Vol 2 Ch 20(Sam): Return to Base

We had made it a considerable distance from the station, one thing for sure though, carrying all the stuff i was, was incredible bothering, my shoulder felt ready to fail me.

"Alright, let's take a break here" Lee made the call for us to rest, buildings were around, yet none of them seemed safe to rest in, so we used the tents outside.

"Don't think the school is too far now, we can probably make it soon by the morning if we want to continue after a quick rest" Nicholai was checking up on the kids, i think she wanted to make sure they were alright. Kenneth walked over to Lee and started talking to him, I could hear them mention that uplink thing that allows us to use our powers better.

The girl with the switch from earlier sat beside me. I was sitting on a collapsible chair.

"Oh! You can have the chair, you shouldn't be sitting on the floor, you could get sick" She seemed confused at what i said.

"W-wouldn't you get sick then?" She had a point.

"Don't worry, I'll be alright" I stood from the chair and motioned my arm for her to take it. After a small amount of hesitation she took the seat.

"Thank you" She sat down, her legs didn't touch the floor so she swung them back and forth while she played. I sat beside her and watched. As i watched her play i noticed a name, Crystal, thinking on it, i thought I caught a glimpse of a similar hair color too.

"Is your name Crystal?" I spoke softly.

"Yup!" She confirmed what i thought, yet another girl being named Crystal doesn't mean it can be the same one, there was no point in making her worry about nothing...And...she would've remembered us...right?

"T-that's a nice name" I was trying to think and speak at once making speaking a tad bit harder.

"Sam, can we borrow ya for a sec" Lee called me over, Kenneth was holding something.

"I'll be right back" I tapped the top of her hat before going toward the two. "What is it?" Kenneth moved the paper allowing me to see as well. It was a weird looking map, some places were colored differently.

"Dunno how, maybe that drug Raymond gave Lee allowed him to read it. But Lee was able to decipher this" Kenneth tapped a few weird symbols i didn't recognize.

"I couldn't get it all, but for the most part it's "Prime Uplink locations'"

"Wait, as in the DT ones?" Kenneth took out something in response.

"This appeared in my bag" It looked like a small satellite dish that closed on itself, and a long end piece you could mistake for a staff. "So map did too"

"We assume we're expected to plant it ourselves" I was worried. Planting it ourselves?

"Why didn't they just teleport us all out?"

"That's the weird part, it's clear we weren't abandoned...at least entirely...yet, it seems they're not coming back for us" Kenneth handed Lee the uplink while Kenneth kept the map. "Here" Lee handed me a square key. "It's best if we spread out the uplink's resources just incase we get separated, we don't know if anyone else can use it in this world, and we don't want them to only have magic instead of us" He moved his head towards Nicholai for a second "She already had a piece, there is one uplink, one map, and two keys" It took a second but i was able to register it in my head.

"Alright, so where are we going?" I asked after pocketing the key.

"The school is surprisingly a good uplink spot, so we continue where we were going from the start" Kenneth folded the map after reading it and put it in a separate pocket in his bag.

"What even makes anything a good uplink spot?" I asked while looking in the direction of the the school. "Maybe it's the height? Our school is pretty tall..."

"Maybe, but skyscrapers here aren't marked as good on the map. If anything they're marked as poor" Lee recalled the spots on the map.

"I tried understanding on my own, clearly didn't turn out well" Kenneth shrugged it off.

"Oh Lee" I recalled something

"Hm?" We both turned to each other.

"The girl over by the chair...her name is Crystal she looks familiar too, it may just be a coincidence but...just thought you should know" Lee nodded

"I'll keep it in mind" The uplink had a strap on it, allowing Lee to sling it on himself. "I'll come up with some excuse for, well, this" He moved his shoulder to emphasize the long stick looking object. "We'll also continue moving soon, staying out in the open isn't safe" I nodded in agreement. Kenneth made a noise to let us know he heard. Nicholai stood up as Lee spoke, she might've heard. I walked over to the girl again and crouched down in front of her.

