**So, here's Chapter 4. This took me a while to write, what with work and life and all. Enjoy**

Aubrey kept his rifle trained as he vaulted over the fallen tree. He fired. A trio of zombies dropped as his feet hit the ground, and he kept running. Ahead of him, the girl obediently dropped to the ground. He put a bullet into the head of the zombie behind her.

"Rafe, take!" he ordered. The dog shot forward like a big furry bullet and slammed into the Smoker they'd seen earlier. He tore into its neck, snarling a wet, guttural animal noise from the back of his throat. Zoey looked up at the noise and gasped as she saw him tear into the creature. Then she heard what sounded like bursts of compressed air, and zombies began dropping around her.

A hand fell on her shoulder and pulled her around so he was facing him. She still couldn't see his face through the covering, or through the sunglasses, but his voice boomed commandingly, "On your feet kid! Now!" He hauled her up, but she shook him off. She quickly recovered her composure after her brush with death.

"I'm fine! Don't call me kid!" she gasped.

"Then let's go!" he said. "Rafe, let's move!" Rafe obediently got off the Smoker and followed. Aubrey ran forward, then looked back, and was surprised to see the girl was keeping up with him. Maybe he could trust her to continue to do so. He led her away from the kill zone at a pace slow enough that she could be safe. The zombies were growing thinner as they escaped the area, and lost them in the trees, but they were making too much noise for a clean getaway. He shot two more who were closest, then pulled an object off his belt.

"What's that?" Zoey asked instantly. Again, Aubrey was surprised by her awareness. He'd have thought she'd be almost catatonic with fear.

Aubrey didn't slow down, but he explained over his shoulder, "Party favor. We'll never get out of here if we're the most interesting thing out here." He pressed a button on one end of the device, a six inch long white tube. He handed it off to Rafe. He took it in his mouth and took off without further instruction. It sounded like a crowd. "Let's move."

"Will he be okay?" she asked concernedly. Aubrey laughed.

"No Zeke alive can catch him." he said confidently. "Stay tight."

He led her through the trees, picking a careful path despite his speed. He spotted another zombie in their path, snapped his rifle up, fired, and just as quickly lowered it to his running position again, all in less than a second. He listened as the party favor was carried away, and deliberately moved in the opposite direction. Zoey kept her eyes on his feet, following his path exactly. Whoever he was, she had to trust him and his apparent experience.

"Can you fight?" he asked her suddenly, still running.

"What?"

He glanced back, then knelt to the ground. "Keep running. Can you fight?" He fired two shots into a pursuing Hunter, then ran after her.

"Yes." she panted. He snorted, cut around a wide tree and went in a new direction. Zoey followed, startled at the change.

"Do you know where you're going?" she demanded.

"Yes." he said shortly.

They ran in silence for nearly a minute. He raised his rifle every few seconds to kill a stray zombie in their path, but most were after the noise in the distance. Only those who actually saw the two humans were attracted. Zoey marveled at the kind of preparedness of the unknown man.

"Alright Rafe, come on back." Aubrey touched a hand to his ear to activate his radio link to Rafe. There was no response, but there didn't have to be. He knew that Rafe had dropped the party favor, and was now speeding his way back as quickly as possible. He looked back at the path they'd taken. Seeing nothing, he slowed, then stopped. He looked in all directions. His eyes flicked from one spot to another, holding for a few seconds on every spot, looking for movement in his peripheral vision.

Nothing. Except for one spot. Running through the underbrush, Rafe rushed up to Aubrey, his tongue hanging out. His tail began wagging when he came in sight, and he came up to Aubrey for praise. He scratched Rafe's neck and head vigorously, and looked around for more threats.

"Nice work buddy. Now, are you ready for one more?" Rafe's mouth opened wider in that dog-smile. "Good boy. Take this." Aubrey put another device into his mouth. Rafe jerked his head and worked his jaw a bit to position it more comfortably. Aubrey pointed away, to the right of where he'd come from. "Go that way. Run." Rafe ran off. Aubrey stood and looked at Zoey, who'd watched the whole thing curiously. He pointed in the opposite direction. "Last run. You good?"

Zoey nodded. "Where to?"

He shrugged. "Until I'm confident we're safe."

