Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Puppies and Kittens
"If availability of ammo is all you care about, then the .22 is the way to go." Jay and his group were out looking for supplies for camp blue sky when they came upon Sketchy and Skeezy. An odd pair, but they always pull through when it comes to trading."But if you really want to make an impression, check out this smoke wagon." Walking over to Addy, Sketchy pulls out a gun handing it to her. Checking out the weight, Addy frowns.
'Guess she doesn't like it.' Jay thought as he scanned the area for Z's. It's been quiet lately, and it's never quiet for long in the apocalypse.
"I was thinking something more silent, like a club. And sharp." Addy says as she hands the gun back. Sketchy nods his head, agreeing with her, like any salesman would do when a customer doesn't like what they're given.
Walking over to his car, Sketchy goes to look for something that is to Addy's liking. "Yeah, I like how you think. Silent but effective, huh?" Opening the back of his car, Sketchy pulls out a metal bat with spikes on the end. Jay looks over to Addy and gives her a nod in approval. The bat looked brutal.
Taking a hold of the bat, Addy tested it out on the air. "I made it myself, I call it 'The Z Wacker.'" 'I bet it took him a while to come up with that.' "You start with an aluminum bat , then customize it for the task at hand." Handing the bat to Jay, Addy walks over to discuss trade. Jay's stabbing the ground when Doc and Skeezy catch his attention.
"How about a straight across trade? A dozen of these aspirin, for a dozen of these reloaded .223's." Doc offered. Thinking about the deal, Skeezy shook his head pointing at the aspirin. Walking over to them, Jay leans on 'The Z Wacker', using it as support.
" You can't kill a zombie with aspirin." He said fidgeting. Taking the open space beside Doc, Jay decides to cut into the argument.
"Well you can't kill a fever with a bullet, and they ain't making anymore aspirin." He explains, looking up at Skeezy. Doc throws him a thankful smile. Fidgeting some more, Skeezy looks to Jay then back to Doc.
"Make it a dozen Oxycontin and you got yourself a deal." Jay scoffs and looks up at Doc to see his reaction.
"I'd have to take a dozen Oxycontin before I make that deal. How about some meth? Huh? You want some crystal? I baked it myself?" Skeezy face goes from excited to disgusted.
"That same pink crystal stuff you made before? No, that stuff gave me an axe to the skull headache."
"No, that's what the aspirin's for." Getting bored with their argument, Jay walks over to Addy, who's done talking with Sketchy. He hands her bat back andI walks over to Sketchy.
"Hey, you got any strong light metals? Maybe some screws?" He asks. Looking in his trunk, Sketchy pulls out a semi small sheet of metal. Jay takes it from his hands and tests out it's durability. It was strong. Light too. "What is it?" Jay asks, looking over it more closely.
Putting his hands on his hips, Sketchy shrugs his shoulders. "I have no idea. Picked it up from the side of the road, thought it would be useful in the future. Looks like I was right." Handing the metal back, Jay gives him a questioning look.
"What you want for it?" He asks as he starts taking his backpack off. Sketchy stops him before he could pull anything out, a gentle smile on his face.
"For you. On the house." Taking the metal from his hands, Jay carefully put it into his backpack, giving the man a grateful smile.
That's when the growls start up. A zombie emerges from the woods, running straight for Addy.
"Behind you." Mack warns her, but she's already on it. She swings her bat like she's been playing ball her whole life. The Z falls to the ground lifeless, well, more lifeless than it was. "Nice. You alright? That was a close one." Mack asks her, checking for any wounds. She brushes him off with a nod and looks down at the Z.
"Yeah, that.. that was a close one." Turning around, she looks at Sketchy and points her bat at him. "Brutal." Her words bring a smug smile to his face. Jay walks to the Z, and crouches down to get a better look at it.
"Hey, isn't this Red Hanson?" He asks, looking over to Sketchy and Skeezy. Skeezy huffs in disappointment at Jay's find.
