FRIDAY


"HEY BLONDIE! GET YER ASS UP!" you hear as someone pounds on the door waking you up.

It sounds like Mel, but at least it isn't those awful Ground Zero commercials.

You groggily get up and through bleary eyes you see that it's actually still morning. You haven't been up this early in a long time…and it's a horrible thing.

You hear more banging and yelling causing you to respond in kind.

"Alright! Alright! Goddamnit, I'm up! I'm up!" you say and go to the door.

"What?!" you ask though Mel doesn't look too happy that you're even asking that question.
"What? Whadda ya mean what? Yer fuckin' sister and that cowardly motherfucker Jimmy Ray just skedaddled outta here with a perfectly good truck that was also actin as a temporary barrier! That's what!"

This remark isn't quite comprehended by you in your current groggy state.

"My sister fucked Jimmy Ray in his truck and what?" you say.
"Jesus fuckin'…I said…bah, I'm not fuckin' repeatin' myself! Shit!" Mel shouts and walks away banging on the door one more time. You briefly step outside and see Tina standing nearby.

"I'm guessin' you didn't know nothin' about it anyway considering you're still here." Tina remarks.
"Okay, someone tell me again what happened? What about my sister and Jimmy Ray now?"
"Apparently your sister convinced Jimmy Ray to leave this place in the middle of the night. Guess she really laid it down good, but then Jimmy Ray's always had a tendency to get stupid over a gal who knows how to work it."
"Wait. Wait. Wait a minute she's gone?!"
"Yeah, she's fuckin' gone with a perfectly good truck! I actually don't even give a shit about Jimmy Ray, he was more useless than tits on bull, but we could've used that fuckin' truck for…" Mel says.
"Oh for fuck's sake Mel, we got a shitload of trucks here and aren't you converting those army trucks into some sort of road warrior deathmobile anyway?"
"Yeah, but it's the fuckin' principle of the thing! Not to mention we still gotta find some medical supplies! Goddamnit, Dan was supposed to be keepin' a look out and…"

You leave Mel to rant and head back inside trying to process this new information. You can't believe that Donna would just leave you like that. There was no indication she was going to just take off like that.

You check her bedroom and see that her bag is gone. You don't know if she took that just after you fell asleep, or if she came back for it before leaving or what. Was she planning it right from the start or did she just see the opportunity? None of it matters you suppose, she just ditched you and didn't even have the courtesy to let you know.

So much for "sisterhood."

While you're thinking about this, someone enters the trailer and calls out to you. It's Tina.

"Oh there you are. I'm guessing you're pretty upset right now, but I found this in Jimmy's trailer. Figured you should have it." Tina says and hands you a note.

Dear Suzy,

Sorry, I just couldn't stick around. Good luck to you in this shithole.

Sincerely,

Donna

You actually chuckle a bit and crumple up the note.

"What's so funny." Tina asks.
"Oh just thinking that she was the one that convinced me to come here in the first place. Anyway, it's done and she's gone. We were never really close to begin with, though I thought that was sort of changing this week, but I guess not. Still, at least it felt like someone was on my side. I imagine I'm not too well accepted around here."
"Meh, I think you're about as accepted as anyone else around here. I mean I think the general assessment of you is that you're a big tease that thinks she's better than everyone else, but I mean its not like you're a nigger or something." Tina remarks.

You give Tina a strange look.

"Um, lucky me then I guess. Just out of curiosity what do you think about Donna leaving? She kept going on about how you two were friends." You say.
"Me? Eh, I don't really care. I mean I knew your sister on and off for a few years when I use to do strip jobs over at the parties at the place she was livin' at before. An while she was a funny girl that made that particular job a lot more enjoyable, so I didn't mind helping her out with a job when she asked, but it wasn't like I ever considered her a real friend. Hell, I didn't even know she had a sister until a few days ago. Anyway, always knew she was flakey. To be honest I didn't even see her lasting long as a stripper and living here either. She probably would've latched on to first sugar daddy she could find and ditched everything."

