Not a lot to say here folks, except here's the chapter! I'll save any comments for review replies this time!

Chapter 3: Takes a Lickin'

The silent quintet eased into the parking garage, weapons ready in the soldiers' steady hands and the only sound the faint static that would occasionally come from Phil's battered comm. Dannie tried to keep herself as quiet as the men around her, but even her breathing seemed to be fighting her on that one. She'd yet to calm since Phil had taken his unexpected short drop and sudden stop, and her lungs seemed to still be functioning in fight or flight mode. Their surroundings weren't helping her, either. At some point in the panic of the mob of infected invading the building, some of the electrical systems must have gone on the fritz. The lighting down in the garage was flickering on and off like in some B-rated horror film, adding an air of even more eeriness to the current situation. Taka and Carlos led the way down the sloping pavement, past the few cars still parked in their assigned spaces, though Dannie did notice the pair in the lead paused to check under and around each car they passed for possible hidden infected.

Dannie barely noticed as their little band passed her own cute little sports car that now held very little charm for her as Tess had helped pick it out less than a year ago. Dannie forced away the thought before it held too much of her attention; all she allowed herself to vaguely think as they passed it was that there was no way in hell she'd be getting in another convertible on a night like this one. If they ended up in a vehicle, she wanted solid protective walls and a roof around her. Granted, she mused with an eye on her protectors, a sunroof might not be a bad idea. The men could easily stand up and shoot out of something like that. Or so she'd seen in one action movie or another.

A short burst of gunfire brought her slamming out of her reverie, and she noticed Taka passing a single corpse without a second glance. She moved nervously to the side as she and then the pair behind her moved past the corpse in turn. She'd seen no evidence yet that the bastards might move even after a bullet to the brain, but if they could move after looking otherwise dead due to infection, who was to say? In any case, Dannie sure as hell wasn't to take the chance of standing within reach of one of them. Not if she could help it. She kept closer to Carlos after that, trusting in the leader's aim and arsenal just the slightest bit more than the others. She needed that reassurance right about now, with each new infected they saw, and then killed, she was reminded of just how helpless she was.

She found her hands itched for her tiny little Bodyguard model pistol that she usually kept in her purse. When she'd announced her intention to work with the military overseas, her brother had insisted on her knowing how to use a weapon competently. He'd bought her the little handgun, and he'd then ruthlessly trained her until she could accurately empty the entirety of the tiny weapon's 6 shots in the clip and 1 in the chamber into the target's forehead. That she'd never actually used that training during her relief work wasn't important; the lessons and practice had grown into their weekly Friday lunch sibling date, one she'd never missed since they started the tradition a couple years prior. Carlos opened fire again, this time on a trio of infected huddled awkwardly around an SUV, and it occurred to her that she'd likely be missing that tradition tomorrow. It was all too likely that her brother would end up among the missing, too. She shivered and fought back tears at the thought, hoping the men hadn't noticed.

She forced away the melancholy thoughts, and tried to distract herself by guessing how many different types of weapons the men might had tucked into their uniforms. That didn't help her mood all that much, as the concept only reminded her that she had exactly zero weapons stored about her own person. She resolved to ask the men to give her a pistol, a knife, hell just something resembling a weapon as soon as they reached a pause in their trek.

Finally, she was pleased to see the guard stand at the bottom of the garage, signaling a halt to their slightly dizzying descent from the 3rd floor to the street level. Carlos and Taka approached the booth cautiously, clearly keeping an eye on both the guard stand's sliding door and the entrance to the street itself. Dannie almost followed close behind them, but Nicholai's hand on her shoulder kept her still.

"Open space could mean an ambush. Wait until they check it out," he whispered down to her, and she nodded silently, moving backwards slightly to place herself in the more protected position between the redhead and Yuri. She kept her eyes fixed on the pair in the lead, feeling her heart rate quicken without warning at her anxiety for the men. It wasn't that surprising their health had become her problem; if even one of their little band fell, the odds of any of them surviving the night would drop that much lower. And fuck if she didn't know the odds of survival were pretty damned low to begin with.

Carlos inched toward the guard booth with Taka covering him. He was nearly to the door hanging just ajar when a snarling four-legged figure hurled itself out of the booth through the window.

"Son of a bitch!" None of them blamed Carlos for the outburst, nor Taka for the spattering of Japanese curses that followed as they fired on the charging creature. Finally the thing lay dead, and almost as one, the five of them crept close to peer at it.

"Was that a goddamned cocker spaniel?" Yuri asked, clearly offended by the very idea.

"Looks like. Apparently the infection is transferring to animals, too. Great," Carlos answered, his face just as disgusted. He shook his head and straightened. "Come on, let's keep moving. There's nothing else here."

He moved into the lead again, pausing at the garage entrance, and then waving the others forward. They turned onto the empty street, and Dannie rubbed her arms as the eerie quiet sent a chill down her spine. At least it was the only chill, she noted. She normally got cold easy, but the heat wave was keeping her relatively comfortable even in the skirt and thin cap-sleeved shirt.

What almost sounded like the wind echoed down the street, and Dannie paused, barely noting that the men had paused with her. Was that moaning? It only took a moment for the significance of the sound to sink in, and then Carlos was ordering them to move. Together the quintet sprinted for an alley way, ducking down the narrow passage as a crowd of infected turned onto the street they'd just been on. There was no way of knowing if the infected had seen or sensed them, and the group of soldiers and single civilian keep up a brisk pace, running down the alley and then turning onto another, even more deserted back street. They slowed to a jog and then to a walk, and then came to a halt, Dannie stumbling to lean against a wall.

