Friday 2:17pm
We stayed in the research building for a few hours, the first we listened to Faiths tale of how she got here and what they did to her which made me and Ryan feel guilty and sad for never knowing she was here, we had the opportunity to get her out but never known of her existence and how long she's been here, she noticed and said that it wasn't our faults for not knowing and she forgives us for it. But I still had a sense of guilt to it as I sat next to the makeshift bed with a sadden look with my head dipped down, she then put her paw on my shoulder.
"Hey...I don't hold it against you, you nor Ryan could have known I was here. So don't beat yourself up about it." Faith said trying to cheer me up with a somewhat sympathetic tone.
I looked at Faith then looked down again then looked back at her with a rueful smile. "I know...I-I just can't help feeling bad for never knowing you were here this entire time...never knowing the pains you had to face here...the things they did…" I said in a saddened tone trailing off.
She came closer to me and hugged me. "Shhh...no need to talk about it."
I gave her a saddened hug in response which she continued to hug me, it helped knowing I have at least one of the members of the second family to help me through moments like this one and it made me happy to finally be with her and relieved to know that she's okay, we then parted after a few long moments of needed hugging for me.
"Thank you Faith." I said with a happier but still somewhat rueful smile.
She smiled. "Anytime William."
In the distance there was the sound of an explosion followed by a waterfall of cursing. Ryan seemed to be working with the machines. And they were fighting back. Followed by the screeching of metal on metal as Ryan tore machines apart for whatever reason.
"You know...I'm wondering if the others are around…" I said with a curious somewhat rueful tone.
"I've wondered that myself." Faith said thinking about the possibility.
We then heard some groaning from the other side of the door we entered from, I then looked at the door. "I got this one." I said as I got up and unsheathed my machete and started to walk to the door. "I was wondering when these sons a bitches would be coming." I muttered with a grin that dripped with malice.
"Be careful." Faith said somewhat worried.
I looked back at her and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll be back." I reassured then I looked back at the door and slowly did an evil grin as I felt the bloodthirsty side of me got excited of the awaiting bloodshed.
I began walking to the door again then I opened it to see a zombie with it's back to me, which then I did a menacing grin and brought jungler up and thrusted it through the zombies head with the blade poking out the other side between the eyes, I then did my mortal combat voice. "Fatality." I then saw two more zombies slowly making their way to me. "Oh goodie." I said as I walked up to them at a fast pace, when I got a few feet away from both of them I brought up my machete into a underhand position and decapitated the one closest to me then keeping up the momentum I went up to the other one in a half spin and shoved the blade through the lower jaw and out it's head. Then I pulled the machete out which caused the wounds on the zombie to gush out crimson. Then I did my mortal combat voice again. "Triple fatality, William, wins." I then did a short demented laugh while doing a grin of malice at the corpses that laid on the ground. I walked back into the storage room to see Faith with a surprised look on her face seeing me with my somewhat demented grin and splotches of blood on my clothing.
"I never thought you would be this...bloodthirsty William." Faith said somewhat surprised.
"Heheh you should see him when we encounter big groups, that's when he really shows it. He gets even scarier when he listens to his music. Sometimes it seems he goes into an animalistic state." Jordan commented while I did a my demented giggle remembering some of the badass zombie kills I've done.
"It helps when you got work music, plus it makes it more...interesting heheheheh." I said agreeing with Jordan doing a lower pitch graveled voice.
"You guys have been out here for awhile, have you..." Faith asked.
Ryan returned covered in oil and hands full of mechanical parts with wires sticking out. "We've been like this for five years now. Not the best way to live. But I get to have REALLY big guns."
"But we've had fun nonetheless. Very bloody fun muhahaha." I commented as my voice went from the low gravel pitch to my normal voice but higher pitched with somewhat of an evil grin.
"Oh…" Faith said slightly scared and a bit worried seeing how we are like in the zombie apocalypse.
I gave Faith a reassuring smile after noticing the twinge of fear. "Faith don't worry none of us will ever hurt you, I wouldn't ever even dare so. You should know this by now." I said in a reassuring tone trying to calm Faith a bit, which she did calm down thankfully.
