Chapter 8: An old friend.

Warren.

Light was shining through the window, the sound of the gate opening could be heard. He got up and grabbed his crossbow, then he went outside. Charlie got out of the car, and the gate was closing. 'Where've you been?' Warren got straight to the case. 'I've been doing stuff, what's it to you?'  You could already tell that he was pissed off. 'You're suppose to be leading this group, but instead you're out doing s**t and show no results' he knew that if he kept going it would end in a fight. 'listen' Charlie got as close as possible and made direct eye contact. 'I'm making sure no one gets killed here, you can either accept that or take your chances outside, your pick.' before Warren could reply the door opened and Abby came out with the baby. 'What's going on?' she said, she saw both man standing face to face. Charlie saw the baby, pushed Warren aside and walked to Abby. 'You had the baby?' he screamed 'I thought we talked about this, we can't have a baby' Abby back against the wall. 'He's a day old, you can't possibly mean..' she was afraid to say the last words. 'Look, just give me the baby, I know a way to make it quick and painless' he wanted to grab the baby. 'No, please' Abby almost started crying. 'Don't worry, it's not going to hurt' he wanted to grab the baby. 'No, not this one' Warren had walked over, and now had his crossbow pointed at Charlie's head. 'You make a reach for that baby and you're dead, you know I'm not kidding.' Charlie took his arms back, and slowly got up, Warren kept his crossbow aimed at his head at all times. 'I'm away from the baby, you can put that thing down now.' there wasn't any fear in Charlie's voice. 'Why should I?' he asked, if he lowered the crossbow Charlie could easily attack him. 'I asked nicely, too bad' in one movement, Charlie pushed the crossbow down, Warren quickly fired the arrow and it went to the left side of Charlie's stoumache. While screaming, the angry leader punched Warren on the right side of his face, he lost balance and fell to the ground. He quickly rolled over, kicked Charlie in his stoumache and then his chest, pushing him away from him. Then he got up and pulled out his hunting knife, ready to attack the other man. He got grabbed from behind, he hadn't noticed the rest of the group was outside as well. He could see that the other man got grabbed as well. 'I'll f*****g kick his a*s, let me go' Warren tried fighting off whoever was holding him. 'Calm down' it was Cole. He didn't want to hurt his friend, so he stopped fighting, but he was still angry. He could see Charlie pushing away everyone that was holding him, pulling out the arrow, throwing it on the ground and then walking away. 'What was that all about?' Cole asked, still holding the man. Warren shook his friend off him 'Son of a b***h tried to kill Dawn.' he picked up his crossbow, put away his hunting knife and stormed off to his room.
He put on his jacket, threw all his personal items in his backpack, put it on, put his crossbow on his back and walked out of his room. 'Going somewhere?' it was Abby, in he arms she was holding Dawn. 'Few days in the woods never hurt anyone' he casually replied. 'You think Charlie is going to give up when you've gone off to live in the woods?' she had a point. 'If I stay here I'll probably end up killing that b*****d.' as much as he hated Charlie at the moment, he'd rather not kill him. 'Maybe it's better that way' she admitted 'You'd make a good leader, atleast you're around' they both grinned, but just for a moment. 'I wouldn't make a good leader, I'd probably get the group killed in blind rage.' he knew he was short tempered. 'How're the supplies for Dawn?' Warren asked. 'She'll be okay, but the rest of us would like some better food' she said, knowing Warren was a good hunter. 'Alright, I'll get going then' with that said he walked outside, into the woods.

