Walking Dead: Requiem/Page 22

Chapter Three/Page Twenty-Two: Life Goes On

"Never thought the waves would reach this far," Moreene thought aloud, the wind brought from the sea making her hair fly back behind her head, "it makes me feel like we're going to be okay. Like, things can't get much worse from here. But then, I see it out there..." She gazed into the ocean and about four miles out was a plume of smoke billowing into the sky. It had been there for days now and the group had become worried that whatever was on board would be brought to them.

She looked to her ever attentive companion beside her, Sandy, a brown pitbull with big silly eyes and a white stub where the tail used to be. Out of everyone in the house, Sandy was by far Moreene's closest friend. "We'll see though. Let's go inside and get something to eat." Moreene lead the dog into the back-door of the house, the sliding door already open as if nothing wrong could ever enter it. She entered the kitchen and walked to the pantry, looking intently for any remaining food.

Sitting across the room at the table were Jaxin and Holly, playing cards while Tobin sat in the living area reading an old newspaper. "Fucking WHIPPED!" spat Jaxin, slapping down a card before the small game in triumph. Holly smiled and shook her head before producing her next card, causing Jaxin's jaw to drop in shock as she collected the hand. "No fucking way..." he said. Holly replied, "What?! You forgot that you didn't have the spade? Amateur..."

Moreenes eyes found what she was looking for, a can of double-noodle and on the bottom rack beneath it was two more cans of beef-treat. She withdrew both the double-noodle and dog food as she turned back to the counter to look for the can-opener. Holly caught her gaze, looking behind Moreene at the cupboard behind her where she would surely find the can-opener in it's wrong place. Sure enough, it was sitting alone inside and Moreene took it from the spot back over to the two cans of food.

As Moreene began cranking open the canned food, Aaron appeared at the stairwell behind Tobin's seat. Having just awaken, he yawned and scratched at his messy hair, having grown an entire two inches within the last month. Moreene smiled at her son as he passed by towards the coffee-maker and said, "Good morning dear! Are you hungry?"

Aaron did not even acknowledge her as he began to search the surrounding cupboards for a coffee cup and some left-over grounds. "None left, we're running out of just about everything now." stated Holly. Aaron turned back to her, slamming the coffee-cup down with some force before heading straight back for the stairs. Moreene could only watch as her only son chose to look for coffee instead of say good morning to his mother.

Sandy began licking at Moreene's feet, slobbering all over them in an attempt to make the woman leave her thoughts behind. It seemed that like everyone else, the dog could see just how dangerous Moreene could be if left to thinking for too long. She continued to open the can of dog food and remove the tiny tin lid, not thinking at all as she took a quick lick of the beef flavored dog food before dumping it's contents into Sandy's bowl.

***

Slam!! Spencer Monroe winced in annoyance at the sound as he sipped the cafe-latte coffee from his mug, almost spilling it across his keyboard.? Was he ever so glad that he'd stock-piled most of the coffee grounds only one week earlier, though that was now merely a spoonful or two left. Regardless, it was better than sharing everything with these people.

From outside of what was formerly his gameroom, Spencer heard the door to what was formerly his master bedroom slam shut. The house, formerly his father's California beach house, was now occupied by ten survivors in a post-apocalyptic nightmare that had swept the globe. Undead, cannibalistic freaks eating the flesh of the living and forcing them into seclusion. For now, however, it had been just over a month and a half since he saw someone die and if that keeps up, he would be perfectly okay with it.

The computer monitor before him displayed the video-messaging system's calling symbol, something that Spencer would wait for days on end until his father would pick up from his home across the country. Every few days, Spencer would have to escape the chaos now living in his house to see his fathers chizzled face on the screen and sometimes, even his mother would be present making him feel much better about the entire thing. On top of that, his girlfriend Paige, Tobin and his cousin Kyle were still alive in the house, something that made Spencer feel safe overrall. Even though it was Tobin's doing that brought these outsiders to the house, it was nice to have some support on his side of things. The people were nice enough and he'd gotten to know some of them fairly well, though the Moreene woman gave Spencer the creeps from time to time and the married couple's constant bickering made his ears want to bleed. Rounding out the house was Kyle's latest squeeze Liezl, a cup of sexy filipino fried-rice that made his dick want to jump out of his pants.

