Sorry about the late post! I'll try to double or maybe even triple post tonight to make up for it.

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Chapter 17: Dead of Night

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John sat up in his blanket bed in the middle of the night. The others had long ago fallen asleep.

However, he could not go to sleep. The stress of having so many lives count on him was starting to weigh down on him. He got up and took his pistol and his sword. Carefully maneuvering his feet around the sleeping bodies to avoid disturbing them, he made his way to the entrance.

As he stepped outside, the cold, crisp air assaulted his face. He took in a deep breath through his nose, holding it for a second before exhaling out of his mouth.

“John? What are you doing out so late?” A voice called from behind him. He turned to see that Abby was standing by the door, looking out.

“I could say the same for you.” He replied, walking towards her

“I’m a light sleeper. I heard a sound so I woke up. I saw you leaving and I followed.” She said. “So what are you doing out here?”

He turned around to look back outside. “I don’t know. Couldn’t get any sleep. Thought I’d come out for some fresh air, watch the stars.”

Abby hesitated before walking outside and sitting next to him. She wrapped her arms around her legs and looked up at the stars as well.

“I decided to join basic training.” She suddenly spoke out. He turned to her, a questioning brow raised.

“You did?”

She nodded. “I wanted to be useful. I’ve been a dead weight up until now and I wanted to change that.”

“You’re not a dead weight.” He said.

“I am. I’m not as experienced at fighting like Sophia or leading like you or cooking like your mom or-” She trailed off. He got the idea.

John sat down next to her. He pulled out a piece of grass, playing with it between his two hands before tossing it.

“You don’t have to be. Everyone has a purpose. Yours is different.”

“How so?” She asked.

He thought for a second.

“You have the light.” He said, remembering what his father had once told him.

“The light?”

“I see you taking care of the kids, talking with the others and making them feel at home. You always bring a smile to their faces. Even in the hell we’re living in, you still hold onto something that’s a lot more precious than what I, Sophia, or anyone else can do.”

“What is that?” She asked curiously.

“Your humanity.” He plainly said. “You still have the light in you. All the good memories of your parents, your family, and the world before are still in you. You’ve got hope, Abby.”

“You do, too. Don’t you, John?” She asked. She didn’t know what he meant and what was so important about hope.

He laughed in defeat. “No. Not for me. All I know how to do is take the next step, keep going. I’m just a walking deadman wait for it all to end.”

Abby shook her head vigorously. “No! That’s wrong. You’re still you, John. Always were and always will. You’ve just lost sight of that.”

John chuckled again before looking out at the stars. “That’s what I’m saying Abby. You’ve got the light. To people like me, who are lost in this nightmare,” He pointed to the stars. “You shine like the stars in the sky, showing us the way back to ourselves.”

She stayed silent and for a long time, their eyes watched the stars.

“You should go in. You’ll catch a cold.” John said after a while. He turned to see that Abby had already fallen asleep. He smiled and gently picked her up in his arms, bringing her back inside. He put her down softly in her bed before making his way back out.

He looked back up at the stars and thought of his father’s words. Where had his light gone? Perhaps it had gone to live amongst the stars, obscured by the passing of an endless sea of clouds. He had no way of clearing those clouds away. His only option was to keep moving forward, waiting for the day the light would once again find him.

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He saw that the two people on guard duty had fallen asleep. Shaking his head, he walked up to them and woke them up. Red faced, they coughed awkwardly and returned to vigilantly observing the surroundings.

John decided to take a walk to cool off his head and so he started off down the narrow stretch of road.

After almost an hour of aimless walking and killing any infected that crossed his path, he decided to turn back. Just when he was about to do so, he glimpsed a young teen standing off to the side of the road.

“Hey, you!” John called out, pulling out his sword and gun. He carried the gun in his left and the sword in his right. As John’s voice rang out, the teen turned around and ran away at an inhuman speed into the underbrush. John gave chase and followed him, slashing through the branches and trees. Soon, he had lost sight of the teen so he gave up. The teen looked as if he was an infected but what caught his attention was how still he seemed. How focused his eyes were. He wasn’t able to see the face clearly, but he could see black veins through the pale skin around the teen’s eyes.

Wondering who or what that could have been, John returned back to the warehouse.

