Zero Blood: Volume 6

Last Time on Zero Blood...

(Ryder's Point of View)

I sat at the campfire in the forest. The mansion was not far, we were setting up temporary camp for now. There was some giant car crash that happened near the mansion, and it looks like they recruited some new people. That won't stop me though, I need to bring Bay back. Its been a long time.

"Ryder." a bandit said, I turned to them.

"What is it?"

"Are you sure about this idea?"

I stood up and saw a bunch of our pickup trucks parked hidden in the forest. There were a bunch of strangers tied to the back of the truck. There were four trucks in total, with about ten stranglers tied to each truck.

"Yes," I said, "I need Bay back, we attack tomorrow morning when they're off guard. That'll flush Bay out. Get prepared, we're sending the stranglers in."

Zero Blood

Volume 6

Part One:

"Storm Warning"

Episode 1

"One Day at a Time"

(Jeff)

"What was it like?" Kayla asked me.

We've been talking all night, just sitting by Samantha's bedside. It was true we had a lot of catching up to do, but I was getting tired.

"What was it like living in Lockwood?"

"It was nice, at first," I said, "then I learned what it really was. Lockwood is a bad place, and we should never speak of it again. It's over, I'm done with that place."

"How did you escape? Did you escape with the new people?"

"Eric, Hudson and Cora?" I asked, "yeah, they saved me. We broke out of there, and we're never going back."

"They were keeping mom there?" she asked.

"Yes, it's complicated, and I'll tell you more when you get older, but let's just try to forget about that place, okay?"

"That is, if I live long enough."

"What?" I asked her in shock.

"Ned told me, we're all going to die. It just comes down to when. The mansion will fall someday, and we'll die."

"Ned told you that?" I asked her.

"Yep, but it's true. He's right."

"He's not right," I said, "Ned is not right. If we keep ourselves together, this place is as good as gold. We've learned the hard lesson that having war with enemies only results in a bad outcome. Remember Derrick? We attacked him and we both lost the house, same thing happened with Gus and the mall. No more war, our only enemies are the stranglers. Which is why I want to forget about Lockwood, I got mom back. That's all that matters. We're together."

"If you put it like that, I guess we might have a shot at living." she said, staring at the ground, still looking unsure.

"Kayla," I said, "look at me."

She looked up.

"I won't let anything bad happen to anyone in this group. I promise."

"Okay, I believe you dad." she hugged me.

I looked at Samantha while hugging Kayla, she looked very beat up. I hope she recovers alright, I hope Lockwood will stay away, I just want peace with my family. Even though what I said was true, it still doesn't change the fact that if another group wants war, that's what will have to happen. Hopefully Lockwood will never find the mansion, or there will be a big problem I am not ready to deal with yet.

(Mark)

I laid beside Jess in bed. We both had trouble falling asleep tonight, I think it was the excitement of Jeff coming back. He seems stable, definitely more stable than from the last time we saw him.

"Do you think he's mad at me?" Jess asked.

"Why would he be mad at you?" I asked.

"I shot him Mark, I kicked him out of the group and left him to die. Luckily he's a survivor."

"You did what you had to do, he should be worried you're mad at him. Which you're not, it's over. Jeff looks stable enough, he found his long lost wife which still blows my mind, and he's with his daughter. He's happy. I think he will only get better."

"I hope so, there is nothing more that I want to just be happy for once. We were happy at the mall, until complications happened. I wonder if we would still be at the mall if it wasn't attacked."

"I don't think so, it was destined to fall. Even before people attacked, it was in the worst location. Right in the middle of the city. If Gus never attacked, someone else would have eventually. Conflict is inevitable nowadays. We need to remember that." I said.

"How does Lockwood stay? I've heard some things about it, being in the middle of Kingston and all. I'd ask Jeff since he was right inside it, but I don't think he likes talking about it."

