Glass Concrete - Highway off route 67

Rikki finds a letter in his mailbox and reads it finding out that there are people in a hotel only twenty or thirty miles away from his house, he decides to take a chance and make his way to the hotel

Understanding your surroundings is the most important thing in the world we are now in. Creatures everywhere are looking for flesh still on the bone and still on the move. There’s no life in planet Earth anymore, well not that I know of. The dead roam around the streets day and night with blood on their face and guts between their rotten teeth. You need to watch your step because some might have lost their legs, they’ll crawl for your ankles, and I’ll swear that to you.

Keep the blood out of your mouth and veins or you won’t be in anyone’s embrace anytime soon. A gun will be pointed to your head and the trigger will be pulled. It doesn’t matter whether you’re old or young, mutiny will be in order. Keep your head high and don’t grow weak, no one can afford weakness in their group.

Barricade your doors and cover your windows, make sure to keep it quiet and don’t attract them to your candle lights. Sound gives them a sign that their next meal could be your direction. Be prepared to smear their blood on your clothing when you’re walking outside in day.

If you’re willing to take my advice and join the squad make your way to the old and broken down motel off of Highway 67, a group of survivors will be holding their rifles to make sure you’re safe as you get through the gate and security.

-       Dixxion Williams

That letter was sent to me three days ago and I had no idea how it got into my mailbox and I didn’t know why I even had the urge to go outside and check my mailbox. There was no one to send me anything or deliver it; there was nobody in my neighborhood that was alive, or well...completely dead.

I stayed at my grandma’s house for a few days before I had the guts to pack some food and clothes and make my way to another location, specifically the motel off of Highway 67. I wasn’t going to risk anything so a put a few weapons in my bag such as a hand gun, a pocket knife, and some ammo. Taking risks used to be okay in the world, but since the world went to s**t, taking chances and keeping hope wasn’t an option anymore. Finding other people to travel around with was the least of my problems, my major problem was weaponry and food which I didn’t have much of; maybe a few days worth.

It was just an estimate I made; a logical guess if you will. But I didn’t think logic played a role in the zombie apocalypse. Knowing how to aim and shoot a gun and having the speed of a cheetah were the key points to surviving. Those were my disadvantages for survival; I couldn’t run like a cheetah and more like a platypus. My aim was horrible due to my instant tremor attacks that I got out of nowhere.

The distance between the hotel and I was pretty far, but it was worth a shot to reach. Twenty miles lied between the protection of the hotel and the weak human which was me.

The worst part about me was that I had really light blonde hair that reflected the sunlight; the zombies were attracted to bright and shiny things which made me an easy target to spot. I always had to keep a hood over my head when I walked and sneaked around in the daylight, whenever I had the chance I took a car until it ran out of gas.

Ten miles later I was half way through my water and I was nowhere near a gas station or a clean lake to get some more in my jug. Plenty of apples and oranges were snuggled tight in my bag, and a bag of jerky kept its place until I got to the hotel.

 

When I reached the hotel it looked empty, but it also felt like I was being watched the whole walk to the gate. I didn’t touch the gate because it might have had some electrical shock to it. It slowly opened in front of me and two men stood In front of me with fully loaded shot guns. The one on the left had dark curly brown hair; it was short and it went well with his light green eyes.

“You must be Rikki; our boss sent a letter to your house when we spotted you roaming around the grocery store for food. I’m Dylan, Dixxion’s brother, come on in.” Dylan said and I did as I was told and he shut the gate from behind me and locked it tight.

“Walk with m to my brother’s office Rikki; I got much to explain before Dixxion takes charge again.” I nodded my head at him and we walked to his brother’s office side by side, his shot gun intimidated me briefly before I realized I was still human so he wouldn’t shoot me.

“We’re glad that you took up on our offer to join the group, we need more people like you who can sneak around so easily.” Dylan explained and I just stared at what was in front of me which was burning and sickening scenery with smoke in the distance.

“The world has gone to s**t as you can see, and we’re running out of food; we only have about two days left of supply before we have to go in the city to get more.” We were almost to Dixxion’s office and I was already feeling like I could do some good for those people.

“I was thinking that you and I could head to that grocery store to get some more, but Dixxion can’t know because he wants a huge group to head down there together. I think it’s a terrible idea because some of these people have no survival skills.” I stayed silent before we reached his office door and he opened it right away; he must have seen our shadows through his window.

“You’re Rikki Nicholson right?” He asked me and I stared into his office, skin coast from animals were hung on the wall and knifes were shown in cases. “Yes, the one and only I guess.” My voice was low and tired; my legs were shaking from the long walk to the hotel. I was starving, but I didn’t want to ask for food now that I just found out they are immensely low.

