I do not own;
~The infected people – including the specials
~Rochelle, Nick, Coach, or Ellis
X.x.X.x
A small group of four walked silently down the empty streets, close together and weapons raised and pointed out in front of them. As they walked, small cries could be heard echoing in the abandoned city streets, the closer they got the louder the cries were. Soon the cries could be heard as sobs and the group tensed at the image they got whenever they heard crying.
Finally Ellis could take it no more, "Guys, that a Witch?" He asked in a hushed tone.
"Sounds like one." Coach agreed.
"No." The young woman dressed in pink disagreed, being the only woman in the group she was convinced she was the only one who could tell the difference in crying. "The crying is different…" Rochelle listened closely. The crying wasn't loud and there wasn't any wailing, like a witch, instead it was soft and tortured, like a young girl.
"You think it's another survivor?" Ellis asked just as softly as before, straining to get an idea where the crying was coming from.
"Maybe, let's go see." Rochelle started to walk into a library, where she figured the cries were emanating from.
The three men; Coach, heavier man with dark skin, late forties, he wore a collared purple shirt with yellow short sleeves, Nick, a built man with pale skin, mid thirties, he wore a white suit with a blue button up under the stained white jacket and brown loafers, finally Ellis, late twenties, a skinny tanned young man dressed in overalls that was tucked down with the straps tied around almost like a belt, a yellow tee shirt and a baseball cap, followed close behind her.
Once inside the small group explored the empty library, "Betcha this is the quietest a library has ever been." Nick quipped only to get hushed by the young woman that was leading the men to where she believed the crying was coming from. Slowly they went upstairs and started to open the doors in the hallway, only to find empty offices until they saw a young woman standing at the end of the hall staring up at the ceiling, her arms limp at her side.
"Ma'am?" Coach asked quietly and gently pushed past Rochelle to take the lead his hand outstretched to touch her shoulder but he held his pistol out in front of him as well, just in case. "Ma'am, you alright?" He asked further his fingers almost touched her shoulder when she spun around with teeth bared and eyes empty. He jumped back and fired a single shot, point blank, between her eyes. The zombified woman fell back against the wall behind her and slid down dramatically, a streak of blood painted against the peeling wall paper as she fell.
"You alright?" Ellis asked quietly as Coach turned around, his eyes a little wider than usual, but even a surprise like that was nothing new to the zombie apocalypse veteran.
The apocalypse, already, had lasted nearly a month now and together as a group for just as long. Too long in the survivors' opinion, cabin fever was beginning to take effect but they knew they couldn't separate if they wanted to live. None of them knew exactly what had happened to create the virus, or even how it got to so many people, but they did know that they were stuck until they could find rescue.
"Yeah," Coach replied slowly, "yeah I'm good. She took me by surprise is all…" He said with his usual soft spoken, but deep, voice. To Rochelle, his voice was a lot like the actor Morgan Freeman's.
"Hey" Ellis interrupted, "cryin's stopped."
The other three stopped and listened, coming to the same conclusion. "You're right…" Rochelle's brows smashed together and she lifted her head higher and stuck her nose in the air, as though she was looking to smell out the girl who'd been crying.
"You smell something, girl? Hm" Nick prodded with a rue smile.
In return Rochelle's head snapped back to look at him, "Excuse me?" She spat.
"Nothing" He said with a small chuckle and looked away as though he was not paying any attention to her, however he was still watching her with his peripherals.
"Guys. I think she's in here." Ellis offered, while they had been going back and forth he had followed the soft sound of 'sniffling', and was standing next to the door he thought would reveal the 'crying girl' at last. The door was the last door in the hallway on the left, the door that zombie girl had been standing next to.
The others made their way to the door where he was standing, stepping over the body gingerly. Ellis put his hand on the knob and pushed the door open after counting to three on his fingers. They all burst inside the room with their weapons raised and looking around like a ridiculous group of SWAT team wannabe's. In the far corner of the room was a girl, she was hunched over and crying softly. Her back was facing them so they couldn't see her face. In front of her was a body, a small body. Before proper conclusions could be drawn or thought out the girl whipped around, her legs stayed where they were, her knees pointing at the small form in front of her yet her top half was isolated from her bottom half and turned to face the group of four.
