New Beginnings Read online

  "Great, this is going to hurt." I complained and Sestra hits the back of my head and I chuckle about it. We went silent for a while as I start to remember when it was just Sestra and I. I would go out scouting our surroundings in the night with only the full moon's light to show where I was going. When I come back I found her sleeping in a corner. I would always have to cover her in a blanket and this was the time I could never sleep. That was the last day we had our innocence because I walked out the next morning, the entrance was blocked by four zombies. I sat down in front of the entrance, watching them as they scratch at the glass. It was entertaining to watch, until one of them had a rock. With one hit of the rock, the glass cracks. A surge of fear goes through my body as I watch the zombie bring back the rock and hits it against the glass, making a terrifying noise as it cracks more. Suddenly, the zombie drops behind the others as they push on the glass. Soon two more collapse, revealing a boy behind them as he aims for the last one with a hunting rifle with a silencer at the end. He shoots the remaining zombie in the head, then rushes over to the entrance. I look around for a weapon, but had to retreat to the storage room where Sestra was and get a dagger from one on the wall. I then stood in front of Sestra who was still asleep. Tears ran down my cheeks as fear made my arms and legs shake. The boy steps down loudly on the stairs and freezes, seeing me standing my ground with both hands on the dagger, aiming straight up at his throat.

  "Don't come any closer!" I yelled, waking Sestra up and she pushes against the wall with her feet. The boy aims at me through a large, hunting scope and I was waiting for him to shoot me, but he didn't. Instead he slowly set the rifle on the floor and brings out a hunting knife with a cheeky smile on his expression. His cloths were clean and so was his hair. My stomach growled loudly, but all I cared about was Sestra, so I ran at him, dagger aimed at his stomach, but he pushed my hands to the side, cutting my cheek with his knife. I staggered, trying to get my balance back, but when I spun around to face him again, he was walking towards Sestra with the knife pointed down at her.

  "Noo!" I yelled, charging at him as fast as I could. When I got to him, he had the knife pointed at me in a flash and I stopped just in time before running the knife into my throat. I froze with fear, staring up at the boy who looked ten in age.

  "You really think you can protect her, weakling?" He said. That’s when he dropped his knife and walked to the door. "I am only going to say this once. You follow me, then you follow my rules and become strong. You break them, then I kill you." He said. I took his knife and kneeled in front of Sestra, facing him. He stood there, looking down at me for a while.

  "Ok." I said, thinking of how scared and weak we really am. He nodded and walked to the front of the store where a pile of undead was blocking the door. The boy pushed it open like it was nothing.

  "Ten minutes to gather your things and search this place for anything we may need, that includes weapons, we can use those for traps." He orders. I turn back to Sestra and she had closed her eyes and covered her ears. I touched her hands and she punched me straight in the center of my face, knocking me back on my butt. Sighing, I kneeled down to her, touching her hand again and dodging her fist to grab it.

  "Sestra, it's me!" I yelled. When she opened her eyes, and looked up to me, she hugs me. I hugged her back whispering "He's going to make us strong, we have to leave." in her ear. She looked to me. I saw she saw scared, but nodded anyway. In that ten minutes, we gathered some of the food we managed to get, along with a tan cloak, two bows with full quivers, daggers, iron swords, and much more. We followed the mysterious boy through the town and we approached the forest on the East side of town. My instincts told me to stop, but I kept going, following the boy deeper into the forest. We walked for an hour till we came across a shelter of leaves and sticks built into a small hill to camouflage it. We spent months training with swords, bow and arrow, even trapping our food. I remember when we were building smoke grenades and somehow mine went off and I had to throw it as far as I could away from our shelter and air out our home. The boy taught us everything we know, even explosives when we have to defend a place worth defending. "So, what's your name?" I asked when I was building a few grenades, this was when I just mastered this art, but it was the second week we were together.

  "It’s Trevor." He spoke, mouth full of raccoon meat.

  "This is Sestra." I said, gesturing to her "And I'm Alex." I added. He nodded, taking another bite from his raccoon steak.

  Chapter 5:

  Reality

  I flashed back to reality as I struggle to another push-up. It was my tenth, I then let out a loud roar, using the rest of my strength to finish. Sestra stands from my back and we walked to the front of the station with my sword tied to my waist and my other weapons in hand. "How much will our food supplies last if we ration one meal a day?" I asked, still looking out in the world I was sheltered from. Sestra pokes at my shoulder, getting my attention. She then holds up three fingers, then a fist and puts up three fingers again and wiggled them, meaning if three mouths, three weeks. Still worrying, I looked outside to decide where to find supplies and saw a store that didn't look hit. I pointed to it, pressing my finger to the glass. "We may find something there, but first I want to check out the enclave Karla was telling me about." I said, looking past her to see Karla standing in the entry way of the kitchen.

  "I'm coming, there's some hot babes there. Plus, your six may need some cover." She said. Something came to me as I try to connect the dots about her. What she said about Sestra made me wonder why she worded it the way she did, then the hot babes comment. It then hit me like a brick to the head.

