Destroyed and Condemned
Chapter II: Survivors
Author's Note: I know this story is a little like Cataclysmic (that's why I took that one off my FF page) but this is different, in the fact that there are zombies and such. Yes in this one if someone gets bitten it's curtains for them. I am writing this second part without any feedback so bare with me.
Two days passed at a snail's pace. Cuddy spent most of her time drinking what little alcohol they had and pacing the floor in the sitting room. Christine and Amy had made themselves at home in there, sleeping when it got dark and cleaning their guns when the sun came up. They really hadn't had a problem with anyone trying to get into the room, which led Cuddy to believe that soon they could leave and be safe. Amazingly, the power had not gone out in those two days, but the news had stopped running. All they could get now was an emergency broadcasting screen with an announcement behind it. The announcement was telling everyone to go to Tower City center.
Before the news had completely cut out, Cuddy had absorbed all the information about what was going on. Apparently, a virus much like ebola had mutated and was killing people only to bring them back to life. If one was bitten, it was only a matter of time before they were dead, only to be reanimated. The news also said to shoot the undead in the head, or else they would just keep coming. By the second day, before the news had completely cut off, the map of the infestation was all red. That meant that they were estimating that just about everyone in every state had been infected. It seemed that House, Christine, Amy, and herself were in the very small margin of people that hadn't been effected.
"Well I'm ready to take a trip back to our room to get more supplies." Christine announced, standing up from the couch where she had been sitting. Cuddy didn't want to leave, she didn't want any of them to leave. Something in her brain was irrationally telling her that they had to wait for help. Help would not be coming though, and she had to keep reminding herself of that fact. Their best bet was to go down to Christine's room and get guns. Not that she had ever used a gun a day in her life. How hard could it be though? Point and shoot, right?
"Should we all go? Or do just you two?" House asked. He was tossing his bottle of pills in the air and catching them nonchalantly.
"I think we all should go." Amy said as she opened her shot gun. She took two shells from out of her back pocket and loaded them into the weapon. "After our room we need to hit the pharmacy before anyone else gets to it." Cuddy wondered why Amy was thinking this, but those words were music to House's ears.
"I agree with Annie here." House said, sidling up to the girl and putting his arm around her. She looked at him, annoyed, and pulled away.
"For the last time, it's AMY." She said. Somewhere along the line House thought it would be funny to get Amy's name wrong on purpose. Mostly because it ticked her off and he didn't know her well enough to jab at any other area of her life.
"House are you sure this is a good idea?" Cuddy asked softly.
"It's either that or starve." House said with a shrug. They would be the only two unarmed people of the group but Cuddy was betting once they got to the girls' room they would have weapons in a jiffy. Besides, Tower City center was right under them, they didn't have far to go and there could possibly be cops and other law enforcement down there. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Lets go then, but I am behind Christine and Amy." Cuddy announced.
"Good deal." Christine said, pumping her shot gun, "Lets go." Slowly, Christine backed into the door and unlocked it. Since no one had tried to get in previously, Cuddy was betting that the hallway and maybe even the hotel was empty. The power was still on but Cuddy guessed that the hotel had it's own backup generators. The mall probably did too, that was why they were telling everyone to go there. She could only imagine the myriad of people gathered down there right then. At least there they would be safe, it would be better to be in a huge group than just with four people.
They made it to the elevator with no problems. The hallway was completely deserted except for a maid's cart which House stopped at and took as many mini bar items as he could hold in his pockets. The four of them got on the elevator and the doors shut with a "ding", shortly after it started to move and elevator music played in the background lightly. Cuddy wondered if she would ever be able to go back up to her room to get anything, or if this was it. It didn't really matter that she didn't have her handbag or luggage or money, all of that was completely worthless now. She was guessing that anything she might need could be stolen from stores in the mall.
When they got to the fourth floor, where the girls were residing, immediately they were accosted by two zombies. This was the first time Cuddy had seen them up close. She screamed, backed up into House, and a moment later there were two shot gun blasts as Amy and Christine took both their heads off. "No problem, there were just two this time." Christine said, looking back at Cuddy as if she wasn't unnerved by the blood and brains on her shirt.
"Come on, the noise might draw more." Amy suggested and they hurried out of the elevator and down the hall. Christine made quick work of getting into the one bedroom space and Cuddy saw that it was filled with weapons. Almost all of them were in cases, but there were guns sitting out on tables and some on the beds. She couldn't tell anyone the names of any of the guns, other than handguns and shot guns, she was at a loss.
"Lisa, do you know how to shoot a gun?" Amy asked, picking up a black semi-automatic 9mm. It was one of the tamer guns to use but still powerful enough to blow off the head of a zombie if loaded with hollow point bullets. Besides, Cuddy would just have to wound one, slow it down, Amy and Christine could do the rest. House looked amazed at all the weaponry, Cuddy knew that he was knowledgeable about a lot of things, but she had no idea where he stood with guns. Surprising her even more, he picked up a .45, unloaded it, looked at it, and then shoved the clip back in.
