The New World

Chapter 5 : The Journey

I woke up abruptly to the sound of a door slamming, looking to my left seeing it woke Jaylyn too. Butch then busted through the door to our room, "Hey man, get ready, it's time to go." He said out of breath. "Alrighty man, gimme a minute I'm coming." I said rudely, not wanting to get up. But, I obeyed and got out of bed, I grabbed my hunting rifle, put on my boots and jacket, slung my rifles strap across my shoulder, and grabbed some ammo. I left the house still half awake, Bird, Butch, Randall, and Breanna were all ready. I got out to the car and began helping load up some supplies for the trip. I turned to see Marcus, "Good luck, to all of you." He said while shaking my hand, and then continuing to shake everyone's hand. "We'll find you something, Marcus." I said confidently. I was about to enter the car when I saw Jaylyn, with a grim look on her face. "What's wrong?" I said looking at her. She stayed silent for a minute, then hugged me, "If you get hurt I'm gonna beat your ass." She said, then sniffling. She then looked at Bird and Butch who were already inside the car, "Same goes for you two." She said pointing at them, then hugged me again. "You have to come back. You just have to." She said, beginning to cry. "I'll be coming back, we all will, I promise." I said to her and got into the car. Randall started the car and began to drive out the wide-open gate. I looked back to see Jaylyn and Marcus watching us leave, Jaylyn with a much sadder look on her face. Then we were off, outside the gates, and they were closed. We were going down the road and my mood hadn't improved, I felt bad for Jaylyn. I turned to Bird and Butch, "You guys said goodbye to Anne and Kat right?" I asked, "Yeah, we both did." Bird replied. Breanna pitched in, "How about we lift the fuckin' spirits in this car?" She asked, then reached in the glove box and pulled out a Justin Bieber CD and turned and looked at me, Bird, and Butch in the back seat, giving us a funny look. "No, absolutely not. No." I said seriously, Butch began to laugh and Bird said "I agree with Sparky." But for real, where the hell do you get a fucking Justin Bieber CD? I asked myself. "Don't play that gay shit while I'm driving, please." Randall said letting out a laugh. All of us in the back seat laughed too. Then Breanna put the CD up and took out another one, this time it was a Slipknot album. "Oh fuck yeah." I said enthusiastically, "Oh yeah, play that shit." Bird said. It was the "Vol. 3:" album, the song that first started playing was "Pulse of the Maggots" and Butch began to tap his feet and play drums on the back of Bre's and Randall's seats. Randall began rocking out to it, me and Bird looked at each other and started laughing. "What the hell is wrong with you guys?" I said jokingly, mid laughter. Breanna had lifted the moods of everyone inside the car, I could see that she was that kind of person. The one that always made others happy. We had been driving for a while, Butch fell asleep and so did Breanna. "We're almost there, guys." Randall said, not loud enough to wake either Butch or Breanna. We finally entered a small town, and drove about a quarter of a mile into the town. We came across a few stores, there were no Biters to be seen. I tapped Butch's shoulder, "Hey man, get up. We're heading out." I said. He got up and Randall woke Breanna. "Alright guys, we're gonna check out this pawn shop." He said, stepping out of the car. I grabbed my rifle and got out as well, as soon as we all were out we checked our surroundings and then began to head across the street to the pawn shop. I looked through the glass door, seeing a bell at the top used to notify the clerks when a customer entered. So I opened the door and triggered the bell to see if any Biters were inside. I heard a noise towards the back but nothing came, I could tell my friends noticed it too. "Probably caught on something, keep your guard up." I said sternly, entering the store and turning my flashlight on, I scanned the walls of the store, seeing it had mostly been looted. I headed behind the counter, I saw a safe that was built into the floor, but didn't see a key to open it. I headed through a door behind the counter, seeing a gun safe, and a few pictures on the wall. I observed the room, and found what was making the noise. A large shelf had fallen onto a Biter, I took out my butterfly knife and stabbed it on the top of its head. I figured there could be something on the shelf, so I called for help, "Hey Butch, can you give me a hand?" I asked him loud enough for him to hear me from the room he was in. He was there in no time, "Help me lift this up." I said, we both lifted up the large shelf and moved it to the side, the Biter had a name tag that read, "Scott" and this "Scott" had a keychain laid out beside him that I grabbed. Immediately heading to the gun safe and trying all the different keys, and luckily, one worked. I opened the safe and saw a few hundred dollar bills, "That's of no use to us anymore." I said to myself, continuing to scan the safe. I saw a rifle that looked like an H&K 416, it had a suppressor on it. I picked it up, pressing the mag release and seeing it had a full mag, and I halfway pulled the charging handle, seeing there was a round in the chamber as well. I picked up the rifle, it also had a strap that I threw across my shoulder. At the bottom of the safe there were a two boxes, I reached down and grabbed both of them, opening the first I found a Beretta