Two Page Shorts by Nick Venom (top reads .txt) 📕

“You returned to Heaven Gold? Did you find any… ” His voice started strong before trailing off. 

“… no… none of the staff or orphans were there. Only zombies and corpses.” 

“Oh, I was hoping… ” Aaron muttered as he looked away from Emma and towards the open sky. Emma reached out to touch his shoulder but jumped after one of the guards alerted them. 

“Jerek wants Aaron downstairs!” The guard shouted, holding Aaron’s sporter 22 and ammunition. Aaron nodded his head, grabbing his gun before heading down the escalator. Emma followed behind him, pouting because she intended on getting “closer” with Aaron, but the guard forced her to scrap the plan. 

She reluctantly followed Aaron off the second floor and back on the ground floor, meeting up with the scavenging team in the backroom where the Council was. They stood in front of the door for delivery trucks. Jerek began the introduction, introducing the leader Esrael, a middle-aged man who wore green camouflage gear with a large shotgun strapped to his back. A pistol strapped itself to his belt, acting as a holster. He wore tinted aviator sunglasses that hid his eyes.

Behind him stood the other members of Aaron’s new team: Gavin, Brie, Brady, and Colet. Gavin stood at a towering seven feet with a muscular build, dressed in a lavish sunflower-pattern dress with light blue eyes and blonde hair. 

Brie wore a dark blue and ruffled tee shirt with a pair of faded jeans. She had her red hair styled into a ponytail. She was around Aaron’s height, tanned skin with large purple eyes. 

Meanwhile, Brady and Colet were dressed in a matching outfit of a purple tee shirt with black jeans and dark blue sneakers. They both held smiles on their faces, chatting up a storm and ignoring an irritated Jerek. They resembled a perfect couple, lovely dovely even around other people.

Jerek cleared his throat to attract everybody’s attention. Once he had everybody staring at him, he started. “Today the destination is in a danger zone. A gun store with the name of Black Armory.” He stopped, scanning everybody’s face before he continuing. “This store is in the danger zone, so keep an eye out for any large hordes. Return immediately if you catch a glimpse of a large horde.”

“Why aren’t we hitting another supermarket? Isn’t the food reserves getting low?” Brie asked. Jerek glared at her before clearing his throat. She furrowed her brows, shaking her head.

“Brady saw a horde near this supermarket, Currently, we’re lacking in weapons.” He explained. Brie nodded, looking away from Jerek and towards the ceiling, ignoring him.

Jerek calmed himself down before instructing Esrael with the directions to the gun store, handing him a map of the city. Esrael nodded and took the map, stashing it in his pocket. He turned around, motioning for the others to follow him. Brie and Gavin nodded, following after Esrael as the doors opened to reveal the empty and vacant outside. As everybody walked outside, Emma tugged on Aaron’s shirt, stopping him in his tracks. 

“Be careful,” She whispered to him.

Aaron nodded while whispering back to her, “I can’t die. I have people to take care of.” 

“Does that include me?” She whispered, looking down. She turned around, sprinting off before Aaron could respond. His gaze lingered on her fleeting figure before the door slammed close, shutting him outside.

“What… did she mean?”

***

Esrael led the team towards their destination of the Black Armory gun store without muttering an unnecessary word. He stayed focused on the mission while the couple, Brady and Colet, chatted as if the world was normal and safe. As if they were high school teens walking home from school. Aaron ignored the idiotic couple and focused on the mission. 

He glanced around, staring at anything that moved. His narrow vision began forming as he focused one spot before the next with his gun chambered and ready. Brie popped her head into his narrow vision, forcing his head to jerk back. “You’re the newbie… Aaron, right?”

“Yeah,”

“You arrived today?”

“Yeah,”

“Were you blackmailed?” Brie asked. Aaron furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her, tilting his head. 

“Blackmailed? What do you mean?” He asked her. Why did she assume that was why I’m here? 

Brie leaned in before whispering to him, “Jerek isn’t the friendliest person in the supermarket. If anything, he’s a power greedy bastard.” She said. “He forced my fiance to join the scavenge team by threatening that he would kill me if he didn’t. Guess what?”

“What?” He asked, perplexed at her story.

“He ended up being left behind during a botched scavenge mission. When they returned, all that was left were his final words, no corpse. ‘Tell my wife I’m sorry I couldn’t be here for you’.” She took a step back, shaking her head. “That bastard. He rules with fear.”

“Did he force you into this team then?” Aaron asked her, lowering his sporter and aiming it down at the ground. 

“Yeah… he threatened to… uh… well... ” Her voice trailed off. “He said that he would ra-ra-ra-rape me if I didn’t put my life on the line.”

“Rape?” Aaron shouted, disgusted at the very thought. She shushed him while receiving confused looks from the other members of the team. Her cheeks turned beet red, blushing out of embarrassment. “I’m sorry, but that’s horrific. Can you talk to the other Council members about this?”

“I’ve tried, but he has a bigger voice than me. The Council respects and trusts him so any type of ‘slander’ against one of their own will lead to heavy punishments.” Brie told him, glancing around.

“He has that type of power?” Aaron asked. Brie nodded. 

“Cut the chit-chat. We’ll be approaching Black Armory soon.” Esrael said. Everybody nodded, ending all conversations as the growls of corpses grew, alerting them to a threat of heavy magnitude. Esrael peeked around the corner of the building they stood outside of and noticed a large horde crawling on the main road. “Large horde on the main road. Ending the mission here.” Esrael declared. “The only way to get to the store is through the main road.”

