Carly grinned from one ear to the other. She would grin even wider if that was physically possible. Not only had she just awoken in Gibby's warm, strong arms, no she also found her two best friends cuddled together under the blankets of the bed in the second bedroom. She wouldn't say anything though. Sam would rip her head off if she only hinted something like them being a couple or having something going on. So she just strode to her side of the bed and gently shook Sam's arm to wake her up.
The blonde shifted in her sleep uncomfortably, slowly waking up Freddie. Carly grinned at his confused expression. Then Sam's eyes fluttered open.
"Carly?" Sam yawned and snuggled her head back into Freddie's chest who watched with tired eyes, not moving at all.
"What do you want?" The blonde asked, her words muffled by Freddie's shirt.
"You two need to get up, Sam, we have to move on. We've been here almost five hours. That's too long already." Carly said quietly, her hand never leaving Sam's arm.
The blonde's head shot up. "FIVE HOURS?!" She yelled and then struggled to get up as fast as possible. "Let go of me, Benson, we need to get away! Fast!"
Freddie's arms flew to his sides, readying to get up himself. But he still managed to catch the slight grin on Carly's face as she watched Sam bolt out the door.
They left the appartment only 7 minutes later. It was 8:13 PM and the sun had set. All of them were armed again and silently stepped through the messy streets.
"Carly?" Spencer whispered after they had fought another small alien squad.
"What?" His sister whisper-yelled back.
"Well... we are only two blocks from Socko's appartment."
"So?"
"Can we... you know..." Spencer stuttered, "Check on him?"
Carly raised her eyebrows. "I don't know, Spencer..."
"Sure we can." Sam interrupted her.
"Wait- What?!" Carly turned around to face her best friend.
"We don't have anything to do except for kicking butts. Let's check on Socko. Maybe we can save some civilists." She explained simply.
"But don't you think its kind of unfair to Freddie?" Carly asked worriedly looking over at the brunette boy.
Sam just shook her head.
"The Spot can't handle that many injured civilists. We can't save them anyway, we could just give their hidingplace away. It's too dangerous to check on them."
Carly looked from Sam to Freddie. The blonde had a point. The boy eyed her for a minute suspiciously, but then nodded, signaling that he understood.
"Okay." Carly sighed. "Spencer, lead the way."
Her brother nodded and sped silently off to a corner to their right. This was his hood, he'd been at Socko's at least as often as Freddie had been at the Shay's.
Carly set off after him, she knew that Spencer had been worrying about his best friend. Sure, it had been a relief to him that she, Sam, Freddie and Gibby were safe (at least for a short period of time), but he never stopped worrying about Socko and - Carly supposed - about T-Bo, too. Her brother had spent much time with the weird jamaican man who owned the Groovy Smoothie the last few years and they had become close buddies.
The brunette girl bit her lip while running after her brother.
Please, don't let us find anything... bad.
Spencer carefully turned around another corner and then stopped. Carly slowed down and came to a halt next to him.
"That's it?" Gibby asked from behind her, panting slightly.
Spencer nodded, intently looking up at the grey building. Some windows were damaged and the front door was unhinged.
"Spencer, are you sure-"
"Let's go." The man cut his sister off, stepping into direction of the damaged door.
Carly looked at Sam. She shrugged and stepped over a huge piece of wreckage after Spencer into the building.
Carly shuddered as she followed Gibby into the Lobby of the building. Everything was shattered, the power was off and blood was smeared on the walls, obviously from a fight. She might be trained, but nothing had prepared her to actually live through those images that burned into her mind forever.
She grabbed Gibby's hand. The chubby boy looked at her hand a little surprised, but after a look was shared, he squeezed it tightly and lead her towards the stairs.
Of course, there were more things that she didn't want to see, but she couldn't help it. A body of an alien at the bottom of the stairs, blood on the balustrade. Carly shuddered again and squeezed Gibby's hand with almost crushing force, but the boy didn't wince or complain even once.
On the second floor Spencer turned to the right, his face showed a grim expression and Freddie knew that this was a rare sight. Even while they trained together, Spencer never looked this deadly. He gulped audibly and Sam shot him a confused split-second-look.
