Chapter 2: Surprise at enterance 3
The apocolyps has a quick pace to it. You'd think that everything would slow down because you have nothing to do, but it's the opposite. Deadoes to shoot; friends to talk to; things to eat; staying alive in general is always on my to-do list. It's now heading to the 6th week since the end of the world began and it's been fairly quiet on the streets. The Deadoes just stand outside now and bang their heads against the doors of canal walk. Thank goodness they aren't smart enough to actually pull the doors open, or even smart enough to realise that it's unlocked in the first place.
Now you must be wondering :"How could you be so stupid as to leave the doors unlocked, Mira?"
And my answer will be; "For survivors, dah!"
There is a big difference between Deadoes and Shredders. Deadoes are made by Shredders when Shredders bite into people's flesh and people turn into a Shredder if another Shredder spits in their faces. The underlying fact is that Shredders have a bit of an attitude problem and that overall, the Deadoes have fairly smooth brains. All they really know is how to put food into their mouth and how to bash their heads open on a glass door which, as you can imagine, is not such a pretty site.
The boys and I wake up at a fairly early time every day or else we would sleep all day which would manage to messes up our sleep schedule. We set an alarm for the morning on an alarm clock that we found in the display case in one of the passageway stalls. We wake up at 7 every morning and start with our usual routine that we made to keep ourselves busy.
The first thing we do is search the grounds and make sure everything is still in order and there aren't any Deadoes that managed to miraculously get in the night before while we were asleep. Then we go searching for food and we were lucky enough to have found a vending machine full of snacks down one of the corridors that we somehow managed to miss before, so we sat and had breakfast. After our breakfast we do our morning training exercise where we take turns setting up an obstacle course by using the rubble that was laying around and today was my turn to set one up for the boys.
First I got a bunch of security guard baracades to place in front of the escalators. Then set up two paintball guns at the entrance of the weapons store and attached slings to them. Next I got gamer chairs and set those up and placed 2 stickers on a small wooden table for the boys to grab hold of and that table sat at the end of the walk way with circular openings that opened up to the ground floor that they had to jump over. I then closed up the gate of Woolworths, leaving a tiney gap for them to slide under and at the far exit of the other side of Woolworths, there would be two coloured buttons at the end of Woolworths and two passageways that split to the left and right. The colour of their sticker that they managed to pic up (red and green) would determine which button they press and which course they take. They would have to press the button where they will get a surprise on their course and from there they would have to use some parkour to jump over all the stalls and food packets that I left laying around, only for them to run back to the score board that awaited them at the camera room where I will be watching/recording from. They have to be fast and they have to be smart in order to win. The loser has to clean up the course when they are finished as a punishment.
Once I was finished with the course, I grabbed Gerhard and Damian and took them to the starting line where I talked them through the course, but I left out the surprise that patiently waited for them on each course. I left them there as I walked to the camera room. I pressed the intercom button as I got there and spoke softly into the mic as to not disturb the Deadoes that stood right outside the shopping mall,
"okay boys, this is how its gonna go. I want a clean and friendly race out there,"
The boys looked into the camera in disbelief and damian threw up his big muscular hands in disapproval. I made a soft laugh into the mic and continued speaking.
"I'm kidding, anything goes, but just know that whoever loses has to clean up the blood on the floor afterwards and it's easier to stitch someone up than to remove blood from the floor, so make good decisions kids. Get ready to start."
I watched as they got into starting position. I was banking on Gerhard to win by a few seconds more than Damian, because he was fast and light on his feet and Damian was all muscle. A smirk formed on my lips as I pressed the intercom button once more. "Its chow time" I said to myself.
"GO!"
They took off towards the escalators. Damian was taking two steps at a time and Gerhard ran up the middle path and managed to jump over Damian's arm that he used in an effort to swipe Gerhard's feet from under him, but failed to do so. as a result of this, Gerhard was in the lead. They got over the baracades and made a dash for the paintball guns. As soon as Damian got his hands on his one, he decided to shoot Gerhard in the back, causing Gerhard to stumble as Damian takes the lead. Damian turned the corner and stopped in his tracks when he saw that the chairs had glass beneath them that I put there earlier on just for the heck of it. Gerhard came up from behind him and started skipping from chair to chair with 'maximum' effort, "Hesitate and your a deadman," He screamed.
He was halfway through the chairs when Damian thaught fast. He grabbed the chair closest to him and walked back, flipped the back of the chair down and started running towards the glass and used the chair as a sleigh and took the path between the chairs for minimum collision. I stood behind the security screens in awe of his smarts and suddenly Damian was in the lead. Damian then starts jumping over the circular openings and made it to the table; grabs the red sticker and slid inti the small opening made by the Woolworths gate, with Gerhard following. Hot on Damians tail.
Here comes my favourite part.
