A:N/Hey guys, I need some help; I'm trying to replace the name Veronica with Vallerie. There's this other story called Even at World's End with a lot of similarities I was just shown and there are a lot of things that are the same. He hadn't updated in, like, a year so there was no way for me to find it while it was buried under everything else. But yeah, it was weird seeing the same ideas (even names!) in another story I had never read before. So out of respect for a story two-three years older than mine, I'm changing V's name and I'm gonna try and steer clear of his ideas while still staying original.
I want to thank a guest by the name of Sparkling; thank you for the praise! im glad you're enjoying it and i could make something that interests you. Love from Norway!(for the moment)
Hope you guys and gals enjoy! =D
Also: Special thanks to FFnet user rareID for editing this chapter. It would have been way worse had he not XD (there were so many mistakes..) and also to Cyrianu for the feedback!
Harvey sat on the edge of his cot with a boot on his knee, rubbing away at the flakes of mud that had started to cake to the outer surface. The others around him were either asleep, reading or finding some other way of keeping themselves entertained.
"They still coming over, Boss?" Sham, the older of the two Marines, asked.
Harvey looked up, breaking from his concentration. "What's tha'?"
"The girls. Are they coming over for a little tea party or what?"
"Guess we'll just 'ave tuh-" knocking on the door interrupted his sentence.
Gruman got up and opened the door. Seeing who it was, he stepped aside and allowed the two women in question into their lodging.
Harvey stood, extending his hand to the two. "Welcome, ladies," Harvey said. After both had shaken his hand, and him not wanting to be a rude host, grabbed chairs from another room and set them in front of his cot for the women to sit. "'ave a seat."
Anna sighed contently at the comfort of plopping down onto the cushion while Elsa simply sat with her back straight and eyes locked on Harvey. "So what is it exactly you brought us here to talk about?" Elsa asked
"Ah, the question of the century," Harvey said. "Well 'is'll take a bit so I suggest you get comftabul'."
"Way ahead of ya," Anna said, leaning back into her seat.
"So, 'ow long's it been since the outbreak?" Harvey asked. "Anyone know?"
"About twelve years now?" Jason spoke up, from under his arm that was draped over his head.
"Thirteen on the sixth of next month," Vallerie said, turning a page in the book she was reading.
"Thirteen years. You'd think someone would've come up with a cu'e of some kind by now." Harvey said.
Elsa's brows were furrowed. "Yeah, but so what?" she asked. "If they even got close, there's no way they could do it now."
"You sure 'bout that?" Harvey smirked.
Elsa looked down in thought.
"We go' a tip from a suhviva that was picked up a couple months ago that the's a lab up North 'round the Great Lakes. 'e said that they wuh close. Now this 'mission' that I've been on about is simple. We go and get that place up n runnin' again. Save the whole fuckin' wuhld." Harvey smiled.
"Okay, that sounds great and all, but why would you need us?" Anna asked.
Harvey chuckled to himself. "Cause your guhlfriend 'as a gift that'll make sure most of us get back home safe n' sound," he said, with a knowing grin.
"What do you mean?" Anna blurted, and looked over to Elsa who was looking at Harvey in disbelief.
"Rule numba' one of secret keeping: No witnesses. On multiple occasions, we've heard the same thing. So.. nothin' really to hide anymore," Harvey smirked at her.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about." Elsa looked around at the others who weren't really paying attention.
"The ice. You can control it. I haven't seen ice for several winters now. Always made me feel like kid again. To be completely honest with you, I, and I'm sure the others, have no problem with it. Which is why I'm sayin' this he' away from everyone."
"Even if I do have this, as you say, control, I have one thing I want before I give you anything."
"Oh? And what's tha'?" Harvey said, looking back up to the women.
"You help us get rid of the people who just attacked."
He sucked on his tongue for a moment and looked down to the boot in his hands. He then brought it up to eye level, making Elsa jump with how close it was. He turned it in his hand and when he was satisfied with how clean it now was, he brought it down and looked back up to the blonde. "Okay. Deal."
