Dead Frontier/Issue 55

This is Issue #55 of Dead Frontier by Walkerbait22, titled Easy As Pie. This is the first issue of Volume 10.

Issue 55 - Easy As Pie
Frank pulls his backpack over his shoulder and clips a leash to Wrigley's collar. "I've been wondering," Frank asks, "where have you all been staying?" They all still stand on the sidewalk in front of the convenience store. Frank is fiddling with his fingers nervously.

“Doesn’t matter,” Finn says, “because I think it’s best if we go our different directions, right Frank?”

“Oh, come on...” Frank stops, realizing he knows none of their names.

“Finn.”

“Yeah, Finn. I don’t even have a car, man. And look at you all: clean, not skin and bones like I am. You gotta be saying someplace nice, yeah?”

“It’s just an office building. Nothing special,” Billie says.

“Better than sleeping in an old store that smells like shit. Just a few nights, that’s all. You let me and Wrigley into wherever you are and...and then we’ll be on our way. You...you got beds?”

“A few mattresses, yeah.”

Frank’s face lights up. “Oh, what I’d give to sleep on a Goddamn mattress!...And you don’t even understand what it’s like out there, alone. With no one to talk to. It starts fucking with your mind, you start talking to yourself...” He sees their raised eyebrows and stops. “I’m not crazy or anything. You have to believe me. Just help a fellow out, guys. C’mon.”

“We can’t...” Finn starts, and looks at Frank for a while, pathetic, dirty, scrawny. Then he takes a glance at Wrigley; the dog’s ribs poke out of his sides, but his tongue still hangs out of his mouth happily. “Okay. Fine. We’ll take you back to our place for a few days. Then you’re out, okay? But first, we were gonna head to that men’s shop on Ashland and Addison.”

Frank practically jumps into the air, clapping his hands and then petting Wrigley’s head affectionately. “We gonna sleep in a bed tonight, Wrig!”

Finn can’t help but grin a little, and Billie squeezes his arm with a smile. “Just for a few nights,” he reminds her.

Cole trots down the stairs and through the hallway to the lobby, where Adam, Robbie, Devon, and Chloe play cards on a small table. He watches as they bet over snacks, declines offers to join, and waits patiently until the game is over. He sees Robbie ascending the steps, heading back to his room. "Hey, Robbie," Cole calls out.

"What's up?" Robbie replies door, and Cole follows him into the second floor hallway.

"Kinda wanted to talk to you about something."

"All ears right here."

"Okay, so...I've just been thinking a lot. About a lot of stuff, me and Hannah especially."

Robbie thinks he knows where this is going; he can feel the smile spreading on his face. "Mhm?"

"I've been thinking about proposing."

"To Hannah?!" Robbie asks, his voice full of excitement.

"No, to Finn. Yes, to Hannah. It's been about 6 years, and we've been through a lot...I just think I should.""

"Oh, man, that's great. That's great."

"I've been thinking about how I should do it, since I don't have a ring or anything. I've had a bunch of different ideas; I was just wondering if you'd help me?"

"Wait, you don't have a ring?" Robbie asks.

"Nah. I was looking around for one on my last run but...no."

"Hey, then I'll hook you up." Robbie pulls something out of his back pocket. "My grandma's old ring. She gave it to me before I left Mississippi. Kept it with me ever since." He happily hands it to Cole.

"No...you'd do that?"

"Of course. For y'all, anything."

"Wow. Wow, Rob. Thank you."

"Now you better make that proposal good.

Cole laughs. "I'll try. Maybe you can even do the honors of marrying us. If she, you know...says yes."

Robbie smiles wide, showing off all of his teeth. "Of course she'll say yes. And you know I'd love to."

Frank, Wrigley, Hannah, Billie, and Finn walk down the street towards Ashland and Addison and the men's clothing shop there. Frank whistles a tune and has Wrigley on a leash. "Hey, um, brunette," Frank says.

"Hannah," Hannah corrects him.

"Yeah. Hannah. How'd that happen?" He points to her stump, and she instinctively crosses her arms to hide it.

"Don't cross into that territory, Frank," Finn warns.

"Touchy subject. I get it. Well, then, can I ask about that scar?" He refers to the long scar on the side of Finn's the face, the one he received in his scuffle with the soldier trying to capture them in the Walmart.

"What did I just say?"

"Okay, okay. I won't ask anymore. Just trying to make conversation. You all aren't the most talkative bunch."

"Yes, because we don't usually converse with weird men on the street."

"What good is that dog, anyway?" Hannah asks, changing the subject. "Besides being your only companion. Seems like he'd be trouble because of the barking."

"Oh no," Frank says. "Wrigley is great. I've trained him not to bark whenever he sees an infected, or people. It took a while to teach him, and I almost got killed a few times, but it was worth it. And he can take 'em down, easy."

