Zombie Story Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Aryk and Harold stood in the upstairs room for quite some time. Harold wouldn’t take him down to meet the others yet because most of them had gone to sleep and Harold didn’t want to disturb their sleep more then the monsters or their nightmares, most of which were intertwined. Harold went down to see if he could find Aryk a cushion to sleep on, and possibly a blanket or a pillow. When he came up after a few minutes, he brought with him a single cushion, and several dirty and torn blankets. “Sorry buddy,” Harold said, “I couldn’t find anything else that wasn’t in use. I found these in some hamper in one of the rooms, but I think it has water stain or something. It shouldn’t be harmful or anything like that, so don’t worry about it all that much. I’m sure it’s just natural dirt.” Aryk took the cushion and dirty blankets, and thanked Harold. “I’m sorry I can’t ask you to come downstairs and sleep there with us. No one comes up here into this room but me, so you’ll be safe up here. I just don’t know how they’ll react to some person they’ve never seen before lying there next to them. Don’t worry, I’ll introduce you in the morning.

It was a long night for Aryk, but there wasn’t ever a night anymore where it wasn’t a long night. Sleep was hard to come by, especially with the expectation of some sort of attack on a person’s mind. Aryk fancied this must have been how his friends felt when they had gone to war all those many years before. This was no less then war, except that it was unlike any other war that had ever taken place. For once in human history, we fought a foe we had never fought before, and for once, we fought as one.

Aryk woke with a start as Harold gently placed his hand on his arm to wake up. “They’re all up now,” Harold whispered to Aryk. “I already told them a little about you, so don’t worry about them freaking out or anything. You also have to understand that we have been through plenty of people who only held us up and took us for what we had. I don’t sense that in you, kid, so please don’t disappoint me.” Aryk had no intention of doing any harm to anyone, besides those who would do harm to him, either human or other. Aryk got up stretching his arms a bit as he got up.

“Harold, is it alright if you give me a few minutes. When I can, I like to have my morning routine.”

“Sure pal, it’s not a problem. I’ll just stand outside the door if you need me, alright?”

“Thank you Harold.” Once Harold was out of the door, Aryk began to meditate. It was something he had learned only before the outbreak, but he found such solace in it, that he did it whenever possible. He found that it was best in the morning, because he felt so rejuvenated and able to handle anything once he was done. After a few minutes, when he was completely relaxed, he stood up and began performing several martial arts techniques. He didn’t know what kind they were, or ever how to perform them right, but he improvised on his own. He had learned them from a man he had holed up with for a few nights. The man told him he was very highly regarded in his martial arts field, but that the only thing it did for him was that he was flexible and strong enough to get himself out of tough situations. Since meeting this man, and learning some things from him, Aryk had used this knowledge to get around houses and towns much easier. He reasoned that it was because of this man that he was still alive. If not, Aryk couldn’t do things he had normally done, like scale up chimneys, jump from roof to roof, and all the other acrobatic feats he had come to know. It was only possible, the man taught him, if he maintained a good, healthy regiment of exercise. Aryk knew this was hard to do with what was going on, but he tried to do all this in honor of the man who had taught him to do it. Aryk always grew sad thinking of him, and what had sadly become of him. Not but a few nights after he left the company of this man, he came into contact not too far away with some other people he had bunked up with for awhile. It was a nice reunion, but the fact that a huge onslaught was on its way didn’t make for much of a homely environment. During the struggle, Aryk caught a glimpse of the man who had tried to show Aryk his ways. Unfortunately, he was on the other side of the barricades. Aryk, with tears running down his face, did the only civil thing he knew to do for the man, and put him to rest for good. Since that moment, Aryk had vowed to try and keep his teachings with him, and to utilize them.

