From here on now, the chapters are going to be very action-packed and drama filled. I hope you enjoy. I did double check for spelling and grammar, but I'm sorry if I few slipped through the net – I was watching the closing ceremony for the Olympics while writing this; which is so very distracting.
The next day was surprisingly bright and hot. And a heavy smell of diesel and something unidentifiable hung around the air; But Magnus was just glad that he was able to enjoy the outside without having the worry of something jumping out at him. He stretched his arms above his head and his back clicked, he winced and leant his back against the outside wall of the tattoo shop and turned his gaze to some sorry looking flowers growing through the cracked concrete floor of the patio out the back. It was times like this he wished he could fish out a cigarette from his pocket and enjoy the morning glow while exhaling smoke up into the air.
"Peaches?" Alec questioned, he appeared at the doorway and padded out to join Magnus, stifling a yawn with his free hand – Magnus noticed he was barefoot and, if he had a pot handy, he would totally paint those toenails a nice sparkly blue. "Peaches?" Alec questioned again, he held out a can of tinned peaches towards the taller male who scrunched up his face is disgust "Ew" He complained, nevertheless he took the can and a camping spork from Alec before digging in, his stomach growled loudly "So gross, but after drinking that gone-off milk yesterday I think I corroded my remaining tastebuds so everything I eat tastes like shit, are these even peaches?"
Alec chewed on a piece of diced peach and pulled a face, he obviously agreed with Magnus but continued eating due to his complaining stomach, he gave a half-shrug "Apparently so. But I'd kill for some coffee though" Magnus hummed in agreement and threw the now empty can towards a bucket holding stagnant water in the corner of the patio; it bounced off the side and rolled away. "What's Hodge up to?" He asked after a while.
"He's raiding the flat upstairs for 'supplies', so he says" Alec said "I saw him eyeing up the jewellery box earlier so I bet that'll be missing in record time" Magnus chuckled "He really can't help himself, can he. Mind you, I'd much rather him be satisfied by stealing. I bet an angry Hodge is something you don't want to see" Magnus said in response, he watched as Alec took a gulp of his water and his Adam's apple bobbed. Fuck, he really did need a cigarette.
"Hey Alec" Magnus said casually "Have you ever had a girlfriend?"
Alec spluttered, water trickling down his chin and splashing onto his shirt "W…What the heck? That was a bit random, and not to mention personal"
"I'm just making conversation – Besides, you didn't answer my question, have you had a girlfriend?"
"No" Alec blushed "Have you?"
"Actually, I have" Magnus said, and Alec's eyes widened "Really? I thought you were…err…"
"Gay?" Magnus finished, he wanted to laugh at the way Alec nodded shyly "I'm actually bi. Wait here for a minute" Magnus suddenly walked off, leaving a confused Alec in his wake. A few minutes later Magnus returned, he had an envelope in his hands and he handed it to Alec. Alec's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but he carefully opened in and looked at the contents "Wow, she's so pretty!" He said, going through the photos.
"Yeah" Magnus said solemnly "We were kind of going out, but we were more like fuck-buddies than anything. I came back to the hotel and she'd turned into one of them" He sighed "I miss her a lot but I think she knew that I didn't love her as much as I could have. God, I'm becoming such a soppy person – blame it on those freaking undead people. But at least I've got good company with me" He gave a short laugh and a joking wink.
"I…I'm really sorry about that" Alec paused "I don't really know what to say…or think for that matter. And I have to ask this simply because I'll die if I don't. But is this some weird way or trying to come onto me?"
Magnus burst out laughing "Here I was, trying to be heartfelt and you thought I was coming onto you"
"You weren't?" Alec asked.
"No" Magnus flashed him a coy grin "But if you're interested in tasting a piece of the exquisite Magnus Bane I wouldn't complain"
Alec looked horrified "I…You…I…I'm not gay" He spluttered "And that is possibly the cheesiest pick-up line I've ever heard"
"Liar, you said you were out and proud. Pitching for the other team. Tasting the rainbow. Anyway, need I remind you that you were the one who brought it up in the first place?" Magnus grinned.
