well here we are, chapter three! also, don't worry "guest" - there will be plenty more Bade in the future. they are, after all, one of the main pairings. enjoy, everyone.
chapter three
If there was one thing Beck missed about the old world, it was the LA traffic.
Once, he had sat behind three hours worth of traffic on the highway on the way back from Venice beach. He had been exhausted and his trunks were slightly chaffing from when he went in the ocean, and Jade was hungry and annoyed in the passenger's seat, the rest of his friends in his RV. Everyone had apparently had the same idea as them to go to the beach and leave when it was cooler and the sun was down.
Sometimes when they were stuck in traffic, he and Jade would make up stories about the other drivers next to them, and act out little scenes of their lives. It was a way to pass the time and shake the boredom, and although most of Jade's commentary was dark, they always managed to laugh.
And right about now, Beck would be glad for some of that traffic.
Traffic meant that there was people behind him and in front of him and to the side of him, all with jobs and homes to go to, wives and husbands and maybe kids they had to make play dates for or pick up from school or daycare. Traffic meant Los Angeles was still there to return to, that it didn't fall. Traffic meant life.
Now there was miles and miles of open road ahead of them, the only other sign of life being the few biters lethargically wandering around crashed cars and Sam and Cat on the bike trailing behind him. The closer to Bakersfield they got, the more wrong that it felt, and the more Beck wished for lines of impatient people laying on their horns.
People did a lot of that when everyone was trying to get out of LA. Cars were lined up so badly that people were smashing into each other trying to turn around and get the hell off the highway. Beck's truck was almost hit too many times, and he remembered he was starting to get reckless himself when the military jets started flying overhead, dropping bombs over the city.
Beck's hand played with Jade's fingers, resting on her thigh, as he drove. "You should sing for me," he said, averting his eyes from the road briefly to grin at her.
"Why?" Jade asked, her eyebrows raised.
"Why not?" Beck shrugged. "I miss music, and I miss hearing you sing all the time. Remember our car karaoke?"
Jade snorted, lips pulling into an amused smile. "That was when we had working radios," she said.
"Come on, babe," he said, nudging her leg. "Sing for me."
"Don't grovel, it's unattractive," Jade said, before she huffed and cleared her throat. It had been a long time since she sang, a long time since any of them sang. André hummed sometimes, but no one really had the luxury to do it anymore.
But Jade sang for him. She tilted her head back against the seat and her tongue wove the lyrics of Alison Mosshart's Bad Blood, her voice like liquid gold to Beck's ears. He had missed the sound the most, he thought, more than the traffic. Jade could sing the phonebook to him and he'd consume the sound like it was his dying breath.
Beck's lips kinked upward into a crooked smile as she sang, filling the silence of the truck, the motorcycle's engine the only background noise. He turned into the exit, and for just a second, the memories of his city burning, coloring the sky orange and red and black with smoke, of screaming citizens and his crying, frantic friends, faded away.
There was no chaos. There was no pain. There was no death and infection and terror and destruction.
Just Jade's voice.
And when he dies, Beck hoped that, that voice, will be the last thing he would ever hear.
Jade sang until they reached the gas station in Bakersfield at sundown. It was lined with palm and birch trees and wide open roads. There were parked, abandoned cars and gas canisters in the lot - every time they had passed it, it always remained the same. No signs of living survivors; only the few infected trapped inside store that banged their decomposing hands against the windows who had been drawn to the sound of Sam's bike.
He reached for the radio in one of the cup holders, holding down the talk button. "Hey Rob," he called. "We stopped at Chevron for some stuff. We'll be in and out."
"Thanks for the heads up," Robbie said after a minute. "Eagle One out."
"Eagle one?" Jade repeated when Beck put down the radio and opened the car door. She scoffed and did the same, pulling an old backpack from the back of the truck and reaching for the knife at her hip. Mr. Vega had taken a lot of weapons from the police station's armory before they left the city. "Really?"
Sam had parked the motorcycle behind Beck's truck and her and Cat stopped at their side. Cat had slung a bag over her shoulder. "So," Sam said. "How we doing this?"
"We open the door and let the biters out first to take 'em out," Beck said, nonchalantly smacking at a window where an infected was snarling at him. It dragged itself along the side, following Beck to the door and smearing a trail of blood on the window from its cheek. Three others followed it, and one's face was extremely mutilated. "There's only a couple. But no guns. Noise draws them in."
"No problemo," Sam smirked. She tapped the tip of her knife casually.
Beck's hand wrapped around the handle of the door and he positioned himself to the side of it, looking back at the other's. The infected piled against it, rattling it violently, and Beck was unsurprised to find it open. There had probably been no time to lock anything up. "You ready?"
Jade rolled her eyes. "Let's get this over with."
