Sorry this chapter took so long guys, between Magic the gathering pre-releases, tabletop rpgs and picking up extra shifts at work I've not had a great deal of time for writing and most of what time I have had I've just been too tired to think properly and this chapter was particularly difficult for me to figure out since I was pretty much making it up on the spot XD Anyway its done now and I hope you enjoy it. Oh and a little sneak peek of what's to come in the next chapter: Two quite familiar characters will be introduced. Not telling which ones though, you'll have to wait to read it =p

Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and also if you have any questions about the story (so long as it's not along the lines of "what's going to happen next?") or characters or whatever feel free to message/email me.

Chapter 3

Fairfield, Connecticut, USA

6 days after first infection

8pm

Zoey stared in disbelief as the woman's body slumped to the floor, her dying eyes full of shock. Moments later her view was blocked by Cass stepping protectively in front of her. Cass had a look of utmost seriousness on her face. She had been right after all, this so called "cop" was bad news.

"Anyone else want to challenge my authority?" he barked at the stunned crowd, "Or do we all understand who's in charge here?"

"You killed her!" someone finally blurted out as they began to broke down, "I can't believe you killed her, she did nothing wrong."

"I am a police officer, I am the highest authority here," he replied, "She would not accept this and thus I was forced to resolve the issue."

"By murdering her?" Cass spat, "No true police officer would do something like that, you're just a pathetic loser who thinks he's top dog." He turned his gun to Cass, glaring at her, the fires of rage alight in his eyes.

"What was that?" he growled.

"You heard me," Cass replied, "To call yourself an officer of the law is an insult to all those people like Zoey's father, good people who did their job to protect people not so they could go on some power trip!"

"Cass, maybe it would be a good idea if you didn't aggravate the man who is currently pointing a gun at you and just moments ago killed a woman in cold blood," Zoey murmured, having been peering over Cass' shoulder so that she could see what was going on.

"Cops like your friend's father are weaklings," the man retorted, "They're the kinda people who's hesitations to pull the trigger can end up in people getting hurt...considering he's not here right now I'm guessing that just that sort of thing got him killed out there, am I right?"

"You shut the fuck up," Cass snarled, unable to stop herself getting angrier, "Wade was a good man who didn't want to run the risk of murdering people when there could have been a better way. People like you make me sick, you call others weak so that you don't have to deal with the fact that you don't feel confident enough to deal with situations like that any other way. Really bad in social situations are we? I bet you don't even have a girlfriend, in fact it wouldn't even surprise me if you were still a virgin..." BANG. Several people in the room screamed in fright and Cass herself was struggling not to show fear after that. He'd deliberately missed her, hitting the wall instead.

"Next time I won't miss," he spat, "So shut your mouth or you'll have a nice little hole in your head too." Cass glanced down at the woman who had, until recently, been the appointed leader of this "safe house". She realised she was probably very lucky he hadn't just shot her and decided she should probably not push her luck. He would pay though, she wasn't going to let him get away with terrorizing them like this, or insulting Wade like that either. The room fell silent and after a few moments, the man lowered his gun.

"Good, seems you've all decided to do the right thing," he said, "Now, things are going to change a bit around here..." Suddenly, he was interrupted by a pounding on the front door of the safe house, which was then followed by pounding on the boarded up windows and then again on the wooden back door. Gradually the pounding got louder and louder as more and more people joined in. Except that it was obvious that these weren't normal people, the safe house was surrounded by infected.

"The gunshots and yelling must have attracted them," someone whimpered as the sense of panic began to spread around the room, "They know we're in here, we're all going to die!"

"Shut up and sit down," the officer barked, "There ain't no way they're getting in here and even if they do break through they can't all come through at once, they'll be easy to take out."

"In that case you should manage them fine on your own," Cass spoke up with slight apprehension, "Most of these people are in a panic, if I take them upstairs they'll be out of your way."

"Fine but then you get your pretty little behind back down here," he replied, "I need to keep my eye on you." Cass nodded though she knew that if she found what she hoped for there was no way in hell she'd be anywhere near this psycho again.

"Right everyone," she whispered urgently, "Grab your stuff and follow me."

"What's your plan?" Zoey asked quietly as everyone started gathering their things.

"I'm hoping there'll be a way outta here up there," Cass replied just as quietly, "I can't imagine there wouldn't be an emergency escape route here but that woman is likely to have kept it to herself to avoid panic. I mean if they said there was an emergency escape route then everyone would question just how safe this place was."

