Authors Note: Just a quick little thank you for reading and supporting the story this far, it really is a great fun to write! This chapter is a bit slower, though it has plenty of suspenseful zombie action and quite a lot of sassy Johanna before we take things to the extreme in the next few chapters! Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a review or PM me and enjoy! xD
"Katniss, are you alright?" Gale questioned, running to her side. He picked up her bow and loose arrow that had fallen from her grasp when she was grappled by the body now lying on the floor and handed them to her. He looked her over, and after he was satisfied Katniss wasn't in shock, he finally turned to see who the stranger was. "Johanna? What are you doing here?" He asked, relieved to see it was her and not some burly biker after a fight.
The woman (apparently named 'Johanna') briefly turned her attention on Gale before fixing her glare on Katniss once again. As she spoke, she allowed her eyes ample time to roam the ruffled feminine body before her. "Oh, you know, nothing much. Just saving your girlfriend here from whatever these things are." She stated, kicking the body before her to punctuate her point.
"She's not my girlfr-"He stopped himself halfway through his sentence, as if suddenly remembering what it is he wanted to talk about. "We don't have time for this, Finnick's meeting us at Peeta's bakery." He turned to go, but the two girls just looked at him before he clarified "Katniss? Johanna? Let's go?" gesturing to the corner bakery a little ways down the street.
They took off as a group, Gale in the front with the girls covering each side, all scanning for danger as they neared the quaint corner store. Their attention was set on looking for external dangers, but after a loud crashing sound resonated from within the bakery, they turned to face the front doors.
Katniss drew her bowstring, Johanna readied her axe and Gale stood off to the side ready to burst through the door. "1…2...3!" Gale threw open the door and the girls flew into the room doing an immediate sweep of the area, until their eyes came to rest on the scene that was causing all the ruckus. A startled Peeta was running around the main desk, trying to evade the woman chasing him and occasionally swatting her away with a frying pan when she got too close. It was so absurd that both Katniss and Gale had to clamp their hands over their mouths to prevent themselves from bursting into fits of laughter, though Johanna freely let a mellow chuckle escape her lips. It was clear that he'd been at this for some time by the furrow in his brow and sheen of sweat upon his features so Johanna, being the kind and merciful soul she was, stepped forward and grabbed the woman by the hair.
She struggled in Johanna's grasp, her arms clawing forwards as she tried to jerk her head away and turn in her grip, jaws gnashing and a constant grousing groan spilling from its rotted lips. Johanna smirked at the woman now held captive in her grasp, and decided that now would be the perfect time to break out into a fit of laughter - whilst holding a rabid, rotting woman by the hair that was quickly detaching from her fetid scalp."Johanna!" Peeta shrieked, putting his hands forward in a sign of surrender as Johanna's laughing fit receded and she pressed the blade of her axe to the figures throat.
"Please…" he whimpered "That's my mom. Please don't kill her." Hanging his head low, he looked up at what once was his mother, now reduced to a struggling mess of flesh and teeth thrashing around and lunging at his classmate.
Her face had been mangled, exposing her bare jawbone and ripped muscle barely attaching her jaw to her face. Her eyes were wild and reddened as they darted around in search of her next victim, nostrils flaring in anticipation. Its shredded shirt clung to the lacerations visible through the thinning fabric, leaving large red blotches where it had soaked up the life of the woman before them.
"Peeta," Katniss started, but was cut off by Johanna's much tougher sentiment. "Look, this may have been your mother some other time, but now she's just a sack of skin and bones."
"Johanna please-"Peeta reasoned, though he was hastily interrupted by a swiftly enraging Johanna.
"What, you want me to leave her here alive? For some poor soul to stumble upon and get ripped to shreds?" With each word, the blade pressed further and further into the neck of the frenzied woman. Johanna's eyes seared over Peeta's face, her expression twisting into one of disgust as she yanked harder on the hair of his deceased mother.
"Your mom might have meant something to you, but all she'll ever be now is a fucking flesh-eating zombie!"
"Johanna!" Gale bellowed, his hands balled into fists at his side. The room went silent as Johanna turned towards him, a look of indifference plastered onto her face as she sized him up, calculating his intentions. "We can tie her up and lock her in the closet." He sighed, looking over at Peeta and Johanna to see if it was an adequate compromise. Peeta looked relieved, but Johanna was having none of it. "Why?" she spat, anger once again flaring within her deep green eyes.
