They trudge in the blistering heat for what feels like hours, until the sun starts to go down and Soul starts to walk with a sense of urgency in his step.
"It's getting dark, Soul," Maka says warningly. "I don't want to be out here when it's dark."
"They get scary when it gets dark," Patty makes a frowny face. "They get cleverer, faster."
Soul keeps walking. "Let's just keep going, okay? There are probably some places we can stay just around the corner."
The moon starts to appear in the sky and Maka's heart thuds faster. "Soul…" she says warningly.
He stops them abruptly in the road, with all three women rather comically bumping into one another like dominoes. There's a spooky silence as Soul suddenly freezes stock still, listening for something.
Maka hears it before he does, too. Something is running, something near them.
In a second, all four travellers have their battle faces on; ready to fight whatever is coming. Soul hands Maka one of the guns slung over his shoulder, creeping forward. A flash of light appears at the tip of his right deltoid as he partially transforms; the same flash of light which consumes Patty's entire being as she becomes a deadly hunk of steel in her sister's grasp.
Almost as quickly as the noise had become apparent, the threat does, too.
There's a bloodcurdling screech as what must be dozens of the creatures suddenly leap out from behind cars; from the shadows; from the trees around them – charging wildly with their limping frames and unkempt hair.
"LIZ, MAKA, GET IN THE CAR!" Soul yells out, jerking his thumb towards a red four-by-four which was sitting on the road. Liz yanks open the nearby door and practically hurls herself inside, beginning to take shots at the zombies as they approach Soul and Maka, still standing in the road; vulnerable to attack. "Maka, you too!" he yells frantically as the first few zombies reach him. He swings his blade around skilfully, decapitating two in one shot as more fly out towards his blade.
One rabid zombie flies at his throat and Maka quickly takes aim, curdled zombie blood spattering all over his face as she takes the shot. "I want to help you!"
"You're too –" he slices through another oncoming attack, cutting the zombie in two equal pieces. "Vulnerable!" he spits out.
Maka takes two more shots; only one of them landing as Soul "You'll die!"
Soul's entire leg turns into a blade and he jumps in the air, stabbing it through the creatures chest and back out again, while his other hand gets busy with his handgun. "Dammit!" he swears, as three zombies attack at once. He slices two cleanly, but the other one grabs onto Maka's arm.
She screams out loud and Soul yells something which sounds suspicious like 'FUCK YOU!' as Maka watches the zombie hand in question become suddenly detached from it's arm, courtesy of Soul's yellow and black blade.
Something in her mind snaps, and she finds herself reaching back and punching the zombie who had tried to bite her arm full in the face. It feels strangely good, and it provides impetus for her to make the next two headshots perfectly.
Behind her, Liz is still busy pumping round after round of… well, something, at the crowd of zombies on the other side of the red car – which at least keeps their workload manageable.
Just when she thinks that they might get through this alive, one of the zombies suddenly leaps out of nowhere, foaming at the mouth as it launches headfirst at Soul, knocking him back onto the ground.
In a second, her trigger is trained on it, while Soul's hands wrap around it's neck and attempt to choke it to death.
She takes the shot, and the zombie falls dead on the floor – but that's not what concerns her. The things that concerns her is the noise of agony that emits from Soul a split second after the takes the shot.
"Oh, crap," Liz says to herself, having watched the incident from the corner of her eyes. "Dammit, Maka, guard him! I'll take these guys!" she leaps out from the cover of the car and both girls now transform into half-gun, half-girl.
Behind their endless torrent of fire, Maka rushes up to Soul, who sits up and clutches his stomach in disbelief. "You gutshot me, woman," he grumbles in an agonising register.
"I'm so sorry, Soul. And I promise you, we're gonna sort you out. You're gonna be fine. But for now… we have to finish these guys off," she bites her lip, trying not to look at the pooling blood from his stomach injury. "Can you fight?"
He nods, letting himself be dragged up by Maka. He slumps over, half his weight supported by her as his arm drapes round her shoulder.
She struggles to keep shooting under half his weight, but to his credit his stabilises himself, his arm still around her, and with the other one transforms again.
This time, his blade doesn't just slice cleanly through the zombie. This time, hid blade shoots out a shockwave of bright, white light from it's tips. It radiates out like a rapid soundwave in a split second; obliterating the zombies in its path and shuddering all the way through Maka's chest.
