Hey, so now my younger brother might have the rona. Last night, he said he couldn't taste anything, so we gave him some super spicy beef jerky that had no effect on him. That's two weeks after my dad got covid (confirmed) and then I got the flu.
Fun times in our own little pandemic.
Now onto a much scarier pandemic.
A crow cawing outside the storm drain caused Jaune to snap awake. He opened his eyes to a bloodied floor, with gore pouring through the grate just opposite of him. It was dark; Jaune could only see because his eyes adjusted to the conditions. The body which had fallen against the only window to the street allowed some light to spill through the cracks.
A weight against his chest reminded him of who he shared this cramped space with. Yang was passed out and practically sitting in his lap. The proximity of this scenario didn't strike Jaune at all. He was only glad Yang had fallen asleep before he did.
Those Infected went away a few hours after they'd crawled in here for cover. Luckily, he was able to get Yang to calm down enough, so she didn't have a complete meltdown. That would have set the horde right onto their position, and both of them would have been goners.
Of all the times to have a panic attack...
His sisters had a couple in the past. If memory served him right, Noire had a few nasty attacks over the years. So, Jaune and his legion of sisters had to learn how to deal with them. Fortunately, that was probably one of the few perks of having so many siblings. You learned how to handle a variety of situations.
"Yang," Jaune whispered, gently rocking her to wake the girl.
Yang stirred for some time before opening her eyes. A set of lilac irises met cobalt. Each appeared to be exhausted, hating every second of their journey. Such a sentiment Jaune understood in his entirety. He couldn't wait to leave Vale and be back at home.
"Ugh, fuck this place," Yang mumbled as she realised they were still in the storm drain. "Can we just get out of here?"
Don't have to ask me twice...
[Yang]
The girl stood in a half-crouch, feeling her stiff joints return to life through a series of creaks or pops. Yang's body hurt in places she didn't know it could. Neither teen had the luxury of stretching in this cramped sewer drain before returning to the surface, so each needed to crawl onto the street to get some relief from this box. This, Yang, hesitated on.
A big part of her didn't want to get back out there. Her body and mind knew what was just beyond the quarter-inch of steel above their heads. Had there been a way out through the sewers, Yang might have wanted to take that route instead. The pair could go around and snag their bike on the way back. Anything to avoid the street they'd just been chased from.
"Okay, we just need to check the CCT out," Yang stated, grabbing her prybar and bags. "If there are soldiers there, we can spend the night with them before going back for the bike."
The last thing on their list. After that, they didn't need to do anything else in Vale. They had nothing to do with Vale after that. The Infected could fucking have this place to themselves if they really wanted it that bad. Yang just wanted back inside the safe confines of the overly cosy house.
"You think they'll let us stay there," Jaune pondered as he remained sitting on the ground. "We're not soldiers, so they'd probably just throw us on a truck to refugee camp..."
Not fucking happening...
If they tried, Yang was gonna do whatever it took to get away from them. Maybe the soldiers would just let the pair go? Yang didn't know. But, she was not getting shipped a hundred miles on the opposite side of Vale from where Ruby was.
"If we tell them what happened to those other soldiers, they might just give us a spot," Yang replied, cupping her chin. "Fuck, it doesn't even have to have a bed..."
Concrete was looking mighty comfortable right about now. Just somewhere Yang didn't have to sleep like this for another night. If it had a wall and a dozen armed guards behind it, then Yang was happy to stay there.
"All right, we'll try it out," Jaune agreed, pushing himself off the floor. His face bore a pained expression the entire time he did so, including the joints on his knees popping.
Sorry dude...
Yang had forgotten she slept on him the whole night. So, his pain was more than understood. The girl felt bad for putting him in that position, but Yang had no control over it. It took most of her strength to keep herself from freaking out in here.
I'll have to pay him back. Probably steal from cool shit from someone's house or something...
"What about Mercy," Jaune asked as he got on his feet. "Your dad said your uncle got hurt pretty bad. If he had to find a hospital for him, they might still be there."
Why...
"It's a hospital, dude," Yang quietly pointed out. "That place probably got overrun a couple days ago."
A part of Yang wanted to look. But they had a single job to do, and then they wouldn't have to stay in Vale any longer. The more time they spent fucking around on the streets, the more chances of something going seriously wrong there were.
However, there was a slight chance of coming across other survivors holding out at the hospital. Maybe it had been secured by soldiers or police officers? Unlike Vale's main hospital, the pair didn't know if this one hadn't been overrun. It was also much smaller, boasting only a few hospital beds for Infected people to take up.
"What if we just look through some binoculars," Jaune suggested, leaning against the wall behind him. "Then we don't have to get close and can stay on the rooftops."
It's not a bad idea... Might as well do the same thing for the CCT.
"All right, I'm down for that," Yang agreed, moving into position as to lift the storm drain cover off.
"Hold on, let's check something," Jaune whispered before Yang could do anything.
Using the barrel of his gun, Jaune pushed the Infected, who was blocking the storm drain. With a grunt, he got the corpse rolled over, allowing light to spill into the room. Such a change in radiance caused Yang to shield her eyes before adjusting to the new condition. However, it all appeared to be clear from where they were sitting.
The limited field of view showed there were a lot of bodies nearby, but no visible Infected. Tons of crows eating the corpses, but they weren't the problem here. In fact, if there were Infected around, the crows would have said so. The Infected would have startled them or tried to go after what was a ready-packaged snack.
"Looks clear," Yang expressed, moving under the cover. "I'll go up first and check it out."
