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Title: With A Whimper (Part Six)
Author: Mara
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Mentions of violence, sex, underage drinking, character death, murder, and other nasty stuff. Nothing graphic. Yet. (I'll warn for specific chapters if I'm gonna get graphic... and then it'll be for violence and gore... lol)
Summary: Most of the world is either dead or Crazy, but in California a group of survivors tries to find a way to avoid both fates.
Notes: Sorry for the delay in putting this chapter out... go here for why there was a delay... check the comments to get the update on it, but the jist is, everything is okay, no worries.
Note #2: No quote this time... I lost all the quotes I'd collected for this fic, and I don't feel like making people wait hours more to read it... lol... I may not have a quote every chapter anymore, but I still plan on having most chapters start with a quote... lol
PART SIX
Zach rode with Luke in the rover to the mall, leaving Ryan to lead the way alone in the new SUV. Ryan wasn't entirely sure how he felt about Zach joining them, since the boy didn't seem like he'd be much use with a gun or with anything else besides getting in the way. But, then again, Luke had seemed the same only to learn to shoot with good accuracy after just a relatively quick lesson. Ryan was willing to admit he'd been wrong once, and maybe he was wrong this time, too, even though he had a feeling he wasn't.
When they got to the mall, Ryan pulled up right by the main entrance and led the way inside, his gun already out of it's holster as he scanned the both levels, watching for any movement. He wondered briefly if it wouldn't have been a better idea to stop at the gun shop first, pick up more guns so they could arm Zach, but dismissed it when he saw how casual Zach was about just strolling in without looking around first.
Ryan shot a look at Luke, who looked at Zach and whinced. "Zach, man, just hang back while we check it out," Luke said. "There could be Crazies around."
"Why would they come into the mall?" Zach asked.
"I found one trying to kill her daughter here," Ryan said, gesturing with one hand towards the decaying body of Jessie's mother. "Shot her and got the kid out of here. I guess she starved to death, because she was still alive when I left."
"That's... that's cold, man."
"Let's repeat," Ryan said, going past the woman's body to pick up the backpack he'd discarded that day. "She was gonna kill her daughter. A 9 year-old girl."
"So that's Jessie's mom," Luke said, looking down at the body. "Should we, like... cover her or something? Give her some dignity for Jessie's sake?"
"Yeah," Ryan agreed. "Tell you what, you and Zach find a sheet, I'm gonna go start loading up. I think there's a place with vitamins and stuff on the second level."
~~~~
Ryan found the fitness store he was looking for, and started pulling items from the shelves. Protein shakes and bars were among the first items to go into the bag, because while it might not be healthy to live on the stuff alone, they needed to get some protein into their systems that had grown used to beef jerky as their best source of it. He added some energy drinks, deciding that if nothing else they might help keep him awake while driving, then zipped the bag closed and headed out again to find the next useful store.
Two down was a toy store, and he wandered in to grab a couple travel games for the kids. He also grabbed a stuffed bunny for Marnie, who's dolls and stuffed toys kept getting destroyed, and since he suspected Josh was responsible for Marnie's teddy bear loosing an arm, Ryan also grabbed a bear for Josh, figuring that if they both had one there wouldn't be any fights. He glanced down at the two stuffed animals before putting them in the bag, wondering what Trey would think of him picking up dolls for little kids.
The thought of his big brother brought a wave of pain over him, thinking that Trey was almost certainly dead, starved to death in jail when the guards got sick and died. Did he have to huddle at the back of the cell to avoid the reach of guards who'd become Crazies? Or worse maybe Trey went crazy and was left locked up in his cell, loosing it and growing violent. Would Trey have hurt himself when he couldn't get to others?
"Yo, Chino," Luke said as he walked up with Zach, both of them looking confused. "You okay?"
"Just thinking," Ryan replied, only noticing then that there were tears on his face. "Wondering what my brother would think of me now. Which made me realize that even if he's immune like me, he probably starved to death in his cell."
Luke grimaced. "We... we could check."
"He's in Chino, Luke," Ryan replied. "It's a waste of time."
"Not if..."