"Sounds about right." You say and toss aside the note.

"Well I'll leave you alone blondie. And I wouldn't worry about your status here or lack there of. Quite frankly so many folks here have died or are wounded that nobody's really in any position to antagonize someone who actually has been making an effort to contribute around here. Speakin' of which I need to go talk to this crazy man that's probably still ranting about a fuckin' truck." Tina says and leaves.

You take a shower as you're thinking about how you're going to proceed next. You go back and forth on whether to do what your sister did, but knowing your luck, you'd end up getting caught so you ultimately abandon the idea.

As you're getting dressed and figuring out what your next plan of action should be, you suddenly hear banging on the door of your trailer again. You go to the door and see it's that methhead Dan.

"Hey blondie! You're needed for a vote!" Dan exclaims.
"Vote? Vote for what?" you ask.
"We need a tie breaker to shoot the ones that got bitten or not. Billy Ray in particular ain't lookin' too good." Dan remarks.
"So what are we doin' if we don't shoot 'em?"
"Guess we're goin' back to town to try for medical supplies again. If that's the case, I hope we have better luck, cause it was a cluster fuck last time." Dan says.

As you walk with Dan, he's looking at you a lot and while some of that is predictable ogling, he's also doing a lot of twitching and it's making you nervous.

"Dan, I know you have to take a glance at me every now and then, but between the staring and the twitching it's making me uncomfortable. Makes me think of those things that attacked us yesterday. It doesn't help that you're about as clean as they were too." You say.
"Oh. Sorry blondie. I just…I need a fuckin' fix. Just to put me at ease. The shit that's been going down for the past couple of days has really made me scared y'know? I went through most of my shit after the National Guard showed up and then I used the rest up immediately after the freak invasion."
"So where's the meth lab? Don't places like this usually have one?" you ask.
"Hah, I wish. I mean we used to have one years ago, but it blew up and caused a lot of damage. After that, the old owner sort of cracked down on that sort of thing."
"Well there's no law anymore, you could just start making it again."
"Hah, yeah. But again with everythin' that's gone on, isn't like there's been time to do that. Not to mention Mel's been ridin' everyone non-stop. He's already pissed at me for fallin' asleep yesterday. I didn't catch Jimmy Ray an' yer sister taking off in the night. Guess he figured if anyone would stay awake all night it would be me, but I just sort of crashed because like I said I didn't have my shit anymore to keep me alert."
"Yeah, well it's tough all over." You say unsympathetically.

Before you even get to the meeting, you can hear the arguing, which is mainly consisting of a lot of shouting and swearing. By the time you arrive, you're met with mixed glances.

"These are our friends, we can't just fuckin' kill them!"
"We need to fuckin' kill 'em before they infect us all!"
"You're one cold hearted sonofbitch you know that? What if I just decided to kill you?!"
"Try it bitch!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP ALL OF YOU!" Mel shouts.

At this point all eyes are on you.

"As you can see blondie, we're involved in the democratic process and are in need of a tie breaker." Mel says to you.
"Aw Mel what the fuck we need her vote for? She ain't one of us and her sister fucking stole a truck!" some redneck woman says.
"I said shut it! The only reason why I even entertained this process is so you fuckers would quit bitchin' about me bein' a so-called tyrant even though I'm the only one around he trying to do anything at all! So however blondie votes, will break the goddamn tie and we can move on. So what's your vote?"

Not that you're especially close to any of these people, but if you vote to shoot you know it's going to cause a lot more problems and you being an "outsider" are going to catch all the hell for it. Besides, last you remember Mel was trying to keep these folks alive, best you vote on his side.

"Well I vote not to shoot because…" you start to say before Mel interrupts again.

"That's all I need to know. Didn't need the reasons. Hear that folks? We ain't shootin' any of them! I dunno why you pussies are scared anyway, we got 'em all locked up and barricaded inside a trailer. They ain't getting out even if they do turn into something."

