Retreating into a Trap
Carlos yawned obnoxiously loud as he let Katie and Sebastian use his lap as a pillow. He didn't know why they had to wake up so damn early. I mean, come one, the sun wasn't even up yet! But according to Kendall they had to get everything ready because it's safer to travel in the day then at night. He yawned again, looking around the campsite.
He wasn't the only one tired; everyone else looked like they desperately needed sleep. Even Mrs. Knight was up; even though anytime anyone tried to talk to her she would snap their heads off. She even made James tear up when he asked for her help.
Never wake that woman up before her solid eight hours of sleep.
The only ones who didn't seem affected by the lack of sleep were Logan, Kendall and Jo. They always seemed to be early risers. Jo because of her Judo, Kendall because he was the leader, and Logan… he didn't know why Logan was actually up so early. Before the apocalypse that kid loved sleep. He was dead to the world until nine. He knew why he fixed himself to be an early riser, because he was the leader when he was with Carlos and his family. Logan tried to give them any normalcy they could get. Even if that was just a few more hours of sleep then he.
Carlos closed his eyes for just a second, letting sleep take over again.
Logan smiled when he saw Carlos' miserable attempts to stay awake. His best friend loved sleep too much to not let a chance of it get away. Logan wanted that, but knew he couldn't. They still needed to finish packing things up to get in the cars, before they can take off.
He forced a yawn down as he grabbed a box of medical supplies and put it in the RV. Turning to leave the RV he smiled again. Kendall fell asleep at the table, head leaning back against the booth, mouth wide open as he snored.
An idea popped in Logan's head. He quietly walked to Kendall, standing right next to the blond. Without making any sounds Logan plugged up Kendall's nose with his fingers. Waiting a few second until Kendall started choking and jolted awake.
"Wha…what happened?" He looked around the RV in a daze, wondering why he couldn't breathe so suddenly. He glared when he saw Logan standing next to him, stifling his laughter. "What?"
"Nothing." Logan finally calmed his laughter. "We should get back to work; have a long day ahead of us."
Kendall yawned, stretching as he jumped out of the seat. "Yeah, especially sense we're driving across the country."
"Logan! Logan! Come ride with me and Camille!"
Logan turned to his friend, giving him an apologetic look. "Sorry, Kendall already asked if I wanted to ride with him, and I said yes."
"No! I'm losing my best friend to the blondie!"
Logan let the smallest of grins spread across his face. "Where is Kendall? I haven't seen him since he asked me."
"Look no furth-oomph!" Kendall should have realized sneaking up on Logan was a bad idea, because the second he opened his mouth Logan's reflexes kicked in and elbowed the leader of the group very hard in the stomach. "My kidneys..." Kendall dropped to his knees gripping his stomach. Logan was a lot stronger then he looked.
Logan turned behind after he elbowed whoever tried to sneak up on him and gasped with a smile on his face. He elbowed Kendall. "Oh… you ok?" Logan did his best not to laugh.
Kendall looked up attempting a smile. "Never better." That came out more of a wheeze than anything else.
Carlos on the other hand couldn't stop laughing at what Logan did. "Never sneak up on him, Kendall!" Carlos walked away, so telling everyone what just happened.
Logan kneeled down and helped Kendall back on his feet. Kendall grinned the second Logan closed in on his personal space, and especially when the little assassin put his arm around his waist. He didn't know why, but he liked Logan this close.
"You good?"
"Yeah." The second Kendall said that and was on his feet Logan added back the distance.
Throwing his bag over his shoulder he looked at Kendall and jerked his head at the cars. "Let's go then."
The two walked the short distance to all the cars and saw that everything was packed and ready; the group was just waiting on them.
"So I here Logan beat the crap out of you?" James smiled the entire time he spoke, this was just too funny. He knew Logan was good at fighting, but Kendall getting elbowed in the stomach by him. He didn't know why, he just found it totally hilarious.
"Yeah, note to everyone: never try to sneak up on him."
Logan smiled slightly as he walked over to the Hummer. The others following suit and getting in their own vehicles.
Logan popped the door open and got in. He waited until Kendall jumped in and asked a question. "Where does everyone go in?"
"Um…" Kendall thought as he turned the key into the ignition. "James goes in his avalanche, Carlos in his truck with Camille, and Jo and everyone else in the RV, why?"
Logan shrugged as they started driving down a dirt road. "No reason."
They sat in an awkward silence, well and awkward silence for Kendall for half an hour. Until they reached the paved streets leading to a gas station. He couldn't tell if Logan found the silence awkward. He didn't; Logan liked the peace and quiet. Something he hasn't been around in a very long time.
