Episode 4: What's Done is Done

Episode 4

"What's Done is Done"

We went to sleep that night, we planned a big day for tomorrow, we were going to find Ian, and catch him. I don't know what Patrick is going to do when we catch him, but I hope we can settle this is a nice way. I don't know how big Ian's group is, I don't even know where his group is. We just gotta find it, and hope for the best. The problem was that I couldn't fall asleep tonight, knowing that I was the cause of this made me angry. Patrick hasn't said a thing about me being the problem yet. I just hope he understands that I was just trying to help. I got out of bed and paced my room, to tell the truth I was scared about Ian. What if he has powerful friends? It's bad enough we have stranglers roaming around, we don't need to have a conflict with another group. That would be bad. I looked over at Kayla, I'll have to get Sabrina to stay back and watch her while we're gone. I don't think Sabrina will have a problem with that. If we get through this, we can go to Toronto in a few weeks, it will all be ok. After calming myself down, I went to bed and closed my eyes.

This time I was the first awake. I opened my eyes and looked beside me, Kayla was still fast asleep. I got out of bed and opened the blinds, it was still dark out. It must be very early in the morning. I closed the blinds again and got ready, I changed clothes and brushed my teeth. I looked at my face again in the mirror, I was starting to get a real stubble. Soon enough I'll have a big furry beard growing on my face. Man, I need to find a razor. I left the room and walked downstairs to the kitchen, I was still the only one awake. I went outside and started to clean out my gun, if anything were to go down between Ian's group and ours, I can't have my gun jamming. I heard the front door open and I looked to see Patrick who came out to sit with me.

"Morning." I said, while still cleaning my gun.

"Morning, you seem nervous." Patrick said.

"Oh me? No, I'm just preparing to confront Ian."

Patrick smiled, he knew I was scared. For some reason, Patrick didn't look scared at all.

"You know it's ok, I forgive you for trying to help Ian." he said.

I stopped cleaning my gun and smiled, that was a relief.

"You are still human Jeff, that's good. You see, I grew up in a shitty neighbourhood. That's why I may seem all tough and heartless."

"You don't seem heartless to me, you saved my life didn't you?" I asked.

"I was sent to an orphanage when I was little, I was taken in by a loving family. They took care of me and my life started picking up from there. I was starting to feel human again, but then I lost Barry in the drowning accident. I hit rock bottom again. Ever since this outbreak happened, I've wanted to help people, because I know my foster parents would. They're somewhere out there."

"I just hope Kayla doesn't grow up to be scarred, and angry at the world. I really hope this thing doesn't go on too much longer." I said.

"Well, after this we can go straight to Toronto. It is probably already cleared, that's what the military has said." Patrick said.

I looked down at the ground, I was gonna have to tell him. He still doesn't know that Toronto won't be cleared for a couple weeks now.

"Patrick," I said, "I was watching the news the other day, and they confirmed that Toronto is still badly overrun, and the military is going to have to take some time clearing it. More time than we expected."

Patrick's smile faded, he kicked the house.

"Shit! It's always bad news now, Paul dies, Ian steals from us, and now the military is behind? This outbreak hasn't even been going on for a week yet! It's only been four days, and we have had the worst of the worst luck so far."

"I know, but we can pull through, they said it's only going to take a couple weeks."

"I guess we'll just have to try."

We went inside and got our guns ready, I woke everyone up and Patrick assigned them jobs. We all sat around the table, skipping breakfast.

"Alright," Patrick began, "We are going to confront Ian. We don't know where he is, but we'll find him. He left on foot, which tells me his base isn't too far from here. Sabrina is going to stay back and watch Kayla, you two are in charge of the house! The rest of us will head for the base, simple as that. Any questions?"

Margaret raised her hand.

"Incase this goes south, I won't survive. I am an old woman, wouldn't it be better for me to stay back?"

"True, alright. Margaret, Sabrina, and Kayla can all stay back. Mark, Jeff, and I will go. I know you've been through a lot lately so we won't make you go Sabrina." said Patrick.

"I want to go." she said.

Everyone fell silent, Sabrina wanted to go? After losing Paul I wouldn't think she would want to be out there.

"Yeah, I want to go. I need to get some anger out, and if that means killing the people who stole from us, so be it."

"Um, ok alright. Margaret and Kayla watch the house, and the rest of us head out." Patrick confirmed.

We all loaded out guns, and got ready. I wore a pistol in my holster, and a hunting knife in my sheath Patrick lent me. We left the house and walked down the field, we didn't take a car since it would make noise and they would see us coming.

"Alright." I said, "I saw Ian run this way, he ran down this field."

We kept on walking through the field, at the end of the field was a forest. Ian's group could be anywhere in here. I guess we would just have to keep on looking for them, if it took all day.

"Let's hope they aren't a travelling group, or else they're gone. Which most bandits probably are."

"I wouldn't call them bandits, maybe just a bunch of scared teenagers. I don't see a threat." said Mark.

"Don't underestimate anyone, they might surprise you, you never know." said Patrick.

