Hey guys! It's safe to safe that I am overwhelmed by your good reviews and feedback!
So overwhelmed in fact that Chapter 2 just kind of snuck up on me. I really hope you like this one as much as the last chapter. ^_^
Warning: Except if we follow and talk to the same people you might not know that characters mentioned in this fic and if we're not, i'll be posting their usernames at the end and you can follow these perfect people. :)
"California State Prison."
You wake up feeling dazed and confused as the sunlight hits your eyes, the sun was going down and your company was still making their way to the north, towards the prison.
You sit up and look to your right where you see two women sleeping, you realize that it's Elke and Naomi. Elke's head on Naomi's chest and you watch her head rise and fall in time with Naomi's breathing. They looked so peaceful that you couldn't help but relax yourself.
"They're so adorable, right?" Someone says from the driver seat and you realize that it was Paula; you nod even though she can't see you.
"Are they together?" you ask as you look at her from the rear view mirror.
"Yeah, I think they've been together for a little over a month before all this."
"Have you known them for long?" you ask
"Well I met Naomi and Ace first; that was over a year ago. Then I met Mica about four months ago, then Elke and Tami last month."
"Where did you all meet?"
"I'll tell you but you have to promise not to laugh and if you promise not to tell them that I told you." She tells you and from the rear view mirror you could see her smiling shyly.
"I don't judge." You reassure her, smiling back through the mirror.
"Weallmetthroughtwitter." She tells you quickly
"Wheel drive-thru diner? What? Slow down." you tell her, laughing at her antics as you were unable to catch what she said
"Through Twitter; Naomi, Ace and Mica were the people I talked to and then I met Elke through Naomi and then Tami through Mica. The others that run the prison with us met us on there too." She explains before twisting the wheel a bit to turn left. "As far as I know though, Mica and Tami have known each other for a while; they even arrived at the base together; It was a mess." She laughs
"You guys must be really close to want to stick together at a time like this." You tell her and she nods at you but doesn't say anything else.
You realize that you didn't even know how long you've been out, when the adrenaline wore off you sort of just blacked out, "How long have I been out?" You ask her,
"Just about an hour or so. When Naomi asked me to take over she said you'd been asleep the whole time."
"Are they okay though?" you ask, referring to Elke and Naomi who still hasn't moved despite the bumpy road.
"They're fine, just… tired, I guess. We didn't really have a chance to breathe before we were all sent… out. " She says, yawning twice before she could finish talking
You feel a little guilty since you've been sleeping all this time while they were all tired from keeping you safe, "I can drive if you want." You offer the girl, leaning forward between the two seats.
Paula gives you a smile before shaking her head, "No it's fine. I'm not tired." She tells you with a smile and you nod at her before settling back on the seat.
"Can I ask you something?" You watch as Paula glances at you from the mirror, "and you have to promise to tell me the truth, okay?" you add and she nods at you thoughtfully
"Why did you choose to stay in a prison? Isn't it just putting you all in another kind of danger?" You trusted these people with your life now but you just couldn't bring yourself to be comfortable with the idea of staying in an enclosed prison with criminals.
"I knew you'd ask that sooner or later but you really have nothing to worry about." She smiles sincerely at you, "The prisoners were all evacuated when news of the first living corpse reached the government-"
"Why?" you cut her off, "why would the government save criminals?"
"Because the last thing they needed was for the virus to spread there and have a prison full of zombies and besides, they're still human, they still deserve to be saved." She answers you, her tone serious
"I get that but why not warn the public first?"
"I wouldn't know. I only knew of the evacuation because my brother was an inmate there." She admits, you swallow hard and look at your hands, "I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"It's alright." She says cheerfully, making you look up towards the rear. She had a small tentative smile on her face, "Anyway, other than the place being empty; the building itself is a good place to set up a camp. See, Prisons are not only built to keep the criminals inside…" she says before looking at you and you realize what she was saying,
"They're also built to keep people out." You finish and for the first time you think of how genius choosing a prison was.
