After some time the four survivors quickly crossed a street, keeping their eyes peeled for any infected. Most importantly, special infected. The sun's rays shined over what was left of Fairfield and Crows cawed to one another as they descended in pairs or soared in circles nearby. Francis glanced at the Birds, who were now making a meal out of a mutilated, partially rotting corpse from the corners of his eyes. They plucked its cold, dead eyes out from their sockets and poked around at the exposed organs before swallowing pieces of meat greedily.
He turned his eyes away, "so we're just going to waltz up on whoever we heard?"
"They're survivors, we could work together if they cooperate." Louis said.
"Well what if they don't want to? Who's to say they're 'friendly?' Have any of ya seen The Walking Dead? We're kinda-"
"That was the only gunfire we've heard in days," Zoey reminded. "And who's to say they aren't? We could probably get rescued you know."
"You should know this Zoey you said you watched a lot of horror movies. Most of the time this doesn't end well. Investigating leads to disaster, disaster usually leads to death. I rather fight more vampires than be held at gunpoint."
Bill shook his head "I swear to God he's a child trapped in a man's body. And for what seems to be the hundredth time, they ain't vampires for Christ sake. You're what? Thirty-five years old and you still can't tell the differences between zombies and vampires?" Louis and Zoey giggled lightly from behind as Francis shot him a look.
"Well I haven't seen them eat people either," he retorted. His stomach growled again. "...I'm still hungry."
Soon an apple was chucked at his face.
He bit into it while giving Louis a thumbs up when Bill suddenly paused. He watched as fresh blood slowly flowed into view all over the sidewalk from around the block. The other three leaned over to the side in unison to see what stopped him in his tracks, as Francis chewed intensely. Upon seeing the crimson liquid, he and Louis gazed at one another. "Told you," Francis pointed with his mouth full, "death."
The sound of buzzing flies met their ears as Bill quietly inched forward with Zoey close behind. He peeked around the corner, the buzzing getting louder. And he uttered a groan.
Zoey quickly moved ahead upon hearing this and stopped in surprise.
"Holy shit…"
Louis was next to look and immediately turned away, appearing like he was going to vomit. Francis stepped up next to them to see what it was.
Bodies. Awfully torn apart and shot up bodies of from what they could tell, were once prowling special infected among commons. One was a Hunter, its throat was slashed so wide open it was almost decapitated, its windpipe exposed. A metal pipe stuck out of its stomach, staining its tattered white hoodie with dark blood. Another was a Smoker, fluid and more blood widely stained the brick wall it slouched against with the stain streaking above it. The body was shot so many times some of the bullet holes seemed to touch each other. Two more looked to be of a Boomer and a small impish infected, which wore a torn grey tank top and dirty tan shorts. Its hunched back exposed a severed spine, with large puncture holes stabbing through its ribs; half of its face was missing, revealing the lower jawbone. The arms were long, and its large hands had crooked, broken fingers. The infected's still, opened eyes looked crazed. Vomit, intestines and brain matter splayed all over the ground and onto nearby vehicles as the common infected seemed to have been at the mercy of a chainsaw. Their torsos and stomachs slashed open, limbs violently dismembered; leaving broken, splintered bones and muscles poking out of the wounds. Many of them laid in a pile, where the mass of blood had come from.
"Good God," Francis muttered. They were infected yes, but even so the macabre shocked him.
He turned to Louis. "Still think they're friendly?" He tossed the apple core aside.
Louis gave him the eye, "they were defending themselves, much like we have. It's not like they were killing people."
Zoey shield her nose, and gazed at Bill who looked the gory sight over. "...Let's get going. They may have been defending themselves but as Francis said they probably ain't friendly." He finally said. Francis rolled his eyes at the order, but was glad the old man agreed with him. Louis nodded and coughed at the morbid smell. The biker lingered in the back as he kept his gun at the ready. As he observed the slaughtered infected while taking some steps, he did a double look when something on the messy ground caught his eye.
Francis knelt down on one knee and picked it up. Finding it was a piece of clothing. It had been torn off a little above the cuff from a multiple dark and pastel colored flannel, with the buttons still intact and stained with small amounts of blood. Upon further inspection when he turned it over in his hand, his breath caught in his chest and he felt his heart skip a beat when he saw an old, white acrylic paint stain the size of a tennis ball on the fabric.
