Episode 3: Strangler Wasteland

Episode 3

"Strangler Wasteland"

I opened the front doors and we slowly walked out of the place. I was nervous, there were tons of stranglers everywhere. We should have asked Winston to kill a couple from the roof before we went out here, it was too late now. I shut the mall doors behind me. There were about twenty to thirty stranglers just roaming this street.

"Be quiet, and take your time. They're only a threat if they see you." I said.

"Got it." Patrick crouched and we walked around the back streets, there were less stranglers that way.

We took the backroad closest to the mall, the one with the fence between two alleyways.

"Damn this gate it getting annoying, we should just knock it down." Sabrina said, climbing over it.

"Maybe someday." I said, I climbed over after her.

Patrick whipped his bag over and almost hit me. He then climbed over.

"Jeez dude, you didn't have to throw your bag over, it's just a little fence." I said.

"Sorry."

"Sabrina did you pack the respirators?" I asked.

"Shit!"

"Should we go back for them?"

"Nah, we'll be fine." Sabrina said.

We kept walking down the alleyway, we would have to kill the odd strangler that would wander into the alleyway. After about ten minutes of just walking the backroads, it came to and end and we were going to have to walk through the main streets, and maybe find another back road. I peeked out from behind a building to the main roads, it was pretty risky. There were stranglers everywhere, I couldn't even see the lab yet, this was going to be a long trip.

"Let's go, are you two ready to run?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." Patrick said.

"Me too." Sabrina added.

I took a deep breathe and ran out into the main street with Patrick and Sabrina following, the stranglers saw us and started chasing us.

"Run!" I yelled.

We ran down a main street with about twenty or thirty stranglers following us, we would dodge stranglers running into us, and I would smack the odd one with my gun once in a while. We would try to avoid contact with them simply because we didn't have any respirators to block out the infection. As long as we are not too close to them, we would be fine.

"Back street!" Patrick pointed out, there was a back road between two buildings.

Without thinking, I swerved to the side and we cut into an alley. Everyone followed me, even the stranglers. I started running through the alley, stranglers would run through other gaps and try to cut us off, we would try out best to knock them down or swerve out of their way. I looked behind me to see about forty stranglers screaming and running behind us. I saw a bunch of other stranglers come out from in front of us. We were gonna get cornered. I turned to see a building beside us in the alleyway. I pointed my shotgun at a window and blasted through it. I grabbed the windowsill and climbed in. I cut myself from the glass climbing in, but that was the last of my worries. Sabrina hopped in, and then Patrick. We made it just in time. I ran back to the window and looked out, stranglers reached their arms at me, trying to get in. They weren't gonna get in. The building was dark, I wondered where we were.

"That was close." Sabrina stated.

"Yeah, I almost felt some breathing on my back as we were running." Patrick added.

I went to the other side of the building and looked out the front window, this part was clear. On the bright side, we lured most of the stranglers to the back of the building in the alleyway, giving us a clear shot for the main road.

"Are we resting here?" I asked.

"Can we? Just for a little bit?" Patrick asked, opening his backpack.

"Sure."

We restocked, Sabrina handed me some shotgun shells, and a backup pistol to put in one of my holster next to my knife sheath. Sabrina laid out some snacks on the ground, we refuelled and after about ten minutes we were ready to go again. The stranglers were still trying to get in through the window. I headed to the front door and slowly opened it. I looked to both sides of the building, we were in the clear.

"Let's go!" I said.

All three of us headed out of the building and down the street. There were still a couple strangers, that we would knock over, not shoot. If we shot our guns off, the whole horde from behind the building in the alleyway would come running this way. As we were running, I thought I noticed a truck in the distance, was it out truck? I started sprinting faster and the truck got closer. I kept running until we got there.

"What was the rush?" Sabrina asked panting.

"This is our truck." I said.

I turned to see a hardware store, did they stop here?

"Jeff." Sabrina started.

"What?"

Sabrina pointed to the front of the hardware store, I saw Jake lying there. I ran over to him to see if he was okay. He was way past dead, he had a bleeding hole in his stomach, and his skin was pale. Sabrina started crying, and Patrick and I were both shocked. I didn't even know how to react. I heard a bunch of screams behind us, I turned to see the horde of stranglers heading this way. They caught on and followed us. I was tired out, I couldn't outrun these guys. I ran to the hardware store, and tried to open it. It wouldn't budge, and we had no time. I ran to the truck and hopped in, Sabrina and Patrick got in. I slammed the door and locked them. I was praying the key would still be in here. It was still in the ignition. I turned they key and the truck started up after a couple tries. Some strangers hopped on the truck and tried to get in, I floored it. Stranglers flew off, and some of them stayed in the back, but couldn't get to us since we were moving so fast. I heard gunfire in the distance, I wonder what it was from.