"It's the best way, Johanna. That way she can't hurt anyone and if there ever is a cure-"Johanna scoffed. "If they ever find a cure," He continued militantly "She can be healed."
Taking a minute to cool off, she decided to bend her will and work on a compromise in the hopes of preventing unneccesary and (quite frankly) pathetic tears threatening to spill from the bakers eyes. "Ok, pretty boy, if it'll shut you up let's throw her in a closet." She chortled, releasing her grip in the woman's hair and throwing her forwards landing in a heap on the carpet. The others stood still, staring at the struggling body on the floor, a look of uneasiness painted on their faces as they expected the corpse to rise again and lunge at them. Johanna looked at them for a moment before scoffing again and rolling her eyes, putting her foot on the its back to guarantee them that it wouldn't jump up and bite their faces off. "What are you doing? Go get some rope or something." She ushered them away with a half-hearted wave of her hand.
They came back a few moments later, Peeta carrying bundles of rope with Katniss and Gale following shortly behind him, one with a pair of handcuffs. Johanna snatched the cords off of Peeta and pocketed the handcuffs, setting to work securing the bonds around his mother's feet, hands and face to keep her jaw clamped shut. When the sounds of her groans finally muffled, she looked up to find the three of them standing around idly staring at her. "Gale said we're meeting Finnick here, so I'd suggest going to pack your things while we've got time, bread boy." She smirked, feeling empowered by the control she had over the situation and the dominance she was able to flaunt.
"You want some help putting her in?" Gale asked, already reaching to take the foot end of the now bound ghoul. "The cupboards under here should do fine." she said, tapping her feet on the vacant cabinets below the counter. She pulled open 2 doors and together they stuffed her inside the small hollow so that her legs and head were bent at unnatural angles. They closed the doors and fastened them shut before moving an old dishwasher in the way to make sure the beast stayed contained.
Grabbing a pen and a piece of paper, Johanna scrawled out a large and bold 'DON'T OPEN DEAD INSIDE' note before plastering it to the washing machine. Shortly after finishing, they heard the distinctive thump of Peeta's footsteps clunking down the stairs, and turned to see him with a jumbo-sized hiking sack appear from the stairwell, a much quieter Katniss in toe. He paced around, occasionally stuffing another miscellaneous item into the oversized pockets until he made his way to the pantry and packed all of the non-perishable food and bottled water he could find into it before making his way back to the others.
"I think I'm all set." He resigned, leaning back against the counter, the ordeal with his 'mother' leaving him exhausted both mentally and physically. He looked over towards the cupboard that held his now deceased parent and sighed. "Well, now we're just waiting on good old Fin." Johanna chippered up, sarcastically peppy even though she too had begun walking around and taking anything of use or value, piling it onto the counter which Peeta began to stuff into the bag. Gale and Katniss saw the exchange, and decided to help search the house too before the others arrived in the range rover. "We'll go search upstairs." Gale declared, dragging Katniss along with him to search Peeta's parents and siblings rooms.
They began packing another moderately-sized bag Gale found in one of Peeta's older brothers rooms, and worked together in a comfortable silence like they often did out hunting in the woods as teens. They took everything from tools, flashlights and binoculars to hygiene products and paperclips, thinking of improvised uses for everyday items and packing accordingly. Finally satisfied with their searching, they headed downstairs and plonked the bag down next to Peeta's much larger, heftier backpack.
"And now we wait, right?" Peeta asked, a slight quiver in his voice explainable by his anxiousness to leave the house his dead mother now ruled from her closet castle. Gale nodded and pulled his phone out, dialling Finnick to see where he was en route to pick them up. He was glad that Finnick's Dad had a range rover with enough seating capacity for Finnick, Annie, Madge and themselves, though it would probably be a squash with the amount of bags they had.
"Hey Fin? Where are you? Yeah, we're at Peeta's bakery." Johanna began to pace around in a small line back and forth as Peeta reclined on the shelves and Katniss sat on one of the desks, her legs swinging and occasionally tapping rhythmically against the wall. "There's 4 of us, we picked up Jo along the way and found Peeta here. Yeah, we've got plenty of supplies." He assured, looking over to the several bags sitting by the side, not to mention the ones he and Katniss carried. "Sure, ok. Just drive safe, alright? And be careful, there's a huge pileup a few roads down. Ok, see ya in 5."
