A Better Tomorrow

Chapter 4- Today, We Escape

Eric was running along the street taking heads off as he passed by. He could smell a mix of blood, werewolf and shifter in the air which excited him even more. He looked back once to see if Sookie was following him which she was; very slowly. Reaching the crowd of dead corpses, most of them were too busy trying to enter the building and didn't noticed him throwing corpses left and right. Eric made way to the front of the building before jumping on a balcony on the second floor. The door was locked but he kicked it in anyway. He entered the small apartment which was slowly decaying just like the corpses. The wallpaper was ripped while the furniture was lying on the floor barely recognizable from all the breakage.

Eric walked to the door that was giving onto the main corridor of the building. Following the scent of the werewolf, he walked down the stairs into the back of the grocery store. The smell of blood was getting stronger. He first walked through the produce aisle where the smell of the rotting food was almost hiding the werewolf. Once he was passed it, he made way to the front of the store where the deads were still banging on the windows while the doors seemed to be holding up their weight crashing onto it. He could hear their growling and their mumbling. He turned to the back of the main aisle where the bakery display was still standing and pin pointed the smell of the werewolf's blood.

Behind the counter, Alcide was lying on the ground his head resting on Tara's lap. Sam was beside them in the shape of a dog, whining relentlessly while Tara was glaring at him. When she noticed Eric, it was already too late, he had moved behind her grabbing her shoulders. She screamed when Eric lifted her and threw her onto the old oven at the back of the room. Sam immediately ran to her while Eric stared at Alcide.

Tara managed to sit feeling a sharp pain in her neck.

"WAIT" she screamed.

Eric looked up at her and growled. He hated werewolf and just wanted to rip Alcide's throat out. He knew by his smell to which pack he had once belong and Eric had unfinished business with their leader.

"We woke you, please wait" she screamed.

Eric kneeled down ready to choke the life out of Alcide when he heard shotgun shots at the entrance of the grocery store. As he lifted his head towards the door, mostly by instinct, Tara got up; her legs still shaky from the attack. She had recognized the sound of her friend's gun and now feared the worst.

At vampire speed, Eric ran towards the front to see if he could catch a glimpse of Sookie. She was across the street fighting off the deads that had spotted her earlier. She seemed to be in trouble mostly because she was using her shotgun as a baseball bat instead of shooting which indicated that she was out of ammo.

Eric opened the front door and started plowing through the corpses. Some managed to take chunks of his skin from bites that he could barely feel. The smell of the corpses was atrocious but it wasn't covering Sookie's smell which was playing with Eric's focus. Something about her was different and he had some idea of what it might be. He had lived a thousand years and had encountered a lot of different creature but none of them smell quite like Sookie. He knew she was bleeding because her scent was stronger.

When he reached her she was standing up on a big garbage bin pushing off dead corpses as they were trying to come up. Eric noticed her leg and the claw mark on her left calf. He managed to snap the neck of most corpses that was surrounding Sookie quickly having learnt how to take care of them.

When Eric came out of the coffin the day before, he already knew about the virus and what it was doing to humans so it was not shocking news to him when he tried to bite a dead corpse that not only the blood tasted disgusting but it had no nutriment to him. He also knew that the only way to kill these corpses was to separate the brain from the body since it was the organ controlling it. Snapping necks was very effective and Eric enjoyed coming across corpses.

He extended his hand to Sookie in order to help her jump off the garbage bin. She hesitated a second, he saw it in her eyes but then she gently put her hand into his and let him guide her safely on the ground.

"thankx" she managed to mumble before looking at the ground

"Your friends are in the grocery store. It will be sunrise soon, I must take to the ground."

She instinctively looked up at the dark sky. Her too could feel the sun nearby and did not argue. They both headed to the grocery store while Eric took point inside of it as she did not know where her friends were exactly. He guided her towards the bakery counter and found Alcide passed out in Tara's arms.

"He has been bitten, and he is getting worst Sookie, we have to go back!" yelled Tara looking alarmed but also relieved that Sookie was alright.

Sam was still in dog shape and Eric wondered why the coward was not transforming back to human body which would be more useful to all of them. Sam barked at Eric having noticed he was staring at him.

Sookie looked at Sam and then Tara and finally at Eric. "We cannot go back, the sun is coming up, the vampire needs to hide''

Tara was furious and her face did not hide it well. Sookie added "we cannot move him anyways, he is losing too much blood. We need the doctor to come here. Sam, do you think you can go get her? We will wait with Alcide"

Eric heard Alcide faintly growled at the words while Tara got up. " We need water and food if we are going to stay with him here. I think I saw some upstairs. I'll be back. And you vampire boy, find a hole and find us here tonight at sundown''

Tara looked up at Eric and was aggravated by his smirk. He thought it was amusing the way she was talking to him. He could so easily kill her and drain her; after all, he was still hungry. She sighed and walked towards the stairs at the back of the store unknowing of his thoughts. Eric turned his attention to Sookie who was staring at Alcide but seemed lost in her thoughts.

"We risked our lives to find you, you know… Will you be back tonight?"

Eric didn't really understand why humans would go through so much trouble to find him or any other vampires. Did they not understand that they were his food source? Nonetheless, he didn't have to follow them to find Pam, he could simply call her as her maker but something about Sookie was intriguing him. He also wanted to ensure his own safety food wise and since they seemed to be the only humans alive in Shreveport, he would be crazy to not follow them to more humans.

She looked up at him searching for an answer. He simply nodded in response.

"I am Sookie by the way"

He took a moment and coldly replied "Eric" before he left for the front door of the grocery store. He was not about to share his day time death with a group of human strangers and had decided to find a place far from the grocery store. He still had some time left before sunrise so he took to the air while he heard at the distance "nice to meet you"

Reviews are always welcomed and encouraging!

Xox

Z