At this point there is more grumbling, but democracy has won this day and nobody gets violent about it, though you have a question.

"Um, has anyone actually looked in on these bitten folks since they got thrown in together?" you ask.
"Yeah, I did. Like I said, Billy Ray ain't lookin' too good. Neither are some of the others. They're all mostly just lying there not doing much though." Dan says.
"Well was any first aid actually applied to them? I mean maybe they're not infected, but just really wounded. Any aid might help."
"I threw in some bottles of whiskey an' pain killers to ease the discomfort. I threw in some bandages in there, but I wasn't gonna get close enough to actually bandage them." Dan replies.
"And that's it? Nobody else has seen to them since they've been shoved in a trailer?"
"Nope."

This is nuts, these people that have been bitten could very well be DYING due to neglect more than anything else! Nevermind the fact that the reason some might not be moving is that they might've very well ODed from the alcohol/pill combo.

In any event Mel breaks up your question period.

"Alright what we're gonna do is fetch us some more medical supplies an whatever else we might find. Thinkin' we should hit up that carnival a few miles from here." Mel remarks which sort of takes most by surprise. You especially since you weren't even aware there was a carnival in the area.

"If the National Guard stopped here, chances are good they stopped at that carnival too. Maybe that detachment had more supplies and I also figure it's gotta be easier than tryin' to go back into town again." Mel reasons.

Mel's suggestion is met with mixed results, but the people seem to be okay with it. Probably because a carnival does sound a lot less dangerous than going back into town, which they assumed would be the case.

"Okay, we're taking three trucks an' y'all that came with me last time are comin' with me this time as well an I'll be pickin' a few more so don't nobody go too far. That means you blondie."

"Wouldn't it be better if I stayed here and looked after things? I mean you don't want to leave this place totally undefended." You say.
"Oh it never is. I'm sure you saw that everyone is fully capable of defendin' themselves here when those freaks attacked. But I can't just be takin' mothers ya know? I mean it's bad enough most of the snot nosed bastards round here that survived ain't got fathers and that's before all this shit went down. Can't hardly deprive 'em of mothers as well can I? Someone needs to keep 'em out of my way and look after them."
"Well isn't someone like Butchie Billie better suited for something like this than me?"
"Butchie Billie is probably our best welder and mechanic. I'm not gonna risk taking her. Besides, she still needs to work on converting our newly acquired army trucks. And some of the other guys I'm not takin' are better at workin' on the generators or digging some extra outhouses."
"I don't have a weapon or least not any with ammo. I ran out of bullets during the last attack." You say.
"Oh don't worry about that, if there is one thing we've got a lot of, its weapons and ammo."

As you struggle to think up another excuse. Mel stops you.

"Look blondie, you knew you were gonna have to start paying yer dues. And since I KNOW you were tryin' to avoid bein the new fuck toy around here, it's either this or you can just fuckin' leave."

You don't see yourself making it on your own…at least not yet. You still need to be in the safety of numbers, so that means you're going.

However you question if Mel's plan is even a good one. You could very well get to this carnival and not find anything, you sort of wonder if it wouldn't be a better idea to actually head back to town. You figure the town is probably already half looted and lawless by now, so you might well go in and get the best stuff you can before its completely gone. Not to mention you might know the town a little better as far as which side streets to take to get to certain locations quicker. Like say small pharmacies and other stores near where you live.

Of course putting yourself in more danger isn't necessarily desirable either.

You suggest going back to town

If you're going to risk your life, it might as well be worth it and you're not seeing a carnival as being worth it.

"I'm more than willing to be a productive member of this community, and far be it from me to question your orders Mel, but I don't think the carnival is the right way to go. Assuming the carnies didn't already pull up stakes and assuming the military even bothered to send a detachment to a carnival, I can't believe that the detachment would've been any better supplied than the one sent here."
"So what are you saying exactly, blondie?"
"I'm saying that it would be a better plan to go back into town. I know my area alone has a couple of pharmacies and even a grocery store. I could easily direct you to them."
"Town? That was a clusterfuck the last time we tried that! Besides, how do we know those places haven't already been looted?"
"It's a risk, but I believe if you want a better chance at getting medicine and medical supplies, it would be better bet to go back into town. You're better equipped and prepared for what to expect in town now too. It's up to you though, you're in charge after all." You say.

