Episode 8: Nameless

Episode 8

"Nameless"

"Whoa." I said.

I got up and hugged her.

"Are you ok?" I asked her.

"Yeah, are you ok?"

"Yes." I replied.

"The strangler got really close to you," she said, "Are you gonna get sick?"

"Let's not think about that." I said.

I picked up Mark again, and we headed out of the area. We ran through a field, and behind the field was a forest. We headed into the forest, running as fast as we could. We ducked under branches and jumped over tree stumps. We finally found an opening in the forest, it was a small area where we could stay the night. It was far enough in the forest to be hidden, and open enough to actually live in for now. I placed Mark down carefully, he was still losing blood. The shirt I wrapped around his arm slowed it down, but over time he will die if I don't do something. I checked his pulse, it was still beating.

"Stay with us." I said, "Please, I can't handle another death in this group."

I turned to see Kayla, she was already trying to build a shelter. She gathered up some sticks and tried standing them up. It obviously didn't work, they toppled over and almost buried her.

"Kayla, I don't think we can build a hut in the middle of a storm." I said.

The wind was getting stronger, and the rain was only getting heavier. It was true we needed to find shelter, but standing some sticks up together just won't do it.

"We're going to get really cold out here, we need somewhere to stay." she said.

"I know, we'll think of something."

We didn't find anything that night, the rain died down to only a few droplets, and the wind also died down. It was a pretty cold night, but we huddled close together and built a small fire to stay warm with. Kayla fell asleep and rested her head on my shoulder, and Mark was still unconscious, but his pulse was still going which was a good sign. If I could stitch his arm up I would, but I couldn't find anything to use out here. I stayed awake all night, making sure a strangler didn't find us. If one of them finds us while we're asleep, we're as good as dead. Luckily, no strangler found us that night. I successfully stayed up all night, then Kayla woke up. The fire went out earlier in the night, but it started to warm up in the morning. I could hear the birds chirping, and I felt like there was still hope. It was a miracle Mark was still alive, but I don't think he is going to hold out much longer now.

"What now?" Kayla asked, rubbing her eyes.

"We keep moving, we need to find some stitches for Mark, and some real bandages for him." I answered.

"Well, let's go." she said.

We got up, I picked up Mark, and we headed off. We walked through the forest for a couple of miles, and finally got out of it. I was shocked to see what was next. There was a small town not too far away, it would only take a few minutes to get there. We ran for it, all these thoughts were rushing through my head as we headed there. Was it empty? Was is full of stranglers? Was it full of survivors? I guess we'll just have to find out. After about five minutes, we got there. I was tired out. But we were here, which was all that mattered. The town was fairly small, with only a couple buildings and houses, it was more of a corner stop than a town. I didn't see anything so far, but I was still a little creeped out. I've never even heard of this town in my life, and I didn't live to far from here before this all started. It was weird.

"I don't know this town, I thought I would recognize it." said Kayla.

I started looking around the town, maybe there was a doctors office here, something that I could use to stitch up Mark's arm with. Since the town was small, I didn't have to look far. I found nothing of use though. All that was here was an antique shop, and a community centre. I placed Mark down on the ground.

"I'm sorry buddy, you're not going to make it."

"Hello?" a voice asked.

I turned around, I would pull a gun for safety, but I didn't have one. There was a man with blonde, bushy hair, he was fairly skinny, and wore a trench coat. He looked pretty healthy for an apocalypse.

"Who are you?" I asked, I was nervous.

"Don't be scared," he said, "I'm a friend. I live here, along with a few other people. We are trying to build a community here in this small town. You looked lost, so we want to help you."

"Stay behind me." I said to Kayla.

I started walking closer to the man, he motioned me forward. After Derrick, I really don't know who to trust right now.

"My name is Barry, I'm friendly, it's ok." he said.

Why did that name ring a bell? I'm not sure, maybe it will come back to me later.

"Let me take you inside my house." he said.

He headed into the community centre, we followed him. He opened the doors and I saw a handful of people there. About five or six. Maybe this could be a new start, the community centre definitely looked like a safer place to live.

"We all live in this town before this all started, the town was so small it never got a name. Crazy right? When this all went down we headed here for safety. Now we want to gather up people and make this a community again. A big handful of the residents fled the town when this went down, a lot of them are probably dead now. You're lucky you found this place." Barry explained.

"How do you manage with food?" I asked.

"Oh, we have tons. We were having a fundraiser before this all went down. We sent people to go and try to sell food to people, the food that we didn't sell stayed here. We didn't sell a lot of food in that fundraiser, so we have tons of it left here."

"That was pretty lucky." I said.

"Sure was, I honestly believe we can build another new community here, I see potential in this town." Barry said.

We stayed there all day, I really wasn't in the mood for meeting new people, so I just stayed with Kayla. I placed Mark on a bed in the community centre. Hoping he will recover soon. Some people from the centre had medical equipment, and they promised to stitch him up and watch over him. Barry sent some men out to go find some more people, and he sat down to talk with us when he was all done. He sat beside me and started conversation again.

"So, what's your story? Were you on the road this whole time? You must be lucky to have survived."

"No," I started, "We were saved by a man, he was very generous. He brought us to his house and we survived there for about two weeks, then some man and his group attacked us and stole it from us. We got split up, and now we're here."

