Episode 3: Lost in Flames

Episode 3

"Lost in Flames"

(Ryder)

I woke up in the mud. I rolled over and was met face to face with a dead bandit. Their corpse already starting to smell. I flinched and stood up quickly. I looked all around me, I was in my camp. What used to be full, is now empty. Jeff's group really caught me off guard, I thought he was weak. I guess I was wrong. I should have killed them all while I was at the mansion, I could have prevented all of this. All of the bandits, dead. Gone, I had no more army. I was alone, for the first time ever in the apocalypse, I was alone. When the apocalypse started I at least had a few guys to start me off with. Everything I built, was gone. All because of a stupid mistake, sparing Jeff. Why couldn't they have just killed me? Why didn't they just let me die with my people? I am alone and broken.

I walked around the camp, looking at all of the dead bodies. There was so much blood. Everywhere, splattered all over the place. It was haunting. Some of the bandits had their eyes still wide open, with a look of sheer terror in their dead eyes. I walked over to a log and sat on it, I felt inside of my pocket and pulled out some smokes. I felt around in my other pocket, and noticed my lighter was gone. Must have fallen out during the fight. I walked over to Scott's dead body and fished around in his pocket until I felt something, I pulled a lighter out of his pocket. I returned back to the log and lit up a cigarette. I started smoking while just looking around at my surroundings.

"Damn Jeff," I coughed, "you really caught me off guard. Damn."

I had no idea where I was to go after this, there was nothing left. I am going to have to restart entirely if I want to survive. I've made it this far, should I end it, or see where the world takes me from here?

I looked down at a dead body lying in the dirt.

"Hey man," I said, coughing out some more smoke, "what are you in for?"

I started laughing, but it turned into a coughing fit. I threw my cigarette in the dirt and stomped on it.

"Damn, I can't even smoke right anymore." I sighed.

I just sat on that log for god knows how long, just staring at all of the dead bandits. That I was responsible for. I started drifting off and thinking about the past.

(Twenty One Years Ago)

"Ryder." I heard, then I felt a slap come across my face.

I snapped back into it, my friend Dennis was standing over me, next to my bed.

"What the hell man?" I asked, slowly sitting up in my bed.

"You keep falling asleep, I thought we were gonna pull an all nighter." he said.

"That is if the guards don't give us shit for it." I said.

"Don't worry, they won't see us." Dennis said confidently.

I was currently in juvie for what happened to my parents. That manipulative little bastard Charlie got me into this. He's the one who burnt my house down, the one who was truly responsible for my parents death, but everyone sees him as a perfect child, raised by a perfect family, who could never do anything wrong. Me on the other hand, I am what society calls scum. My parents were huge druggies, and were in trouble with the law all the time. Everyone expected me to grow up the exact same. So when they died in a fiery blaze in that house, who are the cops gonna believe? Charlie, or me? Of course Charlie, it's obvious. So now I am serving five years in juvie. The judge said I got off easy, but I know I got the hard route. Since I lost my parents, and was immediately punished for it. The worst part about it was that their deaths were very hard on me, because even though they were abusive, and horrible parents, I loved them. When they died it destroyed me, and being framed as the person who killed their parents is the worst thing ever. When I went to their funerals, I got so many horrible looks, for a crime I didn't even commit.

"You sure the guards aren't gonna catch us? I mean, they want us in bed by nine thirty, and it's already eleven thirty. If they catch us we're gonna get in shit for sure." I said.

"Would you stop being such a prissy? Geez man, what is the worst they're gonna do? Yell at us to go to bed? Damn Ryder, I thought you were tough."

"I am tough Dennis, you asshole. I just don't want to get in trouble right now, I've got a bad enough reputation, I don't need to be causing trouble."

"Fine, I'll just stay up then. You better go get your beauty sleep Ryder." Dennis said, rolling his eyes and walking over to his bunk.

I laid back down and closed my eyes.

The next thing I knew I was woken by a bell, I got up and rubbed my eyes. I walked out of my room and lined up with the other kids. I saw Dennis sluggishly walking behind me. He slumped over onto my shoulder.

"You didn't sleep at all, did you?" I asked him.

"Nope."

"Real smart Dennis, real smart."

