I haven't posted on for a while, I am concentrating on finishing my Adventures Of Starbuck rewrite on , but I figured I'd post some smaller shorts that I might develop more later. None of these characters, their abilities, nor their universes are of my own making, this is a fanfiction not an original work, and I obviously intend not to profit from it :-p
"There comes a time in the course of evolution where the fate of a species must be decided. When external conditions test the fortitude of what which has come to be. The resilience of natural selection is put to the test when face with the unexpected, the unimaginable... the unthinkable."
A few cans clattered on the table.
"That's all you found?" Mohinder asked, picking one up, "Nothing more? how can we survive on this?"
"Keep your voice down." Parkmen hissed, he glanced furtively around, "You'll wake Molly" he picked up a can of tuna fish. "Anyway that's all I could find on this floor, they've broken through the barricade on second floor but the one on the third is holding... for now. We're gonna have to chance moving Molly out of here soon, is she any better?"
"Her fever is getting worse." Mohinder told him, "I fear there is no stopping the inevitable."
"No..." Parkman shook his head, "No we can't give up hope, Suresh isn't there anything you can do? Can't you give her a shot or something?" Mohinder shook his head.
"There is no cure for this Matt, and without her abilities I fear we may never find anyone who can help us." Mohinder moved to the window, Parkman followed, exhausted. as he moved to follow Mohinder he caught a glance of the mural painted by the prescient Isaac Mendez. It depicted the apocalyptic destruction of new york.
"Sometimes I think we'd have been better off." he muttered staring at the mural.
"I know what you mean." Mohinder said staring out the window. The buildings were intact, the sun was beginning to break the skyline, and the first rays of sun reached down to caress the streets, Mohinder could see shapes, shifting shuffling, a rolling mass filling the streets.
New York belonged to walkers.
He flew over the city, his city, alone in the silent morning. below, the people he loved, the people he served were gone, in their place, the wretched stumbling parodies of human life. He heard a scream somewhere in the distance, a girl, a desperate gurgling sound of despair. there was nothing he could do for her he knew that, he turned to go. Suddenly he saw a shape.
"What the hell...?" he thought "Peter!" he shouted, he followed the shape, it was moving to the sound of the screams, "Peter!" He shouted, "Peter wait!" the figure ducked around a skyscraper, and he heard gunshots. "Don't be a hero you son of a..." he drew up short, still floating in mid air. A teenaged boy swooped into a crowd of walkers firing wildly. it wasn't Peter.
"Help me!" The boy shouted to Nathan, "They're eating her, for god's sake!"
"There's nothing you can do!" Nathan said drifting over sadly, the boy had run out of bullets. Some of the walkers turned towards him, though they floated fifty feet above them, they leaped, driven by hunger, he caught a glimpse of the bloody, still struggling mass below.
"No!" The boy shouted, "You don't understand she's not dead, she can't die, they're eating her alive!" he finished reloading and slammed the clip into his gun, "Claire!"
"Oh god!" Nathan realized who was down there, "Claire?" His own gun was out and he was firing.
"Gun shots!" Parkman was at the window beside Mohinder, "Gun shots, Mohinder, someones out there! Someone's alive!"
"They're about to bring the whole city down on them..." Mohinder said.
"Then this is our chance." Parkman decided, "We've got to get out of here." the walkers below were stumbling away, attracted by the attention, "That car down by the street, we ahve to get to it."
"What?" Mohinder protested, as Peter moved to the kitchen and began throwing food in a bag, "My research, all my notes..."
"Your lap top died weeks ago," Parkman told him, "But grab it, maybe we can find some place with a generator."
"There may still be walkers in the building." Mohinder warned as he gathered several notebooks and the lap top into a bag. "I'll get Molly..." he turned and Molly was right in front of him, still in her pajamas. He reached down to gather her up only for her to seize his arm and bear her teeth,
"This isn't going to work, there's too many of them!" Nathan shouted, he was nearly empty.
"We can't leave her down there!" the boy shouted, "We need help!" Suddenly there was a sound. A rolling mass of walkers rounded the corner. Nathan heard the engine groaning under the weight of the walkers clambering over it. Carving a gruesome swath into the mass more walkers stumbled over the pulverized carnage left in it's wake.
"Is that a tank?" the boy asked incredulously, he pulled out a radio "Mr. Bennett!" the tank rolled forward towards the still roiling mass below them coming to rest directly over Claire. After a moment the boy's radio crackled.
"West are you up there?"
"I'm here!" Said West, he glanced at Nathan, "With another man, he can fly too!"
"Nathan Patrelli." Bennett said, "I have Claire. There's an access hatch on the bottom."
"Is she..." West asked.
"She's in bad shape." Bennett said shortly, "I don't know if even she can survive this, and if she can, well, there's risk of infection."
Nathan's heart broke.
"Follow me out." Bennett told them, "I've got half a tank of fuel left, the river's not far, they don't like water. Be ready."
