Episode 8: Community

Episode 8

"Community"

(This Part of the Story is From Jake's Point of View)

I heard about it all when I was on the job. It was lunch break, and I was sitting with my other security guard buddies. There were four of us huddled up at a small lunch table eating sandwiches. A nerdy looking scientist walked by, my buddies and I laughed as he walked past. We were dicks, but we couldn't help it. He walked past the table, with his back hunched over, carrying a laptop. I read his name tag, Ned.

"Yo guys," I said to the other guards, "His name is Ned."

All of us started laughing like crazy, smacking the table and almost choking on our sandwiches. Ned acted like he didn't hear us and quickly walked away. As we were laughing our asses off, my younger sister Jess came in. She was carrying bags of Chinese food. She came down and sat with us at our table.

"This table is for workers only, no visitors. Serious business." I joked.

"Let her sit here." one of my friends said, then he whistled.

"You guys are pigs, here I brought you some better food. It was weird getting it though, one of the workers were having a mental breakdown or something. Attacked some waiters, good thing I got out in time." Jess handed me a bag of Chinese food.

"Thanks, I guess you can sit here." I said, digging in.

"Were you making fun of that Ned guy again?" Jess asked, "I saw you guys laughing, and he looked nervous."

"No."

Jess stared at me, she was good at finding liars.

"Ok maybe." I admitted.

"You guys are dicks, honestly. Give him a break, he probably makes more money than you anyways."

"Hey, you don't get to joke about that." I said.

"It's true."

"Yeah but at least my job is easy," I said, "Your job sucks."

"What do you do again?" One of my friends asked her.

"Pilot."

"Wow!" Another one of my friends shouted, "You're even hotter now."

"Come on guys," I said, "She's my sister."

There was a roar outside, it sounded weird. It was then followed by a bunch more, and people screaming for their lives. I ran and looked out the window. There were a couple crazy looking people outside. They had veins that were all red, and they were chasing other innocent people. I pulled out my gun and headed outside, with my friends following me. Jess stayed inside. A strangler spotted me and ran for me, I shot it in the kneecap. It fell over, but then got up like it was nothing.

"The hell?" I asked, I shot it again, this time in the stomach.

It shook it off and got closer to me, a bullet went through it's head. I turned to see one of the other guards have saved me.

"The hell is this shit?" I asked.

"I don't know, but I don't think we should be out here." a guard yelled, we all ran inside.

I locked the door and looked out the window again, everyone in the break room looked very scared.

"It's okay," I lied, "We'll just stay here, okay?"

"Jake what is going on out there?" Jess asked me.

"I don't know, but it isn't right."

There was a crash at the back door, and a bunch of those crazy people started piling in. The attacked scientists, and people scattered everywhere. I grabbed Jess, and unlocked the front door, we needed to go. Other security guards were strangled, and ripped apart right in front of our eyes. I then saw Ned backing away into a corner as two stranglers ganged up on him. I turned and shot both of them through the head, I feel it was the least I could do for him. He jumped over the bodies and tagged along with us out of fear.

"We need to leave this place." I said.

We rushed out of the area, the three of us. We survived a couple days on the road, then found a mall. That's how we started this place.

(This Part of the Story is From Jeff's Point of View)

That night, we all went to sleep. Since Jake and Jess only had the food court held off, this was the only room we were aloud in. They didn't clear out the whole mall, so there still might be a risk of stranglers wandering around the mall. Jake said he wanted to clear the whole mall out someday, but for now this will have to do. This place did have a lot of sleeping bags though, I grabbed one and curled up in it. I made sure I placed my sleeping bag close to Kayla's, I still need to keep an eye on her. Our whole group pretty much stayed close, we all huddled up in sleeping bags together. I made sure Wendy stayed far away, I might be over judging her, but I still need to be careful, Jess and Jake sounded serious when they told me to stay away from her. I closed my eyes, and eventually fell asleep. I had another dream about Samantha, this time there was no bright light. I was watching her, like a birds eye view. She was in pain and struggling, she was sitting at a really nice couch, a white leather one. She was in a nice room, and looked like she had everything, but she looked scared and hurt. I wanted to come down and help her, but once again I couldn't move. A man walked in the room, I didn't get a good look at him though. All I could see was that he had black hair, and a blue suit on. Then the dream faded.

I woke up sweating, I looked around me and saw everyone was awake. They were eating breakfast. I got out of my sleeping bag and sat down at a table with Sabrina and Kayla. I noticed Brandy eating with Jamie, they must have had food that didn't have dairy in it. That's good, now we don't have to worry about feeding him anymore. Jake and Jess have this all covered.

"Hey, you're up." Sabrina said.

"Yeah." I said, my voice was shaky.

"You sound worried." Sabrina asked, taking a bite out of an apple.

"It's nothing," I said, "I just didn't sleep too well."

Jake then stood on a table and whistled. Everyone looked at him.

"May I have everyone's attention?" he asked.

We all listened.

"This is something Jess and I have been thinking about for a while now, we want to start giving people jobs. We need to get a community running, and simply to give something for people to do. So we have talked it over, and we have already decided jobs for everyone."

Sabrina looked at me, she looked excited.

"Alright," Jake pulled out a list, "Jeff Jones and Patrick, you guys will be the watchmen. You can watch on the roof throughout parts of the night. Jess and I will watch the roof other parts of the night, to give you guys a break."

