Fear The Living/Issue 68

This is Issue 68 of Fear The Living.

Issue 68
D.L.'s POV

I look at Ashley, who hesitantly brings her hand back to her side, but she still stares at me. “Come on, just trust me. I have a knife, and I’m bigger than you, if I wanted to attack you I would have already.” I say, holding up the knife.

“Good point, but your still just a stranger, I don’t think I can trust somebody I know nothing about.” Ashley says.

“Well, I was just recently in a group, I jumped off the truck we were in, we were getting surrounded by biters, so I distracted the biters and I ran into these woods. This man he’s a bandit, and these bandits just drove us out of our house in the motel. Our group got separated, and I already told you what happened.” I say.

“What about your shoulder, what’s up with it.” She says, and the pain from the injury finally kicking in.

“I got shot with an arrow, and it hurts like a mother fucker.” I say, clenching my hand around my wound.

“Here let me take a look at that.” Ashley says, and she walks over to me, and stands behind me, then she puts her hand on top of the wound.

“Fuck.” I say, retracting my arm.

“Just sit down, it will make this easier.” She says, so I sit down, and she crouches behind me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“This is bad, did you force the arrow out of one end?” She asks, still examining my wound.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“I got pushed to the ground, and the arrow just popped through my shoulder. You can imagine why I was losing the fight against that guy, he kept putting pressure on the wound.” I say, wincing again as she places her hand on the wound again.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Come on stop being such a big baby, it’s either you hold in the pain and let me try to fix this up, or you will have an open wound which is just begging for infection.” She says, and she places her hands on the wound again.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Fuck, do you know what you’re doing, had any medical experience?” I ask her.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Yeah, some, I trained to become a nurse, but I just stopped doing it, I decided to follow my dream of becoming an actor. Then this whole shit happened, and I tried remembering whatever nursing I could remember, it’s actually come in handy believe it or not, enough about me, tell me something about you.” She says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Well I guess it’s fair if I tell you my real name, never told anyone my real name since my daughter died at the beginning of all of this.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Oh, I’m sorry about that.” She says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“It’s okay, it’s kind of faded away actually, kind of don’t remember it. Suppressed I guess, well I guess you want to know my name. It’s uh, Daniel Alvarez. After I had a falling out with my parents and family I legally changed my name to Daniel Lopez, after one of my childhood friends. Never knew what happened to the guy.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">She finally stands up from the crouch she was in, and says “Well I did my best that I could with the wound, it’s still going to hurt, but at least it won’t get worst.”.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I push myself up with my good arm, and I turn around so I can thank her. “Thanks, uh, Ashley.” I say, smiling.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“No problem.” She says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;">We’re both quiet for a while, staring at each other. Then she leans forward and kisses me, I return the kiss. I push her against the tree behind her and I continue to kiss her.