"So there's no one there?" you ask, just making sure that you know what to expect
"Aside from us, there are a few other people." Mica says confidently and you feel yourself start to relax.
"Okay." You breathe and relax, making Paula smile at you.
"I just want to know one last thing..." you start and she just hums in response, "where in the hell are we?" asking as you look around at the dessert around you.
"We're in Angeles National Forest. We couldn't squeeze the pick up through the main roads so we had to go through here." She explains before turning the car a little to the right.
"How long do we have until we get to the prison?" You ask her as she checks her watch, "We've only been on the road for over an hour so I say we have another hour or so; Longer if we lose daylight."
"We're almost there, anyway. We've had too many close calls today, we all deserve a break."
She says, images from a few hours earlier replaying in your mind.
"Are you kidding me? A prison?" You almost shout
"It's the safest option we have." He tells you and you scoff at him, rolling your eyes almost painfully.
"Right! 'safe'! Because next to flesh eating zombies, the safest place on earth right now is on the bunk next to a killer or worse, a RAPIST!" You yell at him. Suddenly you feel like the car has shrunk to the size of a soda can, making it hard to breathe and think.
"Naomi, stop the car." you hear Ace command the girl as he watches you with calculating eyes.
You hear two honks before the bikes and the truck come to a halt at the side of the road, you didn't even know where you were; You breathe out as you push open the door, stumbling out into the dirt road.
"What's going on? Is everyone okay?" came the worried voice of Mica who was making her way towards you.
"No I'm not okay." you tell her harshly before standing straight and walking around to try and breathe.
"What's wrong?" you hear someone else ask and you turn to see the rest of the girls walking towards you; dealing with your own thoughts were enough, let alone having to explain it to the group so you end up kind of just curled up on yourself
"Guys, give her some room." You hear Ace's authoritative voice from over the sound of their shuffling feet.
You couldn't breathe, you had to get away. "I'm sorry, I can't."
You ran without direction and you quickly find yourself near the edge of the road, hiding behind a large boulder; slowly you make your way up along the jagged sides of the large stone. You stare out at the horizon and try to get your thoughts and emotions under control.
You half expect to wake up from this horrible dream or at least for Nickayla to show up and make you some hot chocolate before telling you a funny story; she always kind of knew what you needed and right now you need her but Nicki wasn't here anymore. Nickayla was gone and she took your parents with her, you were alone.
You felt like the world was crashing down on top of you; taking a deep breath as the earlier events come crashing down. You were in such a shock that you didn't even register it until now. You couldn't believe it but in the span of an hour you've lost your sister, your mom, your dad and your home. You try to stop the tears that were threatening to spill over but it was no use, you close your eyes as you feel the hot tears streaming down your face.
You lost everything.
You felt like you've been sitting here forever when you hear footsteps approaching you, "Leave me alone." you say out loud before wiping your tears away. You guessed that they stopped walking since you couldn't hear the footsteps. They didn't come closer but they didn't leave either; they just stopped. "I said, leave me alone." you repeat yourself
You heart jumps to your throat when you hear the gurgling groan coming from behind you, the same groan that you heard from your sister not twenty minutes before.
You turn quickly and you see one of the zombies looking up at the sky with a blank expression; you look in front of you but the other end of the boulder was at least a 15-feet fall toward a jagged cliff
You had no way out.
You frantically look everywhere for an escape; you notice that the main branch of a dry tree was leaning against the side of the boulder. You crawl over to it silently before pushing your feet against it, testing the wood if it was strong enough to support your weight.
You're satisfied and slowly slide down unto the tree, careful not to break any of the braches; placing both feet on the tree before slowly making your way across the protruding twigs, moving an inch at a time.
You were doing pretty well. The branch was holding out and you were almost halfway across when suddenly your jacket gets snagged on a smaller branch stopping you from moving any further.
You can't even twist to get it free because the branch was extremely narrow so you did what you could and pulled hard. The force of the branch snapping knocked you off-balance and you held your breath as you feel yourself falling, you reach up blindly and lucky end up grabbing on to the branch with both hands.