"What if you're wrong?" Zoey worried, "We both know how easy it will be for those things to get through the back and once they're in things are going to get messy."

"I don't know," Cass sighed, "We'll come up with something though."

"Thinking of going somewhere are we?" the officer questioned Cass with suspicion, "Or is there another reason you're getting everyone to gather their things."

"Thought you might want as much out of your way as possible sir," Cass replied with forced politeness, "Less chance of you accidentally tripping over something."

"You trying to imply that I'm clumsy?" he growled, aiming the gun at her again.

"No sir," she answered shakily, "Just thought it might help sir." He glared at her for a moment then lowered the gun again.

"Fine but hurry up," grumbled. Cass nodded and quickly finished packing her few belongings. Zoey followed suit then together they lead the girls upstairs since the men had already gone up to gather whatever they had brought with them. Once upstairs, Cass immediately turned right, heading into the room that had belonged to the now deceased leader.

"Wow, how did she find room to sleep in here?" Cass wondered aloud. Most of the room was taken up with emergency supplies such as flashlights, candles, even a small generator, clearly there in case the main power went out, and fuel for it. There wasn't any food or water but Cass figured they were most likely stored elsewhere. Right at the end of the room was a window, probably the only window in the place that hadn't been boarded up or blacked out. Upon looking out of it, Cass found that there was a short distance between it and a window on the next building...short enough for a sturdy length of wood to be placed between them to allow them passage into the next building. Cass looked around the room again as the rest watched, wondering what she was up to. Eventually she found exactly what she was looking for.

"Right," she said, turning to the others, "If I can wedge this plank between this building and the next we can get out of here. I don't suggest we stay in the next building though and that instead we get out of it as quickly as possible and scramble once we are. There are just too many infected here now for it to be safe."

"It's going to take some time for us all to get across," a man spoke up, "How can you be sure we'll all get out before those things break in and get up here."

"I can't," came the simple reply, "But its better than sitting here waiting for it to happen. Zoey, can you help me with this then go across first to sort out the other window?" Zoey nodded and moved to Cass' side. Together they wrenched open the window and manoeuvred the plank across.

"Cass, that's not going to stay steady enough for me to get across like that," Zoey noticed, "You may have to break the window so it has more for that end to rest on."

"Yeah I think you're right," she agreed with a nod, holding tightly onto the plank as she quickly gave a sharp, strong jab at the window pane. She made sure to clear the pane before resting the plank down.

"Be careful of all the glass when you get over there," she told Zoey, "And of course keep an eye out for any infected, I'll come over after we get everyone else over."

"Alright," Zoey nodded, carefully climbing up onto the wood, "You be careful this side too."

"Will do," Cass smiled as she watched Zoey carefully make her way across. It didn't take her long and soon the others were beginning to make their way over one at a time.

"What the hell is taking you so long girl?" roared the officer from downstairs, "I told you to get yourself back down here when you were done!"

"Just making sure everyone's here and calm sir!" she called back, hating him more and more each second, "I won't be much longer."

"Better not be," he replied, "I'm going to need help barricading this here back door."

"Maybe he's not as thick as he seems," Cass muttered to herself whilst urging the others to try and speed things up a bit. The ones who had made it over already, apart from Zoey, had began making their way out of the building, one or two already out and making a run for it. There were still at least half of them left on Cass' side though and she knew time was running out.

"I'm going to have to go down there and stall him," she sighed, "Last person to go, stomp your foot twice to let me know. Zoey...if I'm not back within five minutes of that then leave without me."

"I'm not leaving you there," Zoey replied determinedly, "I'll come back and get you." Cass shook her head.

"You'd just be walking into trouble," she sighed, "Get out of the area but don't go too far and if I can get out of it somehow I will come and find you, if I don't within a day then assume I'm dead or infected." Before Zoey could argue back, Cass left the room and headed downstairs.

"'Bout time," the officer rudely greeted her, "What the hell were you doing up there?"

"Calming everyone down sir," she replied, "Some of them needed reassurance that everything was going to be all right."

"Ungrateful sons o' bitches," he spat, "I'm down here ensuring their continued existence and they don't even have the decency to realise their perfectly safe."

"With all due respect sir you do keep threatening to shoot people," Cass pointed out, not a shred of respect in her voice, "Some people don't find that very safe."