"We're gonna head out soon, do you want me to hold onto it" Crystal shook her head and put it in a case, before it closed i saw a charging symbol on the top right of the screen...the case charged it somehow...maybe Kenneth would get it more than me. Crystal stood up and headed over to the others, I grabbed the chair and folded it and put it back in its sack with the other chairs.

"I got it" Before i could put it on Lee grabbed it and slung it on. "I gotta balance myself somehow, this makes it easier."

"Oh! alright, I'll go get something else"

"There's some food sacks laying around somewhere" Lee took a step back and looked around. "It's...somewhere" I walked behind Lee and grabbed a rugsack sitting behind him. He turned around and saw.

"Maybe you should've taken another few steps back."

"Har har" I slung on the sack. "Alright!" He got everyone's attention. "We're heading out, get your stuff" He was starting to make a hand motion but stopped himself. "They wouldn't know what that means" It was faint but i thought i saw him pouting.

It took a while, but soon everyone had their things, maybe we should teach them to carry their stuff even when resting if we're not staying long. Lee lead the way, Nicholai stayed back, and Kenneth and I were in the middle. I noticed Crystal hanging around me, well, she seemed unsure, going between Lee and me. The walk there was mostly uneventful...too uneventful, normally in zombie shows or games we would've encounter something by now...maybe something else got their attention so they're going there instead.

Besides for changing our path sometimes due to roadblocks we made it to the school saftly, and it stood their in all its terrible glory.

"It wasn't that long ago we were here" Kenneth looked at it all, after about thirty seconds he started walking with us again. Lee reached his arm out towards us, opening his hand. "Alright, Nicholai, Sam, the keys" I searched my pockets and found it.

"What is that?" One of the kids pointed it out. I, with the key in my hands crouched down to his level.

"Think of it like calling the cops in a way, we get help from it, however this way is much cooler!" I could've lied about it better, but it seems the kids were excited by it. Lee took Nicholai's key, I walked over and spun the key around so the actual key end was facing me.

"You came up with a better excuse then m-" I heard a loud crack before my vision became stained, i heard something thud.

I put my hands to my face and cleaned it off. I looked over and saw Lee face down bleeding, I looked back up at the school entrance and saw people who looked like some raiders. I heard moving.

"The hell!" Kenneth pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the raiders. Kenneth grabbed Lee by the back of his collar and dragged him behind us. The kids were frozen still too. The raiders had their own weapons, ranged ones included.

"Sam, you're next in leading, what'd we do?" Nicholai whispered to me.

"The fuck're you all doing here? You read the damn signs?" The raider in front spoke.

"There were no signs!" Kenneth kept his aim on them.

"Then maybe you should get your eyes checked, including his" He pointed his makeshift looking gun at Lee while he talked, before aiming back at us. "We outnumber you kids, what do you intend to happen here?" I tried thinking of a way out, we reinforced the school and set traps...there was a few outside but i couldn't see any most of them could only activate inside...there were traps we set in the outer walls though...Kenneth and the raiders began shouting at each other. I crouched down and reached my right hand down to Lee's bag, i grabbed his krambit and slowly stood up.

"How about some food? We got lots of it you know" I started walking to them while keeping the krambit in my sleeve.

"Weird looking rugsack for food don't ya think?" There was one outer pipe i was looking for. "The hell you looking at!?" They noticed and so i didn't have a choice. I threw the krambit and one of the pipes, it pierced one of them and water began trickling out. "Heh! That was meant to do someth-" Though it wasn't what i intended, water burst from the pipe and distracted them. I looked behind me, Kenneth already had Lee on his back and Nicholai was already getting the kids to run. We all ran inside, it seemed like a bad idea, but we rigged this place in our favor and this time we could actually use them. I ran into the student council room, this place had the most stuff as we gathered here and it being on the third floor allowed some time. I kicked in one of the floor boards and took out a small box. I opened it, it was a small pocket knife but it was better than the empty pistol that was next to it. I put the box away after grabbing it, I'll fix the floor afterwards. The door to the room opened and Kenneth came through.

"Where's Lee?"