"Are you sure," Jaune whispered.
"Yeah, I'm lighter; I'll be easier to lift up," Yang replied, putting her hands on the metal plate.
Have to get out of here sometime...
With a push, Yang got the drain cover out of the hole. Standing on her toes and using her fingers, she moved to slide the plate to the side. This action scared the crows around the storm drain, causing them all to fly off. Yang didn't stop, continuing to move the plate until it was entirely out of the way. The sound of metal scraping on concrete drowned out any sound from the surrounding area.
Once it was open, Yang grabbed the sides of the hole and began lifting herself out. As her head passed through the portal, she heard something to her left. Before she could even think to react, a hand reached out and grabbed her. The snarl of an Infected filled her ear as it got a handful of her golden locks.
"FUCK, JAUNE," Yang screamed as her head was yanked to the side.
Yang had to react fast, jamming her armoured arm where she thought the Infected's maw might have been. A sharp pain came over her head as it sinched its grip down on her head, tugging sharply at the poor girl's scalp, nearly tearing the hair from her skin. It pulled again, smashing her skull against the other metal lid and seriously dazed the girl. A nearly bone-breaking pressure wrapped itself around her forearm as teeth began digging into her leather jacket. Such pain from all places caused Yang to scream out loud, attracting more Infected into the area if they were around.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out next to her face. The barrel of Jaune's gun had entered her field of view, still smoking from the shot delivered right into the base of that Infected's skull. All at once, the Infected released its grasp on her arm and hair, nearly causing Yang to fall back into the hole. Luckily, she was able to scramble out onto the street, her hearing nearly obliterated from the gunshot.
She couldn't hear Jaune shout for her as he crawled out of the hole and threw their stuff on the street. The sight of her gore covered face and the blonde lying there must have terrified him. He dashed over to her prone body and hoisted her up, allowing her to use him as a crutch. The boy nearly single-handedly dragged her to the nearest point of safety with all their stuff in tow.
Yang's vision swam as Jaune moved them. She would close her eyes and find herself nearly forty feet from where she last stood. Two more blinks, and Jaune was carrying her into a small building near a public square. The sign on the public bathroom was the last thing she saw before he brought her inside.
The boy dropped her on the ground and cleared the stalls one by one, opening them to make sure no one was hiding. Once done, he walked back over to the door and locked it behind them, sealing them inside.
"Hey, Yang," Jaune called out to her, keeling in front of her sitting body to inspect her injuries. The boy's voice was muffled due to the ringing in her ears. "Did she bite you?"
"No," Yang weakly replied, feeling the side of her head. A lump was beginning to form exactly where that metal sheet hit her. "Pulled the fuck out of my hair..."
"You scared the shit out of me," Jaune expressed as he looked over the rest of her. Yang could tell he was visibly shaking.
Jaune picked Yang up, helping to remove her jacket and drop it to the side. He lifted her arm, showing off the impressive bite mark that was already starting to bruise and swell. There was no broken skin, so Yang breathed a sigh of relief as Jaune broke out an ice pack.
Jaune snapped the chemical ice pack and wrapped it against the bruise using self-adhesive wraps, keeping a layer of cloth between the skin and ice pack. As the wound was taken care of, he moved onto the girl's head. Even a touch from Jaune caused Yang to sharply cry out in pain. Her scalp was tender from the attack, and her head throbbed due to the sharp, blunt force injury.
"It looks fine," Jaune said, gently parting her blood-soaked hair to check the skin. "Do you want help cleaning it off?"
"Yeah," Yang admitted, reaching a hand out for Jaune to grab.
The adrenaline rush from the attack was beginning to wear off. Yang might not have felt scared in that split second, but now she was feeling it. A cold sweat covered her body, and her heart pounded loudly in her ears. Yang could barely walk as Jaune picked her up once more.
Yang's legs gave out from under her as she reached a standing position. The sudden collapse caused Jaune to react in tandem, catching her against his body. Yang's shaky breaths filled the air as she let this sensation run its course. The girl clinging to Jaune's blood-soaked t-shirt all the while.
"Hey, it's okay," Jaune said, surprised at the suddenness of her fall. When he recognised that Yang was having trouble walking, he adjusted to help her stand once more. "Let me help you..."
Lifting Yang onto her feet, they waddled over to one of the sinks. Surprisingly, the water was still on when Jaune tapped the faucet. Taking this opportunity, Jaune guided Yang's head under the sink to rinse all the blood out of her hair. As the cold water touched her bruised skin, Yang let out a painful groan, grabbing the sink with a white-knuckled grip.
"That's cold," Yang spat out through gritted teeth.
"Sorry," Jaune apologised as he cupped some water in his hands to sprinkle where it was needed. "Just a little longer..."
Jaune lied. It felt like an hour of Yang's head being constantly under a freezing cold stream. Her neck was beginning to develop a crook from this position. Before Yang had the opportunity to throw in the towel, Jaune shut off the water and pulled away.
"Ummm, I don't have a towel," Jaune said into the open air as he looked around for a suitable replacement. "Ah, these will work..."
Jaune smashed a towel dispenser open, revealing a stocked roll inside. Taking the entire thing, the boy got a massive ball of them unwrapped and began drying Yang's head. Whatever care Yang had about people touching her hair was gone at this point. She could only focus on the pain from Jaune brushing her bruised scalp and trying not to cry about it.
Fuck, this hurts!