The inside of the mall seemed almost derelict through Anna's binoculars. Her and Elsa were in the parking lot along with three militiamen scouting the place out just behind an overturned car. So far, there was no signs of the raiders that had hit their settlement. Only a few infected stood in the lot before them, wandering aimlessly to nowhere in particular.
That was until an older model white ford truck arrived and stopped in front of the parking garage next door. Before Anna knew it, the metal door that blocked the entrance slid to the side, followed shortly after by the truck moving in. The infected continued on their courses, seeming to hardly notice the faded white vehicle enter.
Anna felt a hand rest on her shoulder and looked to her side to see Elsa's blue eyes looking back at her. She saw Elsa's mouth move but didn't really make an attempt to listen and instead got lost in the blue orbs in front of her. The hand shook her and brought her back out of her daze, kind-of, and, with a slight tint to her cheeks, she shook her head, bringing her back to reality.
"Huh? Sorry, I kinda zoned out there," Anna said.
One of the corners of Elsa's mouth rose slightly.
"I was just asking how it looked out there," Elsa repeated.
"Oh, right," Anna said. "Well besides a few undead milling about in our way, we should be pretty set in terms of safety. I haven't spotted any lookouts yet, but that could change really quick."
Elsa nodded slowly, looking behind her to the three men watching their backs. Anna looked back through her binoculars at the mall and then back to the parking garage. After what felt like forever, she turned and looked at the blonde. "I think we're clear," Anna said.
Elsa nodded once and turned, tapping the shoulder of the closest soldier.
"Wait!" She heard Anna hiss, stopping Elsa in her tracks.
Elsa got to where Anna was watching and looked over the lot, scanning for movement. She didn't see any. "What's wrong?"
"The skybridge connecting the garage and the mall. Someone just walked through it."
"Are they still up there?"
"No," Anna brought the binoculars down and looked back.
"Then what're we waiting for?" Elsa questioned.
Anna shrugged and pushed the binoculars back into her pack and slung it onto her back. Elsa tapped the soldier again and then turned to follow Anna who was waiting for an infected who had wandered into their path to the building. Once it had passed a safe distance, she crouch ran to a car not to far away, and turned, waving back at Elsa for her to follow. They did this until the last man had joined them behind a large van that was as close to the doors as they could get.
Anna peaked around the side of the van into the glass but still saw no movement. It was dark inside; but not dark enough to not see through the glass. She looked back at the group and snapped her fingers to get all of their attention and pointed at the door which was chained shut from the inside.
"No way we're getting in through there without making a shit ton of noise," one of the soldiers said.
"Maybe one of the other entrances is open," Anna suggested, and smiled back at the group.
Sure enough, all the other doors were the same story. All barred or locked from the inside.
Elsa turned to one of the men. "Radio back to Harvey. All entrances are red. We're falling back."
The soldier nodded and produced a small phone connected to a box on his belt with a wire and, after a moment, Harvey's voice came over the airways with, "Confirmed. Fall back and we will reassess the situation."
Anna looked back across the lot to the car that they started at and started to crouch run to the first car in their miniature relay to the other side. Along the way, she caught the attention of an unwanted set of eyes.
Anna started on her way, holding her pack strap tight against her chest. She had her body low like she had been taught, minimizing her as a target and also ensuring a decent pace. This process soon collapsed in the back of her mind when she heard a deafening screech. She stopped mid-pace and grabbed on to her ringing ears. Before she could react, the undead corpse was almost on top of her. It's arms grabbed at her red and white hoodie before she grabbed onto its shoulders holding it back. It lunged at her throat, snapping its rotting teeth inches away from her skin.
Its snapping ceased and after a moment the body went limp, falling to the ground. Behind it stood Elsa with a bloody knife that dripped to the concrete below.
"Thanks," Anna sighed with relief, and smiled.
Elsa smiled back and followed when the redhead turned and walked away to where Harvey was waiting for them with his platoon. "What've we got?" Harvey inquired.
