Warning: Blood, Gore and strong language
A/N: I own nothing
Beca awoke to find that Bella had decided that the most comfortable place to sleep was on her head.
"Dude seriously, are you trying to suffocate me?" Beca grabbed the monkey off her face and placed her on the pillow. Bella hadn't even woken up. Beca moved over to the door and pushed the dresser back to where she had found it. The noise finally managed to wake Bella up and the monkey took a flying leap across the room to land on Beca's back.
"You have some serious jumping skills there my friend." Beca figured she would have to get used to it seeing as the monkey had decided that she would be tagging along. The pair made their way downstairs and Beca took stock of her supplies. She had her double barrel, sawed off shotgun that she kept in its holster on the bike, she rummaged around in her saddle bag and found that she only had six rounds left.
"I really need to make a supply run," she muttered to herself. Looking through her bag she saw that she still had two full, ten round clips for her 9mm Glock 22 that she always kept strapped to her thigh. That along with her combat knife and the aluminum bat she kept in her old softball backpack made up the small arsenal she had at her disposal. She stood back and looked at her mother's bike. It was a black, Kawasaki, police issued motorcycle. The nice thing about it was the large storage space on the back that she could hang the saddle bags off of and had room for supplies. And it was fast, her mom used to tell her stories about chasing down bad guys down the interstate when Beca was little and joked that Beca should call her Erik Estrada. Beca didn't know who that was but her mom sure thought that it was funny.
Shaking herself out of her musings she took stock of what food she had left. She had three cans of beans, one can of peaches, and a few more slim jims. She had been running low on water but that problem had been solved with the boiled water from the sink. She cursed under her breath when she realized just how low she was on supplies and whipped out her map to look for a nearby town.
She looked at the almost pathetic amount of progress she had made since leaving Portland. It should not have taken a month to get from Main to New York, but with the roads being trashed with wrecks and the zombie hoards roaming around she had to make several detours. Not to mention that it was winter in New England so most if not all the roads were either completely snowed over or frozen so she had to drive slowly and carefully. She was thankful for her mom's old police jacket that was heavily insulated and the full helmet that kept the freezing wind out of her face. Unfortunately her mom was a few inches taller than her so the insulated pants that went with the jacket caused her to trip all the time. So instead she was stuck with her skinny jeans.
Looking down at the map she saw what looked to be a reasonably sized town only a few miles away. It looked small enough that there shouldn't be too many zombies but large enough that there should be some sort of outlet mall to raid. She read the map and memorized that path that she would try to take as well as several detours that wouldn't take her too far out of the way.
Rolling up the map, she walked over to her bike and started getting ready to leave. Beca realized she had a problem when she saw that Bella was going to have a hell of a time if she simply sat on Beca's shoulder for the ride. The poor thing would probably freeze to death after the first mile. So Beca headed upstairs and grabbed a couple of towels from the linen closet and stuffed them into her softball bag, forming a little nest for Bella.
"All right Bella next stop New Jersey," she could have sworn she heard Bella groan.
The town looked almost abandoned but that was fine with Beca. As far as she was concerned the less zombies the better. She had stopped at the top of a small hill to survey the town and noticed what looked to be some sort of strip mall on the far side.
"All right Bella all we got to do is make it across this tiny little town, shouldn't be a problem we'll just take it nice and slow." Bella poked her head out of Beca's bag to look over Beca's shoulder and she gave a small hiss.
"Oh come on, look there's hardly anything between us and the other side, this will be easy." Beca realized what she said and had to face palm. "Did I really just say that? Crap now I jinxed it and there will probably be hundreds of zombies waiting for us." She looked over her shoulder and saw that Bella was nodding. She raised an eyebrow at the monkey but Bella just ducked her head back into the safety of the bag.
Replacing her helmet, Beca hit the kickstand on the bike and started to make her way across town. She kept her pace slow to avoid any unwanted attention and crept her way toward the strip mall. She saw a couple of zombies wandering around the allies but none of them seemed to notice her. One that was on the main road started limping towards her as she passed but it quickly lost interest when she got out of range.
All in all it only took her about ten minutes to get across town. Luckily there weren't that many cars left on the road and the streets were almost barren. She pulled up next to what looked like a hunting store and parked her bike. Beca unslung her bat and gently opened the door. She released a breath that she didn't know she was holding when an alarm hadn't gone off. Making her way through the store, she kept an eye out for any threats. Bella had leapt out of the backpack and was crawling along the tops of the aisles when she gave a small screech.