Finally, Jaune released her head. His skills when it came to drying hair with little to no materials was lacking, but Yang couldn't complain. Her damp hair was a mess that the girl didn't care about sorting out right now. Yang just wanted to lie down and take a nap.
A few feet from the door, Yang found a spot and laid there. Using her jacket as a groundsheet, she curled up into a ball and passed out. Jaune asking her what was up didn't even enter her mind. The boy eventually gave up and plopped down next to her.
[A few hours later]
"Hey, Yang," a voice called out to her.
Yang awoke to her head still throbbing with pain. However, she didn't feel as disoriented as she had before. The girl awoke with that groggy sensation one had when they fell asleep on the couch and woke up in the middle of the night. It took Yang some time before she realised where she was again.
"Ughhh, how long was I out," Yang sleepily asked, rubbing one of her eyes.
Fuck, my head hurts! I probably shouldn't have fallen asleep...
Yang didn't feel like she'd had a concussion. But, it was still a bad idea after a head injury like the one she just received. She could have had a seizure or any other symptom of a severe concussion, and Jaune might have missed it.
"A couple hours," Jaune answered, sitting against the wall adjacent to the prone girl. "It's noon..."
"Crap, sorry..."
"It's fine," Jaune replied with a shrug. "We needed the break... Are you feeling better now?"
I can hear better, so yeah...
"Uh-huh," Yang vocalised, pushing herself off the ground and stretching. "Anything happened when I was out?"
"No, streets are still empty," Jaune answered, standing and grabbing some of his things. "But, Yang, I think we need to do something about your hair."
Wha?
"Cut it?"
"No, I was gonna say braid it," Jaune corrected, walking over to her. "Ponytail might get grabbed again, and I wanted to do it up in a braided bun. Just to be safe..."
The length of her hair didn't matter this time. They just got surprised and unlucky when it came to an encounter. But Yang understood the other possibilities. A ponytail was just a long sheet of velcro for the Infected to grab onto. It worked back when they were riding around or in the open where these guys could be dodged, but the pair were knee-deep in it now. If they had to run, Yang couldn't spend the time untangling herself from a lucky Infected.
"Okay, I don't like braiding it, but yeah, let's do it," Yang conceded, dropping onto the floor.
Jaune moved behind her and got to work. Without a brush or comb on hand, he had to use his fingers. Removing any knots or snarls in the hair took a few moments. Jaune moved with proficiency as he straightened everything out.
"You do this for your sisters too," Yang asked as she winced from a tug on her sore scalp.
Don't think I ever saw him doing it. Marron always went to a place for that with me.
"Yeah, I was kinda the best at it in my family," Jaune answered as he split Yang's hair into three bundles. "Sisters had me help them get ready for dances or anything that needed it."
"Huh, guess I'm lucky," Yang said, clenching her jaw on the last word as Jaune pulled a little too hard on the leftmost bundle.
"Sorry," Jaune apologised, loosening his grip on the hair. "What about you? Ever help Ruby?"
"Nah, she doesn't like school dances and having short hair was always a plus since you don't have to do a whole lot," Yang explained, pulling off the ice pack on her arm.
The ice had done the job. The swelling was down but still there. However, the most glaring thing was the horseshoe-shaped bruise on her ulna. It was all red right now but would turn black once the blood lost oxygen in a few days. Then it would start looking pretty nasty. Yang was just happy with the bruise over an actual bite.
"Kinda sucks she didn't go before," Jaune expressed, beginning to braid Yang's hair together. "We might not be able to have any dances at Beacon again..."
"I get it," Yang agreed, nodding her head. "Shoulda dragged her with us."
Yang had a blast at their last school dance. Beacon had this crazy Winter Formal they went all out for. The school blew thousands of dollars on decorations just for that night. Anything winter, the school had it in the ballroom and gym. Kinda like any major holiday setup cities would do at their public square.
Minus Ruby, Yang, Vi, Dante, Ren, Jaune, Nora, and a few others went as a group. Aside from someone putting grain alcohol in the punch, everyone enjoyed it. Maybe not the guy who spiked the punch after Goodwitch got a hold of him, but mostly everyone.
There was nothing romantic about it, just a bunch of friends having fun. Well, maybe not Ren and Nora, but that was true for the rest of them. Yang figured out that all of the Arcs are somehow great dancers and put her through her paces the entire night. Jaune, Marron, and Vi left Yang sore for nearly a week after.
Good times...
"There, it's done," Jaune said, standing up behind Yang.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Yang stood to check herself out in the mirror. The blonde didn't hate it, but braids never were her thing. At least it secured her hair better than it was before. Everything above her ears was left unbraided, but Jaune used the rest of her hair to wrap around that portion and held it in place with pins.
"Good work," Yang complimented, parting the hair on the side of her head, which exposed part of her swollen ear. She grimaced at the sight of it.
Doesn't look as bad as I thought...
Suiting back up, the pair cracked open the door leading outside. Like Jaune said, there were no Infected. At least none they could see. Now with them being out of the hole in the ground, they could move around without any problems. Yang only hoped that horde had wandered off somewhere else.
"Okay, follow behind me," Jaune said, stepping out from their shelter. "We're gonna head back to the fire escape and try to get back to the bike."
Yang steeled herself for the run. Jaune moved first, crossing a street or two that Yang didn't recognise. He must have taken her pretty far when she was disorientated because she couldn't remember any of this. The girl shrugged it off, however, and continued following behind him.
