**I don't own Poke'mon, Dollar General, Danny Phantom, L4D2, or Sonic:Drive-in. Obviously. Just felt I should say so. **
Bright daylight shone through the windows of their safe house. Sam ignored the pool fencing bolted to the outside of the windows and stared sleepily at the sky. It felt like a normal day, as though there wasn't a zombie outbreak. She missed days like that. She'd be walking with Danny and Tucker to the movies or the park, or even chasing Danny and some ghost he's fight down the street. She might even stare out the window in class and completely ignore Lancer's lecture on god knows what kind of literature he's introducing. She turned her head and saw Tucker lying on the floor wrapped in a light blue comforter decorated with Pokémon, and Jazz lying on the couch with a purple comforter with grey and pink plumes of who-knows-what, both sound asleep. She looked around and sat up. She flipped the dark purple, flowered comforter off of her lap and took a deep breath, remembering that they were fighting through a zombie apocalypse and one of them got smart and cost her the halberd. She stood up carefully and stepped over Tucker. She walked down the halls and checked the bedrooms, furrowing her brows along the way and finally checking the bathrooms. Finding them empty. "Where is he?" she asked herself. She walked back out to the living room, "Guys? Did Danny come back last night?" she asked, loud enough to wake someone up.
Tucker rolled over and squinted, "No." he said, "He went flying, right?" he asked.
"He did. I just thought he'd be back by now." Sam said.
Tucker wrestled out of the blanket and put his glasses back on, "Maybe he found people and stayed with them." he suggested.
"Wouldn't he have come back here first and gotten us?"
He sighed and stood up, stretching his arms and back, "I don't know." He yawned and walked her back to the couch, "You shouldn't be up." He said, "Lie down, I'll go-"
The was knocking at the door, "Guys?" Danny's voice asked from the other side. "Can someone let me in?"
Tucker jumped up and opened the door, "Damn, man, you look like you got hit by a Tank." He gasped.
"Danny!" Sam gasped, seeing Danny limp in with scrapes on the side of his face and down the corresponding arm. "What happened?"
"I crashed." He said flatly, "My powers gave out while I was about seventy feet in the air." he sat down next to Sam.
Jazz rolled over and fell off the couch with a sharp, short shriek. She sat up and looked around, gasping at Danny, "What happened to your face?"
"He crashed." Sam said, "His powers gave out while he was flying."
"I skidded on the street and had to hide somewhere." He explained. "That's why I didn't come back." He said guiltily.
"Where did you hide?" Sam asked.
"Under a truck. A Hunter apparently had the same idea so I kicked it." He said.
Tucker sighed and stood up, heading for the kitchen, "I hope there's food here." He said and began digging around.
Jazz got up and grabbed her bag of medical supplies sitting on Danny's other side and cleaning the scrapes, "Luckily these aren't too bad." She commented.
"So you didn't find people?" Sam asked sadly.
He shook his head and sighed, "Not a trace."
"There's nothing here." Tucker complained, "Not even canned food." He said.
Jazz's stomach growled, "We should go find food."
"How did Frostbite not pack us food?" Sam asked.
"Uh- oh…" Danny paused, "Ghosts don't need to eat, so it probably didn't occur to him." He said.
"Ghosts don't bleed either and he gave us medical supplies." Tucker pointed out.
"Because we went to Frostbite in horrible condition. We needed supplies."
"Let's just not argue about it." Jazz waved her hands, "Either way, we have no food or water."
"No, the water works." Tucker corrected, "So does the electricity. If we can find anything, I could probably cook it." He said.
Danny paused, "The front flowerbed of this place has peppers and lettuce for some reason."
"Good enough for me." Sam said.
"Not us. We don't eat veggies." Tucker crossed his arms.
"No, Tucker, you don't eat veggies." Danny corrected.
"Whatever! Let's just go out and find food." Jazz snapped and waved her hands again, "Tucker and I will go. Danny, you stay here with Sam." She instructed.
