Warning: Blood and gore
A/N: I own nothing.
(Two months later)
Chloe woke to the sounds of nature filtering through the walls of her log cabin. She laid there in her bed just enjoying the peace and quiet, something she rarely got these days. When Aubrey had brought the Bellas to her camp they were all a bit shocked to find the place ransacked and deserted. Aubrey had been furious that her employees had abandoned the place and stolen all of the food and supplies.
So for the past two months the Bellas had been scrambling to scavenge resources from the surrounding woods and the small town that was about a half hour away. Chloe couldn't help but feel a bit of pride at the way her Bellas had adapted to the situation and worked together to build a safe home for them to survive.
Jessica and Ashley had retrofitted one of the cabins to serve as a greenhouse. Right now the building wasn't of much use since the seeds they had scavenged only just sprouted but the two girls were ecstatic that their project was figuratively bearing fruit. And in a few months it would literally be bearing fruit.
CR and the guys had started work on building a wall around the camp. It was slow going since they had to cut down the trees themselves, CR had mentioned several times how dumb it was that there wasn't a Home Depot nearby. Everyone chipped in with building the wall when they could but there were plenty of other jobs to keep busy.
Emily had shocked them all when she had picked up one of the bows still laying around camp and had disappeared into the woods. Three hours later she came back with several squirrels and a full deer on a makeshift sled. She then proceeded to field dress the deer and squirrels and the entire group had enjoyed the fresh meat. Emily made sure that none of the animals went to waste and had started tanning the hides to make leather. When Amy had asked where she had learned to do all of this the younger girl explained that her dad was an avid bowman and his idea of daddy/daughter bonding was to go hunting and fishing, all with bow and arrow.
Chloe herself had her hands full as she and Stacie worked to set up a makeshift lab/med bay for the camp. The chemicals and materials that Stacie had looted from the Chemistry building had been incredibly useful in making some helpful drugs. They hadn't been able to make much more than homemade ibuprofen and mild antibiotics but they would take what they could get. What they couldn't use to make medical supplies Stacie had stockpiled into the closet, claiming that they never knew when they would need it. Chloe never thought that she would be using her pre-med classes so soon but she sure was glad she took them.
The strangest grouping to come out of this was their scavenging team. Flo, Amy, Lilly and Aubrey quickly became the four that the group relied on the most. Their job was to go into town to locate any materials that they couldn't make or find in camp. It was thanks to those four that they managed to make it through winter with enough food and medicine. The four had become a zombie fighting machine and had ventured as far as Atlanta with little to no injury.
Chloe sat up and felt a small pain in her chest. Despite the whole apocalypse thing, life was good. She was with her friends in a safe place with plenty of food and protection. There was just one thing missing that would make it better. It was missing Beca. On the way to the camp Chloe had relentlessly tried to contact Beca but the phone towers had been overloaded and shut down. Now two months after the outbreak Chloe was starting to give up hope that Beca was somehow still alive. The other Bellas tried to keep her spirits up, claiming that Beca was too stubborn to die, but Chloe could see the worry in their eyes. All except Amy, the blond had adamantly refused to even entertain the idea that "Shawshank could bite the dust." And Chloe couldn't be sure but she was fairly positive that the girls had a pool going for how long it would take Beca to show up.
With a sigh Chloe tossed the covers off and hopped out of bed. She couldn't just lay around all day moping about Beca. She was still holding out hope that Beca was still alive but in the meantime there was work to be done. After getting dressed she exited her cabin and took in her surroundings. The camp was definitely beautiful, set next to a lake and surrounded by dense forest. The lake supplied them with fresh water and the woods acted as a natural barrier from the outside world. It was hard to believe that such a tranquil setting was only a couple of hours away from one of the biggest cities in the area.
When she left the cabin she headed towards the makeshift emergency room that she and Stacie had been camped out in for the past two months. Stacie was already there organizing and reorganizing the chemicals.
"You know no matter how many times you move those around there won't be any more then what's there." Chloe quipped as she moved through the building.
Stacie let out a sigh and closed the closet door. "I know, I'm just trying to come up with an excuse to not have to work on the fence." Chloe let out a laugh, out of all the jobs in camp building the fence was the coldest and the most labor intensive. And while Stacie wasn't usually one to shy away from a good workout, having said workout next to Bumper Allen was not exactly fun.
"Is Bumper still complaining about everything under the sun?" The entire camp was starting to grow tired of the former Treble's voice constantly whining through the trees.