I then cleaned off my machete and sheath it. I then went to my new dimension pack out of curiosity of a thought that crossed my mind. "I vonder.." I said quietly to myself then opened the pack, I was presented with the result of looking in it before but I put my arm in there and started rummaging "let's see what I can grab next…" I rummaged for a minute or so and I found something I did not expect...food! I grinned at what I found, it was a chicken bbq wrap, something I hadn't had in nearly five years. "Oh my sweet mary susie mother of god…" I said happily as I looked at the wrap in my hand at which, Ryan came over to investigate of what I found. "What did you find?" He then did a wide eyed expression at seeing the wrap in my hands. "Where, the hell did you get that!" Ryan asked surprised at which I just pointed to the dimension pack. "Oh please tell me there's more." Ryan asked as angel chorus played in my mind looking at the tantalizing piece of food.
"I don't know but look in there and see if there is more…" I said not looking away from the wrap. "Oh my god this is going to taste so good…" I continued in a quiet enthusiastic tone then I start to get hungry looking at it, at this point Ryan found one too.
"Yes!" Ryan said in a triumphant tone finding a sandwich made of black forest ham, lettuce, red wine vinegar, american cheese and toasted. Ryan grinned and tore into it.
"Oh it's been too long since I've had one of these." I said unwrapping mine which still felt cold which surprised me.
"Ditto." Ryan agreed with me with glee, eating his, then we both starting eating the foodstuffs we found in the pack.
From not tasting this kind of food in pretty much five years, all I can say to put it simply, it was a of explosion epicly awesome flavor, which Ryan could say the same as well just looking at his reaction. Faith started looking at us upon hearing our reactions and the crinkling of the plastic foil around the wrap and sandwich.
"What are you two doing?" Faith asked wondering what was happening at which me and Ryan froze at the question.
"There's a chance she's going to want some." Ryan whispered to me in a somewhat worried tone.
"Shit...I hope there's more...last thing we need is her pissed." I whispered back.
"Should we just tell her?" Ryan asked still whispering.
"...fuck it, she'll find out later anyways.." I replied continuing to whisper.
"True…" Ryan agreed.
We turned around to see a patient Faith looking at us for an explanation then she saw the food we were eating. She looked with a slightly surprised look then looked at us then did a small smile.
"Food?" Faith asked curious and a little hungry.
Faith cocked her head. And looked at the food, then at Ryan, then at the food, then at Ryan. Ryan cut his sandwich in half and gave her half. She took it and ate it. She looked up hungrily. Ryan swallowed nervously. "Faith, we're not sure if there is more food in there…"
She nodded and looked down. Ryan shifted uncomfortably. And held the rest of the sandwich to his recently found wife.
She looked at it. "You need to eat too."
"Trust me, I will." Ryan said. Especially since Faith is back.
She looked at it, and shook her head. Ryan blinked. "Faith, you need to eat."
She looked at Ryan straight in the eyes. And a note of finality entered her voice. "You eat your food."
Ryan nodded and ate. Faith nodded. "I can hunt."
"That might be a liiiittle difficult…" I said in a somewhat nervous tone.
Faith blinked. "What do you mean?"
I hesitated for a moment "As this is the apocalypse...there are bandits...possible mutants...and most part," I sighed. "The zombies...oh the lovely pains in the ass zombies" I finished in a slightly annoyed tone
Ryan nodded. "I was thinking more along the lines of wildlife is infected, except maybe fish. Maybe."
"Sadly…" I sighed agreeing.
I looked at the second wrap in the two pack then looked at Faith then went up to her. I did a somewhat warming smile. "Here, I have a few mre's I can eat." She gave me a look that said, really?, but showed some appreciation in it. She smiled then took the wrap that I had and began eating. "Heh...you know I could just make some glop for us to eat, what do you guys think?" I asked looking at Ryan and Jordan. (it's a thing of food I named that you can make thats actually really easy to make the main ingredient is rice, no batch is the same twice, plus you can make it with pretty much any combo of meats and vegetables and it'll taste pretty damn good.)
"Doesn't sound too bad." Jordan replied.
"Ditto." Ryan answered.
Faith looked at me confused. "What's...glop?"
"It's a thing of food I named, my mom used to make it for me and her friends, it's really simple to make and pretty good, the base ingredient is rice, you can mix and match pretty much any kind of meat, veggies and spices." I explained.
"Trust me it's actually pretty good. It hasn't killed me yet." Jordan reassured with a laugh.
I turned to Jordan. "Hey I'm a better cook than you." I said laughing at which Faith smiled.
