A/N: Chapter edited and expanded. Thank you to my new friend reine Seele who has graciously offered to be my beta.

-raises fancy glass of grape juice- A toast: To a fruitful partnership!

Chapter 11: Pushing Ahead
(May 4th --- 29 day after Outbreak)

"I'm hungry," Mark whined for the twentieth time. They had been walking for hours since the encounter with the police car, and many more since any of them had eaten. Add into the equation the fact that they had been on the move all day and you get ten hungry teenagers, although mark was the only one brave enough to bring up the subject with the Captain.

Without stopping or turning around Sally raised her right hand into the air, holding it up for all those behind her to see the middle finger threateningly extended from her fist.

"Wow," Brett commented to Mark as Sally turned right around an approaching corner. "I think you're getting to her, last time she just accused you of having sexual relations with a creature."

"What are you talking about?" Mark asked in confusion as he looked at his friend. "She said -and I quote- that I am 'such an annoying bastard that the only action -I- will ever get is from a zombie.,' and then she said something about me infecting it."

Someone in front of them sniggered. "That's what I said... though I missed that last part."

"No, no it wasn't."

"Well it sounded better that way!" Brett exclaimed defensively. "Anyways, keep going, let's see how far you can push her."

Mark nodded and he began to speak as they rounded the corner. "Im hungry," he called loudly and then pointed at a painfully shiny building with a reflective outer surface. "Look, it's a diner!"

Already two buildings past the diner, Sally stopped and turn to face Mark ten feet away from the next turn in their path. "Damn it Mark! I swear to god that… Hey, what--what are you looking at?" she asked in confusion, noticing that Jacen was staring at something in her direction.

Jacen pointed over her shoulder and was about to speak when he was interrupted by a low, deep moan that reverberated throughout the alley. Over the crowd Mark couldn't see exactly what happened next but in a flurry of movement Sally had spun around and a fraction of a second after that the creature's moan was abruptly cut off as it dropped to the ground with an audible thud.

Sally nonchalantly walked over to the creature, bracing her foot against its chest she bent over and pulled her knife out. Walking back to the group she pulled a piece of cloth out of her pocket and used it to clean blood off the knife. She placed the cleaned blade back in her pouch with the rest and discarded the cloth on the ground. "Daammn," Mark exclaimed with newfound respect for the Captain.

Hearing the comment, Sally focused her attention on Mark. "You know," she began as the joker looked at her fearfully. "I think I'm hungry too, and as a reward for keeping us so entertained today; you're going to cook… for all of us."

"That's cool, I can manage that as long as Brett helps me," Mark said and looked at his best friend pleadingly.

"The Hell I am!"

"You won't believe this!" Mark said enthusiastically as he placed two covered platters in front of Jacen and Sally. "This place runs on a propane tank, and it's full!" he finished with a glint in his eye and waited expectantly as Jacen lifted his cover.

"Is… is that chicken parmigiana?" Jacen asked in astonishment; Mark nodded. "A--and that," he said and pointed at something that was murky brown with hundreds of little bubbles rising to the top, "that's not real soda. Is it?"

Mark smiled broadly, pleased with the reaction, and then turned towards Sally as she unveiled her food. "Ohmygod-ohmygod-ohmygod! Its blueberry pancakes; I love you!" she exclaimed with glee as she launched out of her chair and gave Mark a hug, sounding like a girl for the first time since Jacen had met her.

The IFD trooper turned provisional chef looked at Jacen in embarrassment, clearly not expecting this strong of a reaction. It's a miracle, Jacen decided as he watched Sally kiss Mark on the cheek, that in the midst of all that has happened we can still have moments like this. "Umm Mark, I think something is burning in the kitchen," Jacen mentioned casually, giving the boy a way out.

"My waffle!" he exclaimed and ran into the other room.

"Happy that you changed your mind about stopping here?" Jacen asked after he swallowed the first bite of chicken.

Sally gnawed off another chunk and then looked up at Jacen sheepishly. "Yes," she said in a childlike voice before she continued to eat.

Jacen took a sip of the soda, savoring it with satisfaction. "So," he began trying to make casual conversation, "I couldn't help but notice that you embedded a throwing knife into that creature's eye socket."

"No-duh," Sally snorted under her breath.

"Didn't know anyone made throwing knives," he commented, not hearing that last remark. "May I ask where you got it?"

"Dave -munch- gave it to me as a gift -munch- for being promoted to Captain," Sally said while she continued to chew her beloved pancakes, pulling one of the knives out and handed it over to Jacen.

Jacen took the knife from her and looked it over; the whole thing was one long piece of steel that was roughly leaf shaped. Glancing at the bottom of the handle, Jacen noticed that there was a logo of a sun being cradled within a crescent moon. "The twins..." he muttered to himself and handed the weapon back to Sally, who by then had voraciously finished her food.

"Well, you got to ask me something so now I get to ask you a question," she said slyly as she placed her fork down. "One of my friends saw you eating lunch with a girl; so, is she your girlfriend…or your wife maybe?"