“Why can’t we go around?” Brady asked, slightly swaying.

“Impossible, we’re returning.” declared Esrael as he turned around. 

“Yeah, we need the supplies, don’t we?” Colet chimed in. 

Esrael shook his head. “I’m not willing to lose anybody.”

“You do need the guns to protect the supermarket,” Aaron added. Brie looked at him disapprovingly.

Esrael looked at Aaron, raising an eyebrow. Brady smirked, taking a few steps to be by Aaron’s side, pushing Brie away. He rested his hand on Aaron’s shoulder. “He’s right… we can sneak past them and return with the guns in minutes.”

“Fine,” Esrael said, defeated. “... Damn, fine. Ten minutes and we leave” Brady nodded his head and smiled, whispering something into Colet’s ears. Esrael peeked over the corner and began ordering everybody. “On my signal, we dash across the street and sneak into the entrance.” 

The group nodded, allowing Esrael to set the signal up. He waved at them, motioning them to dash across the street. Brady went first and rushed across the street with Colet following after him. Gavin went after them, his(?) dress floating in the wind and handing the others a shot of his panties. 

“Is he a male or female?” Aaron whispered.

Esrael looked around before leaning in. “I have no idea, but don’t say anything that could be offensive. All you can call him is Gavin.”

“I don’t think he… or she… whatever, Gavin hasn’t told us his gender.” Brie chimed in.

“Ahh,” Aaron muttered before Esrael gave him the green light, dashing across the street and reaching the others’ side. The others crept their way to the entrance, a metal frame with a plate of glass in the middle, allowing them to see inside. As they opened the door, quietly, and rushed inside, Aaron lingered behind for Brie and Esrael to cross. Brie dashed across the street, grabbing the attention of a few corpses. Esrael followed behind her and managed to gather a small portion of the horde’s attention. Even so, he paid no attention to them, rushing everybody else into the store, locking the door behind them. 

“Brady… grab something to block the door. Use a shelf or whatever you can find in here.” He looked around, scanning each person before his gaze landed on Brie. “I need you and Gavin to clear this room.” His eyes then moved towards Aaron. “Take Colet with you and check the backroom.” Aaron nodded and motioned for Colet to follow him. As they entered the backroom, Brady turned around and stared at them, his eyes lingering on them for a while. He didn’t appear… jealous.

While everybody else got to work scavenging the other parts of the building, Aaron and Colet entered the back room, a small windowless room with fading gray paint covering the four walls. The room was shaped like a rectangle, one of the desks holding ammunition and gun stands being the width of the room. The lengths were double the size. 

A vent was positioned overhead the desk, emitting dust with an ever loud sigh. 

The pair looked around, but found, aside from the desk and a few whiteboards, that the room was empty. “Search the desk while I’ll check the walls,” Aaron ordered. Colet nodded her head, not questioning him, and walked towards the desk while slightly swaying. 

Aaron inspected the walls for hidden cabinets to no avail. He was hoping to locate a gun safe under a fake panel somewhere. However, he couldn’t find anything. 

Meanwhile, Colet searched the desk’s contents to discover no weapons or ammunition of any kind. There was only dust on the desk and the gun stands waiting for her. “Empty,” she muttered.

“Empty? Well, that’s disappointing.” Aaron responded while looking around the room. He glanced at Colet whose eyes were rolling to the back of her skull. It was apparent that she was on a drug, but Aaron didn’t want to ask her about it. He chose to pretend not to notice her movements, pushing him to do a complete inspection of the room on his own. I’ll tell Esrael later. For now, I’ll focus on the mission.

 Unfortunately, his complete inspection of the room provided no fruit. “Nothing, let’s head back.” She nodded her head and walked towards the door as shouts became apparent.

“We’re being overrun!” Esrael shouted from the main room.

“I found another entrance!” Gavin shouted in a voice that didn’t resemble a male or females. 

“Good! Clear out our escape route. Brady, get Aaron and Colet!” Esrael ordered as he attempted to barricade the main entrance to fleeting amounts of success. Brady rushed to the back room with a gun in his right hand. Once he entered the room, he was met with the stares of Aaron and Colet. 

“Let’s go,” Aaron declared as he gathered his weapon. 

“No, no, no,” Brady whispered while chuckling. “You’ll be staying here.”

“Staying here? What are you talking about?” Aaron asked as he slowly turned the sporter on Brady. Unfortunately, Brady noticed his movement and fired off a bullet. Colet jumped in front of Aaron as the bullet flew towards him, efficiently preventing the bullet from penetrating him. Colet’s blood splattered over Aaron’s body, masking him in her blood. Her corpse was thrown back at Aaron, who had his gun knocked away from his hand. Brady chuckled as he grabbed the sporter off the ground and stuffed it into his bag. “You just shot your girlfriend!” Aaron shouted.

“Girlfriend? Ha, not even close. I was using her as a decoy, a disposable pawn. Jerek was the one who ordered this, just so you know. I can’t wait to use those girls you brought” He said before he went through a laughing fit. Once the fit was over, he waved at Aaron before disappearing outside and joining the others. He locked the door behind him. However, Esrael noticed the disappearance of the two members. 

“Where’s Aaron and Colet?” He asked. 

Brady began fake-crying, wiping tears off his face. “They were torn apart. They couldn’t make it out alive! Zombies were hiding in