Episode 8: Picking Up the Pieces

John watched Erik, Lily, Reed, Robert, and Ness drive away. He had seen Lily get bitten. He had seen Erik abandon Rebecca and Carly. Luckily, John had been there to make sure they had gotten to safety. He’d shot the walkers from the roof to clear them a path.

                Spencer was with him. Joshua, Brett, and a grief-stricken Cynthia had made in safely inside. The attackers were driving away by now, but the walkers were everywhere. He saw Logan running, and he decided to help him out.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

John shot the walkers that pursued Logan who made it safely inside. John stood and peered over at Spencer.

“Let’s get down there,” he said and headed to the ladder.

Inside, Brett was holding Cynthia back from Brett.

“You killed my son!” she kept screaming.

“I didn’t! No!” he kept replying.

“Whoa!” John shouted. “What’s going on here?”

“He killed my son!”

“I swear I didn’t!”

“LIAR!!!”

This time it took both John and Joshua to hold her back. Cynthia’s fury emanated her like heat from a light bulb.

“Let’s all just calm down,” John said.

Cynthia broke from his grip, but she didn’t go for Brett. Instead, she stormed off.

“Is this everyone?” Spencer asked.

John nodded.

“Where’s Erik?” Brett asked.

John frowned at the sound of his name.

“He, Ness, Lily, Robert, and Reed were running for a car last time I saw them,” Rebecca said.

“They made it out. Well…Lily didn’t,” John stated. “I’m not sure if they’re coming back.”

“What about Albert?” Logan asked. “Principal Berm?”

John shook his head to both of those.

“Ellis?”

“I saw him go down,” John replied. “It was a feeding frenzy.”

John saw Rebecca put her hands over Carly’s ears.

“We don’t need to talk about this anymore,” she said.

Joshua looked outside. Walkers were still all throughout the parking lot, but they were thinning out. Groups of walkers huddled in different spots of the parking lot, feeding on their kills.

“We should be able to leave later tomorrow,” Joshua said, “as long as we don’t draw much attention to ourselves tonight.”

“All right everyone,” John began. “Don’t worry. We’ll be fine. Just head to the back of the store, and try to get some sleep.”

They all meandered to the back, but John stayed, looking out the window. He kept expecting Erik to drive up and get out, but he never did.

John woke up to a loud shriek. He launched himself off of the floor and grabbed his bat. He joined up with Spencer and ran through the halls. Near the electronics section of the store, they found Joshua standing over a dead walker with a knife in its head. Joshua’s left arm had a large chunk bit out of it.

“Oh my god,” Spencer breathed. “Joshua.”

Joshua looked up and backed away.

“It’s Brett,” he said, motioning towards the walker.

John knelt down and examined the body. It was definitely Brett, but as far as he could tell, there were no bites or scratches. The only injuries it had were a knife to the brain and a slice in its throat.

“No bites or scratches,” John said. “Someone slit his throat.”

“How is that possible?” Spencer asked? “How could he have turned without getting bit?”

“I’m not sure, but we have bigger things to worry about.” John eyed Joshua. “Joshua, go get Rebecca and have her wrap that up.”

Joshua nodded and turned away, beginning to walk away. John was quick. In a few quick motions, he pulled the knife out of Brett’s head, ran up to Joshua, and shoved it through his brain before Joshua even noticed what was happening.

Joshua sunk to the floor like a rag doll. John turned to Spencer, whose eyes were wide.

“Get Rebecca, Logan, Cynthia and Carly ready.”

“That’s it?” Spencer asked. “You’re not even going to try to find out who murdered Brett?”

“We don’t have time for that,” John said. “Those men are going to be back once these walkers move on. We need to leave, and I’d rather face a bunch of walkers than intelligent men with guns.”

Spencer eyed John fearfully

John raised his arms. “GO!”

Cynthia got up from her sleeping bag, and she walked towards the front of the store. She had grabbed the keys from John’s bag, and she left her bloody knife by her pillow. Rebecca, Carly, and Logan were still asleep.

Cynthia hadn’t slept all night. She had waited for the opportunity, and she took it when Brett wandered off to the electronics section of the store. She snuck up behind him and slit his throat. Then, she went back to her bed before anyone had even noticed her absence.

She approached the front doors of Target and stuck the key in the lock. She had nothing left to live for. Her whole family was dead. Her son had been shot by the one person she had found comfort in, and she had just brutally slaughtered him. She did nothing to contribute to their pathetic group. She had nothing.

She pulled the chains off the doors and threw them open.

Walkers immediately poured into the store, and she let them. They bit into her neck, her shoulders, her leg, and her arms.

She cried out as they ate her alive.

John, Logan, Spencer, Rebecca, and Carly all heard the screams. They ran to the front of the store to find a horde of walkers surging through the store. Many of them were crowded around a single body.

“Cynthia! No!” Rebecca called. She picked up Carly, and they ran back deeper into the store. John, Logan and Spencer followed.

“Go to the back door! Go through the storage!” John commanded.

They ran as fast as they could through a set of swinging doors to the storage area in the back. They weaving through shelves until they finally found an exit sign. Outside, walkers had not yet reached the alleyway where they were. They circled around the store to the parking lot. Most of the walkers had either moved on or were inside Target. Having no trouble getting to the large white van, John took the wheel, and Logan got in the front seat next to him. Everyone else got in the back. John roared the engine and drove forward. The walkers growl and snarled and pounded against the van, but John pushed on to the road. It was a bumpy and bloody ride.

Suddenly a figure ran out in the middle of the road. It was a limping man, covered in blood and guts. He was waving his arms and shouting: “Help! Help!”

“Who is that?” Rebecca asked.

“That’s one of the men that attacked us,” Spencer said. “I remember his face.”

“What should we do?”

They were getting closer.

“Run him over,” Logan suggested in a dark voice.

“What—?” Spencer began just as John floored it with a smile on his face and insanity in his eyes.

The man’s body flew over the top of the van. He landed on the concrete as they kept driving. If he didn’t die from that, the walkers converging certainly made sure of it.

John never looked back.

They drove down the highway, heading east. Silence was blanketed over the van. Rebecca held Carly in her lap, eyeing Logan and John in the front nervously.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Carly chirped.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” John said. “I ain’t stoppin’”

“Oh, come on,” Rebecca said. “It won’t take that long.”

“No.”

“Really, man?” Spencer pleaded. “I know you’re trying, but we don’t even know if we’ll catch up with Erik.”

John shot Spencer an angry look in the mirror.

“You think I’m going after Erik? I’m trying to get away from him. He obviously left us all behind, and all he did was get people killed. We’re all better off without him! Besides, without me, he’s probably dead by now! I’m doing what’s best for all of us.”

He slammed on the brakes and turned around, looking at Carly.

“Just get out and pee.”