“Come inside, Dylan you are welcome to join us if you want or you can manage the food supply, it’s your choice for who gets dinner tonight.” Dixxion said and he welcomed me into his office and he shut the door behind us. “So all around I’ve heard that you’re the leader of this group,” Dixxion nodded and crossed his arms as he leaned on his desk. “Anything you want me to do?” I asked to him and his eyes widened with shock.

“You just got here mate, I don’t expect you to do anything, and it was almost a twenty to thirty mile walk you just took.” He said and poured some fresh and cold water into a cup for me to drink. I drink the whole cup of water before a minute had passed and I set it back down on his desk.

“The survivors have been worried about the barricade that’s blocking the zombie’s from getting in to our camp.” I shrugged and looked clueless at Dixxion.

“It’s madness out there and we are running out of food, not that you don’t already know. I’m positive that everyone out there is complaining about the lack of food. I wanted to send my brother to get some but I can’t risk losing the only person who’s keeping me together at the moment.”

“I’ll go if you want me to, well with a few other people by my side of course.” I volunteered and he smiled holding as he held his hand out for an agreement. I shook it and he handed me a shot gun to take with.

“The safety lock isn’t worth turning on anymore since we found out about the zombie’s increased strength and speed.” He said and took the safety lock out of the gun so that I didn’t have to worry about multitasking, or doing one more thing that I didn’t have to do.

“I can’t thank you enough for your help, I wasn’t sure you were going to take up my offer.” He murmured and sat down behind his desk; he studied the map once more and started to highlight certain parts and silence grew between the two of us. I finally got the idea that he was done talking to me and I left his office to talk to the other survivors.

Each step I took the heat got one step closer to overheating my body. It looked like the heat was attacking everybody that was in the group. They were trying to fan themselves off with their dirty and unwashed shirts or an almost dead leaf. I spotted two kids playing with a basketball and they tried to shoot it into the wooden basket that one of the men must have made for them.

Craftsmanship was a big and popular roll in the group which made it easier to survive the “apocalypse”. It supported many things such as entertainment, defense and protection, and even baking.

To the left of the Hotel’s courtyard were all of the guys having their daily cigarette and talking about how they’re going to upgrade the guns. To right of the courtyard were all of the girls doing each other’s hair, but it was the older women doing the little kid’s hair. They probably thought that maybe a little comfort might pull into play if they have some fun girl time.

I started to think about what group I should talk with while I waited for Dixxion to get his gun and ammo ready for the trip to get supplies. The women seemed like the better idea at the moment, but what would all the men think of me when they see me examine ladies braid hair.

“Hey kid, you must be the new guy. I’m guessing Rikki,” I nodded at him and he motioned me to come and see all of them. I wasn’t the only teenager in the group, I saw a girl who looked my age where the women were and a boy that looked a year younger than me in my direction.

“I’m Earl, and this is Jake, Ryan, and Phil. The only men left from the city of Las Angeles California.” My eyes widened and I nodded as they smiled holding a cloth and their guns. “How about you make yourself useful and clean some gun barrels.” Earl threw me a cloth and a shotgun to wipe.

“I’m going to wipe it down over where the girls at, introduce myself to them so I’m no stranger.” I said and they agreed with me and started to talk to each other about the guns again.

Before the girls noticed me I heard them talking about an escape route through the sewers back in the town. “You don’t think those creatures are down there looking for some food?” I interrupted them and the girl around my age glared at me with her bright blue eyes; her blonde hair sliding off her shoulder.

“I’m just speaking the truth, I know it’s not going to score any points on you guys liking me, but I’m just trying to protect y’all.” I said graciously with and the bravery sneaked into my tone of voice. The unacquainted blonde girl rolled her eyes at me and walked over to the motor home and started to try and fix the broken shotgun.

“That’s Quinn, don’t bother with her, she acts tough with her eyes and attitude, but she’s a real sweetheart under the shell. By the way I’m her grandmother; this is Amanda, Ruby, Robin, and Samantha.” She explained to me and I shook each of their hands; I looked over at Quinn and she gave me another angered look.

“Yet you go and make contact with her boy.” Her grandmother raised an eyebrow and I smiled with guilt knowing that I was in trouble. “I mean it boy, you need to keep your distance.” I lost my smile and agreed with her by shaking my head.

“I’m Rikki by the way, Rikki Nicholson.” I said with a tremor in my voice and I walked back over to the men after she gave me a disturbed look.

            “Doesn’t seem like the old lady fancies you,” Earl smiled and waved at Quinn’s grandmother. “Make sure to stay away from Mrs. Blonde over there, that’s why you’re an automatic target to Elizabeth; which is the lady’s name.” Earl explained and started scrubbing the gun once again.

            I saw Dixxion walk out of his office with some thick and leather material around his chest and a rifle in his hands; he nodded his head at me and I took a shotgun from the wall and we headed to the gate and we got ready to open it.