Zombie 2.0 1/2

The truck approached the once thought abandoned building with it’s lights off and rolling in nuetral. When it came to a hault they all got out and made sure their guns were ready for action if need be.

“Rev and I will go in first and make sure the guy isn’t gonna hurt you.” Dean said.

“First of all, what makes you so sure it’s a guy? And second of all, hahahaha.” Banana said.

“I think we can all go together since you know…numbers and all that jazz.” Deci said.

“I don’t like the idea of all of us going up there. They could have people watching, there could be an entire … colony of them here. We don’t know, now I think it’s best if-.”

“I don’t think you’re in charge sir.” Banana said.

“I don’t want you two to get hurt.” He said in a tone that made the girls sigh.

“Maybe it’d be better if Banana went with you, that way it’ll look more believable that we just want information and to not here to kill ‘em or anything.”

“That sounds fair.” Dean said. “Come on, let’s go.”

They started off and Rev and Deci got in to position behind the truck. In order to see far away Deci broke out the AS50 and set herself up on the back of vehicle.

Dean and Banana made it to the front of the building and took a peek in the windows that were clear. There were tarps hanging in them now, unlike earlier when they had arrived.

“Do you hear anything?” Banana practially mouthed to Dean.

He shook his head. “No.”

“Should we..knock?” she asked.

“I don’t know. You knock, I’ll keep my gun ready.”

“No, you knock and I’ll keep my gun ready.” She said.

“We don’t have time to argue can you just do what you’re told for once?”

“Do what I’m told? What the fuck? I’m not some bitch you can tell to get back in the kitchen!”

“I didn’t say you were, I said nothing about a kitchen! And even if I had it’s more likely that you’d tell ME to get back in there.”

“Well then be a good little boy and do what YOU’RE told.”

“I can’t believe you’re gonna stand here and-.”

Just then a whistle came through the dark at them and they turned to see Rev waving his hands in a menacing manner. He meant business.

“Alright, fine, I’ll knock but next time YOU are knocking.” Banana said.

Just as she reached out her hand to knock they heard foot steps beside them.

“Freeze!” Came a man’s voice.

Banana and Dean did so.

“Put your guns down.” The voice said.

“I think that’s a little stupid don’t you?” Dean said casually laughing.

“Don’t look at me, and put your guns down! I don’t really think you’re in a position to tell me shit.”

Banana grunted and put her gun down on the ground as did Dean. They hoped Deci was being careful and watching the situation.

“Who are your friends in the truck?” the voice asked.

“Fuck.” Banana said.

“I knew they were there, I’ve been watching you. Earlier when you showed up and stole most of my work, I was still watching you. But you have that old man and two guys with you. I’ve seen them before I don’t trust them.”

Banana turned around.

“DON’T!”

“Oh stop it. If you were afraid of them and don’t trust them then you’ll be happy to know they’re not here.”

“They’re not?” The man who was talking was wearing dark clothing and a hood over his head so she couldn’t see him.

“We’re not here to hurt you or shoot you, and I’m hoping you can have the same respect for us. We’re here to ask you questions.” She said.

“What kind of questions?” He asked not lowering his weapon.

“Ones that will take awhile and I don’t think we should be standing here pointing guns at each other given the situation we’re all in.”

He hesitated. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now. I want your friends up here with you. I’ll put my gun down when I feel that it’s safe.” He said.

“Fine, but I can’t yell to them about this, just in case. I’ll walk over and tell them.”

“I don’t care if you yell. I have traps around here, c4. Yell.”

She sighed. “Guys! Come here, and uh…Don’t bring any weapons!”

Deci and Rev looked at each other and then did as they were told. When they reached the hooded man Rev gave him a dirty look.

“I’m just as sketched out about you as you are of me.” The mystery man said.

“You have a gun, what do you have to worry about?” He asked.

“You’re right. Come on.”

They went inside and the man made them climb up to the loft that Deci had raided earlier. They noticed that it looked more like a home now, with camping chairs and a cooler and lights.

