14Burning Daylight
Hey everyone! Heidi and I decided to write together again since it's been a really long time. This time we decided on a Nick-centric story since we've never done that, from day one of the apocalypse on. Please enjoy!
Nick sighed in frustration, hanging up the phone with a little more force than necessary. "Goddamn it."
"Somethin' the matter?" Luke asked, turning to look at his friend with a frown.
"The guy cancelled out on selling that TV, was expensive as hell too," Nick replied. He sat down and placed his head in his hands. "Shit, we're flat broke as it is."
Most days, Nick actually enjoyed his co-owned business as a pawn shop owner, along with Luke, but when it came to the money, or lack thereof, then the stress kicked in. Luke's college graduation party about three years earlier was when they'd decided to do this, having more than a few drinks in the process. Nick, of course, hadn't been too enthusiastic about entrepreneurship, but Luke had been persistent.
"Yeah," Luke agreed, not looking too happy about that either. "Uh, any word on the woman with the radio?"
Nick scoffed. "'Course not. How many times has she told us she'd call us back?"
"Damn." Luke sighed, putting his head in his hands as he took a seat. Usually he was the optimistic one about everything, but maybe opening a business right out of college wasn't one of his best ideas. The economy was down, and the only space they'd managed to find was in a not so great part of town; where business was so-so, and shops came and went as the tide of people's wants and needs changed. He had promised Nick they'd make okay money, and now here they were, a few months later, and almost flat broke. They could barely afford to pay the bills.
"I'm ready to go home," Nick got out, tired of the way this day was going already.
"Go home?" Luke questioned. "Nick, it's barely three o'clock, how're we gonna make money if they shop ain't open?" He was pacing now, running a hand through his long hair, frustrated with his friend.
"Look around, Luke, we ain't had a customer in months!"
"Just give it time!" he tried to counter.
Nick shrugged. "That's what you always say."
He had a point, too, with Luke always trying to look on the bright side. Too bad he was rarely, if ever, right. The store was so dead that you could almost hear a cricket chirping in the background. The silence drove Nick crazy; it was too bad that they couldn't exactly afford a radio or small TV or something to have background noise with. Silence made the days go by much slower, especially on a day like this, where the weather was relatively warm and there weren't many people around.
Luke was about to say something to break the quiet moment when the phone rang. Nick was on his feet in an instant, running to answer it. Perhaps it was, finally, a customer.
"Luke and Nick's Pawning," he said in the phone.
"Nick, you and Luke need t'get out of there. Now."
"What?" Nick frowned in confusion. "Is this some kind of joke, Uncle Pete? We're still at work, you know."
"Damn it, boy, listen to me!" Pete said firmly, almost angrily. "There's somethin' going on, somethin' weird. Y'all need to close up your damn shop and get here, now!"
Nick was about to tell him that he didn't believe him when he heard the sounds of gunshots and screams in the background. It sounded real serious, too. Were they under attack? Was something else happening?
And...what the hell was that growling in the background?
"Nick?!"
"Yeah, I'm here, I'm here!" Nick answered quickly. "What the fuck's happening? We'll leave."
This got Luke's attention. "What's the matter?"
Just then, a loud scream came from right outside, making both men jump.
They weren't sure what it was or where it came from, but it could have been from the large group of people - or whatever the hell they were - starting to form just right outside the shop. However, neither man wanted to find out just what was happening.
"Uncle Pete?!" Nick questioned turning his attention back to the phone. But the older man had long gone and hung up. That's when Nick immediately turned to Luke. "Listen, I don't know what the fuck is goin' on but Pete said we gotta get home asap." He started scrambling around the shop grabbing personal belongings and other things that might be of importance.
"Nick!" Luke tried to snap him out of his trance. "Nick, bud, talk to me, what the fuck is wrong?"
He stopped, if only for a moment. "I don't know! But by the sounds of it we need to get home now! We'll find out more when we talk to Pete." He grabbed the keys to the truck he and Luke shared and double checked for anything else that he might have forgotten. Right now, there was only one thing on his mind and that was his family, which were his mom, and his Uncle Pete.
"That was Pete on the phone? Is he alright?"
Nick sighed. "Luke, I don't know! Just get your shit and come on!" he yelled as the screams and other miscellaneous noises from outside only got louder. Luke finally obliged and grabbed his things, following Nick to the back exit.