Stacie scoffed before turning to face Chloe. "Yup, and I mean that literally. He came in yesterday complaining about sunburn and when I looked him over there wasn't even a hint of red." She let out a sigh. "I think he was just trying to get away from CR."
"Ya I've heard she's been riding them pretty hard." Chloe couldn't keep the smirk off of her face. CR had taken to the job of foreman surprisingly well, unfortunately for the three guys that meant being whipped into shape. Chloe couldn't help but think that in a different world, one where she hadn't stayed at Barden and Beca hadn't taken over the Bellas, CR would have made an excellent captain.
"Well I can't think of anything else to procrastinate with, might as well face the music." Stacie grabbed her jacket by the door and Chloe followed her outside. The pair made their way over to the sounds of hammers, even at this early hour CR had the guys working hard to build the palisade. Chloe glanced to the left and saw Jessica and Ashley heading the same way.
"You guys run out of ideas to stay away from CR too?" Chloe asked and she laughed as both girls head's dropped.
"The plants have taken root so there's not really anything else to do." Ashley said and Jessica nodded. Stacie and Chloe smirked and shook their heads. Both wondered when Cynthia Rose had become the true terror of the apocalypse.
"Well I for one will feel better when there's a solid wall between us and the outside world." Stacie said, the sound of hammers growing louder. "This place is pretty isolated but that doesn't mean a horde of those things could suddenly pop out of the forest." Suddenly a scream pierced through the trees. The four girls all glanced at each other before bolting towards the building crew.
"What the hell was that!?" CR yelled. The guys all stopped what they were doing and each of them glanced around their surroundings.
The scream came again and Benji's face paled. He looked at Cynthia Rose and muttered "Emily." Before anyone could stop him Benji was off and running into the woods.
"Shit!" CR dropped her tools and sprinted after Benji. Jessie was close to follow with Chloe and Stacie right behind him. Emily was usually up and out before anyone else in camp, even Aubrey hadn't beat the legacy. Every morning she would go out to hunt, the others always worried about what could happen to her alone in the woods. It appeared that their fears were justified.
Another scream ripped through the forest and Benji changed direction to follow the sound. He ran through the woods as fast as he could and after shoving himself through a thick cluster Benji stumbled upon a horror show.
Emily was dragging herself through the mud of the forest floor. The leg of her jeans was torn open and there was blood pouring from three long gashes starting from her knee and up her thigh. And standing over her was a three hundred pound black bear.
Without stopping to think, Benji rushed forward and put himself between the bear and Emily. The bear reared back and roared at Benji, the Treble took a step back and almost tripped over Emily's outstretched legs. The girl let out a whimper and Benji turned to look at her. He could see the terror in Emily's eyes and Benji had never felt so helpless. He turned back around and let out a breath when he saw that the bear was back on all fours and had backed off a tiny bit. Benji tried to clear his throat but what came out of his mouth sounded more like the meow of a small kitten.
"B-Benj-i, t-here's a c-cub." Emily's voice came weak and breathy which only managed to worry Benji more. He looked at Emily and saw that her complexion had turned extremely pale, he needed to get her out of there. A glance behind the bear showed that Emily was right, there was a small cub hiding behind its mother. Every cliche about getting between a mama bear and her club flashed through Benji's mind and he couldn't believe that he was actually in that situation.
"Oh god." Judging by the voice, Benji figured that Chloe had arrived. He heard some shuffling coming from behind him and Emily let out a small whimper. He turned to look but the bear growled again, capturing his complete attention. "Benji you have to do something, she's losing a lot of blood."
"Um, I uh. What should I do?" Benji asked, right now the only thing running through his brain was, 'Is Emily okay?' and 'Don't piss off the bear.'
"I don't know. Think of something!" Chloe's voice came out as a harsh whisper. She looked down at the blood pouring out of Emily's leg. From what she could see Emily was very lucky, the blood was flowing freely and while there was a lot of it it wasn't spurting out. Spurting would mean that the bear had hit an artery. And fixing an artery was a bit outside of Chloe's skill set.
She took off her jacket and pressed it against the gashes in Emily's leg. The younger girl barely made a noise and Chloe knew that they needed to get Emily out of there. Her leg was going to need some serious attention and the middle of the woods was not the best place to perform emergency surgery. She was vaguely aware of a noise coming from above her and when she turned her head to see Benji...singing...to the bear.