“I block the windows at night so they can’t see the light.” The man said, still not taking off his hood. The light was very little so they still couldn’t see his face.

“That’s a good idea.” Banana said. She knew that in order to avoid being shot by someone who was scared you had to be nice to them.

“Yeah. And in the daylight I leave them open so I can see them.”

“You have good tactics. Why stay stationary though? Why not leave and go somewhere?” Dean asked.

“I don’t trust other people. Seen one too many movies end badly for someone for trusting someone. I hope you don’t mind but I’m not lowering my gun just yet. Why don’t you guys have a seat?” He pointed his gun in the direction of the chairs.

They sat down around the dim lights and the guy joined them. Finally he pulled off his hood.

He was a younger guy, maybe late 20’s, with dark brown hair and sea foam green eyes. He had a septum piercing and snake bites. His eyes had dark circles under them and he looked worn out completely.

“I don’t blame you. We don’t trust anyone else either.”

“You were dumb enough to drop your guns. I some how doubt you don’t trust anyone. And you were with those guys in the wheeler. I don’t like the looks of them. Did you know the dark haired one was sneaking around?”

“He must have been looking for something.” Dean said.

“Maybe, but when you get to this point you learn body language. He didn’t look like he was going to help out much.”

“Can you read minds?” Banana asked.

“No. But I can read body language.” He said. “Just like right now you’re trying to seem calm and collected so that I wont shoot you but in reality you’re thinking of ways to get your gun back. And the tall skinny guy with the tatts? He’s thinking about how to protect the girl he’s sitting next to. And this guy?” He nodded to Dean, “He’s trying to come off as the group leader but he lets you make all the decisions to get in your good graces.”

Deci looked at him and then to the others. They seemed to be a little bit more at attention.

“I’m not going to hurt you. You’re un armed and I’m not putting my gun down. I won’t shoot unless one of you try playing hero here.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. For zombie survivors we sure aren’t much for hero action.” Rev said.

“Good to know.” He said. “So, how’d you figure out that I’d still be here?”

“I didn’t know for sure, but the papers and stuff you wrote… it seemed like you were trying to figure out something specific. So I thought you wouldn’t go far from your research. Plus things didn’t look completely abandoned.” Deci said.

“You gathered that from what was left behind? Did you know that I was there watching the entire time?”

“From where? There’s no where to hide.” Dean said.

“I think that’s not for you to know. Now… What are these questions you wanted to ask me?”

“Actually it was about the papers I took earlier. I’m sorry for taking them but they were really helpful. I did’t know they were getting faster and smarter. So I took what you had so I could be prepared. The only problem is something is happening out there that I didn’t read. And…you can have your papers back if you want. I’m sorry I took them.”

“It’s fine. Keep them. Everything that was on those papers is in my journal. I don’t need them, maybe they’ll be of some use to you guys.”

“Thanks.”

“So what are they doing now then?” He asked.

“We were in the woods, at our safe point for the night, and all the sudden we looked over and saw a zombie just keep walking in to a tree. He didn’t seem to know what he was doing, he looked high or something. When we got to the body it was grey and dried out. Looked like it had been starved.” Rev said.

The mystery man got a troubled look on his face. “Great.” He muttered.

“Well thank God it’s not bad news!” Dean said sarcastically.

“What’s going on?” Banana said nudging Dean to keep him quiet.

“They’re not starving.” He said getting up and walking over to the cooler. He opened it and inside was water and beer. “Any of you want anything?” He asked.

“BEER!” Rev yelled.

“Shh!” Deci said.

“Relax, I’m not worried about them coming right now. Especially after what you just told me. I was wondering why I hadn’t seen anything for awhile.” He tossed a beer at Rev and then went back to sit down with a bottle of water.

“So what are they doing?” Banana asked.

“They’re turning.” He said.

“What?” Rev asked mid swallow of his beer, sounding pretty choked.

“They’re turning. You know, like my papers that your friend here stole said.”