"My -cough- wife?!" Jacen managed to exclaim as he choked on a piece of chicken while frantically grasping for his soda, drinking the final drop in remorse that he hadn't been able to enjoy it. "Why do you care… you don't… do you?"

Sally laughed heartily before looking at Jacen. "Don't flatter yourself, you're not my type. I just wanted to know since I could use the information to bribe my friends -who are obsessed with you- into doing whatever I want; so who is she to you?"

Jacen frowned in concentration. Do I have feelings for her? he asked himself as he thought back to all of his encounters with her. I did use myself as a shield to protect her from getting hurt when she fell back, then I hugged her… and I did call her a 'cute' assistant, if only mentally… and when we where talking after she gave me her food, I felt happy.

"Yes."

"'Yes', what? 'Yes' isn't an answer," Sally added in confusion.

Jacen shook his head and refocused on the conversation at hand. "She is my assistant, but I--I guess that there is something more there," he replied in a happy tone, feeling enlightened by the discovery.

"Wow… Err, I didn't expect you to actually tell me," Sally said uncomfortably. "So why tell me?"

"You are the only girl I know who doesn't know her," he said with a slight blush.

Sally looked at her glass of water intently, looking unsure of what to say, then recovered and looked up. "Damn, now I can't tell anyo-" she began before she was interrupted the noise of something shattering, followed by what could only be the moans of a group of creatures. No…

Drawing their swords, the group ran towards the kitchen but as they approached, they heard a metallic clicking noise from the closed kitchen door, and found that someone had locked it from the inside. Jacen made his way to the order window and found Mark waiting for them as a wave of creatures walked towards the provisional chef. "Unlock the door!" Jacen begged.

With tears rolling down his face, Mark shook his head sadly and then lifted up his arm, revealing a bite mark. "It was the moan… it called them. Go now," he finished in a whisper and charged the wave with a sword in one hand and a lighter in the other, pushing deeper and deeper into the mass of creatures as he made his way towards something.

"Everyone out the front door!" Sally commanded.

"No!" Jacen bellowed in rage and began to climb over the counter, a familiar primal rage building up within him as something tugged at the edge of his consciousness. Not again… not another death…

"Everyone out the front door!" Sally commanded, hoping the creatures hadn't surrounded the building yet. Then, as everyone else charged out the door, Sally turned towards Jacen and found him yelling in an incoherent rage, trying to climb over the counter. With all her strength she pulled him off, causing both of them to fall back onto the ground.

Even after they had fallen, Jacen continued to scramble out of Sally's grip. "Let me go!" he yelled and continued to struggle.

-BANG- Sally looked up at the door to the kitchen. That won't hold for long, she thought frantically, and then slugged Jacen in the face as hard as she could. "Mark… Mark is dead!" she yelled, tears began rolling down her cheeks as Jacen stopped struggling and looked up, the pain seemingly clearing his thoughts.

Taking advantage of the return of Jacen's mind, Sally pulled him up by the arm and led him outside, passing a large Fed-Ex truck parked across the street before entering into an alley where the others stood waiting. Jacen shared a brief glance with them all before continuing on.

So close, Mark thought desperately as something swiped at his arm, creating another deep gash. "I am already dead," he said to himself, ignoring the pain as creatures attacked him.

Another grabbed his leg and sunk its teeth deeply into his calf; Mark swung in the general direction of the creature, not caring very much either way.

Only another foot, he pleaded and dragged the creature forward, pushing past another group. "I am already dead…, he repeated through the tears, finally catching the delightful smell of rotten eggs that he had been waiting for.

Igniting the lighter, Mark stuck his arm out past the last few creatures blocking his way.

"…and so are you!"

-BOOM-

The ground rattled, followed by an ominous gust of wind. The whole group stopped and looked back, finally understanding what the lighter was for. "He left the gas on…" Jacen said absently.

Sally looked over at Jacen, hoping for support, but only found him staring blankly into space, causing her to feel deeply disturbed. I can't do this alone, she thought on the verge of panic, I'mnot a real Captain… I'm -- I'm just a kid who is in way over her head.

"Umm… Captain," Brett began through a mask of grief as he approached Sally, "we need orders."

Composing herself as best as she could, Sally looked towards the trooper, unsure of what to say. "What do you think we should do Sergeant?" she asked despairingly as the tears slowly began to taper off.

"We have three options as I see it: we can continue on, we can regroup, or we can retreat… I don't support that last one though," the boy finished, holding back a sob as he visibly fought to keep himself under control.

"They could all be dead… What then?"

Brett stiffened and looked into Sally's eyes with purpose. "Then he died for nothing, and we all go home; but I think it would be an insult to Mark if we didn't at least try." That's right, Sally remembered sorrowfully, Brett had been a friend of Mark's, even before the outbreak.

"I agree," she decided with new resolve as a plan started to develop in her mind's eye; like most other students, Sally had taken numerous trips downtown and, as a result, had a fair understanding of the area's layout.

"Listen up everyone!" Sally yelled. "We're going to make our way to the block that the recruitment office is on. There are no gaps between the buildings there, so we should be able to get our shit together in one of the connecting buildings and then" -hopefully, Sally added to herself- "make our way to the office from the roof."