Hope On The Rocks/Issue 10

This is issue 10 of Hope On The Rocks, entitled "Follow The Leader".

202, Follow The Leader
Right now, I am walking in the eastern part of Waynesburg with some of the people I hate most in this world. Al, Odin, Miles.

It’s the middle of the night. Power is still on, street lights are lit. It would be terrible if the power went off. We’d be in the dark, unable to use any kind of electronic device.

“Shouldn’t we find cover for the night?” Miles asks, nervously.

“We’ll be good.” I just say and continue moving, Beretta shotgun in my hands, handgun shoved down my pants.

“Well...” Odin says under his breath. I look and see him aiming his shotgun at something behind us. “I doubt that.”

I see what he means; a giant horde of zombies are following us. At least 40 zombies, coming our way.

“Holy shit...” Al says and raises his shotgun. Without thinking, he fires a shot, attracting every zombie nearby, that isn’t following us yet.

I take a deep breath, followed by the word: “Fuck.” I look around. Zombies are coming from everywhere. The three others are shooting, in three different directions. A building with the words ‘Ginn & Hekson’. Only a few zombies are blocking. I shoot them, without any problems, and then I point at the building and yell: “In there.”

Inside the building, the first thing we do is to secure the main door. While Miles and Al do that, Odin and I check the building for zombies.

All doors are closed, lights are off, in the lobby. I look at a door, from which i see light underneath.

As i approach the door, I hear voices from there. I take a deep breath and slowly open the door, seeing a man and a woman. Both with hands raised, looking at me.

“We’re friendly.” The man says.

The man is named Ridley Johnson and the woman Esther Tricker. I don’t like them, but it seems like the others do, so I’ve let them join the group. Whatever. If they try anything, I’m gonna shoot them on the fucking spot.

“So you two have survived in an office for two weeks?” Odin asks, kneeling down next to Ridley and Esther, who are currently sitting on chairs drinking some of our precious water.

“Pretty much, yea.” Ridley says with a big smile, in scottish accent. Apparently he’s from Scotland. The point that he’s so happy annoys me. I can’t stand that people being happy even though tragic event are happening.

Al passes me, whispering: “Walk with me.”

I do so, following him into a former conference room.

“Can we trust these guys?” He whispers. “I don’t wanna die.”

“You think I do?” I say. I hate this guy. “I don’t know, they seem fine.” I hear myself say it. ‘They seem fine’. I look around in the room and say to Al: “Just... Loot this place and let’s get some sleep.”

The next morning, I am sitting eating some canned peaches. I think about my life before the apocalypse. I haven’t told anyone about what I did before. I don’t feel like they should know.

“May I sit?” I hear a woman ask. Obviusly, it would be Esther, as she’s the only woman here.

I nod and move an inch.

She sits down, and while I would expect her to take some peaches, she doesn’t. She just sits there for a minute before talking: “I am very glad you wanted to take us in. We have experienced some of the worst things ever in these two weeks. We’re really happy to see people, that aren’t trying to kill us.” She says, looking at me.

I smile. She’s the first one to have thanked me in these two weeks. Without really thinking about it, I offer her some peaches. For a while there, we just sit talking, like nothing ever happened.