We kept walking through the forest, hoping to find something, anything. I heard a cracking sound behind us, I turned to see a strangler, they screamed and ran for us.

"Don't let it get too close! Remember what happened the Paul?" I yelled, I pulled out my gun and shot it dead.

"Shit, those things are scary." Patrick said.

"Let's just keep going." I said.

We headed further into the forest, and found a creek. I wanted to leave immediately, I keep having memories of Paul flashing through my head when I'm down here. Paul died in a creek, I almost died in a creek. The scariest part about these stranglers, is that you never know you're infected until it's too late. Patrick sat down and washed his face in the creek, I got nervous from being in here. I didn't like it, I climbed out of the creek.

"Where you going Jeff? It's safe down here." Patrick called out.

"I'm fine." I said.

I sat down by a tree and looked at my gun, I made sure it was loaded, we can't be surprised by another crazy person again. I turned around, to make sure there were no stranglers around, you can never be too careful out here. I was glad I turned around, there was no strangler, but I saw something in the distance, smoke. It must be from a campfire. Could it possibly be Ian's group?

I headed back down into the creek where everyone was washing up.

"Guys, I see smoke, a campfire." I said.

Everyone ran out of the creek and followed me up, I pointed towards it.

"Shit," Patrick said, "Get your guns ready, make sure they are loaded. We are going in."

Everyone checked their guns, loaded them, and turned the safety off. It was time. Patrick led the way, we followed him, as the smoke was getting closer. I could see some tents. We crouched down and hid behind trees and spied on them, was it Ian's group? I heard talking, but I couldn't make out what it was. I then saw a glimpse of a man, he had long blonde hair, he looked like Ian. This must be it, this is Ian's group. I scanned the camp a few more times, from my view, there were about six people here. The exact same number of people that we have. I looked at Patrick and nodded, he nodded back. We stood up and we walked into the camp. Everyone saw us and pointed guns at us.

"Hold it!" A man yelled. "What the hell do you want?"

I saw Ian, and I stared him down. He looked scared, he then backed away and went into a tent.

"We need to talk to the person in charge." Patrick said.

"Why?"

"I think one of the men here have caused problems at our camp."

"I suggest you leave right now." one of the men said.

A tent unzipped, and a man walked out. He had work boots on, jeans, and an open blazer on with his bare chest showing. His hair was brown and curled with grey streaks in them, and he looked around the age of 40 or so. He walked up to Patrick, and all of the men at the camp backed down. This must be the leader.

"Hello, my name is Derrick." he said the Patrick.

"Patrick." Patrick shook his hand.

"So what was the problem?"

"We think that one of your men robbed us."

Derrick turned around and looked at everybody, they all shook their heads.

"I'm sorry about that, we'll figure something out." he said.

He walked around the camp, looking at people.

"Somebody robbed these innocent people, who was it?" Derrick demanded.

Nobody said anything, Ian walked out of the tent and joined everyone else, he was terrified. Derrick walked back up to Patrick.

"Do you know this person's name?"

"Ian." Patrick said.

Ian started sweating, he twirled his fingers, biting his lip. Derrick slowly walked up to Ian, Ian flinched.

"What did you take?" he asked him.

"Nothing sir." Ian cried.

"What did you take?" Derrick yelled, Ian started crying.

"A gun! I'm sorry sir!"

Derrick commanded some of his people to rummage through Ian's things, they then returned to Derrick with a pistol, Patrick's pistol. Derrick held it in his hands and shoved it in Ian's face.

"What is this?" he asked.

"It's the gun I stole sir." Ian cried.

Derrick turned to Patrick and tossed the gun into his hands.

"I'm sorry this man bothered you. We only scavenge from abandoned places, we would never steal from people. I guess Ian forgot this message!" Derrick punched Ian in the face.

Ian stood back up and faced Derrick, trying to hold back tears.

"I think you should go now, you got what you wanted, right?" Derrick asked.

"What are you gonna do to him?" Patrick asked.

"Nothing too bad." Derrick smiled.

We then turned to leave, I personally did not want to be here any longer. Derrick looked like he was an angry person, and if we bugged him too much, he would put a bullet into our heads. As we were walking away, I heard a crashing sound, and Ian crying in agony.

"We should have just left it alone, who knows what they are going to do with Ian?" Patrick asked.

"I know, but what's done is done." I said.

We left the forest, the sounds of Ian's cries kept on getting quieter and quieter as we got further and further away. We got out of the forest and walked down the field again, and soon enough, we were back at Patrick's house. Nobody talked at all on the way back, I agree we took drastic measures just for one gun. We might have been overreacting just a tiny bit. We got in the house to be greeted by Margaret and Kayla, Kayla ran into my arms.

"Dad!" she cried.

"Is it done?" Margaret asked.

I nodded,

"It's done," I sighed.

Later that night, I sat up on the roof, watching the stars. Ian was probably dead, he was just a stupid teenager that wanted to prove to his group he could do something right. Derrick was a maniac, I really hope we don't ever have to cross paths with him again. I slowly drifted off to sleep, forgetting I was on the roof, I fell asleep.