"Can I have this one?" House asked, aiming the gun at a lamp.
"If you can tell me what caliber it is." Christine said, obviously testing to see if he knew as much about guns as he thought he did.
"It's a .45 Einstein, did you need reminding?" House snapped at her. Christine smiled at him and handed him two extra clips of ammo. She then picked up a leather bag from a stockpile of them on the floor.
"We sell these too. They are good for holding supplies and ammo." Christine said and tossed one at Cuddy who caught it, no less than shocked. "We'll start with all the hollow points we have then move to regular ammo if we can't get more."
"Hollow point, awesome." House said.
"What does that mean?" Cuddy asked, as Amy placed the 9mm sig into her hand. It felt alien and heavy to her, something she didn't ever want to hold or use. Sure she would carry it but she doubted it would ever be fired by her.
"Unlike a regular pussy 9mm bullet, a hollow point will blow a hole in the back of their head." House explained. Cuddy shuddered at the thought, she didn't want to see any more heads explode. She wanted to go home and curl up and die. This was horrible. They were stuck in a strange city, hundreds of miles from home, and now they were being handed deadly weapons. None of this was sitting well with her stomach. Cuddy hooked her new accessory into the slot in her new bag and pulled it over her shoulders.
Amy and Christine had two huge packs. At least three times bigger than the ones they had just given away. They looked like camping packs that were made for holding guns and accessories. Quickly, each one of them stocked their bags with as many weapons and boxes of ammo as they could, leaving the main compartment free for supplies they would be looting. "Before we go into the center of the mall, we are going to hit the outer stores for supplies. There's no telling what they will and won't let us have once we are in the group. Better not take any chances." Amy said.
"Agreed." House said and looked at Cuddy.
"I guess that sounds good." She said with a shrug. It wasn't like she had much of a choice, it was either stay with them or stray from the group and there was no way in hell she was leaving House for a second.
"Quick lesson, Lisa." Christine said, unholstering the same kind of gun Amy had given to her, "This is how you unload, this is how you load, and this is the safety." Her hands flew so fast Cuddy caught maybe half of it, but she nodded anyway. She was going to rely on the three of them to save her even though that probably wasn't the best strategy.
"Lets rock." House said. Cuddy had never been more scared in her life.
When they made it to a store called "The Stop" there was broken glass everywhere. Lottery tickets had been stolen, so had cash. Magazines were in disarray, and a lot of the shelves had been ransacked. The pharmacy, however, had metal grating in front of it, and although it was dented in, everything behind it would be pristine. No one had stopped to pick locks or really try to blow open the grating. Why would they? There was nothing of immediate use to them back there, they were just thinking of the here and now. Amy stood at the door with her shot gun drawn and the three of them walked to the back where the drugs were. Without a word, Christine pulled out a small black case and opened it up.
"You have a lock picking case? Wow, too bad you only like women." House said, like she had suddenly become hot to him. She just rolled her eyes and made quick work of picking the lock. The grate slid open with a screech and Christine just hopped over the counter. She came around and opened the waist high door.
"Don't over stock, we need to get other supplies too. Take only what you need." She urged and then went off by herself.
"Don't wait up." House said and went in a separate direction.
"HOUSE!" She half shouted half whined and followed quickly behind him. She knew he was heading straight for the pain killers. As for herself, as she passed something she thought would be useful she nabbed it. Gauze, medical tape, scissors, bactine, iodine, and epinephrine. She couldn't really figure out how much else she would need so she stopped right there with the looting, her pack only half full. As she had guessed, House had stopped in the pain killer section and was putting everything in his bag. Oxycontin, vicodin, darvocet, percocet, demoral, morphine, and amazingly methadone.
"Nice." He said, looking into his almost full bag.
"If you overdose guess who's not going to help you." Cuddy said, rolling her eyes. She didn't mean it though, of course she would help him. She trusted his knowledge though, because he was a brilliant doctor and he would know to ration out the pain medication as he needed it and not just go to town all at once.
"I'll be fine." He quipped and then started to limp to the front of the pharmacy. She followed and watched him as he transferred all the mini bottles of alcohol and bags of chips and candy into his bag, filling it the rest of the way up. Cuddy got a little bold then, and strayed from House to the candy isle. She picked up a few Kit-Kat bars and some Reese's cups and placed them in her bag. After that she walked to the coolers and pulled out some bottles of water, arranging them in her pack so they would fit. Then she chose a bottle of diet coke and opened it up. It was a little colder than room temperature, seeing as how the refrigerators were working but the glass in the doors had been smashed because of the locks on the doors.
"Are we all set?" Amy called into the store, "It's boring as hell over here."
