Chapter Seven: Never Leave a Safe Haven


Clary:

Simon Lewis was a cool guy. Well, she thought that he was anyway. She hadn't been around a guy in a while, so it was hard to really judge. He liked anime…at least, he did when the earth was still up and running. He had a stash of books that he offered to let her borrow. Apparently, it had been a while since he'd met someone with an interest in the same genre of entertainment as him.

The thought made her smile slightly as she flickered through one of the several volumes that he'd given her. "What are you doing?" Jace's voice reached her ears. From his tone, Clary could tell that he found her just sitting around and reading mortifying. For someone so smart, he refused to be idle long enough to so much as pick a book up.

"Reading," she replied, not even looking up at him. She knew that if she looked up, she would be distracted. She hadn't known Jace for that long, but she already knew that he was just about the most distracting person in the camp.

"I can see that," Jace said. She didn't even have to look up to know that he was rolling his eyes. He had a very expressive tone that was delicious to her ears. She paused in her reading at that thought and then mentally slapped herself. Stupid, distracting boys.

"Do you want to try it?" she asked, flipping another page. "It has pictures in it, so if you can't make out the words, you'll still have an idea of what's going on."

"Ha ha," he said dryly. "I had no idea you could tell jokes."

"What can I say?" she asked, "I'm a pretty talented person."

"You can pretend to stop reading now," Jace said after a few moments of silence. "I can tell that you're actually dying to look at me."

That caught Clary's attention. She frowned as she looked up at him. "And how do you know that I'm dying to look at you?"

"Because your eyes haven't moved from the spot that they'd been sitting on, even when you turned the page," he informed her, a smug smile curling on his lips. "Go ahead and admit it."

"How do you know that I wasn't daydreaming about Will?" she challenged.

Jace blinked at that. She smirked at him; she liked the thought of catching him and all of his arrogance off guard. But then he recovered. "Please," he snorted, "I know you have better taste than that."

"What are you talking about?" Clary asked innocently. "Will's a pretty good looking guy. I mean, I know you're too busy looking at your own reflection to notice, but his blue eyes are really beautiful."

Clary was pretty sure that the look on Jace's face was the equivalent of a kid being told that Christmas had been cancelled. "What's wrong, Herondale?" she inquired, closing her book and setting it on the bed beside her as she looked at Jace. She would never admit it, but out of the cousins, she favored Jace the most. Will was a genuinely nice guy that made her laugh more times than not, but he was also hyper and annoying. It was almost as though he would go out of his way to annoy her. The only thing that made her not murder him in his sleep was the fact that she knew that he didn't mean it maliciously. He was just being Will. Well that, and his gorgeous eyes.

Besides, she had always had a thing for blonds, though that might be because she was more used to being around them, thanks to her father and Jon.

"Nothing's wrong," he said. Clary detected something different in his voice. The playfulness that had been in his tone when he'd first walked in was gone. "I was just wondering if you knew where Tessa was."

"Tessa?" Clary inquired. "What do you want Tessa for?"

"To talk," Jace replied with a small shrug. "You know, it's what people do when they don't have their noses shoved in anime books. Who gave those to you? Lewis?"

Clary frowned at the bitterness in his words, and suddenly she felt almost bad for what she'd said about Will. Then she got angry at herself for feeling guilty. She had only known him for a handful of days and had seen him flirt with every girl that walked by. He had absolutely no claim on her, unless one wanted to include the fact that she'd saved him from a zombie that he'd been too busy flirting with her to see. At the moment, she was wondering how Alec ever liked him.

"Yes, Simon gave these to me. I have a life outside of you, you know."

Jace raised his eyebrows at her, as though he was surprised by the bite in her voice. Good. He wanted to be a jerk, so Clary would be a bitch. "Whatever," Jace muttered. "Next time I see Will, I'll let him know that he should wear eyeliner to accentuate his blue eyes, as Izzy says; I'm sure that you'll be able to see them even better that way."

And then he was gone from her sight. God, someone was sensitive. It made her idly wonder if it was his time of the month.

She picked the book back up and was flipping through to find her page when Jace's voice rang in her ears again. She looked up at him with a frown. Hadn't they just finished whatever their conversation had been? Then she caught sight of the look on Jace's face. It wasn't normal. He looked calm, but there was definitely something forced about it. Was he really that angry that she'd mentioned Will having pretty eyes? Then she pushed the thought out of her head. Jace wasn't that stupid.

