Disclaimer: Other than Nathan, I own nothing

Resident Evil: Guardian
Chapter 4
"Welcome Home"

Livin' easy
Lovin' free
Season ticket on a one way ride
Asking nothing, leave me be
Taking everything in my stride
Don't need reason, don't need rime
Ain't nothing I would rather do
Going down, for a time
My friends are gonna be there too

No more stop signs, speed limit
Nobody's gonna slow me down
Like a wheel gonna spin it
Nobody's gonna mess me around
Hey Satan, paid my dues
I'm playing in a rockin' band
Hey Mamma, look at me
I'm on the way to the promised land

I'm on the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I'm on the highway to hell
Highway to hell

AC/DC - "Highway to Hell"

I drove around the dusky Colorado desert for about an hour before my eyes became droopy and I became weak and weary; The combat stress was starting to settle in. I was in dire need for some R&R.

I pulled the humvee off the road and parked it alongside a few desert shrubs for; call me paranoid, but for concealment.

I quickly rummaged through the piles of sacks and containers holding all the equipment I managed to obtain. I picked up my newly acquired helmet and attached my new toy, night vision goggles, my edge against whatever is stupid enough to try and ambush me in the dark.

I switched my rifle off safety and slowly stepped out of the humvee into a quiet, pitch black night.

Of course with the support element of my NVG's, the environment was very less dark and much more bright electric green. It was actually very pretty.

…Did I really just say that?

Wow, something must be wrong with me.

Well anyways, I searched the surrounding area for a good ten minutes until I was 100% sure it was clear of any infected, last thing I need is something to disturb my beauty sleep. And god knows I need it. I'm exhausted, Who knew surviving the zombie apocalypse would take so much energy?

I climbed back into the humvee, locked the doors, held my weapon tight, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Tomorrow will be better. Was my last thought before I lost consciousness all together.

I awoke the next day to a loud tapping at my window.

No wait, not just tapping. There was the sound of scratching, snapping and…moans.

My eyes shot opened and I sprang forward, pistol in hand.

Oh crap

I counted near thirty, all males, mostly kids, all dressed in the same retarded, colorful uniforms.

Damn boy scouts! They just had to go camping way out here in the desert, didn't they!?!

They were all punching, clawing and trying to get a good grip on the windows. They were everywhere, surrounding the humvee.

I craned my neck to the left and came face to face with one of them.

It was one of the camp counselors, tall, muscular, and with long, dirt blonde hair that seemed to go pass his shoulders.

But I still got a good few at his features, and it scared the shit out of me.

His skin may have been dark and tanned once before, but not anymore. It was a sickly yellowish color with spots of gray detailing areas of intense mold and decomposition. His right ear was missing, bitten clean off, and his mouth was foaming with a strange black liquid. And his eyes, oh god the eyes! They were blank, cold, unemotional, unfocused, and pale white. It was as if he were a blind man.

But no, he wasn't blind, not by a long shot. He stared at me, right at me! His white, dead eyes made direct contact with my own living, emerald ones. I sat there for a moment just staring, it was the first time I ever saw one up close.

And then he lunged at me.

"Christ!" I yelped in reflex and jumped back.

I felt incredibly stupid afterwards for the he just stood there, face resting on the window, palms pressed hard against the glass, pushing against it with all their might, hoping to break the barrier in full force. He released a sick, inhuman gurgle as a sign of struggle.

I chuckled, raised my hand and waved my very favorite finger at him.

I was lucky, the humvee's windows and windshield were bullet proof. No way an army of short, scrawny, preadolescent zombies and their babysitters are gonna break through.

"Try all you want!" I mocked them "Not a single one of you bastards are gonna make it in here!"

And then I felt the hood of the humvee shake.

What the hell? What could have done that?

My eyes widened in realization as I whipped my head around and stared into the gaping hole that lead out to the roof of the humvee.

The hole was used as a firing position that a gunner would take if they were arming the .50 Cal. It allowed quick transfer between the inside of the humvee and the controls on the gun.

It also doubled as an extra entrance, which would be very, very bad in my current situation.

Time seemed to stop as I gazed up at the opening, my attention fixed on not a thing else. I just sat there, waiting. A second passed before he popped his head out.

It was one of those kids, couldn't have been more than twelve. He hissed at me, I glared at him, he reached forward, I pulled the trigger.

Two 9mm slugs ripped straight through his head like it were wet paper. The brain matter splattered out and must have stained the outside of the humvee crimson. His body flew back and made contact with the ground and was followed by a thump.

That thump was much louder than I had hoped, it seemed that all of the ghouls outside stopped what they were doing and went to inspect their fallen comrade.