"He'll tell us all about it when he's ready. Something awful must have happened there, that's for sure. He looked scared, for once Jeff actually looked scared." I sighed.

"What do you think about those other people from Lockwood that Jeff brought along with him? I never got their names, what do you think about them?" Jess asked me.

"They must be good, if they're good in Jeff's book, I'm not questioning it."

"Mark." Jess looked me in the eyes.

"Yes?"

"How long do you think we have? Until we lose the mansion, just like we lose every other home?"

I stayed silent, I wanted to argue with Jess, I wanted to tell her that we won't lose the mansion, but even I am smart enough to know that it will eventually fall.

"One day at a time." I said, rolling over and trying to go to sleep, "one day at a time."

(Julie)

I sat in the living room with Ned, he was tinkering with some mechanical parts he had found in the garage. I was just sitting next to him in silence, being useless as always.

"Ned." I said.

"Yeah?" he asked, still focusing on the mechanical parts.

"Do you think I'm useless?"

"What do you mean?" he put the parts down and focused on me.

"You know, useless. I lost Kayla and Brandy in the first place, I'm the reason Jeff got split up from the kids. I'm the reason Brandy died, I should have kept a better eye on him. I feel like the only thing I'm good at is screwing the group over, yet nobody has said a word about it yet."

"People make mistakes Julie, and you aren't the reason Brandy died. He would have died eventually. There was nothing you could have done, those kids are ambitious, they don't care what the older person has to say, they do what they want."

"But don't you think there was anything I could have done?"

"No. Now stop asking, you're only making yourself look weak. Which you aren't, you've made it this long haven't you?"

"That's because I found the right group, I should have died back with my dad at the mall."

"You're not useless Julie. Remember in the mall basement? After Gus had thrown us down there, and after he had killed Sabrina? He had drained Jeff of all his hope, you stepped up and got everyone out of there. You are a leader Julie, a strong one. You just haven't seen it yet."

"Thanks." I looked down at the ground.

I got up and I hugged him, for a very long time. I wasn't sure how Ned felt about this, but he just went along with it. I let go and decided to go to sleep. I headed upstairs knowing I could fall asleep a little easier now.

(Stan)

I was trying to go to sleep, but it wouldn't work. I just laid there and stared at my ceiling. I was nervous to meet this Jeff guy, he seems like he has quite the reputation from his group, both bad and good. I wonder how it will play out. This was never supposed to happen though, it was only supposed to be me living here in the beginning, then Bay showed up and I couldn't help myself but help her. Then Kayla and Brandy show up, then Jess's group, and now Jeff and his Lockwood friends and half dead wife. Something tells me Lockwood isn't all what it's hyped up to be if he had to escape it. I'm sure he'll tell us more about it in the morning. There was a knock at my bedroom door, I rolled over.

"Come in." I said.

Bay walked in the room and sat down on my bed, I sat up and faced her.

"Hope I didn't wake you." she said.

"Nope, I've been awake. I am finding it especially hard to fall asleep tonight for some reason."

"Its been a heck of a night. What do you think about Jeff?"

"I'm not sure what to think Bay, he seems alright. I'm just not sure."

"I want to know about Lockwood. I've always wanted to go there, and I'm sure Jeff knows all about it. I hope he tells me some things about it tomorrow."

"I'm sure he will." I sighed.

"What's wrong Stan?" Bay asked, "you seem a little on edge tonight."

"Nothing, don't get me wrong, I love having all of these people here, it makes me feel safe. But it makes me feel scared at the same time. All of these people, it can become hard to manage. Drama is going to happen, and my home is going to turn into a fortress."

"I know what you mean, you and I were living here peacefully, but we were weak. These people have turned that around. Whenever stranglers would show up, we would hide and wait them out. These people actually took the stranglers on, and defeated them."

"Technically, you were the one who stopped them. You fired off that flare gun. You saved the mansion, these people just shot at the stranglers."

