Chapter six: the servant

Gloria woke up at dawn, she stretched her arms and cracked her neck before realising that Crystal was also awake and she was writing in her book with a pink pen before Gloria decided to ask anything.

“What are you doing?” Gloria asked while yawning and trying to keep her eyes open.

“Oh you surprised me. I was Just writing some stuff in my diary.” Crystal replied before closing the book and putting it aside with the pink pen.

“You guys are so annoying, go back to sleep.” Adrian complained before dropping his head on the pillow, face first and covering his ears to go back to sleep.

“Sorry.” Gloria said while whispering. “These guys were called out to guard yesterday so they didn’t get enough sleep, they actually just came back.”

“I am happy I was able to sleep for 5 hours today.” Crystal said with a smile. “But I couldn’t sleep any longer so I woke up and decided to write some stuff.”

“Writing is a good way to start your day but it wouldn’t be long until they call us—“ Gloria started with an eye roll.

“Guys you need to wake up we need help.” Said a woman while shaking the tent causing Gloria to sigh in frustration while Crystal just forced a smile.

“Have they ever heard of manners?” Crystal whispered with an annoyed, causing Gloria to start laughing. They got up lazily and walked to the other direction where everyone was sitting and a woman was explaining today's chores.

“We will need to clean all the clothes today, cook lunch, clean the tents and—“ she continued to explain while everyone just tried not to die of annoyance.

“Blah blah blah, she reminds me of my mom when guests come over.” Gloria said with an annoyed expression as she massages her temples.

“Oh god, this is going to be a long day.” Crystal said, groaning as she rested her head on her knees.

Meanwhile the boys, who were barely alive and extremely tired, had woken up due to a man shaking their tents and telling them about their chores to watch the camp.

“Fuck meeeeeeee.” Adrian said, complaining while he used the pillow to cover his head and ears especifically.

“It is just one more day and we are going to be out of here and remind me to never come back here or look for any group of humans.” Bazooka said, annoyed while getting up with a frown.

“Don’t tell me you were thinking of looking for others.” Adrian said while kicking the blanket with his feet.

………………………………

Everyone finished their chores of cooking, cleaning and guarding and met at the campfire with their exhausted bodies where everyone was having their dinner for the day which was some beans.

“So how did you think of going to a forest?” Bazooka asked jack who sat across them next to the children to play with them.

“Well it was my idea and no one trusted the government so they followed me.” Jack said with a shrug as he shoved a mouthful of beans into his mouth.

“How did you survive until now?” Adrian asked while chewing down on his noodles.

“We have multiple groups for hunting, killing, cooking and planting.” John further explained. “We can manage ourselves with some people who were farmers before.”

“How do you get your food.” Bazooka asked, pointing at the food around.

“We used a van to bring a large amount of food from the city, then we started to hunt for animals and plant some rice, wheat and other stuff.” John started, “we don’t know how long we will stay here until someone saves the day but we are ok for now.”

“I understand, we will need to do that at some point too.” Bazooka added with a sigh, they too will need to hunt and plant some plants if they want future food.

“But Who do you think will save the day?” Crystal seriously asked while playing with her noodles and looking down at the fire.

“Some government? Military people? I don’t know. Someone needs to do that because people like us can’t save anyone, we have families here to protect. We aren’t interested in being the heroes in this story and no one will give a damn if we survived this world.” Edd said with furrowed eyebrows.

“Someone that can save humanity?” Adrian wondered as he took a deep breath and took another bite of the noodles.

“We honestly lost all hope, we will have to live like this until death.” Jack said. “That’s if we died of old age, who knows how long it will be before these fuckers come and get us.”

“People in the government, like the prime minister and state leaders have all disappeared as soon as the virus started and the other military leaders also disappeared. Why would they protect us instead of their families.” Gloria explained with a shrug. “In this world no one will bother protecting us instead of themselves.”

“Yeah only people like Rellik protect their friend—“ Adrian said before everyone heard a loud thud from the bushes causing everyone to stop moving or eating and freeze.

Edd and John picked their guns while Bazooka and Gloria picked up their weapons and quickly walked towards the bush followed by Crystal and Adrian, they purely expected a dead or an animal but it was none other than Rellik lying down on the hard ground with blood covering him.

“Rellik!” Adrian said, surprised as he pushed Gloria and Bazooka out of his way to see Rellik and realise his injury. “You are alive….., well half alive.”

“He is bleeding! we have to get him inside.” Crystal said, shocked as she pushed her way through everyone and jumped to check on Rellik’s state.