When you get a good grip on the branch you quickly snap your head towards the boulder and sure enough the zombie had heard you and was now staggering toward the edge of the rock.
"HELP!" you scream out, hoping that one of the girls were nearby.
"HELPME! PLEASE!" you shout again as you watch the undead take another step, falling and landing hard on the branch making it wobble and you feel your right hand slowly losing it's grip.
With all your strength you pull yourself up to get you shoulders above the branch; quickly hooking your arms around it. You watch as the creature stirs awake before slowly crawling towards you
"ACE!" You call out, hoping against hope that he would save you again.
"SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!" you shout as loud as you can as the zombie gets within three feet from where you were hanging; you look down at the jagged rocks and realize that you had to options, get bitten, fall, die or fall and die.
The choice wasn't really that difficult but you just couldn't believe that this was it for you, even when the undead creature growled hungrily from just a foot away from you. You feel the branch quiver and hear it breaking under the weight of you and this thing, it seemed like the choice was going to be made for you.
"It's too late to jump now" you tell yourself as you feel cold, dead hands grab your arm, seeing it prepare to bite down on your flesh. You close your eyes and wait for the rotting, infected teeth to break skin but instead you hear a crushing sound, like the sound of a watermelon when it's hit with a hammer.
You open your eyes just in time to see the zombie falling off the side of the tree; your eyes follow it all the way down until it hits the ground with a dull thud. You look up to see Mica smiling at you, "How's it hanging?" She jokes before grabbing your pants and pulling you up.
"The branch is about to break so I need you to hold on to this for me just in case." She instructs before handing you a rope; it was hooked into your pants' belt loop. You take a breath as the two of you craw back towards the boulder; you see Tami and Ace holding on to the other end of the safety line.
You notice that they looked a little frantic; you hurry up as you and Mica get to the boulder before climbing your way up. When you reach the top it was Ace who helped you up as Tami grabbed on to Mica, hugging her as she stepped on solid ground,
"You're such a fucking hero." Tami whined, she had obviously worried about Mica and it gave you the impression that these two were stuck together, like peanut butter and jelly.
"We need to go, right now." Ace demands before pulling you towards the car in a sprint, Mica and Tami running close behind.
When you reach the truck you see a group of the undead attacking the rest of the girls; most of the zombies were attacking Naomi and Elke who were back to back near the pick-up, stabbing them in the head with large military knives while protecting each other. They would duck and jump over each other to kill of the zombies around them.
Paula was standing in front of the bikes and she was dealing with four; she was holding what looked like a modified hand axe and another kind of small blade. She was spinning and jumping around the zombies like she was doing some well performed dance; when she spun she hit something in the head with the axe; when she jumped the small blade on her left hand would land on something else's skull.
Mica and Tami went to help Naomi and Elke while Ace tries desperately to open the truck, Shadow bark and you suddenly hear a loud "Fuck!"
You turn to see Paula's axe stuck in the skull of a female zombie, making Paula vulnerable to the last undead that was standing behind her; She was going to get bitten.
Almost out of instinct you pull out Ace's sidearm, taking aim and firing at the zombie's head before it could reach the girl.
You hit it square on the back of the head and watch it fall over, Paula nods at you before using both hands and her feet to yank the weapon out.
A moment later the only sound you could hear was everyone's labored breathing and Paula's footsteps as she approaches you, "Good shot." Ace tells you quietly before pulling his gun from your hands, "We need to go. That gunshot will attract more of these things." Ace announces, making his into the truck.
Paula walks up to you before giving you a grateful smile, "Thank you."
"You would have done the same for me."
"Yeah, I would."
"We're home!" Paula answers and you jump awake, you didn't even remember when you fell asleep but now you look as large gates slowly open to accommodate the arrival of your group. Beside you, Naomi and Elke had also just woken up and had greeted each other with a loving "good morning."
