Episode 6: Preparation

Episode 6

"Preparation"

(Jeff)

"The threat of Lockwood is becoming more deadly every day." I announced to everyone.

It was morning, I had woken everybody up and told them we had to have a very important meeting. I was standing on the porch and they were standing in the grass facing me.

"We can't just stand by and do nothing about it. We need to start taking action. We don't have the manpower to fight them head on in a war, no way. So we need to use some tricks. We need to build defences that will at least shift the odds in some way during an attack."

"What are you thinking?" Bay asked.

"I'm not sure yet, I'm thinking of building a fence. Even though that won't do much, I need you guys to start pitching in ideas. Anything that will help us fight Lockwood, feel free to share it."

Nobody said anything, it was a long silence of just people standing around oblivious. I don't think they were taking this seriously.

"Anything?" I asked.

"We could start having shifts, there must be a person on the watchtower at all times," Bay suggested, breaking the silence, "if Lockwood attacks at night, we will be ready."

"Alright, good idea," I said, "anyone willing to take night shifts from now on?"

"I'll do it." Bay said with her hand up.

"If Bay's doing it, I'm doing it too." Kayla jumped in.

I looked over at Samantha, I wasn't sure if that was a good idea. Should Kayla be out there at night with Bay? Samantha shrugged, she didn't know if it was a good idea either. Kayla must have seen my concerned look, because she tried convincing me.

"Please dad? I'll be safe I promise! I'll be with Bay at all times!"

I sighed and nodded, I guess she would be fine. What's the worst that could happen? She'll be up on a watchtower, and she'll be equipped with a gun.

"Alright," I said, "but if you see anything suspicious, you run inside immediately and notify everyone. You understand?"

"Yes!" Kayla said, nodding her head very fast.

"Does anyone have any other ideas? Anything?" I asked.

There was another long silence period, nobody was saying anything. I got frustrated, we need to be serious about this, Lockwood could attack anytime. Hell, they could attack today if they wanted to.

"Start thinking about it," I said, "tell me if you think of anything worth using against Lockwood."

I dismissed the meeting, and everyone went on with their days. Samantha and Kayla worked in the garden, Mark worked on cooking lunch for everyone, and Bay scanned the perimeter for any stranglers.

I went downstairs into the basement and rummaged through some stuff. Nobody had any ideas for defending ourselves against Lockwood in case of an attack, but Mark did have an idea. He came to me the other day with the idea of using blood bottles. It may be the best thing we have so far, if we could infect the soldiers, they could infect Lockwood, it would really weaken the place for us. I moved old things around in the basement, looking for any empty glass bottles. That's when I came across a bunch of liquor bottles, they were all full though. They were dusty and behind I bunch of boxes. There were six of them to be exact. I picked them up and examined them. That's when I heard footsteps behind me.

"You're not doing what I think you're doing, are you?" Mark asked, laughing a little.

"No, but I'm thinking of using your idea of the blood bottles. It's the best idea we have yet. The only bottles I've found are full ones though." I waved the liquor bottle around.

Mark grabbed the bottle and opened it up, he then poured it all out of the bottle onto the ground.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Just like you said Jeff, we have to be sober incase of an attack. I've changed, I'm not broken anymore. I want to fix myself. Starting with getting rid of anything like this. We need to be alert, no more liquor."

I stood up and patted Mark on the shoulder, I was proud of him. He reminded me of myself. When Sabrina died, I was broken. I didn't even want to live, I did some pretty horrible things that still haunt me to this day. I have learned to overcome that. Mark is learning too. I joined Mark and we emptied all of the liquor together.

(Kayla)

I was out in the garden with mom, and I couldn't stop thinking about Ned. How could we just leave someone behind? It doesn't matter if we're too small to send out search parties. We still need to stay together, now more than ever. We have been through so much together, I can't believe people are just okay with just leaving Ned to be alone. Someone needs to find him. Mom must have seen my distraught, because she started trying to make me feel better.

"You know, Ned will probably show up any day now. He knows where the mansion is, and if he's made it this far, he's capable of getting home fine."

"I know," I said, "but he might be hurt. We all need a hand once in a while. Even dad does, even though he likes to act like he doesn't."

Mom smiled at me, she then stood up.

"Just stay here, I'll be right back. I just need some water." she then headed back inside the mansion.

I looked over at the forest and thought hard. Should I do it? I looked back at the mansion, and then back at the forest. I stood up and started running for the forest. I was needed to find Ned.

I made it to the forest and started walking around. I didn't want to stray too far away from the mansion, but I didn't want to make this trip for nothing either. Nobody else was gonna search for Ned, so I have to take matters into my own hands.

"Ned?" I called out, there was nothing, I wasn't really expecting an answer anyways.

I saw the burnt part of the forest not too far from here, I started running for it.

When I got to the burnt spot in the forest, I immediately spotted blood on the ground. It looked as if someone was attacked here. The blood was very faint, and washed out. But it was there. It could of easily been from one of the bandits after the attack, but there was no blood anywhere else, just this spot. This had to have happened after the attack, maybe this is where Mark and Ned were attacked. The crazy man with the gas mask must have attacked them here. I was onto something, maybe Mark could help me track Ned down. He knows where he is, I just don't know if Ned is still where Mark left him. He could have moved. I heard footsteps behind me, I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Mom just leave me-" I turned to see two stranglers, they were creeping up behind me, growling very quietly.