“No one will get this guy inside; he could be bitten by one of them.” John said while shakily pointing his gun at Rellik with furrowed eyebrows.

“He is not, it is clearly a blade’s injury. Someone attacked him when coming. We have to save him.” Crystal said while pleadingly looking at John and Edd and bagging them to move away.

“He can get inside but only the little miss and the group here is touching him. The virus can never be ignored.” Jack said coming from behind them and looking at the situation with a straight face.

“Ok, Gloria we need to get him inside and quickly.” Bazooka hurriedly said before he and Gloria carried Rellik to their tent while Crystal and Adrian followed behind with their worried faces.

They gently put Rellik on the blankets and moved away to give space for Crystal to come into the tent and do something about his injury. They all stood watching crystal sit on the ground before tearing Rellik’s shirt open and throwing it away and get a full look on the huge cut that started on his shoulder and finished at his elbow.

Crystal gasped in surprise before taking a deep breath and pulling her kit out of the bag to get her gloves, gauze roll and antiseptic wipes. She wore her gloves and looked at the equipment only to realise she didn’t have a needle and a thread.

“Needle and thread, I don’t have any. Can someone quickly bring me some.” Crystal started anxiously screaming while Bazooka ran out of the tent to get one from the old woman outside and came back with a needle and a thread.

Crystal didn’t bother saying thank you instead she snatched the needle and thread out of his hand and put it next to her before she started wiping the cut with her antiseptic wipes to stop any infections.

“I’m sorry this is going to be so painful.” Crystal apologized before thrusting the needle into Rellik’s arm causing him to scream in pain while everyone else closed their eyes to skip the procedure, Rellik obviously couldn’t deal with the pain without any drugs but drugs were luxury they couldn’t afford at the moment. Rellik on the other hand couldn’t stop screaming and gasping for air as his body violently shook and his hand clenched in fists.

“Can someone stop him, I need two people to keep him in place while I do my job.” Crystal shouted, finding some problems with sewing the wound while Rellik’s body didn’t stop shaking.

Both Bazooka and Gloria walked towards Rellik’s body and secured his hands and legs to stop his shaking as Crystal continued sewing the wound with full focus.

She wiped the now sewed cut with the antiseptic wipes and rolled the gauze around it to prevent any infection, the cut was fully sewed with no bleeding and Rellik’s body finally relaxed in place causing Bazooka and Gloria to let him go. Crystal finally wiped the sweat off her forehead before using the thermometer to measure his temperature.

“38C he is having a fever because his body is fighting any virus that may have used the cut to enter,” Crystal started explaining with a dry mouth. “We will need antibiotics to protect his body against infection after all, his cut can get him killed if not treated fast.”

“Does anyone have any antibiotics?” Bazooka asked, looking around at his two friends and at the people who were curious enough to enter and watch the procedure.

“Yes, I stole some for infections.” Gloria answered while handing Crystal some antibiotics she took out of her bag and some water the old ladies brought earlier.

Crystal picked up Rellik’s head using his neck and opened his mouth to put the pill with some water she poured into his mouth and waited for a few minutes to watch him fall asleep and breath peacefully.

“He is safe for now.” She said while letting a relieved sigh escape her mouth and relax her body. “I can’t believe I did the procedure without any problems.” She said going back to her bubbly self and collapsing on the bed with her tired body.

“Rellik is so lucky that you remembered how to do a procedure you read somewhere.” Gloria said, relieved with a smile as she too relaxed into her blanket, the procedure made all of them anxious especially Adrian who didn’t even try to watch anything instead he just walked out of the tent.

“Well I haven’t appreciated my memory as much as now.” Crystal said after regaining her energy again and wiping Rellik’s forehead with some wet wipes she found in the first aid kit to help his fever.

“We are lucky for now but Rellik had a cut that was clearly made by a knife.” Bazooka started with a sigh as he took his jacket off and let the fresh air hit his skin. “This guy was after Rellik and he probably followed him here.”

“Why didn’t he kill him though?” Adrian asked after he came back into the tent and avoided any blood.

“Warning.” Gloria started. “The killer wanted to tell us: I enjoy playing with your lifes so be aware and he wanted to follow him here anyways.”

“He is as strong as to cut Rellik’s arm.” Bazooka said while rubbing his temples to help his killing headache.

“Yes, we have to hear the story to measure his strength.” Gloria said. “He might have somehow tricked him, we have to remember that Rellik is not an easy catch with his strength.”

“He is probably watching us now, does anyone have papers?” Bazooka said, loud and clear.

“I do have a book and a pen you can use.” Crystal said, pulling her book and pen out of her bag and handing them to Bazooka before going back to her job.