Aryk proceeded to work out for a few more minutes. Pushups and sit-ups usually did the trick, but when he could, he would try using some sort of weights. Not only did the workout keep him fit, but it also got his blood and adrenaline running, so he felt awake, and most importantly alive, after he was done. Aryk only did this for a few more minutes, with plenty of muscle stretching, before deciding it was time to meet the residents of the house. He made sure to wipe off the sweat, and tried to make himself look a little nicer. Even with all that surrounded him, he still maintained as much manners as he could, no matter where he was. He wished he had better looking clothes whenever he met with people, but he understood that everyone had the same problem with finding clothes, and so he didn’t fret much about it. Aryk put his things away in his pack, and leaned it against the corner of the room across from where the door was, in case there happened to be a child who wanted to rummage through his things, and accidentally find some of the more dangerous things he carried with him, in case of tight situations. After he was done with this, he walked over to the door, and told Harold that he was ready to meet everyone.

“Ok, good. I already told all of them about you being here, so they’re waiting.” Harold seemed generally happy with Aryk’s presence there. He seemed very eager to introduce him, and Aryk couldn’t figure out if it were a trap, or if this was how Harold truly was. Aryk decided to just be on his toes and be expectant of anything fishy that might occur, and so he treaded lightly as he followed Harold down the small hallway. There were only a couple of other rooms in the hallway upstairs, just as Harold had described, both of which had all their furniture, and even their doors, taken for accommodation, and more importantly, security reasons. The stairs lead down, and then turned inward to reach the first floor, and was covered with a soft, dark red carpet. Aryk thought it eerie to have that color on carpets, mainly from all the bloodshed he had been witness to. As Aryk got to the landing where the stairs turned, a great howl could be heard from a distance away from the house, but close enough to be heard. Aryk and Harold looked at each other quickly, and tried to determine how far away it was. Though they were somewhat slow, usually moving at no more then just a normal walk, one had to be cautious at making an error in judgment. If off by a little, large groups could swarm without so much as a notice, for it was their numbers that truly gave them power. Quickly, Harold began moving down the rest of the stairs, where a huddled mass of people gathered in the center of the house, listening to the same sound that Aryk and Harold had heard.

Aryk saw a couple of kids, one girl and one boy, probably around eight or nine, huddled around their mother, a heftier woman with long black hair that showed signs of graying. Her light red dress was decorated with little yellow flowers all over, and was dirty all around. She sat at the base of a couch, cradling her children. Sitting above her was an older man, dressed in brown slacks, a leather belt, and a dark blue dress shirt. What little hair he had left was already white, and his wrinkles showed across his face, though his deep green-eyed gaze was what caught Aryk. Next to the woman with the children, a man sat with one leg in front of him, with his head down. Aryk could only tell this man had long, matted hair, and a full beard. His clothes were ripped and torn, and what looked to be a long brown and black coat was probably once tanned in color. His black shirt and dark grey pants looked equally disheveled. Sitting above him with her legs crossed sat a young woman. Aryk could only see a portion of her face, since she was turned sideways, probably to avoid touching the man in front of her. She watched Harold intently, and didn’t pay him any attention, but Aryk could see that she looked well taken care of. It even looked as though she had taken a shower, something all of them had long forgotten, unless you happened to come across a stream of water, though it was best not to even attempt to touch the water, seeing as their might be traces of infected blood in them. There was almost no way of taking a shower now days and no one spoke much about the horrid hygiene most people had. Aryk had resorted to wiping himself down with towels or clothes when he could to keep his own smell down, not for anyone in particular, but mainly for himself, in order to feel like nothing was going on around him.

From what Aryk could tell, the girl sitting above the rugged man was very pretty. He wondered how she could have met up with all these people, or, for that matter, have stayed alive for so long. Aryk could hear another person, off in another room. He could catch snippets of the man saying “Harold…”, and figured that it must be someone else who Aryk could not see. Aryk walked down the rest of the stairs, and when he did, the four adults in front of him turned to look at him. Aryk gave a small wave, not really knowing the best way to introduce himself, but just said a quick hello, and gave them his name. Now that Aryk could see the girl fully, he saw how pretty she really was. Aryk couldn’t understand why he couldn’t keep looking at her, but he figured the lack of female presence lately in his hideouts could maybe have made him long to see a woman again. The woman with the two kids was first to answer. She said her name was Beth, and that her kid’s names were Kimberly and Matthew. The older gentleman said he was Ben, and said that the man with his head down was Solomon. The girl sitting above Solomon gave Aryk a hard stare before turning away to watch Harold. Without looking at him, she said her name was Sasha.

