A.N: Yo guys! First off, thank you for letting me know that your still with me. It sorta inspired me to write and upload a brand new chapter today. (A week... not bad) I really hope you'll enjoy reading this chapter too. So without further ado... Let's go!

Chapter 9: So What You're Saying About These Zombies is…

Jack still sat there gazing off into space until a half-sob, half-hiccup from Rapunzel brought him back to reality. His eyes moved slowly to his left foot- his sneaker was totally busted. The zombie had really messed it up. Jack breathed in and out. He had to make sure… So he tucked the gun back in his waistband. He'll need it later if what he's thinking turns out to be true.

Jack slowly took off his sneaker and then his socks to reveal ... Nothing... No bite marks anywhere and no puncture wounds either. He hadn't been bitten after all. It took a moment for Jack to realize that. He blinked at his pale foot ... He could almost cry out in relief. Speaking of crying... He saw Rapunzel a few feet away, sitting on the messy floor sobbing quietly to herself. He smiled a genuine smile. He got up and limped to her. His left foot still hurt; just a little though. There was nothing to worry about. He crouched in front of the young blond girl and whispered. "Rapunzel?"

He got no reaction from except for another choked sob. "Hey, it's okay... Everything's gonna be alright."

"No it's not," she whispered brokenly. "You got bit."

"No I didn't..."

"Yes you did," she cried. "I saw it happen."

"But I'm okay... See," Jack sat back and showed her his left foot; wiggling his toes playfully and also giving her a toothy smile. "No bite marks."

Rapunzel blinked at his foot; not believing what she was seeing. In a flash of a moment she was hugging him so tight that he thought his ribs were going to break. She was crying again... But this time out of relief; out of happiness. Jack was okay... He's gonna be okay... Everything will be alright... Just like he said it would.

"Uh... Punzie?" Jack chuckled. "As much as I would love to stay like this forever... We should get going, those Zombies could wake up any minute... Plus we need to go check on Hiccup. The guy seems like a real trouble-magnet, don't you think?"

Rapunzel released him quickly, sliding a bit away from him. A light blush on her cheeks, she brushed a stray strand of hair out of her red teary face and rubbed her arm in embarrassment and chuckled. "Yeah..." She didn't mean to jump at him like that. She then saw him remove his other shoe and sock and chuck them away.

His sneaker was messed up anyway; there was no way he was walking in it anymore. And there was no point in wearing only one. Better to just ditch 'em both. Besides, he kinda liked being bare foot.

Rapunzel giggled once more when she saw him wiggle his toes and Jack chuckled with her. He climbed to his feet and held out his hands to help her up. She smiled and took them. "C'mon... Let's get going," he said, still holding onto her hand.

Meanwhile-

Something wet and rubbery was playing on his face. What is that? Hiccup scrunched his face and turned his head away to try to get whatever it was away from him. His hand brushed against something soft and furry. Toothless? The dog began licking his hand instead. He groaned and giggled at the same time. "Toothless, buddy, stop."

"Aye! Yer finally awake," he heard someone say in a Scottish accent. "I thought ya were gonna nap forever."

Hiccup blinked his eyes open to see his dog panting and wagging its tail happily at him and he also saw a girl smirking down at him. He recognized her from before, when she saved him. He saw her bow lying next to her. He propped himself up using his elbows as support and rubbed his head. "Ugh…What happened?"

"Ya fainted," She replied still smirking with amusement. "Like a girl n' everything."

Oh yeah! Now he remembered. He was being attacked by a lot of Zombies. He thought he was going to die. He remembered Toothless standing in front of him; ready to defend his master. He remembered the girl; Merida, was it? Save his life. He remembered seeing arrows plunge themselves into the zombies heads and then… nothing. But that didn't matter now…

I'm freaking alive! Alive to live another day!

"Thank you," he said to her with deep gratitude.

