A/N: Wow, my most reviewed chapter yet!! Thank you so much. I just have to say that I love writing this story. My mind is working in overdrive at all the possible paths to take this story! It's so exciting.
Dekiller: LOL, I know I'm being mean to Zoey, but she has some bright moments ahead for her. I think I will let Francis lift her spirits a little. Thank you for the review.
spedclass: Thanks so much!
OclairbearO: Yep, leave it to Bill to just drop the bomb like that! He-he. Thanks for the review
itachirocks31: Awe…I love Zoey!! I really do, but she should have just gotten in the car and maybe she would have been okay…..maybe!! Ha-ha! Smokers are one of my favorite characters to play on versus mode so I had to give it major props! As for the tank and the witch, oh that's gonna be so much fun to write!! Thanks for the review.
AspiringAuthor: Thank you, thank you and thank you!! And as for a sequel…we will see, I mean there are four campaigns right?
Stormic09: Thank you for taking the time for a review before going to bed!! Have a great night and thanks for the review!
TetraLink17: Thank you for stopping by and taking time to read the story. I am a die hard Zoey/Francis fan as well. One of the reasons why I'm writing this is because like you said there aren't many stories out there about them. They have so much potential and I hope I do them justice. Thanks for the review!!
Paladin Juul: Wow, thanks so much for your review and for taking the time to read my story! I am having so much fun writing it. It helps when people like you leave such an awesome comment! Keep them coming.
Recovery
"It's been….two….weeks?" Zoey asked stunned. My God all that time they had lost and all because of her.
She tried to sit up from her cot but found that she had little strength to even lift her head. Zoey was afraid that there was some serious damage done to her body.
"Help me up." She asked.
The guys hesitated a minute looking at each other as if they weren't really sure that was a good idea. No one moved to help her so Zoey tried again to sit up.
She made it half way before collapsing back down on the cot. Everything felt off, like she wasn't in control of her body. For a moment she wondered if that was what it was like for the infected.
"Look guys the quicker you get me off this damn cot the quicker we can leave. We have lost too much time as it is, and we'll be lucky if we are even able to be rescued." She said low.
If they would have only left her they could have been rescued by now. Had she cost them their only chance to survive? All they had to do was walk away and they could have made it. That thought made her feel so miserable.
Francis was the first to move as he leaned down and helped her sit up. She wasn't in too much pain which was a good thing. He sat down beside her keeping a hand on her shoulder just in case she started to fall over.
"How are you feeling?" Louis asked.
"Well, most of the pain is gone but I feel like my body weighs a ton. I feel out of balance."
"It's probably from the morphine we've been giving you. Several times…..you've screamed out in pain." She looked over at Francis as he spoke.
"Do we have any water?" She said straining her parched throat.
Louis walked over to their backpacks and pulled out the bottled water for her. She stared unashamed at the twelve ounce bottle of water. The way she was feeling right now she could drink about fifty of them.
He handed it to her and she slowly opened it bringing it to her chapped lips.
The first taste of the water was something she would remember for a long time to come. She could feel every ounce of it sliding down her throat bringing it to life.
She gulped down the bottled water in record time being very careful not to waste a drop.
After she was finished she felt a lot better. She didn't feel as though her mouth was on fire anymore.
"So two questions", she started, "where are we at and how far is it from the hospital?"
"We are in a vault at a local Pharmacy. We saw it from the road and lucky for us the door was wide open."
She looked around the room as Bill told her where they were. She finally noticed the medications all around her. She knew exactly where they were. Mercy Pharmacy was the only pharmacy that she knew had a vault where they stored their drugs. The workers must have been in a hurry if they left the door open.
"We got real lucky when we found this place."
She agreed with Francis on that.
"And how far are we from the hospital?"
No one spoke for a moment and she took that as a bad sign.
"You want the good news or the bad news first?" She heard Francis sigh as he spoke. He used the same line on her that she did on him back when she was trying to clean his wounds.
"Let's start with the bad news."
"Well we are about eight miles from the hospital and we have no way to get around except to walk."
What in the world did he mean by that she wondered? Wasn't the car still parked outside?