Everyone backed up a small step when the noticed the magnum in her left hand, pointing it straight at Ellis' head.
X.x.X.x
They had found their crying girl – woman…? Ellis looked her up and down quickly but he was more concerned with the gun barrel pointing at his face. What he did notice was the tear tracks that had cleared an evident path down her filthy face; she was covered with dirt and blood spots from head to toe, most likely the same as he looked, hell he knew the rest of the group looked like that.
The young man with the trucker hat stared at her awkwardly, waiting for her to lower the powerful sidearm in her left hand. However she stared back, unmoving. Quickly, efficiently, she looked him and the other three up and down, looking for signs of infection; bites, scratches, bloodshot eyes, pasty skin, but she didn't see any so, slowly, she lowered her weapon.
"I wouldn't have done it if there were any other way." She muttered suddenly.
"What?" Ellis asked and took a step closer.
"She was infected. I had never seen an infected child. She… I didn't know until she attacked me. She was just huddled in this corner, I thought she was hiding. Then she turned around. She was eating an arm." She made a pathetic face. "I was so freaked out, I'd never seen..." She closed her eyes to collect herself, when she opened them again she continued. "She came after me… I had to shoot her."
Rochelle frowned and glanced over to the limp body of the small girl, she couldn't have been older than 6 or 7 years old.Quietly the dark girl made an 'aw' sound under her breath, and her frown deepened – that's just not fair she thought
The young woman stood up and dusted herself off. "So." She wiped the wetness away from her eyes with the back of her hand. "You guys are survivors too?"
Ellis nodded and cleared his throat, "Yah. Ah'm Ellis." He began, then pointing to them as he named them he continued, "That there is Rochelle, cranky-suit-man there is Nick, and we call the big guy Coach."
"Hi." She said sheepishly and straightened out her forest green, long sleeved, shirt before waving a little.
"I'm sorry about the girl…" Rochelle started. "That must have been hell for you."
She nodded a bit and looked down at the small girl pitifully, "Yeah, I just hope I don't have to find another kid…" she said softly.
"I hope so too." Rochelle said sincerely.
"Look not to interrupt a touching sentimental moment. But we really shouldn't stay in one spot for too long." Nick interrupted he was in the door way with his gun out, looking down the hallway uneasily.
"He means well" Rochelle whispered as she watched Nick duck in and out of the doorway, making sure there were no surprise attacks from any of the walkers outside.
"He's right. We should get going." Coach agreed and the 'new girl' nodded.
"Yeah," She said before grabbing the curtain hanging on the window and ripped it off the rod. Ellis caught on to the gesture and moved to help grabbing the other side and assisting the woman in covering the young girls body with the bright blue curtain.
X.x.X.x
Once the group had left the building they formed into, almost a bird like formation as they walked down the streets.
Coach had point, Rochelle and Nick were in the middle, while Ellis and the new lady were covering the back.
Ellis looked over at her, she looked very tense and her eyes were darting back and forth and up and down – she was on high alert. She had an M16 rifle in her hands, held out in front of her, there were two magnums holstered to each leg, a hunting knife was strapped to the small of her back, almost resting on her – for lack of better word – ass and she had a backpack slung over her left shoulder which would lift up and then fall back and smack her side with each step she took.
She must have felt him looking at her because she cleared her throat and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He quickly diverted his gaze from her back to the back of Rochelle's head, who's ponytail was bobbing back and forth with each step she took.
"I'm Infinity by the way." She said, breaking the silence.
His head snapped back to look at her, "Cool name!"
"Sshh!" Nick hushed. "You want all the zombies to hear you?" He asked impatiently while looking over his shoulder to the young boy behind him. When Ellis simply shrugged he rolled his eyes and muttered, "Moron…" before turning back to face forward.
Ellis rolled his eyes and shook his head at the man in front of him, earning a small laugh from 'Infinity'.
"Is that really your name?" He asked quietly and she shook her head.
"Nah," She paused and checked her rifle as she chose her next words. "no, my dad used to call me that."
He looked at her curiously, "How come?"
"Cus of my tattoo…" She smiled a little and blinked a few times when she looked up at him, to him it was like she batted her eyes at him to seem 'innocent' even with the tattoo.
"Which is…" He squinted his eyes.