"What is it?" she asked, putting her book back down.

"Grab your knife," he said, even his voice was a strained kind of calm that Clary imagined was only thinly controlled.

"What—"

"Now!" he snapped angrily at her. Clary jumped up and snatched her knife off her desk. He stalked forward and grabbed her by the lower arm and pulled her into the hall. She felt panic fill her chest. Had she misjudged Jace? Was he really a psycho that's going to hurt her because she'd teased him?

He seemed to feel her apprehension, because he turned and looked at her. He grabbed both of her upper arms and said, "Listen to me, Clary. We're in a bit of trouble."

"What?" she demanded. Her heart was hammering as she looked up at him; fear started eating away at her stomach as she realized that Jace looked scared behind his thin mask of calm.

"The fence," he said. "The fence has been breached. We've got to get out, now."

"Tessa," Clary said. It was the first thought that came to her mind. Her sister was in trouble, and Clary had to make sure that she was safe.

"Tessa's with Will," he said. "He'll keep her safe."

"But you just said that you were looking for her," Clary said. "Don't lie to me!"

"I was lying earlier," he said patiently. "They were in the mess hall with Jem. We need to leave, though, or else we're going to be in trouble."

"What about everyone else in this building?" Clary asked.

"They're already outside," he said. "Can't you hear them screaming?"

And that was when the sounds reached her ears: terrorized screams, high pitched shrieks of fear and death. "Okay," she said, taking deep breaths in and out as she forced herself to remain calm. "We need to find the three of them; I don't care what you say, I need to make sure that Tessa's safe."

Jace muttered something that sounded like a curse and Clary wrenched herself from his grip angrily. "Fine, then. You go and get out. I'll go myself."

"Don't be stupid," Jace snapped at her. He grabbed her wrist and started dragging her down the hallway, as though she was a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. "Let's go already!"

"My legs are shorter than yours!" Clary exclaimed.

"Then run!"


~Tessa~

James Carstairs was telling Tessa a very intriguing story about Will's, Jace's and his antics when they were young. Apparently the three of them had known each other for years and Jem had been an adopted member of their family ever since his parents died.

"And now," Jem informed her with a small smirk, "they're both terrified of them."

"Ducks," Tessa said slowly. "They're terrified of ducks."

She saw Will shudder slightly, as if the memory of being terrorized by the small birds was giving him the chills. She shook her head as she looked over at the raven haired boy, "You slay zombies for a living, and you're afraid of ducks?"

"The way that you talk about it, makes it out like they're innocent," Will defended. "They're beasts! Never trust a duck! Filthy, vile…" he trailed off as he realized that half of the mess hall was now looking their way. Then he just shrugged, "They already think that I'm crazy, anyway."

"The term that they use is nutter," Jem informed Will smugly.

Tessa rolled her eyes at their banter. They were about the most entertaining thing in the town.

"You're just jealous that…" Will trailed off as the doors of the mess hall flew open and a haggard middle aged woman rushed in. Her hair was wild and her eyes were wide. "What the hell?" he asked.

Screams echoed into the room as everyone turned to look at the intruder."Breach!" she called. "There's been a breach in the fence!"

The effect was instantaneous. Chaos consumed everyone as they all jumped up and headed for the front door, shoving past the woman in their haste to get outside. Will and Jem both stood up at the same time and Tessa hastily followed suit. "Come on," Will said, over the sound of maybe twenty people fighting for space to get out. "Let's go out the back. The vehicles are—"

"Clary," Tessa said, looking at Will with wide eyes. "I've got to get Clary!"

"Jace just said that he was going to talk to her," Will said. "He'll get her out, Tess."

"I have to get to her," Tessa said desperately.

Will looked in between Jem and Tess and sighed. "Go and get us a ride out of here," he told Jem. "Meet us in front of the Institute."

Jem nodded and rushed toward the front door, which had already cleared out. The screams were getting louder and Tessa felt even more nervous. Clary was somewhere out there in all of that. "Come on," Tessa said, moving toward the front door.

"You don't want to go that way," Will promised. "It's going to be crazy." He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the back of the mess hall. The kitchen was empty now, and Tessa saw a large door beside the stove, which was still running. The smell of something burning from the pot on the front eye hit her nose almost immediately and she grimaced. It was an awful smell. Will motioned for her to stay back as he grabbed one of the large utensils off the counter top. He opened the door and Tessa heard the sounds of screaming and moaning a lot more clearly from there. The coast was clear, however, so Will beckoned her out.

