Episode 6: Disease Control

            Robert and I walked in front of the glass doors of Home Depot. Walkers pounded against the glass, desperately and thoughtlessly. The cracks in the glass had been growing since we shut those doors a week ago.

            “We’ll need to leave soon,” Robert stated. “That glass won’t last another couple of days.”

“I’ll ask John to put some wood over it later today. That will buy us some time” I said. “How are the repairs coming along on the cars?”

Robert and I walked towards the edge of the parking lot as far as we could put them from the store; we didn’t want the noise to bring walkers to our doorstep.

“The truck you brought in seems fine,” Robert said. “It just needed some gas. The station wagon is a little iffy. I’m not sure if it’ll run yet. Albert’s working on it now. Spencer’s taking some of the parts from that school bus you went back for and is putting them in that van.”

He pointed to a black van where Spencer was working under the hood. Rebecca stood close by with a shotgun. Several feet away, Albert was underneath a wood-paneled station wagon, and Ness stood on the hood with her bow at the ready. Her quiver on her back was packed full of new arrows she had made from the supplies we had recovered. I waved at her, and she waved back.

Robert and I turned and headed back towards target.

“Is everybody all packed up?” I asked

“Almost.”

“We should start putting our stuff in the cars as soon as possible.”

“I’ll go tell John.”

“Don’t worry, I got it. I need to talk to him about reinforcing the home depot doors anyway.”

Robert nodded and walked off as I stood in the middle of the Target parking lot. Things were going well, I mean, as well as they could be. We were taking control of the situation and making the best of it. We hadn’t seen a walker in a few hours which was nice. Everybody was pitching in and helping out, except John, who had been strangely quiet for a while. I had unofficially named Robert as my number two since Logan had been avoiding me as well, but that didn’t bother me as much.

At the far edge of the parking lot I noticed two figures approaching and walking quickly. After a while I recognized them as Lily and Reed. They came to a stop before me, breathing heavily and sharing worried glances.

“Where were you two?” I asked, concerned.

“Well…we…uh…we were scouting for some more…um…cars, and we saw…we saw…” Lily was openly flustered.

“We saw another group across the highway,” Reed stated.

I started dumbly as Lily nodded her head and Reed looked up at me with wide eyes. I didn’t know what to do. What approach should I take? Defensive? Accepting? Paranoid?

“Did you get a good look at them?”

“They had some pretty heavy weapons and several cars,” Lily replied.

“How many people?”

“Fifteen? Twenty? I’m not sure. We left pretty quickly.”

I let that sink in.

“What are we gonna do?” Reed asked.

The truth was: I didn’t know what to do.

“You guys go get something to eat” I told them. “I’m going to go talk to John.”

I found him in the alcohol aisle of Target, drinking a case of beer and leaning against a shelf. He stared off into space, mindlessly taking swigs every two seconds. The sight only made me angry. It only reminded me of my dad and the way he drank himself to death.

“What are you doing?!” I shouted.

He looked over resentfully.

“What does it look like?” He took another swig.

“It looks like you’re trying to kill yourself!” I kicked away the almost empty case of beer. “You need to stop. There are people looking up to you for God’s sake. What do you think they’ll do if they find you here, like this? You’re our leader!”

His eyes bore into mine, and I could feel his anger.

“Am I?” he asked.

“Of course you are—”

He moved, quick as a snake, shoving me against the shelf and pushing his forearm into my throat. I could smell the liquor on is breath.

“Don’t patronize me! I’m onto your little games you little twerp!”

“John, what are you—?”

“SHUT UP! Don’t tell me I’m your leader and then go around ordering everyone around!”

I punched him in the ribs with my knuckles and kneed him in the stomach. He fell to the floor and sat there for a few seconds, stunned.

“You know why I’m ordering everyone around?” I asked him. “Because you’re here getting drunk. You don’t want to live? Fine, but don’t think for a second that I’m going to let you drag us down with you.”

I began to walk away.

“Whatever you say oh fearless leader!” he called after me in slurred speech.

That night, it was my turn for guard duty. I sat, perched, on the top of the target building. Albert was close-by with him rifle.

“Night nice,” I said.

“Mm” he replied.

So much for conversation.

I made another patrol around the roof, thinking. There were two more of us now. Ness and Robert had proven themselves, but we were still so small. We couldn’t afford to lose any more people. When I got back around, I sat it my folding chair and opened the third Harry Potter book. So far, it was my favorite.

“What is that?” I heard Albert ask.

“It’s The Prisoner of Azkaban. Ness recommended it.”

“No not that. That!”

I followed where he was pointing and stood up. The book fell from my hands onto the dirty roof. In the distance, I saw several pairs of lights. As they got closer, I saw guns, lots of them.

They were armed to the teeth, and where were they going?

Target.