Seeing the confused look on her face, Francis continued. "Well you see a car can only go for so long without gas and once it's empty it doesn't seem to work as well."
He was trying to make light of the situation but she wasn't feeling too amused at the moment.
"If that's the bad news what's the good news?"
"We're alive." Bill spoke before Francis could.
Zoey would agree with that. She might not feel so peachy at the moment, but at least she was still alive.
"So we have some miles to go and on foot huh?" She asked.
The guy's just shook there heads to confirm her question.
"Well I better be getting on my feet and gaining my strength back."
"Zoey you shouldn't overdue it darlin. Rest for a few more days and then we will head to the hospital."
"Francis we have already lost so much in the past two weeks. Because of me we might not have any hope of being saved now."
"Zoey what happened could not be helped. It wasn't your fault you were attacked and hurt." Louis said sitting down on the other side of her. She looked at the man and gave him a small smile. It was a nice gesture to try and make her feel better about the situation but the only thing that could make that happen was for her to be on her feet moving around.
"Well it's 12:30 a.m. and I'm exhausted. Lets get some sleep everyone; we can discuss this in the a few hours." Bill said looking at his watch.
Sleep…..she had been sleeping for two weeks now and she wasn't anywhere near tired anymore.
"You aren't gonna stop trying to get up are you?" Francis asked her.
"Would you?" She asked him defiantly. No he wouldn't stop trying to get his strength back. She could not afford anymore time of sitting around being hurt.
"I guess not." He said looking down at her. They looked at each other for a moment before Francis let out a sigh and stood to his feet. Reaching down he grabbed Zoey gently around the waist and slowly brought her to her feet.
At first, Zoey had to put all of her weight on Francis. She just couldn't seem to find the strength to stand.
"Zoey, do you need to sit down?" Francis asked.
"No, I can do this damn it." She said angrily.
This was the most frustrating thing Zoey ever felt. She would be damned if she let it beat her though. Zoey would be walking on her own before Bill and Louis woke up if it was the last thing she did.
Perspiration was forming on her forehead a couple of minutes later as she found her footing about began taking baby steps. Francis had a tight hold on her but was letting her put most of her weight down.
They walked in a circle without speaking. Zoey was concentrating too much on putting one foot in front of the other.
She was sore and stiff but otherwise felt pretty good. The pain was all but gone.
They had been walking around in this circle for a good half hour before Zoey finally had to sit down. She felt really good about her progress. A few more hours and she should be walking on her own.
Francis walked over to the backpack and grabbed the bottled water and handed it to Zoey.
Zoey noticed how close they were sitting and couldn't stop her stomach from doing flips.
Stealing looks at Francis, she noticed how tired he looked. It was as if he had been up the two weeks she was out. He was staring off at nothing as if thinking of something. It gave her a few minutes to really study him.
The hard lines of his face were noticeable right now and it gave him a rugged look. He was not the most beautiful man she had ever seen but something about him made her heart race.
She wondered what would have happened if things were normal and she had run in to Francis somewhere. Sadly she suspected it wouldn't be very nice. He was a mean looking man until you got to know him.
But in truth, nothing that she would have done in a normal world mattered at this point.
That way of life was over with. It was taken from each of them by a virus from hell.
She turned to look at the men sleeping on the floor. It wasn't as if Francis was the only man left.
Zoey's eyes landed on Louis. He was smart, funny, and good looking. In a normal world he was the kind of guy that she would always fall for. Yet looking at him right now she felt nothing but a strong friendship for her comrade.
So it wasn't that she had no options. 'What is it about this man', she wondered as she turned around to see him staring at her.
She noticed, for the first time, that his eyes were green and were as deep as any ocean.
She would have no problem losing herself in the depths of them and would gladly welcome it.
No, it wasn't the lack of choices that made Zoey long for this man, but it was the man himself.
She realized in such a short time she was starting to fall fast for Francis. It caught her off guard for a moment because truthfully she didn't know a thing about him. All she knew was the stuff he shared with them for that brief moment, yet she was slowly beginning to need Francis but not in the same way she needed Bill or Louis.
The feeling scared her in a way that those monsters could never do.
