Episode 4: Near

Episode 4

"Near"

(Bay)

I stared at the ceiling and heard everyone come inside. The burning must have been over with. I don't ever want to go through that again, I almost died, we all almost died. Julie did. I closed my eyes, Ryder was responsible for this. The bandits sent in the stranglers, I used to be one of them, I know what they're capable of. I need to tell Jeff, he needs to know what we're up against. They used stranglers to fight battles for them before, I remember one time when we attacked Lockwood.

Close to a year ago, Ryder was preparing for yet another attack on Lockwood. This time, he had a little something different in mind. He was going to use stranglers to fight for us this time.

I was sitting on a tree stump, drawing shapes in the dirt with a stick. There was nothing else to do, I didn't fit into the bandit clan that much, I felt like an outsider. I usually just strayed off from them and did my own thing, I helped them when they needed help, that sort of thing.

"Hey princess." I heard from behind me.

I turned to see Ryder, I rolled my eyes and he knelt down beside me.

"You still shook up from that last attack on Lockwood?" he asked me.

"When are you going to give up on these people? You always attack them, you know that they are way too strong for us, we lose a lot of people, and then you just do it again next week."

"That's why I have a new plan this time. It is true that we lose a lot of people whenever we attack, that is why I found some new soldiers for us."

"What are you talking about?" I snapped at him.

He chuckled and left, leaving me in peace. What was he up to now? I don't even think I want to know. Minutes later, I heard a truck rolling up beside me, almost hitting me. I jumped up from the tree stump as Ryder got out of the truck.

"Ryder what the hell? You almost hit me!" I yelled.

He ran to the back of the truck and motioned me to follow him, I did. Once I got to the back of the truck, I noticed he had a cage with a bunch of stranglers crammed inside. They were all growling at us, their angry eyes glaring at me.

"What is this?" I asked.

"These are our new recruits! They want to help us take down Lockwood!" Ryder exclaimed.

"The stranglers told you that?"

"Well, no. But I'm sure they're thinking that! Lockwood is a great place, run by a shitty person. If we take it over, we can rule Kingston!"

"Why do you have it out for the Lockwood leader so much? Have you even met the guy?" I asked him.

"That is a story I will tell another time Bay, now we need to focus on the plan."

"This is never going to work."

"Have a little faith would you? I have a bunch of other trucks loaded up with stranglers, we attack tomorrow morning. All we have to do is let the stranglers lose near Lockwood, and we watch from afar."

"What about the outposts?" I asked, "won't they spot us before we even get close to Lockwood?"

"Not exactly. My scouts have been doing some runs, they found a weakness in their outpost system. There is a certain route we can take that is out of the outposts line sight. We can get pretty close to Lockwood without them even seeing us coming."

I knew the plan wasn't going to work, but since I was a part of the bandits, I had to help them. Ryder has a temper, and I've seen it go off a few times. One time a bandit was sleeping on the job when he was supposed to be on watch duty. Because of it, a strangler got in the camp and killed three people before it was stopped. Ryder hung the man up on a tree and used him as a punching bag. He beat him to death while he was just hanging from a tree. Anything Ryder asks me to do, I get it over with. I don't want to end up as a human punching bag. I went to sleep that night curled up in a sleeping bag away from the other group, at the other side of the camp. The camp wasn't that big at all, it was a small secluded camp in the middle of the forest guarded by small sniping nests in the trees and chicken wire. The camp had about fifty of us in it, maybe more. I never took the time to count.

I woke up the next morning with Ryder in my face. He had a big grin on his face. He was holding a pistol, he slapped me awake and threw a pistol on my lap.

"C'mon, you're already late. We're storming this bitch, now."

I picked up the pistol and put it in my pocket, still half asleep, I got in a truck with Ryder. I rubbed my eyes and yawned.

"I want to show you the hidden route, the one that the outposts can't see."

Ryder started moving out, leading five other trucks behind him. We rolled out of the forest and onto the backroads of Kingston.

"You see, I'm surprised Lockwood doesn't have this place covered, it's a huge weakness to their system they have going." Ryder explained.

The trucks slowly moved through the backroads, we passed a drug store, then a small fire station, and a fountain. That was the route we took, and those were the main places that stood out to me. We only took a few turns through the backroads. This is where Ryder sends the scouts to scavenge for food. These backroads had everything, and it was almost the only place where Lockwood couldn't see you. After passing through the backroads, we had a clear shot at Lockwood. We were going to have to speed out in front of Lockwood, where we would be seen for a little while, and Ryder would let the stranglers loose, and we would drive away. They wouldn't see it coming. It wasn't a terrible plan, Ryder has been doing his homework on Lockwood. He knows their weaknesses, he knows everything. If only he had a bigger army, he might actually have a chance at taking down Lockwood for real.

Ryder sped up, and all of the trucks followed him. He drove straight for Lockwood and drifted out in front of it. He jumped out and unleashed the cage, spilling out all of the stranglers. He hopped back in and stomped on the gas pedal. The rest of the bandits started letting off stranglers as well, they all got in their trucks and drove off too. Bullets were hitting the truck, Lockwood was shooing at us. I kept my head down as Ryder drove through the streets of Kingston with a big smile on his face. He was a madman.