When the truck stopped near the edge of the field you could see that there were several families using the cells as temporary homes, there were kids playing around and adults talking to each other. You look as Shadow jumps out of the car to play with some dogs that were also in the property, this isn't what you were expecting; not at all.
You watch as Naomi and Elke step out of the car, hugging each other and heading to one of the benches.
Ace was immediately heading for one of the guards stationed near the door as Mica and Tami run to play with the kids.
Paula walked up to you before swinging your door open, "This is it." She tells you proudly and you notice an Asian-looking woman in what looked like battle gear approach and greet you both, she had light-brown hair and was wearing a yellow shirt and black jeans; along with the standard boots.
"Thuccy." Paula greets and you both smile at the smiling girl.
"Pau-Pau, May told me to tell you to meet her on the roof tonight for your anniversary." She tells her and you raise your eyebrows playfully at the girl, "You didn't forget did you?" you ask her and you laugh as her mouth opens and closes multiple times, "Of course not!" she says defensively and you throw your hands up.
"How long have you been together?" you ask her, making her smile shyly
"We've been together a year now."
"Wow. Congratulations." You smile at her, making her blush,
"Anyway, this is Thuccy." She says, obviously trying to change the topic.
"Thuccy." You greet her before holding out your hand, "Hi." The girl says shyly.
"Where's Laura?" Paula asks her, making the girl frown a little.
"She's out on one of the rescues, Santana's with her and she made me stay back to wait for you." The thinner brunette whines, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
"Laura will be back soon, Angel. Don't worry about it." Paula tells her,
"Did you say Santana?" You ask them, entertained that there was actually someone with the same name of the character you play.
"Yeah, we call her Sanny and she's really nice." Thuccy explains
"I see that you're all making her feel welcome." Ace says from off to the side.
"I'm sorry for freaking out back there." You tell him,
"Don't even." Ace tells you, giving you a smile and nudging your shoulder a little,
"But that never happens, I always keep my cool and-" You're cut-off by a hand on your shoulder, you turn and see Naomi and Elke.
"You don't have to have it together all the time, Naya. We're human. We're allowed to be weak sometimes." Naomi tells you before smiling and wrapping her arms around Elke, "You're not alone anymore, though." She smiles at you, "You have us and you have your friends." Elke adds with a smile.
"Speaking of which…" Thuccy mumbles, "She should be here by n-"
"Naya?" you hear from somewhere behind you. Turning around quickly you catch a glimpse of blonde hair before something hard collides with you; you feel the air get knocked out of your lungs, "Oh my god, Naya! You're alive!" the woman says again before wrapping her arms around you.
You bury yourself in the familiar scent and feel relief wash over you.
"Dianna."
"Thuccy, who went with who?" you hear Paula ask her from behind you as Thuccy pulls out a small pad from her back pocket. You and Dianna decided to postpone your little reunion to hear more important news.
"Not everyone got here on time so we had to mix up the teams; Santana, Laura and May were sent to Cory and Lea's." she says and everyone just nods, prompting her to continue.
"Marti, Cami, Gina and Ella are headed for Chord and Mark's."
"Team Cross was the one sent to pick up Vanessa, Heather,and Kevin." Thuccy read out from her notebook
"They're all to pick up anyone and everyone along the way who are not infected and bring them here. Everyone else is stationed here to keep everyone safe, we have ten people guarding this place at any given time."
After discussing some security details and the menu for dinner, Ace turned to his team and told them that they would be having a debriefing after everyone was settled. He congratulates his team for a successful rescue before heading for the stairs.
"Everyone! Go get some rest, when the others arrive we'll have a lot of things to do." Paula announces and everyone quickly dissipates.
"John! Bring the boys here!" you hear Mica call out, she was standing near the pick up and you watched as a group of ten young boys approached her.
"Why don't you guys go and take these bags and find her a room near the first one?" she asks them nicely, handing them the bags.
"Okay, Micu." The smallest one says before picking up a bag.
Elke, who was standing nearby with Naomi, looks and smiles at you, "you should follow them and get some rest; we'll wake you up if anything happens."
