Catch up on part one here!
The nightmare continues. . .
Ridley didn’t want to stop driving but unfortunately, the gas was running low. Since they left town, Marc and her hadn’t thought to be on the lookout for a gas station, but instead were too focused on getting the hell out of town. By the time they pulled away from across the hardware store, there were twenty-plus of those re-animated corpses coming towards them, their arms outstretched and moaning.
“We need gas.” Signed Ridley, filling Marc in on their already dire situation.
“Ain’t that fucking great.” He replied, straightening up and looking out for the next available gas station.
“If we can’t find a gas station, we are going to have to siphon some from another car.” Said Ridley, thinking just how or where they were going to get a rubber tube to do so.
“There’s a gas station!” Marc pointed out a little too excitedly but quickly reeled it in realizing the situation we were in.
I scanned the surroundings quickly as I slowly pulled up to the gas pump, seeing that they were not out of service, and sighed a breath of relief.
“You mind pumping while I take a look around?” I asked, turning towards Marc. He looked back at me with a shocked look but composed himself and nodded.
Leaving Marc to the gas, I pulled my gun out and walked towards the little store, noticing that the door was ajar with broken glass all around. I stepped over the doorway and did my best to walk over the glass, but a few pieces still crunched under my boots. Grimacing, I waited for a second to see if anything or anyone would stir but nothing did. It was a very small store where I could see everything from the doorway except for one door that led to the back room.
Placing my hand on the doorknob, I readied myself before opening it. Taking a deep breath, I slowly opened it but before it could open an inch, something pushed up against it to shut it close. I didn’t hear a moan as I pressed my ear up to the door, so maybe somebody was alive?
“Hello? Can you hear me? Are you okay?” I asked, trying the door again, this time it wouldn’t budge.
“Get out of here!” A lady screamed from the other side.
“Ma’am, my name is Officer Ridley, I can help you.”
“Those things are going to come back, get the fuck out of here!”
“Ma’am, my partner, and I have a car. We are getting gas right now and trying to get as far away. . .” Ridley trailed off, where would they go too? Was there any place safe?
The lady was sobbing now and was distressed. Ridley knocked on the door, doing her best to stay calm and soothing.
“Please open the door, we can help you.”
The doorknob started to turn, and the door was pulled in as the lady showed herself to Ridley. This poor woman. It looked like she was wearing an oil mechanics suit, but it had been soiled and ripped in several areas. Her hair was disheveled, and her face was dirty with tear streaks running down her cheeks. She looked up at Ridley and broke out into a smile of pure relief.
“I never thought I’d see another human’s face again.” She said as she slowly walked out of the room, the smell of her unwashed body hit Ridley hard, but she kept a straight face to reassure the woman.
“Here, help me grab some food items and water and we can get the hell out of here.” Ridley suggested as she rooted around for bags or boxes to place food in.
Once the car was loaded with supplies, Ridley offered the woman a set of clean clothes for her to wear, she always kept a set of sweats in her car. Marc had introduced himself to the woman whose name was Cyndi. She was a 22-year-old woman who just moved out to the small town of Manteen after dropping out of college and breaking free of her family’s rigid rules and expectations. She had gotten a job at the gas station as a gas attendant and enjoyed the solitude of it out here, until now.
“Where are we going?” Cyndi asked timidly, looking into the rearview mirror to meet my eyes.
“I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t the faintest idea.” I replied. We all sighed in unison, where would we go exactly?
“Maybe we should focus on finding a house out here, it’s desolate, so we should be able to see if any of those things are coming from miles. I could use a place to lie down for a bit.” Marc said as he rubbed the back of his neck, showcasing that we had been in the car for too long.
“We could try my house, it’s only a few more miles down this road and I don’t have any neighbors around me for miles.” Chimed in Cyndi.
“Did you live alone?” I asked.
“Yes.” She replied.
I nodded and continued down the road towards Cyndi’s home hoping that nothing had wandered its way into or near her place.
Pulling into Cyndi’s driveway it was beginning to get dark, so Marc handed Cyndi a flashlight, and he and I both checked the ones on our guns before getting out of the car. Flashlights on, we surveyed the area slowly and carefully. The door was locked but Cyndi had a spare key she placed underneath the mat and allowed us to go in to check the place out. Upon seeing that there was no one inside, we unloaded a box of food and some water and locked the car up with the rest. We didn’t dare turn on any lights in case someone saw them and approached us. So, we closed all the blinds, which thankfully were all blackout curtains, and lit a few candles that Cyndi had stashed in case of emergencies.
We took our turns getting a quick washcloth bath in, which felt like the best thing, and were able to get into some clean clothes. Thankfully Cyndi had some of her old boyfriends’ clothes so Marc had something to wear. We gathered in Cyndi’s bedroom which had the fewest windows and was furthest from the door as we dug into an unhealthy meal of gas station delicacies. Cyndi didn’t have much difference from the gas station since she had just recently moved into this place and the food store was too far away to get to by her bicycle.
“I’ll take the first watch,” I said as I wiped some crumbs off my shirt. I got up reluctantly and walked into the living room to post up. I was beat but I wasn’t going to allow myself to fall asleep until Marc got up in a few hours. I opened the curtain slightly to look outside and all I could see was blackness with bright stars shining through. What a beautiful sight for such a fucked-up situation they were in.
