A/N - What once was a oneshot, now a two-shot - Because xXFallenSakuraXx52 oh so delightfully asked for it. And what am I if not a sucker for my faithful readers?

-revised 30Aug 2012


The Line

deceptively strong

Kap was arguing with her. Again. Why couldn't the guy just let her be right? They were sewers. She held up her hand, fingers out to emphasize her points. "Smells like ass. Full of pipes carrying shit. Crappy lighting." Rain flicked a finger for each factor and glared at her old friend. "Sewers."

"Fine. Whatever. You wanna go first?" Gesturing, Kap pretended to be a gentleman for five seconds to let Rain climb down into the gross, freaky, dark tunnel first. Coward.

One tall, pale package of crazy beat her to it. The Amazon ignored the perfectly good ladder and dropped like a rock. She splashed onto the floor that was a good 20 feet down. How stupid could she be? Risking a broken ankle to do what, impress someone? Rain and Kap exchanged bewildered, thoroughly impressed looks. They heard Anise cough and gag as she tried to breathe the foul air down below. Rain grimaced at the idea of having to join her down there, her sense of smell was perfectly overwhelmed already.

"All clear!" Anise yelled up at them. Now who the fuck did she think she was? Rain could not help staring down at the woman confidently standing in the muck with the bloody ax slung over her shoulder. Every other minute, the bitch did something else to confuse her. First her eyes, then acting unconcerned about the T-virus, now her impressive display of agility.

What was next, she gonna do something heroic, like save her life? The Chief of Security interrupted her thoughts by brushing past and sliding down the ladder. Kap gave her a nudge. Rain bared her teeth then clambered down the ladder as well. She dropped the last few feet, her boots splashing liquid onto her black pants.

Sparing a heated glance for the Amazon who appeared alert and ready, Rain swept the area with her gun aimed high. The others followed quickly and the goody two shoes broke the uneasy quiet first. "Don't you like ladders?"

Rain looked over her shoulder curiously, just in time to catch the Amazon blushing lightly. "Didn't see it." Fucking woman, how did she miss it? Not able to help herself, Rain grinned.

Kaplan was studying the paper map in his hands. "Which way, Kap?" Asked Rain.

He frowned and pointed down the main tunnel to his right. "That way."

Unexpectedly, Anise started moving first, her ax held ready in her hands. For someone so freaking tall, she moved with feline grace. She slunk along, footfalls barely causing ripples, quietly moving through the murky water as if it wasn't there. As the others began to slosh along behind her, she jerked as though startled by the sudden noise. Damn the woman and her attractive surprises. Growling at her libido's thrumming response, Rain hurried to catch up.

She purposely let her shoulder rub Anise's as she moved by the tall woman. When Anise glanced over, she enjoyed the sight of those entrancing hazel eyes. "A soldier should be in front. Guns always trump teeth." Couldn't let the pretty civilian take lead down here, she justified. But dammit, she had not meant to wink too. Fucking great.

Rain brought her MP5K's muzzle up, aiming into the shadows. Every single sound echoed freakishly and the overhead lights were complete shit. Nothing was lit well, anything could fucking pop out of the shadows. A shiver traveled along her shoulders as she imagined what was behind every creepy corner and foul smelling tunnel. Stupid motherfuckers and their damn utility tunnels. Rain checked her watch, too much time had ticked by, it didn't feel like they were getting anywhere. Matt asked how far the tunnels went.

Kap drearily replied. "They run the length of the Hive carrying water and gas in those pipes overhead. Be careful where you shoot, Rain."

Wouldn't know it to look at him, but Kap was one of the best damn shots the Army had ever trained. At least, he was when he wasn't fucking scared shitless. "I'm a better shot than you. Watch your own damn aim." It never hurt to remind the pansy.

Shaking his head, Kaplan glanced at the map again, his brow wrinkling. Dammit. That wasn't a good sign. That rusty grate sure did look familiar. She groaned.

Spence beat her to the punch. "We've been here before!" His angry yell echoed dangerously loud. Dumb bastard was gonna act like a beacon to the zombies.

"No. We haven't. We're following the map." Kap's voice was calm, yet Rain could hear the uncertainty. Dammit, Kaplan, she silently griped. Gonna get our asses eaten like this.

The bastard kept yelling at her squadmate, raising holy hell because he was scared and lost. Every word coming out of his mouth pissed Rain off more. At last, her temper broke, she struggled to keep the muzzle of her gun pointed somewhere besides Spence's head. "Enough already!" She spat into his startled face. "We don't have a choice but to keep moving. Those things are..."

Fuck! Arms sprung forth through the empty spaces of the grate, wrapping around Spence's torso. Moaning, groaning, shuffling zombies were everywhere in seconds. How the fuck had they snuck up on them? Rain opened fire on the closest. The grate came loose with a load squeak and the guys held it up like a fence, keeping it between them and the undead mob.

Butt pressed to the grate, she thrust her weight back, helping the men keep the horde at bay for a few more seconds. She used her favorite SMG to mow down zombies coming at them from the other directions. Ahead, flashes of red and white showed Alice and Anise working in tandem. An ax and bare fists were holding off another legion of infected at their end of the tunnel. Watching the Amazon's stunning prowess with her ax had Rain smiling. Anise's stance and schooled movements spoke of martial training, she was fucking fast with that ax. There was no way she was just another lab worker.

Her SMG was out of ammo, she slung it back out of the way and grabbed the pistol from her hip holster. The damsel in a labcoat had managed to get herself surrounded by infected, so Rain was obliged to sink a few rounds into their skulls. Fucking White Knight complex. It was a good thing she was an awesome aim or she might have missed those moving targets and shot Anise instead.