M9, opening the second I found a 45. Caliber Pistol. I slid the 45. Into the front of my pants, and turned and handed the M9 to Butch. I grabbed the key chain and headed back out to the floor safe, I tried different keys until I found the one that opened it. There were three boxes, I grabbed all of them, opening them and all three were Glock 20's which I gave one to Bird, Randall, and Breanna. We then searched some more and found some more ammo, like 5.56, 45., and some 9mm. We then headed back out to the car. Randall started, "Man, that was a damn goo-" he stopped abruptly as a shot rang out and hit him. I quickly looked around and determined where the shot came from, I saw a silhouette on the roof to our right. I aimed quickly and fired. I turned back and saw Butch dragging Randall back towards the store as more shots rang out, Bird and Breanna fired towards the shooters. I ran towards Butch and helped him get Randall back into the store as bullets hit the ground beside us. We picked Randall up and placed him onto a table. "Breanna close his wound! Butch guard the door!" Bird, help me barricade this damn door!" I said taking charge. Butch crouched, aiming at the door. Bird and I went over and grabbed a table and then pushed it against the door, and then grabbed some filing cabinets and slid them against the door. I went back to Randall, "So what do we need to fix him?" I asked Breanna, "Well I can fix him, I just need some tweezers, the bullet didn't exit but i can get it out with tweezers." She said looking up at me and then to Bird, "Alright, Bird you go look for some tweezers and I'll help Butch guard the door. I crouched down beside Butch, "Hey Sparky?" He asked, "Yeah, man?" I replied, "I don't think I can kill a person man, like I've killed Biters and everything, but actual people is just different." He said with a worried tone in his voice. I then realized I had the same worry, I had forgotten in the chaos, but I don't know if I could kill a person either, and that worried me. With that thought, a bullet crashed against the glass door, causing the glass to shatter. Then, Bird exited from the back room, "Found a first aid kit!" He yelled. Then, tossing it to Breanna. She quickly scrambled to get it open, spilling some of the contents in the process. Finally, she grabbed the tweezers that had fallen to the floor, "Sorry Randall, this is gonna hurt." She said, then digging the tweezers into his shoulder. Randall winced, then Breanna jerked the tweezers out, the bullet that was stuck inside Randall fell to the floor. Randall quickly got up, grabbed his FNP90 and loaded another magazine into it. "Hold up! I gotta put a bandage on it!" Breanna yelled. As Randall stepped back and let Breanna tend to his wound, another few bullets hit the doorway and around it. "What now?" Bird yelled over the sound of bullets slamming around us, "I'm gonna check the back door!" I yelled over the sound of rapid gunshots. I ran towards the back and hopped over the counter, running into the back room, then slamming my shoulder into the back door. It was jammed. I ran back into the main room, Randall was leaned through the broken glass door a popped off a few rounds then ducked back inside. "How many of them are out there?" I asked. "I counted four, one to our right side on the roof, one to our left on a balcony, one by our car, and one in the store across from us." Randall replied, "Alright, I'm gonna try and hit that guy acro-" I started to say as I was interrupted by a voice from outside. "You guys wanna come out and introduce yourselves? Or are you too shy?" A deep voice asked from outside. We all stayed completely silent, I peeked out and saw the man that was speaking to us, he was standing in the truck bed of a lifted truck. He was wearing blue jeans and a dark brown leather jacket, he was bald, and probably weighed around two-thirty, or two-forty pounds, but was definitely more muscle than fat. He had an AR-15, with a drum magazine and some sort of short-range scope, with a bayonet on the end of the barrel. "No? It's a bit rude to not serve your guests!" He said loudly, then firing the seventy-five rounds in his drum magazine towards us, only hitting the building and leaving us unharmed. Then, I heard the magazine of his rifle hit the floor, knowing that was my time, I stood up and fired as many rounds as I could in his direction. I stopped when I heard him groan in pain. I crouched back down, "Alrighty, Motherfucker, I gave you a chance, and you fucked it up!" He yelled, we stayed completely silent again. I started hearing footsteps nearing the building we occupied, I stood up just as one of them got to our barricaded door. I fired a few rounds at the door and so did everyone else. I heard yelling from outside, "Fuck!" I heard a different man yell. "Go get the damn gas." The man that yelled at us before said. "Shit, guys we gotta get outta here, I think they're getting tear gas." I said as I neared the doorway. They fired a few rounds and I jumped back. "Any suggestions?" I asked, looking around at all members of my team. "We should probably move to the back room, maybe the gas won't reach us there." Bird suggested. We began moving towards the back room when something was thrown through the door, and then smoked started to fill the room. "Shit! Cover your eyes!" Butch yelled. What I heard next consisted of coughing and mixed noises. I couldn't figure out where I was in the room the smoke had grown so thick. "Come here!" I heard a man yell behind me, I quickly