A/N: Hello everyone! Here is the next chapter. Not much in author's notes on this one, it's gonna be a hard one for me to write, but I'm gonna give it my best. I played versus mode today and destroyed the other team, so if you played today and got smoked it could have been by me!!! J You know the drill by now…disclaimer is in the other chapters.
OclairbearO: I know, the tension is killing me as well. I have no clue what's gonna happen. Our favorite survivors are writing this for me as we go!
Stormic09: Yeah I know! Francis told me that if I didn't stop making him such a pansy and get him a shotgun, he wouldn't play nice with Zoey…..soooo, I gave him a shotgun! Ha
Itchirocks31: I have some evil stuff in store for our heroes unfortunately! But they should know by now that their lives can't be that simple…..bwaaahahahaha!!!!
Not Alone
Zoey didn't move as the guys got out of the car. She stared at the destroyed garage door, her eyes wide with terror. The windows to her parent's cars were busted out. Jamie's bicycle, that he loved so much, sat on the ground in a twisted heap of plastic. The house itself looked to be in good shape.
Zoey started to feel the hope she had for her parents and Jamie slowly wash away with the tears that streamed down her face. This was all a nightmare. None of it was real. She would soon wake up in her bed, at the dorm, and laugh at her stupid horror movie mind. She could just hear Jamie making fun of her when she told him of the dream. This really wasn't happening.
"Zoey you can do this. We need to get inside fast." She turned her shocked eyes onto Francis' face. He held the door open for her to get out, but she didn't think she had the strength.
"I'll carry you if I have to. We gotta get going now Zoey, come on." He said looking around to see if anyone was approaching.
Finally Zoey put her legs out of the car and stood up. Francis had to catch her before she crumbled to the hard concrete. He stood her upright again and grabbed an arm to lead her in. Louis got on the other side grabbing the other arm and they proceeded to the front door.
Chunks of mahogany and glass lay on the front steps to this beautiful home that Zoey grew up in. The door that her mother always prided herself in picking out was no more.
Bill was the first to enter; his gun aimed and ready to fire. This snapped Zoey out of her comatose state. These men did not know her or her parents. She wasn't so sure that they wouldn't shoot first and ask questions later.
Breaking away from the hold that Francis and Louis had on her, she ran towards Bill.
Passing Bill, she headed into the living room. She expected it to look like it did in her dream, but the coffee table and furniture were intact. Looking around her, nothing was disturbed. It just seemed like her parents had left, which she prayed they had.
She slowly turned and walked towards the kitchen. The guys were watching her every move as if expecting her to have a melt down.
Entering the spacious kitchen, with its hunter green painted walls, it looked immaculate as usual. Slowly she walked over to the stainless steel refrigerator to see the picture her mother had taken of her and Jamie last summer. They had their arms wrapped around each other laughing uncontrollably. Zoey smiled at the memory of that picture. She silently prayed again that her parents had gotten out in time.
Turning around she walked back out towards the stairs. She expected Francis to stop her, like in her dream, but he didn't. She started to slowly climb up to the second floor. She could hear the guys behind her coming as well. How many times had her and Jamie slid down this banister, she thought as she glided her hands along the wooden surface. How many times had her parents yelled at them from the living room as they bent over in laughter?
She reached the top step turning to her right to look down the hallway. There was nothing there. No hooded figure or some evil thing ready to jump out at her. Taking a deep breath, she started down the hall.
The bathroom door was to her left and she quickly turned the light on. Nothing there but what was suppose to be.
Continuing her search she came to her room next. Slowly walking in, she looked around at the all too familiar room. Posters and pictures from high school were still hanging where she had left them. Her collection of horror films was stacked neatly under her T.V… She walked towards the closet to open it when a hand reached out to stop her. She looked to Bill who was shaking his head no. What was he expecting to find through that door?
She turned and made her way back into the hall. The men gave her room to move around them. None of them offered to check the rooms before her. In a way she thought that they understood she needed to do this.
