Episode 10: Blackout

Episode 10

"Blackout"

(Jeff)

It was morning, we all went to sleep last night after having the meeting. I thought I was going to have trouble sleeping last night, but I didn't. Maybe it was because I knew that everyone was willing to fight these bandits, and I wasn't forcing anyone to their deaths. I was stupid back in Toronto, I shouldn't have headed back to get revenge on Gus. We should have just left, and moved on. Patrick would still be alive if we did. I can't dwell on the past, what's done is done. I made mistakes in the past, and I'm not doing it again. I would love to avoid this war against the bandits, but it's not possible. Ryder wants Bay, and he will do anything to get her back. Ryder shows up tomorrow night. Today is the second day to prepare for war, Ryder said he will be here on the third night.

I got out of bed and headed downstairs, Samantha and Kayla were down there, just visiting. I walked over and sat down beside them.

"Good morning Jeff." Samantha said.

"Morning." I leaned in and hugged her, I wouldn't let go.

"I'm so glad you're back." I said.

"I am too." She responded.

Stan walked into the room, he had some pancake mixture ready in his hands. He usually had a lot of it, but he didn't bring out as much today.

"Good morning people, anyone up for some pancakes?" He asked.

"Why not." I said.

"Brandy used to love you pancakes," Kayla said, "it made him sick, since he was lactose intolerant, but he ate them anyways. He loved them."

Everyone stopped, Stan put his head down.

"Who's Brandy?" Samantha asked.

"Brandy was her best friend, he was shot just before you and I got here," I said, "he was a good kid."

Kayla started to tear up, and Samantha let go of my hug to hug her instead. I got up and walked over to Stan. He looked older and older every day, it must be the constant stress. I put my hand on his back.

"We'll pull through, trust me." I said.

Stan sniffled and wiped tears from his eyes. He started making the pancakes, and his every hand motion made me sad. He shook so much, he was dealing with too much right now. I could tell he knew our days were limited. He knew that the bandits were much too powerful for us to handle. I knew that too, but there wasn't much we could do. We barely survived after the mall fell. We got split up, and people died. I'm not risking splitting up from my family again. This mansion is the best home we've had yet, and I'm not losing it. Ryder has no idea how much shit we've been through. If he knew, he'd be scared of us.

Stan finished the pancakes, and he placed them on the table. There were only five pancakes. For all of us to share. More and more people showed up for breakfast, and finally everyone was here except for Mark. I still don't know where he is. We just need to give him some space, he'll be back.

"I want us all to pray," Stan began, "things aren't going well right now, and I want us all to pray. We need to hold on to hope."

Everyone looked around at each other at the table. I have never prayed before. I know it sounds bad, but I was never religious. We all slowly joined hands, and Stan looked at me.

"Jeff, do you mind saying the prayer?"

"I don't, I don't know how."

"Just say what you feel Jeff, pray for your friends, your family, everyone else going through this right now."

"Okay, sure."

Everyone closed their eyes and I began to speak.

"Um, everyone is going through a rough time right now. Everyone on Earth is. Everyone is affected. A lot of bad things are happening, and the only thing that keeps a group together is strength, trust, and hope. If we don't have those things, what are we? I pray that God keeps everyone at this table safe, and I pray that he keeps Mark safe. He's going through a lot right now, and he needs strength, trust, and hope. He is broken. I also pray for everyone else out there, give them strength to keep moving forward. Look out for us."

"Amen." Stan added.

We all started handing out pancakes to people, splitting them up so we could all have some. I took half a pancake and kept it on a plate for Mark. He's going to eventually need something to eat when he comes out of hiding.

"Do you think Charlie will find us?" Samantha blurted out in the middle of breakfast.

We all went silent, that's just another thing to worry about next to the stranglers and the bandits. I looked around to see everyone else's reaction, maybe someone else could say something. But nobody ever did. Everyone kind of just avoided the question. Samantha went back to eating her pancake.

"My ankle is getting better," Bay said, "I'll go on another food run-"

"No." Stan said.

"What do you mean no? We're slowly starving!"

"You're not better yet, and the last time we went on a food run, someone died. You're not better yet, you have to rest."

"We're eventually going to starve Stan!" Bay yelled, "how are we going to fight bandits when we have no fuel to keep us going? I know you like putting things off because it's too dangerous, but I have some news for you. Everything is dangerous now!"

"Bay I'm not letting-"

Stan stopped talking, we heard some noises coming from downstairs. It sounded like grumbling, and creaking. Was a strangler downstairs? Even if it was, how did it get down there without us knowing? I stood up and motioned for everyone to stay put, I pulled my knife out of my sheath and stood by the door. I slowly opened it and saw Mark. He was climbing up the stairs with a half empty whisky bottle in his hand. He was groaning and trying to make it up the stairs. I put the knife back into my sheath and walked down slowly to help him out.