Aubrey took off again, Zoey close behind. They ran until the trees started to thin. When they came to a clearing, Aubrey stopped suddenly, and Zoey nearly ran into him. She stumbled and he twisted to grab her wrist before she fell down, and pulled her back up. She recoiled instinctively though, and backed away as soon as she regained her footing. She began breathing faster and faster, as everything that had just happened-the fact that she'd been about to die, and had succumbed to that fact-caught up with her. And underneath that, the knowledge of how dangerous she was. She saw Aubrey quirk his head to the side, confused at her reaction.

"I'm not going to hurt-" he started, taking a step forward. She took a reciprocal step back.

"Stay back!" she nearly shouted. She was starting to hyperventilate, and struggled to calm herself down. Not another one.

Aubrey's eyes passed over her, and he instantly appraised her with a tactical eye. She wore a ripped pink hoodie, faded blue jeans, and her mid-length brown hair was up in a ponytail, all of which instantly said college kid to him. But she was out here alone, which suggested that she was stronger than she looked. Now it looked like she was panicking, almost afraid of him. Or she was losing it. He saw she had a number of scratches. The early stages of infection could sometimes resemble a panic attack. His hand drifted almost casually to his sidearm.

"Ma'am, are you okay?" he asked calmly. "You've got some injuries there. Have you ever been bitten before?"

Zoey shook her head. "No…I mean-yes. No, I'm not infected, I'm immune, but-stay back!" she snapped again, holding out a hand to stop him as he shifted forward slightly.

He held his empty hands in the air and spoke in the soothing yet commanding voice he'd been taught. "Ma'am, listen to me. I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Jack, okay? Jack Aubrey." He reached up slowly and pulled his shemagh down around his neck, then pulled his sunglasses off and very deliberately tucked them into his collar. He tried to look non-threatening. He was pretty sure he looked like a sociopath. "Can you tell me your name?"

"No! I don't want to infect you!"

Aubrey flashed a grin that Zoey thought was rather casual for a man in danger. "Ma'am, I'm a United States Navy SEAL. If you turned, I'm pretty sure I could handle you. But you're not going to turn, are you?" Always get the mark involved in the conversation. Make them think. Negotiation 101. He added amiably, "Because you're immune, remember?"

Zoey bristled at the condescending tone. "That doesn't matter."

"What do you mean?"

"I…I don't know." she sighed distressingly. "But people get infected around me. Around us. We were at an Army evacuation site a couple weeks ago. They told us we were-" She stopped as he chuckled, completely unexpectedly.

"We are aware of the carrier phenomena ma'am." he said reassuringly. "I've been vaccinated."

Zoey frowned. "Aware…phenomena? What are you talking about, vaccinated? There's a vaccine?"

"Only for the airborne strains. It doesn't matter, since I'm already immune to the contact strains."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Zoey screwed her eyes shut for a moment and held up her own hand to stop him. "You're saying a lot of things that are going way over my head. Slow down."

Aubrey grinned wryly. "Yeah, I get it. I barely understand it myself. I can explain it better, but maybe we should wait until we're a little safer, know what I mean?" He looked around, then down as Rafe returned again, looking just as happy as before. Aubrey knelt to scratch his neck again. "This is Rafe, by the way. He's the one that saved your ass from the Sniper."

"Sniper?" He grinned again.

"Sorry. Soldier-talk. We have official names for them. I'm sure you've come up with your own. What do you call it?"

"Smoker." she said, as though it were obvious.

"Apt." he admitted. "I expect most of your names make as much, if not more sense than ours. Now, do you have a camp nearby? You said 'we', so I assume you're not alone?"

Zoey nodded. She was quickly recovering her composure again, with Aubrey's reassurances that she wouldn't infect him. Now she was starting to consider him as a potential ally, rather than a potential victim. "There's three-I mean, two others besides me. But I don't…" Suddenly, she realized how unsure she was about him. Who the hell was this guy anyway? Why should she trust him? She knew Francis sure wouldn't. Bill probably wouldn't either. He seemed friendly now, but that could be a farce. He could be scouting her out, seeing how many friends she had, how easy they'd be to overcome, leaving him alone with the pretty girl for as long as he wanted. She knew for a fact she couldn't fight him off. But if he really was military…

As if he was reading her mind, Aubrey shifted his weapon so it hung behind him on its sling and held out a gloved hand. He repeated himself, "My name's Jack. I'm a US Navy SEAL okay? I'm going to help you, not hurt you."

