Damn, it's been too long. Just entered University so i'll have some time to write more.
Fudge
The girl was huddled in the corner of a pretty intact hotel room, squinting against Nick's flashlight. She held her pistol defensively, her expression hostile towards the group. Harley's first thought was to shoot her. She could be an enemy. Harley could tell Nick felt the same. They made eye contact, silently agreeing.
"Another survivor?" Coach hollered in excitement.
"Can you guys just leave me alone? Or at least shoot me in the fucking head so I don't die." The girl snapped.
She had a high pitched, almost whiney voice. It was nowhere near menacing. Her hair was a deep burgundy, cut bluntly to her mid neck. Her features were sharp, and she was lithe. No meat on her bones. She wasn't particularly attractive to Harley, but that wasn't relevant. What was relevant was what the group was going to do with her.
"Now we ain't gonna shoot no one here. What's your name?" Coach pushed Nick aside, his eyes harsh. Nick lowered his weapon, walking out the door. He nodded his head as to ask Harley to follow.
"We're gonna watch guard outside while you interrogate her." Harley pointed her chin at the girl. She had no interest in the new survivor.
Harley walked outside, somewhat perplexed about what she was going to say to Nick. This was their first interaction since he had kissed her. He stood leaning against the railing, his body language relaxed. She stood next to him, lighting a cigarette. He noticed her, taking the cigarette out of her hand and taking a drag.
"Hey." He muttered.
"Hi." She whispered back.
Nick tentatively raised his hand, caressing her cheek. His touch made her hair stand on end. She didn't know what it was about Nick now that made her feel so..awkward. Before, she had no problem talking shit and teasing him. But the lines were so blurred now, she didn't even know what her true feelings are.
"Are we okay?" He asked, noticing her expression.
"I just don't know what to feel." Harley whispered, while exhaling.
"Did you want me to kiss you?"
She gulped. "Yes."
"Then why are you so awkward around me?"
Her hair bristled in annoyance. "Because Nick, I was happy with us being friends but now I don't even know what we are anymore!"
He laughed, a genuine one. "I really like you, Har. We don't need labels, this isn't some high school bullshit thing. We're in the fucking zombie apocalypse for god's sake."
She rolled her eyes, and Nick playfully punched her shoulder.
They stood in silence, the only disturbance being Nick shooting lone infected. After about fifteen minutes, The group walked out followed by the stranger.
"She's gonna stick around with us for awhile." Coach declared.
Harley started to protest, but Nick silenced her. "One less person against us, right Harley?"
She ground her teeth together. "Yup!"
"Harley, this is Sasha. Sasha, Harley." Ellis introduced them. She noticed how peppy he seemed.
Harley nodded her head, cutting off Sasha from any sort of introduction. Harley wasn't fond of this girl. In fact, Harley wasn't fond of any newcomers. She was fiercely protective of her group, something she wouldn't of ever believed when she first met them. They made their way behind the motel, finding a steep cliff.
"Shit." Harley groaned.
"Look's like we're gonna have to slide down." Coach said. Harley wanted to punch him.
Nick pulled a pipe bomb off of his belt loop, chucking it into the marshy bottom of the cliff. She admired his toss, noticing the rippling of his muscles through his tee shirt. She had to rip her eyes away to slice away at an impending zombie. Blood spattered in her face, the smell like rotting meat.
The bomb exploded, bringing a eerie silence to the marsh. They slipped down the cliff, Sasha stuck firmly in the front with Coach. Ellis and Rochelle followed them, with Nick and Harley taking on the rear. She felt his hand snake around her neck, rubbing it reassuringly. She snorted and shoved him away playfully.
"Don't try me, Harley." He growled playfully.
"Nick, shut up. We're trying to not attract any more of them." Rochelle hissed.
Harley caught Nick stalking up to her. She had no time to slip away before his arms wrapped around her waist, holding her face dangerously close to the murky water. She screamed in annoyance, kicking and screaming like a little girl.
"Put me the fuck down!" Harley squealed.
She heard the rest of the team sans Sasha laughing, Ellis howling so much he tripped over a branch and fell in a puddle. She snorted at this, using the distraction to wiggle out of Nick's arms and lock her leg in to the backside of his knee, causing it to give out. He fell into the water with a loud thud.
"You fucking bitch!" Nick howled.
