Desire to Survive

When the RV had stopped, I lurched from my position in the booth and jogged to the driver’s seat. Ben sat there, pushing down his aviator glasses to get a better look out the front window. His mouth hung agape.

There, off the right side of the road, was a general store that was completely surrounded by walkers. There must’ve been fifty of them herded by the closed glass doors, pounding them with their rotted fists. They were so intent on getting to whatever was inside that they didn’t notice our huge RV parked right on the road a hundred feet away.

“Good God,” Ben whispered.

“Somebody must be inside!” I said, watching the chaos. Sammy and Elizabeth appeared next to Ben and I, with Joshua following right behind them. The girls gasped when they saw the swarmed general store.

“Why else would they be there? We have to help them!” Sammy said dutifully. We all nodded. Then, we all looked around at each other expectantly.

“Not me!” Elizabeth said, turning on her heel and going to sit with her sister on the small couch. I rolled my eyes.

“Like you’d be much of a help…” I mumbled under my breath. Ben snickered at my comment and I punched him in the shoulder.

“Alright guys, time to kick some walker ass. Elizabeth, go wake up Kaden and tell him he’s needed. Try to make it seem important, please?” I said and walked to the overhead cupboard above the kitchen booth. Inside was the duffel bag filled with the guns I collected from my old house.

“What’s up guys?” Yawned Kaden, who momentarily appeared from his bedroom.

“About fifty walkers are surrounding a general store just outside. We’ve got a hunch that there are people in there that need help. You willing to thin out the numbers with me?” I asked while unzipping the duffel bag. I grabbed a pistol and checked to see if it was loaded.

“Fifty? Where’d they come from?” He asked me. “Girl, you make sure the safety is on until you’re ready to fire.”

“Yes sir. They probably came from the trailer park we passed a few miles down. Probably heard gunshots and came running like it was a dinner bell.” I sighed. I handed Kaden a loaded handgun and grabbed my bow and quiver. It felt nice finally being able to use it.

“Anyone else willing to come? Or will we be the only two?” Kaden asked, filling his pocket with precious ammunition. He looked around for any takers. TJ stepped forward.

“I’ll go. I haven’t done much around here anyways.” He informed, reaching for a gun in the bag.

“No, daddy! Don’t!” Adam cried, hugging his father around the waist. The kid was only about ten years old. I felt bad for him.

“Son, there are people that need our help. I’ll be back.” His father said while patting his shoulder.

“I’ll protect the RV once you guys are in there. Keep the area clean so you don’t get swarmed again.” Joshua nodded.

Jive walked into the room slowly, showing off his sharp teeth in a yawn that turned into a sneeze. When he saw his master ready to go through the door, the dog yipped excitedly and wagged his tail. It had to be the cutest thing I ever saw.

“Not today boy,” Kaden said. “You stay here and wait for daddy to get back. There’s too many of ‘em out there.” Jive, somehow understanding that he wasn't going, lowered his tail and sat down.

Once we were outside, the three of us hurried to the back of the car and climbed the ladder up. We figured it’d be easier and safer to shoot from the top of the RV, since climbing ladders wasn’t one of the walker’s strong points.

I immediately set to work, picking off corpse after corpse. The distance proved to be a challenge, but I was impressed with how accurate I was with my weapon. Kaden and TJ fired off round after round, splattering guts and brains all over the dirty asphalt.

About thirty of the walkers lost interest in the general store and came after us, but we mowed them down with ease. Soon, my quiver was empty and I pulled my gun out of my waistband, picking off the last few that were advancing.

Within ten minutes, there were piles of corpses littering the ground. Kaden helped me retrieve my arrows while TJ ran to the front doors. There was somebody on the inside, moving boxes and such out of the way of the blocked door. Once I had all my arrows, I stepped over bodies and rivers of brackish, thick blood to the entryway.

The man inside opened the glass doors with his weapon drawn but not pointed.

“Hello sir,” Kaden said, extending his hand politely. The man took it, shaking firmly. He had brown curly hair and stunning blue eyes, but they looked shallow and dull, as if he hadn’t gotten enough sleep lately.

“Thank you, for what you did just now. You saved us. My name is Rick Grimes.” He said, holstering his revolver.

“Kaden Summers. And it’s no problem. How long have you been stuck in here?” Kaden asked, putting his own gun away.

“We came here to see if there was any food left, but the place was picked clean. There were two walkers in here and I shot one of them. Must’ve attracted the others from a town or something.” Rick explained. He looked awfully pale. Kaden narrowed his eyes a fraction.

“Trailer park actually. Any bites?”

“No, sir. Just had a bit of a scare. If you hadn’t come, we’d have been done for.” Rick said, rubbing his stubbly beard in worry.

“Hey! There ain’t nothing here man! If the walkers are dead, let’s bolt!” Called another man who walked quickly from behind an empty candy isle. He had a dirty, sleeveless flannel and a black crossbow raised above his head.

A young Asian man walked from the same isle, slinging an empty green backpack over his shoulder and carrying a shotgun. Rick raised his hand to stop the two of them.

