Low on Time/Issue 27

This is issue twenty-seven of Low on Time, entitled: Memories.

Issue 27; Memories
Manning and Julia walked along the perimeter of the farm, making sure not to get too far away from the crowd of survivors up the field. Kelly and Ike walked over to them, walking past a couple of survivors, who were jogging down the field.

"Hey Kelly, Ike!" one lady said to them as they passed them.

"Hey!" Kelly called.

Manning and Julia heard the talking and saw them walking to them. They walked over to them, and met them halfway.

"Kelly, Ike, what's up?" Julia asked.

"Enough with your flirting, love-birds." Kelly said, smirking.

"Oh, well, uh..." Manning started.

"It was a joke, kid."

"Oh right, sorry."

"It's fine. This is Ike, Ike this is Manning." Kelly said introducing the two.

"Hey," Manning said, holding his hand out to shake Ike's hand. Ike hesitantly shook it, not taking his eyes off of Manning.

"I'm here to train you, Manning, so, from this point on, Manning, you're my responsibility." Ike said, talking like an army instructor. "You die or get hurt it's on me; so, let's do a nice clean sweep of Infected down in the woods, not too far into the woods, whatta ya say?" Ike asked, pulling out a pistol out of his back pocket, and passing it to Manning, who fumbled with it before catching it.

"Yeah, sure. But, what about your guy, Tiger I think his name is?" he said, nervously.

"Change of plans, now let's go. If we're fast enough we can get back here before dark."

Manning looked at Julia, who was smiling.

"We'll continue this later." Julia said, who walked away with Kelly.

Manning looked at Ike, who had his arms crossed looking at him. "Let's go." Ike said.

Kira sat at a table outside, and watched over the children who ran in the backyard of the farmhouse, playing tag, Oscar among them. She loved it, it reminded Kira of when she was little, and it reminded her of life before the outbreak; and her sisters. But, she knew it was a longshot that she would ever see those two again, so she just keeps her mind off of them, and helps with the kids she's stuck with. Owen walked over to her, and sat down next to her, smiling.

"What's up with you?" she asked, also smiling now.

"Nothing much, just, today's a good day.  It's starting to get nicer out, thank God the winter is gone." he said, putting his feet up on the table.

"Why?  You're not gonna miss the snow?" she asked, sarcastically.

"Nah, I'm glad it's gone... although I do find it weird."

"Find what weird?" asked Kira.

"Winter used to be my favorite season.  I loved the snow, Christmas, the cold weather... but now it's the worst fucking experience ever."

Kira laughed, which made Owen laugh a little too.

"I always liked Spring, so, this is my time of year." she said.

"Hey, assholes!" a voice called over to them, making them both turn around. They saw Olivia walking towards then, smiling. "The fact that you guys respond to 'assholes' really says something about you, doesn't it?" she asked, sitting down next to them.

"Maybe, maybe not." Owen said, smiling.

"Right..." she said, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, Kira, I was hoping we could do girls night today.  Me, you, Kelly..."

"Girl's night?  It's the goddamn apocalypse!" Owen said.

"So, we can still try and relax, just the females." Olivia protested.

"He's just jealous he can't come." Kira said, looking at Owen and smirking.

Owen just shook his head, smiling. "Fine y'all have girls night tonight.  But if tomorrow I decide to get drunk and chill with the dudes, don't get mad at us."

The two cars drove down the empty road. In one car, Langston sat in the passenger seat, with Trevin in driver's seat. Trevin paid close attention to the road, while Langston sat back, shotgun on his lap. In the back, a middle aged Asian man, sat fiddling around with his pistol, which was spray-painted blue.

"So, how is this gonna work? the guy in the back asked.

"Yeah, Langston..." Trevin started. "Do we just honk our horn and hope a survivor in need comes out?"

"No, we'll do it in pairs of two." Langston said, looking from Trevin to the other man. "We'll search as many houses as we feel necessary."

"What if someone thinks we're bandits and shoot on sight? I mean, come on, six grown men..."

"Yeah, he has a point, Langston." the Asian man said.

"Well, just don't worry about it. We shouldn't have a problem, never do." Langston said, brushing them off.

Trevin dropped the subject, looking back out on the road. The car in front of them stops, and Trevin steps on his brakes subsequently, pushing all three men forward.

"Goddamit." Trevin said, unbuckling his seatbelt.

Langston and the other man does the same, and they walk over to the other car, where the three other man are getting out too.

"What the hell, man!" Trevin called over to the driver.

"I'm sorry, but I saw something." the driver said.

"You couldn't have given us a warning?"

"Sorry, kinda slipped past my mind." he said, looking down.

"It's fine," Langston said. "What did you see?"

"I saw a campfire in the woods, with a couple of tents. Thought it was worth checking out."

Langston and Trevin looked over, seeing a small fire burning, with two tents set up.

"Trevin, go take a team." Langston said. "I just need a moment to relax, my head's starting to hurt." Langston said, leaning against the car.

"Yes, sir." Trevin said. "You two come with me." he said, pointing to two of the other guys. "And remember, I'll do all the talking."

The two nodded, and the three grabbed their weapons, walking into the woods. Langston sat back against the car, the driver sitting next to him.

"You okay, sir?" he asked.

"I'm fine, just under the weather." he said.

"Ok, well if you need anything, tell me. I got the first-aid kit in the truck."