“That’s just it. I only took some of the papers not all of them, anything beyond the fact that they get faster and smarter I don’t know.”

“Interesting. Well you guys should go now. Just be careful.”

“Wait what?!” Banana yelled.

“You can’t just tell us they’re turning and not tell us what’s going on!” Deci said.

“I can, and I’m pretty sure I did. And I’m going to enforce it. Just..keep in mind that you guys should be a lot more careful. Judging from what you said to me just a few minutes ago you aren’t the bad ass slaying type.” He stood up.

“No, wait a minute. We’ll do anything if you tell us what you mean. We haven’t met anyone who’s done research you’re the first. We need to know what’s going on.” Deci pleaded.

He sighed. “I don’t trust people and I don’t help them out. That’s my rule. What if I help you out and you just screw me over? It happens.”

“What if you just shoot us? We’re trying to tell you that we’re not gonna do anything stupid. You have the gun, how could we screw you over?” Dean asked.

“I’m just prepared for anything. You trusting someone you don’t even know could end badly.”

“Well, us not trusting ANYONE ended badly for us at one point. I got shot already, we’ve been kidnapped by these creeps who actually farm humans and feed them to the zombies so they’ll leave them alone…and I think that if we can’t trust anyone at all we’ll all die.” Rev said.

The mystery man took a moment to take in what Rev had said. “Fine. I’ll tell you but I’m not going to help you any more than that. I’m not going to join your commune or anything. I like my solitude.”

“We won’t ask you to come with us. We just want to know so we can survive. We don’t want to die, as I’m sure you don’t either.” Deci said.

After a brief pause he continued with what he was saying earlier. “They’re turning. You know how you get a caterpillar and they make a cacoon? Then when they come out they’re all pretty and flying and more advanced then what they were when they went in?”

They all nodded.

“Well now just picture that with the zombies except it’s doubtful they’ll fly or be pretty.”

“So what happens when they come out?” Dean asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve only seen one of them do it and he became aggressive towards even other zombies. He was really out to get me but I’m not about to let some flesh junkie eat me.”

“So you managed to escape it?”
“I was far enough away from it that I shot it before it got to me.”

“Okay, they’re aggressive… and they are fast..that all adds up to…I’m screwed.” Rev said taking the last the last drink of his beer.

“You can out smart them, it’s not impossible but they’re not as stupid as they have been. I thought it was just my dumb luck really but they didn’t seem to be bothering this side of the state. Now however they’ve learned that we’re running from ‘em and they are catching on to hide in other places you wouldn’t normally expect them.”

“Right, so high school education and not college?” Dean asked.

“If you want to look at it like that, yeah.” The guy replied.

“So we need heavier artillary? I know we have guns but now we need…guns?” Rev asked.

“You’d be doing good to make sure you can hit them from a distance. If they get up close you might not be able to fight them off. Shot guns work but give them another few months if that. They’ll be smarter then shot guns. You’ll have to live in the trees.”

Deci watched the guy for a few minutes then she stood up. “Thanks. But we better be on our way, the others don’t know what’s gonna happen and if those bodies are still laying around they won’t have a chance. We have to warn ‘em.”

“Are you sure that you want to warn them?”

“Why wouldn’t I? They’ve saved our lives before, I owe them that much.”

He sighed. “Just don’t trust everyone. It’s okay to trust once in awhile.”

“Do we trust you?” Dean asked.

“You don’t have to, I’m not asking you to trust me. I did tell you what I know. And if I wanted you dead, I could have killed you all already.”

“True.” He shrugged.

“What makes you think we’re really alone?” Banana asked.

“Because I know you’re here alone here.”

“Okay, as creepy as this has been, we need to get back.” Rev said. “Thanks for the beer random guy.” He stuck out his hand.

“No problem.” He shook Rev’s hand.

“Do you have anything else you wanna tell us before we go?” Deci asked as she started to get ready to climb down the ladder.

“Just be careful. It’s not just zombies you have to be afraid of.”