Bazooka opened the book and started writing something. After he finished Gloria had a look at the written sentence and nodded before tearing the page to hide it in her shirt while Adrian looked at them confused with an open mouth.

Bazooka ignored Adrian’s confused glances as he started writing on a new page:

Bazooka: glad you did that.

Gloria: I did what was necessary.

Adrian: why did you do that?

Gloria: because he misspelled something.

Adrian: bitch, what the ****?

Bazooka: back to the topic. We won’t stop our journey, we are going to the town that is 34 miles from here.

Adrian: Are you sure about that? wouldn’t that put us in danger?

Bazooka: trust me.

Adrian looked at Bazooka for a short second and nodded his head before they all stopped to listen to Rellik waking up, coughing and slowly opening his eyes to the darkly lit room, as they used the fire outside for lighting, causing everyone to quickly come towards him and sat around him in a circle.

“Thank good, I thought I killed someone.” Crystal said while sighing and smiling in relief.

“Where am I?” Rellik asked as he fully opened his eyes and looked around him, confused of how he got next to the group when he just escaped the town.

“You found us, you are safe now.” Bazooka reassured him with a small smile as he breathed deeply. “Never do that again.” He told himself softly.

“MY WOUND…” Rellik started freaking out after he realised what was happening and what happened back at the town as he took a look at his wound only to see a white with a bit of blood stains covering his gauze.

“Don’t move too much or else your wound will start bleeding again.” Crystal said, warning him and touching his shoulder to give him a gentle push to let him sink into the not-so-comfortable bad.

“Crystal sewed your wound, that’s why you are alive now.” Gloria explained with a smile as she pointed at Crystal who simply smiled at him.

“Funny chick…?” Rellik started as he looked at Crystal with sleepy eyes as he was still tired.

“Anyways, care to explain what the **** exactly happened?” Adrian asked with a deep breath, preparing himself to listen. “Cause I have been waiting to hear shit for a while.”

“You had us dead worried, I thought I killed you. It was my first time doing this.” Crystal said with a relieved expression.

“I’m sorry. It was all good and I managed to escape the crowd and the town itself but,” Rellik started.

Flashback

Rellik started running as fast as he could, exiting the store and running straight towards the other streets to try and escape the crowd while keeping an eye on the crowd behind him which only consisted of thirty dead.

He took a right turn to the next street and directly entered a building and shut the door tightly, losing all the dead following him, because they didn’t see him enter the building, and confusing them, therefore, they stayed in the street roaming around looking for him.

He stayed there for a second catching his breath only to see a dead coming towards him while stumbling on the stairs and falling causing his bones to stick out of his body even more while he tried to move using his arms instead of broken legs.

“You are going to be so useful.” Rellik whispered with a smirk before taking his metal bat and pushing it into the dead’s head causing him to stop moving and lie on the ground with no movement in front of Rellik.

Rellik started to endlessly beat the dead with his bat causing the blood to fly everywhere in addition to some bones cracking and breaking. He then took the dead’s blood and wiped it across his clothes to spread the dead’s smell around his body.

Rellik opened the door and stared out the door to see that half the dead walked out of the street and scattered around the other streets. Therefore, he fully opened the door and started to walk in a funny way to blind in with the other dead.

End of flashback

“Did you get that idea from the walking dead?” Adrian asked with an open mouths as he himself wasn’t a big fan of the bloody series but still watched some clips before.

“Yes, I figured out it would work. These guys mostly use their ears and noses to spot humans and I succeeded. They didn’t follow me and I exited the town but…” Rellik explained with his dry throat.

Flashback

Rellik finally exited the town and started running as fast as possible, heading to the forest. He knew that they were probably in the middle of the forest where the dead wouldn’t reach them.

“Thank god, I thought I died back—“ Rellik said before someone pulled his neck down to the ground and jumped at his body to secure his hands and legs and his movements.

“Don’t make a sound.” He commanded while putting pressure on Rellik’s neck and pulling a knife out of his pocket.

“Listen to me, I don’t plan on killing you. I just need the master’s daughter back then I will leave you and your little friends alone.” The strange man said before thrusting his knife in Rellik’s arm and ignoring all his screams and struggles while pulling his knife down until reaching Rellik’s elbow.

“I am gonna leave now, I will come to collect the master’s daughter in a three day period. Don’t you dare follow me.” He said while standing up and calmly walking away.

Rellik watched as the man walked away before standing up and pulling himself together while putting pressure on his arms to stop the bleeding, only to stop when he reached the camping place where he collapsed next to a bush.

