AN: This chapter is fully a tribute to Natalie RB! You rock my socks off. Actually earring girl and the other dude were meant to be Jessica and Mike but I figured that if she didn't learn the main characters' names then she couldn't learn the minor characters that would die in a couple pages. I love how your evil mind thinks and your review made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Thanx a million!
Oh yeah, and I forgot a disclaimer last chapter, I don't own Twilight.
On with the zombies…
Chapter 2
BPOV:
The venture through the gate-crowding herd of undead definitely wasn't as exciting the second time. The city welcomed us home, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of sick pride that I was one of the six survivors.
Edward wound his way through the nearly deserted streets to the base. The population of Seattle seemed to be steadily thinning, even though the mayor told us otherwise. We all knew that he was fudging the numbers, between disease and zombie attacks; there were less people than dogs.
Once in the garage, we all exited the vehicle, apprehensive of what would happen next. No one was told what would happen to you if you survived your first trip. We had been trained all for that one night, not allowed to assume that we'd live another day.
"I see you're missing Private Stanley and Newton" The sergeant that had given us our assignment was now gesturing towards our shorter line up.
"There were casualties Sir" The blonde girl spoke, never moving her eyes from the wet cement in front of her.
"There always are." He said somewhat sadly. "Stack your findings, you have three minutes" He turned and walked towards the corner of the room where he turned towards us and watched.
We formed a kind of line, and handed down the various items. We had done better than I had initially thought. The stack ended up being almost as tall as Alice. It seemed that multiple trips to the vehicle had been made. I now wished that Newton and Stanley had gone out to the car with the first load.
"Decent." The sergeant picked up a can and scanned the label and expiration date before setting it back onto the pile. "Carry this stuff to storage and bring the medicines to the infirmary. You will then report to the barracks and find your bunk assignments."
The sergeant then strode out of the room, leaving us to work. The boys did the heavy lifting, leaving us girls with the multiple bags of medicines. There were many more than I had originally thought and I felt a twinge of guilt attack my stomach as I thought of the price of these particular items.
The infirmary was just down the dimly lit hallway from the garage. I knocked on the door and entered when I heard "Come in". I smiled at Carlisle as I pushed open the door.
"Oh, Hello Bella! Back from your first raid? Good job!" Carlisle Cullen was officially the last graduate from Harvard Medical School. Just before the dean handed the diploma to Amelia Dane, a zombie crashed the graduation party. The international flights were all immediately cancelled, so Carlisle came out to Seattle, where his cousin lived. However when he got out here, the undead had spread and the city was on lockdown. After proving that he was not in fact infected he was admitted. That was back when the army actually had standards as to who they were accepting and Carlisle's 20/50 vision kept him from being dragged into the raids like the rest of the population under thirty. The fact that he was completely gorgeous, despite his Clark Kent glasses, seems insignificant with the number of times he's patched me up.
"Yeah" I was not in the mood to chat, and with my luck I'd probably be back to talk to him later. I could never seem to stay on my feet and not bloody.
"I'll give some of these to Esme…We might actually need more than one shelf for once. All of the others seem to go for food and never hit the pharmacy…" He trailed off and began bustling around the small semi-clean room. It was actually the only place that wasn't completely covered in dirt anywhere in Seattle.
He happily settled into organizing the multitude of ointments and bottles, and the three of us took it as our cue to leave. Edward and the other two boys were waiting outside and we began our walk to the "barracks". In all actuality they were an old holiday inn. It was the hotel closest to the fence that enclosed the city from two sides. If we were ever needed we could always be available.
In the beginning when there were plenty of troops to be called upon, every group of six soldiers got their own room in the hotel. Now the bottom two floors were storage and every squadron was allotted two connecting hotel rooms, and that idiot of a mayor was adamant about our increasing population.
Edward pulled a key out of his pocket and slipped it into the lock on the door. We all filed in after him. The connecting door between the rooms was already open and both generic living spaces were visible from here. The walls were covered in tan wallpaper that coordinated with the carpet. The curtains, lampshades, and bedspreads were all the same dull olive shade. The room that we had entered into had one king sized bed and the adjoining one had two queens. I idly wondered how that was going to work out, but at this point didn't really care.
Once we had all entered the room, Alice turned around and locked the door behind us. Again the click of the tumblers made me feel safe. Locks were one of the few things that the rotting bodies couldn't get through. Outside the city gates, there were many houses with shattered and bloody windows, while their locked doors are still in tact.
The windows in both of the rooms were covered in thick steel shutters and padded with small dusty remnants of what looked like bath towels, no doubt to keep out the stench.
"Hey um, can I talk to everybody for a minute?" I turned around to see Alice who addressed us. She had removed her utility belt, and her headband. She looked much frailer without the dozens of knives draped around her. The others nodded and she walked over to the king sized bed and perched on the edge. The blonde boy sat next to her and put his arm over her shoulder; she reached around his waist and put her head on his shoulder before continuing.
"Um, I know that today was tough and we don't really know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I have a feeling that we'll be okay. I don't mean to curse our luck, but I really have a good feeling about this group. I mean five of us have stuck together for four years, fighting our way through more zombies than inhabit the greater Seattle area. I mean I was only fourteen when they came and now look at us. And now we have a new person to protect…" Alice looked at me.
