Low on Time/Issue 48

This is issue forty-eight of Low on Time, entitled: All I Have Left.

Issue 48; All I Have Left
Kelly sat, arms crossed, next to Henry Smith, the so-called leader of the Smith-Franchise. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. She had such bad luck with people recently, how is she supposed to know if he won't turn on her? And on top of that, what if she said the wrong things? What if he kicked her and Ike back out on the streets to fend for themselves? She couldn't let that happen...

"So," Henry said, his perfect posture looking so forced. "How'd you find this place?"

"Well, uh, it kinda found us..." she said, her nervousness hiding behind that confident face she wears. "I mean, we were a wreck, running low on everything. I had an injured guy, your people found us. They saved us."

Henry nodded his head, almost approvingly. "And, what use could you be for us?"

"Well, what do you need?"

"What can you do to help ensure this place survives? This is the future, of course."

"I'm a survivor." she simply said, putting one leg over the other to get more comfortable. "I'm no stranger to hard work-- or killing, for that matter."

"And your friend...?"

"Give him a few weeks to recover, please." she suddenly said, a bit too quickly for Henry's liking. "He was really badly banged up, I'll do double the work, if necessary."

Henry let out a weak chuckle. "Thank you, but that won't be necessary."

"It won't?"

"Of course not, we survived for months without you two, we can wait on the assistance."

That answer was exactly what Kelly was looking for. She sat back, breathing a sigh of relief, to which Henry smiled. "Let me tell you a little story, Kelly. I was sent here in an effort to protect it's citizens. When everything started to crumble and everyone scattered, it seemed near impossible to try and retake the town. But I... I started the movement of the century. Finding the scattered survivors were easier then anticipated, and by that time, everyone was ready to kill all of these things. These things that took the lives of their loved ones. So, how did we do? We took it to the rooftops. All across the town, supplied with only a couple of guns and some firecrackers, the noise drew them to the streets, and from there they were easy pickings."

"Excuse me," Kelly interrupted, trying her best to be respectable as possible, but it was apparent how bored and tired she really was. "But, why are you telling me this?"

"You see, Kelly, a few months went by and everything was looking bright. Our population had reached three hundred-- but, something changed. We were attacked by other people, and not the dead one. They came in, guns blazing, we almost lost everything. And then... that was the icing on top of the cake. The dead are manageable... it's the living we have to prepare for, the ones who are most dangerous."

"Yeah, I kinda figured..." she mumbled to herself. Haunting memories of the attack on the farm started playing throughout her mind. The memories of Trevin, Olivia, Ryker, Julia-- all of them gone.

"See, we need more people on the walls." he finished. "You can never be too sure."

"Of course-- I'm on it." Kelly said.

"Perfect. You'll start tomorrow morning then." he said, rising from his seat, as Kelly does as well. Henry quickly shakes her hand, smiling. "Send in your friend please."

Kelly nodded, and walked out the front door, where Ike sat on the front steps with Katy. The two were smiling, laughing-- a little bit of flirting thrown into there too. She smiled, and tapped Ike on the shoulder. He turned toward her, looking up at her, and smiled.

"Hey, how'd it go?" he asked.

"Pretty good. He wants to talk to you next."

Ike nodded, and he put his hand out to Kelly, who grabbed it and helped him up. Ike grunted in pain as he rose though, his chest still felt like it was on fire, it was almost unbearable-- but, he's been through worse. Kelly pulled Ike into a quick hug, and he limped into the house.

It didn't take long for Ike to plop himself in the seat Kelly was sitting in before him. Henry was already smiling and watched as Ike made himself comfortable, but at the same time, grasping his chest in pain.

"Are you okay?" Henry quickly asked, standing up to help, but Ike quickly brushed it off.

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

"Obviously you're not feeling well, so I'll make this quick... in order to assure you can stay with us, you need to be able to contribute. Now, I know it'll take a few weeks before your back into working condition, but, until then, I want you to meet with our physical trainer."

"Trainer?" asked Ike, confused.

"Someone to make sure you're back into peek physical condition. For the safety of yourself and the others."

"I see...?"

"Just work with it." he said, brushing Ike off. "Now, what can you do to contribute?"

"I'm a-- I'm a pretty good shot." Ike said, weakly.

"How do you feel about joining the runners?" asked Henry, not wasting any time for his little interview.

"Like, supply runs?"

"Yes."

"Uh-- I guess it would be fine..." he said, uncomfortably.

"Anything wrong with that, sir?"

"I've just never had good experiences with those... they normally end baldly for me."

"Fair enough. We could always use some more people on the wall..."

"Good enough for me." Ike said, shrugging his shoulders.

"That's all I needed to know." Henry said as he finished writing his notes on a piece of paper.

As he rose, walking over to Ike, who struggled to stand as well, he quickly shook Ike's hand.

"Make yourself comfortable here, Ike." Henry said, smiling, to which Ike simply nodded. "This will be your home for a while..."

"Thank you, sir." Ike said as he exited the room.

As Ike stumbled outside, both Kelly and Katy stood by the door, waiting for him. Kelly quickly pulled him aside, smiling.

"How'd it go?" she quickly asked.

"Fine, mom..." he said sarcastically, forcing a small smile.

"Well, if you two would follow me now, I'd like to show you to your new home..." Katy said, interrupting the two.

"Home?" Kelly asked, looking at her.

