The Dead Frontier (6)

Ezekiel woke up to find Glen humming himself a melody he didn't recognize while eating.

Seeing him wake up Glen threw the kid some jerky.

"Eat it. You will need strength" said Glen.

Hearing that, the boy wolfed down on his jerky. Noticing how fast he ate Glen figured one would not be enough so he threw another one while chuckling to himself. He wondered if they didn't feed the boy any meat while he was staying in the village seeing how much he seemed to like it.

Anyway, it was alright to eat a little extra today. After all, they were going to loot a newly destroyed town. So they would have so much that they wouldn't even have to worry about how to store them to keep them from spoiling. For Glen, this was a pleasant worry.

While looking at him, Glen also wondered what to do with the boy. It was alright to take to a different settlement and leave him there before. But he didn't think the boy would recognize his name.

It's been already two years since he disappeared from the face of the earth. He didn't think anyone would remember him. Especially, not some random boy he picked up from the wild.

If the boy speaks of his identity he would be in big trouble. Not to mention the bounty hunters that might come after him. Ugh, hopefully, they would have cancelled the bounty on his head after two years of silence.

There wasn't much of a communication between town anyway. You know, since the postman have trouble getting across the wilds without being eaten by the zombies.

Hm, anyway he should just leave him in the next settlement he found. There was no way they would believe the words of a barely teenager kid.

Still, in order to appease him, it was better to find good people to adopt him. If they refused, he could offer them money.

If they refused again, he could threaten them with his gun. There was possibly still a bounty on his head anyway.

If they refused for the third time though, he would need to dig up some graves, so he really hoped it wouldn't come to this.

What? Too brutal to kill someone over their refusal? Sorry mate! This is the wild west that was brimming with zombies. If you can't keep your word, you should expect to be preyed upon by other humans.

So, weirdly enough, the more savage and brutal you were, the safer you would be during the apocalypse.

Sure helping people is good and all but; once you help someone they stop thinking it is kindness and instead think it's a right. That's why you should always draw a line.

Like what Glen was trying to do with Ezekiel.

They would just travel together until Glen found him a proper home and then he would leave. That way the boy wouldn't be able to much off of him and even have a positive image in his head that he was a good guy who helped him.

If he just protected him, fed him, found him some clothes. He wouldn't be grateful at all. He would only treat him like a servant.

The boy seemed smart so Glen actually had hopes about him. Who knows maybe Glen might even need his help in a couple of years.

As long as the boy didn't die that is!

***

"So, Mr Nightrider, sir. How did you survive the Rionel's Keep?" Ezekiel asked while sitting behind Glen on his horse.

"..." Glen didn't answer and just ignored him.

Rionel's Keep, a name he would rather leave in the annals of history. He didn't even want to utter its name, let alone remember it.

"We have arrived," said Glen as he stopped Gisebelle.

Far in the distance, the duo could see black smoke rising over what Glen assumed to be Wildeskink.

His guess was right. Those crazy bastards didn't lose this opportunity to destroy the town.

"How could that be?" Ezekiel said in shock.

"You said it yourself. Someone opened the door" Glen replied sarcastically.

"Anyway, get off. We need to leave Gisebelle here. We can't let her get close to town in case the zombies target her" Glen said as he got off and helped Ezekiel get down.

"Why? Isn't it just a horse?" Ezekiel asked confused.

Glen and Gisebelle looked at each other.

Now Gisebelle was no Jolly Jumper but she was smarter than your average horse. So she could somewhat understand human speech and not just the command words.

Well, the fact that Glen talked to her when he was lonely also helped.

Glen didn't know what to do either. On the one hand, there was a little boy who asked a question out of curiosity and on the other hand there was his trusted partner.

He didn't want to take any sides so he just turned his back and decided to ignore Gisebelle who was biting Ezekiel's hair.

***

As they got closer and closer to the town, more and more zombies appeared. Glen didn't want to waste his already limited bullets so he just took care of them with his trusted fire iron.

When they finally arrived at the town entrance Glen was pleasantly surprised. The wooden walls surrounding the town seemed to be at least ten meters. So it should be considered at least a mid-tier settlement.

There would definitely be a lot of goodies inside but there would also be a lot of zombies... which he couldn't take care of without sufficient ammunition... what? You didn't expect him to go inside with just the fire iron, did you?

He would, of course, start blasting the moment he felt he had enough bullets.

"So kid, here we are. Now, tell me. Where do you keep your bullets in this town?"

"There are two places I know of, sir. The first is the armoury and the second is the safe in the sheriff's office" Ezekiel answered after some thinking.

"Go on then, lead me the way," said Glen as he pointed towards the town.

Ezekiel looked nervous "M-me?"

"I don't see any other person here. Obviously, it's you! If we were to go through each house slowly it would take too much time. So we are going to find us some bullets and send those devils back to hell"

"*Gulp* U-understood, sir"

Glen watched the trembling back of Ezekiel and wondered if it was correct to bring such a scaredy-cat with him.