Zero Blood: Volume 2

Zero Blood

Volume 2

Part One

"Long Road Ahead"

Episode 1

"Eye for an Eye"

I looked behind me, Barry, Mark, and Patrick were all following. I kept walking down the dirt road, we were very close to the house. I stopped at the laneway, a couple more feet and I would be facing Derrick. I knelt down, and grabbed a stick from the ground, everyone knelt down with me.

"Alright," I began, "This is Patrick's house."

I drew a square in the dirt, we were making a plan to take Derrick by surprise.

"Then, Mark and I will-" a bullet hit the ground beside me, dirt flew in my eyes and my ears rang. I covered my eyes and fell to the ground. This could only mean one thing, Derrick knows we're here. The bullet ricochet just missed me, thank god. I stood back up and rubbed the dirt out of my eyes. I then looked at the house, I could see a man on the porch in the distance pointing a gun at us.

"Move!" I yelled, as another bullet flew by us.

I dove down as a wave of bullets sprayed by, just missing us. There was no plan now, we were going head on, and hoping we would get lucky. I really wanted to get Derrick by surprise, like what he did to us, but now we are going to hope luck is on our side. So far it was, since a bullet hasn't struck me yet. I pulled out my glock and ran through a field, bullets whizzing by and tossing up the dirt around me. Since all the crops were dead, the field wasn't very high. I couldn't hide as well, I ducked my head down and hoped for the best. I was slowly trying to make my way to the house without being shot. I looked behind me, I couldn't see anyone else. We got split up in the gunfire, did they coward out and run? If they pull that again, I will never forgive them again. I started firing at the house, to cover myself. I knew I wasn't going to hit anybody, but this would at least stop them from shooting so much. I reloaded my pistol, Sabrina supplied me with a couple of mags before we got here, thank god. I saw the back of the house from the field and sprinted for it, I needed cover. The porch was on the front of the house, I quickly sprinted to the back of the house from the field. I got to the back and looked around, I didn't know where to go next. I could be shot any minute now, and Patrick, Mark, and Barry disappearing didn't help either.

I crept around the side of the house and looked for a weak point, I saw the side door to the house. I tried opening it, great, it was locked. I heard footsteps running around the house, I got my gun ready, and pointed it. Barry and Patrick ran around the corner. I almost shot them.

"Damn, I almost killed you guys!" I whispered.

"Derrick's men headed inside the house, they fell back. We just need to break inside." Patrick said.

"Where the hell did Mark go?" I asked.

"I don't know, but we can't worry about that right now. I'm sure he's fine, we need to find a way to break into this place."

"I found a side door, but it's locked." I said.

"Damn, I don't want to make too much noise, but we might need to kick that damned thing down." Barry added.

"Alright, let's do it." I said, I got ready by the door.

I readied my gun, and Barry ran at the door and kicked it once. It didn't budge, he tried it again. He kept going at it, but it wouldn't move.

"Dammit Barry, let me try." Patrick said, he ran at it once and broke it down.

"That's how it's done." he said, then motioned Barry to go first.

"Lucky shot." Barry snickered.

We headed into the house, guns held up high, moving through the house on high alert. I headed into the kitchen, and looked around. It was all quiet, they're hiding. They probably want to get the jump on us too. I hid behind the table, and decided to call Derrick out.

"Come on out," I said, "We can all end this, it doesn't have to end like this."

There was nothing.

"Derrick, you knew this was coming. I don't know what you plan on doing, but it's not going to work. Just come out, and nobody has to die, ok?"

There was still nothing, you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet.

"Derrick-" a man moved around the corner and shot at me, it just missed me and hit something. I heard the sound of flesh tearing, and blood spurt onto my back. I looked behind me, Barry was hit. He got lucky though, the bullet hit his finger, and his ring finger was shot right off. He held in his scream, and looked at his finger in shock. It looked painful, but nothing serious.

"That's it." I said.

We now knew one of their locations, they were hiding behind a corner. I started shooting at the wall, bullet holes struck the wall. Nothing happened at first, but then a man dropped dead from the corner. The bullets pierced through the wall and hit him.

"It didn't have to go this way," I began, "But now you guys are screwed."

I got out of my hiding place, and headed through the house, everyone following behind me.

I headed through the house, angrily searching for Derrick. Patrick was also confident in this, I would like to think Barry was, but he was holding his finger in pain, making grunting noises. He put his gun in his holster, so he couldn't use it right now, I guess we were just supposed to protect him.

"I still wonder where Mark went off to." Patrick asked.

"Let's worry about that when Derrick is dead." I answered.

After a bunch of walking around the house, we cleared the first floor, nobody was here other than that guy I shot back there. There was only one place left to check, the second floor.

"Alright guys," I said, "Let's go."

I headed up the stairs with my gun pointed high, I needed to be ready for anything. Once we got up the stairs, I slowly searched around. Derrick had to be here, there was no way he couldn't be.

"Come out-" Patrick started, I shushed him.

"We need to be careful, if we start yelling we lose our guard. Stay focused." I whispered.

"You were yelling down there!" Patrick argued.

"Yeah but now we are in close quarters, Derrick will be around any corner now."

"Got it."

"I'm going to stay back here guys," Barry said, "My finger hurts like hell and I can't hold a gun right now. I won't be much help. I'll just slow you guys down."

"I understand," I said, "Now let's head into some rooms Patrick."

There were four doors up here in total, we had to go one by one. I expect Derrick to be hiding behind one, and when we open one, he will try mowing us down. I had that part planned though, I know how to open doors without being shot. I thought it all over last night.