"It will be okay Stan, when something bad really happens, you'll be happy you opened your house up to these people. They will keep us safe."

"I guess you just gotta take it one day at a time. We'll see how this many people living in one house turns out. Hopefully the outcome will be good."

"It will," Bay said, "now you should get some sleep, you've had a lot of stress for a man your age. No offence."

"None taken, but you should get some rest too." I said, lying back down.

"Thank you Stan," Bay said, "for helping these people. You've saved so many people, you just haven't realized it yet."

Bay got up and left the room, she shut the door behind her.

(Jeff)

I fell asleep in the chair that night, next to Kayla, waiting for Samantha to wake up. Kayla was sitting in a chair right beside mine, leaning up against me. I woke up and sunshine hit me in the eyes. I squinted and moved out of the light, I leaned in closer to Samantha, who was still out cold. I got up off of the chair and looked outside of the window, the way the light was it looked like it was about seven or eight o'clock in the morning. Kayla was still sleeping in her chair, so I just left her there. I walked downstairs and saw Stan, Jess, and another women in the kitchen. I sat down beside them.

"Hey." I said, grabbing a cup and filling it with water from the tap.

"Good morning Jeff," Stan said, "How do you like it here so far?"

"It's the nicest thing I've had the whole apocalypse."

"What was Lockwood like?" the woman exclaimed, eager to hear what I was about to say.

"That's Bay by the way. She's always wanted to go to Lockwood." Stan said.

"Not what it's promised. It's a dictatorship, it's dangerous."

Bay looked slightly upset, but shook it off.

"This mansion is the best thing anyone could ask for, all we need to do is raise up the defences, and this place will be a place to truly call home." I said.

"Yeah." Stan agreed, looking kind of sad.

I heard the roaring sound of trucks outside, everyone else did too. We all rushed outside to see what was going on. I opened the front door and saw four pickup trucks circling the mansion, all which had several stranglers tied to the backs. Jess ran upstairs to get a weapon and I shut the door. I peered out the window, where it was safer. Stan and Bay watched behind me.

"What the hell?" Stan asked.

"Who are these clowns?" I asked.

The trucks came to a stop, and people got out of them. They unhooked the stranglers and set them loose into the front yard of the mansion. The people got back in their trucks and sped off back into the forest, leaving at least forty stranglers heading for the mansion at full speed, and they all looked angry. Jess came rushing down with a bunch of guns, and some bandanas. She tossed me a shotgun, and she had a machine gun in her hands.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, wake everyone else up Bay!" Jess demanded, "Get them equipped with a weapon, and a bandana, we need to take these stranglers down."

I tied the bandana around me face, getting ready to take down the stranglers. I've done this plenty of times before, aim for the head or chest, don't let them get too close, don't miss. Easy. I took a deep breath, and opened the door.

I fired off my shotgun, blasting a few stranglers back. Jess fired off her machine gun, mowing down quite a few, but the amount of stranglers pushed us back.

"Don't let them get in the house! They get in there, it's going to be a mess." Jess commanded.

One strangler darted at me, surprising me and knocked me onto the ground. It got on top of me and I wrestled it. The strangler screamed in my face, its dead eyes still managing to look angry. Its glowing red veins surrounding its face like some sort of map.

"Get off!" I yelled, trying to push it off of me, but I was starting to lose my touch, I was finding it tough just to get rid of one strangler.

The strangler was then lifted off of me and thrown onto the ground. Cora had done it, Bay must have woken a bunch of people up and they rushed to help. Cora shot the strangler several times in the chest, killing it for good.

"You losing it old man?" Cora asked, helping me up.

"I'm not that old yet." I joked, "give me a couple more years and we'll see."

I looked around, and the stranglers didn't seem to stop coming. We had the whole group out here shooting at the stranglers. Except Kayla and Stan. He must be watching her inside. The more we shot, the more showed up. They just kept on coming out of the forest, more getting attracted by the gunfire, it was a never ending loop.