Laughing Infinity lowered her weapon a small bit, relaxing. "An infinity symbol…" She said slowly.
Ellis smiled. "Right, of course. Ah knew that" He drawled the last bit. "So do you live here? In Savannah?" he asked.
"Ha, no." She threw her head back and laughed, "I actually came down here for medical school."
"Why'd you say it like that?" He asked a twinge of defense in his voice.
She looked at him with realization in her eye, "oh, uhm… this just isn't my scene. I'm actually from Boston, more of a city girl than a… whatever Savannah is…"
"Really?"
"Really what?" She asked and looked ahead, they were falling a bit behind the rest of them so she began to walk a bit faster to keep up with Nick and Rochelle who were in front of them, and they seemed to be keeping up with Coach just fine.
"Really, you're from Boston" Ellis said and moved to keep up with her.
"Yeah" She breathed and then began to slow down when they were in a reasonable distance from the two people ahead of them.
Ellis fell into step with her and looked back down at the short, 5 foot woman. "Medical school huh?"
"Yeah, I finally settled for being a nurse. For almost all my life I had wanted to be a cop or at least in the military."
"What changed?"
"I dunno actually." She shrugged and half frowned. "I just kinda… decided that's what I wanted to do. Maybe it had to do with the lack of discipline in the police force in my home town and the lack of support from my family to join the military."
"Ah," He nodded, "I see." He looked back forward and looked some of the burnt down buildings with a strange sense of hopelessness he didn't even realize that Rochelle was watching him closely from the front, jealousy was rolling off of her in invisible waves. When the resumed talking she looked back ahead and began to make small talk with the crankier man of the group.
"Yeah." Infinity was silent for a while, looking around some more. He noted that the street seemed a bit too quiet. They hadn't even come across a single zombie, the streets were all empty. Weird he thought and squinted his eyes as he scanned the surrounding area.
"So what did you do? Do you live here?"
He looked at her and cleared his throat. "Yah, yeah I live here. 'Work with a couple of mah buddies at a mechanical shop. Ah'm in a band too. Yep me and mah buddies are the best in town. Ah'm bass of course." Ellis finished and looked down at her, she was grinning ear to ear.
"What? Wha'd Ah say?"
She shook her head and her smile dropped for a second before reappearing again. "Huh? Oh nothing you didn't say anything. I just think I'm going to like you is all."
"Why's that?" He asked with a raised eyebrow as he lifted his hat and pulled it back down quickly, readjusting it.
"'Cause you're cute" She said with a shy smile and a small shrug.
"Oh." He blushed a bit and readjusted his hat again, "You know I…"
"SSHH!" She held up her hand in a stop motion and stopped herself. "Do you hear that?" she whispered.
Ellis froze and brought his gun back up, looking around, "No. What?" He whispered back.
"Smoker!" Nick announced.
Coach ducked out of the way and began to shoot in the general direction of the 'special infected' but he wasn't quick enough, "Gah! Smoker's got me" He cried as the long, snake like tongue wrapped around his waist.
"Damn!" Infinity exclaimed, dropped her bag onto the street, and ran up to where the Smoker was it was still in the process of pulling the man off his feet and towards him. Quickly she aimed up the rifle barrel to the smokers head, jammed it up under the side of his jaw and pulled the trigger, the special infected flew backwards – dead before it hit the ground.
When the body hit the ground she lowered her weapon so the barrel was pointed at the ground and stared at the mangled body in front of her, the smokers' ten foot long tongue was moving a little and she jumped back a bit. However when she traced the tongue back to Coach she realized why, he was still trying to get the slimy, rope like tongue away from his waist. "Damn those things" He muttered and Infinity smiled a bit before kicking at the lanky, limp, body of the smoker and joining the rest of the group. "You alright?" she called.
"Yeah I should be fine." He assured, she was about to say something about the gash on his head when she heard moaning erupt from somewhere in the deserted city.
Rochelle, Ellis and Nick ran up behind them. "We got a horde coming our way!" Rochelle yelled.
Infinity was about to ask from which direction when her question was answered. They were coming from three directions; behind them, to the right and to the left. "Only way now is forward." Nick said dryly. Infinity looked around, of course they stopped in an intersection where there was no place to hole down and funnel the group into. Typical
"We need to move, now!" Rochelle ordered and started to run down the only 'open' road, Nick ran right behind her and Coach behind him. Infinity spun around to face the first few while running backwards, firing off short bursts from her rifle into the horde of infected people. Ellis stayed beside her and covered the sides.
