UFSW Member Apocalypse/Issue 23

This is Issue 23 of UFSW Member Apocalypse.

This is TheInfected-centric.

Issue 23
''I found myself back in this distant memory, that felt like it was five thousand years ago. Truth was it was only a little bit before the apocalypse came down. A lot’s happened since then however.''

''I was sitting on the bedside of my mom. Her bright brown hair never looked so colorless, her lifeless eyes never looked so lifeless, and her skin never looked paler. Yet she never looked so happy. It was weird to me. She was dying yet…..yet she didn’t seem sad. Instead she was treating death like some sorta old friend.''

''“Don’t cry, sweetie.”  She tells me, having seen the tears in my eyes. Truth was I couldn't control it, I felt like this was my fault, like it was my fault she's dying.''

''"I can't control it." I finally say after a long hesitation "I need you."''

''"There's a difference between need and want." She tells and I just look away, not wanting to look at her in the dying eyes. ''

“That’s the thing, I do need you.” I say “What am I supposed to do when they attack me again?”

“You do the same thing you always do; just hold back.”

“I can’t just hold back!” I found myself screaming “I want to let this anger out and ki-” I stopped myself once I knew the dark thing I was about to say, the evil thing I was about to say.

“I want to kill them.” I finish.

''“Daniel I want you to listen to me right now, and I’m only going to say this once. Ready?” I give the slight nod of my head and she continues, “Don’t scoop down to their level because you’re better than them. They may not realise this now but they will, when you have the better life. Don’t give in to the darkness.”''

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Now here I am now, sitting on the dark park bench as the breeze passes by, and my thoughts lost. I don’t even know how long I been here but it had to be a while, considering the morning sight is now gone. Then I begin to look downward at my where my hands are and I realise I’m doing it again. I’m stroking the now sewed up bullet wounds.

It’s been about three months since Cro shot me, three months to the day I died. Yeah that’s right, I died. I felt it, I felt the feeling of my life slipping away. Then it just stopped, everything stopped. The pain, my thoughts, my vision….and I went numb and everything turned black. It was only about for eight seconds but still...I died. I’m only here today because of Raxel, who somehow got the bullets out. People always say you only live once, well I broke that fucking rule.

Just thinking about that moment made by blood boil inside me. The thought of that bastard Cro, I just wanted to kill him. Back then, when we had our guns drawn, I wouldn’t have done it, I was weak. But now I would shoot him a hundred times over. But that didn’t happen so the least I can do is hope that he is either dead out there, or slowly dying. God knows that maniac deserved it.

But then there was another thought that made me emotional, but in different way. Apparently while I was out Lee died. My closest friend just died for me, for us, before I could even say bye. I hope it wasn’t painful for him, because it wasn’t for me. At least he can enjoy being dead unlike me, who was thrown back into this hell.

“Infected,” I can hear someone say and I turn my head to see Warfare standing there, “We need to talk.”

“I told you to call me Daniel, Danny or some shit like that.” I scoff him, “The codenames are fucking stupid here.”

“Fine then, Dan we need to talk.”

“What do you want to talk about, Mali.” I had to be the only one who knew his name, considering our past.

Now Mali was a tough one, that was for sure. Personally I’m shocked he’s still alive and in this group, considering it was him who killed Kaffe. But hell he proved his worth, and I owed debt to him still.

“We need to talk about the deals.” Now the deals were a touchy subject, considering what they caused. Hell though, it took me a minute to think about them.

They started back when we were on the road, before we even found the Police Station. When we were running out of food, I bumped into A.J. and Mali one day while on a run; so I proposed a trade. We give them ammo,  they gave us food. The deal carried on for awhile after that, until the day they killed Kaffe of course.

“What about them?” I demand to know bluntly.

“Look the thing we had going was good, food for ammo. You know that we wouldn't dare betray you.” I roll my eyes as he goes on, “That day we were attacked by bandits and we thought you friends-Kaffe and KuT- were part of them.”