"I put him in one of the hidden rooms, he'll be fine Nicholai is with him and the kids are there too." I got near the door while Kenneth stayed on the other of the room. I heard footsteps approaching. I readied myself, i looked over at Kenneth to see if he was also ready, he nodded, and went back to aiming at the door.

"Get away from the window" I whispered over to him, he turned around, saw it, and crouched down...it was better than nothing. The door opened but closed almost immediately after.

"The floor!" I looked down and saw something that was almost a sphere, i didn't want to think what it was, so I opened the door and kicked it back out. When i kicked the object i noticed the pin was still in, more importantly, it wasn't real. I felt a jolt in my body before I fell back into the room. One of the raiders jumped over me while muttering.

"Dumbass" I questioned why I didn't hear anything behind me, until I noticed chain around Kenneth's neck and a broken window behind him. One of the raiders crouched down and looked at me.

"Gotta say, that was stupid, did you honestly think that would work? Did you think water killed people?"

"No, but this does" I saw the raider turn to the outside of the room, it didn't take long after that for a fire axe to swing his way. The raider ducked under but was shot after. The raider who jumped over me was tazed and fell over. The person who swung the fire axe helped me stand. I noticed Lee leaning on a wall with a revolver, his head was still bleeding. I looked over to inside the room, one of the kids held Kenneth's tazer and Kenneth was patting him on the head, yet i could hear the kid being lectured as well. The guy sat me on a chair, he seemed somewhat familiar, but i didn't know who he was.

"Didn't expect you to be alive" Lee spoke with him.

"Same could go to you" He responded back.

"Ah, Sam" He limped his way over into the room and leaned on the inside wall. "This is Edward, we met in middle school, when we were separated. He works as a firefighter...er...worked as one"

"Hence the axe i assume" Kenneth spoke up after lecturing the kid.

"What happened to you..." I spoke to Lee.

"Yeah about that, one of these pricks hit me in the head with a baseball bat" I noticed Lee held onto the keys. "Expected me to drop them?" He smirked.

"Just surprised you had the mortar function to do so" Kenneth spoke after Lee did.

"Oh yeah, Edward, this is Sam" He motioned his head to me, then to Kenneth "And that's Kenneth"

"You've talked about them before" Edward wiped off his axe.

"We should deal with the other raiders, the chance of the others leaving after that are slim" Kenneth felt his neck.

"You alright?" I struggled to stand on my own, but i was able to.

"I dunno...chain getting wrapped around your neck is pretty painful" He grabbed his stuff and put it away.

"I guess so..."

"We can head back to that hidden room, i doubt they know it exists, then when the time is right we can ambush them." Lee looked out the room "I don't see nor hear anyone, so it should be alright"

"Pretty sure you should rest, and I mean it" Kenneth's voice sounded intimidating

"I'll...make sure to do that later" Both Kenneth and I sighed from his answer. "Oh come on, it's not like I have much a choice and i don't feel right having you all do everything."

"Dave is still around you know" Kenneth made me aware of Dave again. "You can lead us that way" Lee was quiet for a minute or so before he replied.

"Fine" He looked at everyone then walked over to me, holding his revolver out. "The hidden room is pretty much close quarters, I'd do better with the Krambit in there and you shouldn't be unarmed." I took it and gave him his krambit back. "Alright, Edward when I'm not giving orders Sam does, so unless I'm saying something just follow her lead."

"Can do"

"I can head back alone, good luck to you three, you know where to find us after it's over. Come on kid" It was painful to see him limping across the hallway, but it did look like he could make it on his own, he got here after all. He took the kid with him too.

"Alright, where to first?" Kenneth felt his neck, it must've still been hurting "It's unlikely they made it upstairs"

"We should still be careful about it though" I recalled the chain that got Kenneth. "There's definitely someone downstairs, maybe more." Kenneth looked down as he began to think.

"We could also just get to the roof and put up the uplink" Kenneth looked back up after speaking.

"What uplink?" Edward looked at the two of us.

"Umm...h-how can i e-explain it" I started stuttering, i couldn't figure out a way to lie about it.

"Think of it like a cell tower, we need access to something that it can give us" Kenneth looked out the room.