"Mark what happened?" I asked, grabbing his arm and helping him up the stairs.

"Don't touch me!" He yelled, yanking his arm away from me, "I can walk myself."

He walked the rest of the way to the top of the stairs and I followed him up into the kitchen. He walked around the kitchen, looking at everybody, while grasping his bottle.

"You save some for me?" He asked.

"Yeah we did." I grabbed a plate and handed it to him.

He looked at me and dropped it onto the ground purposely.

"What the hell Mark?" I asked, bending down to pick it up.

That's when I felt something hit me in the face, Mark kneed me while I was bent down and I fell backwards. Everyone gasped and I felt dizzy. Mark walked towards me and kicked me in the stomach.

"Jeff you asshole!" He yelled.

I slowly got up, shaking and looked at him.

"You're so happy aren't you? You make me lose my girlfriend, and then your wife wakes up? So you just forget about it, because you have her? Right? You're so lucky."

"It's not like that!" I yelled, "I tried to save her! You don't understand!"

"No." He said.

"I understand what you're going through Mark, please. Don't make the same mistake I made. Don't go down that path. We can help you get through this."

"Shut up Jeff! You can't help me." Mark yelled.

"Please stop it!" Samantha said, trying to calm him down.

He turned around and shoved her to the ground.

"You don't get a say!" he screamed at her.

Kayla shrieked and tried helping Samantha up. He can't push her, she has been through hell, she is just recovering.

I ran at Mark and shoved him into the counter where he collapsed onto the floor, his bottle smashed onto the ground and alcohol seeped out onto the floor. I got my fist ready for a punch, but I stopped. Mark started crying, he was crying terribly. This is the worst I've ever seen someone cry before. His face was red, and tears flowed out of his eyes like two waterfalls. He curled up in a ball and kept on crying. I helped him up, he stumbled around a bit, but he regained his balance. I walked him over to the living room and set him down on the couch. He laid down and cried on the couch. I think he has calmed down for now, I think he realized how much of a mess he was being, and I think he knows that I wasn't responsible for Jess's death, he just needs someone to take it out on. I walked back into the kitchen, Samantha looked fine. She was just a little dazed from getting shoved onto the ground. I care about Mark, and I don't want him to make the same mistake I did when I lost Sabrina. I was banished from the group, I tried strangling Elise, an innocent woman who did nothing wrong. And I stabbed her husband in the chest with a knife. I tore that family apart, just because I lost someone close to me. They had nothing to do with it. Mark is better than that, I know it.

I headed outside to get some fresh air, things were just too much lately. I noticed I have been doing this a lot lately, trying to find excuses to get a break from the group. I don't know if we will actually pull through this dark time, but I'm sure as hell going to try my hardest to. What I said at the prayer wasn't fake, I believed every word I said. We need strength to survive against other enemies, trust so we can survive with each other, and hope so we can survive when everything looks like it's about to crumble. We may act like we all hate each other, but we will look out for each other, we all love each other. I sighed and leaned on the railing of the porch, soon it will be spring. As I was looking off into the forest, I noticed something to my right, it was on the line of where the forest and Stan's front yard met. I looked to see a figure of a person running off into the forest. Someone was watching us.

"Probably another bandit." I said to myself, and shooed it off.

I saw in the yard, what looked to be a pistol. It was just lying in the grass, the snow melted in that area, and it revealed a pistol. Somebody must have left a pistol in the snow earlier. I walked down and picked it up, the pistol had no bullets in it. I shrugged and placed it in my back pocket. Just then, I heard a loud noise, it sounded like something breaking. And all of the lights in the mansion turned off, the whole mansion blacked out. Everyone room that was lit, turned dark at the same time. We must have had a power outage. I ran inside of the mansion and saw everyone walking around, wondering what was going on. The daylight going through the windows help us see. Although some had to be boarded up from stranglers breaking through them.

"The generator must be down." Ned said.

"Has anyone been filling it with gas?" Bay asked.

"Yeah I have been," Stan said, "but just like food, we've been running low on that too."

"And you haven't told anyone that it we were running low?" I asked.

"I didn't want to put more stress on anyone," he said, "do you know how hard it is to find gasoline these days?"

"Dammit Stan! You're useless!" Ned yelled, slamming his fist on the table.

"You are always welcome to leave if you don't like it here!" He yelled at Ned.

"I'll go get some candles." Bay left the room.

"Can everyone just calm down! Screaming at each other isn't gonna fix anything! It's not the end of the world, we can just use candles." I said.

"It sure as shit will be the end of the world when we can't see in our own house when Ryder attacks! Candles aren't gonna help!" Ned complained.

"Well Ned it's all we got, if you have gasoline feel free to use it." Stan said.

Ned walked out of the room, clenching his fists and grumbling.

I took a deep breath in, and then out.

"God give us strength." I said under my breath.