Hope On The Rocks/Issue 3

This is Issue 3 of Hope On The Rocks, entitled "Through Heaven and Hell".

103, Through Heaven and Hell
The black man looks at me with a worried look. I wouldn’t have taken him for a scared type. “Can’t we just shoot through the crowd?” I ask. I think that makes sense; we have plenty of rounds, so we should just be able to kill all the zombies.

“Sound attracts them.” Chad mutters and heads to a door leading to a hallway. Before the zombie thing started, i had only used a gun in the army, and that’s probably about 30 years ago.

“How do you know that?” I ask Chad. To me it seems like the zombies can’t use their brain, and by that not hear anything.

“How would they’ve found us otherwise?” Chad takes his duffelbag and enters the hallway, in which a staircase are visible. I take my duffelbag too, and follow Chad up the stairs.

“What the plan?” I ask, just walking up the stairs, two or three steps behind Chad.

“We go to the roof, and jump from building to building.” The black man mutters, as he steps over a corpse. I take a look at the dead man, before continuing up the stairs. A man in his 40’s with a 9 inch brown beard. His eyes looking limp at the ceilling. He looks like the man that caused my wife to cheat. I met that guy once, looked excactly like this. But well, it’s a big city.

“You’re comin’?!” Chad yelled from the top of the staircase. I get up and jump up as i say the words: “Everything for you, boss.”

On the roof, i take a look around. The building to each side is a bit lower than this one. It would be no problem to jump to them.

“So we just jump back to the bar?” I ask and look at Chad.

Chad throws the duffelbag on the building to the left. The weapons cling as the bag lands on the roof.

“What else?” Chad says and takes a deep breath, before jumping. He lands perfectly on his legs.

Impressed, i throw my duffelbag as well. Last time i did anything like this was probably in 3rd grade. Back then i broke my leg.

I try to focus, as i hear a gunshot. I look at Chad, who isn’t holding any weapons. I then look back, and see a man a few buildings away, shooting at me.

“Get away!” I hear him shout, as i take cover behind some metal square.

“We’ll leave!” I yell back. It usually takes a bit to make me scared, but this guy is doing a pretty good job. “Just stop shooting!”

Another shot is heard. I now see Chad loading a pistol. If it wasn’t because i was shitting in my pants right now, i would have did the same thing.

“Odin!” Chad yells. I look. He had thrown a pistol, that is now laying a few meters from my current position.

“I- I can’t shoot him!” I yell to Chad.

“You have to!” Chad yells, in a nervous tone.

“Just... leave.” I yell. “Get yourself away from here.” I yell. I know i probably shouldn’t be heroic right now, but i am not going to kill a living person.

“Just shoot him, goddamnit!” Chad yells. I close my eyes and takes a deep breath. I lay down and reach out for the pistol. I take the safety off and jump up. It takes me three shots before i hit the man. With a scream, the man falls down from the roof. Soon after the sounds of zombies chewing on him can be heard.

The rest of the trip back home goes without problems. None of us talk. You can’t blame us, i just killed a man.

Texas opens the door and lets us in. With a worried look, the bartender asks: “You’re okay?”

Chad walks in and places his duffelbag on the nearest table. I help Texas placing a drawer in front of the doors, while saying: “We weren’t bit if that’s what you mean.”

“Odin! The guns!” Chad yells impatient from the table. The survivors in the bar are gathering around the table. Chad are standing, looking like a dictator. I throw him the duffelbag and he catches it. He places it on the table, as me and Texas walk over to the rest.

“Today, Odin and I discovered how much the world has changed.” Chad begins. “Not only is the dead coming alive. We had to do things we would never do. Steal from a store, where the owner was dead. Odin even killed a man...”

With these words, everyone looks at me. Texas backs away. Ashamed, i look down for a second, but look up again, to see everyone looking at Chad again.

“He had to. He’s not a bad man, but he had to.” Chad says and gives me a weak smile.

I knew we would get along if he just got to know me. I think we’ll get a good relationship, me and him.

“So from tomorrow, i want everyone here to know how to handle a weapon. We’ll practice on the roof.” Chad says, looking at the teenage girl, Lia. She is currently standing with her parents, with Miles and Ellis on her left. Texas and me on her right.

“What about food?” Lia’s father, don’t remember the name, says. “And water?”

“We’ll search the apartments upstairs tomorrow as well.” Chad says.

Apparently, Chad is now the leader of this 8-person group. That’s fine with me. He seems like one who can make the tough decisions and all.