Low on Time/Issue 26

This is issue twenty-six of Low on Time, entitled: Fourteen.

Issue 26; Fourteen
Two months later

As the sun rose on a cold December morning on the farm house that we saw last, but with some notable changes. On the front lawn, there were a bunch of tents set up, with people hanging around them. There was an outpost next to the house, with a large man holding a sniper rifle looking down on everyone else.

Inside the house, Kelly woke up, next to the already awake Langston, who was smiling seeing her wake up. He kissed her on the forehead, but she just brushed him off, getting up.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up.

She looked back at him, so emotionless.

"You know what's wrong." she said, putting on a pair of jeans.

"There's nothing we could've done, Kel. You know that."

"He died cause I couldn't cover him. He was 14 years old, Langston... it was only supposed to be a simple supply run."

"I know, Kelly." he said, getting up. "He was a good kid, we won't let the bandits get away with this."

Langston walked over to her, as she put on a pink shirt. He hugged her from behind, kissing her on the neck, to which she smiled.

"Not right now, I'm gonna go for a quick walk. Go get some more scouting teams out there." she said, starting to walk away.

"Kelly," he said, prompting her to turn around. "We can't house more people, we have 29 here with the addition of the Manning family, and with bandits fucking us over on almost every supply run... I don't know how many more we can fit."

"As many as we can." she quickly replied, leaving the room.

When she got into the hallway, she saw Amanda walking with Jake, and an unfamiliar face. He was in his late twenties, with black hair.

"Hey, Trevin." Kelly called, and he turned around.

"Kelly, my girl; how's it going?" he asked, very energetically.

"Not well. How's Nolan doing?" she asked.

"He's going to make a full recovery, Doc says." he said, smiling.

"Take me to him?"

"Of course, follow me." he said.

Trevin and Kelly started to walk through the house. There was a couple of new faces in the kitchen, cooking breakfast for a couple of kids, who were sitting at the counter. Kelly patted one on the head, as she walked past the young boy, still following Trevin. Trevin led her outside, immediately hitting a cold breeze when they stepped outside. Trevin led Kelly to a big black tent, going inside. As Kelly walked in, she saw a young man, about her age, lying down on the bed, passed out; and a Puerto-Rican lady sitting next to him.

"How's he doing, Doc?" asked Trevin, smiling.

The lady turned around, seeing Trevin and Kelly, and smiled.

"He's doing good. We're lucky Paul was able to stop the bleeding as quickly as he did. From there on, it was quite easy, he should awaken soon." she said.

"That's great news, Grace." Kelly said, cracking a smile.

"Of course." she said, then turning to Trevin. "Can you leave us to speak, please?" she asked.

Trevin nodded, and left the tent, leaving the two with the sleeping Nolan.

"Did Ike get the meds?" Kelly asked, nervously.

"He did." Grace said, going into a small bag, pulling out a bottle of pills; and passing them to Kelly. Kelly looked down on them, and smiled.

"These will do just fine, thank you." Kelly said.

"Of course. And, how is your hip feeling?"

"Still hurting a bit-- but I'm just glad I only bruised my hip; and it wasn't something severe."

"That's a nice way to look at it." Grace said.

"Well, I'll talk to you later Doc." Kelly said, turning around.

"Take care!" Doc said, as Kelly left the tent.

Paul, Owen, and Kira sat in the basement of the house with three people. One of them was a middle aged woman, one was a teenage boy, and the other was a young boy.

"And, what can you do here to help us out?" asked Paul.

"My son is an excellent shot." the lady said, looking at the teenage boy.

"Yeah, I'm pretty good." he said, nodding his head.

"Thank you for the offer, but we're not looking to put kids out there." Paul said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, not after last time." Kira said, shaking her head.

"We can put him on guard duty with Tiger." Owen said, butting in.

"Tiger?" asked the little boy.

"Tiger, Oscar, is our best shot here. He can train your boy good; and being lookout isn't too much danger." Owen said.

"I can do that." the teenager said.

"Ok, Manning. We got another lookout." Kira said, writing his name down.

"And what about yourself, Jamie?" asked Paul.

