Episode 9: Plan B

Episode 9

"Plan B"

I wanted to spend the rest of today with Kayla, Brandy, and Sabrina. They were pretty much family to me now, Brandy had nobody ever since Jamie died. We have kind of brought him in the family. I need to spend time with them, because they could be dead tomorrow. We are making a huge move tomorrow morning, and it is extremely risky. I just hope we can pull it off. I sat down at a separate table with them. Jess sat at a table with Mark, I'm sure they wanted to spend their possibly last moments together. Ned sat alone at his own table, just looking out of the windows. He was an odd person, I don't know what ever goes through his head. Julie also sat alone, she wouldn't move either. Some part of me feels like she wants to die, she didn't seem too scared when I was discussing the plan. I think she has lost all feeling after Winston turned crazy. It was sad really, she was starting to get over her mothers death, and her selfish father ruined everything. He was only thinking of himself, and I really thought I helped him. That just goes to show that there are some people you can't save from this world.

"Sabrina, I'm scared." Brandy said.

"I'm not," Kayla said, "You can't be scared, not now."

"Kayla, can I talk to you in private?" I asked her.

"Sure." she nodded and got up.

I walked away from the table with her, I studied her face. She didn't have a look of fear on her face at all. She looked completely fine.

"Are you scared?" I asked her.

"No, are you?"

"It's natural to be a little nervous," I said, "People are going to die tomorrow. You know that."

"Being scared won't help anything. I need to be strong, we all do."

I was confused, why was she not scared? Even I was, I was nervous. I knew tomorrow was either going to work, or fail terribly. Kayla could die tomorrow, and she didn't even care. I hugged her tight, I didn't want to let go.

"I don't want to lose you." I said.

"You won't."

I already have, Kayla is not the same person she was six months ago. She was innocent. She once had feelings. Now she is an emotionless soldier. I haven't seen her cry in a long time, and I never see her looking concerned at all. What happened to her? My little girl, is gone. She is a whole new person.

"Can we go back to the table now?" Kayla asked me.

"Sure." I nodded, trying to hold back my tears.

She ran back to the table and I followed her back there, I sat down beside Sabrina, and Kayla sat with Brandy.

"She has no feelings," I whispered to Sabrina, "She's not even scared."

"She grew up in this world, this is the only way she knows how to live."

"If she dies," I started, trying to hold myself from crying, "If she dies, I don't know what I am going to do. She's never experienced the real world before, she doesn't deserve this."

Sabrina hugged me, I felt like a real wimp right now. Almost breaking down in front of my girlfriend and my daughter. I couldn't help it though, I lost my wife, and I feel like I am losing my daughter too. I want her back, I want innocent Kayla back. She is only six. She was five before the apocalypse started, but her birthday must have passed by now. I just wish I knew what damn day it was. Like Winston was telling me before he went crazy, he just wishes he knew what day it was, even month. It must be around November, I know that. It's getting cold, and we should be seeing snow soon. I didn't want to lose Sabrina either, there is a good chance everyone may die tomorrow. I need to cherish this last day.

We sat at the table and just talked together for a long time, Kayla and Brandy went off to play hide and seek. They always used to play that, I was surprised the soldiers allowed that. Maybe they are more human than I thought, maybe Gus is the only real crazy one. They are just following orders. The food court doors flung open and Gus walked in, all of the soldiers backed away as he walked through the food court. He headed over to our table. I put my arm in front of Sabrina to protect her. He wasn't going for her though, he was going for me. He grabbed me by my shirt and dragged me off of the table and onto the ground. Sabrina screamed and ran for me, but I stopped her.

"No," I said, "Don't do anything stupid."

Kayla wanted to help me too, but soldiers held everyone back. Everyone was trying to beak free and stop Gus from whatever he was going to do. He dragged me out into the middle of the food court. Everyone was forced to watch, what was he going to do? He kicked me in the gut, and I curled up into a ball and held my stomach.

"I have thought over what you did in my room," Gus said, "I have come to a conclusion for the proper punishment. Killing you is over the top, I don't need to kill you for spilling food and yelling at me. You were being ungrateful though, so you deserve a proper beating."

He kicked me again in the back, his foot hit me right in the spine. I let out a small yelp and held my back.

"Come on! Fight for it! I dare you!" Gus taunted me.

I got up and onto my feet, I was sore, but I was going to show this guy.

"There you go Jeff, fight back." he said.

I ran at him and threw a punch, he ducked and punched me in the gut again. I fell to my knees, everyone was watching me get the shit beaten out of. I couldn't be like this, I am supposed to be tough. I am the leader of my group, I can't be beaten up. I got up and clipped him in the face while he wasn't looking. He looked back at me, he laughed.

"Was that the best you could do?" he asked.

He kicked my left leg out and I fell to my knee. He then punched me in the face, this punch was really powerful too. I fell to the ground, I didn't want to get up anymore.

"You are a joke." he said.

He walked over to me, I was getting ready for another beating, but he stopped.

"I think he's learned his lesson. What do you think?" he asked his soldiers.

They all nodded.

"Let this be a lesson to all of you. Actions have consequences." he then left the food court.

Sabrina ran over to me instantly after he left, she pushed me over to my back and looked at me. I probably looked terrible, bruises and cuts all over my face. That's probably what I looked like.

"Jeff! Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine." I started getting up.

Although this beating hurt, when Winston attacked me a few weeks back it hurt more. I feel like Gus didn't fight as hard as he could, I don't think he wanted to kill me. I think he just wanted to scare me. It's going to take a lot more than that to scare me though.

"Why doesn't he just let us go?" Patrick asked, "What is keeping us locked in here doing for him?"