Of course the attack didn't work, Lockwood took the stranglers out before they could even get through the big walls they had. I wanted to live there so bad, it looked like the perfect place to live. You had shelter, food, protection, water. Anything you needed. I never understood why Ryder had it out for Lockwood so much, I guess I'l never find out. But I know he was the one who attacked us, he is the only person who would do it, and the attack was exactly his style. And he was going to do it again, and again, and again until he gets me back.

(Hudson)

I walked the perimeter of the mansion with Cora. We were looking for any more strangler bodies that we might have missed in the burning. We don't need them stinking up them yard.

"Who do you think launched the attack? Lockwood?" Cora asked me.

"I don't think so, that didn't look like Lockwood. Lockwood has a specific kind of truck, and they are a lot more professional. The people who attacked us were in different trucks, and they looked like fools. I don't think they knew exactly what they were doing." I responded.

"Even if they didn't know what they were doing, they are dangerous. If it wasn't for Bay firing off that flare, more people would have died and we would have lost the mansion. Who's to say they won't try that again?"

"We'll never know, that's why we need to be more alert. We keep someone on watch at all times, we'll make shifts for people. If we see a truck, we take it down before it releases the stranglers."

"You don't seem scared. What if that attack wasn't even their worst? What if they can do much worse?" Cora asked.

"Listen Cora, I am scared. But we need to focus on taking these people down. Me being scared doesn't matter. Everyone is scared, I've been scared the whole apocalypse. There is always something dangerous lurking around every corner. You're never safe. We just need to deal with it, and move on."

Cora hugged me. I didn't want to admit it, but I kind of needed a hug right now. I have been holding in a lot of shit. I'm scared of the people who launched the attack, but I'm even more scared of Lockwood. I know they are way worse, if they find the mansion, we're done. While Cora was hugging me, she backed away quickly and stared at something behind me. She pulled out a pistol.

"What?" I asked, turning around to look at what she was looking at.

"Come out of the forest with your hands up." she ordered.

What was she talking about? I then found out very quickly when a man slowly walked out of the bushes with his hands in the air. I pulled my gun on him as well.

"Who are you?" Cora asked.

He didn't answer, Cora grabbed him and I patted him down. He wasn't hiding anything, at least I didn't feel anything.

"You didn't answer my friends question, who the hell are you?" I asked.

The man just looked down in shame, he didn't speak to us.

"You want to play the silent type?" I asked, "we'll get answers out of you eventually. Let's bring him inside. See what the the group wants to do with him."

We walked back to the mansion and brought the man inside. Everyone was in the living room, just talking about things. When they saw we had someone with us, they all freaked. Everyone pulled out their guns and ran to us.

"What the hell?" Jeff asked, "who is this guy?"

"We found him snooping around the permitter of the mansion. We thought we would bring him inside to question him." I said.

"We can bring him to the basement and lock him up there for the night." Stan said.

"Alright, let's bring him there." Jeff agreed.

We took the man down to the basement and locked him up down there. We tied him to a chair and made sure there was nothing in his reach he could use to escape with. I pulled up a chair and tried talking to him again.

"You guys can go," I said, "I've got this."

"You sure?" Cora asked me.

"I'm sure."

Nobody argued, the group went back upstairs and probably tried to get some sleep. I stared at the man, trying to intimidate him. It wasn't working, he wouldn't look me in the eyes. He just kept looking down, like he was ashamed of being caught. After asking him questions, I gave up. I didn't want to resort to torture, at least not yet. He was locked securely down here, he couldn't get out. I decided to go to sleep. I left the basement and went to my bed.

(Bay)

I heard someone coming upstairs, and my door creaked open.

"Hello?" I asked.

"So you're still awake." said a voice.

"Who is it?"

"It's just me," Jeff stepped inside, "checking to see if you're alright."

"I'm fine." I said quickly.

"You sure? You almost died out there."

"Listen, can I tell you something?" I asked.

"Of course, what is it?" Jeff pulled up a seat.

"I think I know who attacked us."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yeah. I think it was the bandits."

"The bandits?" he asked.

"I know this is going to sound crazy, but before living here with Stan, I used to be a part of a bandit clan. We weren't bad people, just led by a crazy person. His name is Ryder."

"Go on." Jeff said.

"He has this hate towards Lockwood, and he is constantly attacking them. He never succeeds, but that isn't the point. He attacks with stranglers sometimes, so he doesn't have to risk losing his men."

"Why would Ryder attack us?"

"He wants me," I said, " I escaped from his camp a while back and have been living here since. I left because he was crazy. Living with Stan is a much better life. I don't know why he wants me back so bad, he's got enough bandits. But he is the only reasonable person that would have launched the attack."

"Do you know where they are?" Jeff asked me.

"Yeah, I know where they live. Are we going after them?" I asked.

Jeff thought for a while, it went silent in the room.

"I didn't want to have to fight another war, but it looks like they'll just keep attacking us if we let it go on. I guess we're going to have to take them down