'...No way…'
A memory quickly flashed through his head.
A door flew open as he yelled, startling a girl which caused her to jump and whirl around and sent a small tray of white paint to the floor from a desk it sat on. Some splattered onto her, and Francis laughed in amusement upon his success in scaring her. She then had hollered and threw some paint brushes at him, dotting his hoodie in different colors.
Francis stared at the fabric and grazed his thumb over the hard paint surface. This couldn't be real. This was just a coincidence. It had to be a coincidence...
"Yo! Tough guy! Get your ass moving!" Louis called, they were about fifty feet away. They waited, but he didn't move like he didn't hear him. Maybe he hadn't.
"Now what's his problem?" Bill asked, voice thick with annoyance. "...I don't know." Zoey replied after some seconds, not taking her green orbs off the biker. She walked over to him.
"You ok?" She asked. She was surprised to see him jump, seemingly out of his thoughts. Francis looked up at her, and Zoey was further surprised seeing stress etched in his face. Distraught filling those brown eyes of his.
"What's wrong?!" The alarmed college student spread her arms out to the sides as he jumped to his feet. "Will you fucking talk to me-the hell is that?"
"Something's up," Louis confirmed as he and Bill watched the two. Both men jogged over, "we cannot stay out in the open like this!" Bill harshly reminded once they reached them, earning the biker's attention. He took a second to collect himself, taking a shaky breath while doing so. He looked down at the fabric and everyone followed his eyes.
"You're freaking out over a piece of clothing?" Louis criticized.
"Bill, guys, this is...this gonna sound fucking crazy but-"
Francis was once again interrupted when the sound of a truck's engine alerted them all. At once, the four looked in the direction it was coming from. Until it sounded like it was getting closer.
"Aw shit…" Louis muttered.
"Assemble inside and stay low!"
Bill, Zoey and Louis hurried for a clothing store. However Francis stood his ground as he continued looking in the direction the truck was in. He tucked the fabric into his pocket. "Francis, come on!" Louis cried, as the large man pointed his shotgun in defense. "Hold on!"
"Don't be stupid they could just run you down!" Zoey said as they all watched him anxiously.
Francis stared forward for some seconds, before glancing between them and ahead of himself a couple of times; then visibly sighed. He lowered his gun and hurried to what was closest to him. He jumped through the broken, red-stained window frame to a drug store and dove around a corner out of sight. Then carefully peered back to see outside.
Soon after, a large black chevy silverado truck rumbled by. It looked heavily smeared in blood here and there. Francis narrowed his eyes, the windows were dark, so he wasn't able to tell who could be inside.
From the clothing store, Louis, Bill and Zoey huddled close to one another hidden by some clothing racks. Listening and watching stressfully as the truck slowly and carelessly rolled over bodies before disappearing from view. "Did anyone see who it could be?" Louis quietly asked.
"No, the windows are too dark."
The engine was shut off. They could hear the passengers clambering out which grabbed the attention of a single infected. Francis watched as it charged around the corner, heaving and snarling as it went. Almost immediately, the sound of a blade slashed into it with a sickening, cracking and squelching noise. The body dropped back into view revealing its head was now gone. And then it was yanked back out of sight, followed by a young male voice.
"Tell me again why you like to frisk these things?"
"They could have something useful, remember those what, 'fallen survivors' had on them?" Came another voice, but slightly deeper.
"Alright, circling back around is wasting enough time as is. Let's make a quick sweep and get the hell outta dodge." A female directed.
Footsteps sounded, from what Bill could guess there were maybe five to six people. He strained his hearing as the footsteps, chattering and light laughter went in different directions. "They sound really young...like, Zoey young." Louis observed, looking to the veteran.
"I heard."
"So maybe…"
"Young or not Louis, you can't trust anyone in this world."
Louis' shoulders drooped, but then he softly gasped, "Zoey you ain't the only girl left after all!" He whispered.