"We have a few vacant house around here, if you'd like to come with me."

"Of course," Kelly said, smiling. "Thank you."

As Katy started to walk, smiling to herself, Kelly looked at Ike, smiling, but he looked toward the ground, away from her.

"Hey, everything ok?" Kelly asked, as Katy stopped walking, watching them.

"How are you feeling?" Ike suddenly asked, looking up at Kelly. "You were almost--"

"I'm fine." she quickly said, turning him away.

"Don't do that, Kel. You can't just do that whenever something doesn't go your way."

"Don't do what?" she asked, turning her head toward him.

"Don't turn me away. You've helped me through so much-- and I don't even know anything about you. You were always there for me, when no one else was, and then whenever I want to help you and be there for you... you turn me away."

Kelly says nothing but walks over to Katy, who was watching them patiently. Ike just shook his head and sighed, before limping over to the two.

Ben and Eli drove down the deserted roads, not paying much attention to their surroundings.

"Where the hell are we going, man?" Eli asked, watching as Ben looked down the road, determined for something.

"Just-- I saw a medical center when we came back with that chick yesterday. Looked pretty full... maybe enough meds for--"

"Just drop it, man. I understand."

Ben nodded, taking a deep breath and leaning back in the seat. "It's not too far, maybe an hour or two from here."

"It's cool, man. Let's just do this."

Katy led Kelly and Ike down the block, smiling and waving to the other survivors, as Kelly and Ike awkwardly walked next to each other.

Kelly didn't know what to do. Ike was all she had left-- and she's been too scared of losing people that she's been unable to open up to him. She didn't know how much it meant to him, but, she was still conflicted. Everyone she's confessed or looked to for guidance has died. Dylan, Jake, Langston, Trevin, Olivia... she couldn't handle it. She didn't want to lose him.

"We're here." Katy said, pulling Kelly out of her thoughts.

She looked at the small, blue house in front of her and smiled, looking at Ike, who wasn't paying any attention to the house at all. Instead, he stared blankly at the street, emotionless.

"Want me to take you in and show you around...?" Katy asked, looking at the two.

"No, thank you." Kelly quickly said. "We can do it-- you've done enough."

"Alrighty then," she said, smiling, shaking hands with Kelly. "I'll see you two around then."

As she shakes hands with Ike, he smiles. "I'd like to check your wound out first thing in the morning, if possible... make sure it didn't get infected or anything."

"Will do, ma'am." he said.

As Katy walked away, both Kelly and Ike just stared at each other. The two were at a loss of words for one another, so, instead of saying anything, the two casually walked inside their new home.

As the sun set, Ike lied on the ripped up couch, doing his best to get comfortable, but the stab wound was preventing him from doing so. Instead, he just groaned, and turned on his side.

Kelly slowly entered the room, watching him from the door. She was dressed up in new clothes, hair wet-- a shower courtesy of the Smith-Franchise.

"You wanna come to the bed with me?" she asked, to which he shrugged his shoulders.

"You get comfortable... I'll be fine." he moaned, sighing.

"No-- I don't think you will." she said, walking over to him quickly. She quickly sat beside him, as he sat up, looking at her.

"I thought we already discussed this-- please, leave me alone." he said.

"No." she simply said, crossing her arms. "You wanted to talk? Well, I'm talking."

"Look Kel, I don't know what suddenly came across you, but..."

"What came across me? I don't want us to be like this. Like enemies. You're all that I have left now."

"So what do you want, Kelly? For me to forgive you and we live happily ever after here? It can't be like that-- we both know what."

"Doesn't mean we can't try." she said, nodding her head. "Please, just, come to bed with me. You'll hurt yourself like this-- we both know we could really use the sleep."

Ike rolled his eyes, but Kelly only smiled as she reached out her hand to his, which he took hold of. She helped him up, despite his painful moans, and helped him walk out of the room.

"So... what was that all about between you and that doctor?" she asked.

"Please don't start this..."

Ben and Eli quickly loaded up big baskets of supplies into the car, quickly.

"Man-- this was so fucked!" Eli spat out.

"Relax, we're fine." Ben quickly said, grabbing hold of another box. "We got enough meds for the whole community-- not just Nora."

"Yeah-- but that was a fucking lot of zombies, man."

"We got them all, just, relax, man."

Eli nodded his head, and ran his hand through his hair, breathing heavily. As Ben closed the trunk of the car, the sound of oncoming footsteps interrupted his focus.

Ben quickly grabbed hold of his gun, pointing it in the direction of the footsteps, and Eli followed his lead, grabbing his pistol. As the footsteps got closer and closer, the two didn't take their sights off the building which the zombie would be coming across any moment now.

The two watched as a blonde woman rounded the corner, looking behind her as she ran, not even noticing Ben and Eli standing across from her. As she looks back in front of her, she stops short in fear of the two men in front of her. She looks between the two men, before Ben lowered his gun. The two couldn't see her face though, as the dirt-covered blonde hair covered it. She quickly moved the hair away from her face, to get a better look at the two men... it was Olivia.

"Ma'am, are you okay?" Ben asked quickly, not taking his eyes off of her.

"P-P-Please... you have to help my friend!" she quickly spat out, looking at the two.

Credits

 * Kelly Gay
 * Olivia Bell
 * Ike Dennis
 * Eli
 * Ben
 * Katy
 * Henry Smith

Deaths

 * None