"...So when do you plan for us to go?" Jordan asked curiously after our moment of laughter.
"...I...have not thought of that…" I said in complete honesty which Ryan did a quiet sigh of some annoyance. We sat in uncomfortable silence for the better part of three or so minutes then Faith came up with an answer to the earlier question.
"If we could...I'd like to leave this place now." Faith said growing weary of the facility.
I smiled at her as I nodded then looked at Ryan. "Alright, Ryan grab an end." I said after readjusting my paintball mask with a moment of adjusting my glasses then grabbed the upper end of the makeshift bed then Ryan grabbed the lower portion and then we lifted the bed while doing this I looked at Jordan.
"Mind taking lead?" I asked Jordan, he then took out his m4 with a small grin.
"Eh why not." Jordan replied then took lead up front of us then we began our walk out of the building.
About seven minutes later we exited the building, Faith looked at our surroundings seeing the areas of devastation that's happened. But she was surprised to see that there were still a largely considerable amount of greenery then she expected, she expected it to be more desilet then it is.
We brought her to the truck and put her on the truck bed, which the truck bed has been modified for various things as such, size control to make it wider and longer if need be, roofing that could collapse into the truck bed and extended out when needed with armor, extra ammo and weapons, mini fridge. That's just naming a few things. Ryan popped the built in step in the tailgate, then stepped up onto the truck bed keeping Faith as level as possible so she didn't fall off the makeshift bed, we placed her near the window of the driver and passenger compartment, I looked at Jordan then asked.
"Want to drive this time?" Ryan asked Jordan, he thought about it for a few moments.
"I haven't drove this thing in a while so why not." Jordan said then hopped into the driver's seat then I hopped onto the truck bed after bringing the tailgate up. Jordan started up the truck at which a smile spread across his face slowly from hearing it's engine come to life and after me and Ryan got into our spots on the truck bed. Jordan then started driving. "Homebound, Jordan! Avonti!" I said to him from the back as we drove off to the right a bit traveling back to our encampment. Faith looked at the scenery as it went by her view.
"You know...I expected it to look more…-" Faith said trailing off a bit.
"Apocalyptic?" Ryan finished.
"Yeah." Faith agreed.
"It surprises me everyday that through all the batshit things that's happened there's still this much plant life. It can surprise many the persistence of nature, it can take the most hellish of beatings and come back from the ash of its remains with the bloom of it's last life and continue to go on." I said in one of my somewhat poetic voices.
Faith looked at me somewhat surprised of the poetic nature of my comment.
Ryan looked at me with a small smile. "Well that's a type of comment you don't hear from Will often."
I looked at Faith with a smile. "I used to say things like that more often, but after things like this." I said gestured semi vague to our surroundings.
"I see…" Faith said telling of what I meant.
I pulled out my mp3 then looked at the aux cord to the stereo then at Faith. "Want some music? to stave off the silence." I asked her which she mulled it over.
"Alright, nothing too vulgar please." She said then I grabbed the aux cord then plugged in my mp3 then went through my music until a song came up which put a smile to my face. "This'll do." I said then my favorite song started up, Stardust by Gemini Syndrome which I quietly sang along too, as I did so when it came up, I looked to Faith to see that to my surprise and to my minor hope she enjoyed the song a bit, a smile going across her face which caused me to smile a little brighter. When I was showed this song about eight years ago, whenever I heard it thoughts of her came to me.
She looked at me then noticed my smile as how I portrayed it at which she herself smiled a little brighter. "You've been wanting to show me this song for a while have you?" Faith asked which I did a somewhat surprised look of her finding out, I then just smiled again.
"Yeah. Every time it's came up it always brought me of thinking of you." I said in a somewhat happier tone after saying that, she did a warming smile.
This moment went on for a few songs just listening to them on our way to our little encampment as I liked to call it which would take us almost forty or so minutes to get there from where we were. Me and Ryan would look at our surroundings occasionally which made Faith wonder. Then we heard an almost chilling rawr (forgive me if that spelling is wrong. I couldn't find the right one…) in the distance from where we left off from about eighteen minutes into our drive, then we heard a low thumping almost like either like a lot of things running or one big creature…when we heard it again we looked from the direction of the facility and from that direction was...the former and the latter, of zombies, oh goodie.