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Later that morning during breakfast, Abby who had been pensively thinking, spoke out. “I think we need uniforms.” She said, still chewing on a banana. The people around her looked up.

“What for?” John’s mother asked.

“Uniforms! Great!” John exclaimed happily.

“Do we have ranks?” Harry asked excitedly.

Abby was taken aback by the sudden slew of responses. She shrugged. “I just think it’s a good team building thing, you know?” She said sheepishly.

Sophia nodded. “We are lacking in gear and protection. If we could get a large amount of kevlar, it would go a long way in helping us fight off any bites or bullets.”

“I heard they have cut-resistant kevlar fiber. It could effectively negate bites.” David added.

“Let’s have it in black! Oh! We could totally make this into a uniform.” John said to himself, as he was taken by the idea. Abby was happy that they seemed to like the idea and she was proud at finally being able to contribute. She secretly pumped her first and mentally jumped for joy.

James walked up to the animated group. “What’s going on? Something happen?”

John placed his hand happily on Abby’s shoulder while smiling. “Abby over here just gave us a great idea.”

Abby blushed and told James the idea. He pensively stroked his beard and nodded. “I guess that’s fine. We can identify our own people better and show organization. It’ll help bring people in.”

“Doubt it” Rick said. The others turned to him. “We’re not some band of soldiers. We’re just regular people. So are the people we’re trying to save. Dressing us up in uniforms, making us do drills, is this a game to you?” He asked. He had these thoughts since the beginning but never let them out. John frowned.

“No. It’s just so we can protect ourselves better.”

“This isn’t doing that. This is....it’s over the top.” Rick said. “Kevlar is a good idea and all but I just want to remind you that we’re normal people, John. We aren’t playing soldiers. The only reason I’m fighting is because I have my boy to protect.” Rick finished what he said and remained silent.

John understood he was getting ahead of himself. “Alright. I’ll keep it in mind. But we still need better gear. I just like the idea of uniforms. Like Abby said, it shows solidarity.”

The others seemed to not mind the idea. Rick just sighed and shrugged.

James saw that Rick was dissatisfied. He offered, “Rick, how about you and I help out here this time?”

Rick looked up. “How so?”

“I heard from John that you used to be an architect. You must have some experience and I used to be a laborer before becoming a general contractor. I’ve been thinking we could reinforce the base, maybe make the fences outside stronger.”

Rick’s mood somewhat improved. He didn’t like fighting if he didn’t have to, so when given a nonviolent alternative, he would gladly take it. He agreed and the two went off to gather a few others to help out. In the end, a team of 6 were assembled including Rick and James.

Four of the construction team would head out to the local home improvement store and see if they could get tools and building materials.

As Rick and James were making the plans, John, Sophia, Abby, and David planned how to get the equipment.

“We should try the police station.” David said. “The most probable place to find kevlar vests are there.”

“What if there are people there?” Abby asked.

“Depends, if they’re friendly, we can ask them to join us. If not, we get out. There’s no point in trying to fight them.”

The four friends went with a few of the others and everyone left to complete their respective tasks.

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As John and the gang took one of the Escalades towards the police station, they noticed a striking lack of infected around the area.

“Do you think they were attracted somewhere?” David asked. “Maybe there were survivors running through and led them all away.”

Sophia shook her head and pointed. “Doubt it. Look.”

As she said, they all slowed down to see a massive pile of bodies burning. It seemed that someone had cleared out this area and burned the bodies to stem the infection.

“It’s like the Plague.” Abby mentioned.

“What?” David asked.

“The Plague. Back in the day, so many people died that they had to burn the bodies. It was to try to stop the spread of the disease. The smell of the bodies were so bad that they had to carry around something to block the smell. That’s what the origin of the song ‘Ring around the rosies’ is about.” She explained. The others were surprised that she was so knowledgeable.

“What? I read.” She defended herself.

“But who could have done it? As far as I know, the military hasn’t been clearing the cities out like this.” David said.

“Let’s keep our eyes peeled.” John replied. They hadn’t seen anyone yet so they carried on towards the direction of the police station.

When they got close, David stopped John. “Stop here. Let’s walk from here.”

When John wanted to ask why, David answered before he could. “There may be people. We can scout first and then work from there.”