Coming to Jamie's room, Zoey walked in to her little brother's world. She walked to his bed and noticed his baseball cap sitting there. Picking it up, Zoey held it close to her. She could still smell her brother on it. She stood there for a couple of minutes just holding his hat. It dawned on her that she had not seen him pitch a game this year. She could always tell that he was disappointed in that but never said anything to her.
Coming back to the present, Zoey turned and made her way back out. Straight ahead of her was her parent's room. The door to their room was closed and she could hear a moaning sound coming from inside. She started to back up down the hall, when she felt hands on her shoulders stopping her.
"We can go in Zoey. You don't have to do it." She heard Francis say behind her. She couldn't think. That moaning was definitely not human. If it was her parents or Jamie making that noise, could she kill them? She did not think she could, but could she let Francis, Louis or Bill do it?
"I can't." She whispered.
Francis squeezed her shoulders and walked around her to the door. She watched as he readied his shotgun and reached for the door knob. It all happened so fast that it didn't register at first. It took her a moment to realize that Francis, Louis and Bill had disappeared behind her parent's door.
A howl came from the room followed by the sound of a shotgun blast. She was frozen, wide eyed. Had they just killed her family?
"Louis are you okay?" She heard Bill ask.
"Yeah I'm good."
"Oh damn!" Francis said softly, yet it was loud enough for Zoey to hear him.
She took two steps towards her parent's room when Francis emerged. He stopped just a little in front of her. He put his hands on his hips and hung his head.
"Francis?" Zoey whispered.
"Zoey…um, y….you should just….go…go back downstairs ok." He said.
Zoey realized why he wouldn't make eye contact with her. Her family, her whole life was in that room.
She took a couple of steps back before collapsing to her knees. She was blinded by the tears that filled her eyes as she shook her head back and forth.
"Zoey…" Francis started but was cut off by Zoey jumping to her feet and pounding her fists into his chest.
"LIAR! YOU LIAR! THEY ARE FINE! OH GOD NOOOOOO!" She screamed in agony.
Francis stood there letting her pound her fist into him. He tried to wrap his arms around her but she pushed him away and headed for her parents room. Bill came out and stood in her path.
"Zoey, you ought to listen to Francis and go downstairs ok. There is nothing you can do for them Hun. They're…..they're gone." Bill said slowly.
Zoey collapsed in front of Bill. She was on her hands and knees sobbing at the floor. Her mother, with her shining smile and chestnut wavy hair…gone. Her father, the leader, stern yet gentle when he needed to be. And Jamie, oh God, her Jamie was gone. She would never get to hear him laugh or see him smile, like only he does, at her.
"Please Bill….let me see them." she begged.
"Sweetie, you don't want to see what's in there." Louis said coming to kneel beside her.
"I don't care," she sobbed. "That is my family in there."
Looking up at her three companions, she could see the reluctance in their eyes.
"Give us a minute and you can go in okay, just a few more minutes." Francis said as he started to walk back in the room. "Bill, Louis I need your help please." He called.
She sobbed openly as she heard the men grunting and moving things. After a few minutes Francis came and helped her to her feet. He half carried her into her parent's room. She couldn't look at first. Instead she looked at the maroon carpet of her parent's bedroom. She could see a darker color splashed all over the floor closest to the bed. 'Blood', she thought.
Raising her head slowly, she looked at the hunter green color of her parent's comforter and then to the three bodies covered on the bed. She slowly walked over to the sheet covering her family and stopped just short of the bed.
Reaching her hand out, she slowly pulled the covers down to reveal three faces that meant everything to her. She felt Francis' hold on her tighten as she looked down at their mauled faces.
"I'm so sorry I failed you." She said sobbing. "I'm so sorry."
She tore herself from Francis' grip and crumbled to the floor beside her dead families bodies. Reaching up she removed a piece of her mother's hair from her face. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Louis walk out. She could have sworn that the grown man was crying, but she wasn't sure. Bill stood on the opposite side of the bed staring out the window. Francis was behind her ready to grab her if he needed to. They had come all this way for nothing. Getting to her parents had been in vain, why even bother anymore. She had no reason to go on.
