Disclaimer - I don't own anything.
A/N - This idea has been brewing for quite awhile and I've finally found some time to start writing it. Hope you enjoy.
Infected
Beep Beep Beep Beep
"Motherfucker." The woman whispered fiercely, hitting the steering wheel of the police cruiser in frustration as the car came to a stop.
"Just my fucking luck." The woman leant the back of her head on the headrest of the car seat and closed her eyes. The irritating and repetitive beeping sound persisted, signalling to the woman that the gas tank was bone dry.
Getting tiresome of the sound, the woman sighed and pressed a button that popped open the trunk of the car, she opened the door and got out into the scorching midday sun that blared down on the woman's tired face. Squinting her eyes, the woman slicked back her unruly black hair and placed a sheriffs hat on her head.
Walking to the back of the car, the woman made sure to be aware of her surroundings by continuously scanning the area around her. All she could see was a mass of abandoned cars and no sign of movement. When she was satisfied that she was alone, she grabbed a plastic container from the trunk of the car and started walking.
It didn't take long for the woman to find a small gas station and she thanked whoever may still be up there for it.
She made her way down a grassy hill and grimaced when she felt a dull pain in her stomach. She abruptly stopped at the sight of the area.
It was a graveyard for cars, there was blood splatters on the ground and flies buzzing around. The stench was awful and the silence was deafening. Walking through the mass of cars, the woman spotted a view children's toys that were lying on the ground; unwanted and abandoned.
As she walked past one car she looked in and regretted it immediately. There was a woman with her head turned towards the window; she was clearly dead. Her face looked like leather and not due to her age, which at a guess would be late forties. She had a large gash in her forehead that was swarming with all sorts of insects, flies were covering her face and it looked like she had been there for awhile. The woman turned her face away with a sadness.
The case was similar in many other cars that the woman passed on her way to the gas pumps.
She noticed a group of tents that had been set up and chairs that were arranged in a way that showed that a group had sat here in comfort, those chairs were not upturned as if people had stood up abruptly in panic. The woman saw that a tree had multiple knives that were embedded in it, suggesting that someone had been practising their throwing knife skills. The woman hoped that that skill was helping them stay out of harm's way
When she finally reached the gas pumps she almost screamed in frustration. There was a makeshift sign banging softly on the metal pillar it was attached to, due to the slight breeze, and had the words 'NO GAS' spray painted on. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, the woman turned around and prepared herself for the tedious job of siphoning gas from the surrounding cars.
Before she could even take three steps she heard something that sent a mix of dread and hope through her.
Turning her head slightly, she concentrated harder on listening at the sound.
It sounded like the noise of shuffling feet.
The woman slowly lowered herself to the ground, taking of her hat, before making herself prone, using her arms to keep her up. She looked under the car and saw the pale skin of legs that were so skinny that it was just skin and bone. There were bruises scattered over the length of both legs and the feet were covered in bunny slippers? The woman quickly stood up when the legs looked like they were walking away from her. The woman walked around the car and saw the back of the person. The person was in fact a young girl around the age of eight. The girl had long blonde hair that was darkened by the dirt and dust in it.
"Little girl? I'm a policewoman. Little girl?" The woman called out, softly, as not to scare the girl. Hearing her voice the girl stopped.
"Don't be afraid... Little girl?" The woman reached her arm out and touched the girl's shoulder.
The girl slowly turned around and the woman sharply withdrew her hand, as if she had been burnt.
This wasn't a girl, this was one of them.
It was one of the walkers, as they were called.
The walker had half her face ripped off and blood was dripping onto her dressing gown. Her eyes were glazed over and bloodshot and she stared at the woman with a look full of predatory hunger.
The woman backed up slowly until she was at a distance from the walker and took a few shaky breaths.
The walker suddenly came to life and started at Jane at a walk which quickly turned into a hurried shuffle. The growling increasing.
Jane stood her ground and calmly reached for her colt python, raising it and with a quick calming breath she fired. The bullet hit the walker right in the middle of her forehead and the force sent the thing flying backwards until it was lying on it's back, blood oozing slowly out of the newly inflicted wound.
Jane Rizzoli bowed her head and walked away.
4 months ago...
"You would've thought that by now she would've learnt that when the Red Sox's are on, I don't want to sit and talk about my feelings." Detective Barry Frost went on as sat in the passenger seat of the car and chewed on a piece of burger that they had picked up from The Dirty Robber.