They decided to follow his advice to err on the safe side so they parked the car and walked the rest of the way. The lack of infected had made them cautious. A group that could so thoroughly exterminate a large portion of the infected in the area was one that was most likely highly trained and armed. If they were not friends, they would make the most troublesome of enemies.

As they turned the corner on the street, they saw the police station on the other side of the road, one block down. A car drove out of the station and moved down a street. Two guards stood in front. They stopped as they saw two men patrolling the area wearing riot gear. In every sense of the word, they looked like SWAT.

“Should we go? They seem to be well trained. There’s no way we could get anything from there.” Sophia said. John and David nodded in agreement. There was no way, despite their experience, that they could handle going up against trained SWAT. Even in the case that they weren’t police, just by the fact that they cleared out the area, they were deterred from making a confrontation.

“Wait! Maybe they’re good guys like the others. Shouldn’t we at least ask them?” Abby asked.

John shook his head. “Too risky. We can’t expose ourselves to them. All we can do right now is get as much intel on them and leave quietly. Sophia, can you take Abby and go see if you can get a better angle from above on the station?”

Sophia nodded and brought Abby with her. They entered a nearby building and made their way up.

“Let’s see if we can’t get closer to the station” John said.

“I thought you said it was too risky.” David questioned.

“It is, but what isn’t? Are you coming?”

“You crazy bastard. Yeah I’m coming.”

They made their way closer to the station, making sure to stay out of the line of sight. There were a few buildings between them and the station and some of them had partially collapsed under the blast. They hid behind the rubble and cars as they got closer. Soon, they had their backs again . On either side of the front to the station were roadblocks and barbed fencing. Police cars and trucks were parked in front and the two uniformed men were sitting together, sharing a smoke together. The two could hear their voices travelling .

“Did you hear what happened to the Broods?” One rough sounding Irish man said.

“Yeah. The fucks tried to hit the Hill. I heard Rajan’s men killed half of them.”

“Crazy bastards would throw themselves at a grabber if given the chance.” The two laughed but the boys were confused. The Hill as they knew it, was the name the locals would give to the city hall, which, coincidentally, sat on a hill. But who was Rajan and the Broods? They hadn’t seen any sign of this in the few weeks they had been in the outskirts so there must have been more people further in.

A real concern is that the blast seems to have left many people alive, which is frightening because that means the infected weren’t reduced much either. There were too many sudden new variables to keep account of and not enough information. However, neither of the men said much of any importance afterwards.

“You think we should try to take them down?” John asked for David’s thoughts.

After thinking, David shook his head. “Like you said, too risky. We should just turn around, make our way back and pick up other gear on the way.”

Just as they were about to leave, a voice rang out from behind them.

“Well look at that. We’ve got two visitors, boys.”

They swiveled around to see that four men in police uniforms were standing behind them.

“Shit.” John said under his breath.

“Apprehend them, boys.” The lead man said. The guys came up and hit them across the temples with the butt of their rifles and they both lost consciousness.

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John groggily came awake at the sound of a voice.

“Hey. Wake up!” Suddenly a hard slap fell across his left cheek.

“Wha-”

“Shut it.” One of the blurry men said. John couldn’t open his right eye and he felt a throbbing pain from it.

“You boys have been quite naughty.” A voice said. He looked up to see one of the police men walking in front of his chair. He looked around the room to see that it was one of the jail cells and that all of his weapons were taken from him. David was nowhere to be seen but he could hear screaming coming from another cell.

“It’s time we put you under questioning to see just what exactly you were doing snooping around, huh?” The policeman said. He leaned in and with one hand, grabbed John’s face so hard, he could feel his cheeks digging into his teeth.

“Who are you with, boy? The Broods? The Wangs?” John didn’t know what he was talking about so he stayed silent. The policeman grew more serious and whispered. “Are you one of Rajan’s boys? Did he send you?”

John was too out of it to answer or even defend himself.

“Not talkative? Don’t worry. You’ll come around.” The man lifted up a flap on his belt and took out a taser. He turned it on and a crisp buzzing sound of electricity coursed through the air, causing John’s hairs to stand on end. The man shoved the taser straight into his rib, and the jab sent bolts of lightning through every fiber of his body. His fists clenched and he screamed out in agony.

The man leaned in to whisper in John’s ear. “They always talk in the end.” John blacked out as he could no longer resist the pain. He entered the void of unconsciousness under the sound of the man's laughter.