"If he got sick, then he's died early on. If he's immune, then he starved to death. If he was affected, then he's gone crazy," Ryan said. "No matter which, he'd either dead or not my brother anymore. So there's no point. Time's better spent getting supplies and getting the hell away from Newport."
"How can you be so cold about it?" Zach asked.
"People are dead, and if we don't get somewhere safe more people are going to be dead," Ryan replied. "I'm cold about it because I know it and someone's gotta think without emotion if we want any of us to stay alive. And I'm not gonna lose anyone else."
"Yeah," Luke agreed. "So, uh... where do we go next? What's on the list?"
"Clothes," Ryan said, leading the way towards a store across the way. "Don't worry about sizes, just grab everything that makes sense for the mountains. We need warm stuff. I'm heading over to the camping supply place, grab extra blankets and maybe a camp stove, so we can have hot food on the trip."
"We gonna sleep in the rover and SUV every night?" Luke asked, making a face.
Ryan sighed and hesitated before shaking his head. "I'll grab some tents, too. Once we're far enough out from any town that there's no signs of any people, then we can give camping a try. Alright?"
"Sounds good to me," Luke said.
"Good," Ryan said before gesturing at the clothing store then heading back down to the first level.
"Why do you follow his orders?" Zach asked.
"He knows what to do better than the rest of us, do," Luke replied, shrugging, as he walked into the store and started yanking clothes off the racks and shoving them into a bag.
~~~~
Ryan used the extra set of keys to put most of the stuff he collected into the rover, and when it was full he sent Luke and Zach back to the house to empty it, then send Alex out to get guns and ammo. Meanwhile, Ryan headed back into the mall to gather the items on the private list Kirsten had given him. He headed straight for the department stores furniture department and found one of the big carts they used to move around boxes, taking it to select several decorative trunks and take them out into the mall. Two of them were immediately loaded into the SUV, meant to be filled with medical supplies from the hospital, but the third he took to another store in the mall.
He wasn't the type to shop in a fancy baby store, even when he bought things for he and Theresa's baby he had jsut gotten them in the baby department of Wal-mart or somewhere similiar. But Newport had baby stores, and Kirsten had mentioned this one when she gave him the list that he had told Luke was private.
Kirsten was 3 month pregnant, had barely found out and told Sandy before the Virus came, and never got the chance to tell Seth. She'd wanted to keep it quiet until things ahd calmed down, and now she had entrusted Ryan alone with the news because she didn't want the others worrying about her, but she wanted to make sure she had everything she needed for the baby when it came. She'd also mentioned making sure there was extra, because sooner or later, in her words preferably much later, there would probably be more babies being born to their group. Ryan had blushed, knowing she meant he and Summer, but agreed that it was neccesary, but they would mention that to the others either, not wanting to make it seem like Kirsten was giving permission.
So Ryan was in a place were a baby t-shirt cost $50, carefully packing the trunk with clothes, baby monitors, two cloth baby backpacks, bottles, pacifers, and baby blankets with bunnies, ducks, and stars on them. He made sure to arrange things carefully, removing the backpacks from their boxes so they took up less room, and filled the trunk until he could barely get it closed. Then, he slipped a padlock through the latch, and put the key on a chain around his neck, planning on giving it to Kirsten and Kirsten alone when he dropped off his load of supplies.
~~~~
When Luke and Zach pulled up to the Cohen house, Alex opened the door and raised an eyebrow. "You bringing home strays now?" she asked.
"Ryan said I could," Luke replied. "This is Zach."
Alex nodded. "I'm Alex," she said with a nod towards Zach. "Where is Ryan? Kirsten's not feeling well, and Summer's freaking..."
"Someone's sick?" Zach asked, panic clear on his face.
"Not that kinda sick," Alex replied. "She's just puking a little and has a slight fever. Summer thinks it's food poisoning, but since Ryan and Kirsten had the same thing for breakfast, she's worried that he's sick, too."
"I don't think food poisoning works that fast..." Zach said.
"It might if you never ate lunch or dinner the previous day," Alex said. "And Ryan doesn't eat much, he saves it for the rest of us, so... it could hit him hard and fast."