"Shh, I think some of them are coming this way…" Zoey whispered back and completely dismissing the good news. The trio ducked down into the shadows of the clothes. In between the rows, four silhouettes swiftly made their way inside. They all appeared almost the same height, three were feminine. Three of them had a smaller body structure while The man was a bit taller and had a medium-toned build. Not too muscular, but toned. They ventured further into the dark store so Bill quietly gestured at Louis and Zoey to slink back into the shadows and follow him.
"I hate dresses." Said another female.
"What don't you hate?" The male snorted.
"Hoodies, I don't hate hoodies."
Louis and Zoey looked at one another, "is that a female Francis?" Louis joked in a hushed tone. Zoey held back a snicker.
"Quiet…" Bill said softly. The sound of a large gun cocking met their ears. The three of them froze, but Zoey was the first to carefully peer over the clothing racks, just in time to see two of the strangers. Both were girls. One wearing a black hoodie with a black and white celtic knot on the back and from what she could tell, the girl had shoulder length medium dark brown hair with some black in it. She looked to the side quietly for a moment. After, she jumped up onto a counter and strolled across it, kicking items off in her way while the other walked beside her. Medium length blonde-brown hair under a beanie hat and carrying a bag slung over her shoulder. Zoey ducked back down when they neared, "is that really necessary?" The third female voice chimed.
"Yes!"
"Hey, it's the apocalypse, we can do whatever the fuck we want."
"Without dying," the male reminded.
They listened as the strangers rummaged and made a mess of things while quietly trying to sneak pass them. There was an occasional "ooh! I like this," or a "yeah no, I'll pass."
At one point, a shadow strolled by the rack Bill, Louis and Zoey were hiding behind. As they passed, the tip of a dangerous-looking blade dragged through the clothes.
Louis visibly looked more concerned than before now. Maybe they weren't friendly. Without Francis on standby they could probably be slaughtered in an instant. Even Bill. He could see the other two, the third female and the male talking about something. The man chuckled at the girl's comment. She appeared to be wearing dark rimmed glasses with dirty-blonde, medium length silky hair while the man had short dark brown hair and freckles dotting some parts of his neck. He had a colored tattoo of vines and a Spider web running from his right mid upper arm to his mid lower arm. As Louis moved along, he wasn't paying attention and his shoulder bumped into one of the emptier clothing racks. He flinched badly and tried to grab it, but made things worse. The analyst actually punches it and sends the thing noisily toppling over as Bill turned around in alarm. Zoey leaped onto his back from her crouched position reaching for it, but it crashed to the ground.
At this, both of the stranger's heads whipped in the direction, and Bill hastily motioned for them to move away while the strangers walked out of sight.
"Hey what the shit was that?" one of the girls from the back called. "I don't know. Could be a Hunter, find it and kill it." Replied the man.
...
Francis listened carefully while hiding behind a wall. He heard the other two strangers come in, but were unsure where they went. Although they didn't sound dangerous, he knew better. Looks are deceiving. The biker peered his eyes around the corner as the lights continued to flicker in an eerie fashion as they had when he took cover in here. "Let's go see what we can find for drinks, I'm getting pretty damn thirsty." The male suggested.
"Augh...I could go for some blue voltage right now." The female moaned.
"If I knew where to find a whole shit ton of it, I'd get it to you."
"Hahaha, no wait Beth would beat our asses if we didn't give her any!"
Francis froze at that name. His eyes widening slightly. And it felt as if a ton of bricks was dropped on him.
...Beth?
"Yeah you're right. If there's one thing scarier than these infected, it's Bethany without her voltage. Hey let's get some cold ones while we're at it!"
"There isn't any alcohol in a drug store!"
"I know but somewhere."
The girl laughed harder as Francis lost his train of thought. He could now hear the pair going through stuff, but he wasn't concerned about that right now. He mouthed the name, and then his hand was in his pocket, fidgeting with the fabric nervously when he pulled it out to look at it. Francis felt a slight nausea in the pit of his stomach.
It...it had to be a different Bethany. It had to be. She was somewhere safe. Both of them were somewhere safe…
He wanted to keep believing that.
He wanted to so badly believe they were not dead somewhere. Or infected. Or left behind like he had been.
But this piece of fabric said otherwise.
