Episode 8: Tied

Episode 8

"Tied"

(Jeff)

I sat out on the porch with Kayla and Samantha. It was morning time, and we were just trying to enjoy our morning. Samantha kept telling Kayla about her past before the apocalypse while I peered out at the perimeter, thinking of ways to make more defences to combat Lockwood. Maybe we could build a fence to slow down Lockwood, but that would be pointless and I know it. Lockwood would just knock it down like nothing. I don't even think it is possible to fight someone with hundreds of soldiers when you only have a few of your own. No amount of defences are going to save us from Lockwood.

"Remember that one time when we tried hosting a baby shower for Kayla?" Samantha asked, looking at me.

She had to ask again because I was distracted, in my own little world, replaying all the different scenarios of a Lockwood attack in my head.

"Uh, oh yeah. Yeah. I remember. It was a mess wasn't it?" I forced a laugh.

"We also thought you were going to be a boy," Samantha laughed, looking at Kayla now, "I was certain you were going to be a boy. We had a room set up all for a boy, it was painted blue and had race car stickers on the wall and everything."

Kayla didn't talk much to her, she just sat there and listened. I was afraid that she didn't respect Samantha. I don't think she sees her as a parent, because she's only known her for a small time before her kidnapping, then she just recently returned after Kayla has already been through so much. The thing Kayla has been through, she's emotionless, and I think she is completely opposite from Samantha. I could tell Samantha was trying very hard to make a conversation with her, but it just wasn't working. Kayla was a lot like me, she didn't like worrying about the things that don't matter, instead focusing on survival. She was probably worrying about Lockwood as well.

Samantha eventually gave up, she too realized that her conversation was going nowhere. She gave out a slight sigh and rested her head in her arms, staring out into the tree line like I was.

"That was pretty selfish wasn't it," she said, "I should stop bragging so much about the life before the apocalypse. I know you didn't get to experience much of it Kayla, but I keep bringing it up because that was the only time we had together."

"It's fine, I don't think I would fit in the past world anymore anyways. This is the only world I know."

Samantha hugged Kayla, but she didn't hug back. She kind of just let her do it. Samantha quickly let go after she realized Kayla probably didn't like that.

"What if we tie stranglers to trees out in the forest?" Kayla asked, "if we do that, then they could pick off a few soldiers before they got here. It could also work as an alarm system."

My eyes lit up. Kayla was right. An alarm system was a brilliant idea. The stranglers will scream if they see the soldiers, we will hear the screams and we will be able to snap into action and be ready for them before they even get here.

"That's actually a great idea." I said.

"Really?" Kayla's eyes lit up as well.

"Yeah," I said, standing up, "I'm going to schedule a meeting and we'll get everyone's inputs on this. Maybe we can come up with some more ideas. Anything that can help us."

About half an hour later Mark and Bay woke up and I gathered them around outside to get the meeting started. I stood on the porch and everybody else stood on the front lawn looking at me.

"We need to start thinking of some more defence tactics. Mark thought of the idea of using glass bottles with blood, and now Kayla has thought of another tactic. We're thinking we're going to start tying stranglers to trees, that way when the soldiers move through the forest the stranglers will see them and scream. It will act as an alarm system for us. Giving us those extra few minutes to get ready."

Everyone looked around and nodded, it was a good idea. An alarm system would catch Lockwood off guard and give us an advantage in time. The only problem is that an alarm system will only go so far, us having extra time might not even matter when they have hundreds of men coming our way. It's going to be messy when they eventually do show up.

"So," I said, "does anyone else have any other ideas on other ways we can improve our defence?"

There was another long pause, nobody said anything. Everyone all kind of just looked around waiting for the other person to come up with an idea.

"We could build locks on the doors just incase Lockwood gets too close to the mansion and tries to get in." Mark suggested.

"No, if Lockwood wants in they'll get in. A couple of door locks aren't about to stop them."

"Neither is an alarm system, it's just the little things we need to put together to try to make them capturing us a little bit more difficult." Mark argued.

"I'll think about it, does anyone else have any ideas?" I asked.

"Do we still have Cora's machine gun?" Bay asked.

"Yeah, we do it's in the armoury."

"Let's use that," she said, "we could set it up on the roof and mow down as many soldiers as we can. It would certainly slow them down when trying to get to the mansion."

"Alright, we'll do that. Any other suggestions?" I asked.

There was silence again, and I decided that what we had so far was good. We can think of more tactics later, it's best to get these defences set up as soon as possible.

"Alright, thank's for pitching in. Mark and Samantha, I want you two to help me gather up some stranglers in the back of the truck. We'll transport them to different spots of the forest, where we'll tie them up to trees."

Mark nodded and went to the garage to start up the truck. Samantha on the other hand, didn't look too excited.

"Jeff," she said, "I don't do well around stranglers. I don't think I can do it."

"Mark will be with you," I tried comforting her, "I want you to get more comfortable with them. Nobody likes stranglers, but we need to learn how to deal with them. There is a lot you can learn out there."

"Alright," she sighed, "if that's what you want."