The mother smiled, and thought long and hard for an answer. "I'm not good in the farms; but I'm a fast learner... I can try to do that."

"Alright, I think we can do that." Paul said, nodding his head.

"What can I do?" asked Oscar. The boy looked very excited to do something around there, which made Kira smile.

"How about you help your mother?" asked Paul.

Oscar nodded his head, quickly in excitement.

"Ok, we don't need anymore. You can go." Paul said.

The family of three got up, and went upstairs, leaving Paul, Kira, and Owen. Kira sighed, and sat back in her chair. Owen tapped her on her shoulder, and she looked at him.

"We'll find him." he said.

"It's been two months, Owen. The odds are we won't find him or anyone else." Kira said.

"There's a big area we didn't get the chance to search yet. Maybe we'll find him there."

"In the housing development? Who's stupid enough to go there?"

"Someone who's desperate." Paul said, sitting down on the table Kira was sitting at.

Kira nodded, and put her head on the table. Paul patted her head, and Owen stood awkwardly behind her.

Ike sat alone in his room, staring at the ceiling, listening to his iPod. There was a knock on his door, and the door creaked open, Olivia's head peeking in. She walked in, and over to Ike, who took out one of his ear buds.

"Yes?" he asked, obviously annoyed.

"Come on out, Ike." Olivia said, smiling. "You've been in here for two weeks, and you haven't spoken to anyone in days."

"There's no point." he muttered. "No one here likes me anyways... I'm probably going to leave the group anyways."

"You can't leave, you wouldn't make it out there alone."

"I'd rather be dead and happy, then miserable and alive." he said.

"Why don't you come out to get something to eat then? We're all worried about you."

"Who's 'all'? You, and maybe Kelly? I don't care that much." he said, turning away from her.

Olivia put her hand in her face, and looked down on Ike. She wasn't sure if she should feel bad for him, or if she should just not care; but either way, she decided it would be best to do it another time. She slowly got up, and walked out of the room, leaving Ike.

Julia and Ryker walked along the farm, planting seeds so that they start growing.

"Did Langston find any more inhalers?" asked Ryker, as he put a seed in the dirt.

"We got a couple more, although they're just for insurance. We've been having a lot of good luck with just talking you down, as of now." Julia said.

"Awesome... so, what do you think of the whole bandit war thing?" he asked.

Julia sighed. "I don't like it, not one bit." she said.

"Yeah, it's freighting to say the least."

"Just, don't worry about it, Ry." she said. "We'll be fine. This is a nice place we got here."

"Do you mind if I join you?" a voice called from behind them.

The two turned around, seeing Manning walking towards them.

"Of course." Julia said.

Manning walked over to the two, smiling. "Name's Manning." he said, putting his hand out for Julia to shake.

"I'm Julia." she said, shaking it.

Ryker shook his hand next, "I'm Ryker."

"Yeah, you two seem to be the only people my age here; and I'm glad I'm not alone in this." he said.

"Yeah, we're relieved too. Although, some of the people here are just like us." Julia said.

Manning nodded, smiling. "So, you guys related?" he asked.

"Oh, no." she said, looking at Ryker. "We're just good friends."

"Yeah, she's much cooler than my real sister." Ryker said, smiling.

Julia smiled, punching his arm playfully.

"I'm amazed." Manning said, looking at them. "Most people are total fucktards nowadays."

Julia giggled, with Ryker smiling awkwardly.

"Well, not everyone here is like us... so don't get used to it." Julia said, smiling.

"Well, it's better some are than none are." he said, looking at Julia.

Ryker suddenly smiled from ear to ear, causing Julia to look at him strangely. "What's wrong with you?" she asked.

"I know what's going on here..." he said, trying to be as vague as possible. "I'll just be going." he said, walking away from the two.

Manning and Julia watch him leave. Julia turned back towards Manning.

"What was he going on about?" he asked.

"Don't play stupid." she said, smiling.

"Ok." he said, giving it up. "But, I'm glad you're not a fucktard."

"You're not the best smooth-talker, are you?"

"Nope. Not at all." he said, and the two just giggled a bit.