She cackled. Sasha seemed to be a no nonsense kind of girl, using this time to stalk around and look for supplies. She didn't trust this girl. Sasha had dirty strawberry blonde hair, an upturned nose and doe like eyes. She was the girl every high school jock wanted to fuck. Her body was like a model's, thin and lithe. Harley had nothing in common with this girl. Where Sasha was a twig, Harley was more filled out and curvy.
After the laughing had ceased, a few lone infected had caught on to their presence from atop of a hill. Coach noticed the hill brought them closer to the theme park. After shooting the stragglers, they made their way up the hill. It was steep and slippery, and Harley almost fell more than a couple times. It was hard on her stitches, but it helped to train her stamina. It seemed to last forever, but she reached the top without stopping.
The hill lead them to a parking lot with a trailer leading into the park. The lot was filled with milling zombies, looking almost peaceful. Most of them were sitting or laying down. At the scent of the survivors, they perked up. Harley was too breathless to start shooting. Sasha was first to shoot, then the rest followed suit. Harley pressed herself behind a truck, pulling out her Deagle. Peaking her head around the truck, she blindly shot until hitting a mark.
"Harley get the fuck in here!" Coach boomed.
She growled under her breath, muttering curse words as she sprinted to the room. Narrowly dodging an infected's grasp, she pistol whipped the shit out of the now long dead zombie. She had hit it right in the face, crushing the nose into the skull. Harley called the zombie "It" As is was now unrecognizable. She made it in safely, slumping into a corner. The group was crowded around the ammo pile.
"Man! I remember seeing them in concert!" Ellis pointed to a ripped poster.
It was a poster of a band named Midnight Riders, which looked like a cliche rock band. All the members were clad in leather, literally covered in it. There were skulls, fire, and pentagrams scattered around the tacky poster.
"They look like they suck." Sasha commented, cleaning off her pistol.
Harley agreed with her, but refused to say anything. "It says here that they were evacuating in the rec center right there." Coach pointed to a map of the amusement park.
"It looks pretty dead out there." Nick was looking outside the iron doors.
"You gotta have faith out here, Nick. You never know." Rochelle put her hand on his shoulder, which he shrugged off.
Harley had regained her breath at this point, and was checking the ammo pile for some rifle bullets. She found a few packs, which could tide her over until the next safe room. She sat down by Nick, lighting a cigarette to calm her nerves. He looked at her but said nothing. Silence was nice.
"So Sasha." Ellis drawled. He drug her name out, which grossed Harley out.
Sasha looked at him expectantly.
"What's yer story?" He put on his puppy dog face, sitting on the bottom of a bucket.
"Born and raised here. That's all you need to know." She grumbled.
Harley snorted. "What a bitch." She whispered to Nick.
"Harley, play nice. They seem to like her enough. And remember, you were a bitch when we first met you." Nick snatched the cigarette out of her mouth and taking a puff.
She rested her head on his shoulder and drifted to sleep.
They must have only been there for an hour or so, because the sky was still blue grey when Harley was awoken. She shook off the grogginess associated with naps, and found herself in the middle of an argument.
"She doesn't trust her." Nick was whispering.
"That don't mean shit boy." Coach was sneering. "We ain't gonna just drop Sasha because Harley can't get along with another girl."
"You know Harley is usually right though." Nick's voice was lower.
"That don't mean we can just leave her out for the zombies." Rochelle spoke now.
"I wasn't saying that." Nick sounded frustrated. "We can't trust her."
Nick then noticed she was awake, and the conversation ended. He walked over to her, lifting her shirt up lightly to see her stitches. Her first instinct was to rip his hands off of her and punch him. But she trusted Nick. Her wound was no longer open, the stitches had healed them. It was still an aggravated blush color, and felt sore.
"We can take your stitches out now." He mumbled. His hand traced her hip bone slightly before going to get Rochelle.
Rochelle came into view, holding her medical grade first aid kit. She examined Harley thoroughly, making sure no exposed flesh was left. When her reports came back good, Rochelle got out a pair of scissors and tweezers. The feeling wasn't painful, more like annoying. She had to grit her teeth a few times when Rochelle was pulling them out, but it was over before she new it. She got up slowly, making sure she didn't shift her weight too quickly. That could cause her fragile stomach to rip open again. Damn witch.
