Bex Rollins killed her mom.
Tommy killed his dad.
Brought together by fate, Bex and self-named 10k have partnered up to fight the apocalypse together...that is, until 10k teams up with a group headed to California.
(Undergoing edits)
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"There's nothing to kill out here," 10K whines from beside me. I glare at him. Let's have one more whiner on this trip.
"Yeah, Warren, my dogs are tired," Doc says, stumbling a bit up the hill with us.
"Could you girls please shut up?" I mutter, walking ahead of them. It's the apocalypse, not a school field trip.
"Let's take a quick break so I can get a monitor reading," Warren says, stopping us from continuing. I sigh, sitting down on a boulder and stretching out my legs.
"Your legs look nice," Cassandra comments, staring down at them in shorts.
I turn red as we redheads do. "Oh...thanks. Years of sports will do that to you." I look over to see 10K staring at my legs too, though he quickly looks away when he sees me watching him.
Cassandra points up to something behind us. "Now who in the hell did that?"
We turn and see Mount Rushmore vandalized to make the presidents look like zombies. Honestly, I could see myself doing that before hauling myself off the top from the depression of the apocalypse.
"This is why we can't have nice things," Murphy says. Strange coming from a convict like him.
"I think it's awesome," 10K says, grinning. I grin back, giving him a high five. This is why we get along.
After not finding the town Warren's been looking for, we do stumble upon warehouses.
"Oh look, just like home," Murphy says.
Doc pops open the one door, the group coming alongside him and Warren.
"Is that a goo zombie?" I point out to 10K who immediately pulls me behind him in a protective gesture. "Just like scooby doo, huh?" He shushes me, pulling me around the corner with the rest of the group.
We hold our breath, before holding it because Murphy farted.
"Are you fucking serious," I gag, covering my nose with my shirt.
"Sorry, it got away from me," he shrugs.
The glowing zombie rounds the corner, Doc taking it out with his crowbar. Soon, more are on us.
"Don't touch them!" a man bursting through the door, yells. He shoots the rest of the zeds for us. Except for one which grabs 10K.
"What part of 'don't touch' do you not get, Killer?" I ask, taking an arrow and shoving it through it's head.
"Are they contagious?" Doc asks the man.
"No," he says, looking grave. "They're radioactive."
I groan in frustration. "What isn't going to happen in the apocalypse at this point?"
"Talking Zs?" 10K supplies, grinning at me. I smack him playfully. Murphy makes a gagging sound at our banter.
We follow the father-daughter duo to a radiation plant. Well, that would explain the radioactive zombies.
And it looks like it's about to explode.
"How much shit does this group get into? What happened to normal zeds?" I rant.
"It's Murphy's fault," Doc says. Murphy pretends to be offended. It's true, though.
We move on with the same newcomers into town. Probably the one Warren couldn't find.
"Welcome to Edgemont, South Dakota."
Well, that answers that. It is the town.
"I'm Wilbur Grady and this is my daughter, Amelia." The rest of the group follows in introductions.
Wilbur buckles over in a coughing fit, his daughter coming over to check on him.
"Radiation poisoning," she tells our confused looks.
Once he's recovered, he offers to check us out and give us food. He uses some kind of tester to check if we have radiation then Amelia gives us Iodine.
"The core's melting down. If we don't fix it, everything within a three hundred mile radius will be glowing."
Murphy picks up his pokemon backpack. "Well, nice meeting you but we have places to go and things to do." Honestly, I'm inclined to agree. I'm tired of helping others in the apocalypse.
"There's no driveable car and the core will meltdown in less than forty-eight hours."
"Just great," I mutter, standing up and pacing. Finally, I walk out of the garage, my nerves over the edge. 10K follows me outside.
"This group is getting us killed. Or, giving us cancer if we did manage to get out of the hot zone!" I yell at him. He just stares me down, letting me vent.
"It's your fault if we get killed. You just like to hop onto any wagon with people in it. If it wasn't for me, you'd be dead already!"
He nods, not arguing with me. I sigh, calming down since he never puts up a fight. "Whatever. Guess I'm getting myself all glowy today."
"Okay, here's the plan," Wilbur says as we are walking toward the reactor. "I need to get to the control room. I haven't been able to get there due to zombies. That's where you come in."
"Killing zombies is what we do," Warren says.
"Don't hug the zombies. You'll be dead within a few hours."
"10K! Cover us from over there. Bex, create noise along the fence to draw them over to you so you can kill without being in the containment area."
I nod, pulling out my hunting knife, and rattling it against the chain-link fence. A few come close enough to be taken out through the fence, the others shot by 10K.
The rest of the group goes inside, leaving 10K and me outside alone. A minute later, they return and we wait together. When Wilbur finally makes it back, he collapses, saying he didn't make it.
"We are fucked, aren't we, Bex?" 10K asks. I nod, patting his arm.