No, not inspect, examine.

From my vantage point I could see them circling the body. They began to…well, sniff and inhale the scent of the slain zombie.

Now would be a good time to wave the WTF flag.

They started to look around, blank eyes searching the area aimlessly. They eventually rested on the humvee, the roof of it to be precise, directly at the gunner port.

Uh oh

The swarm approached, the humvee's weight shifted, the bastards were climbing up!

"I am so fucking out of here." I muttered to myself.

I took a seat in front of the wheel and checked the ignition.

No keys

"Oh give me a break!" I panicked as my eyes darted around, praying for some signs of the keys.

The shaking of the humvee became more and more wild, a pair of hands appeared out of the roof opening. I was screwed.

So this is how it all ends, trapped inside a truck, flesh eating zombies on all sides, waiting to be consumed?

Well sorry to disappoint but I'm going in style

I fumbled inside my pocket for that spare bullet, the one I said that I would save in case escape was impossible. Well anyways, instead of pulling out that extra round, I pulled out something else, something which made a…jingle.

The Keys!

I stared at them, dumbfounded for a moment of two, mentally slapping myself for how stupid I was.

The hissing coming from behind broke my gaze.

In the blink of an eye, the keys were inserted and the engine was revved, it shocked me just how fast I was.

Those few unlucky zombies standing in front of the hood were thrown far as I put the petal to the metal.

The shrubs, bushes and small hills caused major bumps and turbulence which worked to my advantage. The ghouls on top were thrown off like wild dogs, a few even dropped in front of the wheels, resulting in a very satisfying crunch.

Before I even knew it, I was rolling down the highway doing about seventy, the scratches and moans ceased awhile ago.

I took a deep breath before I was able to calm down and slow my vehicle down to a reasonable speed.

I continued driving for a good mile or two until I was sure nothing was following me.

Hey, you would be paranoid too if you were in my situation.

Anyways, I decided that now would be a great time to pull over and take a breather.

No, not a breather, instead, a real, good, long ass laugh.

Why you might ask? Well honestly I don't know. I just might be a little bit crazy.

Crazy…but alive

_____

Three days, three days on the road, three days spent tired, hungry and…alone.

…

Uh, forget about that last one, it's unimportant.

But back on track, I've barley slept a wink and I'm running on a single meal a day! Truthfully, those MRE's don't really fill my belly up.

Hey wait, what's that off in the distance?

Is that a building?

No, a gas station.

Ohhh…perhaps my luck just returned.

Wonder if there is any food in the station, but I shouldn't get my hopes up though…

"Holy Crap!" I exclaimed out of joy when I stepped into the store.

It was rather big for just a simple gas station, easily twice the size of the ones found in the cities. Snacks and junk food were stacked along the walls and shelf's. Candy and cereal boxes littered the floor, but other than that, it was kind of clean and neat. I walked over to a Snickers bar which lay on the ground, I torn open the wrapper and sniffed the contents just to be safe. When I took the first bite, my hunger came back out at me in full force, I must have inhaled the whole bar in a few seconds, then moved on to the next one.

I was happy, simple as that, my food problems were now over, but now I was thirsty…

I glanced towards the sets of refrigerators in the back, none of them were working. I hoped that the drinks are still good.

I walked up to the cashier counter, searching for the light switch to power the-

Sweet! They have Playboy here!

Don't get sidetracked Nathan, look at the pretty women later

My bad, where was I?

Oh yes, light switch

After I finally found it, it came at no surprise when there was ass results.

Oh well, can't be that lucky.

I strolled back out of the store, still munching on my candy. I walked to the gas pumps, gripped a handle, crossed my fingers and pulled the switch.

I think I did some stupid, embarrassing little dance when the pump shot out a stream of gasoline.

Happy with that, I took a precautionary search around the structure, making sure that it was secure.

When I was finished with that, I started unloading my heaps of supplies taken from the barricade.

I grabbed any spare or empty jerry cans I could find and filled them up with gasoline, you know, just in case something bad happens, so that I'll have gas covered.

…Why does gasoline smell so horrible?

No wait, is that me?

I slowly put my nose to my battle dress uniform and took a big whiff.

Blah!

I'm still wearing the crap covered clothes from my little sewer adventure. I smell like shit!

I stopped whatever I was doing and without haste, I quickly ran over to all the rucksacks I brought along and rummaged through.

Ah, here we go, a fresh pair of battle dress uniform pants and a gray Army shirt, hey there's even a new pair of boots along with it.

A few minutes later and I'm strapped up in clean, well smelling clothes. The station store even has spray and roll-on deodorant for me, I like to think of it as an alternative to showering.