Rounding a corner, Yang watched Jaune's back as he took a peek. She couldn't see anything. Just a bunch of broken-down cars or bodies lying about. It was the same story for most of Vale. Yang was more worried about where all the Infected had gone in the meantime. If that horde was still around, she'd really like to know where.
Getting the signal to move, Yang dashed between a dozen vehicles, trying to keep her head as low as possible. This street smelled of death. Any bodies trapped inside their cars had begun bloating to ridiculous proportions. Walking past an SUV, a man had turned almost entirely to sludge in the summer heat.
The flies were worst. Some vehicles that had their windows down were completely filled with flies. The windows were painted black; that's how many of them there were. Yang had to try her hardest not to throw up as they passed by them.
The sound of something smacking against a car window drew the pair's attention to a sedan. Walking past it, Yang spied an Infected child inside. The child bashed its face against the glass, hitting it with every ounce of her strength. By now, the window was coated in blood from the repeated attacks. The Infected followed them inside the vehicle as they continued walking, trying its hardest to keep up. Only it wasn't smart enough to try the door handles and instead break out.
A few minutes later, they arrived back at the sewer drain. No Infected had come to greet them here. Only a hundred or so crows dining on the bodies shared the street. Walking through the murder, the corvids didn't fly off, choosing to eye the teens as they feasted on their manwich.
Please be nice, crows... I didn't do anything to you guys.
Fortunately, the birds didn't mind letting them pass unmolested. Jaune rounded the last corner and found a street littered with more bodies and crows. The soldiers and Jaune had killed a few dozen yesterday. That grenade left a pile of Infected dead with legs or arms torn off, so they dried up in the sun. Luckily, the horde appeared to follow the soldiers off to some other region of Vale. Reaching the ladder to the fire escape, Jaune and Yang left the street below and returned to the relative safety of the rooftops.
[Vale: Nearby Capitol Building]
Fuck...
Yang clung to the board she was on for dear life. Despite being told not to look down, she stared at the Infected in the alley below. None noticed her scaling the distance above them, only choosing to eat something they'd recently killed. The sound of teeth cracking through bone was a sickening one.
In the centre of Vale, around the Capitol Building, the place was gone. There were too many Infected to count. Whatever soldiers stationed at the square surrounding the seat of government got wiped out. Their bodies and trucks were left behind for the teeming horde to feast upon. Nobody stood a chance here.
On their first glimpse this deep into Vale, Jaune and Yang gave up trying to move on foot. As they rode through here, Yang had to do everything in her power not to lay down the bike and wreck the pair in the open street. Fortunately, she managed well enough, and they stashed the bike somewhere away from the Infected. However, this meant they needed to reach a vantage point without going onto the street level.
This left Yang in her current predicament. The infinite wisdom of Jaune and herself came to the conclusion they needed to hop between buildings to reach the vantage point they'd picked out. A sturdy enough board was used as their tool of choice for anything farther than five feet.
Starting nearly half a mile down the road, they walked from rooftop to rooftop with no problems. Most of the buildings were about the same design and height, so there was little difficulty. Jaune laid the board between the gap on the rooves and walked across after throwing their bags to the other side.
The problem with this strategy began when they grew closer to the capitol square. The buildings were becoming taller or more irregular in size and shape. Now, Yang had to crawl across a gap between the last rooftop and the thin railing of a fire escape at a thirty-degree incline.
Jaune held the board, but Yang's arms didn't want to budge. She was nearly sixty feet in the air, supported by only an inch of wood. Her nails were beginning to dig into the board enough to leave marks. The girl's heart was beating rapidly, and she was sweating bullets.
"Yang, come on," Jaune called out to her. "We can't stay here. Just focus on me!"
Shut up!
Yang wasn't afraid of heights. She was only afraid of this piece of shit breaking or sliding out from underneath her. If she was lucky, the fall would be the thing that killed her first.
Fuck, Yang! We're gonna be stuck out here all night long if you don't move!
Come on, just do this, and we can go home!
Yang pried her hand off the board to reach out and grab further along. Agonisingly, she did the same for the second. For what felt like an eternity, Yang forced herself to crawl at a snail's pace across the gap. Until she reached the end, Yang was growing accustomed to the crossing.
"Okay, Yang, just throw your leg over the railing," Jaune said, holding the board as to not let it slide off.
You gotta be fucking with me!
Yang couldn't move her leg off the board to save her life. The thought of doing so made her fingernails dig back into the wood. Like a cat that got its claws into a blanket, you couldn't pry Yang off without a fight.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, in Yang's case, Jaune took it upon himself to drag Yang over. He grabbed onto her collar and pulled, throwing Yang onto the landing. The girl twisted her body just right to fall on her butt instead of her head. The sound of a human landing on the metal fire escape alerted several Infected below them to their location.
"I hate all of this," Yang whimpered as she sucked down air, relishing in the safety of the fire escape.
"Sorry, you got stuck," Jaune apologised, pulling the board over to their side of the gap. "How're you doing?"
"I wanna kill you right now, but I'm gonna wait until we get back home," Yang flimsily threatened, indeed striking fear into Jaune's heart. "Let's just get to the top of this thing..."
Picking herself off the ground, Yang went up the fire escape first. Starting out on the fifth story, the pair needed to go up nearly six more flights of stairs to reach the top. Here, Yang didn't have trouble doing what they needed. She felt far more comfortable on the fire escape.
Taking each story one by one, Yang was allowed to glimpse inside the apartments she passed on the way up. A few were empty, devoid of life aside from plants left on the window sill. Many more were complete messes that were inhabited by Infected. Each window needed to be carefully scouted out so they didn't alert a pack to their presence.