"Dogs don't get infected?"

"Guess not. Wrig's bitten chunks out of his fair share of them, and he's fine. He can't eat them though, or else he gets stomach pains. It ain't pleasant, to say the least."

"That's actually kind of awesome," Billie says.

"Isn't it?" Frank smiles at Wrigley as they approach the store.

"Now just be quiet, please, and search for any clothes." Finn pushes the door open to the men's shop and is greeted with mostly empty racks. "Great..." he mutters.

"Sit out here, Wrigley. Good boy," Frank says as Wrigley takes a seat on the concrete and he goes inside.

Frank pretends to search the shelves and the racks while keeping a careful eye on Finn. You've got to take out the strongest: the man. Take them by surprise. Once he's out, the girls will be easy as pie. Then he and Wrig'll have those cans in their pack and the clothes on their backs. And the car they told Frank they parked a few blocks away. It'll be glorious; he and Wrigley will be fed for another week, and that's all he can ask for nowadays.

Finn turns and sees Frank staring at him from across the store. Frank lowers his eyes quickly and pulls a pair of jeans off of a rack. He pretends to inspect it while peeking through the shop. They're all on opposite sides of the store. All he has to do is stab the tall guy, take his gun, and give the girls two clean shots between the eyes. Easy as pie. Frank wipes off his sweaty hands on his tattered pants and pulls a knife from his pack. He takes the jeans from the rack and carries them over his right hand, so the knife is concealed. He glances at the girls picking out jackets and shirts and walks over to Finn to make his move.

"What about these?" Frank asks, lifting up the jeans slightly. Finn glances back at them.

"Yeah, those are fine," he says absentmindedly, picking up a blue shirt.

Frank feels his body tense up as Finn turns away. The knife is firmly gripped in his hand, in the perfect position to stick the knife through Finn's back. Just one hard thrust of his arm...Finn turns back to Frank after a few seconds. "...You okay?" Finn asks.

The knife sticks out ever so slightly from under the jeans, but the gleam is unmistakable. Frank sees the flash of recognition in Finn's eyes and lunges with a yell. Finn, being much younger and stronger, delivers a punch to Frank's jaw. Crack. He hits the floor, and the knife rattles across the tile. Billie and Hannah rush across the store to see Finn give Frank a heel to the face.

"What the hell is going on?" Hannah asks as Billie pulls Finn away.

"This fucker tried to stab me! We gave you food and you want tried to stab me?!" Finn shouts.

Frank spits out a little blood and looks up at Finn. "...I'm sorry."

"Really? You're going to fucking apologize?"

"I just needed more food than you were willing to give me. Some meager fucking cans that'll last a few days...what the hell is that?"

"You're lucky we gave you anything at all."

Finn grabs Frank roughly by the collar and lifts him to his feet. He pulls Frank over to the check out counter. He pushes Frank's face onto the countertop and brings his hands behind his back. "Fuck, man! That hurt," Frank says, his cheek smashed against the counter.

"You see that?" Finn says to Billie and Hannah. "We shouldn't've given him anything."

"How were we supposed to know he was going to try and stab you?" Hannah replies.

Finn sighs. "I don't...What do we do with him?"

"You let me go, that's what you do," Frank says.

"Shut up." He turns back to Billie and Hannah, looking for an answer to his previous question.

"Drive him a few miles out? Get him far away from where we are?" Hannah suggests.

"Can we really spare the gas?"

Billie pulls Hannah to the side, enough so Frank is out of earshot. "Even if we do that, he'll know we do runs around this area. What if he comes back, looking for us?"

"Then...I don't know. Billie, you're not saying..."

"No. No way. I wouldn't do that. We can't just murder him." They both spin around when they hear a thump and a scream. Frank has managed to lunge backwards and hit Finn in the face with the back of his head. Finn holds his bleeding nose and hits the floor. Frank makes a break for the knife on the floor next to counter.

In just a few seconds, Billie and Hannah have their guns drawn, but not before Frank kneels next to Finn, the knife placed over his heart. Finn grabs Frank's wrists and jerks them to the side as he brings the blade down. Just in the nick of time, for the knife misses Finn's chest and hits him directly over the shoulder. Finn shouts in pain, and outside Wrigley scurries around nervously. Almost as soon as the blade enters, Hannah fires a round into the side of Frank's face. Their ears ring after the shot, but Frank isn't dead. His jaw is just obliterated and he yells something incoherent.

They both run over: Billie goes to Finn and Hannah to Frank. Hannah pulls off her pack and retrieves a wooden-handled hatchet. She turns her head to the side as she smashes it into Frank's forehead without a second thought.