They made their way out of the safe room, with Coach leading. Sasha was behind him, which slightly annoyed Harley. Coach was the only one making conversation with Sasha, whom didn't seem interested in the slightest.
"You said yer from around here, right?" Coach said in-between gunshots.
"Yeah. Live a couple streets down." Sasha seemed reserved about it.
"Any friends or family you were with?" Coach sounded worry.
Harley gritted her teeth together, trying to stifle a growl. Now wasn't the time for a conversation. The fairgrounds were littered with body parts, empty guns, and infected. They were sloppy, missing shots and alerting countless other walkers. This caused a hunter to go unnoticed as it prowled on the rooftops. Harley watched, frozen in place, as it soared in the sky, gracefully leaping in front of her.
The hunter seemed to be newly infected, blood still slightly oozing from his bite mark. His eyes were bloodshot, and were weeping chunky red tears. Scratches marked up its face, as well as his arms and legs. His hands were mutated, the nails about six inches long and razor sharp. They were jagged, serrated weapons that had bits of flesh left in them. Harley tried to run away, but the hunter grabbed her foot and sent her spiraling to the ground. She let out a howl of pain as she hit the concrete, her sore abdomen flashing in pain.
"Get the fuck off of me!" She screamed, kicking blindly at the thing.
It dragged her into a bathroom, away from the group. None of them seemed to notice her struggle for life. It flung her against the brick wall, her head nailing the wall. The hunter almost seemed to enjoy this. It stalked up to her, sticking its rotten face right into hers. Its' breath was indescribably foul, a mixture of rotten eggs and garbage.
"What do you want from me?" Harley asked, before laughing at herself.
She was praying someone noticed her disappearance. White hot pain flashed against her cheekbone, as the Hunter dragged its claws slowly on the highest point of her left cheek.
It cackled. It fucking cackled. Harley thought she was imagining it, but then it made that rough barking noise again.
A gunshot silenced the noise. Nick had shot it point blank in the head. She sighed in relief, the encounter seriously creeping her out.
"Why didn't you fucking yell?" Nick growled, but his anger wasn't pointed at her.
"I did, Coach and the bitch were too busy talking to hear it." Harley got up, feeling sore.
Nick grabbed her chin with his hand, cocking it slightly to admire the wound. "You'll be fine for now, we'll get some sutures in there next safe room."
"Okay." Harley huffed.
Nick stopped her. In one fluid movement, he tentatively pressed his lips to hers. In the privacy of the bathroom, Harley didn't feel embarrassed. Only a fire burning deep inside her stomach. She looked into his eyes as he pulled away, searching for some sort of answer to why he kissed her. He only nodded softly, giving his trademark sly grin. They returned, seeing the group gathered around a carnival game that was still working. They had to shoot all of the enemies, while sparing the hero, a peanut looking thing. Ellis and Coach were shooting. Sasha was shuffling around, seeming out of place.
"Thanks guys." Harley huffed.
"We didn't hear yah, why didn't yah haller?" Ellis said between firing.
"Yeah, I did. Maybe if you weren't talking all the fucking time you would have heard." She breezed by Sasha, bristling.
They stopped at a park bench, finding a mountain of ammo and a bloody shotgun.
"What happened here…?" Rochelle mumbled, running her hands over the shotgun.
"Someone mustve turned." Sasha responded. She loaded her gun up with a new clip.
"No shit someone turned." Nick snapped, stalking around like a caged bird.
"Let's just keep going, okay? No fighting." Coach commanded.
The group followed Coach, into an alleyway leading into a building. It was a storage room, with random parts for a stage. Ellis palmed a shiny new electric guitar in his firm hands. He took a few practice strums, laughing when it was obviously out of tune. Harley searched around the building, finding one of those fancy pipe bombs she had seen a few times. Walking out of the storage room, they found themselves located at the kids section of the amusement parks, filled with kiddie rides and empty food carts. She even saw an infected sitting on one of the plastic horses on the carousel. It looked straight out of zombieland.
"Man, Kiddy Land!" Ellis whistled, pulling his cap off to scratch his long sandy hair.
"How the hell are we supposed to find the safe house in here?" Coach bellowed.