As Francis stared down at it, from behind him a door leading to a back room slowly opened. Francis snapped back to reality upon hearing a deep, vicious snarl. Francis whipped around, and came face to face with a large, crouching Hunter. It was approximately his size. He quickly went to pull his machete out but it was too quick. With a shriek, the infected lunged forward in half a heartbeat and tackled the survivor before he could get out of the way. The machete fell from his hand; Francis shouted as his back slammed into the wall and connected with a fire alarm. A loud, piercing beeping ripped through the air as Francis fell then fought with the snarling, slashing Hunter. It dug into his biceps while trying to reach for his chest and neck. Francis reared back a fist and gave it a good punch in the face, snapping its head to the side. But it only looked back down at him baring yellow and red stained teeth, saliva dribbling down its chin. It fought harder, as Francis struggled to keep it at bay, now holding its wrists away and trying to knee it in the stomach.
"What the fuck happened?!" Screamed the female's panicked voice.
They all could now hear screaming infected from outside. And they were coming fast.
...
"Who the fuck sent off the fire alarm over there?! IAN!" Shouted one of the girls angrily. Alarmed, Bill, Louis and Zoey all leaped up from they were hiding. Startling the strangers whose eyes were now all on them as they prepared themselves for a fight.
"Hey there!" Louis happily waved.
The girl in the beanie hat quickly pulled out a pistol and fired some rounds at the approaching sick. The others did the same, pulling out weapons and started to either blast them away or slash into them with whatever blades they carried. Infected tripped over one another or over objects as they scrambled in a frenzied fashion to get in, gouging themselves open on glass while doing so and crashing through untouched windows. Blood splattered onto the floor from their wounds but they kept coming. Clawing, grabbing, lashing and shrieking at the air rabidly. Zoey and Bill were back to back shooting down what came at them, including infected children. Their small bodies were blown back and slammed into shelves, then trampled by others when they hit the floor.
The man cut down those who got too close and whirled around right in time as another lunged at him from behind. Only to have its skull cracked open by a quick and mighty swing of Louis' baseball bat.
"I've got your back!" The analyst yelled over the noise.
"Someone needs to turn that Goddamn thing off!" One of the girls yelled.
"No shit!"
Bill kicked back an infected and held it down with his boot before blowing its face off. He gritted his teeth as he looked back up and gasped when a Smoker came into view from outside. "Get outta the way!" He yelled at the girl in glasses. But she didn't hear him. The Smoker screeched and shot its long, slimy mutated tongue out and wrapped it around her waist. She cried out when it yanked her back to the infected, so Zoey raced forward and slashed the appendage in half, resulting in clearish, green fluid and blood squirting out. The Smoker screeched in agony as the beanie hat girl cracked one side of her neck and sent a bullet between its eyes. The body collapsed in a heap of smoke as brain matter sprayed on nearby commons. Meanwhile the black hoodie girl chucked a large knife of some sort into another's face. She swiftly raced by it as it fell, swung again to slash an infected's throat open, then quickly sheathed it to pull out an AK-47. She sprayed furious bullets into even more of them while Zoey ran side-by-side with the girl she just saved. Panting as they went, together they stabbed, slashed and gunned down more of their attackers.
"Heads up! Boomer!" The man hollered. Sure enough the sight of a large and fat gurgling infected appeared in everyone's view and was trying to make its way inside. Almost falling through the window frame from being pushed around. "Everyone get back!" Bill ordered. He raised his M16 assault rifle once the others did so and shot a couple quick rounds at it. One in the face and the other in the stomach, resulting in its body exploding in a mass of blood, vomit and gore decorating the outside of the store in crimson. Other infected stumbled away, as the bottom half of the Boomer staggered backwards and fell into the streets, where remaining intestines spewed out. Bill then pulled out his own large knife and began slashing away with the man and girl in glasses doing the same. Blood and other fluids stained everyone's skin and clothes as more of it, limbs, gore, flesh and guts splattered in all directions. Objects in the store where also being tossed and bashed around or used as makeshift weapons. "Where in the holy hell is Francis?!" Louis screamed over the attacking infected's inhuman roaring. He yelled again and kicked away a sick woman before stabbing her straight through the heart with a large piece of glass, then quickly shot the others behind her one by one. He looked over just in time to see the girl in the beanie hat pull something out from her bag and switched it on.