The calling symbol continued to move back and forth, a tiny little phone dancing across the screen as it awaited someone to pick up. Spencer wasn't too worried as his father had assured him he was being protected by a number of close friends with military backgrounds. He knew that his father's career made this assurance a reality and that some of his friends were in fact quite deadly.

Looking around the room for something to do, Spencer saw his dart-board hanging nearby and he went for it. After collecting the darts pinned to the wall, he backed away and took aim with the first of three. After making his first bullseye, he stared at the board remembering all of the insane times he'd endured at this house since his father's last election. While he was steadily running for Governor or whatever in the hell it was he did, Spencer would gather up his closest friends including Kyle and hit the big cities. One thing Spencer always wanted to have during his excapades was a dartboard to impress the women in the entourage, something he was strangely good at despite never practicing too much. If it wasn't for that, he would definitely need to rely more on his father's riches to get some strange.

The second dart hit right above the last as intended, allowing another memory of good times in the past to reflect in Spencer's memory. The night he met Paige, they were at a bar in Fresno where he was showing off for a crowd. As usual, Tobin was ordered by his father to protect him from himself or some crap but little did dad know, the godfather was quite a mess himself. He allowed Spencer to try and toss the darts into the board while his hand was across it. Despite being an extra stupid party trick, Spencer went for it and made three darts completely miss his mentor's hand. While everyone cheered and hollered as the establishment began to breath again, Paige approached the board and in a very lustful, sensual manner she kneeled down and allowed Spencer to try his luck in missing her whole head. If it were not for the alcohol induced energy within the room, he may have passed up on it but then she wouldn't have that cute little scar just under her right eye, now would she?

Before throwing the third and final dart, Spencer aimed at the center of the first two and prepared to throw when the door to his "lair" opened. He chucked the dart a moment shy and it hit the brick-wall, bouncing onto the floor and making him irritated. I TOLD these people to stay out of here...

Paige stood in the doorway with Liezl beside her, both beauties nervous and breathing loudly as they awaited Spencer's undivided attention. He turned to them, rolling his eyes until noticing the bloodstains on Liezl's hands and Paige's clothes, making his eyes wide with horror.

"What is it?! Did they get over the fences?" he demanded. Paige and Liezl shook their heads, though the horror of what they'd encountered not shaking them even a little. "Then--- what is it?" he asked, this time concerned for the safety of their group. "It's Kyle..." began Paige, her large and nearly exposed chest appearing as if it were about to explode with silicone and flesh, "He's back from scouting and, and----" she could not find the words to say it.

"Out with it!" ordered Spencer, preparing to ram through them both to see that his favorite cousin was okay. Paige composed herself but was beaten to the punch by Liezl, who stepped forward to show more blood stained against her milky olive skin, "He was bitten."

• End Of Page Twenty-Two. To Be Continued...

Trivia

• The Hindle family returns, along with survivors Holly, Jaxin, Tobin and a new cast of characters.
• The first Walking Dead storyline to feature a pet as a prominent "character" in the storyline.
• None of the events or characters from Chapter Two will make an appearance or be referenced, save for one thing hidden deep within the chapter.
• New characters include Tobin Sinclair and Spencer Monroe from the comic books. Others will be referenced, including Douglas and Regina Monroe.
• Exactly one month has passed since Moreene, Aaron, Autumn, Jaxin and Holly arrived in Grover beach, California.
• FROM THE AUTHOR: To all those questioning the involvement of Abraham Ford, Rosita Espinosa and Eugene Porter's within the story, all I can say is that I considered it but it just wouldn't work out. The TV series, now in it's third season, is moving along pretty fast and including events and characters from the comics way earlier than originally printed. I cannot include the post-prison survivors because they, along with Morgan and Duane, are the most likely to appear in the series sometime sooner than later. Adding them would be pointless if they were in the show and would throw the creativity process out of whack. I'm including characters who will either never be introduced in the show or who will be introduced later on in the saga, characters with a menial involvement. However, certain characters like Gabriel Stokes and Rosita do have counterparts, as seen in Chapter One. Thanks.