Chapter 6: Betrayal

Charlie

Steve and Sandy finally came down, the rest of the group was already present. 'Alright listen up everyone, we have a few tasks to do. Steve and Cole, you two are going to head into town, take the pick up. I'll be taking a look at this old school.' he turned to Warren. 'Warren, you are going to help the others out in gun practice.' the man nodded. 'Alright let's go everybody! Cole and Steve got into the pick up and left, Charlie got in the other car and drove away too.
He could see the school in the distance, there were fences around the school, there were people with guns patrolling, it looked very secure. Charlie got out of his car, he thought it would be better that if things went wrong, he could atleast escape to his car. He walked along the path, and approached the men with the guns, they pointed them at him. 'Easy, I'm here to talk.' Charlie put his hands up in the air. 'How can we trust you?' Charlie slowly put his arms down. 'I'm going to take my gun, and hand it to you.' he slowly took the gun out, grabbed the barrel, and handed it to the man. 'Alright, you can come along, but keep your hands behind your head and don't try anything funny.' the second man opened the gate.
Inside everything looked normal, like nothing happend. The boy was right, Charlie thought. 'Our leader is in here, don't try anything, because there's atleast three guns pointed at you.' the man opened the door to the office, and Charlie saw a man sitting behind a desk. 'Ah, come in.' the man waved him in, the door closed behind him. 'So, who are you?' the man asked, his voice sounded sweet. 'You know who I am.' Charlie said, he wanted to get straight to the point. 'We found your scout, he was bit by a zombie, he gave us all his information, I know you're planning an attack on my group.' he awaited the mans response. The man laughed. 'And you're going to be a white knight, and stop the attack by killing me?' he asked, he was amused. 'No' Charlie said. 'I want to make a deal.' he could see it sparked the mans interests. 'My camp is full of supplies, but my group is an unorganised bunch of idiots, I'll make sure you can hit at an unexpected time, and kill all of them, but in return you're going to let me into your group, sound fair?' he hadn't noticed it, but he had walked to the desk and was leaning over it now, he took a few steps back. 'Sit down' the man nodded his head to a chair. Charlie took the chair and sat down. 'Now, I don't think we got eachothers name, I'm Lutece.' he extended his hand. 'Charlie' Charlie said. He shook his hand. 'Well Charlie, how many people do you have?' he counted in his head. '8 of them, not including me.' He could see Lutece smiling. 'Yes, we can take care of that, what's your plan?' he asked. 'We're going to wait some time, right now they are all aware of the attack, let them feel safe for a while, and then at night you can attack.' Charlie said, but he wasn't finished it. 'I've sent two of my men into town, I was thinking this is a perfect chance to get rid of them.' he wanted Cole gone the minute he walked in. 'Let's see how long they last against a swarm of zombies, and if they happen to survive my men will gun them down.' he got up from his chair, and made Charlie follow him. He opened a door which lead to a small yard, it was full of zombies. 'We keep them here in case we need to get rid of a group, and make it look like and 'accident' ' Lutece said. 'One of them knows how to handle a gun fairly well, I've watched him during practice, you're going to need a lot of zombies.' the thought of Cole getting eaten alive by a bunch of zombies made him happy, he couldn't wait to hear that he was dead. 'Oh, don't worry about that, he'll be dead soon, come, let's have a drink to celebrate a soon-to-be member of our group.' with that said, they went inside and had a drink.