Three stories from the top, Yang peeked inside, finding an Infected woman eating a small child. Even through the windows, she could hear the woman sobbing as she devoured its flesh. The woman, biting at her kid's neck, unconsciously turned its head in their direction, causing the lifeless corpse to stare out through the window. Those dead eyes met Yang and Jaune's. The sight of which made Yang gag and look away. Jaune himself paled and pushed his way past Yang.
Sorry, you had to see that, dude...
We need a long break after all this shit.
They deserved it. The work everyone had put in on the house was more than enough to make it so. Everything was fortified, they had a stock of food, and they'd scouted out the city. It would be a few weeks before anyone needed to lift a finger. If they never had to see another dead body again, Yang would be all the happier.
Continuing to the top of the building, the pair met no other obstacles. A ladder on the highest floor of the fire escape allowed them to climb onto the roof. Here, the teens got the best view of Vale any of them had gotten since this whole thing started.
Shit...
The news reports only showed a tiny picture of Vale from helicopters. Seeing it all for yourself was an entirely different picture. You couldn't understand how much Vale was impacted by this outbreak, even on the ground. How many people had hung signs from the sides of these apartment buildings, hoping to signal to someone they were still inside and needed rescue.
Like the town of Blackwall, many sections of Vale were covered in low hanging smoke. The fuel provided by the many combustible buildings let the fires rage, going uninterrupted for several days as they ripped through the neighbourhoods. Whatever caused the fires didn't matter; all Yang cared about were how many escape paths were blocked because of it.
"There's the CCT," Jaune said, pointing to the opposite side of the roof.
Simultaneously, the pair jogged across the roof to the ledge. Looking over it, Yang was provided with a clear view of the CCT and everything in between those three hundred metres. A sea of Infected, broken down vehicles, and dead bodies were in their path. There was no way either of the teens would reach the building.
Pulling out a scope, Yang saw what condition the CCT was in. The soldiers sent to guard and defend the building were dead or ran. The machine gun nests and makeshift walls they constructed were covered in dead Infected. It appeared they put up a massive fight despite the odds against their survival. The only sign showing someone got away was the obvious path made by a truck barreling through the wall and into Vale.
Looking to the inside of the CCT through broken windows, Yang saw Infected on pretty much every floor. There were no signs someone had moved upstairs and created a secondary hold out. Nobody had tried to hide on the roof either. The CCT belonged to the Infected.
"I don't think anybody's left," Yang concluded, pulling away from the binoculars. She looked to Jaune next, hoping he would have some other idea for finding his father.
Jaune's expression was one of disappointment. Not the rage he had back at Fort Blackwall, but Yang could tell it irked him. It made her angry as well. She hoped they would find Nicholas there, or at least some soldiers who could give the pair an explanation.
"At least we know why we can't call anybody," Jaune said with a breath. He turned and began packing his stuff up for the walk back to the bike.
Yeah...
The CCT had an AI which handled most operations from what Yang had read. However, it still needed humans to take care of many tasks on a day to day basis. Without them, the CCT would break down due to some maintenance issue or other vital function. Judging by the state of the bodies outside the building, nobody had been here in over a week. Those in charge of running the CCT had met the same fate as the soldiers or run away to save themselves.
"Where to next," Yang asked, leaning against the half-wall. "Mercy sounds like our only option."
"Why not..."
...
Racing through the streets, Yang pushed towards the hospital as fast as possible. Behind her, more Infected were coming out of the woodwork due to the roaring engine. They feebly chased her but had not a chance in hell of catching up. Nobody could get close to her.
Reaching a snarled mass of twisted metal, Yang slowed down to weave through it. Flipped vehicles and building debris littered the road. She could feel Jaune looking around with his head on a swivel. Thankful for that, Yang focused on getting through here.
The two came around a bend and encountered an Infected pinned by a beam. It screamed and snarled at them, but because it was trapped at the waist, all it could do was reach for them. Yang ignored her, pushing the bike past while Jaune watched her back. However, instead of leaving the Infected, the boy clocked it with his baseball bat upside the head.
On the other side of the wall, Jaune and Yang got their first view of the hospital. It was out of the way, unlike Vale's main hospital. More of a specialist centre to deal with chronic patients instead of emergency cases.
However, from right here, Yang could see things had gone very wrong. A banner hung from the roof that read, "Survivors Inside", and below that, "Infected on the first floor." Seeing the sign, Yang felt her heart skip a beat. There were people here.
Dad might still be there...
Putting the bike into gear, Yang rode up to a few hundred metres away from the hospital. No Infected had bothered them on this street, so Yang shut the bike off. Taking off their helmets, the teens broke out their scope to get a picture of what was going on.
From here, Yang could see some Infected out front. Maybe a dozen or so just wandering around the parking lot. It wouldn't be difficult to sneak inside with all the abandoned cars and ambulances around. The annexe attached to the main structure was only twenty feet tall but could be climbed if they found a ladder or something to stand on.
"You want to go inside," Jaune asked, crouching behind a nearby car. "We don't know what it looks like in there."
He's right...
If Yang defended that place, she would have an itchy trigger finger. There was no way she was letting anybody up to the safe zone. There might have been a few dozen Infected inside between the front door and the stairs, for all she knew. It was too risky to go in from the first floor, so climbing up the annexe was the safest option.
"No, we climb up the side over there," Yang explained, pointing at the annexe. "We need to find a ladder or something to get up."