I walked over and hugged her. I don't think I was being too strict, it's true that Samantha is the weaker one of the group, and it's because she was behind Lockwood's walls all this time. She wasn't used to the stranglers. But if we are going to keep surviving, she needs to start getting more comfortable with them. They're really not that bad once you know how to handle them. The real enemy is Lockwood, not the stranglers.

(Samantha)

I hopped in the passenger seat of the truck while Mark took the drivers seat. We drove out of the garage and through the front yard slowly. I was nervous, and I think he could tell.

"It'll be fine. Stranglers are dumb. If I've made it this far on one arm, you'll do just fine."

"If-if you s-say so." I stuttered.

Mark parked right next to the forest and turned the truck off. He opened his door and climbed out of the truck, I got out of the truck as well, following what he did.

"Alright," he said, "let's go find us some stranglers. Do you have your knife?"

I checked where my sheath was, the right side of my hip. Check. I nodded.

"Okay," Mark pulled his knife out and peered over into the forest, "let's go find us some stranglers."

He headed into the forest and I followed. I stayed really close to him in fear of being grabbed by a strangler if I was too far away from Mark. He's more experienced in the apocalypse than I am, hell everyone at the mansion is. Even my own daughter who I have completely lost track of how old she is.

Mark stopped and crouched, I did the same. He looked over at me and put a finger over his lips, signalling me not to make a noise. He then slowly pointed over at two stranglers walking around in the forest. They were making grunting noises as they walked.

"Alright, I'll get one, you get the other. You got this?" he asked me.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded slowly. I don't think I got this, but I'll try. Mark slowly started creeping towards the stranglers. We got really close to them, they didn't hear us.

I got my knife ready and Mark counted down from three on his fingers. Once he reached one, I charged. I didn't know what I was doing, I knew that if I hesitated I would mess this all up, so I didn't think and just charged. I tackled one of the stranglers to the ground and Mark stabbed the other in the leg with ease. The strangler fell down and Mark was quick to subdue it with some rope. I struggled to fight my strangler, and I saw Mark just standing back and watching. What was he doing? Why wasn't he helping? I kept struggling until I finally managed to drive the knife into the stranglers arm, weakening the stranger enough so I could get out of it's way and tie it down. I have taken down stranglers before so I don't know why this was so hard. I guess my nerves flare up when I'm put under pressure.

"Mark what the hell? Why didn't you help out? I could have died!" I yelled.

"I wanted to see you do it. You'll learn nothing if I just do everything for you."

"So you're completely fine with just letting me die for the sake of learning?"

"I would have jumped in if I didn't think you could do it. You won the fight, did you not?"

I sighed and walked over to the strangler which was twitching violently in the rope and started lugging it back to the truck. Mark let out a little laugh as he went to go lug his strangler back over to the truck as well.

This continued on for a long time, it wasn't until sundown that we finally had all the stranglers rounded up in the truck box. I was paranoid the whole time that the stranglers were going to break out of the rope, but they never did. Now all we had to do was tie the stranglers to the trees. This was going to be fun.

(Jeff)

I sat on the porch with a candle on the table next to me. Doug sat next to me and just stared out at the tree line as did I. I wonder when Samantha and Mark were going to get back. I knew this process was going to take some time but I was starting to get worried. Samantha isn't used to this world yet, and Mark has been acting up lately. I don't know how well he could protect her if something were to happen. What if some Lockwood soldiers spotted them out there? What if some angry bandits that survived the war came back? What if they were just simply killed by stranglers? I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. I couldn't think like this, it was only going to make things worse. I'm sure they're fine. I pet Doug on the head and reached down on the porch to pick up some empty beer bottles. I sighed once again while examining the beer bottle in my hand. Using strangler blood as a weapon was a good idea, but it was a very costly one. So many innocents were going to die in Lockwood if this worked. All that blood would be on my hands. It would be on Mark's hands too, but honestly I don't think he cares. Being in this world has changed me, it's changed me a lot. I have turned into a killer, and a leader of a group. But there is one thing that has never seemed to leave me, and that is my guilt. I still have guilt if I do something bad, and I don't think it's leaving anytime soon. What's more important though? Being able to defend ourselves against Lockwood one time while killing innocents, or giving up and losing the mansion? I know that if we do pull off defending the mansion, Lockwood will just hit back harder. They will keep hitting back until there will be that one day where the defences won't work, there will just be too many soldiers. It's bound to happen someday.

After waiting for about another hour on the porch with Doug, I saw the headlights of the truck getting closer and closer. I sighed a sigh of relief, I really didn't want to spend a night missing even more of our people. The truck got to the garage and turned off. Samantha and Mark walked out onto the porch, pulling up some chairs and sitting with me.

"We did it." Mark said.

Samantha looked shaken up, and I wasn't surprised. I was proud of her though, she went out of her comfort zone. Soon enough, she will be like the rest of us.

"You did good you guys." I said.

"There are stranglers everywhere out there, no more going out into the forest, that's for sure." Samantha said.

"Yeah, I'll have to tell Kayla that in the morning," I said, "I know how she likes to go exploring."

"What if she doesn't listen?"

"She'll listen, she's adventurous, but she's not stupid."

We went inside that night and everybody went to sleep. I was eager to get started on some more defences in the morning. For now, I tried enjoying the night with Samantha. I wanted to enjoy every moment I had with her.