They stopped in front of the door with the number 215.
The older man slowly opened the door. It was unlocked. Spencer gulped. It was now or never. He pushed the door fully open and heard the hiss that escaped Sam's throat at the squeak that it made.
The room was quiet and dark, enlightened only by the street lamps from the outside. Spencer stepped in. He couldn't see anyone.
Sam stepped in behind the man. She couldn't see anyone either, but she could sense someone - or something.
"Spencer." She hissed. "Be careful, someone's in here."
He nodded shortly. It almost broke her heart how hopeful his eyes fluttered. Sam really hoped that there was a human being in there and that it was... well, alive.
"Spencer?!" A voice from their right called, making them jump.
Their weapons were aimed at the creature at the floor, which stopped dead in its movements.
"S-Spencer, it's me! Socko!" The creature exclaimed.
"Socko?!" Spencer was about to jump to his friend's side, but Carly stopped her brother.
"Ask him something only he could know, we don't know it's him." She said, her gun still aimed at Socko.
"What?"
"We don't know if the aliens can copy our friends. We don't know what they can do. So ask him something only he could know." She explained, her brown eyes never leaving her target.
"Err... Which movie was I told to return to the video rental store ten years after I rented it?"
"What?!" Socko yelled.
"Answer the question!" Spencer yelled back.
"B-Boogie Bear Takes Manhattan." Socko answers obviously scared by the group's behaviour.
"Right! Damn, man, I'm so relieved you're alive!" Spencer bolted to Socko's side.
Carly, Freddie and Gibby put their weapons away, while Sam eyed the room suspiciously, taking a few steps in the direction of the front door, securing it.
"Yeah, me too. It's good to see you, man. You, too, Carly." Socko said.
"Hey Socko." She said, smiling warmly - she grew up with him after all.
"Can you stand up?" Spencer asked.
"No, my leg's broken, I guess. That's why I couldn't leave. I got my Dad's weapon out of his hiding place and stayed here."
Spencer nodded. "Gibby, come here and help me, would you?"
Gibby jumped to Socko's other side, carefully helping him up.
"Are there others in the building, Socko? Other survivers?" Carly asked hopefully.
"No, I don't think so. It was utterly quiet before you guys came up here. But, I think I saw a curtain move in the building across the street, on an upper floor."
"You think someone could be in there?" Carly asked.
"Maybe, maybe it was just the wind." Socko said heavily.
Carly looked at Sam, Sam nodded.
"All right, I'm going to check that. Benson, come with me, Carly's staying with the others." The blonde girl said, she didn't wait for an answer before she stepped out the door.
They made their way through the dark floors of Socko's building and quietly climbed over dead bodies all over the backyard. Freddie almost gagged at the smell they emitted. His stomach turned, he tried to breathe as little as possible, but that only made his head spin after a while. That and the terrible stench.
"You okay?" Sam asked.
Freddie had gotten paler by the second. He was about to nod, she could tell, but then he shook his head. The boy stared at the corpses of the people and aliens for a last time, then he turned on the spot and vomited into a bush.
Sam sighed and went over to Freddie, patting and stroking his back.
"It's all right." She whispered, she never stopped eyeing their surroundings.
After a few minutes, the brunette stood back up and wiped his mouth.
"You don't happen to have a mint?" He asked, the ghost of a smile visible on his face.
"In fact, I do." She passed him a little silver box, grinning at him.
"You never cease to amaze me, Puckett." He chuckled, taking the box from her and plopping a mint into his mouth.
"Ready to go on?" She asked, while she lightly touched his arm.
Freddie grinned slightly and nodded. He knew that this was a sign that she really cared about him. It wasn't much, but coming from Sam Puckett, it was almost like a proposal.
They jogged into the next building, the scene was equal to the one in Socko's building.
Sam gulped. This didn't look good.
They climbed the stairs, checked floor after floor, appartment after appartment, room after room. All they had found so far was blood and destruction. Freddie bit his lip harder with every corpse they found. Then, when they found a little family, a young man lying a few feet away from a young woman, holding a baby, he whimpered.