Kendall pulled up to the gas station and parked, waiting until everyone else in there rides were situated.
"What are we doing here again?"
"See if there's any gas or food we can salvage."
Logan nodded, almost tiredly. Truth was, he almost fell asleep on the ride here. He loved sleep as much as Carlos, but since the apocalypse hasn't been able to enjoy the beauty of it.
The two jumped out with James, Camille, Carlos, and Jo with him. Mrs. Knight and the others stayed behind in the RV, because they couldn't do much when it comes to situations like these.
Kendall spoke out his commands. "James, Jo, and Stephanie, I know the cars are already full, but check it there's any gas and put it in the tank that's attached to James' Avalanche."
James groaned. "Ugh, I hate gas detail." Other than the one complaint he didn't say anything else and dragged Jo and Stephanie to the gas pumps.
"OK, the rest of us will go in the store to see if we can find anything we can use."
Just as Kendall finished Jo shouted out, "Kendall, Carlos, we need your help with this!"
A sigh. "Ok, Logan and Camille, you guys check out the store while we help with the gas."
Camille looked at Logan and not sure how she felt, she knew he forgave her, but since the incident he hasn't talked to her. True, it was only a day ago, but still, she felt he might not like her.
Logan looked at Camille and gave a subtle nod. "Let's do this then." He cracked a small smile to calm her nerves. He could tell she was nervous about working with. She had a logical reason, but in Logan's mind the incident was ages ago and he doesn't care anymore.
She smiled back, almost hesitantly, but was a lot calmer about it. It seemed like he forgave her for the incident, which he did.
Kendall and Carlos left the two and they walked into the small gas station store. There was only a few aisles so there wasn't going to be much they could find.
"You take that side, and I'll take this." He gestured to both ends of the stores.
"Got it." She whispered out just in case there was something non-human in there with them.
Logan quietly, but quickly made his way across the store; hand resting calmly on his gun strapped to his waist. Camille walked with the nine-millimeter she got from James earlier that morning. It would be far too hard to kill zombies in such a closed off space with her sniper.
Logan looked around; there wasn't much in this store. He was hoping since the street looked rather deserted that not many people knew of the store, but practically everything was either gone or rotting away with flies around it.
He picked up a bag of brownies and made a look. The brownies were all melted at the bottom of the bag, and there was some fuzz growing stuff on top of it. He was about to place the snack back on the shelf but dropped it when he heard a scream.
Camille!
Letting the bag drop on the floor he ran through the aisle to hear a crash and another scream from Camille.
"GET OFF ME!"
Running across the store he ran into the aisle where Camille was saying some very vulgar words. "GET OFF ME, YOU MOTHERFUCKING ZOMBIE!"
He turned and saw her struggling with a walker on top of her snapping its teeth, attempting to reach any skin it could bite. But Camille's grip on its neck kept it from biting her, yet he could see she wasn't going to last much longer.
On pure reflexes Logan's hand went to his back, gripping the end of his machete with a firm grip and threw it. The machete zipped through the air and sheathed into the zombies head. He made a gasping sound then fell limp in Camille's grip.
With a pained groan she pushed it away from her, panting heavily. The adrenaline was still pumping through her like crazy as she lay on the floor. She thought she wasn't going to make it. The pain on her hand was making her lose her grip, and just a few seconds more and it would have been able to bite her.
The front door swung open, and on instinct Logan pulled his gun out and pointed it at whoever was coming in. He sighed when he saw Kendall and the others barged in guns blazing. Logan lowered his hands and extended his arm out to Camille. She looked at it then pulled up, throwing her hands around him.
"Thanks."
Logan smiled and patted her back. "No problem."
"What happened?" Kendall started freaking out the second he heard Camille scream, and with the others he ran into the store. When they ran in they saw Camille on the floor practically heaving, and Logan standing a few feet away from her pointing his gun at them. He didn't care about the gun pointed at him, he just saw the zombie next to Camille dead.
Logan sighed when Camille let go. "Don't worry, problem solved." He walked over to the dead zombie, grabbed the hilt of his machete, bracing his right foot against the head, and pulled out. The sickening sound of flesh being cut through echoed in the small store.
Carlos grimaced, Jo and James looked away the second he pulled it out, Camille was too much in a state of jubilation to notice, and Kendall just looked at Logan with a smirk. Everyday he's known the brunet he's been more and more impressed with what he can do.
Logan wiped the blade clean with his shirt and looked at everyone as he placed it back on his back. "There's nothing we can use in here. Everything's either rotted or stolen already."
