The next morning someone knocked on our door. I awoke first and answered it. At the door was a dark skinned female. She had dark skin and blue eyes. She looked twenty-two, twenty-three at most, and she looked kinda hot. She looked me up and down. I noticed that she had an AK-47 and a Glock for her sidearm. She also had a rather large knife in her boot that I saw. She had a belt that held her pistol. On the same side of it were clips for it. On the other side, were clips for her AK47. I guess this must’ve been the infamous Raya.
“Hello,” I said.
“Hi,” she quickly replied.
“I’m Andrew,” I introduced.
“I’m Raya,” she responded. “You and Josh have twenty minutes to get ready. If you aren’t ready, then I’ll take it as a sign that you don’t want to go.”
“Okay,” I said and closed the door. I took a shower, got dressed, and awoke Josh. After we were ready, I put Bubba in the back and told KC to keep her gun on her.
Josh and I sat on the couch until Raya returned. Once she did, she took us to the roof of George’s house where the helicopter was. We boarded. We greeted the pilots. One was named John and the other Eddie. Eddie had a shaggy beard and constantly wore aviators. He had been a pilot for fourteen years. John was a dirty blonde. He had only just learned how to fly. Eddie had taught him.
It took us about thirty minutes to reach the city. On the ride, Raya showed us the list of items that we needed. They were listed in importance:
1. Canned food (400)
2. Bottled water (600)
3. Sodas (60)
4. First-aid kits (16)
5. Bottles of alcohol (10)
6. Bottles of aspirin (20)
7. Pain pills (20 bottles)
8. Any other unspoiled foods (As much as possible)
9. Gasoline (As much as possible)
Any more would be considered extra. We decided to split the excess. Below, I could see road blocks, car crashes, huge hordes of undead, and barely saw bodies.
We landed on a shorter office building. Raya handed Josh and I large back packs to put the supplies in. We then exited the helicopter. Raya sat her backpack she brought down near the edge of the roof. She drew a huge rope. She managed to find something to tie it to. It was tied firm. She gave us gloves. She slid down the rope first. Once down she drew her AK-47 and looked around.
After she realized the coast was clear she signaled for me to slide down the rope. I grabbed onto the rope and wrapped my legs around the rope as she had. I went sliding almost immediately. I flew down it and landed hard. I let go of the rope and Josh followed down the rope.
Josh and I followed Raya down the alley we were in. I had my M9 drawn and Josh had his pistol out as well. I was in the middle and Josh took up the rear.
We stealthily walked up the alley. Once we reached the road, we leaned on a wall. Raya looked around it. She then looked the other way.
“Come on,” she said quietly. We sprinted across the road to the alley across from us. We followed her through three more alleys. Then we saw a door that was marked with a red X. She kicked it in and signaled for me to run in. I did, with my M9 ready to open fire.
I saw a figure in the shadows of the dim room. I waited for it to walk forward. I saw it had something in its hands. When it emerged, it was a guy around my age. He shielded his eyes with his hand from the beams of light flowing in and squinted. He had dark hair and went to my high school. His name was Kyle, we had been friends. We hung out occasionally and such. I lowered my gun.
“Hey Andrew,” he said.
“Hi Kyle.”
“Whatcha doin’ here?”
“Scavenging, you?”
“Eh, just made myself a home here I guess.”
“So, do you know Raya?” I asked as she walked in.
“Yeah, I met him a week ago,” she began. “I saved him. He decided to stay here and guard the food and supplies that we couldn’t take. It’s been two trips, Kyle you should be able to come back with us. We’ll clear the place out.”
“Good,” Kyle said. “I’m starting to get tired of the dark. Oh, and hi Josh.”
“Hey,” Josh said. He was leaning on the door watching our back with his 9 mm. I signaled him to walk in. The door slammed behind him. Raya pulled out metal flashlights and handed us all one each.
I turned mine on. I saw a sleeping bag and next to it I saw a box of cereal open. Also, I saw a few bottles filled with a yellow liquid. I looked to my right next and saw some cans of food to which I walked over to and collected. I looked back to see the others gathering food.
I saw Kyle though packing up his belongings. For a weapon all he had was a baseball bat. I looked back to the shelves and began collecting bottles of water. I had to collect at least a few hundred, and I saw the others collecting some also.
On the bottom row I saw sodas. I opened the packages. Some spilled before me unto the floor. I picked twelve of each kind which equaled up to seventy.