You nod and let Dianna lead you to the second floor, "This is my…room." The blonde tells you as she walks into a large cell that had her things scattered all around.
"And this is yours!" said a small voice, it was the smallest boy who had just come out of the room to the left, "Thank you." You tell him before bending down and mussing his dark blonde hair, "you must be John?"
"That's me!" he confirms, his bright blue eyes sparkling. He laughs once before running downstairs to play with his friends.
"He's a nice kid." You mumble before walking to your cell and collapsing on the bed; trying hard not to think of who the boy reminds you of.
You lay down and try to relax but everything is still threatening to overwhelm you. Soon you fall asleep but wake up as Dianna walk into your room. You sit up quickly when you see her hazel eyes start to tear up.
"Di. I'm so glad you're okay." You breathe out, unable to stop the tears as relief escape you.
"They saved me and I gave them your address and I didn't know if they'd make it on time, I was so scared, Naya." Dianna tells you, tears falling from her angel-like features.
"They got there just in time. Were you alone when it happened?" you ask her and she looks at you with such a broken expression, the blonde coughs out a sob and covers her mouth with her hands before shaking her head,
"I was having breakfast with Harry, Melissa, Jacob, Mark and Jenna. E-everything happened so fast and the next thing I know Harry and Jenna were killed, I didn't even see where the others were, Mark tried to help me but he got dragged by the crowd trying to escape. I couldn't think, I couldn't-" she chokes, unable to continue as the tears wracked her body, all you could do was hold her tight and silently cry with her.
"If I was just strong enough-" you cut her short by shushing her, you couldn't let her blame herself for what happened to your friends, "If you tried you would have died and I wouldn't be here. Don't do this to yourself Di. We have to be strong, Okay?" You say to her, holding her face to make her look at you.
"I'm so sorry about Nicki and you parents." She says sadly, wiping the tears as they flowed down her cheeks.
You didn't really know what to say so you just give her a mumbled "It's okay."
"Naya what if we're the only ones?" Dianna chokes out, unable to bear the thought of anymore of their friends and family dying in the hands of these things.
"We won't. Don't even think about that."
"But it's been hours since they—" Dianna is cut off by the sound of several truck and loud honking coming from outside.
You both stand up quickly and run outside to watch three large military trucks, three pick-ups and six different kinds of motorcycles pull into the lot. You don't know how long you were asleep again but the sky had turned darker as you watch the people converge on the new arrivals.
You see Paula running towards a girl that you assumed was May, jumping on her and peppering the girl's face with kisses.
You watch as Tami and Mica run towards a group of women, patting them on the back for a job well done.
You also notice the girl named Thuccy start to cry as another girl wraps her in her arms before lifting and spinning her. That must be Laura.
The rest of the women soldiers were making their way to their loved ones. You felt rooted to the ground at the amount of people they rescued, exiting the large trucks; there were so many.
You hear Ace order the people to find an available room before telling them what time dinner would be served; he also added that if the survivors had any supplies that they wish to donate they can simply hand it to one of the guards and assured them that all supplies will be distributed evenly.
You were so focused on trying to find familiar faces among the crowd that you barely heard the familiar voice shouting from below you,
"Naya! We're here!"
In the words of Naya and Amber: Chapter Two - D-Z-O-W-N!
Don't forget to READ & REVIEW!
Now for the twitter usernames! ((Nobody is using private anyway so I GUESS this is okay. Be sure to follow them ASAP because they might change their usernames!))
Ace - TheLoserKidYo
Naomi - naaaomiholt
Elke - SnixRivera
Mica - hemosfingers
Paula - HeyaFeelings
Tami - Riverasgasms
Santana - riverasbee
Laura - quinchels
May - magickunicorn24
Marti - blackeyedmarti
Cami - TheGayProps
Gina - heathersmorris
HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED CHAPTER TWO AND SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER!
P.S. Read my other fics, they're not super horrible, I Promise
xx M