"You all right there Dannie?" Carlos called quietly, and she waved his slightly superior concern away, still too winded to reply. She had not signed up for long distance sprinting, and damned if she didn't need a minute to catch her breath.

She didn't get it; Carlos was turning away, the smirk once again on his face, when Taka let out a strangled shout and a mutilated monstrous something came leaping into their midst. The men opened fire, more on instinct than with a clear clue of what the fuck their attacker was. Under the rain of gunfire, the gruesome thing fell fairly quickly, but another shout, this time from Dannie as she stared upwards in horror warned the men that the monster had not been alone.

This one seemed smarter, or at least more agile. It jumped and ducked, avoiding the bullets the men were firing desperately. Dannie just tired to stay clear and out of their way, praying to God she wouldn't be a distraction to any of the men as they faced off with that thing. She did, of course, but damned if it wasn't her fault. It was the creature's. It leapt from one building to another across the alley way, landing and then clambering down the fire escape directly above Dannie. An enormously long tongue whipped out and down, grabbing her knot of hair and lifting her screaming from the ground, pulling her up toward a gaping mouth.

Gunfire sounded again, this time terrifyingly in her direction. Dannie didn't know whether she was screaming about the creature with its tongue in her hair or the bullets flying past far too close for comfort, all she knew was that she was terrified and helpless.

There was a garbled roar of pain above her and then she was dropping painfully back to the concrete, parts of a long whippy tongue falling down on top of her. She scrambled backwards just in case the creature decided to chase after its escaped meal, instinctively craving the comfort of the wall, though it hadn't been much help before. A creak of abused metal suddenly cut through the sound of gun fire, and she looked up again, her mouth open in shock as the fire escape creaked again and began to fall.

For just a moment everything seemed to stop, and she could have sworn the world itself when silent as the metal began to crash towards her.

"I'm going to die," she mouthed. Then she was hit by a solid dark mass, lunging in and throwing her clear of the collapsing structure. She was tucked under a larger body, and she simply held on as the crash of the fire escape and the hopefully deceased creature slammed into the pavement only a few feet from them.

There was another moment of silence, this time genuine, as the survivors collectively held their breath, as if unsure they'd really managed to escape this last round of death and destruction. Finally, Dannie coughed, clearing her throat of the dust the crash had thrown up. As if that was a cue, the men began coughing and cursing around her as well.

"Fucking shit," she breathed, too out of breath to really yell. "What the fuck were those things?" From where he'd landed more than half on top of her, Carlos shook his head.

"Not a clue." He pushed himself shakily to his feet and offered her a hand. She took it with a faint sense of déjà vu, and stood even less steadily than he had.

"I think the file called them 'lickers.'" Nicholai stumbled up from their far side, easing around the fallen monster and twisted metal with a look of distaste.

"Lickers. Really." It was far from the title Dannie would have chosen for the monsters, but Nicholai seemed unfazed.

"Lickers. For the tongues, you see?" He made the motion of a long tongue falling out of his mouth, and then to her mild shame, Dannie started to giggle. It went on longer than she'd expected, her giggles giving way to hysterical laughter as the sight of yet another creature, this time having met a truly gruesome end right in front of her, sunk in. The laughter dragged on and tears began pouring down her cheeks, and she tried to bring herself under control, knowing she was finally falling prey to shock and hating that the soldiers around her were witnessing it.

"At least someone is having fun." Yuri's voice was cold, and something made her laughter die in her throat. Nicholai glared at the other man, but Dannie frankly was gratefully he'd shaken her out of her hysteria. Still, something in his voice spoke of more than just cruelty. She looked up at the harsh soldier, and then looked around, realizing their little band was one man short.

"Taka?" she asked quietly, wanting to be wrong, but already knowing the truth. Yuri shook his head sharply and then glanced behind him. She stepped over to the huddled form he'd indicated, ignoring Carlos's soft call for her not to look. Taka lay there in pieces, his head less than a yard away from the second of the disgusting creatures' corpses. Dannie couldn't help it: she took a few faltering steps and then vomited against the wall of the alley. She was dimly aware of someone's strong hands holding her hair and their leader's voice softly whispering that it wasn't her fault. She was grateful to Carlos for the sentiment at least, but she couldn't help but think he was wrong.

"Maybe it is her fault." Clearly Yuri agreed with her. The scowling soldier went on, not caring that the subject of discussion stood right in their midst. "If we hadn't left the helo for her and the other, our men would still be alive."

Carlos waited for Dannie to straighten and then handed her a canteen he'd detached from some portion of his gear she hadn't had reason to notice thus far. She took it gratefully and unscrewed the cap and took a swig to rinse her mouth out once, and then twice. Only after she took one last actual drink and handed it back did he turn and face his sullen subordinate.

"Yuri, think for a moment. Listen." Carlos nodded up and down the alley way. "What do you hear? Not much, huh? Not even from the comm." He shrugged and clipped his canteen back on his hip. "If we'd moved on as ordered, I'm not sure any of us would be left by now."

Yuri opened his mouth as if to argue, but instead he let the silence sink over them. Dannie didn't blame him.