"So I said, 'Okay, you want me to talk about my feelings? Fine. I feel like I wanna watch some baseball, how's that?" Frost continued.
"You said that?" Came Detective Jane Rizzoli's shocked reply.
"Well a more polite version-" The car erupted in soft laughter, "Still that earned me this look of pure loathing that you would not believe. And that's when shit hits the fan, she starts yelling saying 'You sound just like my damn father, always telling me to stay quiet when the baseball is on!'" Frost mimicked.
"And what did you say to that?" Jane said in between mouthfuls of fries.
"I know what I wanna say, 'You mean to tell me that you've been hearing this your entire life and you're still so stupid that you still do it?'" Frost replied, before joining Jane in laughter. "I didn't actually say that though, because otherwise you would be working on my murder case right now."
"Very wise choice, my friend."
The car filled with comfortable silence.
"So how's it with Maura." Frost asked eventually. Jane choked on her food and started coughing.
"Erm, we're good. Still friends, why'd ya ask?"
"Oh c'mon, Jane. I'm a detective, I've seen the difference in how you act around each other. It used to be more subtle but now it's awkward being in the same room as you two because it's like you're making a baby with all that eye sex you do." Frost declared, laughing at Jane's face that was similar to one of a deer caught in headlights.
Jane sighed and chucked her finished burger in the bag it came from.
"Who else knows?"
"Only me and Korsak."
Jane laughed, glad that Frost was making her feel at ease.
"Well, she's good at leaving me be when Red Sox are on." Jane joked, before both of them chuckled.
"So how is it?" Frost asked, wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive way. Jane groaned and punched him in the arm.
"Not like you deserve to know, you perv, but we haven't actually done anything yet, we've only been together for a few days... Tonight's gonna be the night though. And I can't believe I just told you that."
"Yeah, I can't believe you told me that either." Frost jested, earning another punch in the arm.
They were interrupted by Jane's phone alarm going off.
"Looks like our lunch hour is over, back to the precinct we go." Jane started the car and Frost grabbed the bags of finished food and leaning out of the car window he dumped it into the bin on the pavement as they passed.
An hour later...
The lights went out and the emergency red lights came on as Jane was in the middle of an interrogation.
"They're here!" The scared woman shrieked, Jane put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"It's just a power failure." Jane said as she tried to calm the struggling girl.
The girl ran to the door and Jane followed trying to calm her down, when suddenly she saw some men with submachine guns in hand and pushed the girl to stand against the wall.
Waiting for them to go down the corridor, Jane pulled the girl along and through the other door. Cursing herself that she left her gun on her desk in the bullpen.
They ran up the stairs, adrenaline pumping through her veins, the girl suddenly tripped over and in her panic she sat in the corner. Jane knelt down next to her when suddenly she heard the doors being swung open and footsteps running down the other set of stairs.
Jane covered the girl's mouth and waited until the men had gone.
"Okay, okay. I need to go downstairs. You'll be safe up here, okay. Someone will find you when this is all over." Jane whispered, standing up.
Jane found herself in the empty bullpen, there was paper thrown all over the floor and glass shattered. She suddenly remembered that her whole team was out in pursuit of the killer of their recent case.
Her whole team except Maura.
Jane slowly walked over to her desk and swore under her breath we she grabbed her holster and saw that it was empty. Looking at the ground she saw blood splatter a couple of yards away from where she was crouching.
Reaching over she grabbed the phone and pressed the dial button, scowling when she heard no dial tone. Wiping her face with shaky hands she set off to find Maura.
"Maura! Maura!" Jane's raspy voice called out into the empty morgue.
She started to panic when the blonde wasn't anywhere in sight, when suddenly she saw the blonde come from her office, supporting the weight of Frankie?
"What happened?" Jane's voice nearly broke with emotion as she helped Maura carry Frankie.
"He was shot in the leg, but I managed to clean up the wound and stop the bleeding, it was a through and through so he should be fine." Maura explained, while helping Jane sit Frankie down in a chair.
"Maur-" Before she could continue or engulf the blonde in a hug the doors were swung open. The three of them looked to the door and immediately Jane stood protectively around Maura and Frankie as a man with a gun came in.
"Who are you?" Jane made her voice sound strong and demanding.
"Someone who wants to get the hell out of here without getting shot at by the police outside, I'll need you for that." Before they knew what was happening, the unknown man grabbed Jane and swung her around, holding her with a gun to her head.
"JANE!" Maura screamed, but before she could follow, the man tightened his grip on Jane and warned her to not doing anything stupid.
