Tales of The Wallking Dead

Chapter 17

The sun rose the next day much to everyone's relief. "Oh god." Hannah said rubbing her eyes. "Where are we?" She asks looking around still have asleep. "Oh yeah that's right. School place." Hannah says and gets up noticing that Lily and Freyja has already gone off to do things for the day. Jacob walked up next to Hannah and sleepily waved at her. "Where's Connor? I need to speak to that fat rat." Jacob said with his old sense of humour shining through for a second. "Ha ha. I think he went over that way." Hannah said rolling her eyes and pointing down towards the hall that leads to the front office. "Where'd he go off to? Did he say anything?" Jacob asked getting mildly concerned Connor just vanished. "I dunno." Hannah said shrugging and yawning. "And don't really care to be honest, I'm going back to sleep. The apocalypse is good for one thing and that's sleep." She muttered and walked back off leaving Jacob alone at the doorway. Where Connor actually was was hanging about somewhere in the school with Payton as she'd asked to meet him so they could reconcile but this slipped Jacob's mind and he too went back to sleep.

Connor was leaning against a wall reading all the old flyers and posters that still littered the walls of the hall and while he was admiring them Payton came up to him. "Good morning." She said waving to him and Connor smiled but then a look of curiosity crossed his face. "How have you survived this long? It's been what? Nearly 3 weeks? I'm not sure to be honest but still, it's been at least 2 weeks so tell me. How've you lived this long just you and Blaze?" Connor asked sitting down at the waiting area outside the office as Payton sat with him. "If you really wanna know I'll tell you." Payton said sighing. "When things kicked off I was off sick so I'd been outside trying to kill time when a saw a woman bent down over something lying on the floor. I assumed she was picking something up so I called over to see if she needed help but when she stood up and I saw those dead, cloudy eyes I knew something else was up. Then I saw the body, a young girl was what the woman was feasting on. To make it more morbid I noticed a bite mark on the woman's forearm and written on her wrist was this reminder of sorts and it read 'take Susie shopping and watch out for the crazy people on the street'. The lady was eating her own child! She must have been bitten the day before but thought it was just a crazy person so disinfected it and moved on when she turned on the way to the shops and her daughter was the closest meal."

As Payton finished her story Connor's eyes were wide as he realised how good his group got it at the start of the apocalypse. They were near a shelter that was very fortunately devoid of all life as everyone must have booked it and the remaining few walkers were just the unlucky few. Before Connor could speak Payton continues with her story. "I ran to find Blaze and when I did they were coated in blood and were standing over a dead walker breathing heavily. Apparently this crazy person with this dead stare has tried to bite them so instinct kicked in and they just killed the walker. When I told them my side of things it immediately clicked that this wasn't just a really drunken person being drunk. So they took off with me at their heels and we bounced from place to place until the military found us and brought us in until the horde attacked. When the horde attacked the QZ we put an escape plan we'd plotted into action and took off through the streets until we made our way back and saw that the old primary school was turned into a camp and here we are now." Payton said concluding her story as a million thoughts ran through Connor's head. "Also I should add. My old bubbly oblivious personality that makes me come off as obnoxious and childish is all just an act so Blaze doesn't think I've lost my humanity. I've changed Connor. I know what this world is and I know where I stand in it." Payton added as she stood up and walked over to the office door. "Well? Fancy a stroll. You still gotta tell me about your first experience with the undead." Payton said as Connor stood up and went outside with Payton.

Lily and Freyja were rummaging though old school records to try and find anything that they could out. They'd searched the other parts of the school to no avail and were considering headed outside for a walk about to see if the exterior held anything interesting. Lily was standing watch at the door when Freyja called her over. "Check this out. It's Connor's old school record that's been stored away here." She said as she held the file up to the light and opened to see a load of numbers and progress reports. "Wow, that's great but can we do literally anything else other then look through old history?" Lily asked as Freyja sighed and stood up. "Wanna go outside then? Take a walk and see what we can see on the outside." Freyja suggested and Lily quickly nodded her head in response as they headed outside. "Y'know." Freyja said suddenly. "You never told me what you did when you escaped the QZ the first time. Did you get far?" Freyja asked and Lily thought back. "Well we got as far as an old school building Connor said used to hold a music session every Saturday but I did some other music thing on Saturdays with you I remember." Lily explained as Freyja nodded. "We got caught in a herds path so we got forced to duck into the building where the military eventually showed up and took out a bit of the herd but lost some of their people in the process. Eventually we got caught and the military took us back." Lily said shrugging but a warm smile spread across her face as she recalled a fond memory. "When we got caught in the herd initially Connor protected me every step of the way." Lily said gushing slightly as Freyja's expression darkened slightly but quickly reverted. "That's nice. Anyway where we gonna walk to?" Freyja asked as Lily pointed towards some gates that lead onto a street.