I walked behind the counter and saw the alcohol. One bottle was already open and sitting on the counter. I took seven bottles of whiskey, nine bottles of vodka, and I took nine bottles of wine. Then, I walked to another isle. I saw some granola bars. I took twenty-four of them. I saw Kyle was done packing up and was leaning on the wall next to the door, waiting on us. I walked over to him and leaned on the wall next to him.
“So how long have you been here?” I asked.
“Two weeks probably,” he said and shrugged. “I’m not completely sure. They just had me stay here so that no one would take anything.”
“So they left you with just a bat?”
“I know right,” he sighed. “I was hoping for at least Raya’s Glock. If the Vultures didn’t reach me, I’m sure the undead would’ve found me soon. If they did, I’d be screwed if there were more than two of them.”
“Vultures, like the birds?”
“No, they’re a group. They go around the country and kill people and take their crap. Their mark is just a V. They engrave it into your body after you die so people know to stay away from the area. They usually send three or four at once, then five, and then a group of six. They’re pretty dumb and usually can barely use their guns. They prefer to use machetes and lever-actions from whatI’ve seen. They’ve been spotted around here so we need to leave here quickly if you came in the helicopter. They will usually come on motorcycles unless their seriously ready to go to war. Then, they’ll take their trucks. They are mounted with .50 cals but they can’t aim worth a crap. It’s best to just let them waste their ammo then take them out.”
“Great, with the way things usually work out we’ll run into their camp.”
“I know right! They’re just the main scavenger group though. There are others. Like one we don’t know their name. We just call them the Sharpshooters. They only shoot when they can kill. They’ll always send a single sniper first. Then, he’ll take some out and disappear like a ghost. Then, they’ll send in a team of six to take the rest out if they’re not too big of a group.”
“Wow. Any others that I should know about?”
“Not really, but the Vultures and Sharpshooters battle it out a lot. Vultures usually get the crap beaten out of them, unless they capture the Sharpshooter. If we don’t hurry, both will be here. The Sharpshooter’s may send a team. This is their territory. They’ll have snipers on everybuilding in five minutes. Then, when the Vultures arrive it’ll be an all-out war. What sucks the most though is that we’ll be stuck in the middle.”
“Yeah I know. Or, we could use the Vultures as a distraction and sneak past through another alley.”
“That’d work I guess. If a Sharpshooter spots us, then we’re screwed!”
“Correct, that’s why they won’t. Even if they did, who would you try to kill? You’re rivals who are shooting at you or the random by-standers who are just trying to pass through?”
Before he could answer Raya walked up with one hand on her backpack. All of ours were filled up. Kyle opened the door and we all walked out. We turned off and gave our flashlights to Raya. Josh was in front. He looked down and pressed the button. It clicked off and he looked up and handed the flashlight to Raya. Then, he pointed behind us. I was at the back of the group. We all turned and saw undead spilling into the alley, almost overflowing it.
“Crap,” I said quietly. The undead and our group met eyes, the front one almost looked like he was smiling. We took off sprinting, and the flood stumbled after us as fast as they could. I drew my M9 and held it in my left hand. I chambered it and pointed it behind me. I saw the undead closing in. I started shooting.
I took down twelve before the slide flew back but, didn’t retreat. I slid out my clip. One zombie tripped over it. All behind him trampled him. I barely managed to slide in my clip after hitting the side of my gun repeatedly. I pressed the slide forward and chambered it.
I looked back and saw the undead only ten feet from the barrel. I shot repeatedly. Instead of flesh, the front one ate lead. After that, the other front fourteen followed.
I pressed my slide forward and put my pistol back in its holster. We had been through a few alleys and were closing in on the building.
“We need to go into the building and find our way to the roof. We can’t all climb the rope in time!” I screamed over the war cries of the undead and all the footsteps.
“I know,” replied Raya. Once we reached the building, Josh flung open one of the doors. We all followed and went through the second set of doors. They slammed through the glass. We ran up some steps.
“Anyoneknowthisplacewellenoughtogetustotheroof?” I asked. I pretty much said it so fast that all the words were one, so that’s why I put no spaces.
“Me,” Raya replied and took lead. Good thing to, because the zombies were almost all the way up the steps. I reloaded my M9 as we ran and put it away.
I can’t remember the exact route, but we eventually reached the roof after a few flights of stairs. Raya shoved the door open. We saw the helicopter, but the pilots had their heads leaning back, and their throats slit. There were no culprits left, but I saw a building near us with a man on it looking down the scope of an M82A1. In case you don’t know, that is a .50 cal (also known as .50 BMG) sniper and a .50 cal will destroy you.