She hesitated, but she looked into his eyes, and what she saw inexplicably comforted her. There was a solemnity there that both fit and contrasted his joking. She took his hand. "I'm Zoey. With a Y. Our…camp, is in the city. We're holed up on the raised bridge across the river. One of my guys is wounded pretty bad. I don't suppose you're a medic?" she asked wryly.

"I've got the same field medic certification as anyone in my unit, but I'm nothing special. Just a shooter" he replied. He looked around. "Unless you've got another reason to be out here, I'll escort you to your camp. Those devices I used won't keep them occupied forever."

"Alright." she nodded, hoping the reluctance she still felt didn't show in her voice. If it did, he didn't react.

"Town's that way." he pointed. Zoey followed him once again, but at a more relaxed pace this time. Slightly. He took off at what he considered a light jog, but it was much faster than Zoey's comfortable pace. She sure as hell wasn't going to voice that though, and let him see her as weak. They walked in silence for almost an hour, before Zoey's curiosity got the best of her.

"How long have you been out here?"

"Since the beginning." he said simply.

Zoey rolled her eyes. "That was over four months ago. You've been alone the whole time?"

Aubrey exhaled audibly without answering. Zoey wondered if she'd touched a nerve. Finally he said cryptically, "There were others. But it's been me and Rafe for the last three months."

"I'm sorry." she said sincerely.

"Me too."

Zoey couldn't think of what to say after that, so they fell into another silence that was decidedly more awkward. So she simply watched him. He moved fluidly and silently, in perfect sync with Rafe. He was a beautiful animal, she thought; she'd always loved dogs. If her dorm had allowed it, she would have had one in college. But she couldn't imagine having only a dog for a companion for almost the entire time. She couldn't even begin to imaging what his mind was like. Was he suffering from some sort of cabin fever? He could conceivably be insane, or-despite his allegedly honorable military background-planning on taking her back to his camp for a little 'one-on-one'. And she had no evidence whatsoever that he was even telling the truth at all. He could simply be a scout for a larger group of survivors. She'd heard rumors of roving bands of men with female salves in tow. Men could quickly lose their morality, if left alone long enough, or so Bill had told her.

Yet for some reason, she felt she could trust him. She couldn't explain it. She simply felt…safe. And from what she'd seen, he was easily worth four or five others when it came to fighting the infected. When she examined him, she noticed that he wasn't strictly speaking dressed in camouflage, like she'd thought. He had some sort of netting made up into a suit-she thought it was called a gorilla suit, or ghillie suit, or something like that-that covered his clothes, that was covered in sticks and strips of green and brown canvas. Couple that with his myriad weapons, and the shemagh and shades covering almost every square inch of his face, and he was almost terrifying. When she'd briefly seen his face though, she'd felt a flash of…something. Attraction?

She shook those thoughts off; she still didn't know if she trusted him, despite his jokes and friendliness. She decided to ask another question, one that had been sitting in the back of her mind.

"You said 'we' are aware of…carriers." she asked. "Who's 'we'?"

Aubrey glanced back at her momentarily. "The professionals. The military, the government. It may have looked like chaos from your point of view, but it was organized chaos, at least at the federal level."

"Really?" Zoey said, surprised. "Have you seen some of the crap on safe house walls? Everybody hates them."

He scoffed. "No, they hate the Civil Emergency and Defense Agency." he said, saying the full name mockingly. Then he shook his head. "While CEDA was fucking the dog in the field, the CDC was doing their damn jobs, figuring out what the hell we were dealing with. It was probably pretty hard to see deep in enemy territory, but when CEDA was relieved of evacuation duty three weeks in, and the Department of Homeland Security took over along with FEMA, things started rolling along a lot better."

"Then there are more survivors?" Zoey asked hopefully.

Aubrey sighed. "I don't know. Things were going well, but Zeke is an exponential problem. Every man we lose is one they gain. When I said that they had their heads out of their asses, I didn't say it worked. The government was overwhelmed. I have no idea if anyone else is left."

"That's not exactly encourag-oh." Zoey's voice fell into silence. The trees had been thinning for a while, but she hadn't expected this.

