So hold your head up high, forgotten man.
Tomorrow won't be made for you
And everybody's gotta try to lend a helping hand.
For god and man, there's nothing more to do

---

Lopsided skeletal grey shacks began to root through the roadside scenery and telephone towers rose towards the pale blue clear sky, they still hummed; the cables were still live. Narrow roads began to swerve out left and right, leading towards small settlings on the edge of nowhere. Mountains patched with greenery rucked through the beige dull lands; the backdrop to the lonely town of Eureka.

There were settlings of caravans in patches of greenery, shabby warehouses and diners crouched at the feet of hills. Beyond the abandoned, rusting constructions began rows of one story houses with white picked fences and neat tiny stores.

As the scenery began to improve and the smell of civilisation began to rise in the air, the two vehicles were cut off from entering further into the town by a looming barricade of metal and wooden scraps. It rose a good fifteen feet into the air as a mulitshaded grey mass from one side of the hill to the other. It was made in the space of a month by hand, fitted with reinforced gates and makeshift watchtowers to provide that little bit of extra protection, however they seemed to be never used.

The cars paused at the feet of the metal giant, cooling in its shadow. “Welcome home, I guess.” A mutter came across the radio link. It was not a home to any of the five, it was merely a sanctuary, a makeshift camp until they can escape and move on. But for now, they all had a duty... Of a sort.

“If you can call this holy fuck-town a home.” Ash mumbled back as he turned to his sleeping companion. “Give me a moment.”

Beside Ash was Andy, sleeping like a child on a tiring road trip. It was hard to tell for how long the leader of the ragtag team hadn’t slept. Days? Weeks? When he finally let go of all the emotional baggage which pressed heavily on his mind he began to nod off with ease in the passenger seat. Ash didn’t have the heart to keep on waking him up.

Andy’s face was pressed up against the glass, his sharp jawline and long pale neck were exposed erotically which seemed inappropriate. Ash quickly shuck those thoughts from his mind. “Hey, Andy.” Ash said as he gently shuck the man by his shoulder.

There was no response.

“Andy, we’re here.” Ash tried again, this time Andy’s eyes began to slowly open and he let out a lazy groan but his eyes quickly closed again. Ash forced down a burst of laughter, how could this lanky giant seem so childish and innocent? It seemed almost ridiculous. “C’mon man, you aren’t a kid anymore. You need to get up.”

“Alright, alright!” Andy groaned before Ash could disturb him again. He arched his back like a cat whom was resting in the evening sun until the commotion disturbed its one eyed sleep. “Couldn’t you have just let me sleep…” Andy muttered through a yawn. “And sleep… and sleep. I really don’t want to be here.”

“None of us do.” Ash replied before rolling down his window and shouting on the top of his lungs towards the top of the barricade. “Open up the gates you lazy motherfuckers!” No courtesy.

“Nice to see you too, Purdy!” Came the reply after a few moments of desert silence.

“I know! I’m a pleasure! Your mother knows that!” He called back.

“My mother’s long dead purdy! Anyone with a brain knows that!” The mystery man shouted back as he marked the end of their ‘welcome home’ banter. It was followed by the groan of wood and metal not used to this abuse which was the sound of the opening gates, the vehicles were flooded by sunlight as the exhaust pipes coughed and they ploughed on into the town.

Beyond the steel gates, the town seemed untouched by the apocalyptic atmosphere that brewed in the outside world. It seemed… normal. From the dusted and painted doorways of stores and homes peeked faces of people, others stopped on the sidewalks to watch the battered cars. None of them watched the passing men with cannibalistic hunger of the undead, but with human curiosity.

“Remind me, why the fuck do we stay in this place?” An edge of irritation scraped in Ashley’s voice. It is not that he hated the town, or the people. Scrap the second; he hated most of the people, but not all of them. The man had the definition of outlaw scraped onto his skin and he had been forced into a sanctuary filled with God preaching ‘saints’ who seemed to find joy from forcing their purifying thoughts onto him.

“Because we want to help this town, because we want to do something good in return for them not kicking us out of the front gate.” Mechanically Andy answered. He had answered this question each time they had returned from a raid.

At a cross road loomed a red brick building with white framed windows, every angle seemed too straight and too sharp, too right and normal. It was the Eureka county court, what else should have been expected of it.

From the front doors poured out a small group of people in the uniform plaid shirts and bleached denim. Four of this group were middle aged men with leathery brown skin and greasy sweat dripping hair which peeked from under their sun bleached baseball caps.

One of the four had a high air of authority to his stance and his waddling walk which didn’t seem to mix with his appearance. The mans pale eyes were hidden under an avalanche of wrinkled skin and curling thick black brows. Under the carefully groomed shoebrush mustache were a pair of thin pale lips which were permanently plastered into a sadistic smile. Just the sight of the “New Eureka” sheriff made Andy’s skin crawl.