“Why is this important?”

“Because I see the dirty looks people give us, me and A.J. They hate us for killing Kaffe, even though we helped save their white asses. They should know about the deals and that we-”

Before Mali can even finish I find myself grabbing his collar, wanting him to shut up. “They aren’t going to know. If they wanna give you dirty looks I don’t fuc-” Before I can even finish Mali strikes me in the stomach with his fist and I stumble back, holding my bullet wounds. While I’m doing in my weak state, however, Mali doesn’t strike me, instead just looking down upon me.

“I don’t want to fight.” He tells me, “when you come to your senses than we can talk.” Mali looks at me one more time before walking away, leaving me there alone to hold my aching stomach; yet I gave him the worst glare I could as he walked away. "Also Fitz wants you to get ready for the run." He shouts back, my glare still strong.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I don’t even know how long it’s been since then, maybe a day or so, but I’m currently on a run with Fitz out into a nearby town. It was sort of quiet between Fitz and I, but we both were deep in thought, that I knew for sure.

Fitz was still a mystery to me, believe it or not. Everyone in our camp has become more hardened except for him, instead he had just grew farther apart from us. I don’t know what his problem is with death, or tragedy’s, but it makes him weak. “So what’s up?” Fitz asks me after awhile, trying to break the silence between us. Me, on  the other hand, wasn’t in the mood for talking.

“Nothing.” I reply back, hoping he would understand that I don’t want to talk. Personally I would have much rather come on  this run alone, but Fitz wanted to go out as well. Fitz, who seemed disappointed that I didn’t want to talk, simply just sighs at my response.

“C’mon,” He finally says again, “What happened to you wanting to talk to me?” He refers to the night at the Police Station, but I just scoff him.

“Shit changed bro.”

“Actually shit hasn’t changed, when you think about it. Sun still shines, plants still grow, water is still water, and infected still roam. But we, humans, are the ones that changed.”

“Then whatever, I changed.” I scoff and he, seeing I don’t want to talk, just goes back to searching. Grabbing some supplies I throw them into my bag, and then glance out the back door, watching as some infected stumble toward us. “We got infected.” I say over to Fitz, who in turn glances out the back door.

I grab my baseball bat from against the wall, while Fitz grabs his dagger, but just in case I had my pistol right in my pocket. Truth was we barely have any guns anymore, we only have this pistol, three more pistols back at camp, a sniper file, and a shotgun. Due to that we basically only use melee weapons most of the time.

With my bat in hand I walk out the door, bat ready, and Fitz right behind me. Soon enough the four infected are at us, and I attack first. Swinging my bat it bangs into the first infected’s head, destroying the brain and it’s body falls over. Fitz strikes next by digging the dagger into one’s head, then going onto the next.

Leaving only one I walk over to it and swing at it’s feet, listening as it falls to the ground. Then without warning I lift up my bat and swing down hard into it’s head, but it kept moving. So I smashed down more, and more, and more. I managed to kill it but I still kept swinging down, all until there was nothing left to smash.

Fitz looks at me, covered in walker blood, freaked out and was about to say something until he stopped dead in his tracks. Seeing he is staring at something behind me, I turn around to see a person. The man had a deep aftershave and blonde hair, but he looked pretty young, and was pretty scared.

“Hi there.” He says trying to smile, but Fitz and I stand still, watching the man. This causes him to grow nervous and he tries getting us to speak. “Thanks for killing the biters.”

“Sure thing.” Fitz says, a little hesitant, but wanting to talk to the man. Me, however, is different about this. Pulling my pistol out, which only has about four bullets, I am at the man, causing him to jump back. “Daniel what the hell!”

“Shut it.” I spit back before putting my full attention onto the man. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Take it easy man. My name is Dakota.”

“And what the hell do you want?”

“I just want some supplies.” Dakota says to us, but I wasn’t going to give up shit. “I have a wife, a pregnant one.”