She ran out with him and they ran past the back door and around the building behind it. The side road that they ended up on was empty. Will grabbed her hand again as he began running down the street. She kept up with him easily, thanking God for her long legs.

She saw the huge building from where they were. It wasn't too far away, but at the moment, it felt as though it was a hundred miles. "Part of me is glad that we have to go back," he said. "My sword's in Luke's office."

Keeping on the back roads may have meant that they had to take a longer route, but Will assured her that it would have taken a lot longer to get there if they would have taken the main road. When they finally had to turn on to a street with a lot of people, she realized what he was talking about.

Ever thing was pure insanity; groups of the undead were shuffling toward people that were running around, screaming their heads off. Tessa had her knife out, but Will was sure to keep her far enough away from the undead that she had no use for it. The first zombie that they really came close to was at the front of the institute entrance. It was the shell of an older man. He had only one ear, and most of his right arm was gone. Before Tessa could attack it, Will had already swung his kitchen utensil, a rolling pin, and hit the zombie on the side of the head. It went down permanently, its head resting at an awkward angle.

Will opened the doors to the Institute and pulled her inside. She followed without complaint, looking around as she did. The entire place was silent. Everything was empty and practically dead. She shuddered at the though. Even that word was in bad taste.

"Let's get my sword first," Will told her, his voice only coming out as a whisper. "Then we can go up to Clary's room."

Tessa didn't want to wait to go after Clary, but she nodded all the same. She figured that having Will with her made her chances of living long enough to find her sister a lot greater. The thought also made her angry; she didn't need his, or anyone else's, help! Part of her wanted to argue with him, but she didn't. She kept her mouth shut because she knew that if she argued with him, they would be losing time. That wasn't something that she was prepared to risk. She needed to get to Clary as quickly as she could.

"Let's hurry, please," she pleaded. Will nodded in agreement as he turned around. They slowly walked down the hallway and into the living room. It was actually moving them farther away from Clary. The thought made Tessa anxious, but she hid it well. Luke's office was still opened and Tessa saw people shuffling around inside. Zombies.

Will seemed to have the same idea, because he muttered, "Stay back."

"Are you crazy?" she demanded. "I have the only real sharp weapon between us!"

"It's practically a letter opener and we'll be better without—"

"Are you two really arguing about who's going to kill whatever's in Luke's office?" a voice demanded from the place of question.

Tessa knew that masculine sound. "Jace?" she asked.

"The one and only," the blond said as he walked into view, a small grin spreading on his face. "I left my knives here when I finished fence duty this morning."

"Where's Clary?" Tessa demanded concernedly.

"I'm right here," her sister said, as she walked into view and stood beside Jace. She had a familiar weapon in her hand: Will's sword. Will dashed forward at the sight, murmuring about his beautiful baby excitedly as he went. He practically snatched the scabbard out of Clary's hands as he hugged it. He slipped the strap around his shoulder and under his arm so that is was strapped to his back diagonally.

"This is the part where I'm supposed to feel an overwhelming surge of shame for being related to this, right?" Jace asked, looking at Tessa with a small grimace.

"Probably," she replied with a shrug.

"Good," he said, sounding relieved enough to surprise her. "I didn't want to be ashamed of him if I wasn't supposed to be. That would be shameful."

"The fact that you're making jokes right now is shameful," Clary informed him sharply. "Shut up. We need to go."

Tessa blinked. Someone was having a bit of an argument. Her protective older sister side was screaming at her to do something about it, but then her other older sister side was trying not to laugh. She settled for just saying, "We really need to get out of here."

"Jem should be waiting for us by now," Will said. "Come on."


~Jace~

Clary wasn't happy with him. That much was obvious by the way that she practically turned the first zombie that came their way into butchered meat and then glared at him as though she would have rather have had another subject to work on. That made him a bit nervous, though he would never admit it aloud. Most of the people in the colony were either dead or gone. He was hoping that they were all just gone and would meet with them at the planned rendezvous point. He had a feeling that it wouldn't happen that way, though.

He didn't look at the corpses that littered the streets as they made their way out the building. He didn't want to know how many of the people that he knew would turn into flesh-eating beasts. Zombies were milling around, turning in their direction as soon as they set their feet on the sidewalk. There was a lone truck driving around, coming their way at top speed. Will's truck.