"I'm ready." Cuddy announced and headed to the front of the store with her mostly full bag. House followed after her. Cuddy found herself wondering what Christine had taken from the pharmacy. She had gone in an opposite direction than them and Cuddy hadn't seen what was over in that section. No matter though, all of them were alive and not bitten.
"Coming!" Christine called and followed Cuddy and House to the front of the store. Christine took that time to grab as many batteries as possible from the display in front of the counter. Batteries were a good idea, why hadn't Cuddy thought of that? She shoved them into her pack, pulled her shot gun, and headed out of the store.
"What'd you get at the pharmacy?" Cuddy asked Christine, trying to make conversation.
"Anti-depressants and tranqs." Christine replied casually, "I'm on zoloft and prone to anxiety attacks."
"And they let you have how many guns?" House asked sarcastically.
"Who just saved your ass back at the hotel, House?" Amy snapped at him. Neither of the girls were used to his sarcasm or what he would call 'wit" so they didn't know he was just being himself. Cuddy didn't defend him, the girls would realize sooner or later that he was just an ass. From around the corner a zombie came running at them.
"I got this." House said, obviously anxious to try his shot. He removed the gun from his pack and swiftly blew the zombie's head to pieces. The three women turned and stared at him, amazed. Not only did he not panic at the situation, he got a clean shot to the head. House stared back at them and then smiled slyly. "You think a cripple can't shoot?"
"Lets hit some clothes stores, I could use to get out of this outfit." Amy said, motioning to the blood and brains on her shirt.
"I concur." Said her partner. Cuddy knew that in the days to come she was going to need clean clothes so she nodded. House seemed content in hoofing it around in what he was wearing til it dissolved in the wind.
"C'mon House." Cuddy said, following the two girls ahead of her, stepping as far around the headless zombie body as she could. House just stepped over the offensive mass of flesh and followed. He wasn't going to leave Cuddy and she wasn't going to leave him, in that way it was balanced.
After hitting the Gap, Cuddy wanted to go into Saks Fifth Avenue to look at shoes. She wanted to but knew it wasn't practical. They all headed to the front area of the mall, where the waterfall fountain was, that's where the news had said to meet. Cuddy was expecting to hear chatter and noise, but it was so silent she could probably hear a pin drop. "Where is everyone?" Cuddy asked, looking over the railing to the giant fountain. Down under them, by the escalators there were four people, and two of them were sleeping. One of them was clutching her wrist which was bloody and her friend (or lover) was trying to comfort her softly. From around the corner a large man came and he aimed his gun up at them immediately.
"WE AREN'T INFECTED!" Christine shouted at him. The man looked at them skeptically for a moment before lowering his gun.
"This is all of the survivors?" House asked, "Well my faith in the human race hasn't changed."
"House." Cuddy snapped in a harsh whisper. She headed down the still moving escalators and over to the girl with the injured wrist. "I'm a doctor, can I help you?" She asked softly. THe girl looked up at her, tears in her eyes. The bleeding wasn't all to bad, but Cuddy couldn't see the wound since the girl's hand was covering it.
"Her name is Rachel, I'm Monica." The other girl introduced herself.
"Rachel, can I see your wrist?" Cuddy asked gently, noticing that House, Amy, and Christine were also coming down the escalator. Rachel was a small girl who could almost pass as a boy with her short blond hair and brown eyes. Monica, on the other hand, was tall and lanky, skinny as a rail with pale skin, black hair, and green eyes. Slowly, Rachel pulled her hand away from her wrist to reveal a pretty sever bite mark.
"One of those things bit her." Monica said. Cuddy shot House a quick glare, telling him not to say anything stupid about Rachel already being dead. He looked as if the words were on the tip of his tongue but stopped at the starting gate.
"Well lets get you bandaged, it doesn't look to bad." Cuddy said with her perfect "I'm a doctor and I am totally lying but you don't know it" voice. She pulled her backpack off and took out the supplies that she had taken from the pharmacy. Slowly she started to disinfect and dress the wound.
"Who are all you?" House asked, breaking the silence that had overcome them for the moment. The big man with the gun looked up at him and nodded.
"Ron. That's Liz and Matt." He said, motioning to the man and woman on cots in sleeping bags by the fountain. "They just arrived this morning."
"Married?" Amy asked, taking a bottle of water from her bag, looking at Rachel suspiciously. Cuddy finished bandaging the wrist and saw the look on Amy's face. She was thinking what they were all thinking, sooner or later, Rachel was going to be shot. Who was going to tell her? Cuddy knew House would blurt it out sooner or later, maybe she could take Monica aside and tell her softly. It appeared they didn't know that the bites were infectious. Cuddy didn't know how long they had until Rachel succumbed to the bite, but the way her arm was looking, it wouldn't take long. Quickly, she rinsed her hands in the fountain and put purell all over them, rubbing it in fiercely. It had only been ten minutes and they had already lost one survivor.