The Poncho Chronicles II: South Beach

by BRyeMC

Gungho Scouts

As Clyde, Tyrone, and Applejack assigned smaller jobs to the remaining group and prepared for any zombie infiltrations, Silver Team took time to gather weapons and armor. Wahlburn was the designated killer and had found a meat cleaver in the main kitchen of the hotel, as well as a pan he used as a helmet. He took note at the absence of the kitchen workers. Cannon’s job was to carry supplies, he pulled out parts of his Trident from their previous adventure he had hiding in his bag, to use as his weapon of choice. He also took a backpack to carry the supplies they would find on their scavenge. Patel was the one who had to get the supplies, he had retrieved his switchblade from his bag and changed into less heavy clothing to damper slow movement. After they were all situated correctly, they proceeded towards the main door of the hotel.

There were two sentries guarding the main entrance, when the trio approached one of the guards stopped them.

“You can’t leave this hotel residents, it’s too dangerous out there.” The guard lowered his makeshift lance, blocking the doorway.

“Yo dude, we got to go out there,” said Patel to the guard. “The lives of our friends depend on us to go out there and return with food since this whole place is barely feeding the other residents.”

“I’m sorry sir, but we have duties to fulfill by staying right here.”

Cannon gave him a pat on the shoulder, “You know, if we all starve up there because of a lack of food, it’s going to be partially your fault.”

“What?” said the guard, this time scared.

“He’s right,” said Wahlburn. “We’re going to come haunt you then until the end of time unless you let us go out there. If we die out there, then it will be our fault, not yours.”

“God damnit Franky, just let them go out there to stop this pointless conversation,” said the other guard. Franky looked at the other guard in shock then back at the trio.

“Fine, if you wanna get killed out there be my guest.” Franky opened the door to be blasted by the hot South Beach air. The trio took a step outside when a shout from Franky came a few inches behind them. “Wait! It’s dangerous to go alone, take this!” He handed them some sort of remote.

“What’s this?” asked Patel as he took the remote from Franky. The remote had only one button on it.

“Still gave us these remote things to give to residents that persuade us to let them journey out in the city.”

“Which wasn’t that hard, seeing how you’re talking with Franky...” said the other guard as he rolled his eyes.

“Shut up, Preban!” yelled Franky. Preban chuckled and resumed taking watch of outside. “Anyways, when you do get in trouble, press that button. Your location will flash up on this screen over there.” He pointed to the map of the city near the reception desk. “Depending how far away you are, we might send backup to your position, that is, if the hotel is in a state of calmness first.”

“Thanks?” said Cannon sarcastically. “Glad you support us.”

“Hey, you are the ones who want to go out there.” Franky waved at them and quickly shut the door of the hotel. The trio quickly jogged away from the hotel and into the deserted streets of South Beach. They continued down the streets looking at the broken-into stores, random litter on the road, and the debris of some buildings piled up.

“Man, it looks like a war happened in this place, not some zombie outbreak,” whispered Patel to the others as they slowly advanced through the streets.

“You right,” said Cannon in return, “where are these bastards anyways?”

“I have no idea brother.” Wahlburn turned and looked at the surroundings. He pulled out a map from his pack and looked it over. “It seems we are here seeing how the hotel is over there,” He showed Patel and Cannon. “There seems to be a convenience store of some sorts down this street.”

“I guess that’s where we will start,” said Cannon as he looked farther down the street. “It must be farther down, or there’s a strange haze in front of us, because I can’t see shit.”

“I ain’t trying to go through some strange haze. Let’s go around it through an alley or something.” Patel got up and tried to find an opening to the adjacent street. After a few moments he called them over to a pile of debris. “I think we can climb over this. Help me up.” Before Cannon and Wahlburn hoisted him on the debris, Cannon saw a lone figure about 100 yards behind them.

“Fucking zombie!” he yelled as he dropped Patel. The zombie slowly advanced towards them.

“Only one? We got this,” said Wahlburn as he took out the butcher knife. As the zombie was about 75 yards away, more zombies crawled out of the shattered windows of the stores and buildings they passed. Soon, about twenty zombies were fifty yards away from them.

“Shit,” said Wahlburn.

“You idiot!” yelled Patel. “Why do you always jinx us!”

“Calm down man. I guess we got to go down fighting, huh?”

“No, we are going through that haze, it’s the only way,” said Cannon. “Did you guys bring protective goggles?”

“Why the fucking hell would I bring goggles to Seaddle! We were to pack for a road trip for a football game, not a winter blizzard!”

“Alright, I guess we are going to have to close our eyes and run through.” Cannon then turned around and ran towards the haze. Patel and Wahlburn quickly followed. As they got near the haze, they stopped and turned around. There were more zombies than before. They turned back towards the haze and gulped.

“Good luck brothers!” yelled Wahlburn as he ran into the haze. Cannon and Patel then quickly followed his action. Since they were blind throughout the run, they crashed into many objects like a streetlamp or bus stop, but quickly got up and maneuvered around it. They made absolutely sure not to open their eyes. After what seemed like an hour, they ran into each other.

“Guys, is that you?” asked Patel.

“Yeah buddy,” said Wahlburn.

“No, I’m a fucking headless zombie, about to eat you,” said Cannon. He then laughed.

“Why do you always got to be a douche?” asked Patel to his friend.

Cannon laughed again and replied, “Someone has to.”

“Hey, can we open our eyes now?” asked Wahlburn. “I say we open at the same time.” He gave a three count and they all opened their eyes. They looked around and saw that the haze they went through was long behind them and the zombies were gone. They also noticed that they were sitting in an abandoned parking lot near the same convenience store Wahlburn pointed out earlier.

“I guess there is no choice but to get in there and take some shit back to the others,” said Wahlburn to the others.

“You right,” replied Cannon, “I have a feeling it’s not going to be a walk in the park getting in there though. That building might be trapped or a bunch of zombie douches just waiting for us to barge right in.”

“Only one way to find out.” Wahlburn started to walk towards the building with his friends tagging behind. As they approached the doors of the store, they saw a sign.

“Welcome to the Super-Shop Emporium!” read Patel. “I guess this is kinda like their major chain store down here in South Beach.” He slowly opened the door in case of an alarm or trap. After nothing happened, they all walked in.

The interior of the store was a lot larger than what the outside of the building showed. Aisles of items went back farther than what they could see. Luckily for them, most of the aisles still had food and other items in them.

“Holy shit, this place is huge!” exclaimed Wahlburn, “I guess that’s why they call it a super store!”

Patel turned around and looked at him. “Dude.”

“What?”

“That was probably the fucking stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my damn life. Say anything stupid like that again, and I swear I’ll punch you in the throat.” Patel kept his serious gaze towards him.

“Brother, calm down. I was just being funny.”

“Yeah, well that sucked. Like, really sucked. Don’t do it again.”

“Alright man, chill. I’m done.” Wahlburn looked around the huge store. “Where are we going to start guys?”

“I could help you guys.” Shocked of the sudden voice, Cannon grabbed a dagger from Patel’s pack and hurled it towards his right, the area where the voice came from. The dagger plunged into the wall and soon, Pharlin fell to the ground.

“Fucking hell man! You almost made me kill you!” Cannon ran towards him and helped him up.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” replied Pharlin. “I quickly dove when I saw that dagger fly in through the air, I won’t scare you again.”

“You damn better not. Next time I won’t miss.” Cannon pulled out the dagger and put it back into the pack. “Enough talk, let’s start gathering.” They all nodded and split up, searching and scanning the store.

* * * * *