It seemed to piss off the undead, as screeches could be heard echoing around the park. A massive horde spilled out from a corridor, where the trademark safe zone sign pointed to. Well, shit, Harley thought, reading her Katana. She felt a pair of hands grab her shoulder, whirling her around face to face with an infected. Harley squealed in fear at the infected who grabbed her, stabbing it in the chest with her sword. Sasha stood behind her, wrestling with a few who got her cornered. Harley was tempted to not help her, but she had to. She couldn't lose the trust of her group. Or Nick.
The horde raged on, caging the six in to Kiddy Land.
"Charger!" Coach howled as a giant armed infected charged for him. Rochelle was the closest, and got a clean shot to the chest on the charger. It stumbled from the impact, giving her the time to shoot it in the head.
"Nice, 'Chelle!" Harley called.
The horde disappeared as fast as it came. Soon, only bodies littered the floor. They took a second to regroup, and tape up a scrape Coach got from tripping over a body and landing on his elbows. Those would sting for a few times. The group's mood quickly faltered as they walked through the corridor, finding more and more dead bodies. No CEDA in sight. They had to climb up a service ladder that lead to a giant slide, something children would ride down in old flour sacks. Harley remembered going to the fair with her dad, eating cotton candy and elephant ears. The smell of sickly sweet treats and sweat from the volume of people.
"Har, earth to Har!" Ellis called.
She shook physically. "What, Ellis?"
"We think that the tunnel of love over there is the safe room. But theres a problem." Nick explained. He touched her elbow lightly, leading her to the railing that looked over the back part of the park. His simple touch set fire to her insides.
"That carousel is enclosed in a chain link fence that will only open if we turn it on. Thats going to attract a lot of infected." Coach muttered, letting out a curse.
"We'll just have to fight our way through." Sasha mumbled, cocking her magnum.
"It's not that simple. We don't know where to turn the damn thing off, or else it'll attract the rest of the park. We need someone fast to lead and figure out where the off switch is." Coach's voice was strained with stress and annoyance.
"I've got a pipe bomb on me. I can throw that thing while Sasha leads." Harley piped up.
Sasha looked at her with darting eyes. "Why me?"
"You look like the fastest." Harley brushed off her look with a cold glare.
Sasha shrugged, throwing her burgundy blonde hair off her shoulder. With a plan in mind, they hopped off the edging, Nick having to help Harley down. He caught her hips, lowering her down and staring into her eyes. They were nose to nose, breathing the same air.
"Hey! No kissing until inside the tunnel of love, kiddos!" Ellis screeched, getting a hoot out of Coach.
"Shut the fuck up Ellis, before I make you." Nick growled, pushing himself away from Harley.
"Didn't know he was your boyfriend." Sasha commented over the sound of gunfire. Coach executed a lone infected who was lounging against the wall.
"He's not my anything." Harley responded, sending a pointed look at Nick's back. Did she want to be his something?
"Oh good. He's kinda hot." Sasha had the nerve to say that.
Harley had the right mind to glock slap her across her smug face. Instead, she grit her teeth and stalked ahead to Nick. Her jealousy, something that she had never felt before, blossomed bright green in her heart. Nick had a smug face on as he looked at Harley, turning her insides to mush. Something about his crooked sly grin, or how his eyes ate her in like a fine dinner. Rochelle and Ellis were fucking around with the controls, trying to figure out how to open the fuse box. Coach was looking around the barbed chain link fence, trying to spy out a lever.
Before they were ready, the fence opened with a loud screech. The lights pulsed on, along with loud children's music. Harley groaned in annoyance, watching Sasha dart in front of them. Ellis watched her with hungry eyes, licking his lips slightly. The expression was gone, replaced by a face of determination as the infected loomed on the group. Harley rounded up the front of the group, as her katana had a wide range of motion. Slicing heads with the thing was like cutting butter. It was a calming feeling to her, to get out her anger and pain on the useless dead. or, undead.
The lights turned off, the music crackled to silence. Sasha must have found the lever. She wasn't completely useless. The horde had reached around 40, and overwhelmed the group. Things looked bleak if they didn't get to the tunnel of love, fast. Harley heard the cackling of a jockey a little too late, and there was an enormous weight on her shoulders. It grabbed onto her and covered her eyes with its hands, scratching her shoulders with its talons. The insane laughter was deafening as it led her astray, her screams masked. It toppled her over, the weight too much for her knees. Rolling onto her stomach, she yanked her magnum from her side holster and shot blindly.
