A/N: Thanks for all the reviews :) Really means a lot. Sorry if my updates become longer and longer, I've got a lot of graduation stuff going on these next couple of weeks. I will update as soon as I can, Enjoy!
Staring at the wall, Rochelle got a bad case of Deja Vu. Her stomach knotted up and the lump in her throat made breathing difficult.
Miller was yelling but Rochelle couldn't hear what he was saying, her mind refused to process the words.
She turned to her left. Nick stood, facing the wall. His head was down and his fists were clenched. He was muttering to himself over and over again. "I told you so, I told you so, I told you so."
Rochelle turned to her right and saw Ellis. His head was also down and tears streamed down his cheeks. His lips moved in silent prayer.
The woman turned away and looked forward.
"Ready!" Miller yelled.
Rochelle's heart beat against her ribs.
"Aim!"
She was close to sobbing. She had half a mind to reach out and grab Ellis and Nick's hands. But there was no time.
"F-"
"Eat bile you sons o' bitches!"
There was the sound of glass breaking followed by a growing chorus of screams. A few gunshots went off and Rochelle screamed and covered her head. She fell to the ground and saw Nick lying next to her.
Her immediate thought was that he was dead.
"Nick!" she cried out.
He rolled over. "Oh my God!" he hugged her tightly as the screaming continued and a few more shots rang.
Ellis stood above them, another bile jar in his hand.
"Get up! Go!" he yelled.
Rochelle was pulled to her feet and she could see the chaos full on. The green cloud rose and hovered above the spot where the first jar had broken. The bile had managed to cover Miller, his soldiers and a good part of the crowd.
The echoing howl of the horde soon followed.
"We got company!" Francis yelled. He pulled Zoey to her feet, Louis and Coach beside him.
"What do we do now?" Louis yelled over the screams of humans and infected.
"Run!" Ellis yelled.
Dozens of infected began to crawl over the fence, trying to get at the bile and those that were covered with it. The metal chain link started to bend under all the weight.
The survivors turned and ran, vulnerable without any weapons.
Ellis was the only one that didn't move, bile jar still tightly in his fist.
"Ellis!" Rochelle cried, her and Nick stopped running.
The younger man waved his hand. "Go! I got this!" he cried.
"But..."
"Go!"
The first few zombies had made their way over the fence and ran for the nearest humans as they ran around in a panic.
Nick grabbed Rochelle's arm. "C'mon, he knows what he's doing!" he yelled. Rochelle reluctantly followed.
Ellis stared at the fence.
Over the howls of infected and dying people mixed with random gunfire, he could no longer hear it but he knew it was still there.
To his left, a soldier screamed as the infected beat him, his gun long running out of ammo.
Beyond him, a woman in a hazmat suit screamed and fell to her knees. She coughed and gripped her throat at the sight of the bright green acid. Her suit corroded away as more acid dripped from her burning lips.
Without warning, the fence collapsed and a loud battle cry rang out above all the other noises.
Ellis reeled back his arm, the muscles in his back rippling.
"Chase this!" he yelled and threw the bile jar.
The glass broke over the beast's head as it charged. Nearby infected chased after it, forgetting their current victims.
Ellis ran and grabbed the nearest shotgun from one of the mutilated soldiers. He pumped it and aimed as the Charger held up its mutated arm, preparing to charge.
The creature cried out once more and made its way towards the young man. One well placed shotgun shell, along with the damage from other infected, sent the beast to the dirt.
Nearby infected beat on the bile covered body before growing bored and went back to chasing the screaming humans still running around.
Gunshots continued to ring but in a vain effort.
More and more infected flooded through the hole in the fence and chased the panicking humans. Those who were immune were overwhelmed and ripped apart. Those not immune shortly joined the infected in killing those who were left.
The screams were unbearably loud.
"Ellis!" Rochelle cried.
Ellis turned and saw the others had ducked into a nearby building. Nearby infected looked in the direction of the yell before letting out more growls and rushing at the young man. Ellis took off, zombies hot on his tail. He checked the shotgun and saw it was empty, now useless, Ellis tossed the gun aside and kept running.
