Daddy's Little Girl

Geek - 5

“Hey, you alive in there?” The voice says again through the speaker. This time Reginald goes for the mic, knocking his head on a lower ceiling of the tank. I laugh lightly at his pain, the vibration running through the metal interior.  

“Hello? Hello?” Reginald calls.  

“There you are. You had me wondering.” The man said, humor in his voice. 

“Where are you? Outside? Can you see us right now?” Reginald questions, looking around the windowless vehicle. 

“Yeah, I can see you.” Reginald and I let out a sigh of relief, “You’re surrounded by Geeks. That’s the bad news.” 

“There’s good news?” I ask sarcastically. 

“No.” He answers flatly.  

“Listen, whoever you are, I don’t mind telling you we’re a little concerned in here.” Reginald announces. 

“Oh man! You should see it from over here, you’d be having a major freak-out.” That’s comforting.  

“Got any advice for us?” Reg asks. 

“Yeah, I’d say make a run for it.”  

“That’s it?” We both exclaim, “Make a run for it?” Reginald adds.  

“My ways not as dumb as it sounds.” The man defends himself, “You’ve got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down, you with me so far?” 

 “So far.” Reginald nods in conformation, even though its only me who can see him.  

“Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance, got ammo?” 

“Shit.” I mumble under my breath. I only have my knife, and Reg his pistol.  

“In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns.” Reginald explains, “Can I get to it?” 

“Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option. What do you have on you?” 

“Hang on.” Reginald says dropping the mic, picking up a pistol off the dead solider by the door. Checking the gun and body for ammo before handing it to me. In the breast is a single grenade, he looks it over for a second before looking up at me. I offer him a shrug as he carefully stuffs it into his pocket before looking around the tank.   

“Howdy. We’ve got a Beretta, one clip, fifteen rounds. M9, one clip, 6 rounds.” I explain, watching Reg come up shorthanded for anything else useful.  

“Make ‘em count!” The man tells us before taking a deep breath, “Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there.”  

“Hey, what's your name?” Reggie asks. I shove him lightly as the man scuffs before answering in an annoyed tone.  

“Have you been listening? You're running out of time!”  

“Right.” Reginald nods repeatedly as he grabs the shovel off the wall and looks at me. Fear masked by excitement, both of us taking slow, deep breaths. Sweat soaking my shirt as I dual-wield the M9 and my knife. If one thing, one tiny little thing goes wrong, we could die.  

“Ready?” Reg asks me, placing a hand on my shoulder. 

“Ready.” I nod, offering him a small smile. Reggie counts down from three before he opens the hatchet at the top and climbs out while killing the Walker on the top of the tank. I quickly follow him, avoiding looking at the dead tear apart the poor horse as we jump off the tank. Underestimating the height as our knees buckle under our weight. Man, that hurt! Standing, we shoot the Walkers closest to us as we follow the instructions given to us. Just as Reggie is about to shoot another, he stops. It’s not a Walker, it a guy, it’s the guy from the radio! I can tell from his scream. He’s a few inches shorter than Reggie, probably eight or nine years older than me. Asian American, with a city accent.  

“Ahh! Whoa! Not dead! Not dead! Come On! Come on!” He yells, running down the alley gesturing us to follow. Reggie and I both run to keep up with him, “Back here! Come on! Come on!” Reggie shoots another one down as we race down to a ladder and the guy lets me go up first. Reginald stays on the ground to provide cover; the walkers begin to flood the small alley. 

“What are you doing?! Come on!” The guy yells at Reggie as we continue to climb. We reach a platform, resting on the roof as we pant heavily, gasping for air. The three of us look down, the Walkers still growling and reaching for us, even with forty feet between us.  

“Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood.” The guy mocks and I can’t help but laugh, “You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?”  

“It wasn’t my intention.” Reginald states.  

“Whatever, yeah. You’re both still dumbasses.”  

“Hey!” I joke trying to act offended.  

“Reginald, thanks.” Reg introduces, holding his hand out to offer the man a handshake.  

“Kathryne!” I announce from behind Reg.  