"I've got the magic in me. Every time I touch that track it turns into gold." Chloe couldn't believe her eyes or ears. But it looked like it was working, the bear had stopped growling and it started to wander off. Benji kept singing until the bear was at least twenty feet away, its cub following close behind her.
"How in the...never mind just get over here and help me." Chloe grabbed Emily's right arm and threw it over her shoulder. Benji spun around and rushed over to grab the left arm and together they lifted the tall girl and started making their way back to camp. It was slow going but they managed to make it all the way back to camp without any more trouble. Chloe looked around and saw that everyone else who split up to look for Emily had returned. Now all she had to do was save her young friend from bleeding out.
"Jessie! Get over here and help carry her while I go prep the cabin." After some awkward shuffling Chloe and Jessie managed to switch places. Now that her hands were free Chloe dashed across the clearing towards the med cabin. "Stacie, you're with me. CR I need you to wake up Aubrey and tell her what's going on." Everyone moved to follow Chloe's orders and before long Chloe and Stacie had a makeshift operation room set up with Emily laying on a wooden table. Chloe cleared away as much blood as she could and before the blood could return she got a good look at the wound. There were three long gashes running across Emily's thigh and Chloe knew she was going to have to stitch them up. Luckily, that was something she could do.
"Alright get her pants off. First we have to sterilize the wound." Chloe looked up at the faces surrounding the table. "Stacie, grab the alcohol and the swabs. Benji, I need you to grab a needle and tread. They should be in the drawer of the desk in the other room. Jessie, there's some painkillers in the closet grab as much as you can. We're going to need it." The three bystanders moved to follow Chloe's orders so the redhead turned back to her patient. "Hang in there Legacy, we've got you."
"Chloe?" Emily's voice was even weaker than it was in the forest. "Chloe, I'm scared."
"I know sweetie but there's nothing to worry about." Chloe grabbed the girl's hand and gave a comforting squeeze. "I won't let anything happen."
Stacie came running back into the room with her arms full of medical supplies. She set the stuff down on the table and prepared a clean rag with alcohol. She then used the rag to wipe away the fresh blood coming from the wound. After the blood was cleared she stuck the rag into the wounds and worked the cleaning agent around as best she could.
Emily let out a cry of pain and Chloe squeezed her hand. Chloe knew that Emily must be in intense pain but it was better than getting an infection. Once Stacie had thoroughly cleaned the wound she grabbed a fresh towel and put pressure over the claw marks. At the same time Jessie and Benji both returned with their assigned supplies. Chloe grabbed the painkillers from Jessie and managed to get Emily to take a few. They wouldn't do much but anything to fight the pain would be useful.
Chloe took the needle and thread from Benji and pushed Stacie out of the way. This was going to be the tricky part. Chloe had studied how to close a wound but that had been on a fake cadaver. Plus at the time she had actual medical equipment, not a sewing needle and thread. She took a second to dip the needle and thread in the alcohol to help sterilize it. She would have preferred to have boiled them in water or at least heated up the needle but time was of the essence.
Chloe turned back to the operating table and let out a shaky breath. Emily was only growing paler so Chloe was going to have to work fast. She bent over the freshman's thigh and started to work on closing the wounds. Emily flinched after the first puncture but after that she remained still. Chloe glanced up and saw that her patient had lost consciousness, which might help with the pain but it also meant that Emily was running dangerously low on blood.
On the bright side the wounds were significantly shallower than Chloe originally thought. The bear must have only grazed Emily's thigh, which would explain why there was no artery damage. Chloe finished up one cut and started the next one, she heard some commotion coming from the main room and Stacie took Jessie with her to explain what was going on.
"So," Chloe said, addressing Benji. "How'd you know that singing would calm the bear down?"
Benji looked away from Emily to look at Chloe's questioning expression. "Uh, when I was a boy scout they always said that you should talk slowly and calmly if you ever run into a bear in the wild." Benji looked back at Emily and grabbed the girl's hand in his own.
"And you chose Magic because?" Chloe finished the second cut and moved to finish the job.
"I kind of panicked and it was the first song that came to mind." Benji said a little sheepishly.
Chloe just laughed as she finished with the third wound. She cut the string and finished the suture before taking a step back. There was still blood flowing from the wounds so she grabbed some gauze and the last clean towel before carefully wrapping Emily's leg. Chloe let out a relieved breath before she felt her knees give out. She managed to fall against the wall and slide down to the floor. Benji was by her side in a second and together they made their way to the main room of the cabin. Stacie moved back to the operating room to keep an eye on Emily and Chloe sank gratefully down into a chair.
