New Story - With new ideas and directions to hand. I'm writing this and posting it straight onto Steemit - You can not get more exclusive than that! 38

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Please remember this story is being written and posted 'live' every day. I am writing today's episode and posting it here without benefit of a read-through, let alone an edit. I don't usually work this way and this experiment is exciting and different for me, not my normal work-ethic at all. To that end, please forgive me any typos, grammar errors and anything that you may think should have been picked up in an edit - it WILL be picked up in the edit.

I've already spoken with a publisher about getting this story published - possibly after Christmas, we'll see how it goes.

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Images from Google (licenced for reuse) and Pixabay*

Ash hobbled along the row, disappearing into a couple more houses and then she turned to go back to Justin’s house.

Robin didn’t want her to know he’d seen her dodging into houses and so he doubled-back a way and turned around as though he was coming to find her. He ducked into a deserted alley and waited for her to pass.

“Ash,” he whispered as she passed his hiding place.

She almost leaped out of her skin at his harsh whisper.

“Fuck! Fuck… oh fuck, that hurt, you bastard!” she hissed, holding the back of her neck, rubbing to try to remove some of the soreness.

“Sorry. I got worried and came looking for you.”

“You didn’t wait very long, did you? I’ve only been gone twenty minutes.”

“You’ve been gone half an hour but after what happened last time…” Robin said. “Here, look.”

Curious, she followed him back into the alley and keeping close to the wall, making sure she helped block anyone’s view from any direction, he pulled the gun a little way out of his pocket.

She leaped back, shocked again. “What the fuck are you doing with that? Is it real? Fucking hell, you’ll get us both killed!”

“I think we were hoping for the opposite… we wanted to make sure you were safe.”

“What were you thinking of doing with that if I was attacked again? I hope you don’t think you should be shooting the fucking thing in my direction? I’d rather take another kicking!” she said. “Put it away! I’m gonna have words with Justin when we get back!”

“No, don’t tell him I showed you. I’m not even supposed to have let you see me follow you!” he said, in a panic.

Ash looked up into his face and decided he was being truthful and it wasn’t worth kicking off at Justin for.

“Right… but you owe me one,” she said.

“Oh wonderful, now I’ve got you trading favours, have I?”

“Yep, I think it’s a great way to do business.”

When they got back to Justin’s house, not a word was mentioned about the gun. Ash went upstairs for another soak in the bath to relieve her aching muscles and Robin took the opportunity to hand back the gun.

“Did you need to use it?”

“No! Bloody hell, Justin!”

“Did you want to use it then?” Justin held the gun in his hands, laid across his palms.

“Yeah, of course I wanted to use it. I’d have liked to have put one right between Mike’s eyeballs, but he wasn’t there, and we didn’t see Nigel.”

“Well, at least you’re telling me the truth,” Justin said and struggled up to put the gun back where he’d got it from.

When Ash finally came down, she had just enough time to take more painkillers and for them to start working before Nigel – or ‘The Junkie’ showed up.

“He’s gonna want to shoot-up,” Ash said. “I timed it so that he’d be ready for another hit and he’d come looking for it.”

“Right…” Justin said. “You’ve got the gear?”

She showed him the baggie of brown powder.

“You know how to do it?” he asked.

“No, I’ve never done anything like that. He can do it all, though. Up in the bathroom, I thought. Is that ok?” she said. “I figured we’d leave him there so when Mike turns up, he’s quiet and hidden from him. Then, when the Junkie’s dad comes to fetch them both, Mike can be bundled out and the Junkie can be fetched easily.”

“You’ve got this all worked-out, haven’t you? Smart kid,” Justin said.

“I’ll keep an eye on the Junkie and make sure he’s ok. Wouldn’t want the daft twat ODing before his dad gets him, would we?” she said.

“Are you going to be ok with him?” Robin asked.

‘Yeah. It’s a means to an end. He’s gonna be out of our hair by the end of tonight.”

“You ain’t got no hair!”

“Funny fucker!” Ash said, but she grinned and rubbed her bald head, making that soft scratchy sound. “My mum still hasn’t seen this.”

They saw a shadow pass the side window. If they had been watching a movie, the tension would be starting to ramp up – the zombies would be starting to make their way to the humans’ safe-zone.

Nigel’s shambling gait told of the damage he’d done to his brain or his nervous-system, unable to control his thoughts or his limbs sufficiently any more, he really did look one-step from zombie-ism.

The outside light came on before he rounded the corner and Robin turned off the light in the living room. The three spent a good few minutes watching the junkie stumbling about in the light, trying to figure out where he should be going. Because the light was off in the living room, he couldn’t see in the window unless he got close enough to block out the outside light.

Nigel wandered into the outside toilet and came back out, looked both ways, slammed his fists against the door frame, leaned back his head and bellowed in anger.

“ASH!” he yelled. “Where the fuck are you? I want my gear!”

Robin scrambled to switch the living room light on in an attempt to stop his yelling.

Ash went to open the back door and whispered for Nigel to ‘shut the fuck up’.

He shuffled into the house. Robin beckoned him forward and the junkie passed Justin without even seeing him.