"Not much, from the looks of things," the redhead said. "Only way inside is the parking garage, and the only way in there is a metal shutter door at the front entrance."
"So stealth isn't an option here," Vallerie said.
"Doesn't look like it." Anna said, her hands going to her hips.
"Alrighty then," Harvey said and turned to his men. He raised his arms in the air. "Shall we, boys?" His SAS troopers had stayed back at the Pyramid Colony in case another attack came. Only the volunteers had come along. They all walked up to stand next to him, creating a circle with the girls and the three soldiers they had brought.
"What's the plan?" Bradley, the Ranger, spoke up.
"'Ow many entrances are the'?" Harvey asked them.
"There's five public entrances and nine utility. We checked them all and all of them are locked up tight," Elsa said.
"The public entrances, are they all glass? We can have our way in at one of those if they are. Easily," Gruman added.
"Yes, most of them are." Elsa said.
"The metal door to the garage; we could easily blow through that with our humvee." Jason spoke up.
"Why don't we split up? Half takes the main building while the other takes the garage?" One of the soldiers, his name tag read 'Arellano,' suggested.
"Not a bad idea, that. Anyone volunte' to go with blondie and them?" Harvey turned to the rest of them
When no one spoke up, Vallerie walked up to beside Anna, holding her M14 in her arms. "Why not?" she said, receiving a few looks from the group.
"Right. We've got the garage, you've got the mall. Signal ova radio when ready and we'll breach and clea'." Harvey said, grabbing his rifle off the hood of their humvee.
Elsa nodded and led her group to the parking lot as she heard a engine sputter and start behind her. They moved the same way as they had earlier all the way back to the same van and waited until Harvey radioed the 'ready' mark, which was two clicks of his button. After she made sure her group was, she did the same and moved up to the stone and concrete wall of the building itself just next to where the glass of the entrance could be viewed through.
"Clive!" Elsa whispered loudly. "Come up here."
Clive lowered his M249, side stepping over to her and kneeled in front of her, facing out towards the lot. "Yes, ma'am?"
"I'm gonna need you to help if this glass doesn't break," Elsa said, looking at him urgently.
He looked back with a 'huh?' expression. She needed to be sure they got through. On more than one occasion had she kicked at glass, expecting it to break, but instead was only met with a spiderwebbed pane. This time, she'd be sure to have help if that happened again.
"Just be ready." Elsa said, turning back to the parking lot.
He looked away, raising his weapon back up. "Yes, ma'am."
Static came over the radio and then Harvey's voice followed with, "Moving in three. Two. One. Mark."
The roaring of the humvee's diesel engine could be heard from their position and even more so when it crashed through the steel door. Elsa took a step forward, cocked her leg and drove her foot as hard as she could into the glass. She felt a hard thud and brought her foot forward again, bringing it back on the glass a second time, feeling the spider web cave a bit. She then brought it forward for a third and final time, but stopped when Clive charged shoulder first into the barrier, shattering it completely. The group looked ahead at the man.
Clive stopped looked back at them. "Shall we?"
Elsa stepped through, thanking Clive on her way. The group stepped through the open secondary entrance and into the mall itself. Elsa led them to the first intersection of the strips of shops and stopped. Nothing was there. No one in sight and it looked as though if the shops had been cleared out long ago. The heavy report of the .50 cal and several small arms leaked into the building along with the flashes, illuminating the skybridge doorway like a flashing light. Elsa's group hugged the wall, moving forward with their weapons at the ready. Both Anna and Elsa had left their rifles at home and were brandishing their sidearms; Anna a Beretta M9 and Elsa a Sig Sauer P226.
They sidled along until reaching a stopped escalator and climbed up it quietly, still watching their surroundings. A sound that could just be made out over the thundering firefight in the next building over caught the group's attention. Anna's small light on her pistol came on and shone into a storefront. The inside looked empty, the shelves devoid of anything but gathering dust and empty display cases, but the sound had still been heard. Anna walked through the glass doors into the shop followed by Elsa and then Clive, leaving the other three outside to cover their exit.