"It gets easier." she said.

Manning nodded, smiling. "So, you wanna go for a walk?" he asked.

Julia nodded, smiling, and the two started walking away from the farm.

Jake and Amanda walked together, checking the perimeter for any signs of zombies or bandits. Jake led Amanda along the perimeter. Amanda slightly tugged on his arm, prompting Jake to turn around her.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Why do you think the military never came for us after all this time?" she asked, quietly.

Jake sighed, stopping in his tracks. "They got destroyed because they weren't prepared, and couldn't adapt... like we did."

Amanda nodded. She wanted an answer to help calm her nerves, and she got one.

"Thanks." she said, practically in a whisper.

"No problem." he said, putting his arm around her.

She quickly pushed herself away from him, backing away in fear.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She suddenly started to blink a lot, like she came back to reality. "I'm sorry." she muttered.

"Are you okay?" he repeated.

"Can you finish the search by yourself?" she asked.

"Of course." he said.

Amanda hurried away, with Jake watching her, confused to say the least.

Kelly sat in her bedroom, examining a rifle in her hand. The door opened, and Olivia walked in. Kelly turned towards her, and forced a smile.

"Hi." she said weakly.

"Kelly, we need to talk about Ike." Olivia said.

"He still hasn't left his room?"

"No. He's seriously depressed. Someone needs to talk to him."

"Can you blame him? Most people here look down on him."

"Can you just talk to him? I'm really worried he might do something extreme."

"Don't worry about it, Olivia." Kelly said. "I can handle this."

Langston stood in front of five able-bodied men, Trevin included.

"Alright, a couple of days ago, we lost young Johnny. He was only 14 years old, and was killed by those fucking bandits. We can't let them get away with this act of monstrosity. We are going to go scout out for their base, or just try and see where they're holed up. We need to take them down."

"Yeah, but Langston..." one of the men started. "How can we possibly take them down? Last time we saw them, they had a good thirty or forty people."

"Easy. If we catch them by surprise, or just get them surrounded we can easily take them down."

"How long will this be? My wife will be pissed if I'm gone too long." one of the other guys said.

"It'll only be an hour or so. Tell her not to be worried." Langston said, smiling.

"Alright, let's go then."

The six men started to leave the farm, as some of the others watch them from the front lawn.

Ike sat at the edge of his bed, taking a sip of beer. His door opened, and Kelly stormed in.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked.

He looked up at her, and rolled his eyes, lying back down.

"Ike, I know you're going through this fucking depression or something, but you gotta snap out of it, buddy."

"It's not as easy as it looks, sister."

Kelly sat down next to him, and he sat up again, looking at Kelly.

"I know how hard life can be; and I know you think everyone here hates you, but they don't. I don't. Ike, you probably don't know this, but I care about you a lot. You help me keep going; just by being around. We've been through too much together, for you to just give up and stop talking to everyone, to me." she said, and Ike just remained silent, looking at her. "Remember, about a month ago, we were on a supply run, and you fell off the roof? You asked me to keep going, leave you behind; which I wouldn't do. If, I really hated you like you think everyone does, I would've left you without question."

Ike sighed, looking at Kelly. "I'm sorry." he simply said.

"Don't be sorry, just stop ignoring everyone, please."

Ike nodded, and Kelly gave him a light hug.

"Come with me. There's a new kid who I want you to start training." Kelly said, standing up.

"Is the kid annoying?" Ike asked.

"He seems cool enough. One of those skater dudes."

"My forte." he said, sarcastically.

Kelly smiled, holding out her hand to him. He slowly took her hand, and she helped him up.

Credits

 * Kelly Gay
 * Olivia Bell
 * Jake Munoz
 * Kira Fulton
 * Paul Alexander
 * Ike Dennis
 * Trent Jones
 * Owen Horne
 * Amanda Dixon
 * Langston Otto
 * Julia Riley
 * Ryker Daniels
 * Trevin
 * Grace Rutherford
 * Nolan Fitzgerald
 * Jamie Manning
 * Manning
 * Oscar Manning

Deaths

 * None