Reunion

The boy raised his hand and waved it in our direction, "Frankie! Wow, look at all of these kids, hi everyone, name's Randy and I'm your crazy knight in shiny armor for this adventure." Randy wasn't lying, he was wearing some sort of medieval armor but not one of those heavy looking ones, he was wearing tiny chains around his body and was wearing a vest over it.

 

 

 

 

Everyone nodded their heads in acknowledgment, except for Kyle who pushed up to the front and stopped once he saw Randy's weapon, "Dude you have a battle ax, where did you get it?" The battle ax that Kyle was praising was a halberd which was a mixture of a spear and ax, which the same type of rifle that Frank was carrying I was curious as to how Randy can carry so much weight. Randy drew his halberd out and allowed Kyle to examine it and every second that he touched the halberd you could see that Randy was in love with it. Again, Kyle was a weird kid and the longer he stands to Randy I could see that they are going to be the craziest best friends in this messed up world.

 

Randy also notice the excitement in Kyle's eyes and smiled, "Tell you what, I'll let you have the halberd in exchange for your spear." Needless to say that Kyle accepted the trade. Once Kyle acquired the halberd, Joe walked up and pointed at the bottle that Randy was holding onto, "Is that for my sister? She's very sick." Randy crouched down and smiled with the smile and spoke like you usually do to kids when they are close to crying, "Here, little man, have someone give this to your sister and keep an eye on her until we get home, ok?" The news that his sister was going to be alright made Joe teary eyed so much that he tried forcing it back, "Thank you." Said, Joe, as he hurriedly went back into the crowd.

 

Once no one else stepped forward Randy saw me smiling at the people who's day just got better, rather it being a new weapon or medicine, and he said, "You’re the leader of this big bunch?" I was going to say no and point at Ray but Ray beat me to it, "Yes, I've stepped down from my duty and we all agreed to follow Jack where he goes, he's saved us even when I failed as being a leader." I turned to face her and she didn't return to look at me, she just went back into the crowd, people from her group looked at me and some smiled while others actually saluted towards me, why do nobody tell me about the votes of being the leader, first Gary, now Ray. The number of people I have to look after has basically doubled in size.

 

Once I was done getting over the fact that I'm in charge, rather or not I want to be I asked everyone if they're ready to head out and they all yelled in excitement, I turned to Frank who was still on top of the rock, "If we don't like what you've got we can leave correct? Once we follow you there isn't a catch?" Frank nodded, "Don't worry, once you see our settlement, you'll want to help us. Randy, we can go now." Randy clapped his hands together and said, "Alright ladies and gentlemen this way to 'Paradise Falls' where you can meet our generous leader Michael the badass." Everyone started to walk with Randy and Frank, all except Alexander, he stopped moving, like he was frozen, I walked up to him and I notice that his eyes were shot up, "You ok man? You're not getting sick are you?" Alexander turned to me and slowly asked, "Did he just say, Michael?" I nodded my head and Alexander snapped back to normal and pushed me with the rest of the group but at the same held me back so the rest of the group won't hear us.

 

He whispered, "Don't trust these guys." I turned my head to see if he was joking, the way his eyes looked at Randy and Frank was the way a murder would look at the next potential victim. Him looking at me made me shiver, I ask him why and he didn't say much. All he said was, "It's a long story."

 

Alexander told me to got to the front and see if I can get more info on the place and him looking at me like that, I was secretly glad to move away from him, it was obvious he needed, some time to himself. Once I got to the front of the group I see that Mackenzie is one step ahead of me, once I came to the front of the line I hear her ask, "So how secured is your settlement?" Randy answered saying, "We have a fence line surrounding the area and another fence surrounding the prison, we use the middle section to clear out the walkers that are trying to get in." I asked, "Walkers? Is that what you call them?" Mackenzie and the two boys turned around to see me asking the question, Randy nodded and asked, "Yup, what do you call the living dead that walks all day." He had a point, but I was ok with calling the undead, undead, or at least zeds which are short for zombies but there's no need to talk about what to call them right now.

