Chapter 77: 77
“Kenny, Hannah would you please come here? We’ll go home now.” my uncle said.
My aunt then lunged forward and she tried to slap my uncle in the face.
*SLAP*
*SLAP*
*SLAP*
She kept on slapping him but he never fought back then he just catches her arms. He motioned for Hannah to take Kenny to the truck and she followed her father.
“NO!” my aunt shouted.
“W-wait! I’d like to come too!” Joanna then started to plead with my dad. Tears started to flow from her eyes but I threw a hateful glare at her.
“Don’t fall for it unc, she did this before. I said I would take them before but seeing them still the same assholes, I changed my mind. Unc should have split with them before and I should’ve been in the court when they decided where my cousins would go to.” I said to myself.
“Cyrill, Joanna… I’m disowning the two of you. After all I’ve done, I should’ve abandoned all of you when I got the chance before. I promised myself never to be the same idiot again. F.u.c.k the both of you, I’m not your father anymore. And you? You’re not half the parent I’ve been to these kids, stop lying to yourself and take care of the two who still calls you their mother properly.” he said as he let go of her arms.
“Mr. Chang, one more tip. Burn the bodies in the streets.” I said as he nodded.
My aunt just slapped unc’s hands off and she glared at the both of us. Joanna was crying in the floor while Cyrill has an intense glare fixated on me. My group just dispatched of the ones coming closer and my uncle lifted Kenny inside the truck and Hannah lifted herself in too. We all sat in the sidings at the back while Mr. Chang’s men locked the gates once again and we drove off to Jay’s place. I saw my uncle’s face in the side mirror from the back and he has a peaceful expression even from the tears falling from his eyes. The helmet I gave him is now in Kenny’s head while the three inside have a moment of their own as we drove. Kenny looked back at me and gave me a small salute as I responded with my own.
I’m holding the guandao with my hands and Kaley and Tatiana is looking at me.
“What?” I said.
“You really traded the motorcycles and the guns for that? Does it do something special?” Tatiana asked.
“Yeah, I know part of the trade was your cousins but you’d take that weapon over the shotgun and the AR?” Kaley asked as well.
“Yeah, this thing could last more than that AR. Let’s say he lets a marksman use it and they hit zombies with 100% accuracy, then it’s just 150 zombies and you’re out of ammo. This thing could kill a whole lot more given time and we could always go back for the five motorcycles in the shop again. I just added the protective gear and the shotgun since we still have a few of them available. This thing has a long reach, though it is heavier than the katana and you need to use it with both hands.” I said.
“You said before that you prefer maneuverability and speed over reach and power, right?” Kaley asked as well.
“Yeah, we’ll find someone suitable for this, it’s a thing of beauty too. Good thing he maintained it this well.” I said.
We finally arrived at the place Jay told me to go to and we saw a few zombies around it that are cut down or bludgeoned to death by their weapons. I knocked at their gate and I saw all of them in there with other people, they are happily eating and Jay welcomed us. They are eight people in total.
“Hey, you really came. This is what’s left of us. We used to be a lot more but a few left us here and a few you know… turned to one of them.” Jay said.
“Are you willing to take us all in?” Jon asked.
“Tell me about yourselves first.” I said.
“I’ll start then…” Jay said.
Jay was actually a business owner like myself and he and his family is running a small restaurant located further than my stores at Polo nearing the border of it which was near Obando. Jon was his brother and he works at a 7-Eleven. Bing was a bouncer in a club somewhere in the city while Daisy is a tattoo artist and their other companion before that haven’t introduced himself is Michael. He’s a factory worker that worked on textiles. The other three inside their home was Andres and Veronica which was Jay’s parents and the last one was Faith, his wife.
They seem like a normal group and I decided to tell them about my place.
“Alright, the thing is, inside my compound, I’m the one in charge. You look like a normal group and we definitely need people who had experienced the outside even for a while just by themselves. I’d like you all to come with us but there will be a strict set of rules that we all follow inside. Each person is required to contribute their strength and knowledge for the group and everything passes through me first before you do anything else important. You could always voice your opinions with me but I will always have the final say. Just make sure you have a strong argument to convince me to change my mind since I’m a very stubborn individual. If you do the things that I asked, I can give you food, water, shelter, medicine and protection.” I explained.
“Aren’t you worried that some people might do something bad in spite of what you’ve done for them? We’ve had a couple of those and I would not let the same thing happen again here.” Bing said.
“A pessimistic and a cautious one eh? He and Johnny will hit it off I bet.” I said to myself.
“No, I always pick the people that I think has a good head on their shoulders and I have people back there to protect the place even if we’re here.” I replied.
“You have more people?” Jay said.
“Yeah, a couple times more than yours.” I said.
“You’ve never had any incidents?” Andres said.
“What do you mean? If you’re talking about casualties, none. It’s because we are always prepared, and armed. People don’t just die stupidly there like in the movies.” I said.
“That is impressive but what I mean is that no one has pointed a gun at you or stole from you?” he elaborated.
“As I said, we have a very secure place. However, a very stressed and confused guy pointed a gun at me once.” I said.
“Did you kill him then?” he asked.
“I don’t kill unless I needed to. He’s alive and with the group, he cleared his head and back to his usual self. However, he may have lost the opportunity to make another child since I’ve kicked him hard in the nuts and I twisted his arm.” I told them the story.
“Hah! Did that really happen?” Jon asked.
“Yep.” I replied.
After a few more exchanges of words, they all decided to come with us as they packed all of their belongings. Their vehicles were stolen so they would need to ride the truck with us. Good thing we’ve removed two motorcycles and they wore the protective gear so we could have more space in the truck. The group I first took to scout had amused expressions since those looked exactly like the ones they wore before. They are now wearing proper vests for protection though they still have a few of them on their person like the knee pads and elbow pads along with the gloves.
“Wait, I’d like to confirm if you really are in the army.” Bing said to Tatiana.
“Oh boy.” I said.
“Well I’ve only seen the young kid and the girl with the black hair shoot. She’s just holding her shotgun and she never fired it. It must be for intimidation like in my job where you put a tough looking guy out front.” he explained.
Daisy gave a pensive expression but she still doubts to what Bing was saying.
“If you’re really in the army they must’ve trained you aside from guns. I challenge you to a mano y mano.” he said while raising both his hands.
All of us knows what this pervert has on his mind.
“He’s trying to cop a feel.” we all said to ourselves.
“You’re gonna die.” I said to him.
“Bah! Stop scaring me, I know what I’m doing.” he said with a smirk.
“Knock yourself out.” I said with an amused expression.
It wasn’t even a minute, not even half of a minute. Heck, not even 10 seconds.
*whoosh*
*WHACK*
I remember that heel, that jumping spinning hook kick. It hit Bing clean in the jaw and his guard that he put up wasn’t even able to block it since it was pushed to the side.
He fell in the ground head first and Tatiana gives a confused reaction.
“Is he dead?” she said.
“…” everyone else.