She knew she wasn't killing any, she didn't have good enough aim for headshots, but at least she could
"Reloading" She announced and pulled back further behind Ellis so he could cover her while she reloaded her P-90 with practiced eased. However in the middle of reloading on infected, male, teenager had dodged Ellis' cover fire and came up on her left.
She hadn't even noticed him until after his fist came down on her face. She stumbled to the right a bit and dropped her gun, clattering onto the ground. She let out a small noise at the impact but swept her magnum out of her right holster pressed the barrel to his forehead and pulled the trigger, can't miss that. She could hardly resist quoting 'Trinity' from Matrix, when 'dodge this' popped into her head.
Ellis announced that he had to reload his shotgun and Infinity groaned, before snatching up her rifle and slinging it over her shoulder and pulling out her other magnum to use temporarily. "Where the hell are the others?" She barked and shot a couple of times into a couple of people who were getting to close.
"Dunno" He said dismissively, more focused on reloading his gun.
Infinity bashed another to the ground and put a bullet in his head. She re-holstered it and reloaded her rifle.
"We need to fall back" He ordered and she nodded in agreement.
"Alright let's go"
The two of them ran off, firing the occasional shot behind them, hoping to ditch the significantly slower people. Once they had caught up with the others they realized they had just missed another horde. Rochelle, Nick, and Coach were all standing next to each other with fresh blood splattered over their clothes and skin, and bodies were scattered all around them; on the streets, sidewalks, on top of nearby cars, and inside some of the stores- the glass windows shot out.
"Great." Nick sighed. "My suit is…"
"Nobody cares Nick!" Rochelle shouted as Coach began to patch her up with some of the medical supplies he had left. That's when Infinity remembered her pack.
"Eff you." He mumbled and pulled out a handkerchief from inside his stained jacket and began to try and wipe off the red mess, merely smearing it and making it worse. "Shit" He mumbled and disgarded the idea of trying to save the suit. Maybe he should have gotten a red suit instead.
"What happened to you guys?" Ellis asked Infinity turned to face him, ready to say she had to go back for her bag but then noticed her bag was slung over his shoulder and she smiled.
"I think it was an ambush" Nick bit out, and Coach shook his head pitifully. "It wasn't an ambush Nick" He said in a low voice, like a father telling his son that there was no such thing as the boogey man, and he merely saw a tree shadow.
The middle aged man scoffed, "Then what do you call that?" He asked and gestured to the many bodies scattered around the street.
"Zombieland," Rochelle hissed when Coach tightened the gauze around her forearm, she had fallen while running and had scrapped up her arm. "We're in a middle of a zombie apocalypse, this shit happens" She finished and nodded at Coach as a thank you.
"Speaking of which what happened to you guys?" She asked as she picked up her AK-47 off of the ground. "you fall behind?" She asked and looked Ellis up and down carefully, as though making sure he wasn't hurt.
"Yeah, you can say that" Infinity nodded and looked around at the limp bodies that littered the ground. Silently she began to wonder how long it would take to clean up all the mess once the apocalypse was over.
"We should keep moving" Coach said finally and looked around, "Where's Nick?" He asked and the rest of the group looked around, while they had been talking Nick had silently disappeared. "oh, god, smoker got him!" Ellis exclaimed and his eyes wide.
Just as the group was about to split up and look for him he poked his head out of a clothing store window without a shirt. "I'm in here moron" He said and rolled his eyes before disappearing back into the store.
Rochelle looked up at the store's neon, "Private Label?" She asked, her nose wrinkled up.
Shrugging Infinity led the way into the clothing store behind Nick, Rochelle followed her, then Ellis, and Coach. "Nick?" Infinity called into the darkened store, the transition from sunlight to almost complete black caused her to see spots.
"Men's department" His voice called out.
"Where?" Ellis asked this time.
A sigh could be heard from somewhere and just as his head popped out for them to see Rochelle tripped over a fallen mannequin and fell to her hands and knees. Coach grabbed her arm and helped her up, "You alright?"