"Sounds good." He said.
"Let's check the backyard first. Since Danny found veggies in the front yard and there's plants in the planters back there." Jazz said. "We'll just pick them when we get back." She said and picked up her tactical shotgun from the table.
"Hey, if you see my halberd out there, can you grab it for me?" Sam asked.
"Sure thing." Tucker said and retrieved his M-16. "We'll be back." He said and followed Jazz out the door.
"Be safe." Sam said.
"Good luck." Danny called after them.
Jazz closed the door and looked at the lettuce and peppers in the planter, "We forgot to check the back.
"We'll check when we get back." Tucker shrugged and started down the street
"Hey, you don't think Danny finds it weird that we're together now, right?" Jazz asked.
"I don't think he'd mind." Tucker shrugged, "Just as long as you weren't dating Dash or something."
"Or Johnny 13." She said.
"That pissed him off so bad." Tucker chuckled.
"I should've listened." She confessed.
"Yes, you should've." He laughed.
She stopped as they passed an ambulance. The back doors stood open.
"Maybe there's supplies in here." Tucker climbed in, ignoring a body that laid across the way and sat against the wall. Tucker looked around, "Nothing. It looks like they used it all on whoever they were operating on before."
Jazz looked on the stretcher and found the restraints were broken and a trail of blood led outside.
"Hey!" Tucker exclaimed, "A defibrillator." He said.
"Let's hold onto it." Jazz said.
Tucker grew quiet.
"You never know." She said, "We almost had to resort to CPR with Danny."
"Right." Tucker nodded and handed her the device, "You hold onto it." He said, "I don't trust myself to keep track of it."
"Okay." She took it and put it in her bag. "Let's keep going. Did you see any sort of food in here?" she asked.
"Uh-uh." He shook his head and climbed out. "Maybe there's a fast food place here." He said and continued down the street, coming across a major road.
Jazz looked down both sides. "Wow… there's nothing here." She marveled, seeing how barren the street was, even of cars.
"Maybe the military cleared this place out?" Tucker asked.
"Maybe." She shrugged, "It's a good possibility." She looked around to try and find anything that might have food. "There's that place." She pointed at a small convenience store on the corner of a small block, "Or we could try the Sonic right next to it."
"We'll try the Sonic." Tucker said, "If anything, they'd have patties frozen in the freezer." He said, "And hot dogs, and maybe some chicken."
"Do you know how cook any of that stuff?" she asked.
"At a house, no." he shook his head, "I worked at Nasty Burger for a little bit, remember?" he approached the small building, taking care as to not trip over any overturned chairs on the patio. He tapped the glass for a moment and peered inside the window.
"What are you waiting for?" Jazz asked.
"If there's an alarm in there attached to the windows, I don't want to set it." He said.
She thought for a moment, "Hey, can't your PDA-"
"It's dead. The battery died when we were at Frostbite's." he explained. He went around to one of the doors and gave it a push, finding that it opened.
"I guess they didn't have time to lock up, come the apocalypse." Jazz shrugged.
He smiled and held the door open with his back, "After you."
She smiled and stepped inside, finding that the inside of the building wasn't as trashed as she expected. She expected cups and fries strewn everywhere and at least a machine knocked over, but everything was actually empty. She followed Tucker to the back, "Let's just hope there's something here." She said.
He stepped into the fridge and gasped, "Jalapeño poppers!" he exclaimed and grabbed two bags. Then he looked around and chuckled, "That's the only thing here."
"Those are Cheddar Peppers." She corrected and went around and checked the freezer.
Tucker glanced at the bag for a moment, "Even better." He marveled and hugged the bags.
She opened the freezer and found nothing. "Someone must've staked this place out." She said, "There's nothing in the freezer."
"Okay then." Tucker said, "I can settle with these." He smiled and stuffed the bags into Jazz's bag.