"What about the ambulance," Jaune pointed out. "Looks tall enough."
There was an ambulance close to the annexe. Yang guessed it was about twenty feet away. If they put it in neutral and pushed, the two could probably get it close enough to climb up. It was either that or walking around the building to see if a ladder was nearby.
Yeah...
The two nodded at each other and crept out from their cover. Dashing from vehicle to vehicle, they slowly made their way down the street. Each was careful to avoid any Infected which wandered out, silencing them with a well-placed blow or bypassing them entirely. After nearly an hour, Yang and Jaune got to the outer walls of the parking lot.
All of the Infected were west of the hospital. Jaune and Yang approached from the south. So, the two kept behind cover, crouch-walking to the ambulance to not allow themselves to be seen. The sound of the Infected growling or screaming periodically made Yang's hair stand on end.
At their feet, dozens of bodies were spread out all over the place. The crows or other Infected had gotten to them, leaving behind a bloody mess. The smell of which made Yang's nostrils open wide up. It burned the lining of her nose just to breathe the putrid stench.
I wonder how bad the other hospitals are... If this place looks like a warzone, the bigger ones are goners.
Forcing herself to keep moving, Jaune led her to the ambulance. The vehicle was a mess, but the keys were left in the ignition. A quick look in the back found nobody was hiding, but there were no supplies either. Everything of value was used up or taken by those who got there first.
Jaune turned the keys, but the battery was dead, leaving them with the original plan. He shifted the ambulance into neutral and got out. With a nod, the pair crept to the front and pushed the vehicle with all their combined strength. The weight of the ambulance ensured that progress was slow, but the teens groaned through their teeth and continued onwards.
None of the many Infected noticed the pair pushing the vehicle. Even in broad daylight, they didn't see the teens, or it wasn't enough to cause them to attack. Yang saw some of the Infected look right at the ambulance. Yet, they didn't deem the movement as a form of prey.
Maybe they can't see that far?
As the ambulance kissed the wall, Jaune climbed onto the hood. Hoisting Yang up, the pair jumped onto the box and prepared to scale up to the roof. The design of the building left a canopy extending out from the wall that was low enough to clamber onto. Creeping to that level, the pair made sure they maintained a low profile as to not be spotted just in case.
On this canopy, Jaune backed against the wall and put himself in a position to boost Yang up. The girl took the cue and stepped up and over him. Grasping onto the roof ledge, Yang pulled herself up, kicking to find a foothold before throwing her leg over the edge.
Falling onto the roof, Yang was met with some trash that had blown against the wall. There were no signs of people using this area to hide or escape. The windows alongside the annexe roof created an easy path inside, but Yang couldn't see anyone walking around. No Infected from what she could see either.
Gotta get Jaune up here...
Yang stood up and leaned over to the wall to reach for the boy. He stepped back and took a single bound before throwing himself high enough to grab Yang's hand. She pulled him up, using her weight and strength to brace herself against the wall. Jaune managed to get a hold for himself, tossing his body onto the roof like Yang did.
"I don't see a ladder," Yang said, gesturing to the building. "So, we're gonna have to go through the windows."
"Okay, what if there's Infected," Jaune replied, getting his gun out. "You want to find another way in or leave?"
"Hmmm," Yang hummed, cupping her chin. "No, we should run if we see anything."
If it was a single Infected, Yang was sure they could handle them. She was only afraid because hospitals weren't precisely the ideal place for an encounter. Anything beyond that, and Yang was willing to give up. Her dad and uncle would have been smart and abandoned the hospital before an Infected made their way up to them.
Sneaking over to the window, Jaune tried to push the glass out of the way. It refused to budge for him despite trying multiple angles. Yang searched for the window locks instead, finding it locked to them. With a nod to Jaune, she cocked back her arms and smashed the glass with the pry bar.
The safety glass didn't shatter on the first hit. It only cracked, keeping its shape largely intact. However, the pane became flexible, which Yang took advantage of. She used her prybar to chip away at the glass, making a large enough hole for the pair to crawl inside.
Before Yang thought to go in, Jaune reached inside and smacked the wall hard several times. Realising he was trying to lure any Infected out, Yang listened for a response or anybody to come running. A minute passed with nothing taking the bait.
"I'll go in first, so watch my back," Jaune said as he crawled inside.
The boy clambered through the hole, putting his feet on solid ground before he thought to signal Yang. As she crawled inside, Yang put her back against his as they crept through the halls. Their first objective to find the stairs and ascend them to the next floor.
The gentle red glow from the emergency lights set the mood for this scene. Everything was either in shadow or bathed in a deep reddish glow beyond the beacon light that was the broken window. Those spinning lights strobed, chopping Yang's view into second long increments. Every step became its own frame, obscuring her vision and allowing anything to charge out from the darkness. Only their flashlight broke the effect, carving a hole large enough for them to see.
Yang's hands were shaking. A single noise would have been all she needed to rush back to the window. Jaune himself was breathing heavily. His jaw rattled between breaths as they walked the halls.
Fuck, this was a bad idea...
The current floor was deserted. Aside from some blood on the ground and trash strewn about, it appeared clear. However, neither teen took any chances, shining a flashlight into every room they passed before shutting the door. It did little to ease Yang's nerves, given the volume of Infected in the vicinity.
In one of the rooms, body bags were lining the ground. Jaune didn't even attempt to look further, shutting the door as soon as they'd seen them. The boy looked back at Yang, shaking his head and telling her there was no way he'd go in there. A sentiment she shared.