"yeah I'm good, can't see a damn thing" Soon after however the group had gotten used to the dark and navigated the area as well as Nick was. "What are you doing?" Rochelle asked as she walked up behind the shirtless man.
Pulling a black t shirt over his head Nick turned around, "White is not good… right now."
She nodded, "oookay" She said and quirked an eyebrow before shrugging and moving to find the women's department. Her tight jeans, tighter pink tee shirt and flat leather, ankle high, boots had served her well over the past month. The zombies couldn't grab onto any loose material so it kept her from getting snatched easily, however they clothes were extremely filthy, maybe it was time for new attire. Ellis walked behind Nick just as the man finished pulling up 'his' new jeans. Ellis made a small noise, "Sorry man" He said and turned around to leave.
Nick turned around himself, his back had been towards the young hick, "You peepin' on me overalls?" He asked and Ellis turned around, his mouth ready to defend himself but the smirk on Nick's face told him he wasn't being an ass.
After a moment Ellis shrugged, "Eh, nothing special anyway"
The clean clothed man's mouth fell open. "I beg to differ." He said with a deep voice, though still not mad, making Ellis smile.
Ellis shrugged again and nodded his head at the older man before turning to find new clothes of his own.
X.x.X.x
Infinity was busy staring at herself in the mirror with disgust touching her face with her fingertips and groaning. She still had tear stains on her still filthy face. She looked down at her green shirt and jeans and frowned, they were even worse than her face. "Damn" she muttered and was about to look for a bathroom when she saw Rochelle walk past behind her with clothes draped over her arms, like she was shopping.
Spinning around Infinity chased after her, "Whatcha doin'?" She asked and fell into step with the only other woman in the group.
Smiling Rochelle shrugged, "I need new clothes, if Nick gets to, I get to."
"That's a mature outlook" Infinity said with a quirked eyebrow as she looked over at the darker woman.
She shrugged, "It's an apocalypse, I don't think rules really apply anymore." She said stiffly before turning right and going down the next aisle, towards the dressing rooms. Infinity kept in step thinking about what Rochelle has just said. Was that really true? Was the world so far gone that it didn't matter anymore. Looking around the store she found her answer, they weren't the first people to 'go shopping' here.
"I suppose…" Infinity started as Rochelle opened one of the dressing room doors and stepped inside. "I mean people 'shop'" She air quoted, despite the fact Rochelle couldn't see, "Even in less drastic times, like a hurricane…" Not that that isn't drastic… she continued silently.
"Exactly," Rochelle replied through the door, "Here-" She tossed a top over the door, making Infinity lunge forward to catch it. "try this on." She finished before stepping out in her own new attire; a long sleeved purple v-neck, new skinny jeans, but the same boots. "What do you think?" She asked and stuck a pose for her new friend.
Infinity nodded her head back and forth, weighing the decision in her head. "Turn around" She order with squinted eyes. Rochelle did so gracefully, taking her time. "Eh," Infinity nodded her head and smirked. "It's hot and seems efficient enough…"
The young woman smiled, "Awesome, now go try yours on." She ordered.
Nodding she complied and stepped into the same dressing room that Rochelle had been in moments earlier. As she pulled the shirt off the hanger she realized it was the same style shirt as Rochelle's only it was a dark red color. "You making us twins?" She asked while pulling off her dirty green shirt to pull on the clean red one.
Laughter could be heard through the wood door between them, "What if I am?" She asked before pausing, "Hey what size jeans?" she added.
The door opened and Infinity was wearing the 'back up jeans' Rochelle had brought if the other jeans didn't fit. "I think these are good." She smirked and Rochelle smiled. "You look hot sweety" She complimented.
Infinity smiled, they both had on v-neck shirts; Rochelle with purple and the sleeves down, Infinity with red and the sleeves rolled halfway up her forearm. The both had on the same pair of skinny jeans; Infinity's was a size bigger than Rochelle who was a size 7. Rochelle had on her brown leather ankle boots, and Infinity had on her black converse.
"Stylin'" Rochelle laughed. "Let's go find a bathroom…" She suggested before leading the way back down towards the bathrooms.
"Kay," Infinity said as she began ripping the tags off her new clothes.
