Blue Eyes Never Lie
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Soo, here's another chapter! Thanks to those who have reviewed!
Ellis' eyes widened when another screech echoed through the room. Things were definitely going downhill fast. Taking one last glance at the creature that lay now dead on the ground, he looked down at the girl. "Pardon me ma'am, but I know you'll understand," Ellis whispered as he picked her up bridal style and ran for the safe room.
The horde ran through the flames that lit the room, chasing them to the room. Ellis ran inside as Coach slammed the door shut and locked it. "Set her down on the table, now."
Ellis did what he was told and gently set her down on the table. Ellis looked down at the girl with worry in his eyes. "She's gonna be okay, right?"
"It's okay, Ellis, just relax."
It had all happened so fast. Her eyes opened and looked around as she started to panic. She glanced at the man in the hat and she could feel her heart stop. His hands were covered with blood. Her eyes slowly glanced down at her body. She could almost hear her heart speed up. Her own breathing filled her ears. Her clothes were stained red with her own blood. "Sweetie, just stay calm. You're going to be okay."
It was easy for her to say, but nonetheless, her body started to shake. And that's when the pain came washing over her. "What was that thing anyway?"
"No idea. This infection is worse than what we all thought."
"Rochelle . . . I'm scared."
"It's okay, sweetie. Can someone calm her down?" The last part was a whisper. Rochelle didn't want to make her panic anymore than what she was already doing.
"Come on now, you're a strong girl, you can get through this."
Rochelle smiled at Ellis' encouragement towards the girl. She unzipped the girl's sweatshirt and rolled up the undershirt she was wearing. Rochelle inspected the scratches on the girl's stomach. Not as bad as she thought. "Nick, hand me a med kit."
Nick hesitated for a second before grabbing one of the red kits from the table. Unzipping the kit, Rochelle grabbed the roll of gauze and carefully wrapped her stomach. Ellis grabbed a bottle of pills that was sitting on the table and handed it to Michaela. "Take some of 'em. You'll be feelin' better in no time." Ellis watched as she took a few and swallowed them. "You don' come from these parts, do you?"
The girl looked at him before shaking her head. "I'm really from Wisconsin. I was supposed to go to Arizona with my parents."
"You're a mighty long ways from your home then."
The teen let out a long sigh as the pain pills started to kick in. "Tell me about it."
"Okay dear, I did the best I could. Now, we'll stay here for a while, so I would suggest you get some rest."
Michaela slowly sat up and got off of the table. She slowly walked over to the couch that was on the other side of the safe room. A loud bang was heard against the metal door causing everyone to look. A hooded creature held onto the bars of the door and reached into the safe room. Its loud cries made Coach grab the pistol in the holster on his leg and fired a single round into the zombie's head. "What are those things?"
Nick shrugged before setting down the crowbar in his hands. "Looks like some . . . hunter thing."
"What kind of hunters have you been lookin' at?" Ellis chuckled.
"Looks like the gangsters that live near me."
Rochelle and Coach glanced at each other before snickering. "What? It's true. He was probably trying to get in and rob Mr. Gambler here."
Nick scowled. "No one told me we were taking in a funny girl."
"Alrigh' you two, I don't want no hanky panky, Nick."
Nick rolled his eyes as the group started to laugh.
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Hours had passed and the group hadn't moved. A low growl made each survivor looked at the younger man leaning against the wall. "What? Haven't ya'll been hungry before?" Ellis questioned as he stood up and started to search for any food.
"I doubt you'll find anything."
"Well, if CEDA set up these rooms as camping spots, I don't know why there'd be no food. Unless people before us ate it all."
Nick sighed before rubbing his temple. "Might as well get used to it. We're in a god damn zombie apocalypse and I'm sure the zombies won't be frying out." The group sadly nodded as it fell into silence once again. "Why don't we wake Sunshine over there and get going?"
Ellis shut the cabinets and walked over to the couch where the teen was sleeping. "Wakey, wakey, time to get goin'," he said as he nudged her shoulder.
Michaela groaned as she rubbed her eyes and sat up. She slowly walked over to the corner of the room where a pile of clothes laid on the ground, next to a plant. As she dug through the pile for a new sweatshirt, she noticed someone had written on the wall. John, went to EVAC in the mall. Meet you there. Sara. Knowing that there were others heading towards the mall made her feel somewhat better. Maybe they're not alone in this nightmare after all. "Come on, we don't have all day."
The teen rolled her eyes at the gambler. Grabbing a black sweatshirt, she quickly put it on and walked over to the group. Rochelle handed her an auto shotgun and laughed when she saw the teen go wide eyed. "Don't tell me you're afraid of guns."
"Tch, whatever Nick. I've been playing video games my whole life. This is a dream come true right here."
Coach walked over to the door and took off the pipe that held the door closed. He kicked it open and the group slowly walked outside. It was an eerie quiet that made the group nervous. "I can't believe that I'm stuck in Savannah."
"Oh come on Rochelle, it ain't that bad. I could show you the sights and everything."