Cole

They were sitting in the car, Steve was driving. 'You know, I've never properly thanked you for savind Sandy a few days ago.' he said. 'It isn't a problem' Cole replied. 'She's a beautiful girl.' he remembered his own girlfriend, she was also beautiful, but she got bit by zombies, he only has a picture and the memories of her. 'I know, I hope that I'm first to die, because I don't think I could bare to live without her.' the road was long and empty. 'You shouldn't think like that' Cole had wished it was him who was bitten, and that his girlfriend lived. 'I'll do anything I need to do to keep her safe, if that means taking a bite, so be it.' Cole knew how he felt. 'Let's hope it doesn't come to that' he grabbed his backpack, the barrel of a shotgun was coming out of it. 'So what do we need to get anyway?' he wanted to change the topic. 'I don't know, Charlie didn't tell me' Steve wasn't friends with Charlie either. 'We'll just take whatever we find usefull, but I doubt we'll find much'
The pulled into the street with all the stores, it was a straight street with a circle at the end. They stopped the car in the middle of the circle, and got out. 'Where should we start?' Steve asked. Cole had a look around, and then pointed at a store called 'Infection Tattoos.' 'That one' Steve looked confused. 'You think there will be supplies in there?' Cole shook his head. 'No, it's for Max' he could see Steve still didn't understand. 'Did he ask you?' he asked. 'No, but he can't handle a gun or kill a zombie, so we might as well give him something else to do, at least then he won't get in the way and make Charlie angry.' they laughed. 'Alright, let's go'
Cole filled his backpack with little plastic cups of ink, and a few tattoo guns. 'Should be enough to keep him busy for a while, let's find some more' they walked out of the store. 'Look, there's one of those baby stores over there, should we get some things for Abby?' Steve asked, Cole agreed, and they went to get some supplies for the coming baby. They ended up with a crib, a few bottles of special baby food, and lots of clothing. 'Wonder why that store was mostly in tact.' Steve said, carrying a box of clothing. 'My guess is that most people don't feel like having sex when there's flesh eating zombies all around.' Cole laughed, but Steve's face turned red. 'Or is that something you and Sandy are into?' Cole said, still smiling. 'nono, it's just...' his voice slowly became softer, and then he just kept his mouth shut. 'Hey come on' Cole patted him on the shoulder. 'Everyone has sex, no need to be ashamed, let's get some more supplies.'
They left the last store, it was time to go home. 'We found more than I expected' Steve said, Cole agreed. They got to the circle, the car was still in the middle. 's**t' Cole said, there were zombies all around the car. 'Where did they come from' he grabbed his machete 'I don't know, but we'll have to take them down.' he stabbed the closest zombie in the head. 'You have a weapon?' He asked. 'Yeah, a tomahawk, Anne gave it to me' Steve grabbed the weapon and used it to kill another zombie. They fought their way to the car, but there were still a lot of zombies left. 'Get in the car, I'll cover from the trunk' Cole yelled, he struck a zombie in the head, it got stuck halfway through. He had no time to pull it out, he pushed the zombie to the ground. He grabbed his gun and shot another zombie that was about to bite him, the sound attrackted other zombies. He climbed in the car, and grabbed a shotgun. Zombies were getting around the trunck, he heard the engine start but the car didn't drive away. 'DRIVE ALREADY' he yelled. 'I CAN'T, TOO MANY ZOMBIES' Cole climbed to the roof of the car, and stood on the hood. He kept firing shots, but there were too many zombies. 'Try reverse!' Cole jumped back to the trunk, and began shooting the zombies there, the sound must have attrackted the zombies from the front, because Steve hit the gas and Cole lost his balance and fell into the trunk. He got up and fired at the swarm of zombies that was -slowly- running after them. After they drove a kilometer Cole said they were safe, he relaxed a bit. He leaned back, then he heard gunfire, and he heard a bullet go straight next to his face, the glass shattered. He rolled to the side of the car, atleast now he had cover from one side. 'HEAD DOWN AND GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE' he yelled, it wasn't nessecary to shout, because Steve was already going as fast as he could. The gunfire didn't seem to end, and bulletholes kept appearing in the car. They turned a corner and drove into another street, apperantly they got out of reach from the shooters, because no more bulletholes appeared, and they couldn't hear gunshots anymore, but Cole and Steve still kept their head down until the reached the hideout.

Steve

'What happenend, the car looks like a sponge!' everybody gathered around the car, Cole and Steve got out. 'Are you both okay?' Abby asked. 'I am, not sure about Cole' Steve said. 'I'll be fine, I just need some rest.' he gave his backpack to Steve and walked to his room. 'I'm so glad you're okay!' Sandy pushed everyone aside and ran at Steve, hugging him. 'So what happenend?' Warren asked. 'Bunch of zombies came out, Cole and I fought our way to the car, then when we drove away someone started shooting at us, we couldn't see who it was.' he freed himself from Sandy's hug. 'Anyway, we brough some things for you' he reached into the trunk of the car, and got the crib for the baby out, and a box of clothing. 'We thought you might need these, with the baby and all.' he put the boxes at Abby's feet.  'Aw, that's sweet' she said, she patted his arm. 'I'll help you build it in a few minutes' he said. 'I'll do it.' Tyreece said. 'I've had enough of shooting cans all day' he picked up all the boxes at once and carried them to Abby's room, Abby followed. 'This could be a serious problem' Warren said, Steve and Sandy both agreed. 'I wanna know how they knew we were in town' he did not believe it was an accident. 'Maybe it was their area, and they saw you as intruders?' Sandy suggested. 'Or maybe we got a snitch in our group, Charlie's been gone most of the day and he knew where the other group was located.' Steve said. 'I doubt it' Warren replied. 'He's a dick, but he wouldn't let this group get hurt, you should get some rest, we've got enough supplies for the coming weeks.'
Steve and Sandy were in their room. 'I'll be right back' Steve said, he grabbed Cole's backpack and walked out of the room, straight to Max' room. He knocked on the door. 'Come in' Max replied, without even asking who it was. Steve opened the door, and saw that the boy was painting, when he saw Steve he quickly stood up and covered the painting with his body. 'Hey Steve, what's up?' he asked, he sounded nervous. 'Cole wanted you to have these.' he opened the backpack and took the small cups of paint and the tattoo gun, and gave them to Max. 'I hope you'll enjoy it' he turned around and wanted to walk away, but Max stopped him. 'Wait, I have something for you as well.' Steve turned around again. 'I've made this for you and Sandy, it isn't perfect but I tried' he took a step aside and showed a painting, a painting of Steve and Sandy. 'It looks beautiful' Steve said, he took a closer look at the painting. 'Can we take it to our room?' he asked. 'Ofcourse' Max quickly replied. 'It would be an honour if my work was in your room.' Steve grabbed the painting. 'It's an honour to have your work in our room.'
'It's beautiful' Sandy said, she covered her mouth with her hands. 'I know, Max made it' Steve replied, they had hung the painting above their matress. 'He's a sweet kid' she rested her head on his shoulder. 'Yeah, he gets more s**t than he deserves.' from now on he was going to stick up for Max. 'I'm going to get some rest now, good night' he kissed her and went to bed, and after a few minutes he was sleeping.