Gearing Up

[Erik POV]

It has now been roughly two weeks since the advent of the collapse of society. My theory about head trauma, more specifically brain trauma had been proven true after I spent around a day's time, and the body of the man who killed himself didn't come back and try and eat my face.

Since then a few more survivors had gone and killed themselves with either a gunshot to the head, or in one crazy bastard's case, he straight up stabbed himself through his bottom jaw and into his brain with a bowie knife.

A couple of days ago we ran out of canned food and thought that we would need to head up to the neighborhood and start scavenging for more but thankfully by complete and total accident, Lukas' dumbass had bumped into one of the chest that was stacked on a shelf and out from it came a load of MRE's.

I don't know which idiot it was that didn't check the chest but thankfully we are able to eat two meals a day for another week, however, we will still need to head up and try and find more food, these MREs are only prolonging the inevitable.

Ever since we had gotten to the bunker, I have been reading up on some survival manuals and learning some hand-to-hand combat techniques along with my younger brother from an old military journal that must've belonged to one of the doomsday people who lived here.

Held within the journal were some instructions on basic close-quarters combat that the previous owners had learned in the marine corp along with some krav maga techniques.

While the biters shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as I only have to deal with a couple at a time, you never know what will happen, I have a sneaking suspicion the biters won't be our only concern in the future.

After all, humans are notorious for committing heinous acts during a time of strife.

(A Few Days Later)

[Lukas POV]

"Mom, come on, I am 19 already, you can't keep me locked in this place like a child, plus it was me who found Dad and Erik!" I yelled trying to get my mom to understand my position and why I wanted to go and help Erik and Elias as they scout the surrounding area

We are down to only a couple of days worth of food and our water reserves can only last for another half-month or so as well. If nobody does anything, then this bunker will devolve into madness and people will rip each other apart just for a crumb and drop of water

"I said no Lukas! für die Liebe Gottes, you may be an adult in the eyes of the law, but if you haven't noticed, society has crumbled with no sight of the government anywhere!"

"Over my dead body will I ever let you go out there, Erik has already proven himself good enough to deal with those, things, and Elias has almost a decade of life experience on you. Besides, as long as I can keep at least one of my sons safe then you will never leave this bunker!" Mom said with a red face because of the stress that has been piling up, especially after Erik and Elias had told her of their plan, she was to say the least, extremely fucking pissed.

As I tried to argue some more with Mom, Dad came over and shook his head from behind her, it seems that I won't be able to persuade her today but I will keep at it, over my dead body will I let those two go out there by themselves, especially since the rest of these cowardly fucks couldn't be bothered to even poke their heads out from here.

Walking away from my parents, I head over to where Elias and Erik are. Judging from their grim tone it would seem they are discussing their 'plan', if you can call "go out there look around and try not to get your ass bit" a plan.

"If we wrap around the old yellow house two doors down, we might be able to duck through the hedges to get back to our old place and then- oh, hey Lukas, did you need something?" Erik asked while looking up from a map of the neighborhood at me

"Nah I'm good, just wanted to come over here and see if y'all developed your plan anymore. Since when was there a map this detailed of the entire neighborhood?" I asked as I saw the neatly drawn roads and houses that dotted them.

"Oh this, we found it in the draw of an old desk upstairs," Elias said with a casual tone

"Hold up, you two went up to the actual house! since when you should've said something I would've come!" I exclaimed a little frustrated they didn't ask me to accompany them

Both of them made an odd face before they remarked saying they went in the middle of the night and they didn't want to wake me.

I call bullshit, I bet they just didn't want to deal with Mom if she found out, Whatever.

"So, what all did y'all see while up there?" I asked in genuine interest as I took a seat next to them

"Well, the house thankfully was completely empty so we didn't have to deal with any biters, but, we did take a peek outside through the curtains and we saw that the street was dotted with biters, although not quite the same amount that was In that horde we ran from when you found dad and me, it's still quite the number," Erik explained with a slightly apprehensive tone when talking about the number of freaks out there

"Scheisse, that sure is a hell of a lot of freaks out there, how are you guys going to navigate the neighborhood then?" I couldn't help but revert back to Deutsch, my first language, after hearing the sheer number of those things they could see just from the second story of the house, before asking how they would deal with the problem.

"Well, firstly, we are going to try our damnedest to not make much noise, hopefully, those things can't smell us or we'll be screwed seven ways to Tuesday."

"Secondly, we are going to try and move through the side areas between houses before bolting it across the street and doing the same, in short, we are going to try and stay in the shadows, but if all else goes to shit, then we've got our machetes and for an absolute last resort we will be bringing two Glock-19's we grabbed from the mini armory," Erik said finishing what Elias said before

The armory is a small room that holds a handful of pistols and a couple of hunting rifles with some ammo, we had found it just the second day here. It would seem the previous owners were quite the gun nuts as there were even two empty spots for Ar-15s, but we concluded those were held in the safe sitting next to the gun rack, for whatever reason they felt to lock up those two guns, and not the others, who knows.