It disappears somewhere off in the distance and all three women stop their shooting and stare at Soul in disbelief.
There's a eerie silence which suddenly replaces the sounds of gunshots, zombie groaning and screaming.
"What the hell was that?"
Soul stares at his un-transformed arm. "I have no idea," he says bluntly.
Maka reaches out a tentative hand and pokes him, to no avail. "What are you doing?"
"Did that come from you?"
"It looked like your soul wavelength," Patty makes a face. "But that's impossible… without a partner…" she frowns.
Soul stares at himself for another few seconds, and then his eyes trail up to Maka. He's about to say something, but at that moment they seem to all remember in unison that Soul's blood is currently staining his shirt, and the floor, bright red.
"We gotta get him inside!" she exclaims, still supporting a half-hobbling Soul as she beckons to Liz and Patty to follow. "Liz, some help?" she asks. Liz takes the other half of Soul's weight by throwing his left arm over her shoulder and they carry him the next mile or so, at least until they find an old motel.
"Here we are," Maka announces, breathless along with Liz as she looks over at the hurt man they've been carrying for the last twenty minutes. "Soul?" she asks, but he's unconscious. "Dammit," she cries, kicking open the door with a swift blow from her boot. She lays him down on the floor, with Liz's help, and tears off her button-up shirt, wrapping it round his waist.
Then, she inspects his wound. It's deep, but not vital-organ deep. She breathes a sigh of relief as she leans back and wipes her brow. "It just brushed past his skin. He's going to be okay."
"Then why is he passed out right now?" Liz wonders.
"Could be delayed shock? Plus, I'm not sure how much blood he lost…" she grimaces. "We'd better get the bullet out and then wrap it up again. Patty, can you see if there's anything long and pointy I can get the bullet out with? Liz, please can you search to see if there's any alcohol at the bar we can sterilize with…" her eyes flit back to Soul as the two girls run off at her command. "Please be okay, Soul…" she whispers to him.
Liz finds some rubbing alcohol and Patty finds some tweezers and a first aid kit.
However, the biggest success of the evening is that Liz and Patty manage to find and turn on the backup electricity generator in the basement – so they actually enjoy some light.
After a brief celebration of the rare joys of discovering working electricity, Maka gets to work. She doesn't find a bullet – it must have grazed past him instead of lodging inside – so she begins to clean the wound, dabbing at it with a little rubbing alcohol.
He wakes up halfway through. It's not surprising, because it must hurt like hell. Understandably, he yells and tenses up his stomach, which makes him yelp harder.
"Ssh, ssh," she tells him, squeezing his hand. "It's gonna hurt, Soul. I'm sorry. I've got to clean this out and stitch it up so this doesn't get infected." She pauses. "I wish I had some anaesthetic…" she stops, looking closely at the wound she's cleaned up. "You're going to need stitches. I have a first aid kit here, so I can give you sutures now…"
"Fine," he growls and lies back down, wincing as he does so. He then yelps out again when she dabs a second time.
"I'm sorry," she apologises. "This is going to hurt a hell of a lot." She tells him factually, before piercing the first part of his skin for the sutures.
"Tell me you've done this before," he asks, closing his eyes.
"I've practiced on pig-skin before. It was something my father taught me, but I've never… I've never had to actually do it on a person, before."
Liz and Patty share a look.
He cries out as she links together the first two parts of his skin, and the cry turns into a gasping sound as he inhales.
"Maka," he says, out of breath from all the pain. She pauses and looks up at him. "I need something to bite down on." He says through his teeth. "So I don't break all the bones in your hand."
"Oh!" she raises her eyebrow. She hands him the shirt that she'd wrapped him up in, earlier. "Bite on this."
The ordeal lasts about twenty minutes, after which Maka hands Soul the rubbing alcohol – which he proceeds to pour down his throat. "Jesus."
"You feel okay?"
"No." he shakes his head. "Any painkillers in that first aid kit?"
"None."
"Dammit. And I think we left our supply behind," he curses, pouring the last of the rubbing alcohol into his mouth and then throwing the bottle away. "God, that burns." He touches his throat.
Liz stares after it. "You know that there's whiskey behind the bar of this place, right?"
"FUCK!"
