The brown car pulled to a stop directly in front of the Prius she was hiding under. She tried to control her breathing, which was starting to come in hitched gasps of fear. She placed a hand over her mouth, hoping to muffle the sound as two of the doors of the car opened and closed softly. She saw two pairs of shoes from her vantage point, which moved closer to her hiding spot.
Melissa's heart felt like it was trying to beat out of her chest. The sound pounded loudly in her ears, almost causing her to not hear the words spoken by one of the unknown people. "This is Lost Hills, isn't it?" one of the voices said.
"That's what the map said," the other person muttered, sounding exhausted. "In any case, there are plenty of cars to syphon the gasoline from."
Melissa frowned. The voices sounded oddly familiar, though at the moment she was having trouble placing them; the only thing she could tell was that they were both male. She watched the two pairs of shoes move to one side of the Prius, closer to the Suburban.
She moved forward, trying to see what the unknown men were doing; all she could see was that they were standing on the sidewalk right next to the Suburban…right next to Dean.
"Hey, this car is full of supplies," the second speaker exclaimed softly. "Ugh, but I think there's a zombie in there." His tone was full of disgust. "The damn thing doesn't even look dead."
"Language," the first speaker chided. Melissa watched one pair of shoes move towards the front of the car. She thought that the person put their hand on the hood of the car, and it was confirmed as the first speaker said, "The engine's still warm!"
"Wait, so does that mean…?" the second speaker sounded puzzled, and Melissa heard the sound of a door opening.
Fear for Dean finally prodded Melissa into action. She hadn't saved him back in her hometown for him to potentially die here when she could do something about it.
She rolled out from under the Prius, scrambling to a standing position as she drew her gun and pointed it at the man opening Dean's door. "Back away from the car!"
The man turned around, and Melissa almost lowered the gun in surprise as she realized who it was; it was Cody Rhodes.
However, she fought the urge to lower it. She didn't know that he wouldn't take advantage of it or not. "Back away from the car," she repeated.
Rhodes held his hands up in the air, indicating he didn't have any weapons. He slowly edged to the side, away from the Suburban.
Melissa took the moment to look at the other man, and wasn't surprised to see that it was Damien Sandow. "You too!" She gestured with the gun.
By this time Seth and Roman had scrambled out of their hiding place as well, both of them drawing their guns. "Melissa, what are you doing?!" Seth practically yelled as he and Roman neared.
Melissa realized they hadn't seen Cody open the door. "They opened the car door! I thought they might do something to Dean!"
"Dean?" Cody said, looking surprised as he glanced back at the open Suburban door.
Seth and Roman came into view, and all four wrestlers' eyes widened in recognition as they spotted each other. Seth and Roman didn't lower their guns though, similar to Melissa.
"Seth, Roman!" Damien greeted them uncertainly as he finally inched closer to Cody. "This is certainly unexpected."
"Damn right it is," Seth growled. "What do you want?"
Damien seemed surprised by Seth's hostility. "We stopped to get gasoline and food. We're running low." He eyed the three guns nervously.
Cody spoke up uneasily. "Can you put the guns down? We're not going to do anything, I promise."
"We don't know that." Dean had taken the moment to wake up and get out of the car, and now he was pointing his gun at Damien and Cody as well.
"What can we do to prove it to you?" Damien asked.
"Put your hands behind your head," Dean ordered. "And don't move."
The duo complied. Dean motioned with his gun. "Roman, Seth, check them for weapons."
Roman and Seth both holstered their guns, slowly moving forward. They lifted the shirts of both men to see if they had anything on their waistbands. They both had nothing; they were weaponless, at least at the moment. Dean lowered his gun, and Melissa did the same. Roman rejoined Melissa, while Seth went over and stood by Dean, whose face was drawn and pale, even under all the dirt and grime. Melissa wondered how he was holding up.
"Never expected to see you here," Cody said, his face still showing the residual fear of having a gun pointed at him.
Seth nodded, seeming, if not more friendly, at least not so hostile. "Where are you headed to?"
"We're planning on getting to Los Angeles," Damien said. "What about you? Where are you going?"
"LA," Seth replied, still sounding on edge.
