I Trust You

"Philadelphia" Murphy said as we passed by a couple of zombies that were tearing bodies up on the side of the road, "Ah, the city of brotherly love."

The truck came to a sudden stop in the middle of the street. "Is that what I think it is?" Roberta asked.

"Is that really the liberty bell?" I asked getting out of the truck.

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof." Garnett said reading the scripture on it, "Yeah, that's it."

"Three years of zombie apocalypse, you think you've seen everything." I said.

"Well when everything went bad, they probably tried to save a little history." Warren said.

"Yeah, well they should've known the only thing you can save is yourself." Murphy yelled from the truck, "Let's go!"

"Hang on." Roberta said walking over to the truck. "If this thing still has fuel, and it does...if we get this thing started, they won't have to ride it out in the open like that."

"Well I'm all for that." Doc said.

Mack stood up. "I'll get the jumper cable."

"God bless the human race." Doc said as he looked at the bell, "Ninety-nine percent of them dead. But there's still one jackass alive with a spray can."

Opening the door the the truck a Z jumped out and went for Roberta, thinking quick 10k pulled out a slingshot and killed the Z. "One-thousand seventy-five."

Grabbing the cables Mack hooked them up to the truck and it started right away. "All right, that's it." Charlie said, "Let's go, Murphy. You get in here with Warren and me. Everybody else, follow in the pickup. Stay close."

There was enough room for me in the car finally. "We're not really going all the way to California with this Murphy guy, are we?" Cassandra asked.

"That's the plan." Doc said, while me and 10k rode in the front.

I started biting my nails and picking at my head, a thing I do when I'm nervous. "Hey." 10k asked and grabbed my hand, "Are you ok?" I nodded. "Little anxious is all." He nodded and rubbed my hand, "Well if you need anything I'm here." I smiled. "Thank you."

"That's crazy." Cassandra said, "What's so special about him anyway?"

"His blood." I said.

A speeding car drove right towards Roberta's car. She swerved, making a sharp left turn, and we followed behind. As the truck halted the bell fell off the truck bouncing down the street and crushing any Z's in the way.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

"Yeah!" Doc yelled, "I'd pay money to see that again!"

"Haha, same here dude!" I said and highfived him.

The axle on the flatbed truck had been broken and everyone had to ride back in the van again. Roberta took over driving for Doc and we went on our way.

"Well this is nice." I said squished between Doc and 10k.

"Like one big happy family." 10k said back. "Except Murphy's like the one grumpy uncle no one wants around." We all started laughing. "Hey! I heard that!" Murphy replied.

I put my finger over my mouth and whispered "Shh, don't wanna rile him up to much." 10k just laughed and put his legs over mine.

After an hour of driving, we pulled over beside some buildings in Philly and took a break. "Enjoy." Roberta said, "That's the last of the food." She said handing us Twinkies.

"God, I'm so hungry my big guts are eating my little guts. You gonna eat all of that?" Murphy asked 10k. 10k put his whole Twinkie in his mouth as Murphy asked. "Selfish little bastard."

"Maybe you should've have scarfed down your entire Twinkie." I looked at him. "Maybe you should shut up." Murphy responded, clearly irritated.

"We need to split up and look for more water." Charlie said.

"Oh, if we can find a two way radio or even like a satellite dish, I can try contacting that Citizen Z guy." Addy suggested.

"That's good." Charlie said, "Okay, you and Mack do that. And the rest of us will look for food and water. Doc, you take Cassandra, Ana, and 10k. Warren and I will take Murphy. Stay close. Meet back here in an hour. All right, let's go."

The 4 of us walked down the street where we located a satellite dish. "Hey, kid." Doc looked down at 10k from the dumpster he was on, "Give me a hand with this, will ya?"

"I don't know why we stopped here in Philly. We should've kept going." Cassandra said, crossing her arms over her chest and huffing.

"It wouldn't have anything to do with that guy from before would it?" I asked, eyebrows raised. She scoffed, looking down at the ground, "No." She responded. I just nodded "Alright, well instead of whining come over and help with the dish ok?" I asked, she just nodded and came over.

"Going where?" Doc asked as he and 10k were fiddling with dish, "We need to find a way to communicate with that Citizen dude. And I think Addy can do something with this dish. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and pick up porn." Doc said. I couldn't help but high five him.

"Never seen porn." 10k said.

Doc and I's eyes widened. "You've never seen porn?" I asked.

"Really?" Cassandra asked, "Never?"