"Z's got Red? Damn, he was one of our best customers. Tough as bullets. I wonder if his brothers know." 'Speak of the devils' Jay thinks when growls echo out of the woods.
Two Z's bolt out, Mack shoots one, while Addy goes to the other one. She hits it once, then twice, but it's still up. Just when she's about to hit it again, Mack shoots it. Suddenly a Z pops out of the woods behind Mack, taking him by surprise. Two gunshots ring out, coming from Jay's right. The Z falls to the ground, motionless.
Jay looks over to see Sketchy and Skeezy pocket their guns. "Closing time." And with that, Sketchy's and Skeezy's trading truck is packed up and speeding away. Following their example, the group packs up and heads back to camp blue sky.
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"Mayday, mayday. Calling camp blue sky. This is Doc with Thompson, Carver and Blue Jay. What is your situation? Over." The flames coming from Camp Blue Sky had the group tense with worry. Everyone sighs in relief when a reply comes through.
"Hey, Doc. What's going on? What's going on?" Garnett repeats from the other side. Thank god he was still alive. Jay just hopes Warrens with him.
"Garnett? Thank god you're alive. We thought everyone was dead." From what Jay can see, it looks like everyone is.
"I'm not at camp blue sky, what's happening?" 'Well, the camps on fire and everyone's dead. But besides that, everything's going great.'
"Batteries are dying man." Doc said as the radio started to frizz out. "Blue sky's been over run. The whole place is...on fire." He tells Garnett.
"Survivors?" He asks hopefully.
"Well there was a ton of gunfire a while ago, but nothing since." That's when the radio decides to shit the bed. Doc bangs on it a few times before huffing and shoves the radio in his bag. "Come on let's go."
The four of them are running through the woods trying to find Garnett when they see the school bus.
"There's the escape bus." Peering into the windows, They see the children from camp. "They got the kids out!" Jay sighs in relief but his heart almost jumps out of his throat at what he sees. At the end of the bus a Z slams against the window. 'Shit.'
As they run after the bus, it starts to sway and soon crashes into the bank, Z's pour out of the back. 'So much for getting the kids out.' Jay thinks as they run. Jay sucks in uneven breaths as they all run up a hill. They're greeted with more Z's making Jay mutter a curse under his breath. A truck thankfully runs their asses over, the owner of the truck being Garnett.
"Get in!" The back of the truck opens to reveal a black man in army clothes. Ignoring that for now, Jay, Addy and Mack hop into the back while Doc gets into the truck. Jay quickly bangs on the side of the truck, signaling Garnett to get them the hell out of there. Mack fires two shots at the group of Z's before they're out of site.
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So apparently, they're heading to an abandoned high school to drop off some guy named Murphy so this other guy, Hammond, can bring him to some lab in California. For now though, we're stopping at the high school so they can get reinforcements. 'Fun.' Jay thinks as they pull up to the high school that's now in ruins.
Hammond steps out of the truck to check if anyone's still alive. They're not. "My reinforcements are dead. We need to make a quick search for survivors and any supplies. You!" Hammond points to Murphy, who's peeing on the truck tire. "Zip it up and stay close to me." 'Wow man, dudes peeing. Calm it down.'
"Where'd all the Z's go?" Addy wonders and she was right, there hasn't been any Z's since back in the woods. That's where Doc decides to bless everyone with his wise words.
"Movin' on, Like locust."
"Yeah, but they'll be back. Garnett and Warren, you clear the building. You four, check the vehicles." Hammond orders. Jay jumps out of the back and walks over to Hammond.
"You mind if I stay back at the truck for a sec? I gotta do something real quick." Looking down at the blue haired boy, Hammond huffs in annoyment.
"Fine, you can stay here and do whatever you need to do. You know where to find everybody if you need them." Jay gives him a nod and walks over to Doc to tell him that he'll be at the truck if he needs anything. Doc smiles and gives Jay's shoulder a squeeze before going off with Addy and Mack
Jay hops into the tailgate and pulls his bag over to his side. He opens it up and pulls out the piece of metal he got from Sketchy.
