Chapter 3: The Shooter

August 4, 6:00 A.M.

Johnson entered Alex's cell, thinking that maybe he could get more out of Sara if he let her stay with Alex. He looked in at the cell and saw that Sara had grabbed a chair and was sitting against the wall staring the window and occassionally looking at Alex. She didn't seem to even notice Johnson. She would just fix her gaze on the few passing clounds she could see through the barred window. God, she wanted to get out of here so badly...

Johnson sighed sadly and unlocked the cell, walking in. Sara turned to him and glared darkly. She pulled the blanket up to Alex's shoulders and tilted her chair against the wall while balancing on the chair's back legs and her own feet.

"Why hasn't he been helped?" she asked angrily, eyeing the wound on Alex's side.

"Hey, our medics are busy with the soldiers we sent down to Williamette-"

"So the bastards that tried to kill us are more important than Alex?" she snapped bitterly. Johnson looked away, feigning guilt. He scooted closer and sighed. Sara sneered, not falling for his act, but hiding her suspicion. She knew he didn't give a damn about her or Alex. He just wanted his story... Just like she had...

"I'm sorry... The medics should be back tomorrow, I think," he said, trying to reassure her. Sara looked back at Alex and sighed. He wasn't looking as bad as he was yesterday, but he hadn't even stirred for the past few hours, and his breath was still a little strained sounding. "Say, while we're here, why don't we pick up where we left off yesterday."

"Fine... now where was I?"

July 25, 2008, 3:47 P.M.

Sara stopped running as she neared the second plaza. She heard moaning and looked quickly to her left. She saw a female zombie stagger out of a shoe store that resembled one of survivors she saw when she first entered. She panicked and began fiddling with the gun, unsure of how to use it, when she saw that the zombie was coming towards her. Crap! Why hadn't she ever taken up her dad's offers of going with him to the shooting range? Would have been useful now! Sara began mumbling, as though pleading with the gun, and pressing the trigger. Had she known what the safety was, maybe she would have known how to turn it off...

"Aiiieee!" she shrieked as the gun went off, the bullet going through the zombie's head. She stared for a second and blinked. "Well... that works too..." She repositioned the gun in her hands and began running, dodging two or three zombies instead of wasting bullets on them. She froze as she heard human voices. One was Brad, and the other sounded faintly like the guy she met on the roof, but she couldn't be sure because he was too far away.

"Brad!" she called, taking off toward the plaza. She saw Brad turn towards her; his eyes widened.

"Shit! Get down!" he barked. Sara's eyes shot up to the second floor and she jumped back behind the directory as a rain of bullets hit the other side of it. Sara screamed to make the shooter think he had hit her. Thebullets stopped, and as soon as they did, she darted to where Brad was. She fell onto her stomach and put her hands over her head as more bullets hit the ground past their barricade.

"What's going on?" Sara asked shakily. Brad glared, stood up, and fired a few shots at their attacker.

"Bastard's got an uzi," he growled, reloading his pistol and getting on the ground beside Sara. "The hell you doin' out here?"

"Jessie sent me," she said, sitting up on her knees for a second, but threw herself back down and yelped as she saw a bullet hit the tile next to her. Brad sighed and shook his head. He looked to the shooter and then back at Sara. He scowled and pulled out some extra bullets. He couldn't do this alone...

"Take these... I'll need your help," Brad said, handing her the rounds. Sara loked to the bullets and then back at Brad.

"'Scuse me?" she asked.

"Look, You don't have to kill him, but I need you to take his attention off of me," he said, scooting closer to the barricade. Sara scrambled over to him. "When he stops firing to reload, I need you to shoot at him, distracting him. If you can hit him, that's great, but if you don't I'll take care of him."

"So... I just shoot at him? Where will you be?"

"I'm going to work my way up to him. I need to capture him alive and preferably wounded," he answered, loading his gun.

"Why?"

"Just do what I told you or we're both dead!" Brad snapped. Sara nodded and waited for the bullets to stop. She had noticed that hit took him a few seconds to reload, so she had to be fast. The bullets stopped. She jumped up, whirled around, and began squeezing the trigger rapidly. Brad took off towards the escalator. sara eyed the shooter. It was the guy from the roof! But why were Brad and Jesse after him? Did he have something to do with the zombies? She ducked back down as soon as her gun ran out of bullets. The shooter began firing at the barricade as Sara reloaded. She winced as a bullet broke through and grazed her ankle, but bit down on her lip and ignored it. There were more important things to do.