Mel looks at you and then looks at Tina.

"Don't look at me. I voted to shoot them." Tina remarks.
"Yeah, yeah, you're never fuckin' supportive. (Sigh) Fuck it. You make a good point blondie. We'll head back into town, nobody's gonna like it, but like I said, fuck it. You go head over to the entrance, I'll be over there soon."

As you're about to go over to the trucks by the entrance, Tina grabs a hold of your arm with a semi-forceful grip. You spin around and see that her face isn't one of friendliness.

"So, you managed to change Mel's mind. Pretty impressive. I have a hard time doing that at the best of times. Maybe he is fuckin' ya." Tina says.
"What?! Tina I swear I'm not doing anything with Mel!" you exclaim.
"Oh no, I don't think you are, but you're not exactly adverse to usin' yer natural attractiveness to get yer way. Yer doin' it to keep the rest of the slugs off of ya. I get it, but if Mel does some fool thing because it was his idea, I can handle that. He does it on a regular basis. Hell, if he does some fool thing cause one of his drinkin' buddies thought it was a good idea, I can handle that as well since it doesn't even happen that often and he usually realizes it before it gets too out of hand. However, Mel goin' to do some fool thing because some tease fluttered her eyes at him is something else entirely.
"Tina, I…"
"Shut the fuck up blondie, fore I pull that pretty golden hair from your head by the roots. Now listen to me close, this is the LAST time you EVER influence Mel to do something ever again. Got it?"

While you've certainly "toughened up" this week and Tina's actually shorter than you, but even now you doubt that you'd be able to physically take a trailer park girl like her that's probably gotten into more fist fights than the number of years you've been alive.

"Got it." You meekly say.

Tina doesn't even acknowledge your compliance; she just shoulder shoves you out of the way when she heads back to her trailer.

With that unpleasantness out of the way, you head over to the trucks. When you arrive at your destination, a group of rednecks are already there checking various rifles and handguns. It really does look like they got enough to take on an army.

"Well now if it isn't blondie. I'm surprised Mel is riskin' his piece on the side like this." One of the sleazier rednecks says.
"I know that's right Ray. If she was mine, I'd be wantin' to keep her safe." Another says.
"Piece on the side? Is that what Mel told all of you?" you ask which is followed by a lot of snickering.

"Not in so many words honey, but we ain't the idiots that he thinks we are. Why else would he tell us to lay off of ya if he wasn't stickin' ya? Sonofabitch already has Tina, don't see why he gets ta have TWO fine pieces of ass while some of us ain't got none." Ray remarks.
"Nothing is going on between Mel and I." you say.
"Oh? Is that right blondie? Well how about you get something going on right HERE!" Ray remarks while grabbing his crotch causing everyone to laugh.
"Sorry, I'm not a lesbian and I don't eat pussy." You remark dryly.

Your insult doesn't quite sink in immediately, though Ray gets the idea he has been insulted.

"What the hell's that mean?" Ray demands.
"It means she doesn't think you got a dick and that you ain't a man. Something we all knew a long time ago Ray, not stop givin' the girl grief and hand her a pistol." Mel suddenly says as he walks up with a few more people behind him.

After Ray grudgingly hands you a pistol and then Mel breaks the bad news to everyone that they're heading back into town. There is predictably a lot of protesting and grumbling, but after shouting everyone down everyone complies with Mel's orders. Everyone gets in their vehicles and you ride up front in Mel's pick up truck.

As the trucks pull out from the trailer park, Mel fiddles with the radio, but he doesn't get anything except Ground Zero ads.