"Alright, we got what little fuel they had, let's go."
Kendall cursed under his breath as they turned onto another dirt road. He looked over at Logan who was engrossed in the country map they had.
"Where to?"
He originally had it planned so they would take the side roads next to the highways to California, but an hour into the drive they drove into a pile up.
"It looks like the road where on now will take us around and back on a highway after dark." Logan looked down at the map Kendall had in his dashboard. The dirt road they were on was longer then they would like, but after a bit it would take them back to the highway. And anyways, it was the only way they had sense the pile up blocked them from going through.
Kendall groaned as he slowed the Hummer. "What is with all these pile ups?"
"What?" Logan looked up and saw what Kendall meant. In front of them were two cars blocking the road. "Oh." He looked around, wondering how two cards would get in a crash on a dirt road that was hidden on the map.
Kendall sighed as he grabbed his walkie talkie from on top of the dashboard. "James?"
Noise of static and then a loud click. "Yeah?"
"It's gonna take a lot longer to find another detour, let's just move these cars."
"Ok."
"Camille, Jo, Carlos, Stephanie, keep watch while me and James move these cars out of the way." He waited until he got a reply from each of them.
"What about me?"
Kendall looked at Logan and smiled, "Keep watch with the others. From what I've seen you're a great shot."
Logan almost cracked a smile. "Got it."
The two got out and saw Jo, Camille, and Carlos make a triangle, each in a different direction looking away from the vehicles; Stephanie was on top of the RV with the sniper. Logan followed Kendall and James and stood in front of the cars as the two put them in neutral and moved them by hand.
"This would be so much easier if we used Logan's C-4." James grunted out as they pushed the beaten up car out of the way.
"Not really," Logan said never taking his eyes away from the front of the street. "The explosion could cause a lot of shrapnel and let's not forget the gasoline in the cars. It might not be enough to take, but that little extra gas could make the explosion a lot more hazardous than need be."
James groaned that they couldn't use the C-4; it would be so much easier to blow these cars to Kingdom Come then push them out of the way. They were heavy as shit.
Stephanie was on top of the RV watching in all the directions. She didn't like the coincidence of two pile ups, both of them on them on their way to California. She also didn't like how this pile up left them vulnerable from pretty much all sides. She squinted her eyes.
Shit.
From the back side there was a hoard of runners coming at them extremely fast. She turned to scream, but when she did she saw some more runners sneaking up where Logan, James and Kendall were.
"RUNNERS!"
Everyone froze in place for a second, and then grabbed their guns. Just as they did the runners from behind finally reached them, and the ones that snuck up on Logan, Kendall and James were there too.
James looked up the instant Stephanie shouted out and hated his life. "Fuck." Right in front of him was a runner to close for him to do anything. He shut his eyes tightly waiting for the pain, but then a loud shot rang in his ears. Opening them back up he saw the zombie fall to the ground, Logan a few feet behind gun pointed in his direction. He still really felt like a douche for going through his stuff now. "Thanks!"
Logan nodded and stuck out a hand. "I need another gun, you two keep working on moving the cars out of the way." James threw his and Logan caught it.
James looked at Kendall and both nodded, a look of determination burned in their eyes.
While the two moved the cars the others were doing their best to kill all the zombies that were near them. Stephanie had to forget about the sniper because somehow they snuck up without being seen or heard and were to close for that gun. She dropped it on the top of the RV, grabbing her gun that was strapped to her side and started shooting any zombies too close to the RV.
Carlos, Camille, and Jo were doing alright. There weren't as many as they thought there would be from all the sudden snarls and groans and most of them were walkers anyways. They easily cleared the dozen or so that attacked them, but continued to hear snarling. They looked to where Kendall, James and Logan were and realized why it was so easy to take them out.
It was a distraction.
Logan was outnumbered by far. He was fighting off twenty or so walkers coming at him and James and Kendall. He already told them once not to stop what they were doing, and even though they protested they did as he asked and continued moving the last car.
"BEHIND YOU!" Logan's head snapped at Katie's voice, his eyes widening when he saw her outside of the RV where it wasn't safe.
"Shit." Just when she yelled that he ran out of bullets.
There was only his last resort he could use now. Most though that guns were his last resort, no, they were one of his last, but they weren't the final one.
He tapped the tip of his right shoe on the ground, a small clicking noise resonated off of them and a small blade popped from the back of his heel. He did a cartwheel feeling the back of his heel make contact with a face and the sound of flesh ripping apart could be heard.
He landed back on his feet and did the same thing with his left foot, both now having blades sticking out of his boots.