"Molly NO!" Peter shouted, the creature before him hesitated, "NO!"
Mohinder jerked free and stumbled back. he fumbled for a syringe.
"She's fighting me Mohinder..." Peter said, Molly turned towards him, making a rasping sound that was almost a growl, "There's not much left in there, I can barely hold on..." Molly took a step towards him, Matt pulled his gun quickly, and then focused again, with all of his effort.
"Stop Molly." He said, she took a step, "Stop Molly..." He said, he pulled the safety on the gun, "Stop..." He begged, she put her head up against the barrel and hissed. Matt closed his eyes and began to pull the trigger, suddenly she slumped forward falling at his feet. Mohinder stood with a syringe.
"Let's get out of here." He said.
* * *
The tank plunged into the river as Nathan and West watched. The horde of walkers following shuffled into the water after it, but could not swim. They drowned.
"The tank is air tight. Claire and I are safe for now." Bennett said, "But it's stuck in the river bottom, before long it will get very cold. I'll have to open the bottom hatch to equalize the pressure before I can lift the top one. When that's done you'll have to pull us out."
"You'll drown." West told him.
"I'll hold my breath." Came the reply, "Just be ready to take Claire, put Patrelli on."
"Bennett?" Nathan asked taking the Walkie Talkie, "How's Claire?"
"Not good." He answered. "What are the creatures doing?"
"Drowning." Nathan said, "The ones holding onto the tank have floated away, the others..." he paused and watched them piling like lemmings into the river, They struggled feebly before sinking beneath the surface. "What are you doing here? Why did you come?"
"Time for questions later." Bennett said, "Can you take us somewhere safe?"
"Yeah." Said Nathan, "Yeah I know just the place."
Parkman moved into the street, a backpack over one shoulder, laden with supplies. his sidearm out, scanning in both directions. A walker some distance away squatted by a corpse, it hissed Parkman put a hand to his temple and put a thought in it's head. It rose, stumbled forward... and savagely attacked another walker shuffling towards them. he moved to the cab parked across the street, checking the windows, he opened the front door, and popped the trunk. Mohinder hurried out, Molly in his arms, a bag over his shoulder, he drew up.
"you can't be serious!" He hissed.
"We can't just put her in the back, now come on!" Parkman hissed, the two walkers still struggled, "We don't have all day!"
Mohinder gently laid Molly's cuffed, and duct taped form in the trunk. He hesitated and then closed the trunk carefully. he climbed into the car beside Matt. Matt watched through the rearview mirror as the walker he had persuaded tore the stomach out of the other.
"If we save her, and you find a cure..." Matt began, "Than I just.."
"We can't worry about that." Mohinder said. He put the car in neutral.
"What are you doing?" Matt hissed.
"Their hearing is quite acute." Mohinder told him, "We are in a city of millions, we must be absolutely silent."
"yeah but that'll take forever!" Parkman hissed.
"Then let us hope that whatever has drawn the others away continues to do so."
Nathan crashed to the roof top without grace.
"Don't shoot, their with me." he managed to get out. West had managed to turn himself sheltering the form huddled in the blanket from harm. Noah was off of him in an instant and moving to West. Gently he peeled back the silver emergency blanket covering the form within.
"Walker!" Shouted one of the soldiers gathered. He raised his gun, Noah's was out and in the man's face.
"Put it down soldier." Noah warned him.
"Now everyone just calm down." Another voice intervened. The men moved aside, Noah lowered his gun.
"Bob."
"Noah." Bob said, "Is that Claire?" Benett nodded. "Is she infected?"
"We don't know." Bennett replied. Bob sighed, "Noah I'm so sorry. We'll have to put her in a cell."
"I understand." Bennett said. "Put me in with her."
"This is getting us nowhere." Parkman said. Though the crowds were gone, there were still Walkers everywhere. They were as yet still disinterested in the car. The streets had been cleared in their neighborhood when a state of emergency had been declared, they avoided turning down streets that were blocked. Suddenly there was a thump from the trunk. "Oh great she's awake."
"Keep quiet." Mohinder hissed.
"We can't keep doing this, it'll be dark soon, and she's going to get us killed." Parkman thought into his head. "We'll never make it out of the city!"
"I know!" Mohinder thought back, "That's not where I'm going!"
Parkman caught the stray thought,
"Primatech?"
* * *
"It was that damned Mr. Muggles." Noah said softly. He sat at Claire's bed side. She was wrapped in gauze and shackled. Bob watched him through the cell window. "Sandra went after him, Lyle tried to help... and then they were gone." He shook his head, "Mr. Muggles survived."
"Why did you come to New York?" Bob asked, "Come on Noah, you have a reason for everything."
"Hiro Nakamura was last seen in Japan." Bennett said, "that leave Peter Patrelli."
"Time travel!" Bob exclaimed, "Noah do you think time travel is the way to fix this?"
"No." said Bennett, hold Claire's hand "It's the only way to escape it."