Alec looked like he wanted to ground to swallow him up, thankfully, before he could suffer anymore embarrassment, Hodge appeared in doorway sporting a rather lovely watch that he hadn't been wearing earlier "Are you two okay? I heard shouting"
"We're fine!" Alec said briskly, and raced past Hodge to busy himself in packing the rucksack, Hodge gave Magnus a questioning look but he merely laughed and shook his head before joining Alec inside. "Where are we going off to then?" He asked, pulling his leather jacket on. Well, it wasn't really his, but he found it at the back of the wardrobe in the flat upstairs and he couldn't leave such a fabulous garment behind. Hodge gestured for him to wait for a minute, before going through the inside pockets of his tweed jacket, he pulled out a crumbled piece of paper and handed it to Magnus "We're going to the Mall Shopping Centre in central Luton; I found this on the bedside table upstairs and I thought it was interesting"
Magnus unfolded the paper and looked at what was written on it, it was about A5 in size and had a couple of coffee-ring stains on the surface, and the whole piece was full of notes (And a rather interesting doodle of Justin Beiber having his hair shaved off in the lower-right hand corner) which mainly consisted of phone numbers and addresses. "There" Hodge said, he tapped a finger on a line of writing written in biro, it read 'Luton, Mall-Shopping centre. Safe haven, possible utopia. Must buy bread and pack of condoms from shop', Alec had joined them and looked at the paper with confusion "Are you telling us we need to buy bread and condoms?" He asked Hodge who rolled his eyes.
"No, but I think we should check this Mall-Shopping centre out. I was having a look around their room and came across a note-pad where the occupant had written about the diseased. Sort of like a diary, and.." He trailed off and picked up nearby notebook, he flicked through the book and showed them a specific page which had last week's date labelled at the top. "According to this page, the occupant received a phone call from her boyfriend about how they should go to this Mall place because there's a rumour going around that it's a possible safe-haven, the person writing then goes into detail about needing to buy some reserves. And…" Hodge flicked to the next page, which was blank "That's the last entry, I'm guessing she got attacked and killed"
It took and few moments for Magnus and Alec to process this, but when they did, Alec was the first to spoke "I think we should go" He said "I mean, we don't want to be stuck here forever, and you never know! There might be something there" Magnus nodded in agreement and went to grab for the rucksack, but Alec shot him a look and slung it onto his back instead "Some zombie bite isn't going to stop my back from working" He said in reply to Magnus's expression.
"Okay then" Hodge folded the coffee stained paper and put it inside the diary before sliding that into his pocket. He then grinned and pulled some gold items from his breast pocket and inspected them, a pretty brooch and a medium sized locket, along with some earrings. Hodge opened the locket and frowned at the picture of a man inside, before pulling the small photo from the frame and chucking it onto the floor, he gently closed the locket and put the items back in his pocket "We better get a move on then" He said.
Magnus frowned and gestured to Hodge's pocket "Aren't you going to put that back? That's some person jewellery there"
Hodge rolled his eyes, a look of agitation on his face "Seriously? She's dead, some zombie isn't going to bother about wearing a brooch or a locket, besides, the price for scrap 9ct gold is at its highest at the moment and by my estimates, would fetch me roughly 80-100 pounds"
"Look" Alec interrupted, he pulled the gold from Hodge's pocket and picket the photo up from the floor, he took some time to slide the crumpled photo back into the locket "This is person and what if the person isn't dead? We've already taken some of the clothes so we should leave the more personal items behind" He handed the jewellery back to Hodge who nodded "Okay then" He said tightly, clearly not liking that he was being told what to do by someone less than half his age. He strode towards the door that linked the back of the tattoo shop to the stairs which led to the apartment upstairs before pulling it open. Only to scream. A body stumbled from behind the door and collided against Hodge, pushing the elder man against the dirty floor.