"KATIE, GET INSIDE! NOW!" Kendall was freaking out even more as he saw his little sister being outside of the RV. He quickly sighed as he saw Camille push her back in and turned his attention back to Logan and moving the car. As he helped James move the car he stared at Logan from the rear view mirror. Now that he didn't have a gun with him he seemed to be fighting almost angry. Flipping and kicking any zombie too close. Every time he made contact with one they died.
Logan counted the last ones around him.
Seven.
He could take care of them rather quickly. Not waiting for the others to jump in to help him he heard another snarl from behind him and spun kicking with the back of his heel. Breaking into the zombies' skull; killing it instantly. The blade wouldn't break away from the skull so when Logan's foot touched the ground the zombie was still attached to his heel.
With his free leg he kicked the head away; successfully freeing himself just as another walker was about to try and bite him. He grabbed the blade that was ticked in his jeans and took it out of its protective leather guard, stabbing the zombie in the head.
Six.
He took the blade out and spun again, this time a blade from his heel made contact with another zombie head, and the knife in his hand sliced its way through to another head.
Four.
There was one getting too close to James and Kendall for Logan's liking so he threw the blade. It spun in the air until the zombie gasped and fell to the ground with it sticking out of the side of its head.
Three.
One lazily made its way to the front of him and he didn't even have to do a fancy move to take it down. He just cracked its neck, while snapping its neck he killed another one with the blade in his heel as it was stalking its way behind him.
One.
It was at his side, and when he looked at it he caught a glimpse of something in the distance. It looked like a person standing, but it wasn't. The clothes it was wearing was something Logan wouldn't forget, the color so bright it stuck out like a sore thumb. Bright sky blue.
He ran to the zombie still in front of him and snapped its neck, then turned and ran to Kendall.
"Logan, that was gre-"
Logan ignored Kendall's compliment as he violated Kendall's personal space and grabbed his gun that was tucked in his waist. With the gun firmly gripped in his hands Logan spun on his heels and pointed it at the one in the sky blue suit. He didn't even hesitate when he pulled the trigger.
Everyone was silent as they watched Logan grab Kendall's gun and shoot out randomly into the distance. They all turned and realized what he was shooting at. In the distance was a zombie in a bright sky blue suit.
The bullet flew through the air and hit the target. Logan could see the zombie stumble and grab its shoulder. Even from this far away Logan could just feel the glare it was giving him. Without a second wasted, the zombie turned and ran away from them.
Logan was about to follow him, but stopped in a flinch when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Doing his best not to attack whoever it was he turned to see Kendall giving him a look. Something about the way Kendall was smiling so sadly, but at the same time grateful, calmed Logan more than he ever thought. Whatever rage he had for the zombie who clearly set up the trap they were in vanished without a trace.
"Don't worry about him; let's just make sure you're alright."
For some unknown reason Logan couldn't speak. All he could do was nod at Kendall and give the gun back.
Kendall led Logan back to the others; the street now clear of any cars blocking their way. He never wanted to see that look on Logan's face again. All the pain and anguish Logan has been trying to hide away Kendall saw the instant he saw that zombie in the distance. He didn't know why, but he knew something was different with that zombie, and that Logan was somehow involved.
As he led Logan to the RV where everyone was at now he saw that Logan was in a sort of daze. He saw that Logan liked to stay in his mind a lot when something happened. He didn't want Logan just to rely on his mind; he had the blond leader and the others now too.
"Here, sit."
Logan sat in a chair Carlos brought out of the RV as he let Camille inspect him for any wounds, which of course he didn't have any, but they wanted to make sure.
"He isn't hurt…" was all Camille could say. She was still grateful with Logan saving her life, but after watching him slaughter so many zombies without even breaking a sweat. She could honestly say she was a little scared of him right now; especially, with all the blood covering his body.
Kendall kneeled in front of Logan and their eyes met. "You ok?" For a second Kendall could finally see the Logan from before the apocalypse: a scared kid who wants his mom. But it was quickly pushed away and Logan's face and eyes became neutral.
"I'm fine, we should get going before more of them come. All the gunshots probably attracted more of them." He looked at his clothes and at the Hummer. "I have clothes in my bag; I'll change while were driving."
Logan's eyes slowly started to close as he stared at Kendall drive. The second they were back on the road Logan quickly changed into clean clothes and threw the bloody ones out the window. And even though he did his best to fight it, the adrenaline crash hit him hard. But for once in Logan's life, he wasn't worried. He felt safe, and as he stared at the blond leader drive the Hummer he knew why.
Kendall Knight made him feel safe.