"Bombs away!" She hollered, and tossed the beeping white object outside. Many of the infected raced after it only to beat on it and each other until the beeping increased before exploding. It tore the commons apart, decorating everything nearby in sloppy chunks of bloody flesh. "You know, at least there ain't a Tank headin' our way!" The girl in the black hoodie then shouted.
"Don't jinx us!" Everyone practically yelled at once.
The girl in glasses decapitated and killed off infected that didn't run for the explosive. "You'd hope those pipe bombs would kill them all off!" The man yelled, shooting others over his friend.
"Don't even dream of it," the beanie hat girl replied, "there's always leftovers."
More of them ran around the block with the fire alarm still piercing the air, as a small horde made way for the drug store.
...
"God fucking damn it!" Francis yelled in fury as the Hunter continued to fight him. Its strength was equal with his. Maybe even a bit stronger. It screamed in his face and gnashed its teeth rapidly at him, the flickering lights making the infected look it was moving much faster than it was while it violently swung those talons at him. His blood flicked into the air in specks, dotting the floor and nearby objects until Francis was able to punch it in the face again, then in the neck and chest. The bodies of charging infected dropped dead in front of them as they brawled, their blood also splashing onto the floor. The two rolled and crashed violently into shelves before the Hunter swung a clawed hand up again and caught Francis across his chest. With a yell he pushed himself away from it and kicked when it immediately lunged at him again. All the while the shrilling fire alarm, the screams of oncoming infected and gunfire from behind him deafened his ears. He kicked it underneath the jaw, sending its head upwards and biting its tongue so hard it bit the tip off.
The Hunter squealed in pain and backed off in a daze. However, it only took half a second for it to snap out of said daze when it tried to grab at Francis again. So the biker head bashes it.
The Hunter's head whipped back once more. This time, sending the hood to its brown, dirty hoodie off revealing grey-white, blistered and cut up skin. Its dirty matted brown hair looked like it was violently ripped out of its head in bloodied clumps. Slowly, the special infected glared at him again. Francis ignored the throbbing in his own head now and looked into its sick, disturbing eyes. Black and dark red eyes filled with an animalistic hatred he couldn't understand. It made him pause what he was doing seeing this, when another gunshot rang through the air, the bullet buried straight into the Hunter's forehead.
Francis spun around where he sat to see the two strangers. A girl holding a VZ-58 rifle stared with a cold look at the Hunter. Her partner rushed up from behind as Francis reached for his machete and shotgun.
"Hey, thanks for that."
"You're welcome!"
Francis quickly rose to his feet, and they both watched in shock as he towered over them to the point they had to crane their necks. "Good Lord he's enormous!" The smaller man cried in disbelief.
Francis' eyebrow twitched, "excuse you?"
"No time!" The girl reminded as the infected continued to pour in.
All three of them backed away as they continued to fire into the horde. Until Francis remembered. He raced for the fire alarm and switched it off, then punched a lunging common away before blasting a hole in its chest. A loud, freakish cackling was heard from somewhere outside, but the smaller man quickly took care of the second impish infected Francis had seen when it threw itself into the store in an attempt to leap on one of them. He held an arm out in front of the girl before taking her hand, while holding his M16A4 in the other with a look of seriousness on his face. "Hey, let's go!" He yelled, leading the way while Francis and the girl killed off a couple more from either side of them.
The trio leaped out of the store and began to shoot off the rest of the horde. Francis frantically looked around for his group, only to just see more of the infected racing for the clothing store.
...
"I've had enough of this horseshit," the black hoodie girl grumbled.
She quickly grabbed a bottle, a rag hung out of the top from one of her group members right as Bill went to light a cigarette. She held the bottle out to him.
"May I?"
"You may."
Bill lit the rag which only took a few seconds for it to burst into flames. She chucked it into the horde, and upon breaking against the gored road, engulfed everything nearby in fire. The infected caught in the growing inferno wailed and cried in sheer agony as their skin melted and burned off their bones. They staggered around wildly trying to distinguish the flames, a few even kept running at the survivors. But it didn't take long for them to collapse. Some crawled weakly across the ground still shrieking at the survivors until eventually, they laid still.