"M…M…Mineee…" The diseased cried, it was undoubtedly female and the only piece of clothing on its body was a tattered summer dress, it's long blonde hair was matted, and a few clumps were missing to reveal bloody patches of scalp. His long, bony fingers scraped around Hodge's wrist "M…Mine" She gurgled, spittle and blood flew from her mouth and she raised her head, her swollen, milky eyes connecting with Hodge's terrified ones.
"Help" He croaked helplessly, but the diseased continued to scrape at his wrist, while the other hand roamed his body– yet, she wasn't showing any signs of desire to attack him "Mine" She said again.
"The watch and the locket!" Magnus said "She wants the watch. Hodge, give her back to her"
"No. it's mine now! Not hers!" Hodge said, he brought his knee up sharply so it collided with the diseased's stomach, she paused, before growling possessively and lunging for his arm. She sunk her teeth into the fleshy part of his hand and Hodge screamed "Stop screaming!" Alec said, he approached the diseased woman with his crowbar raised above his head "Noise attracts them and more will come if you keep screaming blood blue murder" He brought down the crowbar which made a disgusting noise as it hit the back of the woman around the head, the curved end of the crowbar had broken through her skull and was wedged within her head – Alec heaved it back and a clump of shattered skull broke away from her head, causing gloopy brains to trickle down her back. She slumped against Hodge who yanked his hand away from the now dead woman's mouth, whimpering at the pain which surged through his body.
"Hold still" Magnus said, he grabbed a bottle of water from the rucksack and grabbed Hodge's hand tightly, attempting to pour water onto his hand with the other "Maybe we can flush it out"
"Fuck, stop!" Hodge hissed "Don't waste the water, that's the only bottle we have left" Magnus paused sharply, and some water sloshed out of the bottle and splattered against the floor, he released Hodge's hand and put the bottle cap back on the bottle "Okay then!" Magnus said "Go die then, is that what you want, to die?!"
"No" Hodge moaned, he gripped his injured hand tightly, the wound already looked inflamed and extremely painful "I don't want to die. Not yet" His eyes suddenly sparked and after a moments pause he ran off towards the stairs to the apartment, Magnus and Alec ran up after him "Hodge! Hodge! What are you going to do?" Alec yelled worriedly after him, forgetting to keep his voice at a lower register. Hodge ran into the kitchen of the apartment and started going through the drawers; there was a trail of blood on the floor which lead to a pantry whose door was wide open, it was obviously where the diseased had been hiding and Magnus couldn't help but feel lucky that she hadn't escaped while he was having a shower the night before.
"Aha!" Hodge said, his eyes were wide as he raised a large, rather brutal looking knife – the kind that was popular amount preparing Chinese cuisine "I'll cut my hand off" He said with a sense of determination "And I'll stop the infection reaching the rest of my body"
"Are you mad?!" Magnus screamed "You can't do that"
Hodge placed his wounded arm on the kitchen worktop and raised the knife above it like he was about to cut up a cucumber, Magnus went to go forward but Alec held him back, there was an expression of sadness him his lovely blue eyes "Stop" He said quietly "Not you too" Magnus hissed "Hodge is going to kill himself!"
"No…" Alec shook his head "He wouldn't kill himself, and if we patch up the wound correctly after and control the blood loss, Hodge's health shouldn't be impacted. Impromptu amputations were common during WW2 in order to prevent diseases from spreading through the body and like Hodge said, this might be the only way to save him"
Magnus looked desperate "B…But…"
"Can someone help me with this?" Hodge questioned from behind him, Magnus noted that while his voice did waver slightly; he sounded so sure of himself for a guy that was actually going to hack off his own hand.