"I don't know," I wiped blood off of my lip, "He's crazy."

"Are you good Jeff?" he asked.

"I'm fine."

"Let's go sit you down at a table." Sabrina said.

"No, there's something I need to do." I said.

I turned and looked at the soldiers standing on guard, they looked back at me, wondering what I wanted.

"Is this what you want?" I asked, throwing my arms in the air, "Are you honestly going to listen to Gus? He is crazy! You don't have to do this. I see it in your eyes, you are still good people. The apocalypse hasn't changed you yet. You guys can change, we can stop Gus, and live happily in the mall."

The soldiers looked around at each other, with different looks on their faces. It wasn't enough though, they were too scared to stand up to Gus.

"Sit down Jeff." a soldier said.

I sighed, and turned away and headed to a food court table and sat down with everybody else. Tomorrow morning, we were going to riot. We had to.

Night came, we just sat in the food court for the rest of the day being prisoner. I was excited to leave tomorrow, but nervous. It was nine o'clock and the power shut off. I was about to just call it a day and go to bed, but Ned stopped me. He was sitting at a food court table, he motioned me to come over to him. I started walking towards him, I then sat down at a table with him.

"Yeah?" I whispered.

"Look at this." he handed me some papers, it was too dark to see though.

"I can't see." I said.

"Just keep staring at it, your eyes will adjust to the darkness soon."

I kept looking at it, and then I started being able to make out what the paper said. It was a plan to escape this place.

"I was planning it as soon as Gus got here. I kept it quiet in fear that a soldier would overhear. Now that you guys are planning on doing your riot tomorrow, I might as well show this to you now. Trust me, this is a better plan."

I kept staring at it, and then my eyes fully adjusted. The plan was to have someone as bait, Ned wanted to have someone go to the roof and cause a scene, like they were going to jump and commit suicide. The soldiers would get distracted and try and get the person to come down. In the middle of the commotion, someone would pretend to bump into a soldier and snatch a key from them. Gus had put a padlock on the storage room doors, every soldier had a key to it. Gus stored the guns in there. While the soldiers were distracted, everyone would load up with guns and we would blast our way out of here. The plan was risky, but brilliant. I don't think we would be able to kill all thirty of them, but it would give us some cover fire to get out of here.

"Ned," I whispered, "This is brilliant."

"Thanks, are we going to do this?"

"Yes, I will tell everyone in the morning."

"Alright, who is going to be the bait?" he asked.

"I will." said a voice.

I looked behind me and saw Julie, she was sitting by another table, listening into the whole conversation.

"I know you guys are making a plan. I don't know what the bait does, but if you'll explain it to me. I will be happy to be the bait, I have nothing to lose anyways."

"Wait until morning," I said, "Soldiers are starting to look this way."

I went over to my sleeping bag by Sabrina, Kayla, and Brandy. They were already asleep, I closed my eyes but I couldn't fall asleep. I was nervous, and I was also feeling some kind of guilt. I don't want to kill soldiers tomorrow, they are good people. Before the apocalypse hit, they fought for our country, kept peace. I don't know if I can kill one of them tomorrow. After the apocalypse hit, something happened to their General, Gus. He went insane, and now one thing led to another and he is locking us up in our own mall. Who knows why? The rest of the soldiers are still good people, I can see it in them. I don't want to have to do this. It has to happen though, we have to break out of here tomorrow. I finally fell asleep after hours of just thinking about things tomorrow, how they are going to go. I had another dream that night, about Samantha. I only heard her voice though, that was it. She was crying and screaming my name. She sounded really desperate too. I wanted to call her name back, but once again I could not speak. I kept pushing, but nothing would happen. Then her voice faded away, and I woke up. It was morning already. I woke up before Gus got in here, everyone else was up too. They were all at a table and Ned was explaining to them the new plan. I got up and headed to the table. He was going over the plan, showing everyone to piece of paper. The doors flung open and Gus walked in.

"Oh," he said, "You're all awake. I guess I don't have to make a ruckus then. It's breakfast time, and don't be knocking shit over again Jeff! Or you can have another beating!"

He then noticed what we were looking at, and he started walking towards us, I got nervous. What were we going to do? Ned slipped the papers under the table onto his lap and left one sheet of paper on there. Gus got to the table and looked at it. He then laughed and put the paper back down. He then walked away, and left the food court.

"What did you show him?" Jess asked.

He handed the sheet to her, I took a look at what was on there too. It was all math, just equations, algebra.

"What?" Ned asked, "You don't think I made a cover sheet? I was thinking something like this might happen, and it did. I made a sheet filled with math and had it as a backup to cover up our plan."

We all smiled, that was insanely smart. I can't believe he thought all this through, that was amazing.

"When is this going down?" Julie asked, "Just so I'm ready to run to the roof."

"In a few minutes, the guards aren't all on full duty yet. The sooner in the morning we do this, the easier it is for us. Get prepared everyone, this is either going to work, or it isn't." Ned explained.

I pulled Kayla and Brandy aside before we started, I needed to make sure they were okay to do this. We all may just die doing this.

"Are you two prepared?" I asked them.

"Yes." Kayla answered.

Brandy looked like he wanted to say something else, but he noticed how tough Kayla was acting, so he went along with it.

"Y-yes." he stuttered.

"Come here you two." I said, I extended my arms out.

They both hugged me, I hope we can all make it through this to see another day.

Once we were done hugging, I went over to Sabrina, who was sitting nervously by the wall. I kissed her, it might be the last. I really hope it isn't though.

"It's going to be okay, we can do this." I told her.

"I know we can, we've been through enough shit in this world. We aren't getting set back now." she said.

"I love you." I said.

"I love you too."