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Regrettable Circumstances: Episode 2, Part 2

By the time three weeks passed, Leon was able to walk with a crutch. He still had a bad shoulder, and his chest still hurt, but the worst was over. The food was almost entirely gone and the water would last only one more day. It was time to go out for supplies again.

"James, how much gas is in the truck?" Asked Leon. "About an eighth." Leon didn't like this. He looked to Keith. "How far is it onto that town you mentioned the other day?" "It's thirty miles, and the name of the town is Oak Hills." Keith got into the truck and sat in the middle, and Leon got in and sat in the passenger seat. James went back into the house to get the guns. "You don't have to go if you don't feel like it. I think you should stay here." "Bah. Nonsense. I can at least pick off some of 'em from the truck." Leon got another Camel out, de-filtered it, and lit up. "You know those things kill you." "Can't live forever." James came out and got in, handing the guns to Keith and Leon. "We gonna have enough gas to make it there?" Asked James. "Yeah. Barely, but yeah. As long as we get gas while we're in town we'll be fine. Otherwise, we are shit outta luck. Guaranteed." Answered Leon. James started the truck, turned around, and started down the dirt road. The first snow-flakes were beginning to fall now. "Are you kidding me?" Leon said. "Shit." "What?" Asked Keith. "It snows up here don't it?" Yeah. It's the mountains, remember?" They rode the rest of the way without much more conversation. By the time they reached Oak Hills, the gas gauge had gone all the way to empty. The streets of the town were deserted. "Where are they?" Asked Leon. "I don't know, but I won't be complainin' if they all fell apart finally." Replied James. They drove up to the gas station and parked the truck by one of the pumps. The snow was falling heavily now. James shut the engine off and sat a moment, then looked over to Leon. "How we gonna do this?" Keith spoke up before Leon did. "Well, if we could figure out a way to pump the gas out, we could get it out of one of those manholes over there. The ones they fill them from." "I don't know if that'll work, but I'll give it a go." James went over to the covered hole and uncovered it. He saw a hookup that was bolted on with large nuts. He looked around and the streets were still quiet, so he went back to the truck and got a ratchet set out of the tool-box and set to work.

James was almost done getting the top plate off when he heard the M-4's firing on full auto. He looked up and saw Leon leaning out one window and Keith out the other. Leon looked over his shoulder for a minute. "We got trouble!" James ran to the truck and got the other M-4 out of the tool box. It wasn't zombies they were fighting though. James saw muzzle flashes coming from a house across the street. Bullets pinged off the metal on the truck. There had to be several of them shooting. James wanted to try something. "HOLD YOUR FIRE! WE'RE NOT HERE FOR A FIGHT!" The gunfire stopped across the street within a few seconds. Keith and Leon quit firing shortly afterward. Then the door opened and an unarmed man stepped out and walked towards them. He was Mexican. He had a shaved head and sunglasses, and a large blue plaid shirt with baggy jeans. Finally he got to the truck and said, "This is our town. We want you to leave, now. And don't think of shooting me or my homies will pop a cap in all of you whiteys." "We need food and fuel, and we'll be gone." Said James. "No, I mean we want you out of our town, now. Don't take anything with you, no sight-seeing, do not pass go, and don't even fuck with the two hundred bucks, man, that's ours too." James decided to try a bluff. "Well, friend. You ever heard of The Rats?" "Yeah, what about them?" "If you don't give us what we want, I'll come back with about thirty strong and heavily armed friends of mine, and this'll become our town. Let us have what we want and we'll never set foot here again. Understand, ese?" When James said ese, the gangster recoiled as if he had been punched. He took a moment to gather himself. Then he finally stuttered out, "W-wait here man, I talk to the boss man." He went back inside.

Several minutes passed, then he came back out with another man with him. This one was Mexican too, and he wore a white tank top and huge black shorts. He had a very long goatee and his head was shaven as well. He got up to the truck. "Hey, what the fuck you think you doin' coming into our town and talking a bunch of bull shit!? I should shoot all your asses right now." "You do, and said thirty friends will wipe your puny little group out like this." And he snapped his fingers only an inch from the lead gangster's nose. He didn't flinch. The leader took a minute to think about it. "Get what you want and go. If you're here for too long we'll pop some caps. If we ever see you here again, we'll pop some caps. You want a war, we won't back down. Get your shit and go, you got an hour." With that, James went back to work on the valve he was working on. Finally he got it off. He pulled the truck beside it and got a hose out of the bed. He put one end in the hole, and sucked on the other one. When he got something, he put it in the tank of the truck and spit out his mouthful of gasoline. He checked it and repositioned the hose so that it wouldn't quit. Before long the tank was almost overflowing so he took the hose out and put it back in the bed. He didn't bother to cover the hole. After that they went by the store and grabbed two weeks worth of food, and they were on their way. "Those assholes. I shoulda shot a grenade in their house. Bastards shot up my truck." Said Leon. Keith looked over at him and said, "Well, all's well that ends well, right?" "Touche" Answered Leon. They got back to the cabin, and a station wagon was parked in front of it. "Someone you know, Keith?" Asked James. "Yeah, that's... THAT'S MY COUSIN'S! I don't believe it!" James parked the truck and Keith couldn't get out fast enough. Leon was taking too long to get out, so he got out James's side and ran inside. He could be seen embracing his cousin through the window. "I'm glad he has at least one family member left. It was tearing his guts out not having anybody left." James said, smiling. "Yeah." Said Leon. Keith came back out with his cousin. "Guys, this is my cousin, Rena." "Hi. My little cousin told me you kept him safe. Thank you so much." She hugged Leon and he grimaced when she squeezed his partly healed broken ribs, then shyly patted her shoulder. Then she hugged James and he almost picked her up with a big bear hug. "I don't know what I would have done if you didn't find him." "Shucks ma'am, t'weren't nuthin'." Said Leon with a horribly executed impression. The four went inside then. "So, are Aunt Dee and Uncle Vic..." Asked Rena. Keith just looked at her sadly. "I'm so sorry Keith." Keith was quiet for a moment, then finally asked, "What about you?" "I don't know. I've been trying to find them, but I don't think I ever will." Leon went back to bed and took some swallows of his latest bottle of alcohol after he and James finished putting up the groceries, and James went into the rec room and began his semi-daily routine: 10 sets of 20 push-ups, and 10 sets of 10 pull-ups, interchanging each-other between sets with a fifteen minute break halfway through. All Leon and James were trying to do was give Keith some private time with his cousin, though.