  "Uh, yeah, actually I should ask if we could join them. It would be safer than this place. Sestra, I would much like it if you stay here." I asked. She hesitated before nodding. I walked to my bunk bed and strapped my sniper to my back, then took a backpack to fill it with a day’s worth of food and water.

  "What kind of monstrosity is that?" Karla asked as she waited, leaning against the wall with her own backpack on her back.

  "It's my sniper rifle and this-" I said, grabbing my rifle that I let lean on the counter cabinet. "Is my combat rifle. A M4 carbine, standard military rifle." I said.

  "Ok, where did you get these?" She asked with a gleaming look, that I didn't like. I slung the strap of my M4 over my shoulder, looking back at her in suspicion.

  "You seem to be liking a lot of my weapons. What do you have as a weapon?" I asked.

  "I had a pipe once. Lost it just before I got here because it was too heavy to carry." She said. I walked over, pulling my pistol out from the back of my jeans and aimed it at her. She wasn't intimidated and grew a cheeky smile, but I saw that she was use to a gun aimed at her face.

  "You know how to use one of these?" I said, switching off the safety. Her attitude quickly changed to curiosity.

  "Yeah, I do. Mind getting that out of my face?" She said. My expression was cold as stone and we stood for a while. I then cracked a smile, putting on the safety and setting it in her hand.

  "This is your chance to earn some trust." I joked, releasing my grip on the pistol. She smiled with a nod, then we walked down the stairs. I then glanced at Sestra, putting my hand out sideways and place my other hands to where my fingers overlap the back of my hand. This was a sign to say 'watch over.' I then pointed to her own backpack as Karla and I walked outside.

  "Ok, so, what's the game plan?" She said behind me and a chill goes down my spine, making me stop walking.

  "Please walk in front of me." I ask, looking back at her. She looked confused, but does so. We continued walking at this point and I started imagining scenarios of what might happen.

  "Alex!" She yelled, my reflexes shot in, grabbing my rifle and aiming straight at her. I then realize that she was aiming at a small horde. "Your pistol isn't working!" She yelled, grabbing large pavement fragments from the road and chucking them at the heads of the zombies. I took the pistol from her hand, then slid back the slide to put a
round in the chamber. I took out all six of them with the six remaining bullets. I took out a clip from a hidden pocket inside the scarf like part of the cloak I sewed in myself. I put in the mag and slid the slide back before looking at Karla.

  "At least it wasn't aimed at me." I said, putting the safety on.

  "You can trust me." She whispered. It sounded like it took a lot of her to say that.

  "That's why I'm handing you a test." I said as she reaches for the gun. She grabs it and tucks it in the front of her pants.

  “Can you do me a favor and stay here at planet earth and not in her head?” She asked. I sighed and nodded. We continued to walk with Karla in front of me until we had walked up to gates of the enclave.

  "Whose there!" A man yell from a tower above the gate, aiming down at us with a hunting rifle.

  "Hi James!" Karla yells, raising her hands up. I copy her, not liking this situation and had let my rifle fall to my side.

  "Pink, is that you?"

  "Who else?" She yelled back, James laughed.

  "Open the gates!" He yelled and we were warmly invited in, at least Karla was anyway. I let Karla walk in first and she was greeted by the wall guard and a few girls came and were all over her. When I walked in, I felt slightly ignored until Karla gestured to me.

  "This is my... let's say person who saved my life, but doesn't trust me." She introduced. I waved awkwardly, but all I got was stares and glares as they chattered amongst themselves.

  "Ah, well, maybe this person can hand over his weapons, such as yours, Karla." James said.

  "Actually, this pistol is his too." Karla said, taking it out and I quickly grabbed it from her, alerting the guards to aim at me. I raise my hands, then released the mag. A young guard who was shaking his pistol in a nervous fashion, took that as a move and shot his gun, missing the side of my neck by a hair. My reflexes kick in and aim straight at him with the pistol.

  "Drop the weapon!" James yelled, as the others around him strengthen their stance towards me and Karla’s attention was drawn towards the scene. What do I do? What would average people do?

  "We will make a deal, yes?" I yelled. James shook his head.

  "Drop your weapons!" He repeated.

  "Look! It was your youngster who could have killed a good man, but didn't by sheer luck! I'll give you my clip of each gun I have and all existing mags on my person. That only gives me a bullet in each gun. Deal?" I said quickly and took a deep gasp. James took a long moment to decide.

  "Alright. I'll do it so there’s no sudden moves. I only agree because I would really like to put a bullet in anyone who may fight against our strength." He threatened, then walked over, taking my clips from my guns, then patted me down to take my knives as well. "So, you have a powerful sniper with only one mag? That only holds sixteen rounds? Not to mention your rifle with one clip that holds thirty rounds, but the clip only has ten in it." Once he was done, I gathered my guns.

  "Where did you find that?" James questioned when he looked back from stepping towards the gate lever.