That's where Jane found herself outside the precinct begging for Korsak, Frost and the number of officers to shot the man that was holding her.
"SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM!" Jane screamed.
Suddenly she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and saw that Maura was running out of the precinct, Frankie limping behind her. She felt the man focus on them and before he could raise his gun to them, Jane grabbed the gun in her grasp.
It all happened in slow-motion. Jane yelled as she pulled the gun down and away from her loved ones and into herself, she could hear Maura and Frankie scream her name and when she got the gun down to her stomach the trigger was pulled. Jane felt the pain rip through her and she yelled out in pain, she felt the man behind her jump up as the bullet hit his chest, due to the angle of the gun when it was fired.
They both fell and the last thing Jane saw was Maura running towards her.
"Hey, Janie. I got these flowers for you even though you'll call me a wuss for it, they're a bit bright but oh well. I know I've said the same thing every time I come see you, but I want to thank you. Not just for what you did that day but for everything, for being my sister, for pushing me to be a better guy and policeman and I just need you to wake up, okay? Ma's driving us all crazy with her over-happiness, but we all know she cries herself to sleep every night. Maura hasn't left you're side, Janie. She barely leaves, and I don't think I've ever seen her like this. We're all here, Korsak, Tommy, TJ Frost. We're all waiting for you and we'll be here when you wake up."
Jane opened her eyes after hearing Frankie say those words, she didn't want them to wait any longer. Looking over she expected to see the bright flowers on the bedside table, but instead all she saw was a deceased bunch of flowers that looked like they've seen better days. The table was full of dried up petals that had lost all their colour and when Jane reached over to touch one, it crumbed in her hand.
She tried to call out but when nothing came out, she tried swallowing, however there was a distinct lack of saliva and moisture in her mouth and her throat was dry and closed up. She painfully sat up and noticed the IV drip in her forearm. She slowly pulled it out, wincing at the slight pain and stiffly swung her legs over the side of the bed. Groaning at the small pain in her stomach.
"Frankie?" Jane managed to croak out. "You in the toilet?" When no answer was heard, Jane grabbed hold of the IV stand and groaned in effort as she pulled herself up, there was a moment where she was steady but that abruptly disappeared as she fell hard.
"Nurse. Help. Nurse." Jane tried calling out, but when no nurse or anyone came she realised she would have to do it herself, so with great concentration and pain she managed to stand up on two feet.
Realising that her throat was so dry was because she was highly thirsty, she hurried into the bathroom and abruptly stopped when she saw her reflection in the mirror. Her hair didn't have its usual volume and had no shine to it. There were tangles that made Jane dread the time when she would have to sort those out. Her normally tanned skin was pale and almost ghostly, her normally warm brown eyes were stripped of colour and were dull and cold. She shook herself, suddenly remembering her thirst and almost cheered when water came tumbling out of the tap.
After Jane had taken a long drink she inspected the bandages that were around her stomach and grimaced. Why did Maura let these bandages get these bad? Maura. Where was Maura? Didn't Frankie say that she barely left Jane's side?
Holding onto some hope that she would find Maura and the rest of her family out in the corridor, Jane shuffled painfully to the door. Opening it she walked into a gurney that was blocking the way to the door. Why would somebody leave this here?
Any hope that Jane had had was crushed as she took in the sight of the corridor. There were papers covering the floor and the fluorescent lights were flickering overhead. There was nobody in sight, not even a sound could be heard other than Jane's heavy breathing.
She started walking in the direction of the nurse's desk and after not seeing anyone she reached over and picked up the phone, slamming it down when she didn't hear a dial tone. Jane reached her hand and tried finding something on the desk that would help her figure out what was going on. All she found were some matches, in which she took.
Making her way further down the corridor she came to a set of doors that had a clear screen to look through. Jane squinted, trying to ignore the irritating flickering lights as she focused on a strange object on the floor in the distance.
Suddenly realisation dawned on her and she stumbled back, dry heaving and eyes wide.
The object was a body.
A body that had been ripped up with its intestines on display.
Walking away as if on autopilot she went in the opposite direction and came across another set of doors. These ones were completely opaque, not allowing Jane to see what was on the other side. There were bullet holes and blood splatters all over the door and surrounding walls and the doors were chained shut with a thick plank of wood holding it closed.
However before Jane got too close, someone started pushing against the door from the other side, forcing Jane to take a step back in shock. Suddenly the doors were shoved more forcefully as though more people were pushing against it and Jane could her a number of groans as if people were hurt.