He yanked the door open quickly, and the biters stumbled out of it in a mess of shuffling limbs and inhuman growling. Sam immediately lunged forward, pushing one up against the side of the building with her forearm on it's chest and plunging the dagger through it's skull. Black-ish red blood splattered onto the wall behind them, and it went slack as she yanked the knife from it's head and let it fall to the ground. Cat had somehow managed to push another to the ground and rid of it in a similar fashion.
Flipping her knife between her fingers, Jade was stepping back, staring at the mutilated biter indifferently as it straggled after her, one arm outstretched. She stopped and tilted her head, as if examining it - and Beck knew she was just messing with it, that she could take care of herself just fine, but a nervous pit in his stomach had him rushing forward and grabbing a fistful of it's hair, yanking its head back just inches away from his girlfriend. Jade smirked and the jagged point of her knife drove into it's head.
"Really, babe?" Beck asked exasperatedly as he pushed it to the ground. "Be serious, you're going to get yourself killed."
"I can take care of myself," Jade said, wiping the blood from the knife off on the back of the biter's jacket and straightening. She reached over to pat his cheek affectionately. "I'm good."
"I know," he sighed. "I'd just rather you not end up dead."
Sam cleared her throat from somewhere behind them. "Hate to break up the moment and everything, but can we get a move on?"
The inside of the convenient store was trashed. Shelves were knocked over into other shelves, spilling very little contents onto the ground around it. All of the refrigerators had been cleared of water and ice, and near the corner a dead body sat propped against the wall, holding an empty bottle of bleach. There was a bullet hole in his head and brain matter behind it, dried froth at the corner of their mouth. Beck really expected nothing less, but couldn't help but feel disappointed at how little they had left to ransack through.
"God it reeks in here," Jade said as she followed him inside, raising her arm to cover her mouth and nose with her elbow. Cat followed her example, her eyebrows knitted together as she stepped over a newspaper stand that had been knocked to the ground.
"Alright," Beck said, glancing around him. "Take whatever that's useful that you can find. Food, water -"
"Shampoo," commented Jade. "Toothpaste."
"Important stuff first. We have enough of that to last us the rest of the week," Beck rolled his eyes at her. Sam saluted him and moved off toward the other side of the store while Cat pushed her way through the open Employee's Only door and disappeared behind it, humming to herself.
Beck himself immediately took to the shelves he was closest to. His eyes scanned over cans of tomato sauces and beans, flipping them over to look at expiration dates and passing the good ones along to Jade, who stuffed them into their empty backpack. Somewhere on the highest shelf, pushed to the back, was a lone jar of peanut butter, and Beck, remembering how André had said only a few days ago that he'd missed it, grabbed that too.
"Where'd you get that hat?" He heard Sam ask as Cat emerged from the backroom and moved behind the counter, examining the open register drawer curiously and sporting a grey cotton beanie.
"An employee's locker," Cat said, frowning as she adjusted it over her head. "My roots are terrible."
"Looks good on you," Sam said, but before anybody could comment any further, the sound of several car doors slamming outside made everyone freeze all at once.
He cautiously put down a can of tuna and drew his gun from it's holster at his belt, meeting Jade's wide eyes across the aisle. While he did tell Robbie that they were making a pit stop for supplies, it was too far out of their way to come and help - and there was really no reason for them to. Alarms going off in his head, Beck signaled for everyone to stay put and moved to the other side of the glass door, pressing his back up against the wall to peek outside without being seen.
Outside, three men were hovering around a silver SUV, conversing with each other. Two of them were wearing military pants and work boots and the tallest of them was in full, heavy uniform. He was bearded and burly, and was peering through the window of Beck's truck. Their voices were loud but muffled from behind the glass and Beck couldn't make out the words.
"Your people?" Sam asked quietly, standing frozen by a knocked over shelf. Cat stayed crouched behind the counter, peering over it with wide brown eyes.
"Soldiers," he said, grip around his gun tightening.
"Not your people then," Sam reiterated as Jade swore under her breath. "Great."
Cat's back straightened and when her hand reached for a pair of dog-tags that hung around her throat on a silver chain, Beck suddenly remembered that her father used to be in the military. "What do we do?" She asked, sounding nervous. "What if they heard the bike? Do you think they'll come inside?"
Jade glared over at her. "Cat! Shh!"
"They're coming," Beck warned, and quickly turned the safety off his gun as they drew closer to the door and raised it, pointing it directly at him. The bearded soldier stopped, his expression turning breezy, and elevated his hands at shoulder level in surrender.
"No need for that, son," he called out, sounding calm. "Anyone else in there with you?"