"He seemed fine when we were finishing up loading the rover," Luke said as he hefted a bag from the back and slung it over one of Zach's shoulders, catching the other boy's arm before he could go inside, and handing him another bag. Luke grabbed two more bags for himself, and handed Alex one, then the trio headed inside. "Said that once we unload, he wants us to wait here, and you're suppose to go get weapons and ammo."
"Sounds good to me," Alex agreed. "Hey, we've got a new arrival," she called to the others as they set the bags on the livingroom floor, catching the attention of Kaitlin and the kids.
"Kirsten's throwing up again," Jessie said. "Is she gonna be okay?"
"I'm sure she will, shorty," Luke replied.
"Where's Ryan? Is he sick too?" Jessie pressed.
"He was fine when we left him," Luke said. "Kaitlin, Jessie, Josh, and Marnie, this is..."
"Zach?!" Summer yelled as she walked back into the livingroom with a pale and shaky Kirsten.
"We found him down near the car lot," Luke said with a grin as Summer hugged Zach. "Invited him to join us, and here he is."
"Another big strong man to do heavy lifting," Summer teased. Then she turned serious and looked over at Luke. "Where's..."
"The new SUV wasn't full yet, so he stayed at the mall, and then he said he was gonna go fill your medical wish list, and then I think he said a food run if he still had room after getting that stuff," Luke explained. "Before you ask, Ryan's fine. No signs of food poisoning."
"I'm sure he's fine," Kirsten said. "Ryan has tried some of my cooking and survived, so even if the food was bad, I'm sure it won't make him sick."
"I'm going out for weapons and ammo as soon as the rover's unloaded," Alex told Summer. "I can look for Ryan after that, check on him for you."
"I'd appreciate it," Summer said, biting her lip.
~~~~
At the hospital, Ryan put one of the trunks on a gurney and quickly found the hospital pharmacy. The door was wide open, probably left that way by an ill doctor or nurse, and he cautiously headed inside, gagging at the smell of rotted flesh that hit him seconds before he saw the nurse laying on the floor against a wall, keys still in her mostly decomposed hands. He reached down and pulled the keys out of her hand, gagging again at the smell.
Ryan ignored his reflex to get out of there as he went to the drug cabinets and unlocked them, whistling at how well stocked they still were. He pulled Summer's list out and began pulling the bottles out and putting them into the trunk in neat rows. He grabbed all that he could find of each type of pills, then went on to the liquid medications, packing them with even more care, the same with a couple boxes of still sealed and sterilized syringes. There was still room left, the trunk only about half filled, so he took that one back to the ER and began collecting trauma kits and suture kits from the trauma rooms. When he found a hand pump for giving oxygen, he added it to the trunk before he headed for the hospital laundry to grab sets of scrubs, figuring if someone was hurt bad those would be cleaner than clothing worn everyday, and it would lessen some of the risks.
It was bad enough that it was a 17 year-old girl who would most likely be performing any medical care beyond putting a band-aid on an owwie, since Summer was the only one of them to ever have seen doctors working in reality, as opposed to on TV. They didn't need added risks of infection if there was anything they could do to prevent it. Ryan knew that after the hospital, his next stop would be Newport College's book store to grab medical textbooks on every subject possible, so that Summer could keep studying and hopefully know what she needed to know if anything happened.
After filling and locking the medicine filled trunk, Ryan loaded it into the SUV and put the other trunk on the gurney, heading back in to grab equipment like stethescopes, slings, soft braces for both arms and legs, and everything else that looked even remotely useable. They could always leave some of it behind if Summer decided they didn't need it, but Ryan would rather be safe than sorry, so he grabbed everything he could.
He was almost done, and doing a final sweep of the hospital, when he discovered two dead security officers and a dead cop in the lounge. He backed out quickly, not noticing that all three of their holsters were empty, and that the cop had been shot twice in the chest and head.