"Ha, since when have either of you two known how to shoot a gun?" I asked with an incredulous look on my face since I'd never heard of them taking a single class on shooting, much less even going to a range.

Hell, the only one of them who has even held a gun is Erik as far as I know, the gun he briefly held was an old WW2-era Walther Model 9 pistol that our grandfather gave him as a gift when he graduated from college with his History Degree.

Although he held it for a bit, he quickly put it in the case that our grandfather, rest his soul, kept the old sidearm in.

According to our Großvater, that pistol was what helped him survive battle after battle during his time as a forced conscript in the Wehrmacht.

Back to my brothers, Erik laughed lightly before saying. "Well, for the past year or so I have been getting private lessons from Old Man Stevens, the WW2 vet who lives- well, lived next door. Poor guy, I saw him as one of those things the day you found Dad and me. Ha, the old fart still had his favorite Twelve Gauge Double Barrel Shotgun slung around his shoulder, they must've swarmed him or else that old coot would still be among the living."

As Erik explained where he learned to shoot, I could see in his eyes a hint of sadness but it quickly vanished as he looked back toward me with his half-cracked fake smile.

"Although I mainly learned how to shoot an Ar-15 and a .308 Winchester Bolt Action with and without the scope, he did teach me the basics about handling a sidearm and I shot one just like this quite a few times so I should be fine since it is only a last resort kinda thing," Erik explained as I shook my head wondering why he never told me about getting lessons, if he had I would've tagged along when we visited, well, that is if mom would've let me.

"I may not have as much experience or even training as Erik, but I have gone to a shooting range with some buddies here and there and shot an assortment of sidearms, so I'm not the greatest shot but push comes to shove I can handle myself," Elias said while waving away my concern

Wishing my brothers good luck on their trip in a couple of days, I left them to go back to what they were doing and I went to my cot and went to sleep, still a little pissed I couldn't go with them.

[Erik POV]

The day had finally come, Elias and I are currently gearing up to head out of the bunker through the backyard entrance and scout around the area, maybe scavenging a few things that we were in need of.

While I may be nervous about going out there for the first time since we got here, I calm myself down by remembering this will be the first of many trips we make since our food reserves are down to maybe a week's worth if we only eat one MRE a day.

Thankfully, the rest of the dickheads in here who were too cowardly to come with us didn't make a fuss when Elias and I ate a second MRE to make sure we had enough strength for today.

"Sigh, are you ready man, we have to constantly be alert of our surroundings and make sure to make the least amount of noise possible, I don't know about you but I would rather we don't have to run for our lives from a horde just because one of us stepped on a stick or what have you," Elias said with a morbid chuckle toward the end

"I am as ready as I could possibly be considering the circumstances, besides, if we do attract a horde, I just need to be faster than you don't I?" I said while playfully punching my older brother in the shoulder

"Haha, very funny Erik." He said with a small smile while rolling his eyes

As we neared the entrance that led to the backyard, our parents came up to us and wished us both good luck, Mom was a crying mess and took a little longer to get her words out than Dad but we still hugged her and Dad and made our way out of the bunker, machetes in hand and our sidearms holstered at our hip, both of us are bringing a military-grade backpack with us along with a couple of extra mags of ammo in our pockets just incase.

Elias was wearing a hoodie and a pair of black sweats while I had on a leather jacket over my black t-shirt and a pair of black cargo pants.

(Erik Reinhardt the MC --->)

As we opened the door leading to the bulkhead entrance leading up to the backyard, I could hear our mom crying and being held back by Dad, I didn't see Lukas before we left but I bet he was sulking in some corner somewhere, that dumbass, he is in no way prepared to deal with the biters, sure he may be fast on his feet and squirrelly but that won't really help if he gets cornered.

Once Elias and I are in front of the bulkhead entrance, the other survivors swiftly shit and lock the bunker door, a bunch of cowards, Tch.

"Alright, you ready man?" Elias looks at me, his face showing he is just as nervous as me but he also has the same resolution I do.

"As ready as I'll ever be to go out and avoid getting eaten alive."

And with that, he unlatched the lock, and we opened the doors, our eyes were quickly assaulted by the bright beaming Texas sun, and our noses with the smell of rotting flesh, blood, and decay.

-------------------------------------------

Author's Note:

Well there you guys go, finally you get to see what the Mc looks like, hopefully you all like it, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you did make sure to add to your collection and give me all of those sweet stoines!