He took a shot. It didn’t hit us, but made a zombie’s head explode. “What do we do?” Josh screamed.
I drew my AR16 and chambered it. They looked at me as the undead spilled in. “We fight… until they’re all dead, or we are.” I raised my rifle and began shooting. They followed me, except for Kyle. He covered us as we reloaded. I took out at least twenty before sliding out my mag, Josh took out nine, and Raya moved down twenty-two. I pulled out my M9 after spilling out my second clip on twelve. I took out nine and reloaded. I saw that Raya’s AK jammed. She bashed a zombie in the head and removed the round. Then, she kept shooting. Kyle finished the one she hit. Josh was struggling with his accuracy; he only managed an average of six per clip. The Sharpshooter was killing five every twenty seconds.
I loaded my M9 its last clip before putting it away. Then, I switched to my AR16 and popped in a fresh mag. Before I could chamber it, a zombie tackled me. The only thing that separated us was my AR. I was using it as support. It snapped its jaws on air and drooled blood on my shirt.
“I liked this shirt you douchebag!” I said. Then, the body grew heavier, but quit fighting. Kyle helped it off me. I saw though, that there was a valley running down the back half of its head, and that a zombie had the leg below its knee missing. I stood and nodded to the Sharpshooter. I chambered my gun and continued my rampage.
I shot my last bullet of my AR and looked for more clips, unsuccessfully, and dropped it. I drew my M9 again and aimed. Before I could shoot the last zombie fell, but I still heard growling. I saw the crawler and bent down as it neared. I reached for my knife, but Kyle bashed its skull in.
I stood and put my clips in my bag. We turned our backs to the door and looked at the Sharpshooter. He stood. He reached into a backpack he had. He drew from it a long rope with a clip at the end at the other end had the same thing. He threw the end with the hook over. Before it could fall, Josh dove and grabbed it. The Sharpshooter pointed to the helicopter’s tail. Josh tilted his head.
“Give me that,” Raya commanded. She yanked it out of his hands. She wrapped the rope across the tail and clipped it on. He wrapped his end around some pipes and clipped it. He waved at us and pointed. I looked behind us and saw undead filling the roof.
Raya wrapped her arms around the rope, slid off, and wrapped her legs around it. She managed her way across the rope to the other roof. That’s when Kyle went. Josh was shooting at the zombies. I went and tapped Josh’s shoulder. Halfway across, I looked down to see the alley 100% full of infected.
I finished the path across. Josh looked back and did the same. As he did, zombies passed the helicopter. After about six feet, zombies began falling off the roof. When he passed the halfway point, the door closed. Three feet later, the door opened again. This time though, with people. They began shooting zombies with their lever actions. There were four of them. When Josh climbed up, the zombies were dead and the people were shooting at us.
The Sharpshooter shot one. “No,” I said. “Save yourself some bullets.” I pointed to the gas tank on the helicopter. After a few seconds he took his shot, and so did a Vulture. The Sharpshooter’s shot caused the helicopter to explode. The explosion forced the Vulture’s back and caught them on fire. They slammed against a wall and blood led to their bodies on the ground. The Vulture’s shot hit Kyle in the foot.
He screamed in pain and fell to the ground. We looked at him. “Come on,” said the Sharpshooter. “Bring him down stairs. We have a small camp in this building.
“Okay,” I said. Josh and I picked him up. Raya had her AK out, but it wasn’t shouldered. I guess that was just because we couldn’t really trust the Sharpshooters yet, even if they did saveour lives…
We carried Kyle down to the floor below. Once there, the Sharpshooter opened the door and walked in. Raya held the door open for us. There were tents in the building. I could see because of the light flowing in from the windows. There were about thirty people here. We followed the Sharpshooter to a clear table and placed Kyle on it. He raised a finger and walked over to a woman. He talked to her for a second before she walked over to her tent. She came back out with a box. They walked over to us. She put the box on the table next to Kyle’s head. He was groaning and gritting his teeth. He was also losing a lot of blood. The woman opened the box and pulled out a rag.
“Get me water!” she commanded. The guy ran off and returned with a bottle of water. He handed it to her. She took a sip, and then dispensed the rest onto the rag. She put the rag on his leg and had Raya hold the rag there. “We have to stop the bleeding first. Then, I’ll remove the bullet, and sew up the wound. Okay?”