Sam turned to face him. His eyes were filled with tears and his bottom lip was bloody.
"Freddie...?" She asked, taking a few steps closer to him.
"How-" He choked, then cleared his throat, but it was still scrachy, "How could someone do something terrible like that?"
Sam bit her lip and looked from him to the little family that had died in this room. A happy future that was wiped from this earth.
"I don't know." She said, barely audible. Her eyes lingered on the family for another moment, then she turned to the boy in front of her, pure sympathy in her eyes.
"Come on, let's go." She said quietly, then she walked to his side, put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it tightly, looking at his profile. "There's nothing we can do."
Freddie clenched his jar and nodded. He hated to admit it, but Sam was right. They couldn't do anything for the dead, they could only protect the living. That thought was the one thing that gave him the strength to move again and follow Sam out of the appartment.
Carly had Spencer and Gibby sit Socko at the kitchen table and then made them run around, catching things for her so she could treat Socko's leg.
"There's no sense in wasting time by just sitting here." She had said.
Gibby watched her while she inspected the broken leg and tried to stabilize it with whatever she had. He even had to break a chair's leg off for her so she could splint Socko's leg.
"Where did you learn all this?" he asked in amazement when she steadied the legsplint.
"It was part of my training. We had to be prepared." She said.
Gibby nodded. "Impressive."
"Will he be alright, Carly?" Spencer asked. He had been pacing up and down the kitchen, asking her every two minutes if she needed something.
"Of course he will, Spencer, it's just a broken leg." Carly waved him off. "Okay, I'm done. You shouldn't move to much and Gibby and Spencer will have to help you walk."
"Thanks, Carls." Socko smiled at her.
She smiled back. "No prob, Socks."
Gibby clenched his jar. What was it with the nicknames? He felt a pang of jealousy.
"Do you think Sam and Freddie will find something?" Carly asked the boys.
Socko shrugged. "Won't they rather rip each other's head off? That's the only way I know them."
"They have grown, you know, they can behave in a situation like this." Gibby snapped at him. The others looked at him funny, then Spencer turned to Carly again.
"I don't know, Carls. They might find nothing, they might find things they don't want to find." Spencer looked to the ground.
"What about your cousins, Socko?" Carly asked. Oh, so she knew his cousins, huh? But on the other hand... who didn't know Socko's weird cousins who were all named after their professions. Gibby thought of Ryder, the motorcyclist and Hunter the guy who was a Safari guide.
"I hope they escaped. Penny was here when those monsters came, but she... didn't make it."
"I'm so sorry, dude." Spencer said. He knew Penny had been his favourite cousin. Socko nodded sadly.
"I just hope Sam and Freddie get back soon, so we can get out of here. It's creeping me out." Socko sighed. Gibby rolled his eyes. What a douchebag.
A few floors up Sam suddenly slapped Freddie's chest.
"What the-"
"Shhh! I think I heard something." Sam whispered, approaching from door to door, silent as a ninja.
Freddie was surprised, then he listened. She was right. There was a little rattling coming from down the hall.
"Be careful, Sam." He hissed, but she ignored him.
Standing in front of a door with the number 902 on it, they exchanged a last glance, then Sam silently opened the door, her weapon in hand and Freddie right behind her, his own gun aimed at whatever may dare to move.
They found... nothing. There was nothing to be seen in the dark room.
Sam furrowed her eyebrows.
"Something's in here, I can feel it." She said and Freddie nodded.
They first went check the living room and then room after room, but still found nothing until Freddie heard the rattling again.
"It's coming from this room." He whispered. Sam nodded and opened the door. Again, they found nothing. Just an office with a huge desk and many bookshelves Freddie was about to lower his gun, when they heard the rattling again, followed by a whimper as their heads smacked towards the huge desk.
The blonde put a finger to her lips and motion for the boy to stay were he was. She silently circled the desk and then snatched away the chair, aiming her black gun at whatever awaited her under the table.
Freddie saw Sam's face fall in a split second. What could she have found?