He shook his head. "Before my time. Is it good?"

"Yeah." Doc nodded

"Eh." Cassandra said.

"Depends what type you're looking for." I responded.

"And what do you look for?" 10k asked.

I laughed, "Nunya."

"Nunya?" he asked.

"Yeah nun ya business." I responded, "Get back to the dish." He saluted me, "Yes ma'am."

We had the dish down and headed back to where we were meeting the others. "Wait. So this Rocky dude loses the fight?" 10 asked Doc. "What a pure, innocent, cute soul." I said.

At some point Cassandra walked off but I wasn't that concerned, she can take care of herself.

"Yeah, but see in losing, he wins. It's very zen."

"I'd like to see Rocky fight against a zombie. If he loses, he get's eaten." 10k smirked.

Right after said that someone from behind me grabbed me and started running.

"10K, DOC, HELP!" They turned around and started chasing me, as soon as they got close the guy dropped me on my side.

Doc and 10k ran up. "Oh my god Ana are you okay?" 10k asked and pulled me into a huge hug. I nodded, "Yeah I'm fine, I'm alright."

10k bent down to pick up my gun as Doc hugged me.

We walked back to the group. "What happened?" Roberta asked as we came up. "Almost got kidnapped, these guys saved me.

Cassandra came up running and out of breath. "Hey, is everything ok?" Doc asked.

"Fine." she responded.

"It's about time." Murphy responded.

"Wait, where's Addy?" I asked.

"Missing." Mack answered.

"You don't think?" I asked.

"Yeah, we do. It was the same person who tried to kidnap you." Mack answered.

Everyone looked to Cassandra. "You know anything about this?" Roberta asked.

She looked at us, scared out of her mind. "Me? Why would I know?"

"You recognize these guys?" Mack asked Cassandra holding up an I-pod.

"Hey, that guy tried to kidnap Ana." Doc said, and 10k nodded.

"No. Why would I?" Cassandra asked.

"Creep on the left was one of those bikers back in Jersey. With your friend Travis." Roberta said.

"I told you, I didn't know that guy. And I don't know them either."

"Cut the bullshit," I said. " I was almost kidnapped by that guy and now Addy's taken, and you looked very uncomfortable when Travis was here, what's going on?"

Mack pushed me aside and grabbed hold of her throat and pinned her up against the car. "You are gonna start telling me the truth right now or I am going to start blowing holes in you until you do. Do you understand?"

"Mack." Charlie stopped him, "Put the gun away. You're gonna tell us everything you know about these guys right now."

"Or I'll shoot you." Roberta said. I agreed and pulled out my gun and aimed it at her.

"I can't go back!" Cassandra cried.

Mack grabbed her. "Back where? Where? Where? Where is she?! Where is she?!"

A zombie ran right for us but Garnett shot it dead. In the panic Cassandra got away and started running. "Shit!" I yelled.

I waited at the truck for him and the others. 10 minutes later they came back and told us everything.

"There was this farmer. Had the smartest pig in the world, Arnold. This pig could read and do math. Arnold was famous. And then one day, the farmers friend, he comes over sees Arnold tripping around on three legs. And he says the the farmer, 'hey, what happened to old Arnold?' And the farmer says, 'Smart pig like that, you don't eat him all at once.'" Murphy laughed. I looked at him completely disgusted.

"Oh, what? Too soon?" He asked. "Um yes it is. Just shut your mouth and don't speak ever again." I responded.

"We didn't start out as cannibals." Cassandra commented.

"Cannibals? How is that even possible? Everything's infected with the zombie virus. If you kill it and eat it, you get the live virus." Garnett said.

"But if you eat it alive...." Cassandra said, We were people just trying to survive. Tobias saved me. First from the Zs. The from the worst of humanity. He was a good man. Then his wife got sick. She just couldn't take it anymore. And he was never the same after that. When Black Summer came and everyone else in the world was starving he would do whatever it took to keep us alive. And he did."

"I'm going back for Addy." Mack started walking off.

"Hang on, Mack." Garnett said, stopping him.

"Garnett, do not try to stop me."

"Nobody's gonna try to stop you. We're all going back. We just need a plan." Garnett said.

"You don't understand! These people are worse than Zs! They'll kill all of you!" Cassandra cried.

"Yeah, she's right. We need to look at the bigger picture." Murphy said.

"Shut up!" We all yelled to Murphy.

"Do you know where they've taken her?" Garnett asked, she nodded.

We made plan, got in the cars and went off the save Addy.