Welp, I'm back from vacation. I would have had this out sooner, but I was super busy this week. I had my college orientation (a two day, overnight one) on Wednesday and Thursday, I hung out with my friends on Tuesday, and yesterday my friends and I had a sleep over where we watched the first 10 episodes of Korra before watching the final two this morning for the finale of the season. I screamed so much this morning. You guys have no idea. FO SHIZZLE. I think we scared the shit out of the neighbors from all our screaming.

Anyway, you guys don't care about that. So, without further ado, have another chapter. For those of you wondering when Alex is going to decide to just kick ass... don't worry. It's gonna happen soon. )


They were about to step out of the elevator, but Alex threw up his arm, holding them back. They stopped and immediately realized why he had stopped them. An arm of a Tank could be seen in the doorway leading out into the edge of the building. This part of the hospital was under construction, boxes and construction material strewn around the area.

The only way through was past the Tank. There would be no way out of this fight. Alex bit back a sigh. He was getting really tired of these Tanks. They would be so easy to take down on his own, but when he was with others, he had to walk around as though tiptoeing so as to not call attention to himself. He snorted, accidently causing them all to look at him. Well, he was doing a bang-up job of that.

Slowly, quietly, he began reloading his shotgun and the others began to reload their weapons as well. Alex hesitantly walked out of the elevator, knowing that if he got too close to the infected, it would charge. As he moved, he got a better view of what was out where the tank was. A swift, steep drop straight down. There was no wall, only open space looking out over the stormy skies. Quickly, he began to formulate a plan in his mind. It would be risky and just plain stupid, but it would most likely work. The infected weren't really know for their thinking ability or lack thereof.

He turned to the group and whispered, "Now I'm about to do something really stupid, so please keep your distance so you don't get caught up in it, too."

Before they could ask him just what kind of stupid he was going to dish out this time, he took off running straight towards the open doorway. The Tank finally heard his feet and turned with a roar. Alex threw his body backwards, sliding under the Tank's arm and quickly jumping back up to his full height, continuing his path towards the edge of the building, hoping the hulking creature would follow him. He shot blindly over his shoulder at it with one of his pistols for good measure.

The whole building seemed to be shaking as the Tank decided that Alex had to die, following after him. Alex threw himself off the building, feeling as though time seemed to stop for a while. His memories flashed back to New York, where he jumped off buildings and over them with ease. Time flooded back and he twisted in the air so that he faced the infected as he plummeted down, throwing his right arm out. His fingers brushed over the edge of the floor and he gripped onto it tightly, placing his feet against the building.

There was another roar as the Tank followed in Alex's footsteps. Though, instead of grabbing ahold of the building again, it continued with its decent, roaring all the way down until it impacted against the pavement below with a loud thud. He held back the urge to laugh. He heard a few shots and the few normal infected that had been drifting around collapsed to the ground. One even tumbled off the building, joining the Tank in the streets below. He looked up as a shadow fell over him. Bill crouched at the edge of the building, arm outstretched.

Alex thrust his left arm up, gripping onto the veteran's extended hand. He pulled him back up onto solid ground and Alex scuffed his feet over the floor as though to prove to himself that it was back. The others just stared at him, though Zoey had a look of amazement on her face, like usual.

"That was like how they used to kill bison! Make them dive off a cliff!" She gripped her hands tighter around her pistols, her smile faltering, "But wasn't that a little too reckless? What if you weren't able to grab back on like that? What if you had kept falling?"

"Then the infected below would have made for a cushy landing. Now, come on, let's go. There's a safe house ahead," he pointed at the symbol for the safe house, turning their attention off of him for the moment and noted that they all relaxed visibly at the sight of the sign spray-painted onto the wall. The growling of a hunter met their ears and they immediately tensed up again, ready to shoot whenever it decided to show itself. They moved forward as a group, weapons at the ready. Alex saw it coming around a dark corner thanks to his enhanced eyesight.

Quickly, he raised one of his pistols and shot it right in the head. It slumped to the ground and, to distract himself from their watching eyes, he busied himself with shooting some other infected that were in the area, continuing forward towards the safe house like nothing had happened. He was just growing tired. Tired of shooting guns like a human. Tired of wearing this mask of his to fool others.

Tired of living like a human.

