Chapter 15

We had loaded up into what seemed to be the same van I was first brought in and were driving down random roads I could not for the life of me recognize.

Everyone on the team had somber or slightly depressed faces.

It was a bit of a buzz killer especially since I had gotten used to Sarah’s constant brightness over the past year or so.

I let out a sigh and looked towards the front of the van, debating if I could find a CD or something to play.

I had my dry erase board and marker hanging from my neck by a cord and had been occasionally doodling on it.

But the current silence from the team was getting on my nerves.

I swear to God their acting like we're driving to our deaths or something, I thought to myself.

It's just a giant horde of flesh eating zombies.

No biggie.

I scooted over to the front where Jay was driving and leaned over the cup holders, looking for something to hopefully play.

It took me a good minute to find something to toss in the player.

Jay looked at me with humor in his eyes as I hit play and went to sit back next to Henry.

Henry’s face was red and he was looking up at the ceiling.

A few guys were giving him pointed looks between us and I blinked in confusion but forgot about it as the music started playing.

I grinned and elbowed Henry’s side.

Some techno music started playing and I started doing a small robot routine, and waggled my eyebrows at him playfully.

I was still in my seat so kind of limited but I got him grinning after a moment.

The other men in the team were looking at me warily and I sighed and rolled my eyes at them.

I pulled my board up.

*You guys are seriously buzz killers you know?*

Henry’s eyes widened and so did everyone else's in the van.

“You can write?!”

I seesawed my hand.

*Stop acting like we're driving to our deaths. If you think you're going to die then live before it at least.*

I waggled my eyebrows at them and poked Henry’s side.

It wasn't too long after that everyone was singing and cracking jokes, the tension from earlier having been erased.

Henry was singing along and holding my hand.

I looked at him from the corner of my eye.

I really did hope he was single, I mean by now I was pretty sure but that didn't mean he would exactly want to be in a relationship again with me.

Issue was I couldn't talk it out, and writing it out would still be kind of awkward. 

Plus…. I still didn't know if I could handle a no.

And again it wasn't like I had much to offer anymore, I mean I had lost most of whatever made him like me in the first place.

I didn't really have a place in their society anymore so it wasn't like I carried much worth….

Honestly it made my pride as a man hurt that I couldn't provide anything useful to a relationship.

At least before I seemed to have known a lot of stuff and did a lot of cool shit.

Now I was struggling to speak, having just relearned a bit of writing. 

It wasn't extremely hard since I kinda remembered it after messing around with the books for a bit.

But asking someone out…….

I was still trying to recover and had nothing good to offer.

I wanted to be something desirable, be able to provide something useful and not feel so pathetic about myself.

Damn I had just fixed the mood from before and was about to ruin it again.

Henry squeezed my hand, seeming to notice my mental distress.

I squeezed back and started nodding my head to the beat.

One step at a time Max, I thought to myself.

Eventually we came up to a crumbling building with dozens of zombies shuffling around it, a few banging on the walls.

I blinked in confusion.

Normally we didn't care to get inside buildings unless we thought food was in….

Henry was pale as he looked at the zombies.

“There's more than last time…” Jay said after a minute.

We were far down the road and some of the zombies had seemed to hear the engine, looking over.

I had thought if it was only a handful that I could just trick them like before but a horde this size trying to get inside the building…

I would have to lead them far away because obviously something was making them come back.

*This will take me awhile.* I wrote on my board and jumped out the back of the van.

Henry was staring at me from the van window as I walked towards the gas station.

After getting closer I slowed my steps, making my stride more of a hobble and let out a low groan from the back of my throat.

Almost like a greeting.

I sniffed and nearly gagged at their scent and from an almost overwhelming smell of blood coming from inside the gas station.

Yeah…. Leading them was going to be extremely tricky.

I mingled with the zombies for a few minutes, eventually acting like a bit of a leader.

Most of the zombies here were starving and not many of them appeared to have much strength in their bodies.

Zombies tended to follow the stronger since it meant food and my body had been taken care of for a full year.

To them I probably appeared newly turned and could lead them towards food.

After about 10 minutes some of the zombies were taking steps after me and I smiled under my mask.

I went to the edge of the group and let out the loudest hiss I could.

Food.

The zombies all paused, a few letting out confused gurgles, so I growled.

Hunt.

The zombies who had followed me made the same growl and started walking with me.

I walked, leading the group off down the road and could hear the rest of the horde starting to follow behind me.

I kept up the growl and the zombies behind me kept chiming along with me.

Food, find, hunt, go go go.

We walked about a mile and a half and honestly I got kind of disoriented with all their hissing and growling.

It was hard not to keep moving with them because the moans and gurgles were very familiar.