X.x.X.x
Ellis quirked an eyebrow as he looked at his new appearance in the mirror, Coach stepped up behind him and tried to see himself in the cracked mirror. "What do you think Coach?" he asked and turned around with arms spread wide so the older man could see his near outfit, lightwash jeans and a green t-shirt.
"What are we girls?" Nick asked as he stepped into the mirror in front of Ellis, making the younger man step out of the way so he could have the mirror to himself while he slicked back his long brown hair. It wasn't exceedingly long, if he had to compare his hair to someone it would be 'Wesley' from Princess Bride, only his was dark and not blond – he liked it that way.
"It's fine son" Coach encouraged the southern boy while glaring at the back of the older man's head.
Smiling Ellis lowered his arms. "Thanks Coach." He said quietly before realizing Coach hadn't changed from his purple collared shirt and khaki's. "You're not gonna get changed?" He asked. The older man shook his head with a disconcerning frown.
"Nah" He shrugged, "don't really need to"
Ellis shrugged and Nick turned around to face Coach and scrunched his eyebrows together but said nothing.
"Where'd the girls run off to?" Ellis asked suddenly.
X.x.X.x
Both women were in the girls bathroom using Purell to wash their faces.
Suddenly Infinity hissed, "What's wrong?" Rochelle asked and turned to look at her. Then, since most of the filth was gone now, she realized there was a baseball sized bruise on the other woman's left cheekbone. "What happened?"
"Some asshole, infected of course, came up and punched me in the face earlier." She explained quickly, "When I passed by it with my fingers I must have bumped a bruise… how bad is it?" She asked quietly and turned her head towards her friend.
She winced, "Kinda bad…" Rochelle answered honestly.
All Infinity could do was shrug and hope it would stop throbbing soon. They finished washing their faces and hands quickly. Finishing off the makeover with freshened hair do's, merely re pulling their dark hair into pony tails again so there wasn't loose hair falling out around their faces, which would compromise their ability to see.
With one final look in the mirror both women smiled, "What I wouldn't give for some makeup right now" Infinity said sadly but still seemed happier with her appearance than before, despite still not feeling as nice as she would like.
"What I wouldn't give for a show-" Rochelle's sentence was cut short with a hand clamping over her mouth, Infinity's other hand holding the back of her head so she couldn't move out of the constraining grasp. "Don't say that word." She hissed.
Rochelle nodded and Infinity released her slowly, "What about perfume then…" Rochelle offered and Infinity paused to think for a moment, "That would be good" She nodded.
Smiling the two women linked arms, on a quest to find perfume.
X.x.X.x
Meanwhile the three men were walking the perimeter of the small department store, looking for the 'M.I.A.' women. "If I were a woman where would I go?" Ellis thought aloud.
Nick scoffed, "That shouldn't be too difficult for you to figure out Ellis" he said with a smirk.
Ellis scowled but ignored the other man, "What about the bathroom?" He offered.
"Good idea Ellis" Nick 'praised', "see I knew it wouldn't take you too long" Again, Ellis frowned but said nothing to the man now dressed in almost all black; black t shirt, dark wash jeans, however he had the same brown loafers.
The three men cut down an aisle, passing by women's lingerie only to run straight into the two women, still arm in arm. "Oh hey gentlemen" Rochelle greeted, "We were just coming to find you"
Nick opened his mouth to say something when he was cut off by something be squirted in his general direction. His mouth snapped shut to keep it from going into his mouth, Ellis waved his hand in the air and coughed a few times and Coach made a strange face at the smell. "Like it?" Rochelle asked happily, "We found some perfume, we smell nice… and then we thought, wouldn't it be nice if we all smelled nice?" both women smiled innocently as Nick pulled the middle of his shirt to his nose so he could smell the cologne. Everyone waited for his thought on the smell, even the other two men.
"It's actually not that bad but," he held his index finger up in the air, "Don't ever do that again" He scolded. However, neither of the two women heard what he said after, 'it's actually not that bad', and smiled widely.
Infinity went over to Ellis and grabbed her bag, "Thanks for grabbing this" She smiled softly and Ellis blushed a bit, "No problem" he said with a dismissive wave. She smiled again and opened the bag and dumped thee perfume bottles inside; one for her, one for Rochelle, and one for the three men, then she zipped the bag back up and slung it over her shoulder.