<p style="text-align:center;">Ben Renolds's POV

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I stare out at the road, night has fallen quickly, and I’m trying to find a good place for us to hide for the night. I look to my side and see David, half asleep.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Wake up sleeping ugly bastard, help me find a place in between these trees to park this convoy. Don’t look at me like that, would you rather go to sleep and wake up to a ton of biters or help me through this and then find a bunch of biters.” I say, still looking out of the front window.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Just find some damn place, I’m sleepy, it’s been a long day.” David says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Hey I got beat up and shot at just as much as you did, I’m just as tired as you are, but I got to get us to at least somewhere where we can sleep. So just help me scout this place out and I can just park here, and you can get your sleep.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Sure, but you owe me big time for this.” David says, and he lets out a loud yawn.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Just come one sleeping asswipe.” I say, and I park the convoy, I fling my door open, I grab the flashlight next to me, and I put my pistol into its holster.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I stand in front of the convoy, and David moves to the front, yawning again. “Wake up, we got to make sure this place is safe before we can all go to sleep.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Fine but hurry up before I fall asleep on you.” David says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“So, David I just remembered something, remember when I told you I looked into your case, talked to your family and everything. Well that’s bullshit, I actually told Daniel to be in the sewers that day, I told Officer A.J. to make the plan and recruit the others to make sure you did it. I gave him the guns obviously. But what I don’t understand is why Daniel Jones turned on you.” I say, and I start moving around the tree’s around the convoy, checking every crook and cranny, which David also does.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“He told me that ‘they’ were forcing him to, and they would kill him if he didn’t succeed in killing me. He looked really scared and anxious, then he gave me this speech that if I killed him I would go back to being that which I had set out to destroy inside myself. He said I would become that heartless brutal murderer again. He was partially correct, I am a murderer still.” David says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I stop in my place, about to look through another crook, and I turn to David. “Look David, you aren’t a bad man, we’ve all done the kinds of shit we never would have expected to do in an apocalypse. Just look at me, I used to be a fucking police officer before all of this, and now look at me, killing to survive. I was actually in a safe zone before meeting y’all. The military was harsh there, killing people for the slightest of misdemeanors, so I escaped there, a big firefight occurred between us, I had also taken my girlfriend with me. The military shot her dead, and that’s when something snapped in my head, and I realized, that’s how the world works now a days, you kill other to survive. You kill other to make yourself feel safer, you do the nastiest of things just to stay alive. You kill another fellow human being over a fucking can of beans. We all are murderers now David, we just choose whether or not to let ourselves be changed by the kills, whether we consider killing just something regular, or the taken of a human life, that you can never bring back.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;">I continue to search, “Thanks Ben, I’ve just always kind of-holy shit.” I hear David say, and I turn around to see a herd in front of us.

<p style="text-align:center;">Ken Myers Jr.'s POV

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I wake up in the tent again, a blanket wrapped on top of me, and Rose lying next to me, sleeping. I shake my head once again, and I look around the tent for my clothes. I find them flung into a pile in the corner of the tent, so I grab them and put them on quickly. I stretch my arms upward, and let out a big yawn. I crouch down so I’m next to Rose, and I tap her on her shoulder, causing her to wake up.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Hey sexy.” She says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Hey beautiful.” I say, and I plant a kiss on her lips.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“You were good.” She says, smirking at me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Ok little miss horny, did I prove my love for you now?” I ask, jokingly, with a smirk on my face and an eyebrow raised.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Of course, and more.” She says laughing.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Well, I’m going to go check on Logan, you can go back to sleep if you want.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Nah, I’m already awake, I’ll just go back to counting the supplies, I was almost done when your sexiness interrupted.” Rose says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Man you really were horny weren’t you?” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Maybe, maybe not.” She says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Well, okay. Love you.” I say, and I kiss her again.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I open up the front of the tent and close it again when I step outside. I look around and see Logan sleeping in the same spot as before, poor kid hasn’t been sleeping well lately, no wonder he’s slept for so long today.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I walk over to him and I tap him on the shoulder, but he doesn’t wake up. So instead I lift him off the ground and I place him back down. He slowly turns onto his back, and he looks up. He opens his eyes and looks at me, and I can’t help but laugh.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Get up sleepy head, I’ve got a surprise for you, how do you feel about going hunting with me?” I ask Logan.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Awesome!” He exclaims, and I help him get up on his feet.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Let me just tell Rose and we’ll be on our way shortly.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I walk back to the tent, and I unzip the front just a little, I look inside and see Rose putting on her shirt.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Hey Rose, me and Logan are going to go hunting for some food. Look over stuff while we’re gone.” I say, and then she walks to me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Of course.” She says, and kisses me.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I walk back to Logan, and I look at the weapons that we have. I grab the one rifle we have and fling it over my shoulder. I look at Rose’s gun, and I hand it to Logan.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Since you already know how to use this one I guess I’ll just give you this one.” I say.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">“Thanks.” He says, and looks at the gun.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"">I see two knives, and I hand one to Logan, and I put the other in my pocket, and then I see a single grenade lying down, I quickly grab it and put it in my pocket.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10.5pt;line-height:115%;">“Let’s go Logan.” I say, and we both walk into the woods.