"Goddamn Ground Zero shit. I'm tellin' you like I've said to everyone else, it's a fuckin' conspiracy goin' on with them. In fact all of this shit goin' on is government related." Mel says turning off the radio.

The rest of your drive to town is mostly a quiet one. Mel doesn't bother speaking to you and you're a little too pre-occupied by what you're going to do about your current situation because between the incident with Tina and the one with Ray you can't help but think that you're never going to fit in or be comfortable there. Your sister might've just ditched you, but you're starting to think she had the right idea about leaving.

When you do finally get to town it's predictably a warzone. A war in which it appears the military did NOT win. You see overturned vehicles, dead bodies and destruction, but there is no semblance of organized order anywhere.

The only thing that is "organized" are the cannibal freaks and there are large groups of them roving the streets or already feasting on the dead. They naturally start attacking whenever your group drives through an infested area. Shooting and running them over becomes the order of the day as you direct Mel to the best way to get to your own neighborhood area.

When you finally do get to your area, the number of freaks severely decreases. It's sort of odd, but where you lived seems relatively safe. There are still signs of devastation here and there are certainly dead bodies to be seen, but so far it's a lot safer than the rest of the town.

"Guess the military cleaned up this area, before they got their asses kicked. How much further is our destination?" Mel asks.
"Just make a left up here and you'll be there." You remark.

Following your directions Mel makes a turn and then pulls into the parking lot of what looks to be a completely deserted pharmacy with a few broken windows. The other two trucks park nearby. The pharmacy across the street looks deserted as well. No telling what's inside either of them, but you sort of get the impression the noise of the vehicles would've attracted freak attention if any were lurking about.

"Where's the grocery store?" Mel asks.
"That's a few blocks up the street." You reply.
"Okay guess it's time to tell everyone the next phase of this plan."

Mel gets out of the truck and calls attention to everyone.

"Alright, we got three locations to search, which is good because there are three big groups of us. I'm gonna search this pharmacy. Ray, you go search the one across the street. Dan, your group can get back in your truck and search the grocery store up the block." Mel says.
"What? Aw Mel, why I gotta drive all that way?"
"Goddamnit Dan it ain't that fuckin' far! Just fuckin' do it! Besides, I know you. If you're searching one of these pharmacies, your junkies ass is gonna pocket all the med for yourself and claim you didn't find anything."

While Dan is in the middle of protesting, you're coming to the conclusion of your earlier thoughts on the ride over here. Namely, you're tired of this group and you're going to risk going it alone. You figure you're already close to your house, you could probably sneak away and head there for temporary relief to plan your next move. Though if you went with Dan you'd be even closer to your home.

When Mel finishes ordering everyone about, you go up to talk to him.

"Hey Mel, I think I should go with Dan."
"Huh? What the fuck you wanna go with that junkie asshole for?"
"Well grocery stores do tend to carry a small supply of medicine too, I figure I can keep an eye on him if he decides to not be in a sharing mood."
"Hmm, good point blondie…hey Dan! Don't go yet, blondie's comin' with ya so make room in the front!" Mel shouts before Dan pulls away.

You hop into Dan's truck and you're soon on your way though Dan's attention is half on the road and half on you.

"Sort of surprised you wanted to come with me blondie." He says scratching himself.
"Well, Mel doesn't entirely trust you. He thinks if you find any medicine in the grocery store, you'll just keep it for yourself. So he's sent me to keep an eye on you."
"Oh." Dan says.
"Don't worry Dan, I'm not gonna rat you out if you take some things for personal use. I know it's not really your fault and that you're just sick." You say in an empathetic tone.

Dan smiles at you revealing his horrible dental conditions.

"See that's what I've told people before! I'm glad you understand darlin'. I mean I've really tried to quit before, but…"

At this point Dan goes on with his pathetic sob story about how he's tried to kick his drug habit, but you're not really listening. Your thoughts of escaping these ignorant redneck assholes are filling your mind.