Aryk said to them all “well, it was nice meeting you. Where did Harold go?” Beth pointed to Aryk’s right, and Aryk said “thank you. If you’d excuse me” and then started off to the right side. He saw a small, octagonal room that was set up with a few makeshift tables running along some of the walls, and supplies, including some canned foods and boxed snacks next to ammunition cartridges and stray bullets thrown around. The only bullets Aryk knew about were shotgun shells and 9mm rounds, suitable for most weapons that could be found. Here too the windows were boarded up with thin streaks of light pouring through the faintest of cracks in between the boards. Some of the streaks crossed Harold’s face, but all Aryk could really see of the other man was the back of his head. He looked somewhat like a hefty man, with shaggy hair, and a red and black plaid coat on. Though he had his back turned to Aryk, he could see sticking out of one side of the person a barrel, and on the other, the stock of a shotgun. His body movement showed that he was angry, somewhat shaking when he spoke to Harold, though they still whispered in tones that Aryk couldn’t hear. Harold was motioning his hands up and down to try and calm the other man down.

When Aryk took another step into the room, Harold turned his head to look at him. When Harold looked at him, the other man swung himself around quickly to look at Aryk too. “You!” the man growled, face red with anger. “You brought them here! It’s all your fault!” The man started to walk towards Aryk, and Harold tried to hold him back. Suddenly, the man charged Aryk, causing Aryk to fall over while trying to back peddle. The man landed on top of Aryk, holding the gun against Aryk’s throat. Aryk quickly grabbed the shotgun, and the two men begin a power struggle for the gun. The kids next to them began crying louder and the old man started trying to get up to help break them apart along with Harold. Solomon didn’t move much besides to allow himself to see past his pulled hood, and Sasha only glanced at them before sighing and turning away. The man on top of Aryk kept spewing out what he had said earlier, and kept trying to shove the shotgun onto his throat. The man was too large for Aryk to throw off him, and so he looked for something else. Aryk tried to think of something that he had on himself that he could use to get the man off of him, and he suddenly remembered a small pocket knife he had found one time while shuffling through his dad’s possessions once so long ago. He had kept the knife with him at all times, since it was the only thing he had from his dad. Beth yelled no at the man, which drew his attention away quickly enough for Aryk to reach into his hidden pocket inside his regular pants pocket to pull out his knife, fling it open, and jab it into the man’s arm. The man gave a small, pained yell, and rolled off Aryk towards the couch. Aryk quickly grabbed the shotgun, pointing it at the man to make sure he didn’t try to get at him again. Lying on his back, the man, still red in the face from anger and specks of saliva coming out of his mouth and tears showing on his eyes, began to calm down before pulling out the knife.

“Give me my knife back!” Aryk said in an angry yet quiet tone. The man tossed the knife over to Aryk’s feet, and still keeping his aim on the man, Aryk bent down, wiped the blood off the knife onto his pants, closed it, and stuck it back in his pocket. With the man subdued, everyone started to calm down a little more, except for the two kids who continued to cry. “Harold, why did he attack me?” Aryk asked.

“That man is my brother, Walter. I’m sorry he attacked you like that. I know you heard that moan, everyone here did. He gets quick on his anger and figured it had to be you who brought them. I tried to calm him down, but he wouldn’t have it. Please, just give me the shotgun, and lets all calm down.” Aryk unloaded the shells from the shotgun, and handed it over to Harold. As Harold grabbed the gun, another, closer moan echoed through the desolate streets and through the house. Harold and Aryk gave each other the same look as when the first moan had been heard. “We need to get moving, and get moving now!”