"Is she going to be alright Chloe?" Aubrey was pacing back and forth in front of the redhead and Chloe couldn't help but grin. The blonde had always been a micromanager and when there was something she couldn't do, like assist Chloe in the medbay, her default was to pace nervously.
Chloe stood up and moved to the bathroom to wash her hands of the blood. She dried her hands off and returned to the main room. She used the distraction to formulate what she was going to say. Emily had lost a lot of blood, too much really. She might be able to pull through on her own but Chloe would feel much better if they had some blood bags on hand just in case. Plus, while they might have cleaned the wound as thoroughly as possible there was always the chance that Emily could get an infection. The needle and threads hadn't been properly sanitized and who knew what was on the bear's claws, the antibiotics they had on hand were most likely too weak to fend off a serious infection. Chloe explained her thoughts to the group staring at her and Aubrey ran a hand through her hair while she weighed their options.
"So we need to go on a run." Aubrey said and Chloe just nodded. The redhead hated it when her friends willingly went out into the zombie ridden wasteland but in order to keep Emily safe they needed supplies. "All right I'll get the girls."
Lilly felt the wind whistling through her hair as she drove Aubrey's jeep down the interstate towards Atlanta. After some discussion they had all decided that the city was the best place to get the things they needed. After checking a map Flo had discovered that there was a blood bank and pharmacy only a few blocks away from each other. With a little luck they would be in and out with no trouble for the undead.
Amy and Lilly would be in charge of grabbing the antibiotics from the pharmacy while Aubrey and Flo made their way to the blood bank. Chloe had instructed them to grab O negative blood since they didn't know what Emily's blood type was but had also requested that they try and find a testing kit so if this ever happened again then they would be prepared.
"So legacy really took on a bear?" Amy asked. They had all been shocked to hear that Emily had been injured and despite Amy's apparent dislike for the girl the Tasmanian was ready to go on a bear hunt.
"Not really, it was more like she stumbled on a bear and the bear messed her up." Aubrey explained.
"We don't really have bears in Guatemala." Flo said from the back seat. "I did have a cousin that was mauled by a jaguar though."
"I once slept inside a bear carcass to stay warm in the winter." Lilly whispered, but because of the wind no one heard her.
"Ya no bears in Tasmania either, if you want koalas you got to go to Australia." Amy said, also from the back seat.
"Guys this isn't the point. We need to be discussing strategy so that we don't die trying to save Emily." Aubrey rubbed her temples as she tried to keep her calm. She loved these girls and together they made a great team. But sometimes she thought that they didn't take their job seriously at all. And in the apocalypse that could get them killed.
"Relax cap, we know what we're doing." Amy brandished her flamethrower and Aubrey felt her blood pressure spike because to her it was only a matter of time before Amy killed them all.
"Amy would you please. Put. The. Flamethrower. Down." Amy rolled her eyes but she lowered the flamethrower. Aubrey sat back in her seat and let out an exasperated sigh. Atlanta was coming into view and soon all she would have to worry about were the thousands of undead. She wondered when that had become preferable to dealing with her fellow Bellas.
Lilly just smiled at her friends in the rear view mirror. As far as she was concerned the apocalypse had been going rather well. All of her friends were alive, they had a safe place to live, and she played an active role in their survival. It was definitely going better than the last apocalypse she went through.
The rest of the trip was made in silence as they closed in on Atlanta. Even Amy wasn't willing to make a lot of noise inside the city, they had learned that lesson the hard way. Lilly skillfully drove around the wrecked cars. When they had first started going on runs Amy had made a comment about letting the Asian drive, to which Lilly had immediately jumped behind the driver seat and pulled off a few stunts that easily shut Amy up.
Lilly pulled up in front of the blood blank and Aubrey hopped out of the jeep with Flo right behind her. Aubrey moved around to the trunk of the jeep and pulled out her M40 sniper rifle. It had been a gift from her father when she had started showing interest in firearms, although Aubrey suspected that it was also an attempt to get her to join the military. Flo just had her throwing knives, claiming that they were a good mix of close and long range combat. Flo also grabbed two radios from the trunk and tossed one to Aubrey. The two did a quick check at the front door then disappeared inside the building. Amy moved to the front seat and Lilly made her way to the pharmacy on the map.
The two jumped out of the jeep and moved to the trunk. Lilly grabbed two radios and handed one to Amy. They had all agreed that the radios were to be used sparingly. The static that came from them was loud and more often than not it attracted the undead to their location. So when they had to split up, never leaving anyone alone, they only used the radios in emergency situations, a.k.a "I'm being eaten, come save me."