Nor did he notice, as he shoved the last of his gathered supplies into the back of the SUV and slid behind the wheel, that someone was watching him from the roof of a nearby building, gun aimed and ready.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Author: Mara
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Mentions of violence, sex, underage drinking, character death, murder, and other nasty stuff. Nothing graphic. Yet. (I'll warn for specific chapters if I'm gonna get graphic... and then it'll be for violence and gore... lol)
Summary: Most of the world is either dead or Crazy, but in California a group of survivors tries to find a way to avoid both fates.
Notes: Sorry for the delay in putting this chapter out... go here for why there was a delay... check the comments to get the update on it, but the jist is, everything is okay, no worries.
Note #2: No quote this time... I lost all the quotes I'd collected for this fic, and I don't feel like making people wait hours more to read it... lol... I may not have a quote every chapter anymore, but I still plan on having most chapters start with a quote... lol
PART SIX
Zach rode with Luke in the rover to the mall, leaving Ryan to lead the way alone in the new SUV. Ryan wasn't entirely sure how he felt about Zach joining them, since the boy didn't seem like he'd be much use with a gun or with anything else besides getting in the way. But, then again, Luke had seemed the same only to learn to shoot with good accuracy after just a relatively quick lesson. Ryan was willing to admit he'd been wrong once, and maybe he was wrong this time, too, even though he had a feeling he wasn't.
When they got to the mall, Ryan pulled up right by the main entrance and led the way inside, his gun already out of it's holster as he scanned the both levels, watching for any movement. He wondered briefly if it wouldn't have been a better idea to stop at the gun shop first, pick up more guns so they could arm Zach, but dismissed it when he saw how casual Zach was about just strolling in without looking around first.
Ryan shot a look at Luke, who looked at Zach and whinced. "Zach, man, just hang back while we check it out," Luke said. "There could be Crazies around."
"Why would they come into the mall?" Zach asked.
"I found one trying to kill her daughter here," Ryan said, gesturing with one hand towards the decaying body of Jessie's mother. "Shot her and got the kid out of here. I guess she starved to death, because she was still alive when I left."
"That's... that's cold, man."
"Let's repeat," Ryan said, going past the woman's body to pick up the backpack he'd discarded that day. "She was gonna kill her daughter. A 9 year-old girl."
"So that's Jessie's mom," Luke said, looking down at the body. "Should we, like... cover her or something? Give her some dignity for Jessie's sake?"
"Yeah," Ryan agreed. "Tell you what, you and Zach find a sheet, I'm gonna go start loading up. I think there's a place with vitamins and stuff on the second level."
~~~~
Ryan found the fitness store he was looking for, and started pulling items from the shelves. Protein shakes and bars were among the first items to go into the bag, because while it might not be healthy to live on the stuff alone, they needed to get some protein into their systems that had grown used to beef jerky as their best source of it. He added some energy drinks, deciding that if nothing else they might help keep him awake while driving, then zipped the bag closed and headed out again to find the next useful store.
Two down was a toy store, and he wandered in to grab a couple travel games for the kids. He also grabbed a stuffed bunny for Marnie, who's dolls and stuffed toys kept getting destroyed, and since he suspected Josh was responsible for Marnie's teddy bear loosing an arm, Ryan also grabbed a bear for Josh, figuring that if they both had one there wouldn't be any fights. He glanced down at the two stuffed animals before putting them in the bag, wondering what Trey would think of him picking up dolls for little kids.
The thought of his big brother brought a wave of pain over him, thinking that Trey was almost certainly dead, starved to death in jail when the guards got sick and died. Did he have to huddle at the back of the cell to avoid the reach of guards who'd become Crazies? Or worse maybe Trey went crazy and was left locked up in his cell, loosing it and growing violent. Would Trey have hurt himself when he couldn't get to others?
"Yo, Chino," Luke said as he walked up with Zach, both of them looking confused. "You okay?"
"Just thinking," Ryan replied, only noticing then that there were tears on his face. "Wondering what my brother would think of me now. Which made me realize that even if he's immune like me, he probably starved to death in his cell."
Luke grimaced. "We... we could check."
"He's in Chino, Luke," Ryan replied. "It's a waste of time."
"Not if..."