After pointing out that the two women looked unusually clean the women told the men that there was Purell in the bathroom that they could use to clean up the way they did, Rochelle also mentioned that they had taken a few bottles for the road.
Once the men had finished cleaning up themselves and shaved the group of five decided to head back out into the dangerous streets of Savannah.
This time all three men were walking behind the two women who were talking back and forth about 'girl' stuff.
After awhile Ellis could hardly stand it, "Why are we listen' to all this sissy stuff" The normally patient young man huffed.
"Because they are our ticket to repopulating" Nick stated with a smirk. The younger man made a face bringing a chuckle from Nick only to get slapped upside the head by Coach who shook his head at him. Grabbing the back of his head and looking over to Coach who was on his left Nick glared, only to hear a soft laugh from the younger man to his right. "Yeah yuck it up Ellis, you have one coming" He warned with a scowl before replacing it with an evil smirk.
They fell back into silence, listening to the women giggle up front.. She moved up faster and stood next to Rochelle who was once again in the middle. They couldn't make out the specific words but whenever they laughed Ellis could have sworn they were talking about him.
Still he wasn't paying too close attention anyway, he was too busy looking Infinity up and down from the back.
She and Rochelle had both changed but one thing that he hadn't noticed before was that Infinity had black fingerless gloves on now, smart. He began to look back down the girls' body and then smirked once he got down to her legs, she still had the size sticker on the back of her pants. Silently he wondered if he should speed up and rip the sticker off himself but figured that might go bad pretty quickly.
Infinity and Rochelle laughed, and he was brought out of his reverie. Though their laughter was cut short when they all felt the ground shake.
Rochelle stopped dead in her tracks, bringing everyone else to a halt as well. "That had to be a Tank…" Rochelle muttered. However after the initial shaking there wasn't anything else, just eerie silence.
"Uhm, what's a tank?" Infinity whispered and everyone turned to look at her in shock. "What?" She asked and ducked her head down to avoid the awkward looks she was receiving.
"You've never had a run-in with a tank?" Ellis asked with shock.
Shaking her head and shrugging, "Nope"
"Lemme guess," Nick started, "The only other special you've run into was a smoker" He said with a raised eyebrow.
"No" She said with a defensive tone and crossed her arms. "No, I've had others… like that guy that pukes up on you… and brings all those other zombies."
"That's a boomer" Nick said in a condescending voice which made her even more defensive.
"Oh yeah, what about that spitter lady!" She nearly shouted, "The one that spits acid at you"
"Close, she's just a 'spitter,'" Nick laughed and quirked an eyebrow.
"Oh whatever" She said finally and threw her arms in the air. "Just because I haven't seen all these stupid ass 'special infected' doesn't mean I haven't dealt with my own problems!" She was clearly exasperated.
"Yeah man" Ellis started, "Leave 'er alone…" He said and stood between the two.
Nick put his hands out, palms facing Ellis, "Alright whatever, you better hope you don't run into the other ones, those guys are a bunch of bitches." He warned though it only made Infinity squirm.
Then, just as Coach was about to scold Nick the shaking started up again, "I think he heard us…" Rochelle whispered; her eyes wide.
"What do we do?" Infinity asked, unaware of just how much trouble this tank would be causing.
"Just get ready," she instructed with a reassuring smile. "Nick you got the Molotov?" She called and looked over at him just as he pulled out a lighter and readied himself to light it and throw it at the giant mass that was heading straight for them.
"Where's it comin' from?" Coach said and spun around in semi circles to try and find which direction the tank would be emerging from. The moment those words left his lips a large cement barricade came hurtling at them from above, from over the building in front of them.
"In coming!" Rochelle cried and everyone dove out of the way the best they could but when it shattered it flew in all directions, this they couldn't dodge.
X.x.X.x
When Infinity hit the ground she heard something pop and a sharp pain shoot into her chest and down her left arm. She laid there on the ground for a moment trying to sort out in her head whether she was okay or not. She sat up and looked around for her friends, Coach was already standing though he head a steady stream of blood flowing from the top of his bald head. He ran over to Ellis who was groaning and holding his forearm close to his chest, but otherwise okay.