Each cleared a separate aisle, moving through them and making sure there was no one hiding. Anna had cleared the final row and came upon the cashier's desk. She turned off her light and raised her gun, side stepping to the register-desks entrance and stopped for a moment, watching along the edge for movement. When nothing happened, She quickly side-stepped again, turning on her light, revealing a man nearly squeezed under the counter.
"F-f-fuck!" he stuttered, backing away until his back collided with the counter. His eyes wouldn't stop moving, first looking to Anna and then down to the floor and then to the counter and back to Anna again. He looked to the counter and back two more times before Anna glared at him.
"Don't. You. Dare," she growled, through clenched teeth.
He moved quickly, grabbing a pistol that was taped to the underside of the counter and firing off a shot before one of Anna's bullets struck him between the eyes.
Anna hissed and brought a hand down to her side, keeping the gun raised. She felt a wet warmth growing on her side, along with a stinging, burning sensation. Anna clenched her teeth, squeezing the trigger a second, then third time, and continued pulling the trigger until the slide locked back. She then threw the empty weapon at the man's body in a fit, and kicked him. "That hurt!" she snarled, keeping her voice down despite the pain.
Anna felt the cool hands of her girlfriend on her shoulders the next second, leading her away from the corpse. Clive retrieved her pistol and followed them out.
"Hey, are you feeling okay?" Elsa asked. They looked into eachother's eyes. "Let me see it," Elsa said, concern evident on her face.
Anna lifted her hoodie and shirt, revealing the bullet hole just above her hip bone. She felt Elsa's cool hand move over the wound. It was cold, but the stinging went away after a moment. Anna looked down at Elsa, who was concentrating on the wound.
This isn't a bad cold. Just different. Anna thought.
She felt it on her back a moment later, where the bullet had came out and, after a few moments, Elsa rose to meet her face to face.
All better?" Elsa asked, giving her a small smile.
Anna smiled back and nodded. They were brought back to reality when Clive held out Anna's M9. It took her a moment, but she grabbed it and they continued to the skybridge's entrance doorway.
Elsa, Anna and Vallerie took one side of the door while the three militia stacked on the other. Clive led the three, nodding to Elsa he was ready and she did the same. Both stepped out into the walkway, guns at the ready and their sides hugging the wall. They got to the wooden door at the end that opened to the garage. The firefight was still raging on, judging from the yellow flashes coming from the other side. Clive grabbed the handle and jerked the door open, allowing the rest entrance before moving in himself.
A grey Nissan car was the first thing in view. Elsa led them to it, taking cover behind it and peeked over its hood. In front of them, they could see the exchange of bullets. Harvey and his men were thoroughly suppressed by a machine gun bearing down on them. The fire from the raiders didn't let up. They couldn't move or even shoot back with the gun in place.
"Clive!" Elsa yelled over the shooting.
Clive's head looked around Anna at her.
Elsa turned. "You see that truck across the way?" she pointed to a small silver truck on the other side of the aisle.
"Yeah," Clive said, as he moved up next to her.
"I want you to go over there and lay down fire while we move up on them. I'll tell you when to start shooting, okay?" Elsa said, and looked at him with urgency.
Clive nodded, crouched, and ran to the truck. He put the front of his gun against the side of the trucks bed, aiming it down the aisle towards the fighting, and looked over to Elsa to show he was ready.
Elsa turned to the others, and said, "Let's go."
She ran forward until she had passed three cars and ducked behind a fourth one, followed by Anna and Vallerie. She looked up for a moment when the two militiamen weren't behind them only to see them across the aisle, watching and waiting for her move. Between them and the fighting was a large area of empty spaces with few cars in between, making it risky if they continued. She looked back to Clive who was waiting with his eyes on her, ready to unleash hell on her command, and then to the two soldiers across the way, and turned back to the two women next to her.
"Be ready to start shooting," Elsa said. "I'm going to signal for Clive back there," she pointed over her shoulder, "to unleash hell and after he stops for his gun to cool off, we'll take out anyone who pops up along with the other two."