"Hello?" Jane's voice caused the people to push harder against the door and before Jane got closer a hand made its way through the gap in between the double doors. The hand was almost grey in colour and the nails were yellowed and long.
Suddenly the doors started to violently shake and Jane stepped back in fear as the sounds started getting louder and louder. The nails started scratching the outside of the door, making a screeching sound to add to the other fearful noises. Jane realised that she really didn't want to open the door and instead surged to the left and pushed through the swinging doors.
She had a feeling that the elevators weren't going to work and to be honest she really didn't want to be stuck in a tight enclosed space, so instead of wasting any effort on checking her theory she hurried straight for the fire exit.
The staircase was engulfed in complete darkness and Jane was thankful that she had grabbed the matches.
The match gave out an eerie light as she carefully made her way down the stairs, she made sure that her shaky breath didn't blow out her match and was thankful that the match lasted all the way down to the ground floor.
Taking a deep meditative breath, that she had learnt from Maura, Jane opened the door.
The light from the midday sun was painful as it glared on her pale skin and weak eyes, she shielded her eyes from the blinding light and walked forward.
Some part of her wished that she hadn't have gotten used to the light as once her eyes adjusted the sight in front of her made her wish she was blind.
The stench was unbearable and if she had anything in her stomach she would've emptied it on the concrete. Instead she just painfully dry heaved until she could get her gag reflex under control.
She looked out and they seemed to be all she could see.
There were hundreds of them.
Some were lined up respectively, but others seemed to have just been dumped in the back of a truck. Some of them had a cloth covering their entire body to show respect, but others' vacant faces were on show. Their bloodied, decaying faces.
The amount of flies was understandable, it was the amount of bodies that was hard to wrap her head around.
Realising that she had been standing for long enough she moved forward, forcing herself to focus her eyes ahead instead of on the bodies she was passing.
Seeing Boston like this; deserted and silent, forced Jane to get the urge to cry. She was sure that she would be feeling tears flow down her cheeks if she had any fluids in her body to spare.
There was no doubt in her mind that this was just a dream as even in her nightmares she couldn't have possibly think of something like this; something so full of dread and terror.
She hobbled her way to The Common and felt pain resonate through her at the quietness of it. Where there should be children running around and playing there was nothing. Where there should be a couple walking hand in hand there was nothing.
Well there wasn't quite nothing.
Jane heard him before she saw him.
She heard the groaning and as she turned around she felt her adrenaline spike. There standing a few yards away from her was someone she recognised.
"Crowe?"
Before she got closer, he sharply turned his head and his glazed over eyes focused on her. Jane gasped in shock and fear and stumbled backwards, falling hard on the ground.
His face was decayed and his jaw had caved inwards, creating a huge blooded dent in his face.
Jane stared in shock as Crowe moved himself so his whole body faced Jane.
The woman felt the urge to gag yet again as she took in the sight of his body.
Crowe's torso was ripped open and his insides were hanging outside of his body.
His foot was at an odd angle and when Jane focused on it she could see that it had been severely broken and the bone had pierced through the skin and was now on show. The foot merely dangling.
Suddenly Crowe started to run towards her, or well he tried, his foot prevented him from running yet he didn't seem to realise.
Jane was frozen in her spot as he got closer and closer and he reached out his hands to grab her shoulders and- BANG!
The sound shook Jane out of her reverie and she looked down to see Crowe by her feet with a bullet wound in his head.
Before she could see where the shot had came from she heard a noise coming from behind her and as she turned her head to face it she felt a sharp pain as a shovel met with her nose with a crack and she collapsed to the ground.
"I got it Momma! I got the sonofabitch!" Jane was slowly losing consciousness but she looked up to see a black boy screaming at someone.
"Maura. Where's Maura?" Jane murmured.
Suddenly a woman, with a pistol in her hand, ran up to the boy and pushed him away from Jane.
"Did she say something? I thought I heard her say something." The woman asked the boy frantically.
The boy answered without hesitation, "She was asking for someone called Maura."
"You know they don't talk. Hey miss, what's that bandage for?" The woman asked a disorientated Jane.
"Wh-What?" Jane whimpered, feeling blood drip down from her nose.
"What kind of wound?" She pointed the gun at Jane's head.
When Jane didn't answer, the woman put her other hand around the gun and tightened her grip.
"How did you get your wound? You better tell me goddammit or I will kill you." Jane looked into the woman's eyes and all she saw was fear and determination.
It was the last thing she saw before blackness overtook.