Episode 5: The Freak Show

Episode 5

"The Freak Show"

We kept driving for a long time, I didn't know how well we were doing on gas, I hoped we were doing alright. We were on the highway now. So far, we had been driving for half an hour. Before the apocalypse I went to Toronto a few times, it only took around three hours or so, now that the roads are cleared and there is no speed limit, we could easily be there in another hour or so. Safe haven here we come. This group has barely held together, I hope Toronto will be a beacon of light for all of us. Patrick didn't say anything, so he was kind of boring to sit with. He just sat there, looking down in shame. He would look up once in a while, to see where we were, but that was all. I saw a arcade ahead, maybe we should stop at it. Arcades have food, and I was starving. I feel like it wouldn't be ransacked yet, since nobody thinks to go to an arcade when an apocalypse starts. Everyone either goes to a grocery store or something. Mark had the same idea as me, he slowed down and we pulled off of the highway into the parking lot of the arcade. I got an uneasy feeling as soon as we pulled in here. There were only a few cars here, but they were all wrecked. Smashed windows, and some of the cars had blood splatters on them. I got out of the truck, everyone else did and we looked around. Patrick decided to stay in the back, I didn't argue. We would be right back. The place lingered with the smell of dead bodies and gasoline. It wasn't a very good mix. Kayla stayed close to Sabrina, I just hope she will forgive me for what I did to Patrick back at the doctors office.

I approached the front doors and I opened them, we walked in. The arcade itself smelled even worse. Take the smell outside and triple it.

"Jesus," Sabrina said, "Let's get through this place fast. I hate this place already."

We walked around, and it was pretty empty, you would see the occasional dead body of a parent lying around. What really scared me though, was that there were no kid corpses. I mean, I didn't want to see a kid corpse, it would be a terrible thing to see, but this place is an arcade which should be filled with kids. Why were there just adult bodies lying around? I seemed to be the only person who realized this though.

"You guys see any food?" Jamie asked, "Anything not dairy?"

"I'm sure we'll find something." Mark said, looking around the place.

I noticed a popcorn stand not too far from here, I ran for it, everyone else followed me.

"Please be full, please be at least somewhat full." I said to myself.

We got there and I looked inside, it was full. My eyes lit up.

"Yes! Jackpot!" Mark shouted.

"Does it have butter on it?" Jamie asked.

I reached by hand in the popcorn and put some in my mouth.

"No."

"Great! Dig in Brandy." Jamie said.

Brandy stuffed his face with popcorn, I wasn't really a fan of popcorn, especially without butter in it. So I sat back and we waited for Brandy to finish. While he was eating, I decided to look around the place. Mark came with me.

We walked around different parts of the arcade, passing slot machines, and jungle gyms. This place was still nerve racking some how, I still wasn't sure why. The feel of it, the smell of it bugged me more than any other place I've been in this apocalypse. We kept walking around the place, that's when I noticed a body of a man, he was dead, but something about him scared me. He was pointed to something, his finger was pointing to ball pit. I slowly looked up, and noticed some things inside of it. I walked closer to the ball pit and looked inside. I teared up instantly, I saw tons of bodies everywhere. Just lying in the ball pit.

"What?" Mark asked.

"Don't look in there." I shivered.

He looked.

"Oh my god." he covered his mouth.

This was weird, someone must have put them there.

"Some sick person did this," I said, "This isn't right."

"Jeff," Mark started.

"What?"

"Don't look behind you, I mean it, just follow what I say."

"What's behind me?"

"There's person behind you, they are just looking at you, staring. It looks to be a grown man, he's wearing kid clothing, and it's really messed up. He has a bat in his hand, it has nails in it."

"Alright, I can shoot him." I said.

"No, no!" Mark whispered, "I think there might be more of them. He keeps tilting his head to the side and moving his mouth. I think he's talking to some people."

"I'm gonna back up slowly, you follow me, no sudden moves." he said.

I nodded, and Mark started moving slowly backwards, keeping his eyes on them, I slowly followed him. From Mark's description, this guy really freaked me out. A man killing people, then wearing children clothes? Out of everything I've been through, this had to be the most screwed up experience yet. I heard laughing behind me, Mark looked scared, even more than he already was.

"Shit," he said, "He's following us, and he's got two other guys with him. All wearing kid clothing, what the actual hell."

"That's it." I said.

I turned around to see them, I pointed my pistol at them. The man in the middle was wearing overalls that went up to his knees, a bright red shirt that showed his fat stomach, and long greasy looking hair. The other men looked similar.

"Stay back, I'll shoot." I said.

He just kept laughing, walking towards me. The other men also had bats, I decided to run. These fools were actually scaring me, we needed to get everyone out of here. If I fire a shot, stranglers will have this place surrounded in minutes. More of them came out from nowhere though, in front of us. Blocking our way out. I turned to see the other freak shows getting closer. There were now six of them in total, they kept walking for us.

"How much do you have in your clip?" I asked Mark.

"Six shots."

