Authors Note: Well, I can see now why there's hardly any stories involving survival and apocalyptic themes on this site. I had to edit out most of the violence so I don't know, I hope this reads like a genuine survival love story regardless. Had I known there was a prohibition, I wouldn't have written this story. But I have, so.
As a disclaimer, this story has some violence and abusive language. It's been toned down, but as a "zombie" story essentially, it can't be written without it. Please feel free to opt out from reading if you find that offensive.
This story is a lot longer than my usual ones and the sex doesn't happen until later. This is more plot driven so if you're looking for a quick fix, you'll be sorely disappointed. I really enjoyed writing this and I'm glad to be back after being gone for awhile. Hope you guys enjoy!
*****
The sun was coming down. Gabe and his boys had to make this quick. They'd come across some five scavengers in their territory during their patrol. Nothing unusual. Unfortunately, for the poor bastards, Gabe recognized them as members of their rival camp. Usually, they'd gut, loot, and leave the corpses to dry when they found stragglers bold or stupid enough to cross into their lands, but Gabe was a man of custom.
He settled on making an example of these people by stringing them up over the collapsed traffic lights above their heads. Right there in the center of the city; in clear view of any more daring vermin.
Gabe sat on his haunches and studied the pack of halfwits as his men tied nooses around their neck; their begging and gross sobbing broke the cold silence of the empty city. Two women and three men all either too young, old, scrawny, or innocuous to be a proper scavenging party for these parts of the woods. They all wailed and whined.
Except one.
His keen ugly eyes paused on the quiet figure just a few feet before him. The girl was petrified, but even as the rope tightened around her throat in a sickening and audible squeeze, her wide eyes remained rooted onto the ground below her and her lips sealed shut. She stood still and calm with both feet atop the tin bucket they'd placed below each of them. No flailing. No shaking.
As if she knew better than to let all the air out of her body before the rope tightened further. As if she were ready to hold her breath.
Gabe grinned. A survivor at its finest. But it wouldn't matter. If her delicate neck didn't snap and kill her first, the lack of oxygen going to her head would. Holding her breath would make no difference, but Gabe had to commend her laughable tenacity. This one would be exciting to watch as the lights faded from her eyes.
He placed both his palms on the top of his knees and pushed himself up. "I know which camp you bumbling cunts came from. Ethan must be growing old and demented if he really thought he could send out a pathetic group like this to field out our territory. Your leader has led you to your deaths today. So, in return, I'll lift up you from the ground as high as I can so that he can see you all from his piece of shit throne. You can spit at him over the horizon. How's that?"
"Please! W-We were just passing through! We won't come back, please just let us go!" One of the men begged. His glasses were crooked and cracked and the fear in his eyes only amused Gabe.
"I'm sure you were, my friend. But you knew who's territory you were crossing yet you crossed it anyway. That kind of arrogance is costly, wouldn't you say? Especially after last months raid. I'm sure you all remember? You killed all my men and stole all our shit. It was very upsetting what happened." Gabe shook his head in pseudo disappointment.
"We were only taking back what was ours, you shit eating vulture!" A man with a patchy beard and cracked lips shouted. Gabe turned his attention on the smaller man struggling to keep his footing on the bucket below him. He trembled unsteadily while he danced on his toes.
Gabe sauntered over to the man and stood in front of him. "What was yours, you say? My friend, nothing in this world can be claimed anymore. There's only pillage, war, and survival left for the rest of us that are lucky enough to die by another mans hand. Your people have grown too used to the spoils in the meantime, however. I think it's time we show you that nothing is yours."
Gabe paused and watched the man grow pale and break into a cold sweat. The fearlessness that was once there had all but dissipated now as he stared at him, and the shaking in the mans legs had become so violent that he made the bucket rattle against the ground.
Gabe grinned. "Let's start with your life first." And then he kicked the bucket from under him. The rest of the man's companions screamed and cried to no avail.
"All right, enough fucking around. Hang these fuckers. It'll be dark soon." Gabe said over his shoulder as he turned around. One by one he heard the sound of his men overturning the buckets and the familiar pitch of sputtering and gurgling. Then, he heard the thump of bodies fall to the ground.
Gabe halted to a stop at this sound. He hadn't heard the snap of a rope or his men bicker about a blundered knot. He turned around and immediately pulled out the handgun on his hip when the sight of most of his men dead on the ground came to view. Arrows riddled their bodies.
Before he could yell for the rest of his men to position themselves, more arrows suddenly pelted them. One by one, his men dropped like flies. Whoever was shooting at them was trained and precise. Then the gunfire began. Gabe gritted his rotted teeth and dove behind the wreckage of a car and shot out into the open over the hood.
He couldn't see them - had no idea where they were. He cursed inwardly and yelled at his men to keep firing. It'd all happened too fast. By the time he reloaded and bent over the car to aim again, someone was jumping onto the hood and swinging a bat riddled with nails right into his face.
The force threw him flat onto his back and he screamed in agony at the pain, and when he looked up at his assailant, all he saw were cold dead eyes set on him. But the person they belonged to was very much alive. He raised his hand in surrender as the assailant raised the bat over their head once more and cracked down on him.
When Dakota finished and laid the bat on her shoulder to look at her work, she couldn't even recognize the man she'd been hunting down for months anymore.
Gabriel Buchanan was dead.
Dakota glanced around; surveying the aftermath of her ambush. She'd counted seven men including Gabriel when she finally caught up to them. Taking his men out had been relatively easy, but she'd wanted to refrain from using her gun or allowing them to pull out theirs as much as possible. With the ruckus, now, she had to leave. And quickly.
She could already hear the telltale moans and screeches of the undead approaching. Suddenly, a gasp perked her ear and she turned around.
It'd come from the people still suspended from the ropes. She couldn't believe they weren't dead yet. Then again, it hadn't taken her that long to wipe out Gabriel's whole team.
Watching them in silence, she contemplated her choices. She still needed to stay in this part of the city, but now with the commotion, the place would soon be crawling with the dead. She couldn't fight them on her own.