"First door," I said, "Let's go. Follow my lead."

I went and stood by the right side of the door, Patrick went on the left. I grabbed the doorknob and twisted it, the door slowly creaked open. Nothing happened. If Derrick or any of his men were behind that one, he would have opened fire as soon as the door opened. He wasn't here. We headed for the next door, he has to be in one of these doors. We did the same thing, same positions, and I creaked open the second door. As soon as it opened, bullets sprayed through the door. They were definitely in here, we waited a little longer, to get them off guard and by surprise. For about a minute or two, there was a long silence.

"Are-are you still out there?" asked a cowering voice from inside, their breath was shaky.

I nodded to Patrick, I kicked the door open some more and we started shooting, there were two men in there, I hit one, and Patrick hit the other. Both head shots, they had flipped the bed and were using it as cover. They weren't very smart, I went over to check if one was Derrick.

"Damn," I said, "These two are just his men, Derrick is still out there. On the bright side, I think we killed all of his men."

"Let's go get Barry and find him, and hopefully Mark too." Patrick said.

We headed out of the room and were stopped cold in our tracks, my heart felt like it froze and was dropped from a thirty story building. I saw Derrick, holding Barry in front of him, with a gun to his head. He had his hand around Barry's mouth.

"Don't make another move, or I'll pop him." Derrick taunted.

"Listen Derrick, it's over," I said, "Your men are gone, and we outnumber you."

"No, you listen to me," Derrick spat, "You leave right now and let me keep the house to myself, and I'll let you have your friend back, ok?"

"Derrick, there are plenty of houses out there, we need this one because it has family value to Patrick. You can have another one, there are tons." I tried persuading him.

"I'm giving you one last chance." Derrick cried.

"No," I said, "I'm giving you one last chance. Let him go, the minute you shoot him, I will kill you."

"The minute I let him go you will as well, won't you?"

"No, we can work this out." I said, slowly walking closer.

"Stop! Don't come any closer! I will kill him-" Derrick was then tackled onto the ground.

It all happened so fast, a figure flew out of nowhere and took Derrick and me from surprised. Barry was let free and he ran over to us, I could now see what happened. It was Mark, he had tackled Derrick onto the ground.

"You son of a bitch!" Mark yelled, punching Derrick with his one hand over and over again.

"Look what you did to me!" he kept on yelling, "You took off my damn arm!"

Derrick's face was all red, both blood and tears were streaming down his face. Mark wouldn't stop, he just kept punching. I had to pull Mark off of him, he was going to hurt himself getting this worked up, may even break his fist.

"Thank god you're back." I said.

"Let me kill him!" Mark yelled.

I looked over at Derrick, he was crying, holding his face.

"I'm so sorry!" he kept crying over and over again, "I couldn't help it!"

I walked closer to him, Patrick had to hold Mark back so he didn't attack Derrick again.

"What do you mean, you couldn't help it?" I asked.

"It was my wife," he sniffled, "When this all started, I lost her. She was trapped in the house, I wanted to go back for her, but the house was swarming with the dead people! If I went in, I would die too! I have been so angry ever since! I'm sorry! I couldn't help it!"

"Pop a cap into this bitch!" Mark yelled, trying to get away from Patrick's grasp.

I extended my hand out to Derrick, he grabbed it and I lifted him up.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mark yelled.

I didn't want to admit it, but I understood Derrick. The same thing happened to me, losing your wife and not being able to do anything about it, it would destroy a person. I lost my cool a bunch of times when Samantha was gone, but I learned to keep it in.

"I lost my wife too," I said, "But you have to keep it together. I lost her way before this, she was kidnapped. If you keep acting like this, you're practically punishing yourself. You have to be strong."

"Wait, you're gonna leave this piece of shit? Kill him!" Mark yelled.

"Shut up!" Patrick yelled, "Jeff knows what he's doing."

"I know," Derrick said, "I'm-I'm sorry. I know that's probably not enough, what I've done, it's terrible. I sawed off your friend's arm for pete's sake, I killed Damien, and I stole your house. I've destroyed you people."

"He killed Damien?" Patrick asked.

"I guess so." I said.

"So what is going to happen?" Derrick asked.

"You are going to leave, run as far as you can from here, and don't come back." I ordered.

I heard a scream coming from outside, it was the stranglers. I almost knew this was coming, gunfire always attracts them.

"Oh shit! Are we surrounded?" Derrick asked.

"I've been through this before, we can get through it. Stay close to us, and don't try anything, you're lucky I let you survive." I said.

More screams came from the outside, then banging on the house. I knew there were probably tons out there, and I also knew that we might have to leave this house for good, it may end up like the last one. It's going to get overrun.

"Oh god, oh god." Derrick panicked.

"Settle down! We can make it through this!"

I went over to Patrick to talk over the game plan, Mark looked furious.

"What the hell Jeff?" Mark asked, "You're going to let this piece of shit live? He doesn't deserve to live. It looked like you had no problem killing Clark, why is Derrick different?"

"I believe Derrick is still a good person," I said, "Clark was already scum before this all started. There was no changing him. Yes I know I acted drastically, and I shouldn't have killed Clark. I regret it, it got Margaret killed and all of you almost killed. Derrick can still change though, he hasn't hit rock bottom yet."

"Whatever Jeff, that asshole sawed off my arm. I think he's crazy as shit." Mark cried.

"Let's just go." I said.