Damian pressed the red button which led you to the left corridor. When he pressed the button all the store gates opened along that corridor and Deadoes shuffled out -attached to chains- and Damian knew exactly what this meant. Headshots would be 20 points the chest is 10 and anything else would be zero. Damian took his paintball gun and started shooting.
When Gerhard pressed the green button and took the right corridor he instantly activated a whole bunch of tennis ball guns that threw paintballs instead of tennis balls in all directions. He starts off with 100 points and each time he gots shot, it was 2 points taken from the 100 points. The one with the lowest score has to shower last and seeing as we only have one shower, it meant that it would be a very cold shower. They made it past their surprise obstacle courses over the stalls and raced to the camera room and as I said before, Gerhard won a split second before Damian did.
"That was a good race guys, caught it all on camera too," I said as I stepped out the camera room.
I looked at Gerhard who was covered in paint along with the bruises that started to form around every single one of them.
"By the state you're in, I would say it's Damian who gets to shower first," I said with a chuckle.
We went down to first floor and Damian broke off from us to go take a shower before he had to clean up, so it was just Gerhard and I that went off to the radio shack to get some music playing and to relax while I sharpen my swords nd while Gerhard pealed off the drying paint.
Gerhard pushed his black sweat-ridden hair out of his face and picked a song. He picked the song 'Feel so close' by Calvin Harris and I started singing along and nodded my head along to the beat. It was about an hour before Damian came running in with a worried look in his eyes.
"We have a situation at entrance 3," He warned as he tried to catch his breath. We all ran behind Damian. My sword drawn and Gerhards had his shot gun in hand. We rounded the last corner and stopped in our tracks. On the floor in front of us was a child and a man that looked to be in his early 20's. I sheathed my sword and ran up to them. The child was crying in the man's arms and the man was hurt badly and bleeding from his abdomen area. I grabbed the child who looked to be about 5 years old and handed her over to Gerhard before I lifted up the guys shirt to analyze his wound. The child screamed bloody murder when Gerhard grabbed hold of her and he let go before she ran towards her dad, but Damian grabbed her shoulders to hold her back.
"Leave my dad alone, get off of me!" She pleaded with tears in her eyes. I turned to her and asked her what her name was.
"Jerico," She replied with a shakey voice. I went on my knees to get to her level and looked her in the eyes
"Okay Jerico. I'm Mira, I'm gonna help your dad, okay. Do you trust me?" I asked and she nodded her head and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
"That's good. I'm gonna let you go play with my friend here, his name is Damian. He is going to look after you for a little while and he will take you to get some clean clothes from any shop you choose okay, just while I help your dad. I promise that I will come get you when I'm finished okay?"
She nodded and Damian took her small hand and led her away while Gerhard stayed with me to help carry Mr. Unconcious to the medical bay that we made in the bigger offices upstairs. We layed him down on a metal table with a thin mattress on top and I cut his shirt open. The wound was pretty deep but didn't cut into any arteries or nip any organs, so I put on my mask that I used when the Corona virus was still around and stitched him up while Gerhard monitored his heart rate with a heart rate monitor. After I finished stitching him up, Gerhard helped me sit him up so that I could rap bandages around his abdomen. Once that was over, I left Gerhard to keep an eye on him -not that he was going anywhere cause he was still passed out cold- and I went to look for Damian and Jerico and found them playing dressup in Woolworths.
That brought a smile to my face. Damian was such a big brute, but he is always good with little girls.
"Hey Jerico, your father is all bandage up and his heart is still going. You having fun?"
She turned to me with a big smile and nodded. "Mr.Dead is alot of fun. May I keep him?" She asked with heavy amusement dancing in her blue eyes.
"Yes you can." I replied with a smile and held out my hand. "Would you like to see your dad?"
She took my hand and I walked her to the medical bay where her dad layed dead still on the old thin matress. I pulled up a chair for her and Gerhard and I left the room and closed the door behind us. Once I shut it, I turned to Damian and Gerhard who looked at me with concerned.
"The wound?" Damian asked and folded his arms over his chest.
"No sign of anything unnatural. A deep cut but we will have to ask how he got it when he wakes up."
"If he wakes up." Gerhard said and looked down at the floor.
"This is big. Not only did we find an adult but also a child. He is possibly the last adult we have alive here on earth." Gerhard stated.
"You think I didn't notice, I know how big this is." I replied
"We have to be careful, we know nothing about him or his kid, they could be dangerous." Damian warned.
"Mayby, but I guess we will have to wait until he wakes up, which could be a while. For the mean time we look after the kid with everything we have. Atleast until her dad wakes up." I ordered and walked to the window that looked into the medical room. I felt my heart sink when I saw Jerico laying on her arms that rested on her dad's chest with tears in her eyes.
We protect our own in the apocalypse, no matter how old they are, because you never know when it could be your time to go and it would be a travesty to leave without anyone knowing you were gone.
Weekly Power Status
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