The door seemed to grow farther and farther away the more Ellis ran and the more zombies joined the chase. He forced his legs to move faster.
Out of breath, Ellis quickly slipped through the door.
"Shut it!" he cried as he landed on the floor, his breath gone.
Nick and Francis slammed the door shut and held it until Louis and Zoey could move a desk in front of it.
"That won't keep 'em out long," Coach said as the door rattled on its hinges.
Nick watched the door for a moment. "It'll hold them out long enough," he said. He bent down and helped Ellis up from the floor. "You're really stupid, kid! Brave, I'll give you that, but really fucking stupid!"
Ellis smiled. "Yer my best friend too, Nick."
Nick patted him on the back.
"Good idea with that bile jar, son, ya really saved our asses," Coach said. He leaned by Rochelle, helping her re-wrap her wound.
Francis snorted. "Next time can you not wait 'til the last minute though, you were calling it kinda close if you ask me."
"Francis, shush," Zoey said. The biker looked at her with both eyebrows raised but she ignored it.
The door continued to rattle, the desk scraped the floor as it moved slightly across the tiles.
"We don't have much time," Nick said.
"What do we do?" Rochelle asked, eyeing the dented and beaten door as it rattled.
Ellis made his way to the other door in the small office. He looked out the window and swore.
"It's blocked off," he said.
"Move it, kid!" Francis shoved Ellis out of the way and rammed his shoulder into the door. He gasped in pain but the door didn't budge. He rammed his shoulder again and again with no luck.
"Try turning the handle there, big guy," Nick said. Francis glared at the con man and scowled.
"Would you like to do the honors?" he stepped from the door and motioned for Nick to try the door.
The door they had come in was starting to fall off its hinges.
"Just someone open the door!" Zoey screamed.
"But-" Francis started.
An arm wiggled its way between the bent door and the frame. The rotten fingers clawed at the walls. Screams could be heard but seemed to have quieted down. The zombie stuck its snarling face into the room.
"Together?" Nick asked.
"Together!"
Francis and Nick both rammed the door.
"Hurry!" Zoey cried as the zombie continued to snarl and wiggle its way inside the room. Her, Rochelle and Louis pushed back on the desk, trying to keep the door shut. Coach and Ellis started to help Nick and Francis with the door.
"We're going as fast as we can, Cupcake," Nick grumbled.
Both doors screeched as they began to open inch by inch.
The zombie now managed to get his arm inside and began swinging at those closest to the door. More were pushing their way in.
"Guys?" Rochelle cried.
"Just a second! Almost got it!" Francis grunted.
"Hell man, what they got in front of this door?" Ellis muttered, shoving on the door with both hands. His shoulder started to sting but he ignored it.
A second infected managed to get its head inside the door, snapping its jaws and dripping blood onto the desk.
The first infected swung his arm and managed to grab a handful of Zoey's hair. She screamed and tried to pry her dark hair from the bloody fingers. The zombie gave a quick yank and her head smashed against the desk. Blood poured into her eyes.
"Louis!" she cried.
The man beside her moved away from the desk and grabbed the hand, freeing her hair.
In the moment he was away, the infected managed to push the door open more, Rochelle not being strong enough to hold the desk in place. Louis and Zoey quickly went back to helping her but it was getting to be too late. The first zombie managed to wiggle almost all the way in. Louis and the two women were losing the battle with the infected.
"Hurry!" Rochelle screamed.
"Let's go!" Coach cried.
Rochelle, Zoey and Louis let go of the desk and sprinted through the barely opened door.
The other door flew open and dozens of zombies flooded the room.
Coach was the last one to exit the room, one of the zombies clawing his arm.
"Ah, shit, close the door!" he cried.
Ellis and Nick slammed the door shut and held it there. The others went about replacing the items that had previously blocked the door. Desks, bookcases and a vending machine.
Once the door was shut, Nick massaged his shoulder. "Damn," he grumbled.