Alec took a look at Magnus's green face and sighed "I'll help you" He said eventually, and plodded over towards Hodge. Magnus clamped his hands over his mouth and dry heaved, he barely made it to the toilet before those damned peaches decided to make a not-so-pleasant reappearance, distantly, he could hear Alec talking "Are you sure about this?...Okay, just close your eyes and keep your arm steady…I'm going to try and cut it off quickly by getting the blade between the Radius and the Carpal Bones before doing the same to the Ulna…Okay?..." There was a sickening thud, followed by the sound of bones snapping and Hodge trying and failing to hide his sharp cry of pain. Magnus gripped the top of the toilet system and heaved again. It didn't sound that bad –In fact, it sounded like someone was just preparing a turkey ready for Christmas- but the underlying fact that they were not preparing turkey, but doing an amputation of all things churned his stomach.
"It's safe now" Alec called, his voice rung like a bell through the air. Magnus shakily wiped a hand down his face and sighed, before going back into the kitchen. Alec –despite the look of repulsion on his face- had used copious amounts of bandage and padding to protect the end of Hodge's bloody arm. He approached them and tried to ignore the severed hand on the worktop.
"Fuck" Hodge swore, his face was pulled into a tight expression of pain and Magnus handed him a pack of Paracetamol from the first aid kit, Hodge took them from his hands and put three in his mouth, swallowing them in one go and grimacing at the taste "Okay" Alec said to himself, he eyed the Aid kit and pulled out some bandage tape before wrapping it around the circumference of Hodge's forearm; making sure that all of the dressings were tight around the wound "Hurts" Hodge complained, and Magnus had to bite his lip to stop himself from saying something sarcastic, because really, the guy had just hacked his hand off and he was complaining it hurt.
"That's the disinfectant and distilled water; I've just up most of the supplies in here" Alec said as he tapped the first aid kit "But hopefully, by keeping it clean it shouldn't get infected. I'm no doctor, and because of that I can't sew the wound up – we'll have to find a hospital where you can get properly treated"
"Yeah" Hodge said, a little numbly "I know it was drastic, but I would rather live on missing a hand than turn into one of them and die"
"That's understandable" Magnus said, he was starting to see his point – but he still felt it was unneeded to get rid of his hand.
"This medical stuff" Hodge said "How do you know so much?"
"I passed Medical class" Alec said with a shrug, he pulled back and inspected the bandaged left arm before raising his eyes to him "Also; I'm no good at fighting, but my brother always getting into scraps on the streets so I had to patch him up before the parents found out"
"Ahh…" Hodge said, and Magnus could see he looked a little drowsy; the med's must have kicked in.
"We should stay here. I know we were planning on leaving today, but after a day's rest Hodge should be back to his full strength" Magnus said to Alec, who nodded. Magnus pursed his lips thoughtfully before leaning close to Alec's ear; if what he wasn't going to say something so serious, he would have laughed at the blush on his friends cheeks "Now…" He whispered "…Would be a great time to do a runner, while Hodge is drowsy" Alec shot Magnus a disbelieving look "Magnus, we can't leave an injured person to fend for himself" He chided, and Magnus mumbled something about Alec not being his mother under his breath in reply.
"I'm fine" Hodge said suddenly; he didn't appear to have heard their conversation, but Hodge always wore a poker face so it was kind of hard to tell, he blinked a few times before standing to his feet shakily. He looked at his arm, devoid of a hand and padded with bandages before grabbing his jacket from the sofa and pulling it on "Let's get going"
"No" Alec said "You've lost some blood and it would be better to rest before leaving"
"Frankly. I don't want to be here a single more minute" Hodge snapped "And you said yourself that it would be better if we found someone who has some sewing skills to make the wound a little neater"
Alec fell silent, and he looked like he was about to say a retort, but at the last minute he nodded slowly "Fine" He said, he packed the First-Aid supplies back into the rucksack and refastening the two man tent to the top. Finally, he pulled it onto his back and strapped up the front. "Can you carry this for me?" Hodge asked, offering Magnus his mace. Magnus hesitated, before gingerly taking it and trying to not focus on the fact that this very weapon had made Hodge a wanted man.