The bullets stopped. She jumped up, but faltered as she began firing. Damn! That hurt more than she thought. Oh well. She began firing even faster as she saw Brad getting closer. She heard the shooter yell and saw Brad tackle him to the ground. She sat down and took deep breaths while examining her ankle. It didn't look bad. She would live. She heard Brad yell curses and slowly got up to see what was happening. She saw the shooter running away and Brad chasing him. Sara jumped up and began following their movement on the lower floor, looking up to see where they were running. She had an obvious limp, but it didn't slow her down too much.

"Brad? Brad!" she called, looking around frantically. Worry began to fill her mind. She didn't see Brad or the shooter... come to think of it, she hadn't seen any zombies either!

A cold, clammy hand gripped her wrist and snapped her out of her thoughts. She whirled around and screamed as a zombified man leaned foward and prepared to bite her shoulder. Just as his teeth touched her skin, a knife flew into the zombie's head. Sara fell back and the man fell on top of her. She frantically threw the body off of her and scrambled backwards until she was up against the wall. she slowly looked up and saw the black-haired boy she had seen when she first arrived. He stepped foward and pulled the knife out of the zombie before walking over to Sara and kneeling in front of her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, holding his hand out to her. He had a hint of a Spanish accent. Sara merely looked up at him, shocked from the incident, and fainted.

Alex stirred and groaned, his hand tightening over the wound. Sara looked at him and felt tears well up in her eyes. She hated seeing him like this. She reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder.

Sara rolled her head from side to side as she woke up. She looked at the ceiling for a second before bolting up. A hand pushed her back down.

"Ssh, just relax. You're hurt," a voice said. She looked to her right and saw the boy looking at her, concerned. Sara's hand shot up to her shoulder.

"W-was I... bitten?" she asked shakily. The boy laughed and shook his head.

"No, I was talking about your ankle. Were you shot?" he asked softly, lifting up her legging to show her the bandages. Sara looked around. She wasn't in the security room... It looked like a storage room. It was about the size of a small store with various boxes and objects scattered around the room. She was lying on an old mattress off to the side of the room. She tried to pull herself off of the mattress. The boy leaned foward and stood up with her, kepping his hands on her shoulders to steady her.

"Y-Yeah.. I was in the lobby... Brad!" she gasped and tried to run towards the exit. Pain shot up her leg after the first few steps and she fell foward with a yelp, gripping her ankle.

"Whoah! Easy, chica," the boy said, resting his hand on her shoulder and stroking her arm to comfort her, "It's infected. You need to rest."

"But... I don't know if Brad got the shooter... and Jessie..." she gulped, remembering that she had left the girl in the hall, alone and unarmed!

"Shh, we can go find your friends when you're better, okay? Right now, you really need to take care of yourself," he said softly, helping her up. She hissed in pain when she put weight on her foot. The boy lifted her up and quickly set her back on the mattress. Sara turned to him.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Alex Keyes. You?" he asked, sitting by the mattress.

"Sara... Richardson," she mumbled, rolling over onto her side to face him. "They're in the security room... please... I have to get tp them-"

"We will go when you are better. Now please, just relax," he ordered in a stern voice. Sara rolled back onto her back and clsoed her eyes, groaning as she began to fall asleep.

"Wow, you two really care about each other, huh?" Johnson asked.

"Yes, but it's not a romantic relationship for the third time. I don't know how to explain it... but, I felt safe with him at that time... Im not sure why," Sara said, stroking Alex's hair and looking at him with a small smile on her face.

"Do you think he loves you?" the detective asked.

"If he does, it probably won't work out. We met in a traumatic experience... Just because we survived being ripped to shreds by zombies doesn't mean that we have to get together."

"Sa..." Alex croaked, looking over at Sara and Johnson, "Can'... Breathe..."

Sara gasped and looked at Johnson.

"Please! Get someone!" she yelled, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks. Johnson ran out of the room, yelling for a medic. Sara began to cry even harder as Alex's breath shortened. Then, the breathing stopped. "Alex? Alex! Please! Alex!" she cried. She frantically shook him and called out his name. What was she supposed to do now? She was alone... No, he couldn't leave her now!

Then she heard soft laughter and she let go of Alex. He was looking up at her with a large smile, the color back to his face and his eyes bright.

"A-Alex! You fucking asshole!" she sobbed, falling to her knees and letting her head fall onto the bed. Alex rolled over onto his side and stroked her head.

"I'm sorry, Sara. Sara," he pleaded softly, hugging her head close to him, "Please stop crying... Sara... I'm sorry... Sara..." Sara couldn't stop crying and climbed up into the bed.

"W-why would y-y-you do th-that?" she sobbed. Alex held her closer and began whispering comforts in Spanish and English. Sara buried her head in his chest, still crying.

To be continued...

Wow, Alex is kinda evil.