She watched as different emotions found there way onto Francis' face. Could it be that he was struggling with the same thing she was?
"How old are you Zoey?" Francis whispered.
"Nineteen."
She slowly watched as he leaned down to her. It was as if she was out of her body for a moment watching from a far.
She felt herself mimicking Francis as she leaned up to meet him. For one brief moment Zoey felt as if everything was normal. As if the world outside was the same as it used to be. This man, only inches from her now, was giving her a gift and he didn't even realize it. For the first time since hell was released on earth, Zoey felt human. She felt all the emotions that only a human could feel. Excitement, longing, fear, hope…..love. That is what separated them from the infected. One simple word…..love.
She felt Francis' breath caress her face as he let out a long sigh. Zoey watched him stop and close his eyes.
She felt her heart drop as he moved back away from her.
Confusion was the first thing she felt as she watched Francis put his head in his hands. She wanted to hit him in his thick skulled head but knew it would only cause her pain.
"Zoey I….I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me." He said in a sad voice.
Did he not see that she was moving to meet him? Did he not understand that she wanted this probably more than he did? All these questions were going through her head as she watched Francis torture himself with what he thought was an almost stupid mistake on his part.
Zoey looked away blinking back the tears that tried to make an appearance. She was so close to what she wanted, yet saw it flee in just a second.
'Maybe there isn't any happy endings to be found in this horror movie', she told herself.
Out of the corner of her eye, Zoey watched Francis pick his head up slowly and look at her. She turned away from him so he couldn't see her tears.
He must have taken her reaction the wrong way because he stood up and walked over to Bill and Louis.
"Goodnight Zoey." She heard him whisper.
She laid down facing the wall away from the others and let her tears slowly fall down her face.
She swore she wouldn't cry again, but she felt so rejected. Did she just imagine him leaning in to kiss her?
Her tears finally stopped as she slowly fell asleep.
She was awakened by the sound of low voices talking behind her. Raising her head, she saw Bill, Francis, and Louis eating on the floor and talking quietly about when they would be ready to leave.
She slowly sat up catching the attention of the three men. She was well aware that it was Louis and not Francis who helped her stand to her feet.
The heaviness in her heart just got a little heavier.
She looked over at Francis and noticed he wouldn't look at her.
Standing slowly, Louis helped her over to the sack of food. Zoey noticed that she was able to walk on her own a lot better today.
"How are you feeling?" Louis asked.
"I feel much better." Zoey said smiling at him.
"There's a bathroom in the corner there if ya need it. If you want to take a shower or anything it's got one." Bill said.
Zoey wanted very much to take a shower. She hadn't taken one since they were in the storm cellar at her parent's house.
She shook her head yes and Louis walked with her as she went to the bathroom.
"The towels are on the sink here and we found a few bars of soap that's about it though." Louis said pointing to the towels.
"That will be enough Louis, thank you."
She closed the door after he walked out and leaned on it. Closing her eyes, she tried to get a hold of her emotions. This wasn't fucking high school. They were fighting for their lives here and she had to get her mind on that instead on how much it hurt for Francis to ignore her.
Slowly walking to the bathtub she turned on the hot water.
Zoey stayed under the stream of hot water as long as she could stand it. She was feeling so much better today. The morphine had worn off a lot and she felt like herself again.
Her mind went back to Francis. She was going to have to talk to him. He had totally taken everything the wrong way and she was going to make it right.
Stepping out of the shower she was met with her reflection in the mirror. Her face was as pale as the white walls that surrounded them. There were black bags under her eyes and her face looked as if she had lost a few pounds.
As she put on her clothes she noticed that her favorite pair of jeans weren't as snug as they used to be. 'Well that's one way of losing weight', she thought.
Zoey stepped out of the bathroom door and walked slowly back to her cot. She felt so much better after getting cleaned up.
"When are we leaving?" She asked no one in particular.
They stared at her for a moment before Louis spoke up. "Zoey….um, we aren't sure that you're ready."
"Well I'm walking a lot better and on my own. I think I can be ready to go by tonight."
"We will wait and see. I'm not sure you're ready yet." Bill said.
