AN: Thanks a lot, C-CoC for your review. Your bio scares me a little bit, but at the same time you sound like a cool person. :P And Level 43, I have just one question for you. Since all zombies look pretty much the same, how do you check for credit card fraud? For that matter, won't they look a lot different than in their original photos?

I won't be saying this every chapter, so let it suffice for right now that I'm saying it in Chapter 2, before any (c) material is used. I don't own the Resident Evil franchise, I only own any original ideas that careen off of the series, and then only if I don't use copywritten material. Resident Evil is owned by Capcom.

Now that I've introduced a main character and (already) killed another one off, prepare yourselves for Chapter Two of...

AN v2: Hopefully I won't be making another version of the AN after this one, but some silliness occured on the side. My mum didn't break the computer - she accidentally unplugged the monitor - but from the way she called me up and told me that everything on the computer had 'died suddenly', I panicked. Which is a good thing, since otherwise you would just now be getting the chapter, instead of half of it almost a week earlier.

Furthermore, I was about to wrap up the second chapter, and I went up to hit the Save button so I could prepare to upload, when the power went out on my street. I really wish WordPad had an autosave feature, as is, I had to wait six hours (after the inspiration died, IOW) and try to remember what I had typed.

After all that excitement, I finally can seriously present to you... the second installment in the epic tale of...

Associate Evil

'Don't shoot, I'm a human!" Joe cried out, throwing his hands in the air for emphasis. The girl's eyes widened. Slowly, the finger on the trigger relaxed. Her head bowed down for a second, then she turned it back towards Joe, a small smile on her lips.

"Sorry about that babe, I thought you were one of them!" She returned the gun to its holster, strapping it securely into place. "Jesus, you look like shit. What happened to you, anyway?"

Joe contemplated the quickest way to explain. "Car crashed, truck blew up, passed out on concrete, and got chased by a flaming dead girl. Unless that last part was a hallucination."

She smirked. "Actually, you passed out twice, and no, she was chasing you. I saw it from in there." She gestured to the security station. He looked shocked.

"If you saw me running around out there, why'd you almost shoot me?"

"Consider it a test, I wasn't going to let some panicky boy compromise the store's security." She then turned to face the glass doors, puzzled. "But how did you get the doors to lock?"

"I'm a manager here." He stated simply. She cast a curious glance at his shirt, which he followed. "Off the clock, I got called in at the last minute for a crisis." Her eyes widened. "No, not whatever is happening out there, I was told that too many people were calling in sick and I needed to cover for someone."

"Actually, now that I think about it, how did you get in here? Tonights Christmas Eve, the store is supposed to be closed down to customers."

She made a gesture towards the emergency exit. "Nobody bothered to lock it, so I came in that way." He made a sudden movement towards the door, which she interpretted. "Don't worry, I locked it behind me." He relaxed noticably.

"So, is this like in the movies? Zombies -" she stiffened at the word, "- amongst the living, kill or be killed?" She noticed with distaste that he actually seemed thrilled at the thought of what he was saying.

"Yes, as far as I can tell... I... barely escaped from my own house. Family reunion, uncle was feeling sickly, then he began screaming and running around biting everyone. I was in the kitchen, ran out to see what was happening... had to break his neck... then my husband stood up an began eating my mother... they never really got along... and I grabbed my gun and escaped through the front door. Everywhere I went, I heard the screaming... whatever this is, it started happening at almost the same time, everywhere." She looked him in the eyes. "That doesn't happen at random, whatever this is, it was planned."

He reached for her gun, backed away when she stiffened up again. "Why were you carrying a gun on you? Police or something?"

She shook her head. "I work security at the RC Diesel Warehouse. Gas prices shooting up everywhere, they decided to take a 'strong' approach against theft, and the rest of my crew and I were signed up for firearms training. Once we passed the basic course, we were assigned .38s and told to carry them around to get used to the weight."

He nodded. "So we've got a small defense against these... zombies. I gotta say, though, I'm suprised. Never actually expected this to happen so soon." She looked at him askance. "I'm one of those 'end of the world' believers. Technology leads to detruction, or so I believe. Still, a bit of a shock that I was right."

He looked closely at her, checked her out. She was petite, maybe 5'10 or so, with a firm build. Her hand wafted gently in the proximity of the handgun, and he had a suspicious feeling she could draw it in a blink. As for how good her aim was... his body was still tense from the way she had held it level, aimed center at his head.

"So, we've got two survivors. Both of us are armed - you with that gun, me with knowledge of this store - and, barring anything else, ready to set up camp for the night?" He looked thoughtfully towards the store. "There's a heavily locked down area by Electronics they use for their incoming gadgets, televisions, and ilk. We should probably head that way before any more undead show up."

She shook her head gently, getting his attention. "You're getting ahead of yourself. Firstly, we aren't the only survivors, and secondly, there's a secure area that's a shorter distance away."

He drew in a shocked gasp. "We aren't the only survivors? Did any of my crew... they'd be wearing blue -" she shook her head sadly, pointing to the streets to indicate that the survivors were all people who'd walked in. He shook his head, steadying himself. "Well, where are they? And where's this 'secure area'?"

"I can answer both of those with one word. Subway. They're locked in behind the chain fencing, with tables propped up to block the emergency exit. Two of them had guns, so they're guarding the main door."

He stretched his arms back, looked towards the silver screening. "Are there any zombies in the store yet?" She nodded tersely.

"Everywhere in the aisles, you can hear them moaning. We didn't dare split up and look around, so we all grouped together and locked down. I chose to stay out here in case any more survivor's showed up... which, before you arrived, I was about to give up as a bum case."

He nodded seriously. "So, once we open those fire blocking doors, we could get swarmed by legions of the undead?" She shrugged. "So, what's stopping us? Lets go! Carpe Noctum!"

She held up a hand. "We were actually waiting for one man with one thing... something we didn't know we'd need... something that, without, we'd be doomed to a gory death." She looked up at him with hopeful eyes. "Are you that one man?"

He puffed up, strutted a few steps, then stopped. In an unexpected bass, he boomed out, "That would depend on what type of man you are looking for. Strong? That's me. Smart? Can do. Charming? Indeed." He grinned winningly at her. She peered intensely into his eyes.

"Are you the man... who has..." she paused, looked downwards. Joe hesitated, anticipation coursing his veins. "... who has... the spare keys to Subway? Cuz I kind of lost mine in all the excitement." He fell forward suddenly and dramatically, cursing under his breath. "What? Did I say something wrong?" She asked teasingly.

"Alright, enough fooling around, let's do this!" Joe said, adrenaline rushing through him again. He threw open the bay doors in one sudden movement, lifting his keyring in his free hand. A blood chilling moan sounded from all sides, and as his eyes worked to find the source, his legs began pumping, carrying him towards Subway and safety. Then, as he sprinted around the corner, he collided with a zombie in green khakis. The zombie grunted, pivoted on the spot, saw him, and began growling menacingly. Their eyes locked. The zombie roared with hunger.

---

She watched him rip open the door and start immediately running towards the Subway, which was only thirty meters and a corner away. As he approached that corner, she began to follow him, taking it slower so she could keep an eye out for any of the undead. She turned to the side, stopping in place to check for movement by the registers. Her patience and guarded nature was obviously prudent, she realized with horror, as a loud roar suddenly echoed from where Joseph had been. She spun around, reflexively drawing her .38 and dropping to a knee, before realizing he had already rounded the corner and was out of her line of sight. Then Joseph's scream reached her, a high pitched yell of pain and surprise, and her stomach plummetted.

"He had the keys..." was the only think that she could think, and she seized upon that and began running.