"You listen here you little bitch," he raged at her, "It's people like you that make me have to do things like that. I can't guarantee everyone's safety whilst there are some who don't recognise me as the highest level of authority. Now block up those back windows with something whilst I sort out moving some of the mattresses to barricade the door with." Cass nodded and did what she was told, she didn't like him bossing her around like that but she knew that this would delay the infected getting inside which meant it bought those escaping upstairs more time. Unfortunately there wasn't a great deal lying around that was useful for blocking up windows but she made do with what she had, it would at least buy them a few extra minutes with luck. She then moved to the windows at the front and quickly tried to patch up the holes that were beginning to be made in these pre-boarded up ones. Meanwhile at the back of the room, the officer was struggling to keep the infected out, they had broken down a large chunk of the door and were trying to claw their way inside. STOMP STOMP. Cass looked up, that was the signal, she had five minutes to get out of here before Zoey left.

"Arghhhh!" came a scream from the back then a clatter of something hitting and skidding along the floor. Cass spun round to find the officer on his back, mattress on top of him and an infected on top of the mattress, biting into his arm. His gun lay a few feet out of his reach. In an instant, Cass rushed over to it and picked it up. Not wanting to waste ammunition, she then moved over and smashed the infected in the head with it until it stopped moving. The officer was then able to push the mattress and infected off of him but continued to lay there in pain.

"Help me up girl," he snapped at her, "And gimme back that gun, you clearly don't know how to use it."

"Oh I know how to use it," she smirked, aiming it at his head, "I just don't really want to waste precious ammo, who knows when I'll next come across some."

"What you think you'll be able to get outta here now?" he scoffed, already starting to sound sick, "When even I couldn't keep you all safe."

"No, I know I can," Cass replied, "Everyone else has escaped already, just you and me left here and pretty soon I'll be going too."

"You're going to just leave me here to die?" he asked with horror.

"No," she sighed, "As much as I hate you, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I'd left you to die...but you're not going to die now. It's already too late, you're infected."

"And how the hell would you know that?" he coughed.

"Just a few minutes ago you were healthy," Cass shrugged, "Then you got bit and now you're gradually getting more and more ill. For all I know you'll completely turn in a minute and attack me."

"There's no way to stop it?" he was worried now.

"I have no idea," Cass admitted, "I don't really know anything about this thing. All I know is what Zoey's told me from her own experiences with the infected and even then I don't like to ask too much since I'd rather not constantly have her relive the moments she lost her parents." He didn't reply this time, his eyes fixed on the ceiling but not really seeming to notice it. Cass backed away but her movements caught his attention and he sprang to life. He'd turned whilst she'd been talking.

"Holy shit that's fast," she muttered, backing off faster as he charged at her, "I didn't even notice...crap!" He lunged at her. BANG.

Zoey jumped as the gunshot sounded and then the panicked worry began to set in. Only a single shot, that meant it probably wasn't that the infected had broken in and that meant...

"Cass!" she gasped, "Oh god please no, please don't let it have been her." She tried to keep the thoughts at bay by telling herself it had been the infected and that there had only been one shot left but as the silence continued and the minutes dragged past she began to disbelieve these thoughts. It had been over five minutes since the last person had crossed now but Zoey couldn't bring herself to leave. She sank to her knees.

"Cass please, please be okay" she pleaded, beginning to get emotional "Please...oh god...I never even got to tell her."

"Tell me what?" came a familiar voice from the window. Zoey looked up and was filled with relief as her eyes rested on Cass. She jumped to her feet and ran to embrace her friend.

"Oh thank god," she exclaimed, "I thought you'd been shot."

"I'm probably lucky I wasn't," Cass shrugged, "I think I really pissed him off when I went down there. We won't be seeing him again though...they got him."

"So the gunshot?" Zoey asked.

"Was me," Cass sighed, "I stayed too long, tried to help him when I knew it was pointless. Ended up having to kill him when he attacked me." Zoey embraced her tighter.

"I'm just glad you're okay,"she sighed, still getting over it all.

"I'm just glad you didn't come back," Cass replied, "I told you to leave if five minutes went past...and you still haven't told me what you never got to tell me."

"That's not important right now," Zoey muttered shyly, "And I know I was supposed to leave but after hearing the shot...I just couldn't, I had to know, I'm sorry." She let of go of Cass.

"It's fine," Cass smiled, "I'd have done the same...come on, let's get out of here." Zoey nodded and together they made their way out of the building.