As for the old uniform, well I decided to throw out the worn and ragged fatigues out. It's almost useless now, holes and tears covered it from top to bottom and the once crisp grayish-white Army camouflage was now brown, black and ugly.

Why should a soldier wear something that makes him look as if he cannot even defend himself?

Speaking of defense, that reminds me.

I walked back out and to the crates of weapons and ammo waiting to be spent.

And trust me when I say, there were a lot to be spent.

Cases full of 5.56 NATO and 9mm mags, 40mm grenades, a couple M67's frags, two canisters of .50 Caliber rounds; hell I even got a pretty well supply of Claymore mines!

Damn, I've got enough firepower here to put Rambo to shame.

I looked around at all the claymores before an idea popped into my head.

"I'm making me a fort." I said to myself with a stupid grin plastered to my face.

I'm finished! And it only took me five days!

The entire gas station was now surrounded by a four foot deep trench which went full circle.

Other than a small pathway that leads out, there was no way in unless you climb or jump, something that zombies have major problems accomplishing.

And even if they get in, the Humvee waits out in the front, machine gun ready to pick off any lucky ghouls that get pass.

But that's not enough, not by a long shot. I also have multiple submerged claymores scattered around the front, set on a detonator. Only used as a last resort though.

Yes, now I can kick back and relax.

I casually walked inside the store, grabbed a couple bags of chips, moved down to the fridge and picked out myself a nice warm beer.

What? So I'm not 21, who cares? The world ended if you haven't noticed and I survived! I think I'm entitled to at least a few congratulatory beers.

The floor looked comfortable enough, so I popped myself against the wall and laid my ass down. I used my bayonet to pry the cap off and took a nice, long, well deserved swig.

"Welcome to your new home Nathan, welcome to your new home" I said to myself as I stared aimlessly at the opposing wall.

"Well" I started, "It's more like welcome to your new life."

I took another swig before I felt a severe feeling of loneliness sweep over my body, but I pushed the feeling aside.

"Better just live with it; I mean it's not like a big group of survivors are gonna be rolling by anytime soon."

Now if I only knew the amount of irony in that last sentence.

Well, it's been about two months that I've spent living in this gas station.

And my life is borrrrring!

Seriously, God please kill me now!

Every single day is the same damn thing, same order, same retarded progression.

Wake up, eat, take a walk, inspect defenses, bathroom break, clean rifle, eat, clean pistol, clean bayonet, take a nap, wake up, grab snacks, climb to roof, spend six hours on the roof, eat, wank off, take a nap, wake up, watch sun set, attach night vision, sit still for an hour, sleep, and repeat.

And that's pretty much been every single day of my life for the past two months!

There's no more excitement, so believe it or not but I actually miss seeing the occasional zombie. I haven't shot at anything in almost a full month. Don't get me wrong, I love the peace and quiet, but I need a little action once in awhile.

Oh well, enough bitching, time to start my day again.

I walked over to the humvee and adjusted the side view mirrors so that it were facing me.

As I started brushing my teeth I stared at my reflection, I realized that I haven't really changed since when I first enlisted during Junior year.

I ran my free hand through my short brown hair, the front was always rebellious, it stayed spiked up as if I used gel, don't ask why it does that. My green eyes, sharp but wide at times, revealed that I'm not as experienced as I would like to be. I may be tall and have some muscle, but compared to the others who were in my unit, I was the weak, little youth. Hell, I don't even have any facial hair, never really grew out for me, can you believe that?

So yeah, if someone were to see me now, my appearance wouldn't strike them as a soldier, I wouldn't even be taken for a man. No I'm still a kid, still a stupid kid, a stupid kid in way over his head.

And that's an understatement.

Well at least I'm still alive, right?

That counts for something I guess.

But yea-

…Wait, what was that?

I hear something.

It sounds like, like…

A…Car

No wait, a truck

Multiple trucks!

My head jerked around, my palms started getting damp and my legs started shaking because coming this way was a convoy. And unless zombies can drive cars now, those are other survivors heading towards the station.

I quickly ran back inside to grab my rifle.

My day just got a whole lot more interesting.

My apologies for the prolonged absence, my life has been kinda controlled by a few factors right now. So you could blame:
1.) The Twilight series (Yes I'm a guy who like twilight, so what?)
2.) Thanksgiving Break (I should have used the break as time to work on my fic, but no, I spent it sleeping in till noon and playing xbox)
3.) Tom Clancy's EndWar (I friggin love that game, you could be expecting one or two fics on it in the coming future)

And that's it, hope you enjoyed chapter 4, please review, I need to know what people think
-Tomato