Looking at her father and mother, she noticed how black their eyes had become. Had they become one of those monsters before the end? Looking at Jamie, she realized that his eyes were as blue as they ever were. Could it have been possible that her Jamie had to kill their parents? Had they tried to attack him? Had they succeeded? She sobbed harder at that thought.
"Zoey, they were already dead when I came in. There…there was another one in here with them." Francis said as if he could read her mind.
"Where?" She asked through her tears.
Francis pointed at the bathroom and she could see the monster's foot sticking out of the door.
Zoey pulled herself up to her feet and walked slowly to the bathroom. There lying in a pool of its own blood was the thing that took her life away from her.
Zoey reached into the back of her pants and pulled out the silver hand gun. Pointing it at the thing, she pulled the trigger, once, twice, three times unloading her gun on the already dead creature. She felt someone come up behind her and stop her, wrapping there enormous arms around her.
"Stop it Zoey. It's dead; don't waste your bullets on that thing." She heard Francis say close to her ear.
He didn't get it. She didn't care about how many bullets she had left, she wanted only to make something suffer as much as she was suffering.
She tried to pull out of his grasp and he let her go.
She staggered back towards her parent's dresser. Looking into the mirror, she did not recognize the girl staring back at her. Looking on the top of the dresser, she noticed a note in her mother's handwriting.
Picking it up, she read it to herself…
Dear Zoey,
If you get this letter then that means the unthinkable as happened. I don't really know what is going on, but what I do know is that our neighbors have been screaming for the past hour. Jamie and I have locked ourselves in this room and hopefully help will be on its way. We can hear screams and moans downstairs and they are slowly making their way up here. Zoey, I pray that you are safe and unharmed. I wish I could hold you in my arms one last time and tell you that I love you. No matter what, just remember that there has not been a time that your father and I haven't been proud of you. You are a strong woman, Zoey, and don't you dare let our deaths keep you from going on. You give up now and that would disappoint your father and me. The last of the news, before it went off the air, said for people to go to Mercy Hospital. Zoey go there now my love. You get to safety and you survive! I love you so much my daughter. Remember Mercy Hospital.
I will always love you Zoey,
Mom
P.S. Zoey, these things seem to not be able to get into metal doors. The storm cellar door, in the basement, is made of metal if you need to go there and rest. Your father went down there to stock up and hasn't been back since they stormed into the house. Jamie says he loves you and will talk to you soon.
Zoey read the letter more than once.
Her father must have made it back up here, which answered her fears about her brother having to kill her parents. As if a movie was playing in her head, she saw how it must have happened. Her mother and brother huddled in the corner as her father broke the door to get in. Her mother would have tried to reason with him, standing in front of Jamie to protect him. There was no reasoning with these things though. Her father must have charged at her mother and killed her instantly.
Zoey searched the floor beside the bed and sure enough was her father's gun that he left under his pillow.
She watched, in her mind, as Jamie lifted the gun at his father, begging him to stop. Her father probably walked towards Jamie as he pulled the trigger shooting his father. She could hear her brother's terrified sobs as his father continued to come closer until that fatal shot to the head dropped his dad in his tracks.
She would have given anything to have been able to hold him.
He was probably caught off guard when his mother stood up and charged, but he kept a clear head about him and finished her off. That thing in the bathroom must have surprised him and ended his life.
She looked back at her brother's still blue eyes and it dawned on her that he must have been immune too. If she would have only been a few hours earlier, he might still be alive.
"Zoey, I'm sorry Hun but we have to get going. They are starting to crowd around outside." Bill said from his perch at the window.
"Go on. I'm not leaving." She said low.
"Bullshit! We aren't leaving you. We aren't leaving her Bill." Francis said pointing at the old man.
"Zoey, I understand that you are going through some pain right now. I know how you feel okay, but you can't stay here. You really think that's what they wanted?"