I asked, "So do you guys go out this far usually?" Frank was the one to answer, "Not really no, we only came out this way because we didn't want to risk going to the city area." Mackenzie was the one to question him, "Why's that?" He shrugged, "We don't have any info about it, for all we know there could be an army of walkers waiting for us, Michael said it's too dangerous so we went this way hopping there was a town and sure enough there was." I ask Frank, "About this Michael, what's his story?" Randy said, "This dude is a scary fellow when he needs to be, but at the same time you got to be or else you don't get things done and that's a no go on Michael's agenda. Some say before the plague, he was in juvenile and somehow escaped if that's the case it sure is funny that he's camped in a prison. I guess it's better to be in the environment your used to. Don't get me wrong, Michael is a good guy when your on his good side, just don't get on his bad side."

 

"This Michael fellow seems pretty dangerous, why don't you leave?" Said Mackenzie, Frank shrugged while Randy shook his head, "We wouldn't know where to go." I said, "You can come with us, we're heading towards the city." They both stopped and looked at us, mostly because they thought that we were mad, which in some cases we might be. "Why on earth are you doing that like I said before we have no outside information and we don't do going in blind." Mackenzie said, with a smirk, "So how come you came into this town then?" Randy laughed and punched Frank in the shoulder, "She got you there bro, you did suggest this place." Frank flipped Randy off and said, "Not only that but once we leave Michael really doesn't like wasting supplements on people who aren't going to stay. Just play along for now and then we'll see if you are still alive." I asked what the meant but neither of them replied and once we got the message to not push the topic we both slowed down and joined the rest of the people.

 

I meet up with Siron and now that everything had calmed down I notice that like us, she was a kid but smaller compared to everyone else. I ask her, "So you’re the only one with medical knowledge?" It was a poor conversation starter I admit but people do appreciate me getting to the point. "Some people knows the basic, put a bandage on a boo-boo and so on. My parents were doctors and I was interested in learning so I was able to learn a lot from them, now." She didn't finish her thought and just left it in the air but it was obviously what she was going to say, "You miss them don't you?" She nodded and started to tear up and said, "Of course I do, but it's not that, it's the way everyone looks at me when they are injured, the pressure is sometimes too much for me and I'm only 11."

 

You and me both kid.

 

I separated from Siron and came up to Andrew. With his football helmet it was still difficult to see his face but with the sun out I notice that the kid is covered in scars. I whispered to him, "Jeez, what happened to you kid?" He shook his head, "Not now." He turned to look at Alexander and with his current state he didn't notice Andrew looking, while he was looking at Alexander I was taking a peek in his helmet and see that his face is all torn up. I grabbed Andrew's arm and forcefully slowed him down, "Did someone here do that to you? Tell me right now and I can help." He wanted me to let go I can see that but I needed to know, then he nodded and I did too and soon after let go, he looked at me and then back at Alexander, "Tell me one thing first, is his name Alexander?" I nodded and Andrew didn't say anything for a while, I nudged him to signal him to continue and it seemed that I startled him.

 

Without explanation, he removed his helmet and what he saw wasn't a kid, but a torn up one, I only saw his face but his body can't be that good either. His face was all bruised and full of cuts, some were even infected and were showing sign of pus coming in. One eye was blood shot while the other one was just fine but that was the only thing that was fine, even his hair was torn apart, it looked like someone got a weed whacker and did it on top of his head, that's a mean analogy but the image fits. "I overheard what's going on, are we really going to see a kid named Michael?" I didn't want to answer it but eventually, I nodded and Andrew sighed, "Guess it was the time I faced my demons, go on ahead, I'm going to introduce myself to my big brother again." Andrew left me and was walking towards Alexander.

 

Brothers? I guess anything can happen in the apocalypse.

 

Andrew the messed-up warrior and Alexander the sightseer are related before the plague, hopefully, Andrew will be able to calm Alexander down a little bit. As I see Andrew go to Alexander Ray tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “I’ve never seen what was behind the helmet, what did you say to him?” I told her about the reunion and she smiled for once today and I notice that her eyes were still puffy from crying. I asked her, “How are you feeling?” the smile was still on her face but she was still teary eyed, “I just don’t know what to do anymore, I’m glad you came along when you did.” I was going to tell it’s no problem but she had another intention. She kissed the top of my head and once I felt the warmness of her lips on my brain, I couldn’t respond, it was like her kissed had melted my brain. Guess you can call it killing my brain with a kiss, screw the heart in this time you go for the brain. She notices my face getting redder and giggled like an actual school girl. For a moment it actually felt like the way it used to be before the plague and it was like school all over again except it was better in another way.

 

Ray stood by my side for the rest of the trip, I eventually got the nerves to hold her hands along the way and had a decent conversation about one another. It was a good day in the apocalypse.