Apparently, he'd led her directly into town through some sort of nature park that connected the outlying woods to the city center. They were now at the very edge of that park, just in the trees looking at an expansive green field. There were bike paths, a few trees on low, sloping hills, and a broad sidewalk around the outer border separating the dog park from the street.

The entire field was full of zombies. At least a hundred of them, wandering around in a near comatose state. The way they were grouped loosely, it looked like they had been affected by the sounds of the other survivors' battle, but when they didn't see anything, and the noise went away, they went dark again, but had yet to spread out naturally.

"That's not good." Zoey breathed quietly. Aubrey looked at her and scowled at the noise, however slight. He waved very deliberately to bring her back deeper into the trees, then he led her around the border of the woods until they reached a wrought-iron fence separating the trees suddenly from the sidewalk. He slipped fluidly over it, then watched the street while she vaulted over to join him. They were in the late afternoon shade under the trees, so they were difficult to see, and there were only a few zombies on the road anyway.

"Stay behind me." he ordered.

"I can fight." Zoey protested. "I'll keep an eye out for Specials. Give me your rifle."

He snorted and choked down a full out laugh. "This is an M110 Designated Marksman's Rifle. It fires a 7.62 millimeter heavy-grain full metal jacket round at anywhere between 3000 and 4500 feet per second. I hand make each bullet it fires, and if one is to be fired, I would like it to hit its target."

Zoey bristled. "I'm a damn good shot pal. There's a reason my people sent me out hunting."

"Because you can tie a snare?" he said pointedly, indicating the rabbit on her waist.

"I dropped my hunting rifle." she said, her temper flaring.

"Another reason I don't want you holding mine."

Asshole, Zoey thought. This guy thought he was the only guy in the universe who had a clue, just because he'd been doing it alone, while she'd had help. Maybe being alone, rather than turning him into a man who would succumb to baser instincts, had simply taken away any ounce of tact or politeness he possessed.

Aubrey released the foregrip of his rifle and pointed across the street. "We'll head for that apartment building there. On the other side is an alley. With the position of the sun, we can stay in the shadows and hopefully avoid detection. The bridge is…" he checked the map on his wrist. "Five blocks away. We can make that in an hour, less if we're forced to run."

"What do you mean if we're forced to run?" Zoey hissed, a little more harshly.

"What do you mean? You do a lot of running?" he asked curiously.

"We get hit by a horde like every five minutes, not even counting Specials. Don't you?"

He shrugged. "Not really no. Zeke can't get you if he doesn't know you're there. Just stay quiet, and you won't have hordes to deal with."

"Like we're trying to make noise."

"Doesn't sound like you're trying very hard not to."

Asshole, she thought again. But she followed him anyway. He dashed across the street, then waved for her to follow. Half a second after she skidded to a stop on the wall, he was already peering around the corner, rifle barrel first, to examine the street leading to the alley.

"Light contact." he reported. "Should be fine, as long as we're quiet. It's 30 yards to the alley entrance. Think you can do that?"

"Look-" she started heatedly. Aubrey stopped her with a raised hand.

"Your ankle." he said pointedly. She looked down. She realized she was bleeding. She'd probably been limping and hadn't even noticed, she'd been doing it so often lately.

"Yeah, I can make it. This is nothing." she assured him He nodded.

Aubrey led her down the sidewalk and into the alley. The population there was sparse, and were quickly taken care of with a few well-placed shots. Besides the sounds of careful footsteps, and the hissing bursts of the gunshots, they were completely silent.

They reached a point where the narrow space between buildings opened up somewhat to a loading area for trucks, before narrowing again to continue. A single light was flickering over one of the doorways. Zoey heard a cough, and immediately crouched down. Aubrey did so as well. "Smoker." she whispered. He nodded, and waved Rafe over to him. He placed a hand on the dog's shoulder.

"Rafe, rush forward. Distract and destroy. Go."

Rafe shot forward like lightning. The Smoker just around the corner, who'd just started to realize they were there, started, and shot its tongue after the dog. It missed. In one single motion, Aubrey came around the corner and drew his katana off his back. It swung open, and he neatly decapitated the Smoker. A dormant zombie nearby jerked its head up at the noise. Aubrey drew his suppressed Sig Sauer with his left hand and shot it in the head.

"Let's move." he ordered quietly. They rushed forward once again, and made it unmolested to the end of the alley. It was blocked by a cube van, but through a crack of fading light, Zoey could see one of the tall concrete barriers that had blocked in the intersection in front of the bridge.