When you get to your destination, the grocery store is in much the same condition as the pharmacies were. Dan, you and the rest get out of the vehicle.

"Seems like this place could be clear, but keep alert anyway. Could be somethin' as big as a Butchie Billie, or it could be as small as Wade's dick!" Dan laughs causing Wade to swear at Dan and others to chuckle.

Still set on your plan of escape, you think about how you're going to do it. The easiest way would be to just sneak away at the earliest opportunity and run home. You're fairly confident you could do it.

Of course you're also wondering if you shouldn't just get away from these assholes, but the whole forsaken town in general. Staying here even in the "safety" of your home still isn't going to eliminate the problem that you're going to be located in cannibal central.

Of course if you want to leave town the safest way to do that is by vehicle which means you're going to have to engage in the riskier endeavor of stealing Dan's keys.

You sneak away

You're likely going to get shot or worse if you try to steal the keys or the truck. There are too many rednecks around and they're probably better with their weapons than you are. It'll be much easier to just sneak away. At best they might call out and search for you, but eventually Mel or their own common sense will tell them that you aren't worth risking their lives sticking around for.

Your group goes into the grocery store, which must still have on some sort of emergency lighting where upon everyone begins to carefully search the place. While there has been some looting and even signs of fighting that went on here, the place is in better shape than anyone thought.
You grab one of the hand baskets and gradually start distancing yourself from the rest. You start loading up on some nearby cans, which you aren't really paying much attention to since you're more focused on what the other members of your group are doing.

When you see that you're far enough away from them and they seem preoccupied with other things, you take the opportunity to head back outside. Still making the effort to not look suspicious just in case, you put the handbasket into the bed of the pick up truck and then when you're sure nobody is watching that's when you run.

You run from the grocery store and don't even look back. You half expect to hear some shouting telling you to stop, but you don't hear any.

When you get far enough away you keep a quick pace, but slow down a bit since you're losing you're breath. You're really going to have to get used to exercising on a regular basis to boost the endurance you think.

The one thing that sticks out as you're walking through your neighborhood is how eerily quiet it is. You still see signs of destruction and even dead bodies, but you're not seeing a living soul. On one hand it's great that you aren't being assaulted by cannibal freaks, but on the other hand it makes you wonder what the hell happened in your neighborhood to result in it being such a ghost area. At this point you're worried that maybe somebody hidden is watching you.

Despite all your concerns, nothing attacks or otherwise hinders you by the time you get home. You're anxious to get in as well. You know it's only going to be a temporary respite, but at least you'll get a bit of peace while you ponder what to do next. Maybe you can look for that hidden shelter your brother built in the backyard.

As your tired feet hit heavily on each front step, you briefly wonder if either of your siblings are home. Peter's car isn't in the driveway, but then you did leave it at Julie's. If he's still here, you suppose you'll have to explain what happened on that front. Kelly's vehicle isn't here either, so maybe your home has been abandoned.

The front door of course is predictably locked, but fortunately you still have your key to it in one of your pockets. It's amazing how you instinctively put it in there despite you not really ever expecting to come back here.

You open the front door and find that your home has not been abandoned, you also see your sister Kelly standing front of you holding a shotgun.

"I heard you clomping out there on the steps. Figured you might be one of those psychos or something. Didn't expect to see you though. While I'm a little impressed that you obviously managed to survive this fucking chaos, you never should've come back here sis. I told you before this is MY house." Kelly says.

Your eyes widen as she aims the shotgun at you.

"Kelly, I'll just…go…okay?" you say holding your hands up and start to back up.

"Now Suzy…what sort of big sister would I be if I let you stay out there to potentially get raped, killed or eaten? You underestimate my mercy." Kelly says with a smile and that's when you know this is going to end badly for you.

You attempt to go for your pistol, but Kelly already has the advantage.

Kelly fires and a slug hit your chest, shattering bones and vital internal organs like your heart. Your lifeless body flies backwards off the porch and onto the concrete walkway.