Beck said nothing. The soldier's seemed indifferent, like strangers passing through, but even still Beck felt unsettled by their presence. The soldier nodded his head and ran his hand over his beard, turning to look at his friend over his shoulder. "I figured. We don't want to have to come in their and force you all out," he said loudly. His fingers tapped at the strap around his shoulder, where Beck noticed there was an assault rifle over his back. "It'll be a Hell of alot easier for you if you just cooperated with us. We just wanna chat a little."
Something unpleasant turned over in his stomach. Beck had not encountered anyone other than his main group after the world had turned to shit - but Mr. Vega's warnings ran through in his head. You can't trust anyone, he had said. Yet still, as he held his gun high, he knew that the odds didn't look good. They had rifles and machine guns. He had one, tiny little pistol.
"Come on, kid," another soldier said. "Don't be an idiot."
"Beck," Jade whispered behind him, and the subtle hint of unease in her voice almost made him turn around. He took a breath, tension making his shoulder's rigid, and slowly lowered the gun into the holster..
The tall soldier smiled, but there was no hint of warmth in it. He moved to pull the door open, side stepping a biter's body with ease. As he moved closer, Beck could see M. Fray written on the nametag on his chest. "Good choice," he said, and gestured for Beck to step outside. "All of you, out. Now."
With only a moment's hesitation, they did as he asked, and Jade and Cat left their bags on the floor cautiously. "That's it," one of them lured tauntingly at the girls behind him, and Beck's hand balled into a fist at his side. The three soldiers corralled them over to Beck's truck, circling around them. There was more of them than there was soldier's, but Beck felt as if he was trapped. "Now, which one of you has the keys to that pick-up?" The soldier asked; his hair looked bleached under the moonlight, eyes almost black in the darkness.
No one said anything. Fray exaggerated a heavy sigh, rolling his shoulders. "We won't ask again."
"Why do you need the truck?" Beck asked, narrowing his eyes. "You have a car right there. You don't need ours."
"Running low on gas," the darker skinned man said, crossing his arms. He nodded toward the vehicles behind the four of them. "It'll be out soon, and this place is drier than the desert."
"You kids got a place to stay?" The blond asked, gesturing toward the truck. "Doesn't look like you're living in that. You gotta be settled somewhere, right? You look too cleaned up."
"No," Jade said sharply, and her voice was taut with nervous tension. "We've been on the road."
"Where are you headed?"
"That's none of your business," she retorted, scowling.
"Alright, that's enough talk. Why don't you pass along those keys, tough guy?" Fray suggested, looking smugly over at Beck. "I'll tell you what, you can even come along with us."
"I think we're good," Sam said tightly.
Fray hummed, and his gaze turned to Cat, who had been quiet up until that point. "How about you, girly? We can keep you safe," he leered, reaching to grab at the dog-tags hanging around her neck. Cat jerked away from him just as Sam pulled her away by her arm and Beck moved to put himself between them.
"Hey, back off man," he said through his teeth, squaring his shoulders. One of his hands had moved to his gun out of reflex, and the other was in a fist so tight that his fingernails dug into the skin of his palm. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the two soldier's take a step forward. "She's not going with you."
"I think she can speak for herself, Aladdin," Blondie said, chuckling.
Beck's eyes didn't leave Fray's; his bemused smile was a thin slice of moonlight and yellowing teeth, and the corners of his aging eyes were crinkled. Beck dug into his pocket, and his keys dangled from his fingers when he held it out to him. "Just take the truck and go," he said, hating the way his pride was telling him to say otherwise. "We don't want any trouble, okay? Just go."
Fray raised his chin as if challenging Beck to make a move. "The bike, too."
"Hell no," Sam growled sharply, and Cat whimpered beside her. "No way. You can't just take everything. You have two cars, that's good enough."
"Wanna bet on that?" The other soldier said, turning over his rifle in his hands. "Doesn't really look too good for you, does it?"
"Give him the keys, Sam," Cat murmured, and anger boiled deep in Beck's stomach. Sam however, was more reluctant to give it up, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Motorcycles draw in attention," she said. "Like you assholes. You really sure you want that?"
Fray rolled his eyes and snatched the keys from Beck's hand sharply. "Leave the damn bike," he said. He turned the keys over between his fingers and reached to clap Beck on the arm with a smile. "Good doing business with you kids." He laughed, loud and bellowing, and the others followed suit as they pushed passed the four of them and piled into his truck.
As they stood by Sam's bike, watching the soldiers peel from the parking lot with a trunk full of belongings and weapons, Beck turned away and kicked at an empty gas canister, swearing loudly. He couldn't let something like that happen again. He couldn't.
He won't.
so, they got robbed. Beck and the other's will soon learn that zombie's aren't the only thing that they'll have to worry about in the future. and never fear! the rest of the gang will finally make an appearance next chapter.
please remember to review! feedback is really crucial to keep me motivated enough to continue the story, and I thank everyone who has commented so far! also, I do sometimes listen to suggestions ;)