One of the guards walked over to me, I thought they might have seen us staying up late last night, and I was about to prepare to get yelled at, but they didn't say that, they said something that really caught me off guard.

"You have a visiter Ryder, come with me."

A visitor? What the hell? I never got a visitor before, everyone I know hates me now. All because of Charlie. He ruined my life.

I followed the guard down some hallways and to the visitation area. I sat down on one side of the glass and a kid my age walked in. He sat down and looked at me, it was Charlie. Rage filled my body and I punched the glass, he flinched and the guards came rushing over. They grabbed me and calmed me down.

"Ryder dammit! Would you stop it? You get a visitor and this is how you act? One more outburst and you're in big shit." a guard yelled at me.

"I'm sorry." I said.

The guards accepted the apology and gave me some space, but I saw that they were ready to take me down next time I made an outburst.

"Hello Ryder." Charlie said.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I just wanted to stop by to see how you were doing. You doing alright man?"

I didn't answer, I just imagined myself punching him in his lying face, over and over again.

"Also," he added, quieter this time so the guards couldn't hear him, "If you get any funny ideas once you get out of juvie to come after me, or do something stupid. Just remember that there are a lot of other things I can nail you for, and who are the police going to believe?"

My face turned red, tears started forming in my eyes, he has destroyed my life, and there is not a thing I can do about it. He gave off a quick smile, that's when I snapped. I stood up abruptly and picked up my chair, I smacked it against the glass over and over again.

"I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna kill you!" I screamed.

A guard tackled me onto the ground, I heard the guards telling Charlie it's best if he leaves, he smiled at me one more time and walked away.

(Present Day)

"Charlie Lockwood," I smirked, "even after the world has ended, I somehow manage to come out on the bottom, again. And you are in your suite, living it up, playing the good guy act like you always do."

Thinking about Charlie made me want to march over to Lockwood and shoot him in the head. I know I can't do that, hell I couldn't even do it when I had all my bandits with me. I wouldn't even make it a block into Kingston until one of his watchtowers picked me off. I was a loser, I lost so much and I just keep losing more. Did I deserve what was coming my way? Maybe I did go too far to get Bay back. She was just perfect, that's what drove me to go after her. I know it's pathetic, I messed up with Bay, and I want her back. I have a weird way of expressing my love. I thought if I got her back I could show her something to love. But all I did was make her hate me more and get my whole group slaughtered because of it. If karma really exists, why the hell is Charlie Lockwood still alive? If I'm punished for trying to kidnap Bay, then Charlie should be punished for the hundreds of horrible things he has done. But that day looks like it's never going to come, I've faced a lot of groups, and Jeff's was definitely different. He's the only group that I could see standing up to Lockwood, but even they can't win. Jeff has determination, but that will only get him so far. He needs an army. The more I think about Jeff's group, the more I realize that if I wasn't so stupid, I could have made a deal with him. My bandits with his group, we might have had a chance at stopping Lockwood. But that's over and done, I missed my chance.

I walked around the bandit camp, I saw one canister of gasoline lying in the dirt. It was only half full, I picked up the canister and started pouring it all over the place. Covering as much ground as I could. I didn't want to see this place again, if I'm going to survive, I need to start over. I need to get rid of my past. Burning it usually works, it changed my life before the apocalypse, hopefully it will change it now, but in a good way. It was only now when I was all alone, that I realize how foolish of a person I was. I messed up, bad. And for that, people who didn't have to die, died. People who should be dead, are still alive. Because of my stupid mistakes. Once I was done pouring gasoline all over the place, I lit up another cigarette. I smoked it for a bit, taking one last look at the camp.

"Well Ryder," I said to myself, "to a new life."

I flicked the cigarette onto the ground, the gasoline lit up like a Christmas tree, and I walked away from the camp into the forest, leaving my past behind, as it burnt up in flames behind me.

(Jeff)

"So she hit you? In the face?" I asked my crying wife, Samantha.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it myself," she said, "Kayla has changed Jeff, and I don't know if it's for the better."

"Well of course she's changed, and this world isn't gonna exactly shape you into a great person. She's been through so much Samantha, I think you should just let this one slide. I'll talk to her though."

"Alright, but what if she does it again?" she asked me, still in a crying mess.

"She won't."