"If he got sick, then he's died early on. If he's immune, then he starved to death. If he was affected, then he's gone crazy," Ryan said. "No matter which, he'd either dead or not my brother anymore. So there's no point. Time's better spent getting supplies and getting the hell away from Newport."
"How can you be so cold about it?" Zach asked.
"People are dead, and if we don't get somewhere safe more people are going to be dead," Ryan replied. "I'm cold about it because I know it and someone's gotta think without emotion if we want any of us to stay alive. And I'm not gonna lose anyone else."
"Yeah," Luke agreed. "So, uh... where do we go next? What's on the list?"
"Clothes," Ryan said, leading the way towards a store across the way. "Don't worry about sizes, just grab everything that makes sense for the mountains. We need warm stuff. I'm heading over to the camping supply place, grab extra blankets and maybe a camp stove, so we can have hot food on the trip."
"We gonna sleep in the rover and SUV every night?" Luke asked, making a face.
Ryan sighed and hesitated before shaking his head. "I'll grab some tents, too. Once we're far enough out from any town that there's no signs of any people, then we can give camping a try. Alright?"
"Sounds good to me," Luke said.
"Good," Ryan said before gesturing at the clothing store then heading back down to the first level.
"Why do you follow his orders?" Zach asked.
"He knows what to do better than the rest of us, do," Luke replied, shrugging, as he walked into the store and started yanking clothes off the racks and shoving them into a bag.
~~~~
Ryan used the extra set of keys to put most of the stuff he collected into the rover, and when it was full he sent Luke and Zach back to the house to empty it, then send Alex out to get guns and ammo. Meanwhile, Ryan headed back into the mall to gather the items on the private list Kirsten had given him. He headed straight for the department stores furniture department and found one of the big carts they used to move around boxes, taking it to select several decorative trunks and take them out into the mall. Two of them were immediately loaded into the SUV, meant to be filled with medical supplies from the hospital, but the third he took to another store in the mall.
He wasn't the type to shop in a fancy baby store, even when he bought things for he and Theresa's baby he had jsut gotten them in the baby department of Wal-mart or somewhere similiar. But Newport had baby stores, and Kirsten had mentioned this one when she gave him the list that he had told Luke was private.
Kirsten was 3 month pregnant, had barely found out and told Sandy before the Virus came, and never got the chance to tell Seth. She'd wanted to keep it quiet until things ahd calmed down, and now she had entrusted Ryan alone with the news because she didn't want the others worrying about her, but she wanted to make sure she had everything she needed for the baby when it came. She'd also mentioned making sure there was extra, because sooner or later, in her words preferably much later, there would probably be more babies being born to their group. Ryan had blushed, knowing she meant he and Summer, but agreed that it was neccesary, but they would mention that to the others either, not wanting to make it seem like Kirsten was giving permission.
So Ryan was in a place were a baby t-shirt cost $50, carefully packing the trunk with clothes, baby monitors, two cloth baby backpacks, bottles, pacifers, and baby blankets with bunnies, ducks, and stars on them. He made sure to arrange things carefully, removing the backpacks from their boxes so they took up less room, and filled the trunk until he could barely get it closed. Then, he slipped a padlock through the latch, and put the key on a chain around his neck, planning on giving it to Kirsten and Kirsten alone when he dropped off his load of supplies.
~~~~
When Luke and Zach pulled up to the Cohen house, Alex opened the door and raised an eyebrow. "You bringing home strays now?" she asked.
"Ryan said I could," Luke replied. "This is Zach."
Alex nodded. "I'm Alex," she said with a nod towards Zach. "Where is Ryan? Kirsten's not feeling well, and Summer's freaking..."
"Someone's sick?" Zach asked, panic clear on his face.
"Not that kinda sick," Alex replied. "She's just puking a little and has a slight fever. Summer thinks it's food poisoning, but since Ryan and Kirsten had the same thing for breakfast, she's worried that he's sick, too."
"I don't think food poisoning works that fast..." Zach said.
"It might if you never ate lunch or dinner the previous day," Alex said. "And Ryan doesn't eat much, he saves it for the rest of us, so... it could hit him hard and fast."