Merida's smirk faltered for just a moment before it got even bigger. "Yer not gonna ask meh for an autograph now, are ya?"

He chuckled and was about to say something when he saw Jack and Rapunzel come out from the corner isle. He jerked in shock when Merida moved so fast, picking her bow up and arrow out and pointed it at his two new friends. He saw them jerk in shock as well.

"Whoa, whoa… "Jack said, pushing Rapunzel a little back and standing protectively in front of her and bringing his hands up in front of him; showing the new girl that they meant no harm. "Just relax, okay… Whatever this is, we can talk it out."

Merida brought her bow down but didn't completely relax. They didn't look like zombies… yet. She turned slightly to the brunette boy when she heard him talk to her.

"It's okay. They're my friends," He said then offered a hand to her. "My name's Hiccup by the way. That's Jack and Rapunzel."

"Ya don' say," she said taking the offered hand and shaking it though she kept her eyes glued to the white haired lad. If this guy was the infamous Jack Frost everyone talked about then she'll be damned. If what she heard about him were true then this guy was worse than the zombies. She'll have to be careful around him. She and Hiccup both stood up.

"Are you okay?" Rapunzel asked, stepping out from behind Jack, now that the tension had dissipated.

"Yeah… I'm okay. Merida here saved me," He said motioning to the fiery red head beside him. "What about you guys? I heard a gunshot."

"Oh, that was nothing," Jack waved him off dismissively and smirked like it was nothing. There was no need for Hiccup to know that he almost got turned into a Zombie and was going to off himself had it been true. He felt Rapunzel become a bit rigid beside him. "Just taking out the Zombie trash, the usual. No biggie…"

Hiccup nodded.

"So? What're ya lads doin here," Merida asked the three of them. They obviously knew each other. And judging by the way they talked, it looked like they were all good friends; the way they cared about each other. It made Merida think about her friends back in Scotland. Oh man! She missed them so much; especially at a time like this.

"We came here to get something to eat and to take some with us," Hiccup answered her question.

"Where are ya goin'?" Merida asked out of curiosity.

"None of your business," Jack glared at her with hostility and then told the other two teens. "C'mon, let's get the food and get going. Those Zombies come alive after a while." if they didn't already know.

Merida looked offended. She wanted to just clock him one for being so arrogant towards her. She almost did when she felt a hand on her shoulder; stopping her.

"Why don't you come with us?" Hiccup asked her. He didn't understand why he cared so much, maybe it was because she saved him but whatever the reason was, he didn't want her to be alone at a time like this. It will be safer if she comes along; for both her and us.

"Wait what?" Jack glared at his friend first before glaring at Merida again. He didn't want her tagging along. She'll just be one more person that he'd be responsible for and he's having enough responsibilities to last a full lifetime as it is. Plus, everything about her screamed arrogance and Jack didn't like it one bit. "We don't have any room for you."

"Then make room," She said without skipping a beat. Jack was really starting to bug her. Initially, her initial plan had been to head back home and figure out a way to save the human race but now, she decided to accompany them just to piss Jack off. "Cuz' am coming wit ya whether ya want meh to or not."

Jack groaned loudly and resisted the urge to hit something. He was about to retort when he felt Rapunzel tug at his long sleeve. He turned to meet her worried expression. "Jack, we're wasting time… My parents…" She said leaving it hanging.

"Fine! Grab the goods," Jack said a little louder than he intended to. "She can come with us," for now.

"As if I need yer permission for tha'," Merida huffed, crossing her arms and turned her head away; chin held up high.

Jack rolled his eyes and bit back a not-so-friendly-remark before walking off to where the other cart filled with sweet delicious candy was; Rapunzel following him closely behind. They rolled both shopping carts to the car before dumping everything into the back seat. They ditched a few food items to make space in the car and much to Jack's dismay too because majority of the food that they left behind were the sweet delightful treats. And he could have sworn he saw a crow eyeing him or something back at the store; as if it was silently laughing at his misfortune. It was odd that there was only one crow there… don't they normally hang out in groups?

