SurvivorZ: Grave Harbor

84

GRAVES

"Fuck this. I'm outta here."

Carl waded through a forest of staring eyes on his way out the door of Castle's storage room. He didn't care who was pleased to see him go and who got pissy. Some Mystic fuckwit took one look at his grey hair and figured he was only fit to shelve canned food and count rolls of toilet paper. That didn't mean he had to put up with this bullshit.

He didn't want to come here in the first place, and now that he had another night to sleep on it, more than just his trigger finger itched to hit the open road and put miles between him and this stone cage. He couldn't shake the feeling that trouble was coming. When it hit, he didn't want to end up trapped behind another set of walls, waiting for the end.

At least they "let" him keep his Anaconda as a sign of good faith; as if there were a chance in Hell he'd relinquish it a second time. Zombies weren't his only concern. He received more than one dirty look from the residents since settling in here. Nobody seemed happy about the uninvited guests from Harvard.

As if proving his point, two men in the outer corridor glared at him and muttered as he passed by. Graves rolled his eyes and kept going. They weren't his problem. His problem was finding transportation off this dead end island.

He passed through a set of walled dividers separating the fort's connecting arms into multiple chambers. Mystic used much of this space for sleeping quarters and extra storage. Apparently, others were using it for something else.

"Carl?"

He stopped to check over his shoulder. Eve and her new boyfriend were in the corner, making out like horny teenagers. Graves normally wouldn't have given a shit, except that her beau happened to be that cop, Mike Edwards. His only reaction to the pairing was disappointment over her poor choice in men.

"Don't mind me," he said. "I'm just looking for a way off this rock."

Eve disentangled from Mike's arms. Graves caught a momentary flicker of annoyance from the man, directed his way. Carl didn't care one iota about spoiling his fun.

"You're leaving?" Eve confirmed.

"Well, I'm certainly not hanging around here," he replied. "I've already had my fill of being trapped behind walls. Not looking to sit still and wait for trouble to come knocking again."

"You don't think you're safe here?" Mike asked. "You do know the army's out there right now, helping to set up a chain link fence around the fort, right?"

"You do know that won't make one fucking bit of difference to those ghouls, right?" Graves countered.

Eve shuddered. "You don't think they'll track us down, do you?"

"Are you kidding?" he snorted. "With the racket we've made fighting off those damn dogs already? I'm sure every zombie in town knows better than to come here."

"The only vehicles belong to the army." Mike studied his features. "You're not planning on stealing one, are you?"

Graves scowled at him. "If I was, you'd be the last person I'd tell, Officer Mike."

"Play nice, you two," Eve grumbled.

Graves dismissed him with a toss of his hand. "Trucks are useless without knowing the safe path out of here."

"They have lots of boats docked in the bay," Eve suggested.

"My thoughts exactly."

"They're not just going to let you have one," Mike cautioned. "You'd better not stir up trouble for everyone."