A chill runs down Jay's spine. He looks around, feeling like he's being watched. Finding nothing, Jay goes back to what he's doing. Taking off his right boot, a piece of metal sits where his foot should be.
Rolling up the pant leg, he exposes the rest of the metal leg. If you can even call it that. It's just scraps of metal and pipes screwed together really. At the top, where the metal meets his leg is a leather strap. The strap wraps around his knee in an X formation and is tightened by metal clips, buttons and a buckle.Jay carefully unbuckles and unclips everything and slowly pulls the hunk of metal off. His fingers run over the now bare nub, tracing the jagged scars.
Jay turns and starts searching through his bag for his screwdriver. The metal on the front of the leg has been bending and it's most likely going to cave in soon. Good thing Sketchy had that piece of metal laying around.
Snarls pull Jay from his thoughts, a Z has appeared around a corner and is now making its way toward Jay. Said boy pulls a gun from his waist and aims it at the Z's head.
'Click'
'Dammit.' Jay drops the gun and goes for the other one on his waist but the Z has different plans. The Z pulls Jay to the ground and crawls on top of him. Jay pushes his forearm to the Z's throat, keeping it's snapping jaws inches away from his face. Flinging his free arm out, Jay searches for anything that could help. His fingers brush the handle of his screwdriver. He must have knocked it off when the Z pulled him down.
Jay wastes no time and jabs it into the side of the things head. It falls limp, letting Jay push it onto its side. He greedily takes gasps of air. That was too close. Grabbing a hold of the end of the truck, he pulls himself up. Heavy footsteps grow louder from behind him, making him grow tence again.
"Jay-Jay, You ok there little guy?!" The nickname relaxes the boy, letting him know it wasn't another Z. Turning his head, Jay sees Doc running over to him. Right behind him is Addy, Mack and some girl in very revealing clothing. Doc stops in front of him and takes a hold of his face, checking for any injuries. Pushing his hands away, Jay chuckles.
"I'm fine Doc, thing just snuck up on me when I was legless." Jay reassures him and hops around to the back of the truck to grab his leg. He straps it back on and heads into the building with Doc, Addy, Mack and the girl. 'Guess I'll have to fix it later.' He thinks with a shrug.
The cries of a baby welcomes them as they step into the building. Jay's eyes widen as he looks over at Garnett who's holding the crying infant.
"Someone better shut that kid up, before he attracts Z's like flies." Jay glares at Murphy as he walks over to Garnett.
"It's a baby. It makes noise." He says, carefully taking the baby away from Garnett and holding him in his arms. Instantly he stops crying. He giggles as Jay tickles his nose. Jay always did like kids. His attention is caught by Hammond and the girl. Hammond gives the girl a cantin, only to rip it away from her seconds after and throws it to Addy.
"Why would someone lock you in a cage and leave you to die, what did you do?" Hammond asks accusingly, looking at her. She looks at everyone nervously.
"I didn't do anything. I locked myself in the cage for protection." She said defensively.
"You have the keys?" Hammond asked. Her face dropped. Fidgeting with her hands, she replied .
"I..Lost them." 'That doesn't help your case honey.' Warren looks her up and down and gives her a skeptical look.
"Why are you dressed like that?" The question caught the girl off guard but quickly puts the girl in a sour mood.
"I don't have to justify myself to you-" Hammond quickly cuts her off with a yell.
"Maybe you do!" Everybody stops and looks at Hammond. "We were supposed to meet the men in those vehicles. What happened here?" He said with anger as he slowly crouches to her level.
"Those men showed up about a week ago. They cleared out the school and set up some kind of camp, but word got out that there was food. Lots of it from the bomb shelter. It didn't take long. There were too many people. The soldiers shot some of the locals, and that brought the Z's. You can guess the rest." She answered. Murph decides it's a good time to open his mouth.