She knew that that's not what they wanted, she had the proof in her hands but she couldn't leave them. Not like this. Looking from Bill to Francis she saw how much they needed her. Four people are better than three. Even if that forth person was a little fucked up right now. She let out a sigh and wiped the tears away. There would be a time for crying and right now was not it. She would survive because that is what they would have wanted for her. Looking at her family one more time, she turned and walked back out into the hallway.
Louis turned around when he heard her walk out. He gave her a sympathetic smile and squeezed her shoulder. Francis and Bill followed her out of the room and closed the door behind them.
"Ok, where to now?" Francis said. He had come to stand beside Zoey, putting his hand on the small of her back. Looking up at him, she whispered a thank you.
Before anyone could answer, there was a loud scream that was becoming all too familiar to them.
Everyone was to the stairs in a second, running down them to get to the car.
As they reached the broken door, they were greeted with the same scene from the gun store. Fifty or more infected were making there way, as fast as they could, to the four helpless souls trapped inside the house.
"Holy hell….now what?" Louis said.
"The basement, there's a storm cellar that they can't break through, this way." Zoey said as she started running towards the door of the basement.
Yanking the door open she walked down the steps only to be met face to face with five infected. She tried to stop her momentum from going further, but Francis' heavy body pushed her right into the arms of an infected.
Zoey's scream was drowned out by the screams from every direction. They were surrounded. Louis and Bill tried in vain to hold off the horde trying to run down the stairs.
She felt herself being pulled away from Francis by two of the infected. They had both of her arms in a tug of war grip. She felt at any moment her arms would snap away from her body.
"FRANCIS!" She yelled as loud as she could.
She felt one of the infected let go of her arm as the butt of Francis' shotgun met its face. He raised the gun and blew the other infected, holding Zoey, in the head. It's head exploded like the man in the bar.
Zoey fell to the ground only to feel her being lifted up from behind.
Francis stood her back on her feet just in time to shoot an infected running at them.
Zoey reached into her back and pulled out the two pistols and started firing. She missed the first couple of times but finally met her mark with the thing that was trying to pull her a part.
Francis grabbed her and started pushing his way towards the cellar door using his gun and his shear strength. Their way had been cleared long enough for Zoey to grab the handle of the door and push it open.
She turned around to see Louis and Bill shooting and running backwards. Francis was standing in the doorway trying to help them fend off the horde steadily making their way down the stairs. Zoey felt helpless standing there, so she ran and stood beside Francis, aiming her gun and praying to God she wouldn't shoot Bill or Louis.
Two, three, four infected fell dead at her hands and she felt a rush like she had never felt before. She was shooting for her family, dead, upstairs. She was shooting for her comrades that were now her new family. She was shooting for the fucker who started this whole shit in the first place. The feeling of release was hers to be had and have it she would.
Something jumped to her left and the weight of its body knocked her back on her ass. She heard Francis yelling and looked up to see the hooded figure from the T.V. and her nightmares pinning him down. He bore into Francis with his knife-like nails as he tried to fight back but couldn't do anything but try to protect himself.
"ZOEY HELP ME!"
Francis' scream brought Zoey to her feet as she charged at the hooded figure knocking him off Francis.
Raising her pistols, she started shooting at the thing, but the fucker was too fast. It landed on its feet and started to charge back at them, headed straight for her this time. She continued to shoot it but it kept coming until it got within inches of her and then there was a loud blast from Francis' shotgun and the hooded figure went sailing out of the room.
"GRENADE!" She heard Bill say before he and Louis pushed their way through the door, closing it just in time for the pipe bomb to send the horde into oblivion.
Everyone sat on the floor breathing heavily for a few minutes until Francis' sat up groaning.
"God I hate zombies." He said grumbling.
"You're not alone." Zoey, Louis and Bill spoke in unison.
Damn that was a hard chapter for me to write. I didn't really want to go overboard with angst but how do you describe someone finding out that their family is dead. Well I hope I did it justice! Francis told me at the last minute that I had better throw some action in there…well there ya go…ha-ha…………….you know what to do….review people review!!!!!!