Zoey pointed. "That's where we are. On that bridge."

"What was the local population last time you passed through here?"

"As of this morning, zero. We take out anything that wanders into the area, so it can't attract others." she said. Aubrey gave her a look that might have approached approval.

"Smart."

"We had a good guy teaching us." she said, her voice trailing off for a moment. She wouldn't have survived this long without Bill, without his knowledge of how to fight, how to survive. How they would last without him, once they hit the road again…Zoey had no idea.

Aubrey didn't seem to notice the change in tone. He crouched down in front of the van and cupped his hands. She understood, and stepped into them. She caught the edge of the top of the van as he lifted her, and she clambered up to stand atop the dirty white metal.

On the bridge, Francis was standing guard on the upper level pedestrian deck overlooking the roadway, used by maintenance personnel. Their 'camp' was on the lower, more spacious level, with the control panel and the ladders they'd blocked off. He casually paced the comfortably wide walkway, shotgun in hand, keeping an eye on the ground, and trying to resist the urge to kill Louis. He'd insisted on spending almost 15 minutes grunting his way up the ladder, and now, the man just wouldn't stop…talking! Despite his injuries-no. If anything, the injuries made him even more talkative.

"You know one thing I don't miss about civilization?" he asked, remarkably chipper for a man who still couldn't walk without a heavy limp and a huge amount of pain. "I.T. I will never have to tell another human being to reboot their computer!"

"You hate it…and yet you're still talking about it." Francis grumbled.

"Oh, I didn't hate it." Louis assured him. "I just got frustrated with people who didn't know what they were doing with computers. You know, old ladies, soccer moms. People like that. I still miss computers."

"Maybe I can find you one." Shut you up for a few hours, he added silently.

"Of course," Louis reasoned. "It's not all bad. I mean, as long as I've got a Molotov, I can still make a firewall." He looked up at Francis expectantly. Francis looked nonplussed. "Get it? Firewall?"

Francis finally got it. He shook his head and turned back to the road. "Jesus Christ…" Louis chuckled, quite pleased with himself. Then he frown, something catching his eye across the road.

"Francis…"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it already. Hi-fucking-larious." Francis waved him off dismissively.

Louis pointed. "No, look!"

On the left side of the street, beyond the concrete wall, there was a white cube van. On top of the cube van, a figure was getting to its feet. Francis nearly dropped his shotgun, but managed to place it relatively gently on the deck, and grabbed the rifle Zoey had left and aimed it at the figure. His finger tightened on the trigger just as it came into focus-

"Don't shoot!" Louis cried. "It's Zoey!"

"Zoey…" Francis muttered. Then he looked closer. It was. He could see her waving through the scope now. She looked beat up, and her rifle was missing. He suddenly glanced down. "Damn. She's gonna be pissed." Zoey didn't like him touching her rifle.

"At least she's safe." Louis said.

"Is that a…dog?" Francis said, continuing to look. It looked like a fairly large dog had just jumped up from the alley behind the van onto the roof. And she helped it up, indicating that she knew the dog.

"What's she doing with a dog? What kind?" Louis inquired.

"Looks like some kind of police dog. It's got a dog vest-lookin' thing on." Francis explained, then he looked at Louis momentarily. "How the fuck would I know what she's doing with a dog?"

"I'm just saying. Wait. What's that now?" Louis pointed again.

Francis looked through the scope again, and watched as someone else climbed up to join Zoey and the dog. Whoever he was, he looked prepared. Camo duds, heavy weapons, and the attack dog was probably his. If Zoey had managed to befriend some survivalist zombie hunter who could kick some serious ass, then Francis was all for it. But the question remained,

"Who the fuck is that guy?"

**Zoey and Aubrey have finally met, and have teamed up (at least for the moment). Took me longer than expected to write; I've been very busy with work, and I've been putting a lot of time into my Mass Effect fiction (keep an eye out), which is where I'll be dedicating most of my efforts for the time being. So I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I wanted to finish and post the big meeting before doing anything else. I'm not abandoning this work, but I may end up slowing down significantly, at least until I'm on another zombie kick. Then, who knows. Anyway, thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for updates, and a new Mass Effect work in the near future, if you're interested.**