End of flashback

“And that’s what happened.” Rellik said as he closed his eyes and tried to relax his neck more but failing miserably as the pillow was hard as ****.

“Master’s daughter…” Gloria said while everyone looked at Crystal who was silently panicking and breathing loudly.

“Crystal…” Bazooka said after realising Crystal’s fast and up normal breathing. “Do you know anything about that?”

“I…I don’t know, what were the man’s features?” Crystal asked, with a dry throat as she looked at Rellik with pleading eyes bagging for him to tell her it wasn’t who she thought it was.

“Blonde hair, brown eyes, very tall and a well built body.” Rellik answered with a hint of anger in his voice.

“Oh man we are doomed.” Crystal said while pacing around in their small tent and breathing quickly.

“Yes, this guy does sound like my type.” Adrian whispered to Rellik who weakly hit him on the shoulder.

“This man, he works for my father and he is loyal…so loyal. If my parents told him to get me then he will get me, you can’t stay with me any longer. I have to go.” Crystal said while opening the tent.

“Stop, we didn’t discuss anything yet.” Gloria said while holding Crystal's hand and firmly pulling her towards the tent to sit down.

“Gloria, this guy is serious. Leo motherfucking Chris is an unstoppable servant who is ready to die while doing his mission.” Crystal started while sitting down on the bed and tearing up due to her fear. “He is so obsessed with me and my family.”

“Wait, you said your parents were on a business trip in Europe.” Gloria said, confusion written all over her face as she tried to calm Crystal down.

“That doesn’t change anything.” Crystal said, stubborn while wiping her teary eyes and clenching her shirt with a strong fists.

“Gloria is right, your parents are dead. They can never save themselves from a whole *** apocalypse.” Bazooka added, agreeing with Gloria.

“Crystal, they are dead. This guy, Leo is looking for you because he is obsessed with your bloodline.” Gloria explained while Crystal wore a horrified expression when Gloria tried to pat her back.

“But…but this guy is dangerous, he will kill you if I don't go now.” Crystal said while breaking down in tears. “He already harmed Rellik because of me, I can’t let him do anything for you even if it means going back with him.”

“Crystal, This guy won’t put a finger on you because I will stab him to death before he even gets to see you.” Rellik said while sighing in frustration and punching the ground.

“I think this is my and Gloria’s job to deal with, so don’t kill anyone yet.” Bazooka said, putting Rellik back to his sleeping position.

“This guy tried to **** my life why wouldn’t **** his?” Rellik asked, shouting and trying to get up but failing when Bazooka held him down.

“Shut the ****, he is a dangerous psycho trying to kidnap someone because of her blood-“ Bazooka said before Crystal started violently shaking while hugging herself.

“You can’t… I can’t let anyone die because of me, and I am sure he will treat me right so let me go this way you can be safe.” Crystal said while sobbing and shaking.

“Crystal.” Rellik said firmly, gaining Crystal’s attention. “Listen to me, this guy wants you to keep the fucking bloodline, that means he wants you to give birth for the next generation.”

“Crystal I promised to stay and protect you, I can’t go back on my words, can I?” Gloria said while hugging a messed up Crystal.

“But what if he-“ crystal tried to say before Adrian held her face and made her look at him.

“Do you trust us?” Adrian asked while making eye contact and firmly holding her face.

“Yes, but-“ Crystal replied sobbing.

“Do believe that the plan Bazooka has will work?” Adrian asked again.

“Yes.” Crystal answered.

“Very good then, you guys only have to follow my and Gloria’s orders. We will also stay until Rellik is completely healed but we need to ask for a new tent.” Bazooka said, confident in his plan.

“Why? we have enough space.” Adrian asked.

“Because Rellik needs some space to feel comfortable.” Bazooka replied, already starting his and Gloria’s plan.

“I don’t need any.” Rellik said while shaking his head.

“Rellik you need some more space, don’t you?” Bazooka asked him firmly.

“Yes I do.” Rellik answered, realising this isn’t an option but an order.

“Crystal will stay with you for medical care and to protect herself.” Bazooka added.

“But I can protect her.” Gloria refused.

“You don’t know what could happen and this tent is in the middle of the camp. He wouldn't dare come face to face with nineteen people.” Bazooka said.

“Ok.” Everyone answered except Crystal who was silently shivering.

“Now me and Gloria’s will ask for a new tent. You can stay here.” Bazooka commanded while he walked out of the tent with Gloria.

“Stay safe.” Gloria said before exiting the tent and looking over at everyone.

The next day……………….