"What are we wasting time talking to her for? Give her the baby and let's go." Garnett did not like that. Walking up to Murphy, he gives him a glare.
"You can't give this girl a baby and leave." Garnett argued.
"Well they can't come with us." Murphy replied annoyed.
"No way am I leaving the baby and her behind. It's not gonna happen." Garnett shot back as Hammond tried to cut in. Bringing his hands into the air, Murphy argued back.
"It's just a baby. It's not like he's gonna grow up and be a fine young man some day." Hammond finally steps in and pushes Murphy away and looks at Garnett.
"You know what, Shut up! We'll take them to the next safe outpost. God I hate moral dilemmas." Jay watches Murphy open his mouth to argue.
"Yeah, what next chief? You wanna start a college fund for him?" 'Is it bad that I really want to hit him?' Warren walks over, bringing everyone's attention to her.
"Puppies and kittens. 200 yards away." Jay hands the baby back to Garnett and takes out the unloaded gun that almost led to his death and reloads it. Placing it back to its respective place, Jay looks up and sees Hammond looking at us in confusion.
"Zombies." Garnett clarified for him. Snapping back into leader mode, Hammond starts barking out orders.
"Alright everybody, time to go. You five, I want you to gather all the food and weapons you can find. Load them in that truck. The keys are still inside." He ordered, pointing at Jay Doc, Addy, Mack and the girl.
"Hey! We haven't talked about this." Mack yelled as he walked up to Hammond. Turning around, Hammond gave him a deadly look.
"We can talk about it later. Right now, you do what I tell you. Garnett! You stay with the baby and Murphy until we get back. Warren. You and I are gonna see if we can start up that deuce and a half. Everybody meets back here in five." Everybody stays in place, looking around Hammond grows aggravated. "Go!"
Looking over to Garnett, everyone silently asks him for the go. He nods, signaling everyone to move out.
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Jay and the other four are looking around to see if they can find anything useful. Walking around a corner, we find an empty lot with Z's littered on the ground. Jay kneels next to one of the dead Z's and searches it. Finding nothing but a wallet and a few crumpled up pictures, he moves on to the next Z.
As he's about to kneel down, he hears Doc yell. He whips his head up, seeing Doc being attacked by a Z he was searching. He moves to stand but hands grab his arm, taking his attention. The Z below him springs to life, snarling and groaning. Jay stands, trying to pull himself away from its grip. He only manages to bring it up with him. Addy and Mack hesitate on who to help.
"Help Doc! I got this, don't worry!" Jay yells to them, moving his free hand to the knife strapped to his thigh. Jay hears a gunshot go off as he gets a hold of the knife. He brings it up, about to take out the Z when the world decides to play a sick joke.
Jay's right leg goes out from under him, sending him crashing to ground with the zombie immediately following. Knife flying out of his hands.
The impact knocks the air out of him, sending him into a wheezing frenzie. Teeth snap in his face, his arm being the only thing to keep it from biting his face off. Another gunshot goes off, blood splatters onto his face.The Z goes limp on his body, he doesn't have to worry about the weight for too long as the body's quickly pushed off. Jay sits up and tries to catch his breath. He looks up and catches a glimpse of someone moving on the roof of one of the buildings.
"You ok Jay-Jay?" Doc frets checking the boy over. He nods, pulling up his pant leg to reveal the now broken metal. 'It chose a hell of a time to break.' Jay thought, pushing his pant leg down.
"Damn, you were right when you said that thing was about to snap. Come on, let's get back to the others." Doc said, heaving Jay up with help from Mack.
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Jay was basically dragged back by Mack and Doc, arriving to find Warren and Garnett blocking the door to the building they were in just a while ago. Peering around, Jay notices the lack of a certain infant.