Both Anna and Vallerie nodded, Vallerie raising her rifle over the roof of the car they were behind and Anna checking her magazine before slapping it back in.
Elsa turned back and waved to the other two to get their attention along with Clive's. She held three fingers up.
Three.
Two.
One.
tightened her fist. Clive pulled the trigger, his weapon coming to life, slinging lead down the aisle and into metal, concrete, and flesh. He didn't stop until his barrel was bright orange, and slumped back down behind the bed. Seeing him go down, Elsa raised over the hood, along with Anna, and raised her pistol.
Some moments passed. Nothing seemed to happen. Surely there were a few left that were still able shoot back. Right?
Within a second, the fight was back on. Two raiders had risen up and fired back at them. Harvey's group on the other side of them opened up as soon as Elsa's did, forcing the two back into cover. Elsa looked across the aisle at the two soldiers. One grasped his shoulder which was bleeding through his fingers. The other kept his rifle up, prepared to pull the trigger.
She looked back at Clive, but didn't see him. She had little time to worry, however, as the shots rang out again. This time on the other side of Harvey and his men.
The radio on her belt crackled. "We're surrounded! We're gonna fall back out of here. You need to do the same or you'll get overrun!" Harvey's voice came through. Elsa looked back over the hood and saw Harvey go through a stairway door followed by Jason, Gruman and someone she couldn't make out with another on their shoulders.
She bent down, pulling Anna with her. "We're gonna fall back into the mall!" Elsa shouted. Anna nodded, and turned to relay the message to Vallerie while Elsa waved to the two militia. The one who got hit had turned pale and was resting with his back against the car's wheel while his friend kept shooting. He got the others attention and brought him down for Elsa who pointed back to the door and mouthed the words 'fall back.'
The soldier grabbed the wounded one's rifle, slung it over his friend's shoulder, and got ready to lay down fire for them. She looked back to the truck where Clive had been behind. He was nowhere to be seen, until Elsa looked closer. Just visible behind the tire was a upturned hand, unmoving and surrounded by a dark pool of blood and brass casings.
She looked beside her at Anna. Her back was against the car and her hands were on the gunshot from earlier. It had started to bleed again, and in their situation, there was little else she could do. Elsa put her hands to the entry and exit wound and closed her eyes. Anna looked up at her, confused. A faint glimmer came from Elsa's hands, and moved along Anna's skin, soft ice forming where blood had run out and eventually covered the wound up. Anna hissed and couldn't help but whimper at the cold sensation that both went through her and the ice that filled the bullet's path. Vallerie took carefully aimed shots, taking out a few of the raiders who had now linked up with the group that hit Harvey from the other side. They wouldn't last long out here.
"V!" Elsa slapped the woman's back who knelt down to look at her. ''We need to get out of here. Now! I need you to get Anna to that door-"
"You're not coming!?" Anna interrupted.
Elsa was horrified at the thought. "I'll be right behind you," she assured. "I have to help them out, too!" She pointed over her shoulder at the two soldiers who were being heavily suppressed, unable to even get a shot off.
Anna reached forward behind Elsa's neck and pulled her in, connecting their lips. The kiss was brief. "You better," Anna hissed.
Vallerie got down to her knees, throwing one of Anna's arms over her shoulder. "I'm ready to go when you are," the brunette said, eyeing the door.
Elsa stood up slightly, preparing herself and when she finally saw a gap, she took it. "Go, now!" she commanded.
Elsa rose out from the cover of the vehicle first, firing into the lines of cars until she reached the other side and ducked down next to the wounded soldier. She looked back in time to see Vallerie and Anna make it into the skybridge.
"How are you hanging in there, soldier?" Elsa asked, as she looked him over. His name tag read 'Hotchkins'.
Hotchkins looked up at her from under his black knit cap, face pale with a drip of blood from the corner of his mouth, and then looked down at his stomach where another splotch of blood had grown that went unnoticed by the others. "Still in the fight, ma'am," he wheezed. He grabbed his rifle that lay by his side with his good arm and pulled the slide back, locking a fresh round into the chamber.
