A Long Road to Fortune/Issue 7

This is the first issue in Volume 2 of A Long Road to Fortune.

10 years earlier
Ashton was awaiting his parents' arrival during Christmas when the house phone started ringing. "Hello, mom, dad?," Ashton said. "Yes, are you Ashton?," the man said. "Yeah, who are you?," "I'm calling to inform you that your parents will be unable to make it. They have their work cut out for them over here in the law firm," the man replied. "But it's Christmas! They have to be here!," Ashton said. "Yes, they are very sorry about that. But they have instructed me to go out and buy you whatever you want for Christmas," the man replied. "That's okay, I don't really want anything...," Ashton then hung up on the man. He then left to his back cabin and sat down in one of his 2 wooden picnic tables. The young boy was alone at home, and on Christmas. "They don't understand...it's not about presents...'"

Issue 7
It was now morning in the marketplace and many people were understandably depressed. Mr. Chet and Valdez were oberserving the situation "I can't leave anymore. Not right now," Mr. Chet said. "Mendoza will probably understand if you do," Valdez replied. "Yeah, but not the others," Mr. Chet replied back.

Ashton was moving bodies along with Daniel. The military soldiers were working on rebuilding the walls. There were four walls on each of the four entrances on the marketplace. One leads to La Reforma, another 2 lead another street, one that leads to the zocalo. "You know, we killed an entire herd last night," Daniel said. "Really?," Ashton replied. "Valdez and Joaquin told me there were at least 5 herds around town." "I guess that explains why the our four streets are empty," "About that, these bodies and stinking up the place. We need to either burn or bury them," Daniel said. "Then let Mendoza know," Ashton replied. "Even if I told him, where would we do it?," Daniel said. "We can always jump the left wall and expand to the soccer field," Ashton said. "Yeah, have fun having Mendoza agree to that," Daniel said. Just then, Max approched Ashton.

"Hey, Mr. Ashton, my mom wants to talk to you." Max began pulling on Ashton arms in the direction where his mother was. There were 2 parts to the marketplace and each of those parts had 2 entrances and 2 walls to cover them. The upper part of the marketplace was the part where most people slept. The main gate/wall led to La Reforma. The other wall led to another street where the soccer field and the pre-school are. The lower part of the ha 2 more walls. One by the lookout window that lead to a street leading to el zocalo and another leading to the same street located near the soccer field. Max had taken Ashton to his mother.

"Ashton, I cannot begin to thank you enough for saving my son from those creatures. I mean, I know I shouldn't call them that since we all knew some of them but...they tried to hurt my son.," Sandra said. "If you hadn't risked your life to save him, I don't know what I would have done." said Sandra. Tears of joy were beginning to run down from her eyes, running all the way down her cheeks. "I know you did some bad stuff, but I can't see you as bad for what you have done. Thank you Ashton."

Ashton nodded. "I'm glad I could help.," Ashton was trying to hold back his tears as he walked away. He was heading to see Mendoza when spotted Liza comforting the Galeana family. The twins, Alicia and Manny, were weeping over the body of their dead mother. Mario, their older cousin, was looking away with a furious look. Ashton approached Liza and noticed she started to examine the corpse. Sofia had been bitten in both of her arms, with the bones and flesh being visible. Her neck had been bitten open and her gut and legs had minor bites. She had died of severe bloodloss and a fatal wound to her neck. "What do you want?," Mario said to Ashton. "I just...I was coming to see my friend..," Ashton replied. "Talk somewhere else," Mario rudely replied. "Hey, I didn't mean any discomfort," said Ashton. Mario scoffed and approached Ashton with his fist extended before he was stopped by Liza. "We'll leave. You stay away from him," Liza said. Liza had finished saying goodbye to the weeping twins and left with Ashon towards Mendoza's storage room in the lower part of the marketplace.

"How are they taking it?," Ashton asked. "Not well, not well at all," Liza replied. "I was going over to see Mendoza. I think it's time to expand," "What about Mr. Chet?," Liza asked. "He's not going to leave today," "I can't blame him," replied Liza. As they were walking, Liza shot Pedro Suares an angry look.

When they both reached Mendoza's "office", Mr. Chet, Valdez, and Daniel were already there arguing with Mendoza about expanding to the street on the left. "There are enough parts to build another wall and we could use the soccer field to bury the bodies," Daniel commented. "There shouldn't be many more groseros there, if any...that herd we took out last night was the same herd that had been circulating around the area," Mr. Chet commented. Mendoza had his palms buried in his forehead. "Fine. We have the weapons and the able bodies," Mendoza said, finally giving in. "Thank you, Jorge," Mr. Chet said. Just then, loud screams were heard. Ashton and the rest ran to the source of the sound, which was coming from the upper part of the marketplace. Sofia had reanimated into a grosero and was now trying to eat her children. Mario was not around as he had gone away to have a smoke. "Mama, please! Snap out of it!," Manny screamed. "Manny, why is she attacking us...she was gone right?," Alicia asked, crying. Ashton grabbed his machete and whistled at Sofia. The grosero turned around and directed her attention at Ashton. Ashton was about to dig his machete into Sofia's skull until the twins pleaded him not to. "Please don't hurt her! Please!," both of the twins pleaded. "I'm sorry, but I have to!," Ashton replied. In one fatal swoop the machete had made contact with Sofia's brain, putting her down for good. Everybody in the marketplace looked at the scene in shock. Just then, Ashton was tackled down from behind by Mario. "What the hell did you that for?!," Mario screamed. He began to pound on Ashton's face until he was pulled off and punched in the face by Mr. Chet. Mr. Chet's punch knocked Mario off of his feet. "No, what the hell is wrong with YOU!" Mr. Chet said to Mario. Mario was banging on the floor and crying. Ashton could not feel his face. Liza helped Ashton up.

"Ashton, your eye! Oh my god!," Liza said. "I'm ok," Ashton said. "I'm ok,"

Credits
Ashton Mr. Chet Valdez Daniel Max Gomes Sandra Gomes Liza Manny Galeana Alicia Galeana Sofia Galeana (Zombified) Mario Galeana Sgt. Mendoza

Trivia

 * This is the first issue in which a character reanimates during the course of the story.