Reaching a nurse's station, the path broke into two more halls. Before them was an elevator, which appeared to be disabled. The hall to their left was blocked with a barrier made from hospital beds and filing cabinets. Only the right hallway was left open to them.
Before they made a decision, Yang rifled through the nurse's station. Her flashlight provided enough light to see despite the darkness. The desk was littered with notes reminding the staff about tasks or charts on patients. What she found interesting was a notepad kept by one of those nurses.
"Dr Grey says we need to pull doubles for the patients now," Yang read, holding up the notepad as she spoke. "Too many people are coming in with bites... Keeps getting worse, and we don't know what's wrong with them... All bite patients are to be quarantined on the first floor until we can figure out what's going on... Every one of them shows fever within twelve hours before seizures start..." Yang skimmed the last few lines in silence before tossing the notebook aside.
"Anything else," Jaune asked, looking behind them and then down the hallway.
"Not really..."
Linking back up with Jaune, Yang shined her flashlight down the hall. At the end was a sign reading 'Stairs.' Turning back to the hall from where they came, Yang found no such sign. That left them with one way to go.
Jaune and Yang moved silently through the corridor, doing precisely what they'd done with the prior rooms. This time, the pair found evidence of full-fledged attacks. Blood sprayed all over the walls, with bodies lying mangled on the ground. However, there was not a single Infected in these rooms.
Reaching the stairs, Jaune opened the door and poked his head inside. It was dark; only a red light hung on the wall allowed anybody to see. Shuffling inside, the pair looked downstairs first. There, they found everything from chairs to desks thrown to the lower floor, blocking the path. Whatever doctors or patients were left managed to sequester themselves from the Infected.
Good idea... Maybe they're all still alive.
Looking to the next floor, Jaune took the lead. The pair made their way to the door without anything obstructing their path. Jaune opened the door, and Yang looked inside. A small gathering area with chairs set around was at the end of the hall. There, she could see a person.
He was an older man, slumped over in his chair. Yang didn't know if he was dead or sleeping. The girl mouthed to Jaune about what she saw, and as one, the two left their cover.
Covering the hall in a few seconds, the pair reached the lounge room. Coming out of the hallway gave the team a better view of the rest of the area. What they saw were nearly two dozen bodies laid on the ground. A jug with a package of party cups next to it was at the centre of it all. In each of their hands was one of those cups.
Yang walked up to the older doctor and checked for a pulse. There was none. The guy was warm and dead. Some of the other doctors or nurses had vomited on themselves or were foaming at the mouth.
"Oh shit, did they off themselves," Yang expressed, backing away from the corpses.
Jaune sniffed one of the cups before tossing it to the floor. "Yeah, I think they did... It smells like almonds."
"Cyanide smells like almonds," Yang said with a shiver running down her back.
"Umm, hello..."
A voice from the side startled the pair. They each immediately drew their weapons and trained them on the newcomer who cowered at the gun pointed at his face. Yang then realised it was a kid about their age. A badge on his clothing said he was an intern.
"All you all right," Yang asked, pushing Jaune's gun down.
Fuck, this guy's all on his own...
Yang could hardly imagine what it was like to be living among your dead coworkers. He was trapped with only them keeping him company. The sounds of the Infected downstairs and the silence of the deceased would have driven her mad.
"No, not really," the kid whimpered, shaking his head. He then lifted up a sleeve to show a bite mark to them. Black veins emanated from the wound, covering most of his arm. "I tried to get out, but one of them bit me..." He gestured to the other doctors. "They saw what those infected people could do and couldn't live with it. I-I couldn't do it..." He looked up at the two and was starting to cry. "I-I don't know what to do!"
Fuck...
"I'll help you," Jaune said in a cold tone.
Yang knew what Jaune implied. She didn't have any hangups about it. The guy was gonna turn in a few days or hours. Killing him was going to be a kindness.
"Let's go find a room," Yang said, pulling the young man down the hallway. She could feel his hand trembling in hers.
Opening one of the doors, they found an office. It had thick enough walls to muffle the shot. The young man stood with his back to a wall opposite of the pair and looked upon the teens with a thankful expression. Before Jaune could do the honours, Yang spoke up.
"Have you seen two men, one blond and the other black-haired," she asked. "They would have come here to get help."
"I don't remember," the boy replied, shaking his head. "We lost the first floor a few days ago. Maybe they looted one of the ambulances?"
Okay...
"That's all I needed to know."
"Thanks for this, guys," the boy expressed with tears streaking down his cheeks. "I hope you find who you were looking for..."
At that, Yang turned her head and covered her ears. Jaune raised his gun, and with a single shot, put a round through the boy's head. Yang could feel his body hit the floor despite her lack of hearing. The sensation nearly made the girl retch. When she turned back to the opposite wall, all she could see was a bloodstain and a hole in the cinder blocks.
...
Leaving the hospital, Yang could see dusk was fast approaching. They had a few hours before night would be upon them. Neither of them could risk getting caught outside at that time unless there was no other option. Yang didn't even want to gamble driving the bike back to the farm.
"We should find a place to stay tonight," Yang expressed in a dull tone.
The teens hadn't spoken since they left. Killing that boy hurt. Yang knew there was no other option, but it still broke her heart. It pained Jaune just as much if not more to do that. Whatever energy they had possessed was sapped from their spirit. So, finding a place to lay down for a few hours was all that was on their minds.
"Yeah, there's that rec centre we passed down the road," Jaune shared. "Do you want to try that?"