Then the group was climbing up onto the pipes above their heads. Rain loaded another clip into her pistol. She cleared a path for the others, making sure to be the last to go up.

JD. Her brain crashed. The bead she had on his forehead didn't do any damn good since she couldn't get her fingers to fucking squeeze the trigger. Frozen, terrified, horrifyingly unable to god damn fucking thing because JD's eyes weren't supposed to be fucking blue. They were supposed to be brown, his skin was supposed to be a healthy tan, and he was supposed to be dead.

Her body quivered as she willed herself to do something. Anything. JD's mouth gaped open, he was only a few feet away now. Those dead eyes had her trapped, she was going to be his next meal. His chest bumped the pistol just before his groan swept fetid breath across her face. Teeth tore into her neck and still she couldn't move a damn muscle.

CRUNCH.

JD's jaw relaxed and his body was slipping down. Her eyes followed his corpse as it slid to the gore covered ground, a bloody ax lodged in the back of his skull. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Her brain tried working again and jerked a hand to the burning injury. Vaguely, she noticed the infected had surrounded her while she had stared at JD. Forcing her eyes up took all the mental strength she had left. Rain's vision settled on the Amazon, watching her lips move, hearing her scream, and unable to do a fucking thing. Did she just kill JD? Or did she just put him to rest?

"Holster your weapon and give me your hands, Soldier!" The commanding tone and sheer strength of that voice had Rain's body moving of its own accord. Responding to conditioning the Army had put her through years ago, her arms reached up and grasped onto Anise's hands. When had the crazy bitch leaned over the edge like that? "Hold on." The Amazon demanded again.

Then her hands tightened over Rain's and the amazing woman was hauling her ass up. Rain's mind strayed again, caught in hazel eyes. They were full of their own light, gold and emerald swirled and danced on a sea of milk chocolate. The soldier felt warm drops spatter on her face, in her eyes, and mouth. Warmth flowed over her arm and shoulder. Her body burned and screamed, but it was distant, something to be ignored, she was lost in a hazel storm.

Without warning, lids closed over those entrancing eyes, thrusting Rain out, back into the mind fuck that was the Hive. She felt herself falling, for just a second, slipping out of Anise's hands. Rain blinked. Fresh hands had grips on her vest and arms. Awareness came rushing back and she felt grasping zombies clutch at her legs, boots, trying to pull her back down. With her hands free, she snatched up her pistol and began firing slugs into infected brains. The gun's report echoed off the tunnel walls while Spence and Alice dragged her sorry ass up to the pipes.

"Motherfucker," she groaned while grabbing a pipe and helping to pull herself up. Both of her rescuers sat back, chests heaving from the effort while Rain settled herself on their perch. Kap and Matt were doing the same with the addition of an exhausted Anise tangled up in their limbs. The Amazon had fucking saved her life; her own personal hero. Kap moved away from the heap, leaving Anise in Matt's lap. An irrational surge of jealousy had Rain scowling.

Anise's eyes briefly scanned their motley crew, then closed. Frowning, she wrapped her gushing palm with her other hand. "Damn." Her voice echoed Rain's thoughts.

The goody two shoes looked down at the brave, gorgeous woman in his lap. "You OK?" His voice had the quiet concern that Rain wished she'd been able to talk with.

"No." Blinking rapidly, Anise obviously struggled to open her eyes and focus on Matt's face. Anise responded, sounding half-asleep. "You?"

The lucky bastard smiled at Rain's hero. "I've had better days." That was a fucking understatement.

"Me too." Her hero's eyelids flickered and closed.

Me three, Rain silently added and snickered. At the look the goody two shoes gave her, she gave him the bird. The Amazon's faint smile caught Rain's attention. "You are one crazy bitch," she spoke softly, almost affectionately. Anise fell asleep. Lucky bitch.

Rain leaned over the edge, looking for the body of her dead squadmate. It was underneath the crowd of living dead, their feet squashing and trampling the corpse. She breathed a sigh of relief. JD was truly done this time, he wouldn't be getting his dead ass up again. Unlike Rain's hero, with her lovely breasts rising and falling rhythmically, there was no way in hell she was going to be able to sleep. So, she did what she always did when she needed to relax in a combat situation. She checked on her guns and ammo.

Reaching around for her big gun Rain noticed how soaked she was and huffed. "The fuck?" She felt like she had just taken a bath, except instead of water, she was drenched in bright red blood. Nasty. It was in her mouth too. "Ugh." She spit into the zombie crowd. The sharp taste of iron remained on her tongue, firmly reminding her of the Anise's incredible ability to shock the hell out of her. This much blood not in the body couldn't be good for her. At least Matt was putting pressure on the damsel's wrist, slowing the blood loss.

Unable to do anything else useful, she went back to her guns. The big one was empty and a thorough check of her gear yielded no more clips for it. A glance at Kap confirmed he didn't have any either. "Motherfucker." She cursed quietly and threw the useless piece of dead weight at the opposite wall. After spending several minutes bitching out the moaning horde of infected just a few feet beneath her, she pulled out her handgun and inspected it.

The magazine was empty; nothing in the chamber. It was going to need a really good cleaning when she got out. If she got out. Scratch that, she wasn't getting out, not alive. At that thought, she almost gave up. The bitter taste in her mouth and blood covering half her body kept her from it. Anise hadn't given up yet.

Crazy Amazon had even gone through the trouble of saving her infected ass. Maybe, and she allowed the tiniest little bit of hope to crawl back into her heart, just maybe the woman knew something that could save them. Feeling a little bit better, if sticky, she peeled off the vest and busied herself checking every single pocket for anything useful still left in it. After all, she had that White Knight complex and Anise was a very attractive damsel. What a line. She almost smacked herself.