Free El Paso Under Attack - 01 by Michael Clary

the little details of how we survived.
    “ And people were reading this? ”
    Yes.
    “ They were reading about how some man named ‘the General’ not only survived numerous life threatening situations, but also saved lives along the way? ”
    Yeah.
    “ And what happened next? ”
    I signed back on the next evening and the people were still talking about it.
    “ What were they saying? ”
    Some of them believed it, some of them didn’t. Some of them were telling what happened accurately, and some of them were embellishing.
    “ What do you mean embellishing? ”
    They were talking about me, but they were making me out to be some kind of hero. They were taking the situations we fell into and exaggerating them into tales where I fought a hundred zombies with just my axe and my knife.
    “ How did all these attentions make you feel? ”
    To be honest, it was funny. Kingsley and Dudley were getting a kick out of it as well.
    “ Did you respond to any of these people? ”
    No. Not until Tito wrote. What could I say to them? I guess I figured that they needed some kind of hope. Maybe this could be it. The stories weren’t always true, but if they could inspire someone to hang in just a little longer…good for them. I wasn’t going to take that away from anybody. Also, don’t forget…they were cracking us up.
    “ Your friend Tito wrote? ”
    Correct.
    “ Why do you call him Tito? ”
    He looks like a Tito.
    “ I see and he was able to connect the tales he was reading back to you? ”

    Yeah, he said later that if the stories were real…only I could be the General. Which is quite a compliment coming from Tito…I think. He’s normally a very angry person who becomes rather resentful when someone else achieves any kind of success. You don’t usually get compliments from guys like that unless they need something from you. Then again, he did need something from me…
    “ I should think so. What did he say? ”
    Help.
    He told some stories about the good ole days as a way of garnering my attention and proving it was him, but he wanted help. He was trapped in his apartment and the entire complex was teeming with zombies.
    “ And what did you tell him? ”
    I told him to sit tight and be safe. I was coming.
    “ What happened next? ”
    The people who were watching the site reacted. All of them began to send messages at the same time. The site crashed for the next few hours.
    “ What messages were the people sending you? ”
    Help us.
    “ And what did you think of that? ”
    I panicked. Kingsley and Dudley were reading over my shoulder. The responses, the crash…it was kinda surreal. We didn’t know how to react to that. We just kinda sat there in silence for awhile. Then Kingsley began to laugh.
    “It figures. The whole world is going to shit and freaking Jax ends up being famous!”
    “Yeah, no shit,” said Dudley. “Why does all the cool stuff happen to you?”

    They were both cracking up. I was trying to laugh along with them, but there was some serious stress involved. I mean…talk about pressure. I’m just one person. I have no training. I was surviving on luck. Never mind the whole healing from my injuries. Never mind that when I was in the thick of things I felt way too comfortable. What the hell could I really do to save anyone?
    “ I could see how you’d feel the pressure, but you handled it quite well. ”
    Eventually I handled it. I don’t know how well, but I eventually dealt with it I guess. At the time I was more concerned with the third thought that was on my mind.
    “ And that was? ”
    Getting out of that house.
    It took a good long while to figure that one out and when I finally did, let’s just say…my plan bordered somewhere between lunacy and idiotic. It was mid afternoon on the fourth day. I looked out a crack in the boarded up window and saw my new best friend…the sun. That hot, blaring ball of heat that hangs over the Texas skies and makes life miserable every single