at him, and immediately hop up. Jake walks toward them, slowly.

"What happened to her?" Olivia asked.

"Can you fix her?" Jake asked, putting Julia down on the bed.

"Yeah, maybe!" Olivia exclaims. "Go get me a towel, the rubbing alcohol-- now!"

Credits

 * Kelly Gay
 * Olivia Bell
 * Jake Munoz
 * Paul Alexander
 * Ike Dennis
 * Amanda Dixon
 * Langston Otto
 * Julia Riley
 * Ryker Daniels
 * Trevin
 * Manning
 * Oscar Manning
 * Sam
 * Ella
 * Two Unnamed Survivors

Deaths

 * None