"Seems like there's a lot of people headed that way," Cody commented. He suddenly looked at Melissa. "Who's your friend?"
Seth looked at Melissa in surprise as though he'd forgotten for a moment that she was there, or that she didn't know Cody or Damien. "This is Melissa. Melissa, this is Cody and Damien."
Melissa nodded in greeting, not wanting to close the no-man's-land between them to shake hands in greeting. "I would say it's nice to meet you, but since you scared the living hell out of me, I think I'd be lying." Melissa randomly noticed how her language seemed to be getting worse; she'd hardly ever cursed before the apocalypse.
Cody laughed. "Sorry about that, but we couldn't exactly call ahead to warn you."
"I guess," Melissa said, laughing slightly as well before looking around by habit, searching for zombies.
"So when did you meet the Shield?" Damien queried.
Roman spoke. "We got stuck in her hometown, and she stuck out her neck and saved us from being eaten. That was…"
"Five days ago," Melissa said, quickly doing the calculations in her head. Has it only been five days? She thought to herself. With everything that had happened, it felt like a lot more.
"Five days ago," Roman agreed.
"Orton and Punk were with us for a while," Seth mentioned.
"What happened to Orton and Punk?" Cody asked.
"Orton didn't want to travel with us, so as far as we know, he's still back in Melissa's hometown," Seth stated. "Punk… Punk got left behind."
Damien frowned. "What do you mean he got left behind?"
"Long story short, he abandoned us. So we left him." Seth's words sounded angry.
Melissa scowled. "He'll live if he didn't die. He had a place to go."
Cody and Damien both looked uneasy by the hostile tones of both Seth and Melissa.
"In any case, we need to get going," Dean said, speaking up as he looked around. "No telling how many zombies could be wandering around just out of sight."
Seth nodded. "It was good to see you, I guess."
"Wait, you're just going to leave?" Cody asked.
Roman nodded. "We're done here."
"You've got to help us!" Cody suddenly begged. "We've hardly got any food or water, and Alicia's sick…"
"Alicia?" Melissa asked. "As in Alicia Fox?"
Cody nodded. "She's got a fever, and we have no medicine…"
"Wait, did you say she has a fever?" Dean said suspiciously.
Cody nodded.
"Was she bitten?" Seth asked.
Cody's eyes widened as he realized what Dean and Seth meant. "No no no, nothing like that!" he said hastily. "She's just sick."
"I think she just has the flu, but without any medicine to bring the temperature down, I'm afraid it's just going to keep rising," Damien suddenly spoke up. "Please, we've already lost Tamina…" His expression was sorrowful.
Seth looked at Dean, who shrugged. "If we find some painkillers, we get a share of it," he said.
"So you'll help?" Cody asked hopefully.
Dean looked at Roman. "What do you think we should do?"
Roman surveyed Dean's face for a moment. "It wouldn't hurt to have some painkillers on hand."
"Then we'll help you look for stuff," Seth said. "Dean, you stay here and watch the cars. Roman can deal with the gasoline for our car, and Melissa and I will help Cody and Damien find what they need."
"Watch the cars?" Dean sputtered angrily, clearly seeing that Seth was trying to give him a task that wouldn't bother his unapparent injuries.
"Yes, watch the cars," Seth retorted. "We don't need some straggler coming in and making off with our supplies."
"Fine, whatever," Dean growled before he sat down in his seat in the Suburban, looking down at the gun in his hands. Roman, meanwhile, headed back to where he and Seth had been hiding with the gas cans.
Seth looked at Cody, Damien, and Melissa. "Let's go then." They silently followed him as he headed for the convenience store located behind the maze of cars.
A/N: Yes, I know, Team Rhodes Scholars is no longer a tag team, but when I came up with this scene they still were. So there. :P Speaking of Team Rhodes Scholars, I started a story that will detail their POV of the beginning of the apocalypse. I'll be posting that tomorrow if you're interested. (Shameless self-advertising, I know.)
Also, I just randomly noticed that I named both Melissa's brother and a prominent bad guy David. I'm considering renaming Melissa's brother; do you have any suggestions? You can post them in the reviews if you want (nothing too exotic though please).