“Good to see that y’all boys are alive and well!” The ‘sheriff’ called out with a self satisfied smirk. Why was he satisfied with himself? Maybe because he knew that people needed him to create order, because no one strangled him or slashed his fat piggy throat yet.

“That’s right! And we brought goods too.” Andy answered as the cars paused. He could hear the steering wheel creak under Ashley’s flexing iron grip. “Is there business in the court, sir?”

“We were just discussing the next route for you boys to take.” The sheriff replied.

"We were thinking west!” Barked another voice. It was a lanky teen with pasty sunburned skin and ropey muscle, it was the sheriff’s ‘dearest’ son. Adopted son anyway, the sheriff had taken a liking to his sly beady eyes and his rat-like features. Not to mention his talent of reducing anyone to a series of actions, habits and movements. “Sounds good, huh Andrew?” Yipped the boy. Beside him his father smirked.

“Yeah, sounds good.” Andy answered weakly. After rummaging throughout Nevada all the supplies had ended within the state and it meant that they needed to branch out further. They tended to plot routes north east, towards the states with lower populations. It meant less trouble on the road. But it now seemed that the sherif and his righthand men understood that the gang were good at what they did and they wanted to push the limits.

Before the sherif or the sneering yipping group around him could speak up Ash pressed harshly on the gas peddle and reeled around the corner.

“One day, one day I tell you, I will rip that fucking smug smirk of that pigs fucking face!” Ash roared as he attempted to keep control of the car while being on the edge of tearing someone or something apart. “He knows that we shouldn’t go to the west! He fucking knows it! If he even dares to think about sending us to fucking California, I will kill him.”

“Get in the fucking line.” Andy huffed. He had heard this particular speech, or variations of it, many times off each one of the boys. He must admit he would like to do something alike to what Ash was threatening.

“You know what we should’ve done? We should have found ourselves a cozy little prison, somewhere out in Utah, stocked it up with water and food then stayed there until the whole thing blew over.” Ashley’s temper seemed to cool down as they swerved through the narrower alleys, “Or maybe Texas. Texas seems like a good place. But fuck the climate is terrible.”

“Whatever you say Rambo.”

---

On the edge of town there is a Eureka county high school, it has justifiable facilities, such as the gym and the canteen. It could have served as a great apocalypse sanctuary facility but the issue was that it is on the very edge of town. The barricade only circled around the tight cluster of the town, for the sake of the safety, or maybe the lazy watch guards didn’t want a large perimeter to patrol. Just by the court they had found and elementary school. The new residents of Eureka made use of the canteen. It was just extra luck that frozen diner meals do not have a literal expiration date.

It was hard to dish out supplies to the survivors and make sure that it all goes to good use. So a system developed; If you want to eat come to the canteen at given times and receive a rationed portion of crappy diner meals and whatever else had been salvaged by the boys or find your own meals which most didn’t have any choice but to choose the diner meals.

The gang were met at the front doors of the school by some of the residence on the supply management duty. It was Becca, an ex mother of one; Matt, a seventeen year old school kid and Jon who used to work in a near by restaurant, due to some unfortunate events he lost his job.

“Welcome back!” Becca greeted them, smiling widely. “Took long enough, we thought that the parasites finally got all of you.”

“But who would fatten up their little piggies then, huh?” CC asked humorously as he began to drag out first of the supplies from the cadillac. CC, or as the gang would call him: “Tank Girl”, had a strange sense of humour which made some question his sanity, but they all knew that the man was a softie at heart. But in the past three years he had toughened his skin and the recall of the encounter with the first wave of the infection brought back darker memories which were not up for public discussion. It was something that CC and Jake kept between themselves, the rest of the team were resigned to not knowing.

“That is just rude, Christian.” Bit back Becca. She took the crates and disappeared in the cool darkness of the school. “And take a bath, all of you stink!” She called out from the dark.

“Nice to have you guys back.” Matt piped up, the teen wore his lopsided grin. The kid had the unmistakable resemblance of an over excited puppy which has the habit of wagging its tail too much. How the kid had survived with his pacifistic morals was still a mystery.

Three of the five canisters of petrol were left for the residence to use, the remaining two were left concealed in the cars. “Just in case”, they said. It’s a little dream that the group had; getting away. Driving out of the town and never feeling obliged to return. But it is hard to leave the nest once you find an attachment. After the crisis of the infection, amidst the bullets, the fire and the tears they found themselves in Eureka and that is where they found comfort.

Notes

There was actually ment to be more to this chapter but we decided to split it into two. The second half will be posted tomorrow or wednesday! (Sorry folks)

Zombie killing action is three chapters away. Really, really sorry but there is some character development that we need to get through until the actual plot of this story begins.

Stick around!