Connor and Payton tugged on a gate that lead to a small street but after a few goes they gave up and Payton explained that they'd locked the fence because too many walkers were sneaking in unnoticed but the streets seem all clear as of late." Payton said and sighed as she looked at how low the fence is. "We could hop it but I don't like that idea as it could get us in trouble or straight up killed." Payton told Connor as he immediately sprang to his feet and hopped over the fence. "C'mon, let's turn this walk into a run shall we?" Connor asked as he looked off at the Scotmid down the road. "That's gotta be a jackpot." Connor wonders aloud as Payton hops the fence. "Well if you're desperate for a supply run then I guess it couldn't hurt." Payton said shrugging as she walked off in the direction of the store. "Fair warning through. A few survivors were lurking around these streets yesterday before you guys got here so stay on guard." Payton instructed as Connor made a fighting stance but returned to walking as they approached Scotmid. Connor pushes open the door and a few walkers turn their heads to look at them. "Found your survivors. And a few uninvited guests." Connor says realising how under equipped they are to handle the scenario. Connor tried to punch the walkers but is nowhere near strong enough to make a dent in them and they pin him to a slushy machine and Connor tries to fight them off. In one fluid movement Payton grabs one walker and slams its head into the metals railing outside the shop and Connor pushes the other one off and wraps his arms around his neck and with great difficulty broke the walkers neck. They weren't finished though as Payton was being overwhelmed by them as their ruckus had drawn a few more to their location and Payton let out an ear piercing scream.

Lily and Freyja carry on their walk and as they reach the gate they tug at it but it doesn't budge as it's locked shut and all. Freyja hops the fence and points to the Scotmid that's just down the road. "Fancy having your first supply run?" Freyja asked as she pulled The Wall's only pistol from her pocket and shows it off as Lily shakes her head. "You can't take that. We don't have the ability to just go and shop for ammo. This is Scotland not the states!" Lily exclaims as she walks ahead. "We doin' the run or not?" Lily shouts back as Freyja runs to catch up with seeming as happy as ever. "Yeah! Let's go!" She exclaimed as she punched the air when just then an ear splitting scream filled the air as in the distance Payton stumbled out the doors of Scotmid as walkers began to swarm her. "Maybe it's for the best you got that gun then." Lily comments as Connor runs out of the shop to try and help Payton and he hasn't noticed the girls running to them in the distance. Once Freyja and Lily reach Scotmid Connor was busy slamming a walkers head into a metal railing as Payton lay on the floor dazed. Once Connor finally noticed them he explained what'd happened and that Payton had scratched herself during the fight and there was a piece of plastic sticking from the wound. "She fell on a snapped plastic box. She got some plastic wedged in deep and I couldn't find the time to look for tweezers." Connor said and as Lily was gonna offer to help Freyja butted in and said she'd go with him and Lily was to stay and watch over Payton. 

As Connor and Freyja searched the store Connor found the aisle he was looking for and while he was examining the shelves, Freyja was checking the clip in the gun when she reloaded the clip and had a very intrusive thought. She pointed the gun at Connor's head while he wasn't looking but snapped herself out of it and checked to make sure no one noticed as Connor ran back to where Payton was with some tweezers. Connor was able to successfully remove the sharp piece of plastic from Payton's arm. As they all stood up having a job well done despite the fact they got no supplies but they seems thankful to still be drawing breath. On the walk back Lily, Payton and Connor were talking up front and Freyja hung back and fiddled with the gun in her hands and grips it tightly and walks up to where Connor was walking and handed him the gun. "Here, I don't trust myself with this." Freyja said as Connor took the gun. Once he'd taken the gun Freyja sped up and walked ahead and hopped back over the fence and soon enough she was out of sight. "That was bizarre." Connor said as Lily and Payton nodded in agreement but they just boiled it down to she'd never used a gun before. But there was a tiny feeling that something a little more sinister was at play in Freyja's mind but nobody could tell for sure.