“Sure,” Kyle said without looking at her. His eyes were shut closed, until he popped them open and looked at her, almost through her and said: “Just stop… the pain.”
“Of course dear,” she said and smiled. She stroked his hair, and as fast as she had blinked, she punched Kyle in the nose. He became unconscious.
We all understood her reason why, there was no anesthetics in her little first-aid box. Plus, it was better for him to be asleep for this. After she stopped the bleeding, she grabbed a pair of tweezers. Before she could put them into the wound, we heard a BOOM! The earth shook and I looked back.
“Come on you guys,” said the Sharpshooter I knew. “Raya, Josh, Andrew, we have to defend this place while Rosie heals your friend. It’s either Vultures or undead. Let’s go!”
“Josh,” I began. “Stay here with Rosie and Kyle.”
He nodded and we ran to the door from which we came. We followed the Sharpshooter down some stairs to the ground floor. Along the way down, we heard more booms.
“What are those?” I asked the Sharpshooter.
“They’re some home-made mines we made to defend the camp,” he said. “By the way, my name is Bill.”
Once down the stairs, Bill shoved open a door. That’s when we saw an unbelievable site, on the outside of the buildings, were semis, backed up and had their trailers open. Flowing from them, were zombies. They were setting off explosions and were eating Sharpshooters. Some Sharpshooters were back and shooting down some zombies. Unfortunately they only had their pistols. They couldn’t use their snipers that close of course.
There were only four Sharpshooters and at least fifty zombies. They kept shooting. The zombies overwhelmed the humans. One of them managed to escape, but he was shot from someone in the semi. By the time I realized it, Raya and Bill were shooting. I drew my M9, but was only going to shoot if I was forced to. Once all the zombies were dead, I realized that this was an office building. I also saw that there weren’t any mines left. Then I saw the semis’ doors open. One came from each, so a total of four. They each had Uzis or some type of submachine gun. We took cover behind desks while they opened fire. Bill put his hand over the counter and shot his revolver without even having the slightest clue where he was aiming. He did manage to distract them, which gave me the opportunity to take aim. I saw one, and shot for his face. I managed to hit him, but in the throat. He fell back, with a hole through his throat. While he was falling back I saw blood flowing out of his wound. I could hear him coughing up blood and suffocating. Then, one of them finished him for me.
“NO!” one screamed. “YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!”
He started shooting randomly towards me. None hit me, but they were close! I heard Raya start shooting at them. The one shooting at me screamed and fell back. The other two apparently didn’t care. They just kept shooting, now towards Raya. I took my shot and managed to kill one by shooting him in the face.
Bill shot the last person and we stood back up. I walked over to the dead bodies. I saw that my M9 was empty and put its slide back forward and put it in its holster. Then, I walked over to the bodies. I took one of their Uzis and two clips. I slid out the old one. I didn’t know how, but one of the bodies looked familiar.
I just planned on keeping it until we arrived back at the Safe Point, then I would just reload my AR and M9 clips and probably give the Uzi to KC or Josh. We returned upstairs where I saw Rosie finishing up Kyle’s stitches.
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked.
“Of course,” Rosie replied. “It wasn’t that bad. He needs to take it easy for a few days, but after that he should be okay.”
“I think we have some crutches that he can use,” said Bill.
“So,” I began. “What do we do now? Are you guys coming back with us?” “I can’t,” said Rosie. “I’m the only doctor at this camp. Bill may.” “I will,” he said. “I would like to talk to your leader about forming a truce and working together to get rid of the Vultures.”
“Okay,” Raya said. “You can come. Do you have a ride? Ours kinda exploded.” “Yeah,” Bill said. “We can go once Kyle wakes up.”
Rosie smacked Kyle, so hard that he sat upright immediately. Abusive. I thought. “Good,” Josh said. We followed Bill to the back of the building. There, we saw a sports car.
“Hop in,” Bill said. He c limbed in. I took shot gun while the others sat in the back. Kyle was stuck in the middle.
Raya told him the directions back to the Safe Point. Once we arrived, the guards opened the gates. Raya took Bill to George. Josh, Kyle, and I went back to my house. We decided to let Kyle sleep on the couch. I wanted him close so he could come with us when we decided to escape. Raya took the supplied from us, or at least what she thought was all. I kept some water, cans, granola bars, and three bottles of vodka for Molotov Cocktails. I gave Kyle the Uzi so he could have a gun. At the house, I let Bubba in the house, pet him, ate, cleaned my guns, and loaded my clips. I realized that we had two days left until the invasion. We would leave a while before the invasion, probably forcefully. Too bad, because they’ll need that ammo and supplies to fight the Group. I just hoped that they’d still be at Washington when we arrived. It was a long ways away from Missouri…
The next day went by in a flash. During that day, I explained the plan for escape to everyone, and the reasons why to Kyle. At some time near three a.m. we packed up the car. KC, Kyle, and Bubba sat in the back. Just in case if I needed Josh to do some shooting. He was borrowingKyle’s Uzi.