"He seemed fine when we were finishing up loading the rover," Luke said as he hefted a bag from the back and slung it over one of Zach's shoulders, catching the other boy's arm before he could go inside, and handing him another bag. Luke grabbed two more bags for himself, and handed Alex one, then the trio headed inside. "Said that once we unload, he wants us to wait here, and you're suppose to go get weapons and ammo."
"Sounds good to me," Alex agreed. "Hey, we've got a new arrival," she called to the others as they set the bags on the livingroom floor, catching the attention of Kaitlin and the kids.
"Kirsten's throwing up again," Jessie said. "Is she gonna be okay?"
"I'm sure she will, shorty," Luke replied.
"Where's Ryan? Is he sick too?" Jessie pressed.
"He was fine when we left him," Luke said. "Kaitlin, Jessie, Josh, and Marnie, this is..."
"Zach?!" Summer yelled as she walked back into the livingroom with a pale and shaky Kirsten.
"We found him down near the car lot," Luke said with a grin as Summer hugged Zach. "Invited him to join us, and here he is."
"Another big strong man to do heavy lifting," Summer teased. Then she turned serious and looked over at Luke. "Where's..."
"The new SUV wasn't full yet, so he stayed at the mall, and then he said he was gonna go fill your medical wish list, and then I think he said a food run if he still had room after getting that stuff," Luke explained. "Before you ask, Ryan's fine. No signs of food poisoning."
"I'm sure he's fine," Kirsten said. "Ryan has tried some of my cooking and survived, so even if the food was bad, I'm sure it won't make him sick."
"I'm going out for weapons and ammo as soon as the rover's unloaded," Alex told Summer. "I can look for Ryan after that, check on him for you."
"I'd appreciate it," Summer said, biting her lip.
~~~~
At the hospital, Ryan put one of the trunks on a gurney and quickly found the hospital pharmacy. The door was wide open, probably left that way by an ill doctor or nurse, and he cautiously headed inside, gagging at the smell of rotted flesh that hit him seconds before he saw the nurse laying on the floor against a wall, keys still in her mostly decomposed hands. He reached down and pulled the keys out of her hand, gagging again at the smell.
Ryan ignored his reflex to get out of there as he went to the drug cabinets and unlocked them, whistling at how well stocked they still were. He pulled Summer's list out and began pulling the bottles out and putting them into the trunk in neat rows. He grabbed all that he could find of each type of pills, then went on to the liquid medications, packing them with even more care, the same with a couple boxes of still sealed and sterilized syringes. There was still room left, the trunk only about half filled, so he took that one back to the ER and began collecting trauma kits and suture kits from the trauma rooms. When he found a hand pump for giving oxygen, he added it to the trunk before he headed for the hospital laundry to grab sets of scrubs, figuring if someone was hurt bad those would be cleaner than clothing worn everyday, and it would lessen some of the risks.
It was bad enough that it was a 17 year-old girl who would most likely be performing any medical care beyond putting a band-aid on an owwie, since Summer was the only one of them to ever have seen doctors working in reality, as opposed to on TV. They didn't need added risks of infection if there was anything they could do to prevent it. Ryan knew that after the hospital, his next stop would be Newport College's book store to grab medical textbooks on every subject possible, so that Summer could keep studying and hopefully know what she needed to know if anything happened.
After filling and locking the medicine filled trunk, Ryan loaded it into the SUV and put the other trunk on the gurney, heading back in to grab equipment like stethescopes, slings, soft braces for both arms and legs, and everything else that looked even remotely useable. They could always leave some of it behind if Summer decided they didn't need it, but Ryan would rather be safe than sorry, so he grabbed everything he could.
He was almost done, and doing a final sweep of the hospital, when he discovered two dead security officers and a dead cop in the lounge. He backed out quickly, not noticing that all three of their holsters were empty, and that the cop had been shot twice in the chest and head.
Nor did he notice, as he shoved the last of his gathered supplies into the back of the SUV and slid behind the wheel, that someone was watching him from the roof of a nearby building, gun aimed and ready.
TO BE CONTINUED...