Charlie

He was sitting by himself, he saw Warren walk out the gate. He took his chance, got up and walked inside, to an old friend.
'Thank god you're here, I've been starving these last few days' Alex had gotten a lot thinner than the last time they saw eachother, he had been in that room all those  days. 'How's the leg doing?' Charlie asked, completly ignoring the fact the boy had been starving. 'It hurts like f**k, but I'm also hungry, could you please give me some food?' Charlie was still ignoring him. 'Your group thinks you're dead, so tell my why I should keep you alive?' he was enjoying this. 'I-I, y-you want to kill me?' the boy turned white and his face had the expression of fear on his face. 'I'm not saying that' he started walking around the chair. 'I'm just saying you're taking up a lot of space' he stopped behind the boy, and put his hands on his neck. 'y-you could let me go' the boy said with little hope in his voice. Charlie started laughing, still behind the boy. 'You'd like that wouldn't you?' he smacked the boy on his shoulder. 'See the thing is they thought you got eaten by a zombie, so it won't work well if they find you alive and well, but I thought of that' the boy looked even more scared, Charlie enjoyed it. The feeling of power over the boy felt satisfying. 'Tell you what, I'll let you fight for your life against one of those things, if you win you go free, if you lose, well, let's say you wish you were shot by me'
'Keep up will you' Charlie was walking in the woods, Alex was following him, but because his leg hadn't healed he was slow. 'I can't walk so fast hold up please' he tried his best, but he just didn't go any faster. Charlie saw a zombie and stood still, Alex finally caught up. 'You walk fast' the boy said, out of breath. 'Well, I've been looking forward to this' Charlie said, smiling. 'You're going to be fighting that ugly f****r over there, enjoy' he pointed at the zombie. 'i-I can't even walk properly, you've got to understand man' the boy started to panic, he didn't want to die. 'Either you fight him and have a chanse to live, or I'll finish you off myself.' he grabbed the boy by his collar and threw him forward,  the noise caught the zombie's attention. It slowly started walking towards Alex, was desperatly looking for something to protect himself. He grabbed a stick from the ground, and swung it at the zombie. The boy didn't know that the only way to kill  a zombie was to destroy the brain, so no damage was done. 'Aim for the head!' Charlie yelled, enjoying it to the fullest. Alex swung the stick as hard as he could, hit the zombies head, lost his balance and fell to the ground. The blow hadn't killed the zombie, but it knocked it to the ground. The boy looked right in the zombie's eyes, screamed and tried to get up, which took him a lot of efford thanks to his leg. When he was finally back on his feet the zombie was still on the ground, Alex took his good leg and stomped on the zombie's head, and then again, and again, and he kept going until there was nothing but a bloody mess left. When he was finally done he was breathing heavily, and using the stick to lean on. 'Well well, you did it, I did not expect that' Charlie was being honest, he expected the boy to be eaten alive. 'Guess I'm stronger than I look' the boy said, he was proud. 'I'm free to go now right?' he asked, Charlie nodded. 'To the north of here is a farmhouse with a working car, it's only a kilometer, should take you half an hour.' the truth was that there was no farmhouse, or a car. 'Thanks man' Alex turned around and started walking. 'Oh Alex?' Charlie asked. The boy turned around again 'What is it?' he asked. Charlie quickly pulled his gun and shot the boy in the face, killing him. Charlie laughed 'stupid f****r' his laugh was getting louder, and soon he was laughing like a maniac.
'Cole, I need to borrow that dog of yours' Charlie had returned to the camp, and made a second plan. 'Why's that?' Cole asked. 'That boy found a gun, shot at me and then ran off, I need to find him' no one knew that Charlie had killed the boy. 'Alright, let me just get him.' Cole went inside to get his dog. 'Are you okay?' Anne asked, she was the only one that didn't hate Charlie it seemed. 'Yeah, I'll be okay, he will wish he shot himself though.' he laughed, but not like a maniac this time. 'Here he is' Cole let Bobby out of the building, he had been keeping him in his room all the time. 'Return him safe would you?' Charlie nodded, and said he would, then he went back into the forest. He took the dog to the place where he shot Alex, then he pulled his gun. Bobby was sniffing Alex' body, and started growling. He seemed to know something was up. Charlie took the gun, and shot the dog, then he fired another bullet into the air. 'Stupid mud' he uttered to himself, then he returned to the camp to tell Cole the "horrible" news.
'We found the boy, Bobby ran ahead to try and bite him, but the kid shot the dog, it all happened before I could do anything, I'm sorry.' Cole was sad, you could see it on his face. 'Are you okay?' Sandy tried to comfort him. 'yeah, I'll be fine, i - i just need a moment to myself' he got up and walked to his room. 'Atleast Alex is gone now' everyone agreed that that was the only good thing that happened that day. 'It's getting pretty late, let's wait for Warren to return and then all head to bed, I'm sure no one is feeling happy right now' except for me ofcourse Charlie thought. When Warren finally arived everyone went to bed.
The next morning he announched to everyone he would be gone, but it would just be for a few hours. He got in his car and drove to the school again.
'I killed the kid's dog, blamed it on a random bandit passing by' Charlie said, full of pride. He was sitting in Lutece's office again, they were still discussing the best time to attack Charlie's camp. 'You should attack soon, but let me finish off the boy, the rest of the group is yours' Lutece agreed, they made a toast to the coming fall of the group.

Cole

Cole was sitting in his room, he was feeling pretty down. For the past years, his dog had been one of his best friends, and now he was gone, just like that. He was thinking back to some old times, and he smiled, and soon after, he cried. He heard a knock on the door 'Hold up' he said, he cleaned his face with his shirt 'Come in' he said. The door opened, it was Warren. 'I heard about your dog, sucks man' he kept standing in the doorpost. 'Sucks indeed'  he wasn't feeling very happy. 'Wanna go out and hunt or something, take your mind off thing?' at first Cole wanted to refuse, but then he realised it would be better than sitting in his room and feel sorry for himself all day. 'Alright, let's go'
He was carrying a hunting rifle, Warren had his crossbow. 'So how do you gut these things anyway?' Cole asked 'You don't gut them, you skin 'em' Warren said, they saw a deer. 'Kill it, and I'll teach you' Cole got the rifle ready, aimed for the deer and shot it. He killed it, he and Warren walked over. 'Where'd you learn to shoot like that?' Warren asked, Cole liked to think he was a good shot as well. 'My dad tought me, for self protection and for hunting, I've got to thank him for that, saved my life a countless amount of times now.' Warren explained that he learned to shoot and kill the same way Cole did, which was strangely amusing to Cole. After their little conversation, Warren thought Cole how to skin a deer. They practiced on a few other deer as well, and after a while they had enough supplies to last them a week, and  Cole knew how to skin a deer for good.
'Jesus, did you two think we were running low on food or something?' Abby was suprised to see how much meat and pelts they had brough back. 'Warren tought me how to skin a deer, figured I might as well put those skills to good use, and it helped me keep my mind of Bobby for a few hours, which was nice' he still didn't like the fact his dog was gone, but he was sure he'd get over it. 'Anyway, how about we have a celebration night tonight, and we eat all of this meat?' Abby asked Sandy, who also thought it was good idea.
That night they were all sitting around the campfire, except Charlie, he said he was tired and that he'd rather be alone. Everyone had a piece of deer meat on their place, and the following morning they would clean the pelts and start using them as clothing, seeing as it was winter pretty soon. 'Atleast we won't starve to death, and if we put these pelts to good use we won't freeze to death either' Almost everyone was happy, even Dawn seemed to be in a good mood, Cole was still feeling a bit sad, but everybody's good mood was reflecting on him, and he was feeling better than at the start of the day.