Chapter 9: Another Down
"That makes Dunn the 11th man down..."
Rickford put the last remaining firewood into the ground where Dunn laid, as the day before we were attacked by heavily armed men.
I handed over Rick the matches we've stored for making fire, and used it for the firewood we laid in Dunn's body, preventing him from turning into one of... them.
Rick lit up a single match stick and tossed it into the wood, the fire was small, but by the time it made contact with the other combustible materials, it grew larger, ashes started forming and burning Dunn's body.
Both me and Rick just stood there, watching him slowly turn into ash, "Here's my promise to you bud." Rick pulled out a bottle of whisky and poured one out for Dunn.
I remember a time they both kept a bottle of whisky in a cabinet somewhere, they never actually used it, but in his honor, Rick would do it for him.
Guess it's too late now to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
He laid down and sighed thinking if this could've been prevented.
"Sorry if I couldn't save him" I tried apologizing to Rickford, but he simply just shook his head asking not for forgiveness but to move on.
"It's no one's fault Zain, besides, we already lost too much people already."
And he was right, Dunn's death was not the only one we suffered, in fact before we even got here there were tons of us as a survivor group, it all began with me, Joseph, and our old leader Jane, until it became us three, with Dunn being the 11th casualty.
Death is a normal occurrence of today's world, and it doesn't hold back, be it someone close or someone random you just find out of nowhere, it claims us all.
Rickford got up and walked over to me while holding the bottle of alcohol, "In any case, let's make sure we survive the day alright?" Rickford patted my shoulder as he walked back to the house.
The sun was shining bright, though with climate change it's become so hot that temperatures reach to that of a desert, the storm died down last night and we won't be expecting anymore rain soon until next week.
That's our window of opportunity to set up and prepare for the next storm.
"And by the way..."
Rickford looked back, his fists clenched and his face filled with regret "I think we should've followed Dunn's plan to relocate. Now that they know we're here, it's best we move out to avoid them."
He headed off again to our home to sort things out with himself, while I'm left alone standing near Dunn's burning corpse.
___________
(8 hours ago)
"Oh for fuck's sake not now!"
I could hear a barrage of footsteps from the other room, and a mug falling to the floor, the man in the window still didn't move, but there was something else on the other side.
Dunn shouted and the doors to our living room banged open, I hurried to where Dunn was until I was met face to face with a man wearing a cloak and a mask.
Without hesitation he pulled out a pipe and started swinging it and he hit my head, my vision blurred a bit and prevented me to predict the man's next move, and before I could act I could see him about to hit me in the side, but I managed to block it with my hands.
I grabbed the pipe and we were both fighting to use it against each other, but I reacted first and head-butted the guy and kicked him in his groin, he let go of the pipe and I swung three times and knocked him out unconscious on the floor.
I turned my gaze back to the living room where Dunn was and rushed to help him there, I could see Joseph and Rickford quickly running down the stairs as they saw the man I just knocked out.
They didn't wait any longer and came along with me to see what was going on.
But before I could even see what happened I was knocked out before I could attack.
____________
(Waking up after being knocked out)
It wasn't long until I saw the aftermath of the attack, I was knocked out for hours and the man that I previously beat the shit out of was nowhere to be seen, our house was ransacked and all of the supplies we have left in our storage were taken.
And the worst crime of all was...
"Dunn!" Rickford rushed over to Dunn who was laying almost lifeless on the floor, his face almost unrecognizable and his blood spilled everywhere.
Joseph came to and woke up as well from his sleep on the floor, his head bloodied up the same as mine.
"The fuck?" He was confused.
"What...happened?" I came to and slowly gained my bearings.
Rick was kneeling on the floor, looking at Dunn as he was muttering something out his mouth.
I could barely hear them but I know that he's not gonna make it out alive for the next minute.
They both grabbed each other's hands, a symbol of friendship between 2 men, one near death, and one to carry on their bond.
Dunn passed away a minute after.
Both me and Joseph just looked at the man, letting him get his peace as the rain still raged outside our shelter.
We couldn't do anything other than just leave him alone, so instead, we had to heal up our wounds and clean the mess up.
"Let's go Joseph" I lowered my voice and whispered to Joseph, leaving Rick alone for a while.
We fetched our medkit and covered our heads with bandages, we were pretty beaten up but not as bad as Dunn.
Joseph inspected my wounds and tried raising my hair, seeing if there was any open cuts that I suffered.
"I'm fine, be more worried about him" I told off Joseph while he was still healing up, but he was more focused on me than himself.
Before I could say anything to berate him, he cut me off "Look Zain, I don't want to end up like him, or you having the same fate as him"
His expression changed of worry, he was clearly disturbed from what happened, "We've known each other for almost 2 months now and I don't want to end up having to burn each other if one of us dies" he continued.
I was about to say something but...
Instead of actually outright saying it...
"Ow!"
I punched him in the shoulder.
"What was that for!?" he raised his voice in me, confused why I did that.
"Bold of you to assume we would die easily, you know me as your tough as nails bitch and I know you as a hot headed muscle man"
His sadness faded away a moment later, after I reassured him we won't die easily, as much of a sad moment it is right now where one of us just literally lost his life, we have to keep our morale up.
We can't stay depressed forever.
"Yeah, you're right" Joseph agreed, and took back the favor to me and punched me in the shoulder, with less force since he still regards me as a lady.
"Weak."
Rick walked into the room as we noticed him looking at us with a stoic and hardened face, his emotions clearly not going well for him.
"After the storm dies out, let's burn him" Rick suggested, he explained to us that he covered Dunn in a sheet of cloth for a while until we can properly send him off, but until then we'd have to wait out the storm.
After a while, he smiled, knowing full well and accepted the fact that he will keep a promise to Dunn, even after their bond is torn apart from life to death.
He looked at both me and Joseph "You two better enjoy your time together, who knows when it'll be the end for your friendship"
We both nodded, agreeing with Rick as we sat down the table, figuring out what to do next.
It was another day for our team, another one had to take the short end of the stick.
It was already etched into our minds that whenever we'd lose someone, we'd just accept it and not take anymore drastic actions, and prevent it from happening again.
We have plans to take out who killed him for sure.
But until then, we're empty handed.
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