Seems like a good idea...
This outbreak came on too fast for schools or gyms to be turned into alternative care sites. Vale's disaster response policy explicitly said those locations would be used for such. So, it was likely the place was empty. Or they could find a room that was locked and sleep there. Yang preferred it over breaking into an apartment building or sleeping in a car.
Sneaking back out of the parking lot, the pair found the rec centre pretty quickly. The hospital's intended purpose put it nearby other facilities that patients would use for therapy. It made it easy for the teens to find shelter, but it also kept them near the horde of Infected inhabiting the hospital. So, they had to act with caution.
Jumping over the brick wall segregating the gym from the surrounding neighbourhood, they found the area free of Infected. The grounds were unkempt, but it looked like this place was untouched. However, the sounds of Infected on the other side of the wall was discouraging. Yang only hoped none of them made it inside.
The first wing of the rec centre they came across looked like it housed a swimming pool. Judging by the size and massive skylight above the interior, Yang thought it so. The building was designed like Beacon's gym, with the same assortment of facilities. Now, they just needed to find a way in.
There were glass doors leading inside, but each was locked. A quick search later and Yang spotted an open window large enough for her to squeeze through. Signalling to Jaune, she had him boost her onto his shoulders, keeping her steady as the girl looked inside.
Panning around, Yang was right about the swimming pool. It appeared they had locked it up before all this went down since she couldn't see any signs of life. The lights were off, but down a hallway opposite of her, she could see some on behind a door leading further into the rec centre.
"Okay, I'll go inside and unlock the door," Yang whispered, putting a foot on Jaune's shoulder.
"Are you sure," Jaune replied, grabbing her hand to stabilise her. "Just hurry back and be careful..."
Sucking her stomach in, Yang managed to cram herself inside. Nearly getting her hips caught in the window, she latched her claws onto the sill before flipping her body to drop onto her feet. Landing like a cat, only her boots gently clicked against the tile floor. That minute sound became amplified in this massive room, leaving an echo that floated in the air.
Finding that same door, Yang unlocked it and let Jaune inside. The boy quickly dropped their bags and gestured for the two to look around. Yang complied and followed him as they cleared the pool and ensured it was secured.
The first door they ran to was the one with the light on. The door was locked, but Yang could see the hall was filled with smoke from this point of view. At least, that's what it looked like. The cloud was too dense to see through, but Yang could make out some bodies on the floor. Actually, it wasn't smoke. There was no grey gas like one would usually see. It was more like a powder floating in the air.
Unsure of what it was, the pair backed away. They checked out the other doors leading to the locker rooms, but those were empty as well. All in all, the pool was deserted and secured. Yang only needed a way to conceal that anybody was hiding in here.
What about papering over the doors?
Checking behind the lifeguard desk, Yang found a stack of papers. Newspaper or copy paper didn't matter. She quickly soaked them in some water before covering the glass doors. A single layer of them stuck to the glass, shielding any prying eyes from their shelter. It wouldn't stop a break-in, but it at least deterred Infected from just happening by.
Okay, looks like the place is secured... Time to get some rest.
[Later that night]
Jaune and Yang sat next to each other in total silence. The night was filled with Infected screams or gunshots ringing out in the distance. Occasionally, a man or woman would be taken down by the Infected. Thusly, the teens were forced to listen as that poor person suffered as they were eaten alive.
Sitting shoulder to shoulder, neither was able to get any sleep. Yang tried to shut everything out, but it was all for nought. Even covering her ears, she couldn't get the sound of it out of her mind. She couldn't even go hide in the locker rooms for fear of being left alone or cornered if the Infected got inside.
Yang poked her head out from her behind her arms to look around. Jaune was still awake, it seemed. He stared off into the distance with one leg pulled up to his chest and the other outstretched. Like Yang, his body language told her that he was also on edge. He was scared.
The boy shuffled, setting one of his hands down next to him. Without knowing it, he rested his palm on Yang's hand. The touch caused Jaune to turn and face Yang. The two now staring deep into each other's eyes.
It felt as though Yang's body had moved on her own. She didn't know who made the first move, but the pair grew close, locking lips without warning the other. Neither knew why they acted. Whether it be stress or another actor pushing them together.
Jaune pushed further, slipping his tongue inside and pressing his body against Yang's. The girl fell on her back, and Jaune moved to kneel on top of her. She grabbed at his hair, running her slender fingers through the locks. Jaune slid an arm under her shirt, feeling her strong back muscles curl against his arm. His other hand rested itself on her ass.
Yang felt her stomach fill with butterflies. This embrace gave her a sense of warmth that carved through the feeling of terror. Both she and Jaune could ignore what was going on around them for just the slightest moment. A welcome escape from the chaos.
Then, suddenly, Jaune rolled to his side, pulling Yang close to his chest. Yang responded in kind by kissing him lightly, but she stopped there. Their shaky breaths filled the air around them as they settled in. Jaune wrapped his arms around Yang before grabbing a jacket to cover their bodies.
For the rest of the night, Jaune and Yang just basked in each other's presence.
My first time even trying to write one of these scenes. I borrowed a little from Ktyouwriting when he did an intimate scene. So, this is my first experiment at intimacy in writing.
My intention for this scene was for it just to be a sudden embrace. No real reason for it. Things all around the two are shitty and they just needed something.
Jaune: 3 Infected, 1 Mom, 1 Intern
Yang: 2 People, 6 Infected
Ren: 2 Infected, 1 Child
Nora: 1 Infected