"Bella" I realized that I didn't even know the names of three of the people in this room. Three of the people that I would most likely spend the rest of my life with, three people that I expected to save my life, three people whose lives that I would save, and I didn't even know their names.
"Bella, I like you. I have a good feeling about you. I can see that you'll get along with us just fine." She smiled rather weakly. I guess that I wasn't the only one that this day took a lot out of. As I looked around the circle at my new surrogate family, I noticed how truly exhausted we all looked. We'd only been official raiders for four hours. I have no idea how we'd ever last through our first eight hour shift.
"Guys, I don't know about you but I'm whipped. I say that we pick beds and take a nap. We have twenty four hours before we have to report to the garage, I say that we relax as much as we possibly can." The big guy spoke up, his arm now draped around the blonde girl's waist.
"Okay, Jazzy and I'll take one of the queens." Alice stood up and made an effort to help the blonde boy (apparently Jazzy, Jasper maybe?) to his feet. We could all see that this was impossible but he let her believe that she was doing something. The headed off to the other room.
"Ed? Do you want the king, because this room kind of creeps me out, closer to the fence you know?" Emmett explained shyly. I never expected him to be the scardey type, ah well all the more adrenaline to annihilate with.
"Yeah, I like the king. Rose, you going with Emmett right?" The blonde girl nodded and they followed Alice and Jasper (?)'s footsteps through the door. Then, Edward turned to me.
"So do you like the right or the left?" Edward methodically began pulling down the covers on the bed. I blinked in his general direction before snapping out of my haze. This god wanted to sleep in the same bed…as me?
"Umm, do you mind taking the window side?" I could never sleep close to the window, even as a little girl…of course the knowledge that the undead wanted to crawl through the glass and eat me didn't help me get over this aversion.
"Yeah, no problem" He flashed me a breathtaking crooked smile before sitting on the side of the bed and removing his boots. I mimicked him; the triple knots on the boots took forever. Once I set the heavy things on the floor, I turned around intending to sleep on the furthest edge of the bed possible and avoid all potentially embarrassing situations.
However, when I turned around, Edward had not only removed his boots, but also his shirt, and pants. He was crawling onto the bed in only a dingy white wife beater and some blue and gray plaid boxers. Kill me now. I attempted to blink after I turned around, not wanting to be caught staring like a fool, but I couldn't seem to rip my eyes away from his perfection.
"Hey Bella, are you seriously going to sleep in all of that standard issue crap. Those buckles were killing me all morning." He nonchalantly lay down in the bed and began to situate himself. His bronze hair fanned out in a halo around his head and again I mentally chided myself for staring.
"Yeah I guess not it's kind of annoying." I nervously worked through the snaps and zippers on my first layer of protection. I don't see how he stripped so fast, it took me forever to remove all seven layers. I understood their worth however, if one of the zombies went for my chest or arms they definitely wouldn't be able to penetrate to the skin on the first try. The only vulnerable places were my neck and hands, as we figured out earlier today.
Once I had stripped myself of all of the rough layers of black fabric, I was left in a black tank top and some biker shorts, they were one of the last articles of clothing that I had purchased. My scatterbrained mother had become newly obsessed with road biking and wanted me to come down to Florida and try it with her. I remember the plane tickets were in my pocket when I heard the first screams.
I felt unimaginably naked as I climbed underneath the sheets. They were worn with age but surprisingly clean. I relished in the feeling of my bare toes rubbing against the cotton. For the last four years I'd slept in full dress, ready to run at any time. The biker shorts became essential they remained faithfully protecting despite the many hasty changes of clothes.
I lay nearly falling off of the bed while Edward seemed perfectly at ease, nearly naked in the bed with a complete stranger.
"Bella, you don't have to fall off the bed. If you're uncomfortable with this I'll take the floor. I've slept on much less pleasant things." His velvet voice barely disrupted the darkness.
"No I'm not uncomfortable…I've just been sleeping in the bunks at boot camp for the last six months. I'm comfortable on two feet of mattress" My lie sounded unconvincing to me. Emmett's snores could be heard drifting in from the adjoining room.
"Well scoot over. Relish in the king-sized ness." Edward seemed adamant about me being comfortable. I moved over a good foot and immediately felt the pleasant effects the mattress sagged beneath me in the most pleasant way. I felt like I was floating on a cloud. I let out a soft moan as I situated myself on my side. "Better huh" Edward chuckled from behind me. I couldn't lie. It was better.
"No kidding" Sleep came almost immediately after that. I vaguely remember something touching my back before I drifted off.
Ok so no real gore or plot lurching excitement in that chapter…So some of you other awesome readers should review this time…And because of your overwhelming response for the first chapter (NOT)…I would really appreciate it if you would maybe give me some feedback. I felt like this chapter sucked. Edward was OOC and ugg I don't even know. So I would even love you if you flame me…seriously just tell me that I suck and that I should give up writing and never touch a computer again…I don't even care JUST PLEASE REVIEW!
For the love of Carlisle…REVIEW
If you love puppies…REVIEW
If you've clipped your toenails in the last week…REVIEW
If you don't find this at all funny and wish that I would stop begging for reviews tell me that!