Mentally, he shook his head, scattering those dangerous thoughts. He was human now, whether he wanted to be or not. He has sworn to himself that he wouldn't go back to the way he had been back during the outbreak. He had already gone back to absorbing the infected, but that was because he was under direct orders to do so. He didn't really want to take a step past that and move on to humans. He knew that he would eventually if his anger rose. Many people had pointed out the obvious to him: his anger management wasn't the best. His sister had told him that the most. That brought up another reason why he wouldn't allow himself to fall back down.

He had promised his sister that he would continue to be as human as long as he could and he figured that the small amount of time since the last outbreak wasn't going to count as that long of a time.

They dashed around a few more corners, finally reaching the safe house and slamming the large metal door shut behind them. Collectively, they let out a sigh of relief except Alex, who just started piling things in front of the door with cool calculations. Once he was done with that, he retreated to a corner separate from the others, ripping his bandages off his wound. It was fully healed now, unfortunately. He had been able to hold off his healing abilities for only so long.

Discarding the bandages, he zipped up his jacket to hide any evidence that the wound was no longer there. Hell, even his body had mended his "clothes" without his consent. He grabbed some more ammo, reloading his guns as he did so. He shoved the extra ammo in his pockets and walked back over to his corner, placing his back against the wall. He slid down to the floor and sat there, closing his eyes as though he was sleeping. They wouldn't disrupt him in they thought he was sleeping and he knew that he had to take that to his advantage.

When he figured that the rest of them had had long enough to rest, he got back up to his feet and moved toward the exit. The others immediately got to their feet to follow after him like loyal dogs. He took the bar off the door, not even bothering to look out through the openings in the door. Throwing the door open, he marched out, taking out a few zombies within a few steps, his face grim as he made his way down the hallway.

The only creatures wandering the hallways seemed to be normal infected, but a belch from somewhere down the poorly lit hall told him that a Boomer lurked in one of the shadowed rooms. He continued walking and he knew they others were giving him odd looks and trading glances amongst themselves at his odd behavior. He just wanted to get out of here. He was starting to feel cramped after being allowed to us his abilities again, only to have to squash them back down once he was put on babysitting duty. His fingers were twitching to turn into claws.

The Boomer jumped out of the room in front of him, ready to vomit its bile all over the group, but he was ready. He pushed the infected backwards and jumped back at the same time so that it was a safe distance away before shooting it in the stomach, watching it explode all over the nearby surfaces. He traipsed forward through the blood and guts and the sound of crying met his ears. His frown deepened. Great. Just what he needed at that moment, another Witch.

He peeked down a hallway to their left and found the elevator shaft. Walking over to one of the vents at the side of the open elevator door, he kicked the metal and it gave. Getting down into a crouch, he slid through. The others followed him as he stood looking down into the darkness. The crying was louder now. The Witch was nearby, but he couldn't see her. The others whispered warnings amongst themselves and turned off their flashlights. Alex followed suit, his eyes working just fine in the dark thanks to his heat vision.

"Any of you have a Molotov by chance?" He whispered to them, trying to pinpoint the Witch's exact location. It seemed to be near the top of the ladder, but he couldn't truly tell if that was just the noise playing tricks on his ears in this enclosed place. They all shook their heads at his question and he held back a sigh. Looks like they would have to take down the infected Witch quickly with the good, old fashioned way. A bullet to the back of the skull. He slid his pistols into the back of his jeans and pulled his shotgun off his back.

He motioned for them to stay back, ignoring their expressions of fear and suspicion while he crept over to the foot of the ladder, peering up to the area above. He couldn't see anything, but the crying was definitely coming from somewhere up there. He placed one foot on a rung and paused, peering up, craning his neck to try and see more of the area up there. She continued crying, so he put a hand on the side of the ladder, tucking the shotgun up against his chest with his other hand. He went up a few more rungs and the crying still continued. It wasn't until he was level with the area above that the noise stopped.

A growl reverberated through the air, echoing on the metal surfaces. He glanced behind him sharply and saw two glowing eyes staring at him. Biting his bottom lip, he tried to make his way back down the ladder without angering her anymore than he already had with his presence. Rung by rung, he lowered himself back down to the platform below, but the growling still continued. Then, with a roar, he heard her leap up and run towards the ladder, intent on coming down and ripping them all to pieces. This time he didn't even try to stop the sigh that left his mouth.


ALEX IS GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF THIS WEAK BULLSHIT. Yes... yessss. Alex, give into your inner demon/virus and rip everything apart. :D

Please review!