  "It was in a warehouse near my old enclave. My best friend brought it along when I had a run in with a large number of zeds in a house. When we cleared it, my friend found it near a half-eaten body." I quickly came up with a lie. “That's basically why I'm here. I want to learn how to use this, along with the history." I asked. James and Karla looked at me like I was nuts. James sighs and gestured to follow him. We walked through the town, everyone staring at me as I held the sword in my hand. The sense of I don’t belong here weighs heavily on my shoulders. We walked for what felt like an hour, to an old man sitting at a workbench with a mechanism beside him that was similar to the one back at the station.

  "Hey Jack, this young man wants to know about this sword that was stolen last month." He said, then left. I stood there awkwardly, looking around for Karla, only finding her with a mouth full of another woman, guess my theory is correct.

  "Young man, are you just gonna stand there, or come and have a seat with me?" He said in a raspy voice. I walked over, placing the sword on his desk, then dragged a stool over to have a seat. "So, where did you find my sword?"

  "It was in a warehouse." I answered.

  "Strange, did the previous thief use it against you?" He asked.

  “No, a zombie killed him."

  "Ah, a regular zombie?"

  "Yup, it must have snuck up on him or...something." I said with less courage than I would have liked. The old man and I sat in silence for a while as he continued to mess with a mother board from a computer, he also had a pipe in his mouth and smoke would disappear as he breathed in and exhaled the smoke through his nostrils.

  "So, the sword? How did you make it?" I asked, taking the blade off to show how much I had learned from it.

  "I made it in the forge. I use to have a hobby of building mechanical objects when I retired. I started to make these kinds of weapons because of the bandits. I put some imagination into them" He said.

  "So, you made the sword because?"

  "Because I imagined a sword that can do more than just cut one head off. Seemed like a good idea at the time."

  "What do you mean?" I asked. He set his tools down and looked down at me. I suddenly felt like a little kid again. He then reaches for his pipe to fill it with tobacco before he grabbed the handle and lifted it to him so we can examine it.

  "You see? The pistol handle doesn't give much support when shooting it, much less for the sword." He said. I nodded, remembering when I noticed the same thing.

  "Yeah, I noticed and so, why did you put a pistol handle on it then?" I asked.

  "It was from a Desert Eagle, a very powerful pistol. I thought it would handle the new weight and recoil of the grenade launcher part. Another question was how to make it so one second the user can cut and slash away as much as he sees fit, then the other second the user can use a grenade launcher to thin out the second wave if he could." He explained. I took a moment to think it through until I had an idea.

  "Why not just have a long enough handle for one hand, then have a stock that can be pulled out and locked?" I questioned, looking up at him. He blew out some smoke through his nose as he was trapped in deep thought, flipping the launcher back and forth. He then stood up and walked inside the blue building. I took a moment to look around, seeing the fence that was probably put up to keep out the unwelcomed, but it turned into a rack for metal parts and pieces on the inner side. Metal pieces were hanging down everywhere and the desk had two lights aimed straight down so I could see the disorganized desk before me that has scattered metal parts and tools. A blue tarp shielded the desk from the sun above me, but still had the heat bellowing down at us. Curiosity finally got the best of me and I ventured inside. "Old man?" I called, standing at the entrance and looking in. Inside wasn't any better from the outside. Piles of metal were everywhere and towers of forged pieces were in towers and scatters as high as my chest. A path way around the piles and in between the towers was the only way through.

  "Come in, watch your step." He yelled from the other end of the room.

  Chapter 6:

  The Engineer.

  I took his advice, but every step I took, it became warmer and warmer until I was sweating when I finally made it. The path ends to a large forge, a smelter was in front of me, which was a large metal dome with a small door and hatch. The door was opened and I could see red hot embers that can melt any metal. I walked past with to find the forge. A firepot took up half the room, with a bellow sticking out from the side, near the smelter. I walk through the burning heat until I reached the old man. He was sitting at another desk, unscrewing the screws from the handle.

  "Is there anything I can do?" I ask from the crawling boredom that was creeping up on me.

  "Hm? Ah, you can bellow the forge." He said. I walk over a rope that was connected to the bottom panel on the bellow. I pull down the rope, making the bellow blow under the embers, making them bright red and the room warmer and warmer. I look beside me to se
e an anvil sitting there and across from that was a set of power tools and a machine that looks like it is used to punch the metal.

  "It's a nice forge. I learned the parts from a book where I use to live." I said, trying to get him to open a little. He didn't respond and so I stopped bellowing the firepot, wiping my brow with my cloak. "Can I know more of your weapons?" I asked, looking around his dark workshop.

  "No." He said softly. I sigh, grabbing the cape of my cloak and wiping my face off with it.

  "I'm just gonna ask, can I be your apprentice so that I can learn more about making weapons?"

  "No." He replied, getting up from his stool, walking to the smelter. I get frustrated, watching him as I pull the rope a few more times. "That's enough of the bellowing." He said.

  "When might I get my sword back?"

  "Your sword?" He said bitterly, almost throwing in the grenade launcher part inside the smelter.

  "Well, yeah. That sword saved my life once and I love it. Where it goes, I go." I said sharply, hoping it will make him see that I care for it.

  "Love it huh?" He grumbled, throwing the blade inside the smelter. "Alright, come back tomorrow so that I can think about having a stranger for an apprentice." He said, I was thrilled to hear that.