"I have six too, let's make them count."

"Oh no, wait." a man spoke, he had a high pitched voice and giggled when he talked.

"If you shoot me and my friends," he began, "My other friends will kill you, and throw you in the ball pit."

"You have others?" I asked.

"Yes!" he laughed, "They're just playing in the arcade right now! We can all have fun!"

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Mark yelled.

"Nothing! We just wanna have fun! Come on! Let's go! We can start with names! My name is Timothy!" he giggled.

"What did you do to those people?" I questioned, I wanted to know.

"They were afraid of us! I didn't like that very much. Nobody liked me before the dead people started rising, I just wanted to make friends, they called me names, and called me creepy. They threatened to call the cops on me and my friends! So I killed all of them, we locked the doors and killed every single living thing in here! So now we can all have fun without the negativity!"

"Let us go." I demanded.

"Uh oh," Timothy said, "He's being negative, let's get him."

I shot my pistol and hit one of the men in the head, he dropped. Timothy screamed, he swung at me with a bat, I ducked and kicked his kneecap. He fell to the ground and cried in agony. Mark smacked one of them in the head, knocking them out, then shot another. Four down, two more to go. This was easy. I shot another one, and Mark shot the last one. All that was really left was Timothy crying on the ground.

"My friends are gonna get you, they're the big kids." he cried.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked him.

I heard footsteps, I turned to see bigger guys walking towards us in all directions. Four of them in total, they were also in kid clothing, but they were muscular. They wore face paint, but it was blood instead of paint. They had crowbars and knives. I pointed my gun at them, along with Mark.

"You guys are going down, we have guns, you don't." I threatened.

"We have your friends." A big man said.

One of them had Jamie in a headlock, ready to snap her neck, another one had Sabrina in a chokehold. The last two big men had Kayla and Brandy, they had knives around their throats.

"Maybe we can throw you all in the ball pit." Timothy said.

That set me off, nobody touches Kayla. Nobody touches any of my allies, they're dead.

"You kill one of them," I started, "You're all dead."

One of Timothy's men started squeezing Sabrina's neck, she couldn't breathe. That was it.

I pointed my gun at the man's head, ready to fire, but something stopped me.

"No," Mark said, "If you shoot one of them, they'll kill everyone else."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"They outsmarted us, we're screwed."

"Not quite." said a voice, I turned around to see Patrick. He fired a shot and struck the man holding Sabrina, he dropped dead. They weren't expecting this, they were caught off guard. I shot another one holding Kayla, he dropped. Mark shot one holding Brandy, and Patrick shot the one holding Jamie. They were all down in seconds. I ran over to Kayla, she was crying.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, wiping a tear off of her face.

"Now I am." she cried, she hugged me.

I picked her up and met Sabrina, she was holding her neck, coughing.

"Are you okay?" I helped her get up.

"Yeah, fine." she said.

Timothy got up and backed away from us, he wasn't laughing anymore.

I placed Kayla down and walked towards him, I put my gun away and pulled out my knife, he tried running, he tripped over a dead body and fell.

"No! No!" he cried, "I just wanted to have fun! That's all!"

Without hesitation, I stuck the knife into his eye, he let out a quick little scream and died.

"I have friends too." I said.

I turned around, and instead of people backing away from me terrified, they smiled. I think they finally realize that the actions I take is for everyone. I walked by and Mark patted my on the back.

"Let's get the hell out of here." I said.

We headed out, without taking anymore food. I didn't want to eat from here, not after the freak show. It really scared me, those people were so screwed in the head, it scared even me. I've seen a lot of shit too. We didn't take any food, but I took some gasoline. I finally found out why this place smelled like gas. There were tons of gasoline containers lying around, I didn't know why this place had so much of it, but I didn't care. I grabbed two containers and rushed to the truck. I saw stranglers heading this way, followed by screams. We all jumped into the truck, and I tossed the containers in the back, then jumped in with Patrick. Mark slammed on the gas pedal and we sped off, ditching the stranglers back at the arcade.

"Thank you," I said to Patrick, "You really saved our asses back there. Those people were beyond disturbing."

"I was sitting in this back truck," Patrick started, "Then I realized that you did what you had to do in dropped Barry. You would have been dead if you didn't. So I headed inside to apologize, but I heard a bunch of gunshots, so I rushed inside. That's when I saw those people surrounding you, holding Sabrina, Jamie, Brandy, and Kayla all captive."

I pat him on the back, I'm so glad Patrick came though. I thought he was going to be mad at me forever, maybe our group can pull through this. I looked around the highway, things flashing back to me as I watched. I remember the start of this, Patrick saved my life. He was brave, he was always brave. When he ditched Kayla and I back at the house when stranglers attacked, I called him a coward, and he made me leader of the group. It takes a real brave person to step down like that. He was never a coward, now I understand that.

"I'm sorry about your pictures." I said to him.

"It's fine, I looked at them enough, I have a mental picture burned into my mind."

I smiled, we are going to make it to Toronto, together.