Finally, everything started to quiet down. The fire began to die off and the air now reeked of gore, burned flesh and hair.
All the survivors in the store stood or sat where they were panting heavily, observing the carnage leading outside.
Louis heaved a breath as he sat resting against a wall. "Haha...hahaha! Yeah!-"
He stopped when the barrel of a gun was pointed down at him. Frightened, Louis looked at it then up at who was holding the weapon. The girl in the glasses. She watched him silently. A part of her sleeve of her flannel was torn off with dots of white paint speckling the fabric here and there.
"...Get up."
Louis obliged immediately, holding his hands halfway to show they meant no harm.
"Great way to say thanks for working together," Bill sneered as Zoey looked on, holding her own gun up to defend her friend. He looked over at the black hoodie girl, only to see she was nowhere in sight.
"Whoa hey, I think they're alright," the man next to her said gently.
"How do we know they aren't?"
The beanie hat one looked between everyone as Francis and two more were heading towards the windows, while Louis both carefully and gently shooed Zoey to put her weapon down to which, she hesitantly did by a little.
"I-it's ok…" he started, trying to keep calm. "We're good people. M-my name is Louis." The girl before him watched his every move as he gestured to his partners. "This is Zoey and Bill. We have another, but he's somewhere outside."
They all remained quiet until the man gently pushed the barrel down, telling her it was alright. She retracted and took a step back as he took over. "Name's Jordan."
He looked to the girl who was just holding Louis at gunpoint. "This is Bethany." Then gestured to the beanie hat girl, "Keirstan."
Francis made it inside with the two strangers and observed his surroundings.
"And over there is Ian and Amber." Jordan continued when he saw them.
"Hi!" Amber smiled.
"Sup," Ian greeted.
In appearance, they were all North American Caucasian. Beth was one of the girls with the smaller build, had the dark rimmed glasses and the dirty-blonde hair. Her eyes were dark green-hazel. Jordan was the man with the tattoo, short dark brown hair and toned build, his eyes were a deep brown. Keirstan had the Blonde-brown hair. She also wore red-rimmed glasses, had a small build and also had brown eyes. Amber had a small build as well. She was slightly taller with light brown eyes, thin framed glasses and medium short brown hair with a tattoo under her right arm saying "be brave" in bold black letters. Ian also had a toned build, but slightly smaller than Jordan's. He was also a little tall in height, his eyes were a dark brown with short black hair. They all also looked to be in between 5'3 to 5'6 in height; and freckles dotted their skin here and there on all five of them.
"And this here is…" Jordan looked around, as did everyone seeing one of them was missing.
"Where did that little shit go?"
"Probably out back, looking at hoodies." Keirstan shrugged a shoulder.
Bill stepped up more relaxed now as Zoey had put her gun away. "It's nice to meet you kids, you all did a good job handling that horde."
Francis took a quiet step forward, his eyes scanning over everyone as they all conversed.
"I'm sorry about pointing my gun at you," came an apologetic yet familiar voice.
"Hey, no worries girl!" Louis cheerfully replied, "we all get a bit suspicious in a world like this!"
Francis' attention lingered over to where they were. And he saw her.
Beth laughed among the jokes and conversations the group was having. His heart pounded and his lip trembled, Francis couldn't believe it.
She was here. Oh God, she was here.
Then this could mean...they both were.
Ian was the first to see he seemed to have been petrified in place. He gave him an odd look. "Uh...you alright man?"
Francis instantly knew this was no hallucination. Louis and Zoey were talking to her and Jordan as Bill nodded at something Amber and Keirstan were saying.
They were not safe. They were here. They were here.
"Hey! I said are you ok?"
He barely heard Ian's voice, as his own caught in his throat.
"...Beth?" Francis whispered hoarsely.
It was loud enough for her to hear, for she turned around. In almost an instant, her eyes widened and her face fell. Jordan looked at her then to the biker. Small tears sprung in her eyes as she ran into his awaiting arms.