Instantly Beca hefted her bat over her shoulder and twirled around a shelf to come face to face with an undead. The zombie had been attracted to the noise that Bella made and was slowly shambling towards her. The thing was disgusting, its flesh was a horrid mix of yellow and purple and the skin had started to rot away. Beca could almost make out the store's logo on the apron it was wearing but it was so faded that she didn't bother. Beca took a step back and tapped her bat against the ground to draw the thing's attention and when it turned she saw that its jaw was only attached to one side of its seriously messed up face.
"You're an ugly one aren't ya?" the zombie only groaned in response and started to shamble towards her. Beca lifted her bat and swung with all her might, knocking its head clean off and sending it flying to the other side of the store. She watched as the body crumpled to the floor and choked down some vomit at the smell and the black ooze that was seeping from the thing's neck. She worked her way over to the head and gasped when she saw that it was still moving. Granted the thing couldn't do anything any more but she still smashed it into the floor all the same.
"All right, one problem solved," she quickly rushed to the back of the store where she saw some racks of pants. After working her way through what was available she finally managed to find a pair of camo, fleece lined cargo pants in her size. "Not my usual style but I'll take the extra warmth and I kind of like having this many pockets," she changed out of her skinny jeans and used this opportunity to grab a clean shirt as well, her old one had really started to smell.
"So what do you think?" Beca gave a little spin to show Bella her new look. Bella just looked at her while scratching her armpit. "Well what do you know, you're naked." Beca scoffed and turned to look down the shoe aisle she discovered. After perusing for a bit she found some steel toed hunting boots that would be a huge improvement over her converse. "If I had known about the impending apocalypse then I would have packed better." That earned her a chattering noise from Bella who was following along on the racks. "Either I'm going crazy or you can understand me." Bella just cocked her head to the side and stared at Beca. "Yup, definitely going crazy."
Beca moved over to the actual hunting section of the store and kept an eye out for twelve gauge shells. When she reached the section that should have housed the ammo her face dropped when she saw that the shelves had been stripped clean. "Crap, well now what?" She could probably make due with just her pistol but having a loaded shotgun would make her life a whole lot easier. Bella had hopped back onto Beca's shoulder but she jumped off again and made her way to the front desk and started clapping. Curious, Beca made her way over and looked behind the desk to notice a pump action strapped to the bottom of the desk. She quickly opened all the draws of the desk and discovered a hidden stash of twelve gauge rounds. "Bella, you are freaking awesome!" Beca grabbed as many boxes as she could stash in her bag and started making her way out of the store.
She made her way back to her bike and dumped the shells into the saddle bag. She found enough to last her a long time, barring any unforeseen circumstances. Beca hoped back on her bike and Bella climbed into the backpack, sticking her head out so she could see.
"Alright Bella, next stop food." Beca gunned the motorcycle and drove the short distance from the hunting store to what appeared to be the local supermarket. After pulling up to the front door Beca dismounted her bike and made her way inside. She failed to notice the dusty sign that had fallen to the ground and the words "safe zone" were scrawled across it.
When she entered the store she had a bad feeling about the place but shrugged it off, she needed food and this place was her best chance of finding some. It didn't matter that her mother died in a store almost exactly like this one.
The first problem she had was that the store was almost completely dark, the only light coming through the skylights in the ceiling. She could see, but the looming shadows and the eerie silence did nothing to help settle her nerves. She made her way through the store grabbing supplies as she moved. She managed to grab a decent supply of canned goods, peaches, pears and of course beans. Bella had to vacate the backpack while they searched in order to fit all of the supplies so she was perched atop Beca's shoulder when Bella suddenly went rigid. Beca could feel the monkey's tail tighten around her neck and did a quick sweep of the aisle she was in to look for threats. When she didn't see anything she thought that Bella might just be panicking when she heard a noise. It was almost outside the range of her hearing and it took a second for her to recognize what it sounded like.
It was sniffing. Like a hunting dog looking for a scent.
Beca looked over her shoulder and saw a pale, grey zombie on all fours sniffing at the end of the aisle she was in. Beca took a step back and tried to make it out of the other end of the aisle but that's when she noticed that there were two of them. She was trapped and she heard Bella give a small whimper. Beca reached up and scratched Bella's head trying to calm her friend, the last thing she needed was for Bella to screech or something and draw unwanted attention. Beca took a step back and tried to think of a way out, only she stepped back too far and knocked a can loose from the shelf. The can hitting the ground sounded like the loudest noise in the world as the two creatures flinched and turned toward her. Beca met the cold dead gaze of one of the zombies and was frozen in terror when it opened its mouth and gave a blood curdling scream.