"oh! I get it" Edward swung their axe around their shoulder, hanging on a hook on his bag.

"Exactly, let's get going, we need to clear out the plac-" Something crashed before i finished speaking, Kenneth was already looking outside the room, but we all rushed over to join him. "What was that?"

"It sounded like it was downstairs, so it can't be one of us." Kenneth looked down at the revolver Lee gave me. "How much is in it?" I fumbled with it before figuring out how it opens, two slots were empty, and four had rounds in them.

"Four it looks like."

"Should be enough" Kenneth left the room and stayed close to the wall and the ground. I moved so Edward can get behind Kenneth, and I stayed near the back. I knew it was a stupid idea, but i peered over the windows and looked down.

"Guys" I spoke just loud enough to be heard. Kenneth looked over the window and saw it too.

"The hell is that?" We all looked out to see a car, it was lightly armored with the glass windows having metal bars around it, the top was open like you could put something there. Yet, from our angle the front of the car was blocked by trees

"It's an LTV" Kenneth and I looked at him

"What?"

"Nevermind that, it must've been where the noise came from, meaning it crashed"

"You're saying it's empty right now?" I looked and tried to see inside the windows

"No one visible at least" Edward headed for the stairs.

"OI! Where are you going?" Kenneth tried calling for him.

"To the LTV of course"

"I think i figured that out" Kenneth looked at me. "Your call"

"Might as well give it a try, it'd be nice having something defended here." We joined Edward down the stairs, we were able to get to the LTV pretty easily with no resistance, it only made me worry more. The front part of the car was rammed into the wall, that was the source of the crash. "How did this happen?" I began going around to see the other side of the front as i could smell something horrible.

"Might've gotten shot at, maybe a zombie made them lose control" Kenneth and Edward worked on getting in.

Once i got to the other side i noticed a zombie under the car, the wheel keeping them pinned as they kept trying to wiggle out. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and let it out before i opened them again.

"Oh god..." As i kept looking down i heard something snap, then a door opening, they got in the car. "That doesn't explain where they went" I mumbled to myself. My question was answered as i looked at the zombie more, further forward from the zombie i noticed a blood trail, i could peace it together, but i didn't want to see what happened to them considering from what i understand, they got launched through the window.

"What is it?" Kenneth came over and looked down "Oh...Looks like a student too..."

"I didn't need to know that" My voice was quiet, i didn't even know if he heard me. He slowly began to figure it out too.

"No need to feel bad for them, they tried attacking us, hell, without warning they almost broke Lee's skull" I felt better after hearing that.

"Yeah! you're right...but" I looked back down at the zombie. "I can't tell if they look familiar anymore, I tried to get to know every student i could, yet know"

"Staying out here isn't good" Edward came up behind us. "I can deal with it, there's some stuff in the car you guys might wanna grab" I took another breath before going back around the car. When i got into the car from the driver side, I saw Edward swing their axe down, it sounded like someone stepped on a fruit and crushed it. I opened all the doors before looking at the back seats. There were a few boxes each labeled with a different symbol. I opened up one and saw a bunch of cylinders, i didn't know what they were until i saw the pins.

"Their Makeshift, no wonder they looked off" Kenneth watched me go through the boxes from the passenger door. "Set the box down carefully" I set the crate outside beside Kenneth. I opened another one, it just had a single syringe with a green liquid in it.

"Can you get Nicholai to look at this?" I handed Kenneth the box.

"After we check this sure." I looked out the windshield after i noticed I couldn't see Edward when setting down the boxes. He was following the blood trail.

"Ken"

"He'll be fine, none of them had firearms, and none of these boxes look open, meaning if it is a person they won't do much"

"Alright then" I went to the next box, it looked like building supplies, there were two boxes like this. "Guess they had defense plans of their own.

"Maybe" Kenneth grabbed one of the boxes while I grabbed another, these were the last three.

"Looks like ammo..." I looked through the other box and saw different firearms...they all were locked in clear cases though...so they didn't get them, so no need to be worried.

"What the hell is Dekar?" I looked to Kenneth who had a bunch of papers. I got out the car and looked at the paper with him. To sum it up, it spoke about a moving patrol heading back to Dekar...actually, with the way it described the supplies...this was the patrol.