“David.” He introduces shaking Reginald’s hand, “You’re welcome... Oh no.” David mutters as he looks down, Walkers piling on top of each other as they try to climb up the ladder. He looks up, the ladder continuing for another forty feet. Good thing I’m not scared of heights. “The bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us.” David jokes, “I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy.” I smile, I’m glad he found us, he’s kinda funny. I think as Reginald and I follow him up the even taller ladder. When we reach the top we can see the whole street.  

“Are you the one that barricaded the alley?” Reginald asks as we cross over to the next roof-top.  

“Somebody did I guess when the city got overrun.” David answers, “Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through.” We run over to an opening, stilling following David. 

“Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck out for us?” I ask.  

“Call it foolish, naive hope, that if I'm ever that far up s**t creek, somebody might do the same for me,” David answers simply, causing me to laugh. “Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than the two of you.” He laughs before he climbs down another set of ladders that leads into a building. Reginald looks at me only to cause me to laugh again; we follow David down into the building, and Reginald closes the top. When we reach the bottom and David starts running again, out the room and down a flight of stairs. He pulls out a walkie-talkie, “I’m back! Got a couple of guests, plus four geeks in the alley.” He rushes before stuffing the walkie back into his pocket. When we reach the bottom of the staircase. We stop in our tracks; two Walkers are blocking our path. They notice us, turning around and shuffling towards us. Out of nowhere two guys burst through a door wearing full body armor and attack the Walkers with bats. Giving us time to run through the open door with the two guys behind us.  

“Let's go! Moe, let's go!” One of the guys calls to the others who I’ll assume is Moe and he slams the door shut. Reg and I follow David into another room, suddenly a woman jumps out in front of Reginald and I holding a gun at us.  

“You sons of bitches. We ought to kill the both of you!” She yells, glaring at us with fury in her blue eyes. Middle-aged. Average height and build. Blonde hair. Caucasian. City accent. b***h.  

“Just chill out, Trinity!” Moe yells, peeling himself out of his bodysuit. Middle-aged. Average height, medium build. Dark hair, beard. Latin-American. City accent.  

“Back off.” Another adds. Middle-aged. Average height, medium build. Bald. African-American. Country accent. 

“Come on, ease up.” The other woman says. Middle-aged. Below average height, small build. Dark hair. American-American. Country accent. 

“Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of these stupid assholes!” The woman who I assume is Trinity sasses, and she already has gotten on my bad side.   

“Trinity, I said back the hell off.” Moe warns again. She doesn’t lower her weapon. “Well, pull the trigger.” He bluffs, waving towards us. She holds his gaze before dropping her arm. 

“We're dead. All of us, because of you.” She voices, glaring at Reginald and me.  

“I don’t understand?” Reginald says confused, looking around the room of people. Moe comes and grabs Reginald and me by the arm and drags us down a hallway.  

“Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. Do you know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! Do you know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing! Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.T. Corral!” Moe's expresses after he leads us into the main room, it looks like a thrift shop kinda.  

“Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds.” The other man says.  

“You guys just rang the dinner bell.” Trinity says pointing to the entrance of the store where a crowd of Walkers bang against the windows. Just our luck. 

“Get the picture now?” Moe adds.  

“Lord!” I say as one of the Walkers smashes the window with a rock.  

“Let’s go!” One of them yells. I’m frozen in terror at the sight in front of me, Reginald grabs my arm and leads me away with him as I can’t tear my eyes away from the sight.  

“What the hell were you doing out there anyway?” Trinity asks.  

“Trying to flag the helicopter…” Reginald answers.  

“Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter.” The other man says. 

“You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens.” The other woman says. 

“We saw it!” I say, trying to defend Reginald.   

“Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B.” Moe says, “Can you contact the others?” 

“Others?” Reginald and I both say, “The refugee center?” Reginald adds.  

“Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us.” The other woman says sarcastically. What the hell crawled up her ass?!  

“Got no signal,” T-Dog explains, fidgeting with the knobs. “Maybe the roof?” A gunshot goes off, ringing throughout the building.  

“Oh no! Was that Dougherty?!” Another gunshot goes off “What is that maniac doing?” I froze in place; I feel breathless as I barely get my sentence is. 

“Dougherty? Did you say, Dougherty?” I barely breath out. 

“Yes.” Trinity says while rolling her eyes.  

“Which way’s the roof?”