Jack pouted childishly all through the entire drive not bothering to join in with the conversation the other three occupants of the car were having. When he did, he grumbled. They were sharing their zombie morning experiences with each other. Jack was also pissed that Merida had broken the passenger side window of his uncle's car. Now, the car was unsafe for all of them if and when the dead-army decides to attack them. Nothing was going his way today. First, his uncle turns out to be a zombie and they had to kill him; twice then he almost gets bit by a dead-chick and this red bushy haired girl decides to tag along with them after she freaking broke the car window and on top of everything else they had to leave a huge amount of yummy candy behind. Seriously? Why the candy? Why couldn't they've just left her behind instead?

"Yeah, I mean the zombies looked like they came alive when I used the flamethrower thing," Hiccup said, bringing Jack out of his personal ranting back to the conversation they had been having. The brunette boy had noticed how the frozen foods isle wasn't disturbed in the slightest bit. It couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

"Are ya sure it was because of ta fire?" Merida asked him. "It could be tha' they saw how tasty ya looked," she said wiggling her finger like a spider in front of his face to creep him out.

"Actually that's another thing…" Hiccup said trying to ignore the person sitting next to him. "I don't think these Zombies can actually see."

"What do you mean?" Rapunzel asked. She had nudged closer to Jack because the open window was freaking her out a little. What if a zombie jumped in out of nowhere and attacked her through the opening? Nope, she wasn't risking it.

"Well… I donno, it was like… the zombies sensed me or something," Hiccup said, trying to sound more sensible about it. The zombie-girl in the store seemed to know he was there even before it even saw him.

Jack; who was listening in on their conversation, silently agreed. In the morning, his uncle seemed to sense him from behind the fridge door. Jack didn't even have to make a noise. His Zombie-uncle just knew that he had entered the kitchen.

"Yeah… even back at archery practice," Merida piped in. "That zombie-man knew I was ther' without lookin' at meh."

Rapunzel silently agreed too, recalling the incident at the drug store. Even if she hadn't made a sound she was sure those zombies would've sensed her.

"Okay, so what do we know about these things so far?" Jack asked, finally speaking up; his voice sounding much less irritated. The more they knew about those things the more prepared they would be.

"That they don't die," Rapunzel said first.

"They hate the cold and are attracted to fire," Hiccup said next.

"N' they can sense us like some weird spidey sense," Merida said last.

"Great… this just keeps getting better, doesn't it?" Jack said with a sigh as Rapunzel's house came into view.

This is how I imagined their meeting to go the first time I thought about writing this story. These conversations were always stuck in my head. And I liked the way it turned out. And I feel Jack and Merida are so similar in so many ways that they will constantly keep butting heads. XD And I also think Jack is a sugar junkie (Like me) So yeah. I hope you liked the update and it wasn't disappointing cause all the action starts from the next chapter that I will surely try and upload next Sunday.

SHOUT OUTS! (Glad to be able to do this again ^o^)

AvaniAcrux: Thank you very much. I hope I'll be consistent with her accent though. And trust me, I know a thing or two about being lazy XD (::)(::)(::)
Dreamer: It's always a pleasure reading your reviews! And I haven't tried it before, this is my first time. I'm glad I'm able to pull it off without confusing you guys or any unnecessary extras. Thanks for the support. You have no idea how much that means to me! Like I said, no matter what happens, I will never give up on one of my stories. I might take a while to post but I will see it through till the end. You can count on me! (::)(::)(::)
Guest1: Hehe, thank you! I hope you enjoyed this chapter too! (::)
Guest2: Stay tuned for even more twists and turns to come. We're gonna go through a hurricane roller coaster so lets hold on tight and hope we survive the ride. (::)
Lexa: I will. I promise! ^_^ (::)

That's all for now!
Take care guys!
Until next time.
Byeee!