My instincts were blaring to keep going and find food given how everyone was shrieking it.

Then I remembered there was no food and felt my face burn from embarrassment.

I slowed my walk until one past me, still growling and hissing about food.

Others passed me and continued the song of our hunt. 

Eventually I made it to the back of the herd and acted like I was weakening.

It was normal for us to sometimes weaken and fall and I tried my best to act like it.

I may have seemed strong and newly turned but their senses were in hunting mode now so they didn't pay attention when I stopped walking.

I watched as they continued to move off towards food no one had even seen and smiled.

I half jogged half walked back to the gas station, huffing as I checked around it for more zombies.

I couldn't hear any inside but I could still smell blood so I was worried.

I was tired from all the walking so I weakly waved for the van to come over.

Henry nearly fell out of the van and over to me, looking me over.

“Are you ok?” He was shaking as he held my hand.

I nodded.

“The zombie messiah!” Spencer laughed and Henry shot him a glare.

“Alright we need to try and find the key for the gas tank under the station so we can siphon some out.” Jay said and pulled out a crowbar.

Henry and the rest followed and spent about ten minutes prying open the doors.

I walked over and gave the place a hesitant sniff.

I covered my nose in repulsion at the scent of near rotting flesh.

Jay raised an eyebrow at me.

*Smells like something dead but not zombie.* I wrote.

Spencer looked at me curiously and Henry squeezed my hand.

The men walked inside and I went around, following the source of the stench.

I eventually found what I assumed was a break room and carefully opened the door.

Flies flew into my face and I swatted at them, happy my mouth was covered by my mask.

I blinked and froze as I saw the body hanging from the ceiling.

I gagged and backed up.

“What did you find?” Spencer walked down the hallway and poked his head through the door.

He turned to me.

“Fine dining for you or?”

I shot him a glare and shook my head no.

Nasty.

But I knew those starving zombies had probably been attracted by this.

I glanced at the body and frowned, noticing the person's shoes were off and blood was slowly dripping from their feet.

I looked up at the face and winced as I saw the rope around his neck.

His fingers seemed broken to…..

Whatever happened to him he probably didn't want to die….

Had this been deliberate?

It was odd that after torturing someone they would cut his feet to make blood leak out though.

Spencer gave me a grin, leaning on the wall and stuck his thumb towards the corpse.

“Go on take a bite.” 

I openly gagged and walked back down the hall to find Henry.

I didn't really remember Spencer still but I don't think I like him.

When I got closer to Henry he pulled me to his side and looked down at me.

“You ok?”

I shook my head no and put my face into his side, letting out a breath.

I felt him tense up and I looked back, seeing Spencer coming from the hall.

I looked up at Henry’s face and noticed an angry look in his eyes.

“Fucking hell!” Jay slammed the closet behind the counter shut.

I blinked at him in confusion.

“Usually we can find the gas tanks keys somewhere behind the counter.” He groaned.

I looked back up at Henry.

“We could check the back office?”

“Its code locked and the electricity is out even if we could find the code.” Spencer said.

Ah yeah there was another door by the breakroom, I hadn't checked it cause I was shocked by the body.

*Henry there's a body back there too.* I wrote.

He nodded after reading.

I hesitated.

*It looks wrong.*

“What do you mean?” He asked but before I could reply Spencer came over and bumped Henry’s side.

“Think you can jump the generator?” He said and grinned.

Henry shrugged.

“I haven't been able to do it in a long time Spencer, most of the stuff out here is getting to old to work.”

I blinked in confusion at Henry.

Since when did he know how to work generators?

He grinned down at me, noticing my confused look.

“You taught me a couple times on the road remember? I kinda remember some of it.”

Ah….I really didn't think he paid much attention.

We went down the hallway again and I tried not to look at the corpse, closing the room entirely.

We eventually found the back room and a generator in the corner.

The scent from the corpse was really getting to me since my sense of smell was a lot sharper and I eventually couldn't stay back with them.

I wandered out to the front and started looking through closets by the registers.

I found some air fresheners after a while and started spraying the shit out of the area, feeling better when it smelled like pine.

I was still spraying the air when Henry came back out of the hallway looking defeated and I paused with the can held high in the air.

“What are you doing?” His eyes were full of amusement.

I let out another puff and slowly lowered my hand.

He laughed and shook his head at me.

 The rest of the men came back out, looking annoyed.

“We could try and break into the office?” One of the men offered.

Jay let out a sigh.

“Unless we spend 5 hours smashing that door with a sledgehammer I doubt we can get in.”

The men went back to the counter to talk more on what to do and I wandered towards the back with my can of pine held out in front of me.

I was spraying around the breakroom door when I heard a clunk from the room with the generator.