"Where's the baby?" He questions while Mack and Doc lift him into the back of the truck as if he were a piece of driftwood. Ok, so he's pretty light. It's the apocalypse, sue him. Warren answers him
"Turned." Jay just sighed, it was gonna happen sooner or later.
"Surprise, surprise." Murphy commented sarcastically. They were the wrong choice of words however because Garnett stalks towards him and slams him against the wall. Hammond pulls out his gun and aims it at Garnett. Jay instantly pulls out his own gun and aims it at Hammond. He glances at Jay but turns his attention back to Garnett, stance faltering for a moment.
"Let him go." Hammond demand. "Or I will send you to walk among the dead." Hammond declared as he moved his aim from Garnett's head to his chest. 'He did not just say that.' Jay cocks his gun with a scowl. Garnett signals him to lower his gun. Jay hesitates but listens. Garnett slowly released Murphy from his grip.
Lowering his gun, Hammond demands that they leave.
"What about the...the baby, thing? We can't leave it like that." Warren says. The baby thing started to cry or growl. Whatever you would call it. Mack jumps into the conversation.
"Warren's right, we can't leave it like that. Even if it is turned." Mack stated as the baby thing cried louder. Jay sees Addy looking at the door, sadness laced her face.
"It sounds so sad." Doc looked over at her with bewilderment.
"It's not sad, it's a zombie." Jay shrugs his shoulders at Doc's words, he wasn't wrong.
"Amen, brother. Let's go." Murphy agreed with Doc. Warren looked over at him, a hint of disgust on her face.
"We can't leave it like that." A silent message saying that someone had to mercy it. Sighing, Jay pushes himself off of the truck and grips the side of it for support.
"I'll do it." He announced. Taking a step forward, he's quickly lifted back into the truck by Mack. Jay looks at, finding a bitter look on his face. Glancing around to the rest of the group, Jay notices the same look on their faces. Jay sits down besides Mack and grabs his bag full of tools. He mumbles a 'nevermind' under his breath.
"I'll do it." Garnett says with a shaky breath as he turns around. Warren grabs his shoulder and gives him a look. Sighing in annoyance, Hammond walks over to Garnett and grabs his arm stopping him from entering the building.
"I'll do it. I need you to pull it together. Two minutes. Be ready to go." Loading his gun, Hammond darts inside of the building. Another chill runs down Jay's back. Snapping his head up, he quickly glances around. They're definitely being watched. Jay checks to make sure his guns are loaded before going back to his leg. Hopfully the person doesn't do anything stupid.
"If we wanted to ditch these two, take the truck and run, now would be the time." Jay shakes his head at his words, 'Don't think that's gonna happen, sorry Doc.' He thinks as he watches everyone gve Doc a look. "Just sayin." He defends.
Hammond's screams soon broke the silence. Everyone runs inside, Jay hopping, and finds Hammond on the ground being eaten alive by two Z's. 'Wow, death by baby. That's a new one.' Jay thinks to himself. They watch the scene for a moment but soon pull out their guns, giving Hammond and the Zs mercy.
Jay leans against the door frame as everyone leaves the building. "You know, none of this would have happened if you just left that damn baby." Murphy bitched to Garnett. Garnett throws him a cold look. Resting his hands on his hips, he shoots back.
"I didn't tell Hammond to go get eaten by a baby." Murphy moves to the truck door and grabs its handle. Turning his head, Murphy glares.
"My plan is, I am taking this truck and I am forgetting about vaccines and labs, and all of you. I've wanted off this train from day one, and now's my chance." Doc steps forward, stopping Murphy.
"Wait, wait, wait. You can't just go. What about California? What about the vaccine?"
Addy pipes in. "What if it's real? What if there's a chance? And what if it's you?" Shifting his body to face Addy, Mack shakes his head at her.
"Addy how do we know this isn't all just bullshit?" Jay considers his words, he could be right. Murphy buts in again.
"How does anybody know anything anymore?" Static buzzes from behind Jay while Murphy yells. The group grows quiet, hearing it too. Jay hops to Hammond's body where the noise turns into a voice.