"Oh no" Kenneth looked at me.

"What's Oh no?" I got back in the car and tried starting it, maybe we can hide it before they find it.

"What if they think we did it?" I looked out the car and back at Kenneth, he looked at the situation.

"They are gonna think we did it...i mean, their vehicle is in our outer walls, we might be the only group alive around here, an-" The radio in the car began to crackle before a voice began speaking, I looked down at it, i must've started the car successfully.

"Red Red Green Patrol, you have yet to respond, are you in danger? Red Red Green respond" I saw Edward coming back and had an idea. From the looks of it, only two seats were open, meaning at most two people were in this patrol, the question is, was it two males, one male one female, or two females. I tried going through the radio channels, one that wasn't active, and talked through it.

"Lee, Nicholai, either of you here this?" I was hoping that one of the people in the building had a radio.

"How the hell did you get a military vehicle?" Nicholai was already downstairs, looking at us. Kenneth ran over and explained, while i explained it to Edward when he returned.

"What!?" Edward got in the car "Alright...we can do this."

The other two returned and got in the car after making room.

"Red Red Green patrol, this is your last chance to respond" We were all panicking, should i try making a neutral sounding voice? Nicholai can do that i know that much. "I don't think he's responding" It was very faint, very hard to hear, but we all heard it. Kenneth leaned over and spoke.

"This is Red Red Green, seems our signal was jammed, we're doing fine, we'll be returning soon" He took his hand off the mic button so we were muted again

"You dumbass! Now they expect us to be back soon!" Nicholai got mad at Kenneth while i kept listening.

"Red Red Green, Understood, where's Issac?"

"I didn't find anybody past the trail" Edward spoke while setting his axe down in the car.

"Who the hell is Issac?"

"This guy" The driver door opened and a head was slammed against the wheel with a Krambit against their neck. Lee had a scratch on his face, but seemed fine otherwise.

"I told you what you wanted!" Issac's voice was a distinct pitch, none of us were replicating that.

"Then there should be no issue in lying for us." Lee looked at me and nodded, I pressed the mic button.

"H-!" Lee pressed the krambit on their neck further. "I-I'm alright, just a small crash, it'll take a bit to get back"

"Red Red Green, your buddy here said you were coming back soon."

"Y-yes i know" He looked at us confused, i took my hand off the mic. "Why the fuck would you say that?" His voice was more panicked then ours...then again we're not being held at knife-point.

"I told you it was dumb!"

"I get it damnit!" Kenneth talked back to Nicholai. I pressed down on the mic again.

"Yes...b-but it seems my injury was more serious than when Mason last looked...I-i just checked"

"Understood, Red Red Green, we'll be awaiting your return, don't take too long now" The signal died and I let go of the mic, setting it back down on the dashboard.

"Alright, what now?" Lee spoke while looking at Issac.

"You said you'd let me go!"

"I said you live longer, those are two separate things, I don't need us to be ratted out"

"H-how about this! In the dashboard there's a tracker...you can put it on me if you want!" From what he implied he wasn't going back to Dekar...that seemed unbelievable though. I went to open the dashboard, when i did i saw IDs, a knife, a cigarette that was seemingly used...and...no tracker.

"There's n-" I felt a sharp pain in my hand before i could finish, the pain eased a very slight bit, but was replaced by the sound of gurgling. I looked at my left hand and in my side view saw Lee slamming Issac's head onto the floor, blood slowly stained the grass

"Just great" Lee wiped his Krambit on his leg before standing up. "So unneeded"

"Can't blame him though...probably panicked" Nicholai grabbed my hand "Let me see it" It was bleeded and had a few marks, but at least a finger wasn't missing.

"Even so, you don't bite the guy holding the knife up to you?"

"Might not've had an angle" She checked the car's compartments. "No medical...really?" She let go of my hand. "We might as well head inside the building, last we need is actually getting run over...actually...we should get rid of this before they kids see it"

"Edward, Sam, you head in, we got it" I held my hand as I followed Lee's direction and headed back in, going upstairs and into the hidden room past a broken wall. Edward stayed outside of it.