"Get in the back!" Isabelle's voice shouted from the passenger's seat. Jace grabbed Clary's wrist as he wrenched her forward, away from a particularly fat zombie. Will decapitated it with ease a moment later. Jace forced himself not to recognize the wet thunk that sounded on the sidewalk as the creature fell. He had one of his knives out, slashing at the beasts with his free hand, cutting off hands and heads.

They made it to the truck unscathed by some miracle. Jace grabbed Clary by the waist before she could argue and picked her up, practically throwing her into the bed. He jumped in after her and grabbed Tessa as Will picked her up too. His cousin jumped in last. Clary reached over and hit a woman straggler, who'd had her hand reached out toward Will, with a large metal rod that had been sitting in the back of the truck. The metal went through the rotting flesh and severed the bone with ease. The arm fell to the ground, but Jace couldn't hear the disgusting sound it made over the roar of the truck engine as Jem slammed his foot on the gas.

They were off with a lurch, running over a couple of stragglers before they made it to the middle of the road. Jem jerked the truck around, narrowly dodging corpses and throwing them around the truck bed in the process. Jace was knocked into the wall of the bed, his spine hitting what felt like Clary's metal rod painfully. If that wasn't bad enough, his cousin was ended up slamming into his body. Jace let out a small groan of pain as he shoved Will away from him, only to be knocked into the side of the truck another time, his head hitting the metal once again.

Jace had come to his senses by this time enough to brace himself. He grabbed on to the rivets on the bottom of the bed and managed to stay in one place as the truck lurched to the side. Then the vehicle seemed to speed up even more, and went completely straight. The back window slid to the side and Simon's head stuck out. "Hold on to something!" he called. "It's about to get bumpy!"

"And it wasn't before?" Will demanded wearily.

Simon didn't say anything as he shut the door again. Tessa was next to him. He looked over at her and reached over and put his hand over hers comfortingly. "I think we're about to get out."

"Is that even possible?" Tessa asked fearfully.

"It's not going to be easy and it's not going to be comfortable," Jace promised her with a strained smile. "Make sure that you hold on."

He had enough time to let go of Tessa's hand and hold back on before Jem hit his first straggler. He lurched forward and almost slammed head-first into the front of the truck. He managed to force himself to stay put.

"JACE!" Clary's voice rang shrilly. He looked over at her and saw that she was looking past him. He followed her gaze just in time to see a lone zombie clambering over the top of the truck. It fell in as Jem jerked the truck to the side. Not seeming fazed in the least, the corpse pushed itself forward, aiming a bite at Jace's leg. He retaliated automatically, and brought his foot back and then forward in an awkward kick. The zombie got a face full of boot instead of a face full of skin. Its head snapped backward with a crunch and then it collapsed back to the ground. Jace calmed slightly, thinking that it was done, but then it started moving again. Jace, spun around and backed away before the zombie could take a bit out of him.

He saw that it was a bald older man in a hospital gown. Its nose was now hanging off its face by a patch of rotting skin. Jace kicked at it again, landing a solid blow to the things head, marveling at how determined it seemed to be. Heedless to danger, the zombie continued forward. Jace let out a strangled war-cry as he kicked sideways hitting the creature in the temple with his boot. It was a hard enough blow to send the shell of the old man to the side. Once he was against the truck wall, Jace kicked again as hard as he could. He repeated the process until brain matter was on his shoe and the side of the truck.

It took him a moment to realize that the bumpiness of the ride had stopped and everything seemed to be smooth sailing. He sighed in relief as he moved himself as far away from the body as he could.

He pushed himself into a sitting position and saw the colony in the distance. It was a sad sight; fires had already started erupting and Jace just stared at it uncomprehendingly. Not even thirty minutes ago, his life had been okay. It had been stable and he had been promised a place to sleep during the night. Now, he wasn't promised a thing. His entire life had been pulled out from under him and he wasn't even sure when it had happened.

"This means that Jon failed, doesn't it?" Tessa asked. He could tell by her tone that she already knew the answer. He figured that what she was really afraid of was what it meant. Was Jon alive or not?

"Just because they didn't manage to lure the horde away doesn't mean that they're dead," he said. He gave her an encouraging smile as she pushed herself up against the cab of the truck beside him. "Focus on the positives right now and it might make things easier."

"What's so positive?" Tessa demanded.