"Sam?" He asked worriedly, as she didn't move for a few seconds, just staring at the thing under the desk.
"Come over here, Benson." She said, no emotion in her voice.
Freddie stepped over to her, his gun still aiming at the underside of the desk, when he stopped next to Sam. His arms and his chin dropped at the same time.
Sitting under the desk was a little girl with blonde curls and brown eyes, smeared with blood and hiding behind a teddy bear. She must be around six.
"P-P-Please, don't hurt me!" The little girl screeched panicked. Sam snapped out of it first.
"Hey girlie, we're not going to hurt you." She said, kneeling down in front of the desk.
Freddie shook his head and kneeled down next to Sam. "Look, we're the good guys, we're here to save you."
The little girl was shaking violently. "Y-You promise?" She was strangling her bear out of fear and hope.
Sam nodded and put on her most sympathetic voice. "I promise. Look, I'm Sam and this is my friend Freddie."
"Is he a good guy, too?" The little blonde asked.
Sam looked over at Freddie and smirked, as if she thought of a mean comment, but decided against it. "Yeah, Sweetie, he is. He's a very nice man and he's here to protect you and me."
"Really?" She looked at Freddie provingly, then back to Sam, who nodded.
"Yes, he's brave and can get us out of here savely."
Freddie looked at Sam funny. First, he had never before in their eight years of friendship heard Sam talk so soft and with so much sympathy in her voice. And second, it was absolutely nothing like her to say such... nice things about him - especially not to other people!
"Mr. Noodles, too?" The little one asked.
"Who's Mr. Noodles?" Sam was confused. Was there another person that needed to be saved? And if so, why was his name Mr. Noodles.
"My teddy of course!" The girl stuck it almost into the older blonde's face.
Sam laughed at that. "Of course! How couldn't I have thought of that. Well, Freddie, do you think we can take Mr. Noodles?"
The brunette boy smirked. "Of course, we can't leave Mr. Noodles here, now, can we?"
The little girl smiled for the first time and hugged Mr. Noodles tightly.
"But," Freddie said and the smile dissappeared in a split second, "I can only take you two, if" Sam turned to him with furrowed brows, "you tell us your name, little princess." He finished and smiled at the two blondes.
Sam immediately broke into a smile and turned back to their little patient under the table. She sighed a little sigh of relief and then said: "Emily."
Freddie nodded. "All right then, Emily, come on, I'll pull you out from under the table, 'kay?"
Emily nodded and smiled as she shyly reached out her tiny little hand and let herself be pulled out from under the table. Sam remained cowered and looked Emily up and down.
"Are you all right? Does anything hurt?"
She shook her head, making her blonde curls fly around her head. Sam smiled again.
"Good. Now let's see if we can't find you something nice to wear. Show me to your room, Sweetie?" Emily nodded and raced for the door to the office that led into the hall.
Sam stood up, smiling and going after her, but Freddie stopped her in the hall.
"I'll check on the other appartments and look for survivors, you take care of Emily and wait for me to come back." He said.
Sam's eyes grew wide. "What?!"
"You heard me, we can't take Emily up there and we can't leave anyone up here, who's still alive, you know that, Sam."
"Yeah, of course I know, but I won't let you go all by yourself! You're not as experienced and-"
"Are you not coming?" Emily stood in the door to her room, she looked like a lost little puppy.
"We'll be right there, Sweetie, you just go sit on your bed and think of a nice dress that you want to were, okay?" Sam said and gave her a half smile.
Emily nodded and tippled out of sight.
"Sam." Freddie said, "Just stay with her, I'll be fine."
Sam opened her mouth to argue with him, but then thought better of it as she saw his determined look. She sighed and let her shoulders slump down.
"Okay. But you better come back."
Freddie smiled. "Of course."
"Promise?" Sam asked quietly after a moment of silence.
"Promise."
Sam nodded and went after Emily to pick out her dress with her.
Nyahahaaa! I did finiiiiish that one niiiice! :D
So People, you want another chapter, you throw Reviews, OR ELSE!
... Whatever, thanks for reading:)