When James finished the first half of his routine, Rena poked her head in. "I'm starting dinner, it'll be a few minutes." "Okay. Thanks." James said. He waited another ten minutes, then quickly finished the rest of his routine. By the time he was done, dinner was served. He went in and sat down at the table with the rest of them. They all began eating. "Well, I have some bad news guys. Sorry." Said Rena. "Don't worry about it. Spit it out." Said Leon. "Okay. I saw some of those... things... further down the mountain today. I think they're coming here." There was silence for a moment. "We'll take care of it." Said James. She looked at him gratefully. They continued eating, with only idle dinner conversation after the bad news, and finished. "Very good. Thank you." James took her plate for her. She went into the kitchen to help him do dishes. "How far away did you see 'em?" Asked James. "They were more than a few miles down the road. If they kept walking here constantly they would probably get here by mid-day tomorrow. I'll take care of those, you probably need a rest after fighting those people in Oak Hills." James let her finish them and he went back out in the living room. "...Never cared much for Colt. I always liked Beretta better. Ah, James, stole the kitchen from you, did she?" Asked Keith. "You could say that, yeah." "Don't take it personal, she does that a lot." "Well, guys, she says that the creeps are 'more than a few miles away' but they could be here by mid-day tomorrow." "Not a problem, we can handle it." Said Leon. "Well, we should get some rest, it could be a tough day tomorrow." Said James. They enjoyed another hour of conversation, and Leon enjoyed a quarter bottle of Jack Daniel's and got shooed out by Rena when he pulled out a Camel. They finally went to bed around 10 o'clock.

The next day, Leon woke up first. He picked up his crutch from where he kept it under his bed and got up. He put his pants on with some difficulty and put on the rest of his clothes with varying degrees of difficulty, his combat boots being particularly difficult to put on. Then he walked out to the living room and out the front door to have a cigarette. He de-filtered it and lit it. As he was standing out there, he saw something he could have been perfectly happy without seeing. Down the trail and behind some rocks he saw a zombie wandering around in the snow. Leon frowned and took another drag from his cigarette. The zombie noticed him and came towards him. Leon just stood there smoking. It was about on top of him when he lifted his crutch and hit it over the head a few times, knocked it on the ground and broke its neck with the crutch. Then he bent down and put the cigarette out on its forehead and went inside.

Leon made breakfast that day, he tried to make an omelet, but it turned out more like scrambled eggs. By the time he put the food on the table, everyone was awake and had their various morning effects. Rena was drinking coffee and Keith was sitting there yawning. James was just sitting patiently. Leon put the plates down and sat down. "Well, folks, bad news." Said Leon. "What?" Asked James. "Well, saw a creep out there. I just whacked him with my crutch and broke his neck." "Damn. That's just great, they not only are coming, but they're early too." Said Keith. "Well, James, Keith, I hope you two are up to some barricading after breakfast. I'll do what I can, but I cant lift anything very heavy. Well, you already know that." Said Leon. They finished eating and Rena took the dishes. James, Keith, and Leon got up and Keith led them outside to the back. "There's some two-by-fours in the shed. My dad was gonna build a deck for the back, but he... well, he just didn't get to it." Said Keith. They all took as many two-by-fours as they could, and went back to the house, and made a few more trips. Within another hour they had all of the windows boarded up securely, and they put reinforcements on the doors so that the doors would be harder to open if the boards were put down. "Well, not bad for a couple hour's work, eh?" Said James. "Nope, not bad at all." Said Keith.

Within the next hour they watched through the cracks between the boards as the undead began congregating around the house. They quit watching as they began tearing apart the one that Leon killed and eating it. "How are we gonna make it out of here?" Asked Rena. "I don't know. We only have about nine more clips for those M-4's. That might be enough to fight the creeps if there aren't too many of them and we're careful about ammo usage." Said Leon. The zombies weren't trying to get in yet, but it was, in the four survivors' opinions, only a matter of time.

Half an hour later the zombies began pounding on the windows and doors, but they held fast. Rena went to the rec room and hid, while the three men sat at in the living room with weapons at the ready. "Those boards won't hold forever, we need to start making plans to move on pretty soon." Said Keith. "Well, we'll need to do some pretty quick thinkin', because there's got to be about ten of them between us and the truck. Also, I can't move very fast." Said Leon, holding up his crutch as he said that last sentence. "Don't worry, I'll help you if it comes to that." Said Keith. Then they just waited...

-TO BE CONTINUED-