"Let's get this show on the road then" Hodge said, with a tight smile that just managed to conceal the expression of pain on his face.
It hadn't taken them longer than an hour to find the shopping centre, and they only bumped into a few diseased which were quickly finished off with a blow to the head with a mace. The building's white exterior was grimy with a thick layer of dirt and –in some area's blood- which gave it the overall impression of being quite depressing. "This is it?" Magnus questioned, he positioned his hand over his eyes to shade his face from the sun and looked the building up and down "It looks like the kind of place you send mad people, not the place you go to shop" He finished. Alec nodded in agreement and even Hodge joined in "Yes, it doesn't look like this 'safe haven' that it was being described as in the diary" He commented.
Alec walked up the nearby window and peered into the shop, and despite the bright sun outside the shop inside was dark with shadows, it was hard to see anything but the vague shapes of displays and counters. He couldn't help but feel a slight inkling of wrongness that seeped into his mind. There was something so very wrong about this place, it smelt of rotting vegetation and above all; the smell of decaying corpses hung in the air like a suffocating smog. He shook his head and tapped on the window "Hello?" He said, if not a little unsurely "Anyone there?"
There's a thud, and a bloody face pressed itself directly in front of Alec's from the other side of the glass, Alec screamed and stumbled backwards, raising the crowbar in front of him in defence. The flesh of the face that was pressed against the glass looked strange, and the diseased opened its mouth and started to scrape its rotten teeth down the glass in a similar fashion to the ones yesterday.
There's a startled cry, and Alec turned swiftly on the spot, Magnus and Hodge were looking off down the road that they'd just walked down, and there were dozens of them, dragging their half-rotten bodies towards them, moaning pitifully and gurgling congealed blood. In fact, the more they looked around them the more of them they saw, they were dropping out of the trees like rocks, crawling out from behind bins and sliding from inside the shops. They were trapped. They were trapped in a trap that had been set up for them.
"Fuck" Magnus cried "I don't want to die; how will the world live without me?" He sobbed.
The air around them was suddenly filled with the dull clack of wood colliding with the pavement, and all three of them turned swiftly to see that there was a large ladder to their right leading up to the roof of the shopping centre. A girl with a mass of fiery red hair appeared at the top, her pretty face pulled into an expression of extreme worry "Come on!" She yelled "Climb up, they're coming over here fast" Sure enough, the diseased were approaching quickly; Hodge grabbed the ladder and swiftly climbed up, mumbling under his breath. Magnus forced Alec up before him, and he clambered up after him. Halfway up, the ladder moved and Magnus looked up to see there were others grabbing the ladder and pulling up it "Hurry!" The red-head yelled, and Magnus realised that there were pulling the ladder up away from the diseased who were reaching their bony fingers up towards him. He climbed the rest of the way up and jumped onto the roof, landing painfully on his knees next to Alec and Hodge. They were panting, and Magnus's eyes widened, there had got to be at least 50 people crowded around them. And they were normal people.
What shocked him next was that the roof of the shopping centre was littered with tents, there were lines strung between a few of them with wet clothes hanging on it, and overall, the place resembled some sort of village. Other buildings in the shopping complex were linked with the others by ladders that had each end lying on the different buildings, a couple of other curious people ran from nearby buildings and over the ladders to reach the building they were on – given the fact they weren't scared about falling from the ladders into the mass of zombies below, Magnus estimated that they had been living there a long time.
"ALEC!" Someone cried, and a girl pushed through the crowds of people and threw herself onto Alec with such a force that it knocked the black haired male backwards. Another person, a guy with startling blonde hair, followed swiftly after the girl and launched himself at Alec.