"Delta-xray-Delta." He hears as he crouches and searches the body. He finds a radio. He takes it and makes his way outside, the group listening as it comes to live again.
"Delta-xray-Delta, this is Northern Light. Operation Bite mark. Do you copy? Delta-xray-Delta." Jay scrunches his nose, 'What the hell is Operation Bite Mark?'
"It's Hammonds radio." He informs the group while turning it over in his hands, inspecting it.
"Delta-xray-Delta. This is Northern Light." The radio says. Jay presses the button that lets him speak and replies to the man.
"Hello?" He asks into the speaker. They responded immediately, relief lacing their voice.
"I copy you Delta-xray. This is, this is Northern Light. Who am I speaking to?" He asks. Jay tells him his name and the man responds immediately. "Okay. I need to speak to lieutenant Hammond." 'You're a bit late buddy.'
"Hammond's dead." Jay tells the man bluntly. It's a few moments before the radio starts up again.
"I'm..I'm sorry. I..I didn't copy that, Delta-xray. Did you say that Hammond is dead?" He stuttered. He tells him yes, Hammond is dead. "Is the package safe?" he exclaims. 'The what now? Package?' Jay furrows his brows, looking at the rest of the group in confusion.
"Package? What..what package? Who is this." He asks, getting louder in the end.
"Listen." He said, voice growing a little frantic. "I need to speak to whoever's in charge." All heads turn to Garnett. Jay tosses him the radio, letting him speak to the man on the other side.
"This is sergeant Garnett of the National guard. Who is this?" Garnet questions.
"Sergeant Garnett. Lieutenant Hammond was transporting a civilian named Murphy to California. Is he alive?" The guy asks with worry. Garnett calms his nerves, telling him Murphy is still alive.
"Sergeant, it is imperative that you get Murphy to California. I repeat. It is imperative that you get Murphy alive to California. Do you copy?" He says starting to break up. Garnett hits the radio, trying to get it to work. "I repeat, do you copy?" He asks urgently.
"What? Who are you?" Garnett gets nothing but static as a reply, listening as the radio goes dead. He hits it once more before looking up at everyone. "It's dead."
"So?" Warren questions Garnett.
"So... It looks like we're taking Mr.Congeniality here to California." Garnett tells us, his words not pleasing Murphy at all.
"Says who?" Murphy says with his arms crossed.
"Says me." Garnett responds, throwing the radio to the ground. Everyone starts to move out. Hobbling over to the truck, Mack lifts Jay up into the back and then gets into the car with Addy, Doc and the girl. Jay scoots to the side and grabs his bag so he can finally start working on his leg.
The truck comes to a stop and Jay looks over the edge to see a boy. He has shaggy black hair, probably hasn't been washed since the start of all this but who was Jay to judge. Shoe soles hang on his shoulders for protection along with ammo and a scarf. He holds a heavy duty rifle in his hands.
Doc rolls his window down, "Hey there, you're that sharp shooter that saved me and Jay-Jay's ass aren't you? Oh man, I want to thank you. Do you need a ride?" Doc asks as he points to the back of the truck. The boy merely shrugs and hops in. He then bangs the side of the truck, signaling Doc to go. The truck starts down the road once more.
Jay watches out of the corner of his eye as the boy sits across from him, his eyes watch Jay as he works on his leg. Only looking away to check for Zs. It's half an hour later before Jay's finished.
He picks his things up and dumps them in his bag, throwing any scraps out of the truck. Once done, he hesitates for a moment before reaching for the leg. He can feel the boy watching as he pulls it over his knee and straps it on.
"Thanks." Jay blurts out, looking up at him. "For killing those Z's and saving Doc. I owe ya." It's silent for a moment, both staring at the other.
"No problem" Falls from his mouth, a ghost of a smile on his face. Jay nods and smiles back before leaning his head against the truck, closing his eyes.
'What a day.'