Chapter 6
If Hell Don't Want You
It had been nearly two months since Lexie had become a part of the team. She was getting back in the mode of using a gun again, since her days of being a police officer, but she was doing better with blunt weapons. Since they now had a third person and with a better plan by Kendra they had went back to Wal-Mart and had nearly gotten all the food, that was still good, that the store had to offer. Even though there were other stores in the small city they didn't dare go to them out of fear that they would get over run. Since Wal-Mart was on the outskirts of the city it had to be a one stop shop, for now atleast.
While Lexie gathered the food, Jesse and Kendra had taken care of the walkers that were left inside. Since the ones that had chased them out of the store on their first run, it had left only fifteen in the store of which the duo quickly took care of.
In order to grow their own food Lexie suggested that they get stuff from the garden center and seeds. Knowing that he would need things to use to fix on his truck and Lexie's Navigator, the three of them dumped their supplies in their vehicles before heading over to the automotives section.
Hearing a commotion behind her, Kendra whirled around and rolled her eyes as she saw Jesse desperately grappling with a heavy black zombie, wearing a bloody and oily mechanics uniform.
'What is it with dis, boy?' she thought to herself, even as she ran towards them.
Grabbing it from around the waist she tossed the thing off of him, making it fall to the floor hard. Getting up it started to make a guttural growl before Kendra shot it in the head with a bolt.
"Why are you always getting into trouble?" she asked as he ignored her and looked down at the walker.
"Kendra do you see that?"
"See what?" she asked as she leaned down to examine the walker herself. Looking at his teeth she saw that his canines were extending out of it's mouth. Almost as if it were a vampire.
Suddenly the things eyes opened, glowing red and his face morphed into that of a strange variation of a vampire. Before Kendra could react it jumped up, it's jaws now snapping at her.
Too late to grab a bolt it pounced on her. Reacting Jesse ran forward, only to slip on some slimy substance on the floor. Losing his balance, he fell hard to the floor, hitting his head.
With all the luck in the world, in that moment, Lexie kicked the side of the things head. As it went rolling and growling off of the Slayer, she sat up and loaded a bolt, just as Jesse shot his colt at the things chest. As the bullet exploded out of it's back and where it's heart was, it exploded into ashes.
Shocked at what had just happened, they all looked at each other. It was Lexie however that spoke first.
"What the hell was that?"
As the group headed home, their good mood from before seemed to have evaporated. After seeing that thing at Wal-Mart it just seemed to disturb Lexie, but it was downright terrifying to the other two.
"So is anybody gonna explain to me what the hell that thing was back there?" Lexie asked, as she looked between the two. "Was that some kind of demon?"
"It's best not to tink about that thing at all." Kendra said, not turning around to look at her.
"Hey, I don't know what's up with you two, but I'm trying to survive here too you know!" she spoke up a little louder then she had planned. "So if you know what that thing was, you should tell me. Knowledge of what's ahead is very important."
As she said that, both of them gave each other a look. Reluctantly giving each other a nod, it was Jesse of whom started to tell her what was going on.
"Fine, Doc. You're right." he started. "You have a right to know. That thing... or things like it are the reason we had to leave Sunnydale."
"What...?"
"The last day we were in Sunnydale, Me, Kendra, Spike, Tara, and Willow had planned on leaving the city together." he went on. "Me and Ken had found the Silverado and loaded it up with some supplies. We had just gotten back to Willow's house to let her know that we were ready when those things attacked. Willow called them Night Stalkers. They are a Zombie/Vampire hybrid. There had to be dozens of them surrounding the house and believe me they didn't need an invitation to get in."
As he was saying this, Lexie's breath caught. She knew that there was something big coming along to his story.
"Willow grabbed Tara's hand and they used the last of their magick and pushed me and Ken back in the truck. Ken hit her head and was knocked unconcious, so I had to put her in the truck. Willow tried to get Tara to come with us but she wouldn't leave her side. I was forced to watch... watch those things tear them apart."
"And I've felt guilty about dat day every since." Kendra added. "It is the Slayer's duty to die protecting the innocent."
"But you were knocked uncon..." at Kendra's look, Lexie closed her mouth. These two were obviously suffering and there was nothing she could do for them right now. But they were her friends and this was going to be brought up again.
Deciding to have something fresh to eat today, Lexie and Jesse sat down by the lake behind the house to fish. Sharing a laugh at the small fish that Jesse had caught, he suddenly sobered up as he cast his reel out again.
"Hey Doc, you mind if I ask you a question?" he asked as he sat down beside her on the lawn chairs they had found.
"Yeah, sure." Lexie replied, seeing how serious he seemed now. "You know you can ask me anything."
"How... how do you know when you're in love?"
Trying not to smile so hard, she decided to play this evenly. "Well when you look at Kendra what do you feel?"
"Who said I was talking about, Kendra?" he asked with a weak smile. "You know I had my eyes on you, Doc."
"Ha ha ha." she replied dryly as she gave him a look.
"I...I feel like I can't breathe unless she's around and... and my heart skips a beat when I look into her eyes."
"That's the same way I felt about, Abe." she said aloud, caught in thought as she touched him on the shoulder. "Yeah, boy you caught the love bug."
"And I'm about to dive head first into the disease." he said as he reached into his pocket and took out a small black box. Opening it he showed Lexie a beautiful gold and diamond engagement ring. "I got this the first day me and Kendra broke into, Wal-Mart."
"Wow...I... just wow." Lexie said as she eyed him evenly. "I know you love her, but don't you think you're rushing things a little?"
"I'm going to ask her one of these days when I think it's right. The way I see it is like this." he said as he shut the box and placed it back into his pocket. "This world is dying and this might be the last of us. And in the end all I can offer Kendra is my heart and she can keep it to the end of my days. Even if it is gonna be short and brutal."
Seeing that she had hurt his feelings, she reached out and was about to say something encouraging when a drop of rain hit her hand. Looking up she saw that the sky had quickly turned dark. Seeing it too, thunder suddenly broke and a shower of rain pelted down so hard they could barely see anything.
"Wooo!" Lexie shouted, as she started to get drenched.
"We better get back inside." Jesse said gathering their gear as the older woman got the bucket of fish.
Jesse stood on the balcony of the mansion after he and the others had eaten their meal. He had thought about what Lexie had said and maybe she was right. He wasn't going to ask Kendra to marry him tomorrow but he planned on it one day.
Letting out a sigh, he looked out over the other side of the lake and the pounding rain made it impossible to tell but he could have sworn he saw someone standing out in the rain.
Keeping his eyes focused, he did indeed see a man standing out in the rain. He couldn't tell if it was a zombie or just a regular man so he bit down on his urge to call out to him. And after what he saw next he was glad he didn't.
The man... no things head suddenly went slack. It dropped back and it's mouth opened and small pink tentacles started to come out of his mouth, lapping up the water. Jesse turned away in horror, a gagging noise coming from his mouth.
It was a hideous and sickening sight and just as Jesse was about to go back into the house to tell the others, more tentacles emerged from the things eye sockets, nose and mouth. The long worm like things slapped about his face, thriving in the down pour. And then it suddenly locked eyes with Jesse.