I turned on the car. It purred to life. I drove up to a point of where I could see the guards without being seen and turned off my headlights. I scouted them for a while with some binoculars I took from the pack Raya let me use. I also took a lighter, and a rope form the pack. Too bad Raya would probably die here…
I saw that most were asleep. Only two were awake, and barely. I got close to the gate and hid the car behind a house. KC and Josh went ahead and opened the gate. One of the guards noticed and raised his gun. Josh did the same.
“No,” I said under my breath. Josh took the shot. I floored it and stopped at the gate. All the guards were awake and were taking aim as Josh and KC climbed in. I floored it out of there as we were being shot at. One took out our left tail light, but did no real damage.
Then, I heard a sniper’s shot. I heard glass bust and screams. We all ducked. I looked up and swerved back onto the road, narrowly missing a tree. There was one last sniper shot. This time I felt warm blood splattered onto my neck. I continued driving until I no longer heard shooting. I stopped and looked back. I saw KC holding her neck. It scraped her, but hit enough so that she would bleed to death.
“ KC!” I screamed. She looked at me, but with her eyes barely open. “KC, don’t you die on me!” She coughed, a trickle of blood flowed from her mouth and onto her shirt. Her head fell back. Josh and Kyle looked at me. I reached back and shook her.
“KC!” I screamed again. This time, tears flowed form my eyes. “Come on KC. Don’t die on me… PLEASE,KC, don’t die…”
I checked her pulse… nothing. I waited… dum, dum.
“SHE’S ALIVE!”
I turned back around. “Kyle,” I started. “Put pressure on her wound. I won’t lose her!”
I floored it, not even buckling my seatbelt. I drove down the dirt road, back to the highway. I drove west, towards Washington. I knew we couldn’t reach it in time, but still I just hoped for some help. I hoped to maybe, find a settlement of people who would have a nurse. That’s when I realized there already was one near-by. I stomped on the brakes and did a U-turn. I sped towards Jefferson City.
I thought about the Sharpshooters and Rosie. I remembered the exact building. I drove as fast as the SUV would go. I was about to reach 100 mph. Once I did, I took a second to see how KC was doing. I looked into her eyes which were still barely open, almost slits, and I guess it was almost a telepathic message. And in that message… I said, “I won’t let you die.”
I spun my head back and continued driving. Josh was holding on for dear life. Kyle was still keeping the blood from flowing, and I saw that it was only slightly working. He was beginning to panic. I could barely see KC’s chest going up and down. It was almost nothing. Bubba was looking at KC, whining, wanting to help in some way. I saw a sign after a few minutes that said:
Jefferson City, 20 miles
We would make it in time, if I kept up the speed. That’s when I saw that I had barely over half a tank left. This SUV had good mileage; I would make it… with a fourth of a tank. If I was lucky…
Once we were in view of the city, I began to her KC coughing again. She wasn’t going to live much longer. Once we entered the city, I rammed through some undead and found the building. I didn’t go in, fearing the mines.
So, I honked. After a few minutes, no one came. I honked again. That’s when some Sharpshooters appeared, almost out of nowhere. They had all kinds of lever action and bolt action rifles aimed at us. I raised my hands and smiled uncontrollably.
“I need Rosie!” I screamed form my window. “Please, my friend is dying…” That’s when Rosie appeared. “Put your guns down!” she yelled. She walked towards the car, and knocked down one Sharpshooter’s rifle. “What do you need Andrew?”
“My friend,” I began. By then she was next to the window. “She’s been shot.”
“Bring her on in,” Rosie said. I got out and carried KC up the stairs and onto the table Kyle once laid on.
“Da-Andrew,” KC said and felt my face as I put her down. She had the smoothest hands. That’s when I noticed her necklace. It was… different. I remember her telling me about it before the apocalypse. It was her grandmother’s. It was just a chain with a ruby on it.
“KC,” I said. “My friend Rosie is going to help you.”
