Chapter 9: Recruitments!
The Insectoid humans drove the fire trucks back to base on the same route from where they flew to the fire station.
At this time, they finally reached the end of the highway and veered off an intersection back to the city.
When they drove past this suburban housing neighborhood, Atkinson's zombies didn't see any survivors.
However, three figures are seen peering through windows of a two story apartment home. They were probably attracted to the noise of vehicles outside.
Atkinson is currently gaming, motherlode gets alerted from the Insectoid humans of the discovery and immediately relays to him.
He then hops onto his mind-sense and directs his underlings.
"Jacob, do you think we can ask those people down there for shelter?" asks a young woman named Lilith, "They look really strong, the fire trucks you know?
Below her, a young boy by the name of Cam pressed his face against the window, eyes wide open.
"Cam, stay up here, you mom and are going to talk to those people down there okay?" Jacob was a strongly built man, his wife is Lilith.
Cam nodded but kept staring at the fire trucks, he found the figure inside the trucks were peculiar but couldn't put a word about it.
He could see a human figure from the waist up as the window only showed the top half. He thought that he saw some large claw but it could've been something else.
Lilith followed Jacob down the stairs and waited by the front doors. Jacob opened the door with a rifle on his back and shouted at the fire trucks.
The doors open, three Insectoid humans crawled out, Jacob, Lilith, and Cam were shocked mouth gaping wide open.
Cam didn't scream but he ran from the windows and locked himself inside his closet.
Color drains from Lilith's face as she runs outside with her handgun in the air.
Jacob holsters his rifle, and without any shred of hesitation, he shoots and shoots.
The family of three has never seen any zombies that even remotely resembles the ones they're seeing right now.
Lilith starts shooting right after Jacob does. However, to their disbelief the three zombies flew behind the fire trucks.
Lilith and Jacobs felt very uncomfortable when they saw that the zombies were intelligent. Sweat dripped down their necks and body.
Much to their disbelief again, a medkit was thrown over the fire truck at them.
Their heads turn to each other in confusion. However, they still held their guns up with their fingers on the trigger.
Atkinson decides to throw more stuff at them, seems like they aren't convinced yet.
As soon as he decided, assault rifles, handguns, and cans of food in colorful duffle bags were thrown over the fire truck.
Atkinson could have his zombies easily overpower the family and force them to work at his base, but he isn't fond of enslaving people and controlling them like slaves.
He was okay with zombies though, but they were the undead so it doesn't count.
Besides, there is no real trust between people when they first meet, so it's important to make the best first impression.
He also wants people he could trust to rebuild the world over with him, it'll be impossible to complete such a feat by himself.
It would be too tiring even if he was immortal.
Lilith and Jacob wanted to speak but they were afraid even if it didn't attract other zombies. The fear is enough to keep them quiet.
Jacob cautiously walks over to the duffle bags and scoots them backwards with his feet. His rifle still pointed towards the zombies.
Lilith rushes forwards to open and search the first duffle bag. She lets out a small gasp, there were five M&P 9 and Beretta model 92 combined.
She knows this because Jacob and her were gun owners and went to the shooting range often.
There were also two Colt M4 Carbine, along with magazine clips. She was estranged with weird emotions.
"Jac-Jacob! There's guns in here!"
"HOLY shit, are they intelligent, what is going on?" replies Jacob in confusion.
"No way, I…. this" they both wore dumbfounded faces as they lower their weapons.
The zombies crawl out from behind the fire trucks slowly, at the same time they try to look friendly.
This would never work and it doesn't right now, they look even more nightmarish.
Regular people probably have PTSD by now.
"Click click click" are the noises the Insectoid humans are making.
Meanwhile, Cam the little boy is still hiding inside his closet, falling asleep.
Lilith and Jacob watch with wariness as the insectoid humans crawl closer.
They unconsciously take a step back.
Then, the insectoid humans stopped moving. Instead, the three insectoid humans whips out dry erase boards.
Then they scribble messily on the board's three words.
Shelter. Follow. Us.
Lilith and Jacob were elated to see that there is some place safe and strong for them to stay.
They both know about enabled humans, after all they have come across a few. Instead of blindly following them, they trusted their gut feelings that those were not good people.
After all the saying goes, "Once you start seeing the apocalyptic world long enough, you realize that people are nasty, mean creatures. They're no worse, maybe even worse than zombies. People can trick you, manipulate you, but most of all they are unpredictable. Zombies just want to eat."
In about half an hour, Lilith had brought Cam down with the rest of their meager belongings.
The family of three hopped onto the back of the fire truck and waited for their new life to begin. They felt excited but also fearful at the same time.
It was close to midnight by the time the fire trucks returned to Atkinson's base.
The bank conveniently came with a small parking lot, so the fire trucks were being parked right behind the bank.
Atkinson decided to make a cool, mysterious entrance so he cleaned the lounge and went inside the mini-vault.
The insectoid humans escort the family of three into the base, they look surprised as they had believed that the base was some underground bunker or small camp.
A bank base is not something they would've thought of, seeing intelligent zombies that are probably controlled by humans.
They walk through the back door only to see more hideous zombies. The only thing that's keeping them mentally OK right now is the belief that there is going to be a human behind all of this.
An insectoid human brought them to the lounge on the second floor and left.
The family wasn't feeling the least comfortable despite sitting on a really nice couch. Except for the little boy Cam, the parents sat rigidly awaiting for what's to come.
Atkinson followed behind by Stake the stalker, exits the mini-vault room and greets the family with his hands behind his back standing straight.
"Greetings, welcome to my base of operations," with a wave of his hands to emphasize the place belonging to him.
"Please introduce yourselves haha" he chuckled nervously, he was not a natural born leader or speaker, but his power helps.
He adds after, "Er, you probably already guessed this… these zombies are my underlings.