"Stay with me. We're getting out of here, okay?" Elsa said; it wasn't a question.
"It's about time. What's the plan?" the other soldier, Arellano, a short, but bulky latino man, wondered.
"We run back to the door, laying down fire as we go," Elsa explained. She looked at the state of Hotchkins. He was holding his rifle to his chest, half way turned and looking over the car hood. "We need to get him out of here as fast as possible and back to the settlement. If we don't, he won't last very long."
"None of us will if we don't get out of here," Hotchkins said, still looking over the hood. "I'll stay here and draw their fire while you guys get to that door."
"No! No one else has to die. We can all make it back." Elsa exclaimed
He turned to face her, the look in his eyes telling Elsa more than words ever could.
"Let's get this done, man. We're getting back home," Arellano said, grasping onto the other man's arm and helping him sit up.
"Ready?" Elsa said, looking over the car
"As I'll ever be," Hotchkins said, with a loud cough.
"Go!" Elsa stood up and fired madly into the raiders cover, keeping them pinned until she had reached the wooden threshold. She peaked out the door.
"Let's go!" She yelled at the two.
Hotchkins stood up and started the time they had risen to make the final retreat, storms of bullets had whizzed by the two, striking either concrete walls, or the vehicles that were parked elsewhere. Just before Hotchkins made it, he turned and watched his comrade fall; several bullets striking his back. Hotchkins' vision became blurry and all rational thought left him. He walked through the storm of bullets, getting grazed several times and even hit in his chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending him to his knees just beside his brother. He stood after a moment and grabbed onto the strap on the back of Arellano's vest and dragged him all the way to across the threshold before he collapsed to his knees and fell back, his head landing next to his friends.
Anna knelt down to the two men, checking if they were still breathing while Elsa shut and bolted the door shut. Vallerie was on the other side of the skybridge, making sure their way out stayed clear. Anna felt the men's pulses and got nothing. She started to pull away and stand up when Arellano grabbed onto her wrist, scaring the breath out of her.
Arellano sat up and dry-coughed before turning to his friend that lay motionless on the floor. The bullets had torn through fabric and kevlar but were ultimately stopped by the steel plate in his vest. "He's gone, isn't he?" he asked, but it sounded like he already knew the answer.
Anna only nodded. She looked up at him, "He wouldn't have made it anyway. That shot to his stomach... there's no way."
Arellano and Anna were both shocked when the supposedly dead man took in a deep breath and startled awake, before sitting up and spitting out blood onto the carpet at their feet. His friend helped him sit back against a metal support so he could at least breathe. Anna stood beside him.
"How? He was dead!" Anna cried. "How the hell can he still be breathing?!"
Arellano didn't answer. He just grabbed ahold of the man in front of him by his vest collar and shook him awake. "You squared away, Marine?" he demanded.
Hotchkins slowly lifted his head and nodded. Anna walked up behind Elsa who was looking through the thick glass of the door they had just came through. "What do we do now?" Anna asked.
"We have to get these guys out of here and figure out if Harvey made it out," Elsa answered. She chewed on her lip. "Hey!" Elsa yelled, looking over to the brunette on the other side of the skybridge.
Vallerie turned back when no one answered and looked at Elsa. "Me?" she questioned.
"Yeah, what's your name again? I know Harvey said it before but..." Elsa let the sentence hang, with a shrug.
"It's Vallerie," Vallerie answered, amused.
"Is it clear out that way?" Elsa asked, walking towards her.
"So far as I can see, yes. We should get moving before that changes, though," Vallerie said, looking out the door once again.
"Right. Uhm," Elsa looked around her, "Arellano, get him up and ready to get out of here."
He nodded. "Aye, ma'am," he said as he picked the other up and slung Hotchkins arm over his shoulder. Elsa got on his other side and led them to the door Vallerie was at.
"Still clear?" She asked.
"Yes, as far as i can tell."
"Let's go, then."
