When the Sun Goes Down

I looked to my right, finding Mama asleep in her seat. She had fallen asleep only a few minutes ago, leaving me to myself for a short while. According to Sean, the new comer we had encountered a while ago, Oakland was just around the next bend. I let a quiet whimper escape my lips as I cupped my still bleeding head. The pulsing blood had stopped, but it still trickled warm lines down my forehead. If I didn't clean it up soon, I would get dizzy.

My shirt and lap had blood stains pressed neatly into the thin fabric. I wiped down my tired eyes as I followed Noah off the next exit. He stopped abruptly, seeing a large car blocking the road. He took it upon himself to drive up the curb and follow through over the grass. I followed his same position, waking Mama in the process. She sat up in her seat and gave me a warm, tired smile. She grew a little worried, however, when she saw the fresh blood spilling slowly down the side of my face.

"Do we have a medical kit?"She peeked into the back seat, but I shook my head.

"No, Mama. That's the one thing I forgot to grab when we stopped."I frowned.

"Once we get to this Copper Tree, I'll find you one. I'm no doctor, sweetheart, but a mother's love can do the job."She laughed softly."Do you need me to drive? You feelin' alright?"

"I'm okay, Mama. We just need to get to the Copper Tree soon."I sighed as we took a left at the blinking stop light.

We traveled down the short road, taking our first right. The long, twisting street led us to yet another blinking, unusable stop light and we made another turn, along with a left right after. As we circled around the chain of stores and the Copper Tree, I took in the amount of diseased that filtered through the parking lot. I bit down on my bottom lip as Romeo came over the radio.

"Ladies, pay attention to your right hand side and you will see our zoo's finest - the undead."Mama laughed to herself before picking up the walky.

"You're funny, Romeo."She grinned."How do we get in, though?"

I watched as their decayed, foggy eyes followed the two cars down the road. As we made our next right, I came to realize we were going to the back of the store.

"We're going to the loading dock, where trucks drop off their supplies."The walky went dead and I let out an anxious sigh.

"I don't know if I trust that Sean kid."I breathed."There's somethin' about him."

"You don't trust a lot of people, Adrienne."Mama frowned.

"I'm just careful is all."We pulled into a parking lot and traveled down a straight alleyway.

Noah came to a stop and I followed after him. I looked over at Mama, stating, "Grab anythin' you can carry. I'm goin' to grab what I can and make sure I can still shoot."

Mama reached into the back of the car and began to pile food and drinks into her arms. She grabbed a majority of the things before she got out. I did the same, holding only a few bags of chips, cigarettes and waters in my left arm. I pulled my gun from it's holding place between my hip and jeans. I held it tight to my side as everyone emerged from the van. They had done the same as us - collecting what they could before heading inside.

Sean led the way up a small set of stairs before banging, rather loudly, on the door. I turned around, watching intently behind us. The loud banging certainly attracked uneeded attention quickly. I rose my pistol as a few of the diseased turned in our direction. In an angry voice, I growled, "Tell them to hurry the fuck up!"

Connor, Murphy and Noah released their pistols' from their breasts pockets, cocking them back with one swift motion. The diseased let out a blood curtling screech before hurling their way toward us. I took aim at a few, letting my bullets dig greedily into their decaying flesh. Some went down with hard thuds, scraping along the dark concrete. Others continued to run forward, arms spread in a wanting motion.

"Hurry up!"Sean continued to bang as they grew closer.

"We're goin' to die."Mama whimpered.

"No, we ain't."I began walking forward, taking aim at every person that ran our way.

A man emerged from around our cars, his legs sprinting him in my direction. I let my pistol just graze his pale, swollen skull before pulling the trigger. I swung my arm to my right, where two more came screeching toward me. This was attracking a much larger crowd than I had hoped for. Sean better get the door open before I become one of these infecteds' next dinner. Two more bullets emptied out of my gun, leaving me one more bullet.

"Adrienne!"The sound of metal clapping against the stone wall caught my attention.

I turned on my heel, running up the stairs and into the room. Sean went to slam the door shut, but a middle aged woman swung her hand in, swinging and slashing at anyone she could reach. Everyone jumped back, afraid to touch the diseased fingertips of this woman. I stepped to the door, aiming the gun directly against this mad woman's forehead. Her mouth opened, sending me a high pitched howl.

"I'm sick of your shit."I pulled the trigger, watching as she collapsed onto the stairs, tumbling down at her dead weight.

Sean slammed the door shut, locking it quickly behind him. Bangs occured at the door, letting us know that many of the diseased demanded in. I turned toward the small group of survivors, but to my surprise, met the barrel of a shotgun. I swallowed hard, but pointed my gun into their face as well. They didn't know I was carrying a gun with a freshly emptied magazine.

"You best put that gun away, boy."I growled.

"I can bet you my next dinner you're infected."He spat.

"I can bet you're wrong."I licked over my lips, waiting for his next comment.

"What's with the blood?"He asked.

"Get that fuckin' gun outta her face ya fuckin' wop."Murphy warned.

"I can bet you all you're infected!"He swung his shot gun around, but before I was willing to take hold of it, Sean stepped in.

"Wait!"He stepped in between the man and us, waving his arms frantically."Wait! They saved me! They're not infected! I promise."

After a few minutes of debating, the man lowered his weapon. With a heavy sigh, he wiped his face down with his dirty hand.

"I apologize. You can't be too sure now a days. Just yesterday someone tried to get in. Almost cost us all our lives for a bag of jerky."I looked around the room, finding that this small group only contained four survivors.

I slipped my gun in between my pants once more and let out a quiet sigh.

"I understand."I took notice of the adolescent behind a woman and smiled."I would do the same."

He stuck out his hand, saying, "Well, welcome to Copper Tree."