"HARLEY!" She heard, a hoarse yell. Nick.
"HELP!" Harley yelled back, wrestling with the jockey. Its teeth clacked as it tried to bite her, frothing at the lips.
Footsteps were heard behind her as Nick shot the creature off her back. It slumped to the side with a sigh, sliding off her slick body. Her wounds thumped with every beat of her heart. It was a healing pain though, not a stinging pain. It knocked the wind out of her lungs, and she gasped for breath.
"Harley, are you okay?!" Nick ran to her side, kneeling down and pulling her body close to his.
"Couldn't breath." She puffed out.
"We have to get you in the safe room, are you bleeding?" He pulled up her shirt, up to the wire of her bra.
"No, I'm fine." Harley tried to get up, but her legs were wobbly.
Nick scooped her up in his arms, holding her protectively to his chest. Even through the smell of blood and gore, she could still smell the scent of lavender. The safe room was dark and spacious, and surprisingly quiet. The only noise was the dripping of water from an unknown source.
"Should we rest here for a bit?" Rochelle asked Coach as she rushed to Harley's side, assessing her wounds.
"Yeah, we're all pretty beat aren't we." Coach sighed, plopping down in the far corner.
Sasha picked to sit in the middle, rolling out a small sleeping bag. Ellis followed her, chattering away about Keith. Rochelle was trying to prepare a meal for them, while Harley and Nick had the corner farthest from the outside. It was pitch black in the corner, but cold. It didn't take long for her teeth to chatter and her body to shiver.
"Are you cold?" He whispered, pulling Harley close into his body.
"I want a cigarette." She mumbled into his jacket.
He hastily pulled off his jacket, wrapping it around her body. It smelled like him, and covered her entire upper body. Pulling a pack out of his jeans, he handed one to her and kept one out for himself. He lit his first, handing it to her and lighting the other one.
"Are you smoking Nicholas!" Rochelle screeched.
"Oh piss off Chelle, calm down." Nick growled.
"Is it that hard to just go outside?"
"Yes, when there are 50 infected trying to eat us." Nick snaked his arm around Harley, pulling her close into his chest.
Rochelle huffed and finished rationing out food, handing Harley and Nick a can of pringles to split. There wasn't access to a stovetop in this saferoom. Or a bathroom. It was meant to be a temporary safe house, nothing permanent. One night wouldn't kill them in here, though. The sun must of set behind the grey clouds, as day was quickly changing into night. Harley suddenly felt exhausted, both physically and mentally.
"Har" Nick whispered after everyone else was long asleep.
"hmm?" She mumbled, content with the feeling of him scratching her scalp.
"Why are you acting so weird around me?"
"I'm not acting weird!" Harley snapped.
He chuckled softly. "C'mere."
Nick pulled her face to his, softly caressing her cheek bones with his thumbs. Through the moonlight, only his eyes were visible to her. She closed hers, feeling safe for once. She didn't realize how much Nick and her were alike. How they were both fucked up creatures, living in the garden of evil. They both had their sins, their shortcomings. But it brought them together. Harley tried to sleep, concentrating on Nick playing with her hair, but sleep didn't come to her. She was restless, shifting against him numerous times. Nick had fallen asleep for a bit, his hand wrapped around her shoulder. She closed her eyes, and forced her breathing to relax..
So, psych wasn't her major either. Her last choice was the arts. Harley knew she was gifted with a set of pencils, and it was her last chance before she was shipped back to Dad's. They had a strained relationship right now. They hadn't spoken on the phone for over a month, when before it was constant texting and missed calls. Harley sat on her bed, thumbing through her sketchbook. Her style was haunted, her strokes thick and messy. She sighed, turning to her textbooks. As much as she wanted to study, her head hurt from the night before. Peyton and her went out to the club and snorted lines of coke in the bathroom. Harley's head was constantly aching, the only solace being a joint or a line.
She stared out her dorm window, looking at the puffy white clouds dumping snow. The drifts were up to the first floor windows, and classes were cancelled for the week. She flipped open her sketchbook, tapping her pencil against her slightly pursed lips. Harley took a few minutes to come up with a picture in her mind, a scene, a face, something… It came to her, a man. A strong jawline, crooked nose and wry smile. Nick.