turned and swung. I hit someone, but someone else grabbed my right leg and pulled me down. I began kicking trying to get free, but was out of breath from coughing and I couldn't see. Then, I was being dragged by two guys, I was dragged out onto the pavement where I saw what looked like Randall, Breanna, and Bird, but couldn't tell because I couldn't see from the gas. They threw me down beside Bird and pulled my hands behind my back, tying them together with something. I watched as they then pulled Butch from the building we just came out of, it looked as if it was on fire. Butch was still fighting, and it took four guys to get him tied up. After that they lined him up beside me, as we were all in a line. Then the leader stood in front of us. Walking back and forth in front of us. "Man, you guys are real assholes." He said looking towards me, then I saw his upper leg was bleeding. "Oh, so we did hit you?" Butch asked sarcastically, "Shut up!" The man yelled as he kicked Butch in the stomach, then some of his men picked him back up. "You guys, have really caused us a lot of trouble. Tell me, which one of you is the leader?" We sat completely still as he scanned over us, "Can't be you, you're more muscle." He said pointing at Butch, "Thanks man, that's the nicest thing someone's said to me today." Butch said, but the man ignored him. "Not you, you're a fucking woman." He said pointing at Breanna. "Hmmmm, it's between you three. Which one of you is the leader?" He asked, leaning closer to us. We all sat silent. "Well, we've kinda have a very embraced democracy going on, so we don't rea-" Butch started in but was interrupted by the man, "Listen asshole, you've been really pushing my buttons today, and I have to say you're my least favorite of the group right now, so I suggest you keep your fucking mouth shut, okay?" He said, then letting out an ugly grin. He then pointed at me, "You, you're the leader, aren't you?" He asked looking directly at me. "Come on, don't give me the silent treatment." He said. I sat completely silent. "Alright, so you're gonna be a hard-ass, huh?" He said. He reached his arm out and grabbed me by the throat, picking me up and holding me against the truck. "Listen man, it's been a rough day. Just tell me who the fuck the leader is." He said, I wasn't paying attention though, I was looking for a way to get out. He then dropped me and moved on to Bird. "So, who's the leader?"
Bird sat silent, just then I remembered my knife. Now I was back up against the truck, so I reached into my pocket, slowly sliding my knife out. "Quiet too, huh?" The man asked Bird. At this point I had successfully opened my knife and was trying to cut whatever was tied around my hands. I watched the man as I cut the stuff around my hands off, he looked much more irritated than before. I then remembered the 45. I had on me. I quickly reached around and pulled my pistol from the front of my pants, holding my knife in my left hand and my sidearm in my right, I looked to the left and fired a shot into the man on the left, I then turned right and fired at the man there. He hit the ground fast, I then aimed for the man and fired but he had already turned to run, I missed him. I quickly cut my friends out of their ropes, they jumped into the truck bed and grabbed their weapons, Randall then threw me mine. I turned around a fired a few shots down the street where the other men were. They returned fire. Randall and I fired back, "We have to get to the car!" Breanna yelled. Randall crouched down, dug into his pocket and pulled out the keys, tossing them to Breanna. She then ran back to the car, attempted to start it. Then Bird, Butch, Randall and I were all returning fire to the men down the street. I heard the car start, "Alright, Bird and Butch head for the car first! We'll keep them occupied!" I yelled. They did not argue, they ran for the car. "Randall you turn and run on my go!" I fired a few shots towards out attackers, "Now!" I yelled, and Randall took off to run. He was almost at the car when I turned to run, I was about halfway to the car and I felt a bullet tear through my left leg. I fell to the ground, turning over and fired a few shots at our attackers again. Randall turned and ran to my aid, he threw my arm across his shoulder and helped me to the car, where the others were still firing at the men. Randall dumped me into the car and then jumped in. Breanna sped off, hitting eighty in seven seconds. "Somebody patch Sparky up." Randall said, handing us the first aid kit from the store. Bird opened the kit and began looking at the contents. I looked down at my leg, it had just barely missed my bone. But the skin was peeling back and I gagged, and looked away. I didn't feel the pain of it until we had all calmed down, "Get something on there, this hurts like hell." I said looking at Bird, I then laid my leg across the middle of the car and Bird stuck a bandage on it. "Alright man, you're good until we get back." Bird said. We then sat in silence for a long part of the drive, I sat looking out at the trees and all the stuff we passed. I looked back at Randall, who was in the back seat this time. "Guys?" I asked. "Yeah, man?" Randall asked, "I killed some of those guys." I said softly. I didn't know how to feel, I had killed those guys in self defense. But I was still shocked. I laid my head down to sleep for the rest of the ride, "Thanks Randall, thanks everybody, We wouldn't have made it without each other." I said, then laying my head down to sleep.