"Sounds good." Patrick agreed.

"Alright, now for everyone else. Sabrina and Jamie, you two will be the farmers. We are going to start a greenhouse on the roof and grow some vegetables. It's going to be great. Mark, you will be our therapist. Since we've heard that you were one before this all started, you can help people get through incidents they have had. Winston will be gunsmith. He will tend to the guns we have here and make sure they're ready for battle if we ever need it. Heather will be the cook, and Ned will be the brains of this whole group. He will decide how each process gets done, so for example, if we go on a run for supplies he will plan which route we take and how it's done. and that concludes it. The survivors under the age of eighteen will not have a job. Julie, Brandy, and Kayla will not have to have job yet."

We were all silent, everyone seemed to like the idea of their jobs. I didn't mind mine, a watchman wasn't too bad.

"Where's my job?" Wendy asked, she seemed hurt.

Jake had to do some quick thinking.

"Um, well Wendy, you don't have to do anything. Okay?"

It was obvious nobody trusted her here, I really wonder why people were so afraid of me, but then I found out.

Wendy sat up and kicked a table, Winston got up and tried to stop her from freaking out but she pushed him backwards. She ran out of the food court crying.

"Shouldn't we stop her? Aren't there stranglers in other parts of the mall?" I asked.

"She's fine," Jake said, "When she gets mad she always does this. She runs away and comes back an hour later calmed down."

"Maybe if you guys were nicer to her she wouldn't freak out as often, ever think of that?" Sabrina asked.

"We tried that, she almost killed Jess. She-" Jake was cut off.

"Don't tell them!" Jess said.

"Sorry, let's just say that Wendy is crazy, not to be trusted. She's a human being though, and she deserves a home."

Jake got off of the table and walked away with Jess.

"That concludes it!" he yelled. "Everyone starts their new job today! Jeff and Patrick start their new job tonight!"

Later that day, I watched as Jamie and Sabrina started their planting job on the roof. They dragged bags of soil to the roof, and got ready to prepare a little farm. Jake helped them build their own greenhouse. It wasn't really a greenhouse, but had the same purpose. They had big long buckets that they would fill with dirt. It was around the same size as a pig feeder. They found them in the storage room and brought them to the roof. Once they had about four of those up there filled with dirt, they started planting. Jake already had some tomato seeds ready, along with some green beans. That was all we could grow right now, we would find some more seeds throughout the mall later. They brought water buckets up there so they could water it whenever the needed to. Their job was now up and running, and all we needed to do now was wait for it to grow. I saw Mark already talking to some people, he was talking to Julie, and helping them get over traumatic incidents. I walked up to the roof where Patrick was, he was watching the road with a silenced gun.

"You know we don't start out shift until night." I said.

"Yeah I know," he said, "But I like doing this, it's almost instinct now. I can't help wanting to protect this place. It's a perfect place, we can't lose it."

"Agreed." I said, I picked up anther silenced rifle and helped guard with him.

"So," I began, "I've been wanting to tell you this."

"Yeah?" Patrick asked.

"Well, Jake has told me about this laboratory. It is on the other side of Toronto, but if they can get to it, they will find more out about the stranglers. He thinks some scientists might still be there, and if we find more out about the stranglers, we we be able to find their weaknesses. The apocalypse will be a hell of a lot easier for us."

"I'm all for it, so when are they planning heading out to it?"

"Jake says in about two weeks, they still need to do some planning. Ned is working on a safe route to get there." I said.

There was a scream, and a banging at the food court doors. I ran downstairs with Patrick and to the door. Everyone gathered up behind us with their weapons ready. I flung open the doors and saw Wendy, she ran inside. There were a bunch of stranglers at the door as well. I slammed it in their faces.

"What the hell happened Wendy?" Jake yelled.

"I was going on my walk, and I was attacked. A whole bunch of them chased me!"

"So you led them back here?" Jess yelled.

"I'm sorry!"

"How many are out there?"

"Maybe ten?"

"Shit," I said, I got my silenced rifle ready, Patrick did the same, "Let's take them down then."

Jake and Jess also grabbed some guns, everyone else stood back, Patrick opened the door and ran back. Tons of stranglers poured in, we opened fire.

"Aim for the chest or the head!" I yelled.

I ran out of ammo after a couple shots, I wasn't fully loaded to begin with.

"Pass me a mag!" I yelled, Winston ran to his gunsmith table and threw me a matching mag to my gun.

I loaded it into my gun and started firing again, we kept doing this until they were all gone. I ran over and slammed the door shut. We saved this place, thank god.

"Thank the lord for silenced weapons!" Winston cheered.

"Now we have to dispose of all these bodies." I plugged my nose.

I looked up and my heart dropped, I saw Wendy holding a gun to Brandy's head. She has gone completely mad.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

She laughed nervously, "You guys all think I'm a failure," she said, "You treat me like I'm so different than everybody else! Screw you guys! Maybe this will teach you to respect me!"

"No!" I yelled.

She was then shot in the leg, she dropped her gun and Brandy got away. I turned my head to see who fired the gun, it was Kayla. She saved Brandy. Wendy screamed and dropped to the floor holding her leg in pain.

"Bitch." Kayla said.