As the two charged her, Beca's instincts took over and she drew her pistol from its holster on her left thigh and fired at the zombie barreling towards from the left. Meanwhile her right hand gripped her bat and she swung blindly at the monster on her right. She got lucky that her quick draw actually managed to give zombie number one a face full of lead but the second one only took a glancing blow to the shoulder from her bat. It fell to the ground but it was up in a matter of seconds, hissing and spitting as it leapt toward her. It managed to knock her on her back but she managed to get her bat between the foaming mouth and her neck. Her gun had fallen from her grasp and she couldn't reach for it while keeping the zombie from having a Beca buffet.
The two struggled for a minute, the zombie trying to put all its weight into the attack while Beca tried to use her legs to kick the thing off of her. That's when she felt a nudge on her shoulder and she looked over to see that Bella had managed to pull over Beca's gun. Beca reached around, grabbed the gun and fired point blank right up the zombie's nose. Her ears rang from the sound of the gunshot but she managed to push the corpse off of her and stand up.
Beca took a second to collect her thoughts. That had been way too close of a call, and where had those things even come from? She decided it was time to leave, she had plenty of food and there was no real reason to stay. She made her way down the aisle and stopped. Four more zombies started moving towards her and more were coming. Beca turned around and sprinted to the other end but there was at least a dozen flooding down the aisle. Beca could feel her heart rate increasing and her mind flashed back to a month ago when her mother sacrificed herself so that Beca could escape this exact situation. Beca could still hear her mother screaming at her to run.
The zombies were moving towards her, these were obviously regular zombies instead of the hunters that were lying on the floor. All the same, Beca could maybe handle one or two at a time, heck one time she managed to take down five, but whenever there was a large crowd of them she panicked and all she could do was hear her mother's screams.
She managed to snap out of it when she felt a stinging sensation across her face. Bella had climbed up her jacket and slapped her. Bella was looking at her with as much concern as a monkey could muster and Beca was grateful that she wasn't alone. She shook her head and looked at Bella, "Thanks dude, I owe you one." She started looking for a way to escape but the zombies had effectively boxed her in.
"Shit, how do we get out of here Bella?" Surprisingly the monkey had an answer. Bella leapt off Beca's shoulder and started climbing the shelves. Once at the top Bella jumped off the shelf and disappeared from sight. "Right, the only way out is up."
Beca holstered her gun and replaced the bat. She grabbed the lowest shelf she could reach and started to climb. The shelves were a little unsteady but it's not like Beca weighed a whole lot so she started to make decent progress. She stopped when she felt something grab the bottom of her foot. She looked down and saw the face of an old man, his skin was pulled taut and he was missing an eye. Beca lifted her leg and slammed her foot down with as much force as she could. With that she was free and she managed to make it to the top of the shelf. She looked down to see if she could just run out the next aisle but the hoard had her completely surrounded. She was contemplating whether or not she could make the jump across the aisle when she felt the shelf starting to tilt. The zombies behind her crowded the aisle so much that the shelving unit was being pushed over.
Beca tried to brace herself as her perch came crashing down on the shelf in the next aisle. This caused a domino effect that knocked down all the shelves over on her side of the store. She could hear the unsettling sounds of zombies being squished and bones being broken underneath her but now she had a direct route out of the store. She looked towards the door and saw that Bella was waiting for her so Beca stood up and made her way carefully across the toppled shelves. She scooped Bella up and shoved the monkey into her jacket since she didn't have time to store the food in her backpack. Beca hopped on her motorcycle, yanked on her helmet and burned rubber.
Beca drove for the rest of the day. She was trying to block what happened out of her mind but the details kept flooding her brain. She had almost died twice and that's not really something one gets over in a matter of hours.
She only stopped once to siphon gas from abandoned cars. Other than that they made pretty good time and were now hiding out in a motel on the far reaches of Washington D.C. Beca laid in bed and just stared up at the ceiling. She couldn't believe she had been so careless and she couldn't stop berating herself for freezing up. If Bella hadn't been there she would have certainly died. And dying was not an option.
Bella must have sensed Beca's unease because the monkey curled herself into Beca's neck and started to play with Beca's hair. Beca looked down at her tiny savior and wondered how Bella knew exactly what to do to calm her down. Maybe it was just a primal primate connection. Whatever it was Beca started to nod off, she wasn't sure if she would actually get that much sleep but she knew that she had managed to survive another day. And another day meant that she was that much closer to home.
A/N: So I probably should have looked up the route that Beca should be taking before starting this thing but I realized that if Beca had ended up in Vermont in the first chapter then she was very, very lost. I blame the american education system. I hope my excuse of bad roads and zombies can explain why she ended up that far west when she could have gone just about strait south.
Also to the guest reviewer who mentioned the Outbreak monkey, that was a complete coincidence since I had never even heard of that movie before. Which is weird since it has Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman in it. But the fact that Bella and that monkey are both Capuchin is completely random.