"So, you're from Savannah?" Michaela asked.
"Sure am!" he smiled.
"Then you can show us where this mall is?"
Ellis looked at Nick. "Sure I can. Me n' my buddy Keith always took these back roads."
Ellis walked ahead of the group until they were off the hotel grounds and onto a road. He led the group towards a tent that was set up. A foul stench filled their noses as they came closer to the green tent. "Looks like this is a bigger deal than what we originally thought."
Coach jumped down onto the bus below followed by Nick and Ellis. Ellis extended his hand up to Rochelle. She gladly took it as she slowly climbed down and then proceeded off the bus and waited by the others. The southerner then did the same to the teen. She passed him her gun before taking his hand and jumping down. She sat on top of the bus and pulled her leg towards her and began to retie her shoe. "I haven't walked this much in my entire life. Wait, I take that back. It feels like I'm walking around Disney World again."
Ellis chuckled. "At least you've been to Disney World."
The teen looked up and smiled before her eyes filled with fear. A car was sent flying through the air, aimed at them. Michaela quickly grabbed the man's arm and pulled him near her and crawled into the small space under the ledge. The car flew and landed where they were once standing. "What is that thing?!" Rochelle shouted as she started to fire her weapon.
They could feel the ground starting to shake, but the car that lay in front of them blocked their view. A loud growl was heard and the long strain of continuous gun fire. But for a moment, everything was quiet. The two glanced at each other before Michaela crept towards the edge of the bus. She suddenly screamed when she saw the monstrous face staring back at her. The zombie grabbed around her shoulders and Ellis quickly wrapped his arms around her torso.
The only thing she could see was the creature's white eyes. Its tongue hung limp against its chin as it let out another loud roar. "Throwin' puke!"
A clear jar crashed and exploded against the zombie's muscular skin. Hundreds of zombies came running and started to attack the creature as a green vapor covered the hulkish zombie. With another loud yell, the Tank let her go, sending the teen flying back into the man behind her. "You all right?"
The teen nodded her head as her shaking hands grabbed her shotgun and crawled to the edge. She watched as the common zombies began ripping at the Tank's thick flesh. "That thing is way too big for my liking," she commented as she started to fire her gun.
The Tank fell to the ground and Michaela jumped off the top of the bus. The three team members on the ground ran up to her and Rochelle placed her hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"
Michaela let out a shaky breath. "Things just keep getting stranger."
"Maybe we should ditch you here if the zombies like you this much."
Michaela looked at Nick. "Smartass."
The group followed the mechanic once again. They walked through another building, taking another shortcut. Not exactly a shortcut, the teen thought, if there are fences blocking the road you need to take. The government was taking drastic measures to try and secure this virus, but from what the group could see, every attempt was futile. From their short walk, every containment tent was destroyed by the virus. "Okay, now jus' ahead is a gun store we can get supplies from."
"Finally something we can agree on, Overalls."
Ellis snorted. "Now that was jus' uncalled for."
Michaela smiled at the group. Sure she was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and she could die at any given moment, but for now, she wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Okay, maybe not that far, she smiled. They climbed down the stairs and entered the gun store. Coach felt a smile tug at his lips. "Now we're talkin'!"
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"I can't believe we're doing this."
"A man needs his cola. Especially durin' a zombie break out. I mean there was this one time when me n' my buddy Keith—"
"This is definitely not the time, El."
Ellis raised his brow. "El . . .?"
"Never mind, let's go."
They opened the doors, making the store's alarm system activate. A loud ringing filled their ears as they hurried to the back of the store. Rochelle hurried to the shelf where the soda was sitting. She traveled behind the group as a horde of zombies ran through the door way of the store. The group opened fire on the wave of zombies as they continued to move forward. Lifeless bodies fell to the floor and the team hurried out of the Save 4 Less store and ran back to the building where the man had locked himself in.
Rochelle smiled at her group's enthusiasm with each kill they made. A wheezing cough sounded from behind her making Rochelle stop and look. Her eyes took in her surroundings, desperately searching for the cause of the noise. And then she saw it. A tall creature appeared on the other side of the fence. Half of its skin was covered with large boils and a long muscle whipped from its mouth. It sounded a curtailing scream as its tongue whipped from its mouth and suddenly wrapped around her body. Rochelle dropped the cola as the tongue imprisoned her arms against her side. "Smoker-thing's got me!"
The group quickly halted and turned to see Rochelle being drug towards the fence. "You guys keep the zombies off of us, I'll go get her!"
Michaela ran back to Rochelle. The Smoker continued to pull the girl to itself as its claws scratched at the metal fence. Michaela raised her combat shotgun and fired a single bullet into the creature's skull. The Smoker fell to the ground as its tongue slid off of Rochelle. The teen helped the girl off the ground and ran back to the group.
The truck erupted in flames when the rocket hit it. "Okay ya'll, the mall is jus' around the corner."
"I sure hope we were right in coming here," Rochelle mumbled as they walked past the burning semi.
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