Chapter 34

It took a few more days for Josh to fully heal. His eyes were still dark blue and my teeth marks were a light pink against his pale skin. "Hey, dude I was thinking we should clear the high school out and turn it into the shelter." he agrees with me because in the few days Josh was out and on bed rest Gabby and I have been helping the police, well they now call the LA renegade, have been helping people leave the city. The gated community now has six families and it can hold up to twenty-five. We were going to need more space. During the moving of the families, the renegade sent some of there people south towards the broader to see if there was actually a wall there. It's been three days and they should be back by now, we were just waiting for the radio to spark to life.

Josh and I were getting ready leave to clear out the school we Bryson came running to stop us. "Guys it's true, there's gray wall," he huff out. I growl in annoyance. I took a deep breath to calm down. "Alright this changes a lot of things then," I said to him. We need to clear out the school as soon as possible and go further north to clear out small towns and build walls around them and set up trade routes. Not to mention the gang actively has been on the rise. Damn it. Everything seems to be getting harder. I need to talk to the runners and the renegade about training and sending people to help me with this. But first thing first was clearing out the high school. Everything else could wait a few days.

I was only talking Josh with me to the high school because it could be done just by the two of us. I scope out the place two days ago and saw there wasn't much of the dead there. It might take us the day to clear it out and just a few more days to make it ready to be livable. A part of me still couldn't believe that there was a wall in place to keep us trapped in here instead of helping. But that's what I should of guess for our government. Josh and I walked to school. It was about an hour's walk from the farm and I saw three of the dead. I went into my zombie mode and took them out within seconds. Josh just pouted because he wanted to take one down. "Next time bro," I smile at him and we walked through the doors.

We spit up and went into different rooms along the first floor. Even though he was far away I could hear his heart beating. I could also hear the skulls crack from him hitting them but that's beside the point. I could hear his heart, the thing that is keeping him going and alive. I smile and took out the last growler in my room before moving onto the next. About halfway through clearing the first floor, my radio goes off. I am wearing an earpiece so I just hear Lily telling about some officers showing up at the farm with some families. I radio her back saying okay and for her to handle it. She signs off and I continue on killing these things.

After sometime Josh and I meet in front of the staircase to move up to the second floor when I hear something. It was faint and it was coming from above us. I move faster than I can think and kick in the door that was blocking that sound. "Fucking hell," said some guy. I looked and saw a girl crying. I didn't even give the guy a chance to explain what he was doing I just killed him. I knew my eyes were red and it scared her but Josh rushes in and helps her while I took care of the growlers and other zombies on this floor by myself. I knew things like this happen now, that this was the new normal for us but that didn't me jack shit to me. No one would get away with that when I'm around and I am sure as fuck going to kill anyone who does it when I can hear them.

By the time I finished, I was cover in black blood and Josh was trying to help the girl but she was scared and clawed at him. I round my eyes and whip the blood off my face and throw her over my shoulder. If she wasn't going to be nice then I wasn't. An hour later we were back at the farm and I put her down when Lily came to me with an officer hot on her tail. "This guy says he knows you," she said and I look to see officer Cameron. " I wouldn't say I know him but I did meet him when we were setting up the trading post before you and your friends show up," I told her.

"Hey look I took pictures from the south. I was sent there because of your information on a wall and I couldn't believe it so I took photos to show everyone," he said while holding up a simple point and shoot camera. I saw the gray wall with bloodstains on them before I could as him the question he answers it. "Yeah, it's from humans and from the dead, we stay long enough to see that it wasn't soldiers that did this but an automatic weapon system," he said and I sigh. This couldn't get anything better. If one system was there that means it was all over. I needed to tell everyone about this. Not just in LA or in this town but all over the state. I was starting to get a headache from all of this and I wanted to lay down and just relax for a second but I knew I couldn't. Not with this information. I left the girl in Lily's care and went to the barn. "Hey Skyla can you make a recording message to broadcast all over the state," I ask her. "Yeah boss just give me a second to set it up," she told me.

A few minutes later she was ready and so was I. I thought about what I wanted to say to try to make it perfect but then I gave up that thought. I needed to sound real.

"My name is Haley Santiago and I am from Los Angeles, the city of fallen angels now, like you I was in for a rude awakening when the dead came back to life, I never thought I would see zombies outside of books and movies. But now this is our reality this is what we wake up to each and every day now. I am here to tell you that our government did this to us and built those walls that are trapping us here. They set up and system of automotive weapons to kills us. I am here telling you all of this. From the tip of the north to the south and east and west we can leave but I am here for you. I know a lot of people here for you and if you need anything please reach us."

I turn away from the radio and hope that would help more people. In our new reality monster were real. Both dead and alive, but here I was for them. I know I was just one person but I wasn't going to stop until it as safe or safe enough to live in some fear. I didn't want my girls to see this as something to be normal but for right now it was. This was our normal and I'll be damn if I let it kill me. I will break out of these walls down and kill whoever did this to us, not only for myself but for Jackie and her people as well. I wasn't good at leading but I'll try. These people look up to me when I didn't believe in myself.

It's time to start believing.