I walked over into the living room, where Kayla was. She was sitting on the couch, watching some old movies that Stan had. She saw me and turned the T.V off. She sat with her head down, she knew I was about to give her trouble. I sat down beside her and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Listen, it's okay." I said, comforting her.

Kayla brought her head up and hugged me.

"I know what I did was wrong," she said, "I should never hit my mother, no matter how mad I get. I have an anger problem, I know I do."

"Your mother understands too Kayla, what you've gone through is way too much for a girl your age. A little outburst is understandable. But you can't do that again, you promise me?"

"Yeah, I promise. I won't do it again. I'm sorry." Kayla said.

I patted her on the shoulder and stood up.

"You're a good person Kayla." I said.

Just then, the living room door flung open, and Ned ran in.

"Jeff, there's a big ass forest fire going on not too far from here! It's gonna attract a ton of stranglers!" he yelled.

"Oh shit, who started it?" I asked.

"I don't know, it is in the direction of the bandit camp, so maybe Ryder?"

"Why would he burn his own camp?"

"A lot of reasons, maybe he did it out of frustration that he lost, or something more complicated. All I know is that we have to put that shit out before the forest becomes a strangler beacon."

"Alright, I'll come." I said.

Ned ran out of the living room and I followed him, we walked outside and I got a look at the forest fire. It was spreading quickly. I have no idea how we are gonna put that out.

"It's spreading too quickly," Mark said, he was standing on the porch, leaning on the railing watching the fire like it was some kind of tourist attraction, "We'll never be able to put it out."

"Then what do we do?" Ned asked.

"We can at least go over there and see what's going on, maybe find a cause." I said.

"Alright, I'll go with you guys." Mark said.

We started rushing towards the tree line, Mark had a walkie talkie to call the mansion if anything went wrong. That's when Samantha stopped me. I heard her calling me from behind me. I turned around and stopped, Ned and Mark stopped as well. She was yelling at something, I wasn't sure what. I then noticed that she was being attacked by a strangler!

"Oh shit! You guys go! I'll catch up!" I yelled, I started running back towards the mansion to help Samantha.

Ned and Mark headed towards the forrest fire and I made it back to the mansion. Samantha was in the garden she was planting, a strangler was pinning her up against the wall, she was holding it off with a trowel. I tackled the strangler off of her at full speed, sending me and the strangler a few feet in the air before hitting the ground. I pinned the strangler on the ground and held it there. It screamed at me in rage. Before I knew it, there were about ten more stranglers that appeared out of absolutely nowhere. They must have been creeping around the place and I didn't notice.

"Jeff watch out!" Samantha yelled.

I turned and saw a strangler running for me, it tackled me onto the ground and screamed in my face, trying to strangle me.

"Hey stupid." I heard.

The strangler looked up and a bullet went through it's forehead and out the back. It laid on top of me, lifeless. I looked over and saw Bay with a rifle, she had saved me.

I tipped the strangler over and stood up, and pulled out my pistol and got into a fighting stance. I shot a few stranglers, while Bay got the others. It went by pretty quickly actually, I forgot how good of a team we made. With all the people that have died, I forgot how well we worked together. Samantha was sitting on the ground against the wall catching her breath, she was really scared.

"It's okay, you're safe now." I said.

"Isn't the virus airborne? Couldn't I have gotten it? I got close to one!" she cried.

"You'll be okay, it's rare. I've seen it happen, but I haven't seen it happen much." I assured her.

We must have missed a strangler, because one sprung up from lying down, we must have thought it was dead. It ran for Samantha, she screamed as I tried to get a shot in on it. Bay tried to do the same. But these stranglers were fast. Before I could shoot the strangler, it was tackled by Kayla. Who also came out of nowhere. Kayla pinned the strangler on the ground and stabbed it in the chest a bunch of times until it was dead.

"Don't touch my mother." Kayla said to the strangler, she stood up and spit on the strangler.

"Mom," she said, "I'm sorry for hitting you, I shouldn't have done it. It was wrong."

Kayla hugged Samantha, who was still shaking in fear. Kayla then walked back inside the house like nothing ever happened, leaving Samantha even more shocked.

"Are you sure that's our daughter?" she asked, terrified.

I grinned, Bay did as well.