"What was the man's name?" Barry asked.

"His name was Patrick." I answered.

Barry looked shocked for a second, then his eyes widened.

"Never mind," he said, "It's probably not the same guy."

"What?" I asked.

"Well, I had a friend named Patrick before all of this started. We went on a fishing trip, and decided to go in the water. I was swept up by an undertow, and carried a long way. I managed to get up for air, but when I did, I was in the middle of Lake Erie lost. I kept swimming until I found a small island. I lived there for a few years, I had no idea where I was. I finally built a small raft and made my way to this place, where I lived for a couple more years. Then this apocalypse went down and I've lived here ever since."

That's when the bell in my head rang, I couldn't believe it. I remember Patrick talking about his best friend Barry drowning and was never found, this was the same Barry, and he was alive!

"Barry," I said, "I've got something to tell you."

I told him everything, about me living with the same Patrick he was talking about. Barry got really excited. His eyes almost popped out of his head. He stood up and got some guns ready, he handed me a small stub nosed revolver.

"We need to find Patrick." he said.

"Can I have a gun too?" Kayla asked.

Barry looked at me, and I nodded.

"She knows how to shoot one." I added.

Barry nodded, finding that was good enough, and handed her another pistol.

"This one is similar to the one I used to use!" Kayla said, "I think I can learn to shoot this one myself."

We left the community centre and searched around, now if I can remember correctly, Patrick ran towards the road, while Kayla and I ran towards the fields. Barry already had a truck ready, it was an old pickup truck, but it worked. Barry drove and Kayla sat in the passenger seat, I sat in the back of the truck so I could see better. It was a bumpy ride, but hopefully it will pay off. Barry headed out of the nameless town and onto a dirt road, this whole area was a pretty deserted place, so it didn't even have paved roads. We drove around for a long time, finding nothing. I didn't bother calling anyone's names, because that might attract something else we don't need right now. I gave Barry the directions to the area where Patrick's house was, if we were going to find Patrick, we were going to need to retrace our steps. That meant going back to the area Patrick's house was in, and finding it from there. Let's just hope that we don't run into Derrick's gang on the way. After about half an hour, we were in the general area where Patrick's house was. We slowly drove down the roads, looking for anything out of the ordinary. I spotted Patrick's house in the distance, up on a hill. I missed that place already, we can't get too close to it though. Derrick can not find us, he won and it's over.

"I don't see him." I called to Barry from the back.

"Me neither, I don't see anything, I wonder where he ran off to when you guys got attacked."

It was starting to get dark out, and we needed to get back before we lost daylight.

"I think we should head back." I said.

Barry sighed, but I knew he was right. I can imagine the feeling though, being so close to your long lost friend, but being so far away at the same time. I would feel empty if I knew Samantha was close, but I couldn't find her. I would lose my mind.

We slowly pulled into the nameless town again, depressed. Barry was more depressed than anyone, I felt a loss of hope. I really want to find Patrick, but I feel like we will never see each other again. I don't even know if Mark is going to be ok or not. We parked in the community centre, and got out. I hopped out of the back and we dragged ourselves into the building. Kayla was already almost asleep, she was really tired. When I got in the building, I saw everyone was gathered up around someone. I walked closer, to see Mark. He was fully awake, and he had a stitches up arm with a bandage around it. He was telling everybody what happened.

"Mark?" I asked.

"Jeff! These people told me that you saved me. After Derrick cut off my arm, you brought me here. Thank you." he said.

"No problem, I didn't want to see another death after Paul."

"It means a lot, a normal person would have run away for their own good, but you risked your life to save mine, we don't even know each other that well. I owe you big time." he said.

Barry pat me on the shoulder,

"You seem like quite the hero." he said, he then headed to his bed and went to sleep.

I felt bad for him, I gave him hope that his friend is out there, for him to never find him. I think he also knows that we are probably never going to see Patrick again. It would take a miracle to find him again.

Kayla went to bed, along with everybody else that night. I sat and talked with Mark, it was just the two of us. I noticed that these people don't really keep night watches. I mean, if someone were to come to this place, nobody would ever know. This place really needs to step up their defence. I wasn't too concerned though, this town was hidden enough anyways.

"So what happened while I was knocked out?" Mark asked.

"Well, I grabbed you, and Kayla and I ran through a forest. We stayed there for one night, then found this place. We left you here and all these people saved you. You lost a shit load of blood, I'm surprised you are alive." I said.

"Me too." he replied.

"Well good night Jeff." said Mark, he curled up in his bed and drifted off to sleep. It was only me now, I couldn't sleep. I never can at night anyways, especially not after all that's happened. I just want Toronto to be cleared by the military already, I need somewhere safe to stay. This community centre doesn't count as safe in my book. I guess this will have to do for now though. I slept on the ground beside Kayla's ed that night, I wanted to protect her at all costs. It's almost instinct that I stay close to her at all times now. I started to think, and I never got sick. After that strangler attacked me and Kayla saved me, I thought I was going to die. But here I am, perfectly fine. Maybe everything isn't all that bad, I think I am meant to be alive right now. I've come to so many close calls, it feels impossible that I am still alive right now, but I am. I am grateful for that, if I can hold out a bit longer with Kayla, we can make it to Toronto and start a new life.