"Sam! You're back!" Crystal ran up to me when i got in "Where are the others?"

"Doing something" I knelt down to her level. "I know it's a bit cramped in here, but good job dealing with it" I patted her head. "Come on, we can get out of here know" It took a while, there were a bunch of kids going through, eventually we made it all out of our hidden hiding space and out into the hallway.

"You're telling me i interrogated him for nothing?" I heard Lee's voice accompanied by Kenneth mocking him.

"What're you all on about?" Kenneth couldn't respond to me and Nicholai was looking for something, i assume stuff to fix my hand.

"I was telling them what the guy told me, about Dekar, apparently you guys read it already."

"Oh yeah...we did"

"What a waste of time" I noticed Lee would glance out the window every now and again.

"Something the matter?" He looked back to the window

"Kinda just feel he'll come back and bite me in the neck, it happened when we were human...then again i didn't have my krambit back then." He thought for a bit before looking at me again "We never found your parents...so I assume you'll wanna stay even after we get the uplink up."

"Yeah...maybe, it'll be a lot easier that way too, with the tracker and what not. you're helping too right?"

"Of course, i owe them one, we'll finally be even." I found his remark funny, he owed them a lot more than one...unless he's already evened out favors without me knowing...would be pretty hard considering my parent's nack of talking a lot.

"Sam!" Nicholai called me over. Edward went elsewhere with Lee, and Kenneth kept a watch of the kids.

The two of us entered a room and she sat me down.

"Luckily they didn't destroy anything." Nicholai went into the cabinets and grabbed a few things. "Luckily those two got their act together when it came to organizing too." She brought it over to the bed I was sitting on, and put it on a table beside it. "Gotta say our nurses prepped for everything, better than what i heard others were like." There was a bit of silence before she spoke again. "Hand" I let go of my hand and raised it for her, she grabbed it and started raised a small square wipe. "You know what this is already, just breath it's not as painful as younger you remembers"

I did as she said, and it went exactly as she said, it still stung but not as it did back then, the injury now was smaller, that of course may have been something that effected the pain...or maybe I just got used to the stinging from when he bit me...actually.

"Whatifhewasinfected" I blurted it out randomly, so fast it was almost impossible to understand what i said, but Nicholai still responded.

"Raymond said he just resurrected us, meaning we may have been infected anyways, even then if we weren't, it's unlikely it'll kill us, we seem to be stronger both externally and internally after all...I mean, you're illness hasn't come back right?"

"Sometimes it feels like it's still there...but it doesn't do anything" After cleaning my hand she began wrapping it.

"We can get that checked when we're in Eaxura, i don't have the stuff here to check much. I mean there's medicine, bandages, and a bunch of other stuff we got from when we were human...but it's not like i have IVs or scanners stuff like that" She tugged on the bandage before cutting off the excess. "Tomorrow when you wake up, come back to me so i can change the bandage"

"Alright, thanks!"

"No problem, now go find out what those two were doing, last i need is to waste more stuff...and I need to fix Lee's head...though it isn't too bad if he's still walking." It seemed like she was going to be busy putting the stuff she didn't need away. I left the Nurse's office and looked at the end of the hallway where the two left, they were coming back and they seemed fine.

"Where'd you too go?" I questioned.

"The bodies in that room, we got rid of them" Edward answered me instantly

"Oh..." I didn't feel bad for them, we've killed people before and they took our old base and attacked us without any warning. There was no reason to feel bad.

"Course I wanted to burn them, make sure they never come back, after all it seems headshots do less now, like a 50-50 chance of them still living"

"Might be a new strand" Nicholai came out the room and eyed Lee "Come on you, last i need is you bleeding all over the place and passing out"

"I'm still standing"

"Not in a few minutes if you keep acting that way"

"Fine...we'll set up the uplink later" Lee tossed me one of the keys, i almost dropped it but caught it pretty easily after it lost its speed.

Lee followed Nicholai back into the office after making sure i caught the key...

I could've sworn i saw a needle on my way out...well good luck Lee.