After surviving three years into the apocalypse Bailey Hawthorne strongly believes she has the new world figured out. She's got her best friend Addy beside her along with her team Delta X-ray Delta and together nothing can stop them. If the dead com...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Philadelphia, PA
"Philadelphia." Murphy said with his head out the window. "Ah the city of brotherly love." Bailey didn't look up from her notebook but she still heard the snarling of feasting zombies as they drove by. She played with the end of her braid a bit while she wrote on the blank pages, Addy had gotten bored and decided she'd braid her best friend's hair. Normally Addy would braid her own hair when she got bored but she'd just about braided and dreadlocked every bit she could, so now Bailey filled the void. The braid was nice, starting high on the right side of her head before cutting diagonally across the back of her skull where the rest fell over her left shoulder, all in all Bailey liked it, especially that it started high enough that Addy had been able to incorporate the short strands of Bailey's bangs to keep them out of her face.
They'd made a few stops for bathroom breaks between the Jersey Devil Refinery and Philly so now Mack and Doc were in the truck bed with Bailey and Ten Thousand while Cassandra and Addy sat in the back seats with Murphy.
"Wow." She heard Mack say, "Is that really the Liberty Bell?"
That got her attention as she put her notebook away and stood up next to Ten Thousand as Garnett got out of the truck.
"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof." Garnett recited as he approached the bell and the truck it was secured to. "Yeah, that's it."
"Three years of zombie apocalypse, you think you've seen everything." Doc said hopping out of the truck and walking over with Garnett.
"Well, when everything went bad, they probably tried to save a little history." Warren said getting out of the drivers seat and heading over to the truck too.
"Yeah well they should have known the only thing you can save is yourself." Murphy said still hanging out the window, "Let's go!"
"Hang on!" Warren called back while she put a tube into the truck checking for gas, "If this thing still has fuel. . . and it does. . . If we get this thing started they won't have to ride out in the open like that."
"Well, I'm all for that." Doc agreed.
"I'll grab the jumper cable." Mack offered.
"God bless the human race." Doc said looking at the tagged bell, "Ninety-nine percent of them dead but there's still one jackass alive with a spray can."
Warren collected her hose and moved to get in the drivers seat but when she opened the door a zombie lunged for her. She jumped back and in the next second the Z was dead with a gear wedged between its eyes. Bailey looked over to Ten Thousand who had his slingshot drawn.
"1,075." He counted and Warren gave him a salute in thanks. Then Doc came over to drive their truck closer to the one carrying the Liberty Bell so Mack could use the jumper cables to start it. Before he got in the drivers seat Bailey noticed the old man's eyes on her and she remembered what he'd said about giving the sniper a chance. She took a deep breath, he had saved Doc, twice now, and Bailey and now Warren. Maybe she was being too hard on him – and Cassandra. Neither one had done anything but help since they'd joined the group, they hadn't earned Bailey's distrust, it was more Bailey's own personal flaw. After so much time in the apocalypse it was hard to believe anyone could just be a good person without an ulterior motive.