Jazz tried keeping her balance and even used the doorframe to keep from falling backward. "I'll just have a salad with Sam." She said. She followed Tucker out the back door and looked to her right, "Let's check there." She suggested.
"Okay." He said eagerly. Then he paused, seeing how destroyed the front doors were. "No… let's check somewhere else." He said, "I don't trust it."
"Come on, it's a dollar store." She rolled her eyes.
"No." he shook his head, "I get a bad vibe from that place."
"Okay." Jazz shrugged, "Let's just keep going then."
As they walked down the street in silence, Jazz heard a yelp from behind her. She quickly turned around and found Tucker missing. "Tucker?" she called. Then she pulled out her shotgun and stood defensively, "Tucker! This isn't funny!" she shouted. Then she swallowed hard, "Tucker?" her voice broke.
There was a shriek before a Hunter pushed her down from behind and began tearing at her back, "Tucker!" she screamed, "Help! Do something!" she shrieked, unable to do anything.
Just as things were starting to go black, there was several gunshots and the clawing stopped, instead, only dead weight kept her down. When the weight was removed, she looked up fearfully and locked eyes with Tucker.
"Are you okay?" he asked and helped her up.
"Ow…" she groaned.
He looked down and picked up the bag. The straps were destroyed. He sighed and held onto the handle and pulled her arm over his shoulder, "Let's get you home." He said. "I think we have enough food."
"Where were you?" she asked weakly.
"A Smoker got me and pulled me between a couple of cars." He explained. "Sorry."
"Just as long as you're okay." She smiled.
He returned the smile and kissed her head.
Danny and Sam sat on the couch next to each other and stared at the ceiling. "They're not going to find any meat." Sam said.
"Yeah, but they're gonna find something." Danny shrugged.
She looked over at him, "You look tired." She said.
"I didn't get much sleep last night." He said, "Asphalt is very uncomfortable."
"Good thing you found that charger." Sam looked over at the bundled up cable that sat next to him.
"No kidding." Danny nodded. "Tucker will be so thrilled." He said.
"What about the voice?" Sam sneered.
He thought for a while, "Destroy the charger. He'll never know."
There was pounding on the door that made their blood run cold. Danny jumped up, grabbed his axe and checked the door.
"Danny! Just let us in! Jazz is hurt." Tucker's voice barked from the other side.
Danny quickly opened the door and helped support Jazz. "What happened?" he asked.
"Hunter." Tucker said, "It jumped on her when a Smoker got me."
Danny laid Jazz on the couch and looked at her back. He grabbed his medical supplies and started cleaning her back. "Where was this?" Danny asked.
"In front of a set of apartments just passed the Dollar General." Tucker dug through the bag and pulled out the Cheddar Peppers. He then set the defibrillator on the table. "Found jalepeno poppers." He said.
"Oh, really?" Danny glanced at him for a moment, then went back to cleaning Jazz's back.
"We found a defibrillator, too." Jazz said sleepily.
"Good." Danny started patching up her back, "Never know when we'll need it." He finished her back, "Get some sleep." He said.
Sam had stepped out to the backyard and the front yard the collect some vegetables for a salad.
After food was prepared, Danny, Sam and Tucker sat and ate silently. Tucker ate just some Cheddar Peppers, Sam and just some salad, and Danny ate some of both. Sam watched Danny for a while without him noticing. Although they were faint, Danny still had the bruises around his neck from the Smoker attack the day before. But Tucker didn't have them from the Smoker attack maybe just five minutes ago. She couldn't tell if it was just because he was darker and she couldn't see them, or the Smoker didn't that tight of a grip on him.
"Hey, Tucker, I found a charger for the PDA." Danny said.
"Oh, awesome." Tucker dug around in his pockets, "Oh no…" he panicked a little, "I must've dropped it somewhere."
"Maybe the Smoker made you drop it?" Sam suggested.