An impregnable pause settled over the 4, as each became absorbed in their own thoughts concerning their family and friends, and how they'd be faring back home. All besides Johanna who concerned herself with looking out of the windows to determine any danger they might be in. After seconds of deliberation, Katniss pulled out her phone and dialled her home number as Gale did the same, both hoping to warn their families about the impending shit storm headed their way, if it wasn't there already.
"Hey Katniss, what's-"
"Prim! Ok, I need you to listen to me, and trust me when I say this you and mom need to get somewhere safe."
"What? Wh-"
"Pack as much food and water as you can, meet up with Gale's family, get down to Fort Campbell and claim asylum, they should be able to let you in." Katniss fired off as fast as possible, fearing the worst if she kept Prim any longer than necessary.
"Katniss, how do you know about that? They're evacuating the city, we're packing our things now. We've been told there's a hurricane warning and they're moving us to the bunkers temporarily."
Katniss released the breath she'd been holding at the news that her mother an Prim were going to be safe, but having her 15 year old sister know about the truth of the predicament might complicate the matter so she decided to play along with the lie fabricated by the government to, what she assumed, prevent nation-wide panic.
"Yeah, no, that's why you need to get to safety. A big one's coming from the coast, I just saw it on the news and… and wanted to make sure you were safe." Katniss summarised, feeling guilty for lying but evidently happier that she knew her family could survive.
"Ok, you stay safe too Katniss, and thanks for checking up on us." Prim smiled, though her concern for her older sister grew after realising that Minnesota would receive the tail end of it and possibly be in for some rough weather.
"Stay safe, I love you Prim." Katniss's expression softened as she smiled wistfully, thinking back to days and nights spent playing in the front lawn with her sister as kids. "Love you too Katniss, bye bye." Hanging up the phone just in time, she heard the range rover come to a halt outside.
"That's our ride." Gale grinned, hefting the largest pack onto his shoulder as he made his way outside, shortly followed by Peeta grabbing the other large bag. "You ready for this, brainless?" Johanna questioned, purposefully using the same insulting nickname she dubbed the woman as earlier. She couldn't remember Gale telling her about his little friend, though with her track record, she could guess why he wouldn't. "I do have a name, y'know." Katniss mumbled, pushing past Johanna and making her way outside. For some reason, her skin began to burn up whenever she was around the mystery and anger that was Johanna, her blush reaching the tips of her ears though thankfully it wasn't very visible due to her olive skinned complexion. Johanna just smiled, already loving the way she could make her scarper so easily. Katniss finally snapped out of her trance as she took in their get away car. The range rover was a sleek dark red with glistening black roof rails attached to the top, already half full with bags and supplies as they loaded their own larger backpacks onto the roof and secured them to the railings with their remaining rope.
Finnick sat in the driver's seat, a smooth young man with sandy blonde hair and sea green eyes, Annie in the passenger seat, her vibrant red hair and jet blue eyes distinguishable from miles away, and Madge, her blonde-haired blue-eyed best female friend, sitting on the left of the rows of 3 behind the 2 in the front. Gale and Johanna clambered into the middle row leaving Katniss and Peeta to sit in the two final seats crammed in with the smaller bags. "Seems like the perfect time for a road trip!" Finnick hollered, garnering a few laughs from the front and a small chuckle from Peeta. Finnick stepped onto the gas and pulled them out onto the now clear road.
Katniss zoned out of the conversation, instead opting to rest her head on the vibrating tinted glass of the backseat window and gaze out at the complacent sun that hung high in the sky. She guessed it was about 1pm, the last 4 hours being easily the scariest of her life since discovering the reincarnated corpse of her roommate and being thrust into the heart of the worlds first 'zombie apocalypse'. Choosing to push the walking dead to the back of her mind (and attempting to ignore the groups of them as they shambled along the sidewalk) Katniss focused on the sky, and let her mind drift to the thought of tomorrow.
An unrealistically zombie-free tomorrow, but it'd have to do for now.