"Oh shit." I said, I reached for my pistol and pointed it at them.

Before I could even do anything, both stranglers were shot dead quickly. I turned to see my mom, holding a pistol. I was surprised by this, I thought she was weak. She ran over and hugged me.

"What were you thinking?" she asked, "you know how dangerous the forest is!"

I pulled away from the hug and gave her a look of anger.

"Thank you for taking down the stranglers mom, but you need to trust me. I am stronger than you think, and I'm the only one who seems to be doing anything about Ned's disappearance."

"That's not true, we all want to find him, we just don't have the time."

"Bullshit, it seems like things have been getting worse and worse ever since you showed up!" I stomped out of the forest and headed back to the mansion, I thought I heard my mom crying, but I ignored her and kept walking for the house.

(Samantha)

I stood in the forest alone and cried. Kayla is gone, she really is. She doesn't like me, and she isn't the same little girl anymore. She's an angry, broken person. It destroyed me just thinking about what she has become. I still love her though, but I don't think she loves me back. It took so much courage for me to even kill those two stranglers, I was so scared doing it. During the war with the bandits, I was terrified. I hate killing, because I believe there is good in all people. Even Charlie, but for some people, there is more evil than good and the evil takes over and turns that person into a monster. I don't want that to happen to Kayla. I just want us to be a happy family again, but I know that is never going to happen.

(Kayla)

I ran back to the mansion and immediately ran upstairs for the infirmary. I opened the door to the infirmary and saw Doug lying there on his little bed. He looked fine now, I think he has fully recovered. He did take a hard kick from Ryder back during the war, but I think he's gotten over it.

"Hey pal, you good?" I asked.

He sat up and his ears perked up. I think he wanted to leave the infirmary, I would if I was him. It must be pretty boring up here, just lying here all the time.

"Lets go boy." I said, motioning for him to follow me.

He stood up and walked with me out of the infirmary, we went downstairs and I took him outside for a walk.

I saw mom sitting in the living room when I went for the front door. It looked like she had been crying. Her eyes were red and I saw tear marks on her cheeks. I shrugged it off, she'll get over it. If words hurt her, she is not going to last long. She needs to learn to be strong, or she won't have much longer to live.

I opened the front door and went outside with Doug. I ran through the yard with him, throwing sticks and having him chase me around the mansion. It was nice, Doug was fully recovered and he looked happy. I spent the whole rest of the day just playing with Doug.

(Mark)

Jeff carried a box full of empty glass bottles, they rattled together as he walked up the stairs of the basement and headed for the living room. Samantha and Bay were sitting in the living room talking to each other. I sat down on the couch and Jeff sat beside me, he placed the box on the coffee table. Samantha and Bay looked at the box confused.

"What is this?" Bay asked.

"This is our best weapon against Lockwood." I said proudly.

"Glass bottles?"

"Not just glass bottles," I said, standing up and proudly announcing my plan, "We are going to fill these bottles with infected strangler blood, we throw them at the soldiers, they smash and the shards cut into the soldiers. The blood gets in and they are infected. Easy as that. Then they return to Lockwood and infect more people. It's our best shot at taking them down."

Samantha and Bay looked at each other with concerned with looks, they were both thinking the same thing and I wasn't sure what was so concerning about this.

"Are you sure Mark?" Samantha asked.

"What? Isn't it a good plan?" I asked, kind of offended by this.

"This plan is evil. No matter how much Lockwood deserves to fall, the innocents don't deserve to die. We just want to take out their army and stop them from attacking us. We can't go through with this, killing innocents."

"If we don't do this," I said, "we will all die. Who knows if this plan will even work? I don't. But I am trying to have faith in it, I want it to work. What if we could wipe Lockwood out with a single plague, or at least cripple it? This is our advantage, we have no other way to beat them."

"Jeff, what do you think?" Samantha looked over at Jeff, who was sitting quietly next to me.

He took a minute to think about it, he wasn't sure either.

"I want to do this, but at the same time I know I'm going to have a feeling of guilt and dread following it. I want to beat Lockwood, I really do. It is true I don't feel comfortable doing this, but it is us or them. In this world you have to be cruel, nobody has ever gotten by being the nice guy. I know I'd be long dead if I didn't change. I was weak when this apocalypse first started, I didn't want to hurt anybody, but then I realized that some people have different mind sets. And I have to adapt to it. We have to do this Samantha, or we will die."

Samantha and Bay sat there for a while, just thinking about it. Jeff was right, we needed to do this. Innocents will die, but we have to do it.

"We'll be no better than Lockwood if we go through with this." Samantha said, looking sad.

"Like I said," Jeff said, "Nobody has ever gotten by playing the nice guy act. We have to do this."

Samantha sighed and nodded.

"I guess, whatever you think is best, I'll stand behind you in that choice."

"If there's no other way, then it's the way we are going to have to go." Bay agreed.

"Alright it's settled then," I said, "when Lockwood attacks, they are going to get a surprise."