Rosie suddenly appeared with her tool kit again. “Andrew,” Rosie said. “I’ll need your help.”
I nodded. “Put pressure on the wound while I give her pain pills,” she said and drew pills. I did as she said and looked at my dying friend. One last tear fell into a small pool of blood forming. She had KC swallow the pills. Next, we switched places. I handed her tools she needed. I looked at KC. I was unsure what her fate would be. What I did know is that I wasn’t going to let her die easily.
After what seemed like hours, Rosie sewed up the wound successfully. She looked pale. She had lost a lot of blood. Rosie and I walked away from the group.
“Will she live?” I asked the question I didn’t want to know the answer to, no matter which it was.
“I’m not sure Andrew,” she said grimly and sighed. “We’ll have to watch her and hope everything goes well. It’ll take a few weeks for her to heal up at least.”
“Oh, Okay,” I said. “Please, just try your hardest Rosie.”
“Of course,” she said. “You know I will.”
After that we returned to the group. I saw Kyle leaning on one of his crutches. He had his Uzi strapped onto his back. Josh was pacing back and forth. Bubba ran up to me and leaned against my leg. I patted him. He sat at my leg when I stopped walking. He whined once and I looked at him. I scratched his head and looked back at the group that was formed.
We decided to stay the night there. We were given a tent each and we already had our own food and water, so we used that. I went to sleep that night curled up next to Bubba.
When I woke up I went to Rosie. She was taking care of KC. “how’s she doin’?” I asked.
“Okay I guess,” Rosie said. “For a girl who just got shot in the neck...” I sighed. KC was unconscious. I looked at her for a minute and back at Rosie.
“I’m not one hundred percent sure if she’ll make it,” Rose began. “But, I want you to know that I’m doing everything I can. If she dies, I’ll blame myself for it. I’ve only lost one patient…”
I looked Rosie in the eyes and opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I closed my mouth and walked away. I hope we’ll make it to Washington in time… I thought. I walked back to the tent and went to sleep.
We stayed at the camp for two weeks, two terrible weeks. Even if it wasn’t for KC, we smelled horrible. There were no showers. Even worse, we ate over half of our food!
Within those two weeks, KC had only gotten worse. Her wound was infected, she wouldn’t wake up, and she had momentarily died when I changed her wound. Rosie had to give her CPR. It worked, luckily. Over those few weeks, I began to realize more and more, reluctantly at first, that she wouldn’t get out of here alive.
I awoke on the fourteenth day with Bubba. I kissed him on the head and let him sleep. I walked out of the tent and walked over to KC. I waved to Kyle to show him that he could leave. Someone always had to be next to her, just in case if anything happened. I sat next to her. When I was sure I was alone, I took her hand in mine.
“KC,” I whispered. “Can you hear me?”
She answered me with silence. I checked her pulse, just to be safe. Dum… dum.
It was faint and far spread, but she was alive. I tapped her. “KC, wake up,” I said and shook her slightly. “KC, don’t you die on me…”
This time, I saw her eye twitch. “If you can hear me, squeeze my hand,” I whispered to her. At first I felt nothing, and then the grip was so slight I could barely notice the change. I gasped. “KC?” Now, the grip was stronger.
I just sat in awe, and stared at my friend. Then, the grip began to hurt my hand. She began twitching and shaking around. “Rosie!” I screamed. In a matter of moments, I saw her emerge from her tent with her tools.
She didn’t even ask. She knew what was going on, even though I didn’t. I looked away. After a few seconds, I looked back to see KC quit. Rosie checked her pulse. After ten seconds, she began the CPR process. The first time, nothing. Second try, still nothing. She looked at me. Then, she began one last time. After that, she quit and looked at me. We stared at each other for a moment.
To break it, Josh and Kyle appeared. They looked at the body, then at me. I grabbed KC’s gun and necklace and I looked at her.
I just looked for a minute. Then I walked away. Kyle and josh got their things and followed me to the SUV. Bubba hopped up front. I closed my door and put my hands on the wheel and my head in my hands.
After I collected myself, I looked up and started the car. I drove west. After an hour, I found my way out of the city, and past the Central Safe Point. I could see smoke coming from where it was. The fires must have justgone out… We kept driving in silence.
Bubba began panting and I rolled down his window. He stuck his head out. His ears flew back in the wind and he stuck his tongue out. I smiled at him. I looked back at the road. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw trees. That’s all I saw actually. Except for the road, and the sun in the direct middle of the sky. We had a fourth of a tank when we left the state.
The ride through the s