Langston nodded, closing his eyes.

Nolan woke up in his tent, sitting up instantly, breathing heavily, and sweating profusely. Grace looked over at him, and walked over to him.

"Nolan, about time you woke up." she said.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You got shot by a bandit. Don't worry though, they got the bastard. How are you feeling?"

"Like hell." he plainly said, groaning a bit.

"That's normal. I'll give you some painkillers, but other then that, you should be good to go." she said.

Nolan slowly nodded, lying his head back down on the pillow.

Jake sat with Paul in Paul's room.

"So, the weirdest thing happened with Amanda today." Jake said, catching Paul's attention. "And not like, her normal weird, like weirder than that."

"What happened?" asked Paul, confused.

"I put my arm around her, not like in a sexula way or anything, as in a friendship kinda thing, to make her feel comfortable and she looked like I was about to fucking rape her." he said, not taking his eye off of Paul. "You're the closest one to her here, do you know what happened?"

Paul slowly nodded. "Don't worry about it." he said, forcing a smile. "I'll talk to her about it later."

Jake nodded, standing up, and walking out of the room, while Paul stood up and walke dover to his window, where Amanda was with Ryker.

Ike and Manning walked through the woods, both holding pistols in their hands. A zombie walked slowly towards Manning, who pulled out his gun, ready to shoot.

"Go for it." Ike said.

Eager to impress, Manning took a shot, but the bullet barely grazed it's cheek. "Damn it." he muttered to himself, firing another bullet, this one hitting it in it's throat. He goes to shoot again, put instead get's the clicking sound of the pistol. "Fuck!" he mutters, backing up, trying to reload the pistol.. pistol. The zombie got closer to Manning, where he backed up, frantically. Ike watched on, looking on curiously. Manning backed up some more, tripping over a big branch. As the zombie practically got on top of Manning, a bullet went through it's head, and it fell over, landing on the leaves. Manning looked up, and Ike was standing over him, holding out his gun. Ike helped Manning up, who brushed a few leaves off of him.

"Thanks." he said, taking a deep breath.

"No problem, kid. You wanna go again?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah sure." he quickly replied.

"This time, try to hit the zombie." Ike sarcastically said. "Here comes another one." he said.

Manning looked over, seeing a zombie come from behind a tree. Manning finished reloading the gun, and took aim. Manning took a shot, and the bullet went through the zombie's eye, killing it instantly.

"Nice shot!" Ike said, energetically. "Just a few more, and we'll head back. Don't want your mom to get too worried, do we?"

Manning nodded, taking aim at another zombie that came around. Manning fired another shot, hitting it in the forehead. Manning smiled watching the zombie fall.

Amanda and Ryker walked along the house, watching as a couple of the kids ran around playing tag.

"How have you been, Amanda?" asked Ryker, looking up at her.

"Fine." she said, although she was a bad liar, and she knew it.

"Come on, you can trust me."

Amanda just looked at Ryker suspiciously, which creeped out the young teen.

"Sorry, just wanted to help." he said, after a small pause.

"It's ok, it's not your fault." she said.

Ryker nodded, and Amanda smiled lightly.

"Hey, guys." Paul called over to them, walking towards them.

"Hey Paul." Amanda said, relieved to see him.

"Hi." Ryker said plainly.

"Hey, kid, can you go check on Kira for me? Haven't seen her in a while." Paul said, looking at Ryker, who just nodded and walked off.

Paul and Amanda watched him leave, and when he was out of hearing distance, Paul turned towards Amanda, warily looking at her.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"What happened between you and Jake earlier?" he asked.

Amanda sighed, and a feeling of pain went over her. "When he touched me earlier, even though it was just a friendly pat on the back... it triggered the memories-- from, you know..."

Paul nodded, not needing to hear anymore. "Ok, I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I am... thank you." she lied, rubbing her own shoulder.

"Remember, if you need any help or anyone to talk to... I'm here. And if you'd rather talk to Doc, then I'd understand, she's professional." Paul said.

Amanda just nodded, and Paul walked away.

Trevin took his group of three up to the campfire, where a young man sat, tending to the fire. He looked up, seeing the three guys walking towards him, and he backed away, off instinct, tripping over himself. Trevin could clearly see his face, he was a young Asian kid, wearing a neon blue shirt and skinny jeans. He had very long hair, both on his head and on his face; he was probably out there for a while.

"We don't wanna hurt you." Trevin said.

"That's what the last group of guys said, and then they took my friends!" he spat out, standing up, and backing away, slowly.

"Woah, man, we ain't the same people." Trevin said, lowering his gun.

"You're lying!" he exclaimed. "You're gonna kill me."

"No, we're not, you can trust us."

"No, no, I can't." he said, still backing away.

"Yes, you can. I know you want to at least try."

"But, if I'm wrong--" he said.

"You won't be. I give you my word." Trevin said, motioning his two friends to lower their guns, which they hesitantly do.

The man looked down, knowing he was screwed either way. If he didn't join them, he'd die out there alone, and if he did, there was a chance they'd kill him. After a brief moment, the man looked at them, slowly, and nodded. "Fine." he said.

"Kid, what's your name?" asked Nolan.

"I'm--I'm Trent." he said, tripping over his words.

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
 * Manning
 * Oscar Manning

Deaths

 * None