"Oh Alec" The girl sobbed, her long hair hung around her face like flawless ink, and she wore a stunning teal-blue dress that Magnus couldn't help but admire, and he had to admit that her knee length boots were possibly the best example of footwear Magnus had ever seen in his life – and that was saying something. It was obvious they were related, from the hair to their matching milky-pale skin. The guy, however, looking nothing like the other two with blonde hair and a modelesque face, he wore some simple jeans and a white shirt along with some NIKE trainers. Magnus couldn't help but feel a flair of jealously rage through his chest at the sight of them, Alec and looked like they were quite familiar with each other.
"What's all the commotion about?" Another voice interrupted, and Magnus saw Female-Alec and 's face turn into an ugly sneer. There were hushed whispers through the crowd and they parted, allowing a guy to walk towards them with an arrogant swagger that made Magnus want to chop his legs off.
The guy paused, and his lips tugged up into a mocking smirk "My, my, my…Look what the cats dragged in" His dark eyes glinted and he inspected each of them with a vague hint of distaste, he looked at Hodge "A cripple" His eyes slid over to Alec "An emo" His eyes flickered to Magnus "And a fag" Alec's fist clenched and he looked like he wanted to punch the guys lights out. The guy turned to the crowd "Who let them up?" He ordered. The people shifted uneasily and the girl with red hair stepped forward, she looked slightly ashamed.
"I did" She said shyly "I'm sorry"
The guy pursed his lips and strode towards her, just when Magnus thought he was going to strike the poor girl across the face, he captured her chin between his fingers and lifted her face up "Give me a kiss and maybe I'll forgive you" He practically purred. Mr. Blondie growled and leapt forward "Get your grimy hands off my girlfriend!" The other guy frowned in his direction, letting go of the girls chin "Watch your mouth, Wayland, or I'll chop it off"
"Excuse me" Hodge piped up, he stood up and straightened his jacket, and Magnus could immediately see that the guy wasn't impressed that Hodge towered over him "Where are we? Who are you?"
The guy laughed "How rude of me!" He exclaimed, and he approached the three of them, at the proximity Magnus could see that the guys eyes were black, juxtaposed by his light blonde hair and pale skin "My name is Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern, but you can call me Sebastian. I'm the leader around here" He paused and waved his hand around the camp around him "And this, is the last remaining pinch of humanity there is. All clustered in this one little meek city" He narrowed his eyes at Hodge "I'm guessing you're the leader of this rag-tag group?" Magnus was about to say that he was, until Hodge broke in "Yes" He said "I am"
Sebastian leant back on his heels and regarded him through narrowed eyes, his right hand lingered around the pocket of his jeans and Magnus could see the faint outline of something. A gun? No, it couldn't be. "Okay then" Sebastian said finally, he turned towards Magnus and Alec "You two, set up camp in an available spot" He then turned back to the large group who continued to watch through wide eyes "And you lot! Go back to whatever shit you were up to. Apart from you Mike, you come with me" A guy with striking Asian features joined Sebastian at his side, while the others began to go back to their tents. Sebastian turned to Hodge and smiled "You and I" He said with a dramatic pause "Are going to have a little chat. Follow me".
With that, Sebastian and Mike strode off towards the far end of the shopping complex; Hodge gave Alec and Magnus one last glance over his shoulder before following them, holding his still tender arm against his chest protectively.
A longer chapter this time (Double the length, in fact) in order to fit everything into one chapter. I was going to split this in the middle and have it as two separate chapters, but because I love you guys so much, and mainly due to the fact that something very 'OMG' worthy is going to be happening in the next chapter that will keep you on the edge of your seat and – it was more convenient to keep all of this in one chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Ps. I actually looked up self-amputation on the internet so I was knowledgeable on the matter before I wrote about it; I didn't want to be vague and skip over the issue. Also, there is a specific reason why I wrote about Hodge having his hand amputated that will become clear in the next chapter; I apologise if it came across as sudden but you'll find out that it was needed to happen.
Thank you for the reviews, they were very appreciated :)