She almost sighed in relief when she realized she hadn't seen Rochelle or Nick. A moment later she almost wished she hadn't, Nick was lying under a chunk of the blockade that had come out of the sky and so abruptly tore them all apart, his lower half, from the waist down was completely hidden by the cement blanket he was under. Rochelle was already at his side and trying to push the cement piece off of him.
Nick cried out in pain from Rochelle's attempts at to free him and everyone ran to help. Even as they stopped to fix the tragedy unfolding before them, time did not stop and the culprit to the madness was growing ever closer. "God Damnit" He shouted through gritted teeth.
Infinity winced in sympathy, though not knowing what to do she allowed the other three to push the block off as she played with her limp arm. Suddenly a car, that wasn't in sight before, came tumbling out from the next street over, the alarm blaring as it crumpled to a stop a few yards away from them. Stuck on the corner of a building it, thankfully, came to closer to the already banged up group.
Afraid of what was coming she ran back to the others who were still struggling to get the block off of Nick. "The Molotov Nick, where is it?" She asked hurriedly.
"I'm," He grunted and bit down on his lip from crying out when they managed to get the block up a small bit only to re-drop it back onto the lower half of his body. Again she winced for him but knelt down next to his head, "kind of busy" He finally finished.
"Nick" She started and pulled his head into her lap to offer comfort. "That tank is still coming, if we needed that molotov before we need it even more now." She said quietly, stroking his hair back as she did.
He looked up at her with a pathetic look, "I dropped it, I think it rolled down the storm drain" He nodded in the direction he thought it went and she felt her heart drop to her stomach, we are so fucked. She thought to herself.
Instead of yelling, which was her initial reaction that came to mind, she nodded. "Okay, alright…" She began to look around for anything that could slow the tank down. "Okay… alright" she continued but stopped when Nick cried out, "Pull him!" Coach shouted, the three of them had gotten the block up. Nick grabbed her limp arm and her good arm instantaneously and she cried out in pain as well but stood and quickly ripped him out of the cement chunk's range.
She fell backwards, from the momentum of the pull, and landed on her back, her head colliding with the pavement. She heard a crack before blacking out.
X.x.X.x
Nick looked up a bit, Infinity had fallen a few feet away from him; his head was between her feet. He heard Rochelle shouting and then felt her hands on his chest, "Nick are you alright?" He nodded a bit, "She ain't movin' Rochelle" He said with squinted eyes.
She looked towards the new girl with a frown, "Alright, we got to get out of here though." She said and watched as Coach went over to pick up Infinity, holding her bridal style. Ellis came over to Nick's other side, "Hey buddy, let's get you up." He said and grabbed one of Nick's arms, Rochelle grabbed the other and they both wrapped his arms around their shoulders.
X.x.X.x
"Can you walk?" Rochelle asked and he nodded, "C'mon" She urged and the banged up group headed in the other direction the tank was coming from, only when they were half way back the way they came did the tank come around the corner. Pink and covered in what they figured was actual sweat, the 8 ton abomination came charging behind them.
"Shit" Rochelle breathed, in response the tank roared loudly. "Shit shit shit!" She cried and tried to walk faster with the other two men, who were linked, tried to keep up, Coach close behind them.
"In here!" She ordered and ushered them into an alley way, they heard a unified moaning sound. "We gotta horde coming" She announced, the car alarm was attracting other infected, soon they were going to have a horde, special infected, and a tank on them and with two incapacitated team members there was no way they would walk away.
She could see the end of the alley way, however just as she began to have hope of a clean escape a few zombies came running around the corner and poured into the alleyway. Ellis and Rochelle both dropped Nick so he was sitting on the ground and pulled out their weapons and began to fire at the zombies running at them.
Nick figured there was nothing wrong with his arms so he did the same as the other two, firing his weapon between the two other people. Coach set Infinity down, propping her up against the slender, alley way wall; careful of her head. The abomination had caught up and was frantically trying to fit through the narrow, alleyway entrance. He was as tall as he was broad and his wide shoulders would not allow the monster to fit.
With a small smirk Coach began to fire his M16 at the pink mass that was stuck in front of him.
Despite being able to cop out the tank the other three were having a hard to keeping up with the horde that was pouring down the alleyway. Whenever one of the men would call out that they were reloading, she had this unrequited fear she would run out at the same time and they would be left helpless to the zombies attacks.
To Rochelle, this was a fight they were not going to win.