They had entered a hallway. It was long and dark, the only light came from a single flickering fluorescent bulb, trying desperately to stay alive. The other lights had been smashed and a few would occasionally spit a few sparks towards the floor.
"This is creepy," Rochelle commented, moving closer to Nick and Coach.
"Well, all we can do is move forward," Coach said and took a few steps. The others followed suit.
Their footsteps echoed loudly down the dark and silent hallway.
"I feel like I'm walkin' to my death," Ellis said. He sidestepped to avoid a couple of sparks one of the broken bulbs had emitted.
"I know, this is... it's just creepy..." Zoey shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.
"Something's not right," Nick said after a moment. "We should hear screaming or something. And how did that door get blocked and why are all the lights broken? There is no way the zombies got in here that quickly and trashed the place."
"Maybe it was like this before?" Louis offered, fear evident in his voice.
Nick stopped at a door that was partially open. He pushed the door and it opened with a creak.
"No," he said, squinting inside the room. He flipped the switch to find that the lights were broken here too. "This is the room I was in when they were testing shit on me. We walked past it this morning and everything was fine. That office we went through was Sanchez's."
The others were silent.
"So, we're right back where we started? Stuck in this god damn building?" Francis asked.
Nick ran a hand through his hair. "Yup."
"It's ok, we're safe, that's all that matters. We'll find another way out," Rochelle said.
Ellis looked down the dark hall and bit his lip. "Miller's office is just down the hall. We can see if there's a map or somethin' in there," he suggested.
The youngest survivor walked forward slowly, keeping his hand along the wall to guide himself in the dark. Using his sense of touch, he ran his hand along the way until his fingertips touched wood instead of brick. He ran his hands along the door until he found the handle and opened the door.
"It's unlocked," he called. The others made their way towards his voice.
Nick was blinded when he reached the doorway. "Ah! Damn it, Overalls!" he growled.
"Oops, sorry," Ellis said. "I found a flashlight by the way."
Nick blinked away the spots from his eyes. "No shit!"
The beam of light from the flashlight dimmed a bit, a sign of low batteries. Ellis swept it over the big office.
"There's some weapons," he said. "Weird shit to have in an office though." The kid held up a tire iron and a crowbar. An ax lay by his feet.
Nick felt his way to the desk and opened one of the drawers. "Hey, Ellis, can you gimme some light?"
Ellis aimed the light into the drawer and Nick smiled.
Two pistols lay in the bottom of the drawer along with what looked like the floor plan of the building.
Nick grabbed the guns, putting one in his pocket and handing the other one to Coach. Rochelle grabbed the floor plans and spread them out on the desk. Ellis moved the dying flashlight and aimed it at the paper. Rochelle leaned in close to see.
"It looks like there's another exit just down the hall, a fire exit so an alarm may sound," she said.
"Let's do it," Louis said. He gripped the tire iron tightly in his hands.
Zoey looked around. "But, me and Rochelle don't have anything to protect ourselves."
Nick moved past her and went back out into the hallway. "Then stay towards the middle, Me, Ellis and Louis can cover the front, Coach and Francis can watch our asses."
"I still think this is creepy," Rochelle said. She ran her hands down her arms and felt the goosebumps rise as she stepped back into the hallway. "Something doesn't feel right."
"I know," Nick said but motioned for them to move forward.
They moved slowly down the hall until they were met by a soft red glow of an exit sign.
"Must be close," Nick said.
"Shhh!" Ellis shushed him.
Nick turned to him. "What?"
"Shut up! I hear somethin'," he whispered.
Nick raised an eyebrow. "I don't hear any-" A hand silenced him as Ellis slapped it over his mouth and held his mouth closed.
"Shhh!"
All the survivors tensed.
Nick turned and looked at Ellis, hand still over his mouth. He jerked his head back, trying to get his mouth free. The kid took the hint and removed his hand.
"Ya hear it now?" Ellis whispered quietly.
Nick nodded.
The flashlight was clicked off as soft sobs made their way down the hall.