She took a deep breath. Zoey had to agree with him on that because she wasn't sure either.
Zoey looked back at Francis, who was looking straight ahead at the vault door. He looked as though he hadn't slept any that night.
"Zoey eat this. You haven't had much to eat in the past two weeks."
She looked down to see Bill pressing a bowl of oatmeal into her hands.
She was starving by now and she ate every bit of that oatmeal as fast as she could.
Zoey stopped to see three pairs of eyes on her as she licked her lips clean. The guys were staring at her in fascination like they had never seen a girl eat that fast.
"Let's see you go two weeks without eating much and see how you react." She said defensively.
They all grinned at her, even Francis. She thought that that was good.
"Well we don't have much left Zoey so pace yourself." Louis said bumping her arm with his elbow in a playful manner.
Out of the corner of her eye she watched the smile fall from Francis' face. He looked away from her back to the vault door.
"I'm going to do some more walking around guys, so I can be ready by tonight." Zoey said as she slowly got to her feet.
"Need some help?" Louis said standing with her.
"No thanks Louis, I'm fine." She said patting his arm.
Zoey turned and walked away from the guys to the vault door. Her legs were sore but not enough for her to need assistance. She was damn well going to be ready for tonight. The sooner they all got out of here the better.
There wasn't much food left like Louis said. She knew they would run out in another day or two so it was important for her to be able to leave tonight.
A while later Zoey sat down on the floor beside Bill and Louis. She had done really well walking today and she thought it would be okay to leave soon. Francis was in the shower and Bill and Louis sat eating.
She really wasn't that hungry but knew she would need to eat to keep her strength.
As she raised the first spoonful of food to her mouth she froze.
Walking out of the bathroom, in front of her, was a shirtless Francis. He was holding his shirt and vest in his hands as he walked over to his backpack.
She followed his movements with every step he took unable to take her eyes off of the rippled muscles of his back.
She frowned as he put his shirt on hiding the well defined muscles.
Zoey would never get used to seeing his body, and she tried to hide her ogling as she noticed Bill watching her stare.
She watched Bill look from her to Francis and then back at her. She could see his mind trying to figure out something.
Louis picked up her spoon that had dropped, from her hand, unnoticed and handed it back to her. She smiled sheepishly at him and resumed eating.
"Bill what time is it?" Zoey asked not looking away from the vault door.
"6:30 p.m. why?"
"I think it's time for us to leave." Looking over at Bill she saw how unsure he was about that.
"I'm fine I promise." She said to him.
"You're not ready."
Francis' voice came from behind her. She turned towards him to see him looking at her coldly. Now he wanted to talk to her?
Zoey could feel anger rise up within her and faught to bring it under control. He hadn't said one thing to her all day and didn't even offer to help her with anything but now he expects to be able to put his two cents in.
"Francis I think that is my decision to make not yours." Zoey hated how mad she sounded but she was furious. He was frustrating the hell out of her lately and she had had enough.
"Fuck yeah it's my deccision. We leave and you aren't ready, you could kill us all Zoey. This time we might not be able to save you." He said in a harsh voice.
She stood and slowly walked towards the bulk of a man. She had stopped seeing him before she got on her feet. Now all she was seeing was red.
Zoey grabbed Francis by the vest, with both hands, and yanked him towards her. Her face was only inches away from his as she spoke in a low deadly voice.
"Let's get this straight right now ass hole. Don't think for one second I would ever put any of you in danger. If I say I'm ready that means I'm fucking ready."
She watched his face go from shocked to humor. The crooked smile that she loved so much was shining back at her.
Letting go of him she turned to grab her pistols and backpack.
Zoey reached and opened the vault as the three men stood there watching her in shock.
Standing a few feet from the door was an infected. It looked up at Zoey and came charging towards her as it screamed.
Raising her two pistols, Zoey pressed the triggers and stopped the creature dead in its tracks.
Lowering her guns Zoey looked back at the still three stunned men as she spoke."Recovery's over ladies! It's time to move."
Don't you just love Zoey when she's mad!?! I am starting on the next chapter right now, so if you want that one out today….just review!!