Lilly and Amy moved together to the front of the pharmacy. Once they determined that there were no zombies in the front waiting area they made their way inside. Amy stayed in the waiting room to cover their retreat while Lilly moved to the back where all the drugs were kept. They were deep enough in the city that the plague had kept anyone from looting this area. When they had tried to scavenge from smaller pharmacies outside the city they were usually met with bare shelves. But deep inside the city usually meant that no one was crazy enough to raid, that is until the Bellas showed up.
Lilly pulled a list from her pocket that Chloe and Stacie had provided her. She grabbed a bag from the floor and made her way down the shelves taking what they needed as she went. Among the list of antibiotics were some more powerful pain meds then what Stacie was able to make, Chloe had suggested that they grab what they could so that they wouldn't need to make this run again.
After about five minutes Lilly had everything they needed so she made her way back to the front of the building where she found Amy staring out the glass windows that lined the front wall. Lilly looked and let out a quiet curse, outside the pharmacy was a zombie that they had started to call stalkers. They would actively seek out prey and appeared to have highly developed senses. But the main problem with stalkers were the high pitched screams they emitted when they had found prey. The screams called normal zombies to the stalkers location and soon enough there was an entire horde of undead.
Lilly tapped Amy on the shoulder and gestured behind her. While she was looking for drugs she had spotted a backdoor that hopefully led to a safe escape. Amy nodded her understanding and together they made their way to the back of the building. When they made it to the backdoor Amy tried to open it but when she did an alarm blared to life.
Amy quickly shut and barred the door. There was no way they could make it out of a narrow alley with the alarm warning every single zombie in a ten block radius. So, they made their way back to the front of the building where dozens of new zombies had arrived. The two Bellas stood frozen wondering what they could possibly do. Sure Amy and Lilly were both effective zombie killers but now they were surrounded with no means of escape. Plus the zombies just kept coming, what had been maybe a dozen to begin with had grown to about fifty. Now their only hope was that Aubrey and Flo could somehow intervene and save them.
Amy was about to radio to their friends when she heard something over the alarm. It sounded like police sirens but she figured she must be hearing something. Only Lilly was tilting her head to the side as if listening for something.
"Do you hear that-" Amy was cut off as something exploded outside the pharmacy. The girls both jumped a bit and looked outside to see what the hell was going on. They hear what sounded like a motorcycle engine revving and gunfire coming from down the street. Then, all of a sudden there was a police motorcycle flashing past the window and barreling through the hole that the explosion had made. Amy and Lilly stood there with identical expressions of shock on their faces. They watched as most of the horde moved away from the pharmacy and headed off towards the fleeing motorcycle. Lilly took the opportunity to exit the building and, with the help of Amy, killed the few remaining zombies.
They made it to the jeep and had climbed in when they heard the sound of shattering glass. They looked down the road and saw that the biker had crashed into a store, whoever it was was now trapped and probably injured. Lilly gunned the jeep and together they charged towards the broken window. The jeep plowed into the first row of zombies and Amy jumped into action. The flamethrower roared to life and the zombies backed away from the horrifying image, not that they could feel fear, of an enraged Amy. Lilly jumped out of the jeep and watched Amy's back as they made their way to the broken window. Lilly stayed outside as Amy crawled through the window.
Amy could hear gun fire coming from inside so she carefully made her way inside. What she found was a bit surprising. There was a rather short person pinned beneath a police issue motorcycle holding a grenade. Beside the person was a monkey that was busy screeching up a storm. The person slowly removed the helmet and Amy's breath caught in her throat. Small person, long brown hair and steely blue eyes. Amy could have sworn she felt her heart skip a beat.
"SHAWSHANK!"
All right I know I'm terrible. It takes me forever to get another chapter out and I end it on the same cliffhanger as chapter 7. I apologize, I needed to adjust to a knew schedule, which i have. The next chapter should be out soon, everything is planned I just have to write it down.
RJRMovieFan: don't worry you'll get a ton of reunions in the next chapter.
Also just so I don't hear something on the news about someone trying to stitch themselves together like Chloe does to Emily. You can use a regular sewing needle and thread in an emergency but it's not recommended. It's better to apply pressure to the wound and wait for a professional who has the proper tools to give someone stitches. And if you do end up having to use a regular needle, sterilize the needle and thread in boiling water before attempting to stitch someone together.