The two were about to walk out the back door of the shop before Luke stopped. "Look, we don't know what's out there...don't you think we should, I don't know, have some way to protect ourselves?" They had a gun, but used it for emergency purposes only. Would this count as an emergency? Both men weren't sure.
Nick had a hard time concentrating, so he agreed. "Yeah, sure, whatever, let's just get the hell out of here."
Luke ran back and quickly unopened the safe in the back office, grabbing the gun and the pack of ammunition before running back out to join Nick, who had already practically dove into the truck and into the driver's seat. Nick reversed and got onto the main road quickly, not caring about the honks and swears he got for it in return.
The drive was literally chaos as people ran away screaming, and there were other people limping slowly as if in a daze. The continuous gunshots made the men's ears ring. Nick was driving too fast to notice that there was something off about those people, but he was soon to wish that he'd never found out what.
"Holy shit!" Luke exclaimed as he saw someone shoot another person right in the face, without hesitation.
"What the fuck?!" Nick's eyes went wide, and he drove even faster, giving no care for the speed limit. Since Pete's house was closer, he made a sharp turn onto his uncle's street, nearly running over many people in the process. Was that bump in the road always there? But he didn't have time for mundane questions, he had to know if his mother and uncle were safe.
"Pete!" Nick yelled the second he saw the older man. He slammed on the brakes and hopped out of the car, Luke right on his tail. He hugged his uncle, which was broken rather fast. "Shit, are you alright? Where's Mom? What the hell's happening?!"
"We're fine, but listen, we need to get the hell out of here," Pete explained. "The news is reportin' all sort of catastrophes, somethin' about an outbreak. People are dying left and right, and it ain't safe here."
Just then, Nick's mother, Helen, appeared in the doorway. She immediately ran to her son, embracing him tightly. "Oh, thank God you're alright!"
Nick hugged her back. "I'm fine, Ma, got out of there as soon as I could...you wouldn't believe the shit Luke and me saw."
"An outbreak?" Luke inquired. "Like a disease?"
"We ain't too sure, all we know is that it's not safe. Especially not in town," Helen said as she let go of Nick.
"Why don't we just hole up the house? Stay here until everything dies down?" Luke suggested.
Pete shook his head. "The news said that big rural areas like ours are the most dangerous," he said. "Too many damn people."
"Alright." Nick nodded, as if he had decided everything right then and there. "We need to get supplies...food, water, whatever and pack up the truck. After that we'll just drive, get the hell out of here," he said with determination. "Pete can get the guns...we'll do what we need to do to stay safe."
"And just where are we gonna go?" Pete questioned, "We can't drive forever!"
"I don't know, Pete! But the longer we stay here, the less chance we got of staying alive and makin' it out of this thing safe."
"He's right, Pete," Helen replied. "Our best bet is leavin' as soon as we can."
Conflict rested on the older man's face before he finally ran and hand through his hair and agreed with his nephew. "Alright," he said. "I'm gonna let you take the call on this one." He then looked over to Luke, who was still acting pretty nonchalant over the whole thing. "Luke, help me get the guns while Helen and Nick pack up," he ordered.
Luke nodded and followed Pete to the basement.
Even down here, they could hear all the chaos that went on above them. Pete's guns had mostly been for hunting up to this point, but he had come somewhat prepared. There was a lot of ammo as well, but they had to be careful not to use it all at once, even with something dangerous around.
"Get the knives, too, we're gonna need all we can," Pete advised. "We're burnin' daylight."
Luke nodded at the saying he'd heard nearly his entire life, grabbing the other weapons. The gunshots never seemed to stop, and they were only getting louder. The two men needed to be quick, God forbid if something were to happen to Nick or Helen while they were down here.
Nick and Helen were hurriedly packing up the car with the house's food and water supply when they returned. Pete's truck didn't have enough gas to get them out of the city, so they stuck with Luke and Nick's truck, since it had been filled up that morning.
Pete revved up the engine. "Come on, we need to get the hell out of here!"
Everyone else hurried into the truck. A couple seconds too late and one of the things seen earlier would have been able to grab Nick, but he was able to escape just in time. They sped away and out of a neighborhood that was no longer their home.
Please let us know what you think! We're not sure how often updates will be because we're both in college and have busy lives, but we'll try. This story will also have other characters from TWDG later on. So until the next chapter, see ya!