“Who’re these guys?” The man with the crossbow asked, pointing the weapon at us. Rick turned and pushed the bow down.

“These guys just saved our asses. Be considerate.” He said in his soothing southern accent and turned back to us. “The hot head with the crossbow is Daryl. And that’s Glenn.”

Kaden introduced us. “I’m Kaden, this here is TJ. The girl with the bow is Oakley.” He said. I nodded towards them and the one named Daryl nodded back.

“That’s a fine weapon.” He grunted to me. I smirked, eyeing his crossbow.

“As is yours.”

“Do you have a camp nearby?” Kaden asked the three men. Rick nodded.

“Yeah, a few miles north of here. We got here on foot because we’re low on gasoline. Do you have a camp?”

“No, not really. We’ve just been driving around, looking for some place half decent. We could give you guys a ride back to your camp if you need it.” Kaden offered.

“We would be grateful of that. Say, how many you got with you?” Rick asked us, scratching his beard.

“Ten and a dog.” TJ told him.

“Any kids?”

“A ten year old, two sixteen, and Oakley here is nineteen.” Kaden said.

“No funny business?” The Asian boy asked nervously.

“None sir, just tryin’ to get by.”

“I’ll tell you what, if you have your own sleeping quarters and are willing to share food, you can stay at our camp with us. We’ve got a pretty nice set up.” Rick said. We all smiled. A permanent camp sounded like a vacation.

“That sounds excellent.” I smiled.

“Let me just scope out a bit more,” TJ called out as he disappeared behind one of the isles. “Ben would kill us if we came back empty handed.”

Daryl was right, the place was absolutely barren of anything useable. Car parts, food, toiletries, and survival gear had all been cleared out. I got excited when I saw a box of Pop Tarts laying on the shelf, but when I grabbed the colorful box, it turned out to be empty. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so nostalgic in my life.

My reverie was interrupted by a loud scream. I drew my bow, turning to where it was coming from. TJ was in the back bellowing loudly. All five of us ran towards the back to where he was.

He had opened the rear door that led to a small office, but there had been a walker on the other side. Blindsided, TJ was attacked. The walker grabbed the stunned man by the shoulders and bit into his cheek, ripping a chunk of flesh out. Blood drained onto his shirt.

“TJ!” I screamed, grabbing an arrow and positioning it lightening fast. The walker was huge, with yellow skin and eyes. Its lips had been torn off, showing a row of rotted teeth, which were covered in blood. It bit another chunk out of TJ’s neck just as one of Daryl’s arrows was launched into its skull. Blood pooled onto the floor as the walker fell with a great thud.

“My son!” TJ moaned as he fell to the floor too. "Adam," He groaned.

“Oh my God!” I yelled, about to run to TJ, but another arrow flew and lodged itself into the man’s skull. TJ's body jolted and shuddered, and then went limp. I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to Daryl. “How could you?” I yelled at him.

Almost nonchalantly, the man in the sleeveless shirt walked to TJ’s dead body, braced his foot against his forehead and pulled the arrow out of his head. “Always check behind closed doors.” He mumbled. I had never seen so much disrespect for a human being in my life, despite him being dead.

“You asshole! He has a son waiting in the RV!” I said, walking straight up to him. He stared down at me, holding his ground.

“He was a goner anyways! Ya know how it works; they all come back as walkers in a few hours. Don’t get in my face, missy! Had to be done!” Daryl snipped at me. I backed off. I admit, that man was scary.

Rick wrapped me in a hug and I buried my face in his shoulder. I hadn’t even realized I was crying. Two deaths in two days. I felt like I was falling apart at the seams. I never expected seeing so much death in my entire life, yet it was all around me. I hated innocent people dying. The fact that the man had a son made it worse.

Slowly, we walked back to the RV. When we got inside, everyone greeted us with hugs and we introduced the three men. Adam walked up to Kaden expectedly and asked where his daddy was. I couldn’t watch, I ran into Kaden’s room and slammed the door shut just as I heard the boy start to cry.

I stayed in Kaden’s room for the burial, sitting on his bed with my head in my hands. I didn’t have the strength to be there. It was a quick service, thank God. In an hour, we were back on the road. Kaden came into his room with me and put his arms around me. It was comforting, but I still felt empty. Even Jive came and lie beside me, putting his head in my lap and looking up at me with those chocolate brown eyes.

In ten minutes, we arrived at Rick’s camp. I didn’t have any desire of leaving the room, but Kaden made me. He told me I couldn’t stay cooped up forever and Adam was being taken care of.

Our dwindling group filed out of the RV and looked around. The camp was large, with at least five tents pitched, a big fire pit in the center, a clothes line, and an old Winnebago parked near the back, nestled amongst the trees. A thin woman was rotating a spit over the fire that had a few rabbits on it and another was hanging clothes. The entire camp was surrounded by strings with tin cans hung on them. Noise makers, in case walkers were to show up at night and try to get into camp.

Suddenly, an extremely buff man with comically large ears ran up to us from one of the tents, shotgun drawn and pointed straight for us.

“Rick! He yelled, getting red in the face. “Who in the hell are these people!”