“Where is she?” I say unconvinced, while Fitz watches me like he wanted me to help the man.

“At my camp, it’s only us.”

“You expect me to believe you? For all I know you’re some sort of murderer.”

“I’m not man, please just believe me.” Dakota says scared and tenses up. “Please don’t shoot me.” I only scoff. The old me, the weak one, would probably just let this man and his wife join us. But after the bandits, after all the shit I been through, I’m done with all that.

“It’s alright bro. I believe you.” I say. I did believe him. The guy couldn't hurt a fly, but survival comes first.

Dakota seems pretty happy that I believe him, but he didn’t expect what happens next.

I pulled the trigger.

The bullet slams like a hammer into his chest and he falls onto his knees, blood coming from his chest and to weak to even scream. Fitz, who jumped slightly at the gunshot, didn’t even know what to say as I walked up to Dakota, ready to end his life. “Sorry bro.” I say, not really sorry, before I shoot him in the head, and watches as his body goes limp.

“What the fucking hell.” Fitz mutters under his breath as his eyes just stare at me. “What the heck was that!”

“Saving our asses. He could have followed us back to camp.”

“What the hell happened to you! We could have helped him, you usually would have helped him!”

“What did you say in there? That humans changed, well I did.” I reply coldy, “So I suggest you do too before some asswipe shoots you.” I look back at the body after I say this and think. I remember my first kill, and how I almost cried afterwards. But now...now I enjoyed it.

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The short walk back to camp was full of silence, none of us speaking and I enjoyed it. Fitz however seemed scared of me, and that also felt good. Lucky for Fitz however we soon arrived at the small camp we set up at an old park, watching Dutchman standing on the slide as guard. “How was the run?” He calls over but we just walk by him.

We walk into the camp, where the others were doing some random stuff. Mage notices us and puts on a smile, happy that no one died. “How’d it go?”

“Daniel over there is a fucking lunatic.” Fitz speaks and it was weird that Fitz did that, the old him would just stay quiet about it. The others, including Dutchman who walked over to us, all stared at me.

“What do you mean?” Raxel was the first to ask, always hating fights within the group.

“He shot a man! A man who had a pregnant wife.”

“Oh cry me a river.” I joke.

“He probably had his reasons.” KuT shrugs.

“He enjoyed it.” Fitz says again and I finally had enough. Throwing my bat to the ground, causing everyone to shut up, I began to speak.

“What I fucking did was protect you people! I don’t care if you guys didn’t like it because I’m in charge here! Every fucking decision I make you people seem to nag me!”

“Danny just calm-” Mage tries to say but I keep going.

Don’t give in to the darkness.

“I tried doing everything to protect us, all of us! Yes, people died, but you people ever wonder how I feel? Huh! Because it feels pretty fucking bad!” I continue to scream at them.

“I never wanted to be leader, you guys know that! But I was the only one to step up, so show me some fucking respect!” I continue.

Don’t give in to the darkness.

“But now, I’m done with you guys! I believe there is a safe place out there for us, all of us! And I’m going to do whatever it takes to survive! I don’t care if you guys don’t wanna go, but I’m going! If disagree with my plan,” I point toward the exit “There’s the fucking door! If you wanna leave, leave now!”

Everyone just keeps staring at me, and no one moves. Looks like they don't want to go.

Don’t give in.

“No takers? Alright then.” I slowly calm down, but my anger still rises. “Tomorrow morning we leave this shithole. If you wanna leave before then, be my guest. But here’s how it’s gonna go for now on. I’m in charge!”

Don’t give in.

Truth was I had given into the darkness already, there is no going back for me. I’m a different man now, no longer that weak leader. Now I’m a survivor, and I'm going to do whatever it takes. “This isn’t a democracy anymore.” I speak to them before I walk off, leaving them to think about the new rules.

Deaths

 * Dakota