"You're alive," he replied. "Clary's alive, and you're with a group of people who know what they're doing and can watch your back. Things could be a lot worse."


~Will~

He was sitting in between Tessa and Clary when the truck finally came to a stop. There were maybe four or five stragglers in the middle of the dirt road that Jem had turned down. Will rose to his feet and stepped over Clary's legs as he jumped off the back of the truck. He unsheathed his sword and made quick work of the undead.

He felt hopelessness surging through him so strongly that all he wanted to do was sink to his knees and let it consume him; he didn't though, he kept walking, decapitating zombie after zombie. He had no idea if his family had been able to make it out. Cecily was only sixteen and had only recently begun her training in zombie fighting. Though, her late start might have had more to do with him than her. He just prayed that she didn't pay for his over-protectiveness.

He saw Simon and Jace in the bed of the truck, shoving the intruder zombie off the end. It landed on the road with a thud and a puff of dust. Clary and Tessa were standing off to the side with Magnus and Isabelle. They were all talking quietly to each other.

"What now?" Clary asked aloud, looking in between him and Jace.

His cousin spoke up first as he jumped off the side of the truck, landing in front of her, in an almost cat-like position before straightening up. "We head to the safe house."

"What safe house?" Tessa asked.

"There's an old hotel in the next town," Will explained. "There aren't many stragglers there and the place is huge. It would have been plenty large enough to house as many people as we have in this colony, though I doubt we'll have to worry about spacing issues." He paused as everyone casted each other grim looks. "It was always said that if this kind of thing ever happened, we were to reach that building and wait for the rest of the colony to reach it."

"How long?" Clary asked.

Jem spoke up this time, coughing lowly before saying, "If we leave now, we'll get there before nightfall."

"You're not driving, Jem," Will said sternly. "You need to rest."

"I'll drive," Magnus volunteered. "I've always wanted to see what the fuss about this truck was."

"Please, Mags," Will said, putting his hand on the admittedly grimy exterior of the vehicle, "don't ruin my baby." He figured that joking around at a time like this was in bad taste, but it was either joke or he was going to lose it.

Magnus must have realized that, because he smiled at him and said, "Don't worry, Herondale. It's in very good hands. Do you think just anyone can bedazzle a leather jacket like this?" he gestured to himself and Will noticed the jewel studs around the collar for the first time. "No, they can't, William. It takes talent, and I happen to be talented in just about everything. That includes driving oversized trucks."

"Alright," Will said with a grim smile. "Let's go."

Simon and Jem tried to trade places with Clary and Tessa, trying to be gentlemen and allowing the women to sit inside. They wouldn't have any of it. Both girls climbed into the truck bed and shooed them back to the cab. Will smiled at their stubbornness as he and Jace both hopped in themselves.

"Do you really think that Jon and Alec are going to be okay?" Tessa asked. She was sitting in between him and Clary. She had her face forced into a neutral mask, but Will could see through it. She was scared, terrified even, but she didn't want her little sister to see it. He had a feeling that Clary was able to tell anyway, but she didn't comment on it. Tessa clearly liked feeling in control and Clary allowed for her to feel that way.

"I don't see why they wouldn't be," Will assured her. He smiled down at her and shrugged, "the car was checked out before they left and nothing was wrong with it. They had a full tank of gas and more fuel in the back, and Jon and Alec are both great drivers. The diversion just didn't work. You'll see; they're probably already waiting for us at the hotel along with a bunch of other people."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better," Tessa muttered.

"Well, yeah," Will said. "I'm trying to reassure you, but that doesn't make it untrue. There really isn't a good reason that I can see that Alec and Jon would be harmed. Can you think of one?"

When Tessa slowly shook her head, Will grinned at her. "Now stop worrying about it before you go prematurely grey. I happen to like your hair color."


I updated early as a sort of I'm sorry for the four month absence thing. SO…I told you that things were about to start picking up! Things are getting seriously wrong seriously fast. That's what always happens in a zombie apocalypse, though. I hope you all enjoyed and I promise that I'll be back soon with another chapter *Fingers crossed*

I'm sorry that I didn't answer anyone's reviews; my life has been rather busy for the past couple of days and I've been lucky to squeeze in time to write this (I'm sure you would rather have new chapter pop up in your alerts than a PM from me, anyways). To the guest reviewer from chapter 3: yes, I have seen the Walking Dead. It's my favorite TV show (Along with Game of Thrones). Thanks for reading!