(This Part of the Story is From Jess's Point of View)

We headed down the floors of the building, taking out stranglers on each floor. We were now on the fourth floor after a long morning of killing. Thank god for these bandanas. I kept stabbing the stranglers with the knives on the ends of my guns. I almost found this boring now, it used to be suspenseful and scary, but I really don't care much for it anymore. A strangler ran for me and I stabbed it in the throat, it kept screaming at me since the only way to kill a strangler is either by force to the head or force to the chest. I lifted it up by the knife I had in it's throat, and tossed it down the stairs. It got back up and I shot it multiple times before it could get up the stairs. It was down.

"Jess watch out!" Mark yelled, I turned to see a strangler headed straight for me.

The strangler tackled me down the stairs, we both fell all the way to the third floor where there were even more stranglers hanging out down there. Mark and Ned ran down the stairs after me when the fourth floor was cleared. I wrestled with the strangler, but more headed for me. I dropped both of my pistols when I fell, I held the strangler up with one arm and reached for my gun with the other. A bullet went straight through the stranglers head and it dropped. Blood flew into my face as I closed my eyes. I wiped my eyes to see Mark pointing a pistol. He saved me, but almost shot me. I grabbed my two pistols and we started shooting down the last couple of stranglers on this floor. We shot out way through the last couple of floors and made it to the bottom of the building. We had successfully cleared out the building. I heard the sound of a car heading this way, it sounded like our truck. I ran outside of the building and looked down the street, I saw our truck heading this way. Mark and Ned ran out to see what was going on, we all raised our guns at the truck, just incase.

I shot at the truck and hit one of the headlights, it shattered and the truck swerved and came to a complete stop right in front of the building. We kept our guns raised and I slowly walked over to the car. The car door opened and Jeff stumbled out.

"Holy shit, you almost shot us." he said, looking at the headlights.

I couldn't believe it, I can't believe they came to find us. Sabrina and Patrick also jumped out of the truck and ran towards us.

"I never actually thought we'd find you guys." Patrick said.

"We never thought we would see you guys again either." Mark said.

"Get in, let's head home. We need to rethink this plan and then head to the lab later. We've used up too much supplies and we're all tired." Jeff said.

We all agreed with that plan and we piled into the truck. Patrick sat in the back, since there were not enough seats in the truck. Jeff backed up, and drove down the street.

"You guys okay? What happened?" Jeff asked me.

"We're fine, we just ran into a problem. We dealt with it." I took off my bandana.

"We saw Jake," he said, "At the hardware store. I'm sorry. He was a good leader."

A tear fell from my left eye, I looked down and tried to hide it.

"Yeah," I sniffled, "He was a good leader."

Mark put his arm around me. He was trying to be supportive. I appreciate that, I guess you used to do that for a living. In a few minutes, we would be home. I just want to go back to the mall and forget about everything, I feel like that will be a hard thing to do though.

(This Part of the Story is From Kayla's Point of View)

I sat at a food court table with Brandy, I was carving stuff into the table. I was pretty bored, and my dad, Patrick, and Sabrina have been gone for a long time. I wish they would just come back already. Winston is starting to scare me, he keeps looking over at me, he looks angry.

"You know we're like the only kids here." Brandy stated.

"Yeah, I know. Sometimes it's no fair. I wanna go with my dad someday. I'm sick of being treated like a baby."

"Well he doesn't want you to get hurt I guess." Brandy said.

"He doesn't get it. I get bored here, he's never stayed back from something. He doesn't know what it's like."

Winston got up from his chair at the gunsmith table and headed for the food court doors. He had a wrench in his hand. He shoved it through the two handles so nothing could get in.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

He didn't respond, he walked closer to me and pulled out a pistol from his back pocket. I got out of my seat and backed away from him.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

Without saying anything, he grabbed my shoulder and yanked me closer to him. Brandy tried to save me but Winston pointed his gun at him.

"Stay back." he warned.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked, trying to kick away from him.

Julie was at another table, she sat up and looked confused. She must have not known what was happening.

"Dad? What are you doing? Let her go!" Julie yelled.

"Back off, all of you!"

"Okay," Julie said softly, "Just tell us what you're doing we can talk through this."

Winston now had me in a headlock and it was starting to hurt, my breathing was getting tougher. He kept waving his pistol around at everybody.

"Jeff should be back soon, they've been gone for a while and he told me he would be back before the evening. It's almost dark. That asshole is gonna pay!" he laughed.

"What are you talking about?" Julie cried.

"My wife died! She was torn to pieces in front of us! I can't handle that! Jeff thinks he can help me, but all he does is lock me in the storage room all night. He's not a real leader! He thinks he is but he's not! Julie, you and I are taking this place back. Before Jeff used to run it. We don't need these people!"

"You're not thinking straight!" Julie cried, "They locked you up because you lost it! You almost killed Jeff! They all gave you a second chance, any other group would have just thrown you out for that! Don't you think I am hurt too? I watched my mother die!"

"Shut up!" Winston started sweating, he was nervous.

"When my dad gets here he's gonna kill you." I threatened.