Some of the zombies looked like the tank and the charger from left for dead, Me, Ryan and Jordan's thoughts was this phrase when we heard then saw the horde. "Ah shit…" Then my demented side of me started taking over when I saw the horde which with it a demented smile crossed my face, at which I looked to Faith she was staring at the horde with frightful eyes. "Faith...you might want to cover your ears in the next twenty seconds, hehehe it's going to get loud." I said in a scarily calm tone but you could still hear the excitement in it.
I then gave her some tarp to cover her if the blood manages to get up to us which she looked at it then at the horde then me and Ryan in confusion she then got the idea when I brought out Big Bertha then her eyes widened seeing it then she saw Ryan get his twin P90's with a grin I started spinning up Bertha with its trademark whirring noise the minigun makes, Faith then covered herself as the zombies tried making there way to us I put on Silent civilian's 'Murder one' which me and Ryan grinned more and began our onslaught on the zombies charging at us. "May this landscape be my canvas and the crimson that is your blood my paint!" I yelled dropping zombies left, right and center while Ryan kept the zombies that manages to get to us from jumping on. I did my demented bone chilling laughter killing zombies with a psychotic grin of malice.
This went on for a good two minutes killing the regular zombies then the bigger ones bellowed again. Then went at us with a burst of speed. I saw them trying to close the distance between us, as they neared they were presented with multiple custom 5x56's flying into their heads which took a bit to kill each one. The song Warriors call kicked on which I just sang to it as I continued my "Painting". This went on for what seemed like an hour of killing. We finally killed off the stragglers after that I did my demented giggle rather triumphantly seeing the last ones drop.
"Well that was fun heheh." Ryan said grinning.
"Oh hell yeah and another dent to the numbers." I said as Faith slowly brought the tarp off herself.
"Is it over?" She asked which I gave her a grin with a thumbs up and a demented chuckle.
"Good." She said with a quiet sigh of relief.
I then looked at Bertha with a grin then doing a light hug to it. "You're a good little death machine yes you are hehehehehehe a good little machine of death." I said to it like a person would talk to their pet sometimes then went to my spot and put Bertha beside me, Faith was watching me for a few seconds slightly worried of how I've been acting since she's met us so far.
Me, Ryan and Faith talked about some things about what happened to make the world get so royally screwed as we made our way to the encampment, about another twenty minutes went by before we got near it, when we got to the gate of our encampment we stop about ten, fifteen or so from the gate then I stood up. "Yo Remy ve need in!" I yelled going into my german accent, a few moments later we saw a domestic looking rat that's nearly the size of a rottweiler look over the gates keep literally standing giving a squeak and wave of greeting then went and pressed a button making the gate slide open then we drove in, the gate automatically closed after we got in.
Faith was both surprised of the size and sophistication of our encampment just by looking at it then she heard something scurry to the truck and saw the rat named Remy climb down from his spot and ran up to the truck to greet them, when the rat came up it climb up the tailgate and got onto the truck bed, he saw her then gave a curious look to her to which she just looked at the rat somewhat surprised seeing one this big. Remy went up closer to her albeit cautiously, I then looked at Remy which he gave me a look that asked. "Who and what is this?"
"Oh! Remy this is Faith, she is what is called a latias. She's also the one that I consider as family. The one I talked about from time to time." I said to Remy with a rather happy tone and a rather warming smile talking about her and gesturing to her. Remy then went up to Faith then sniffed her curiously, after a few seconds of sniffing he then did another look to her with which he smiled, well what would look like a smile for a large domestic looking rat which in any case making the cuteness factor rats have go up a bit then lightly nuzzled her showing his approval.
Jordan came up to the back and looked at Faith with a smile. "Looks like Remy likes you."
"Which is a good thing. He doesn't like very many people." Ryan said remembering some of the encounters.
"Heh I remember the guy from last month. I'm still surprised he got away from him." Jordan commented as Remy gave a small snicker. Faith gave him a questioning look.
"Hahaha god, he was running faster than a runner zombie with it's ass on fire!" I said laughing at the memory. Even Remy was laughing a bit remembering the scene vividly.
"Call it off! Call it off! Hahahahah. My god that was funny." Jordan said remembering the scene well.
"Aye it was." I agreed still laughing a bit from remembering the scene.
As we reminisced the scene Faith winced in pain for a moment me and Ryan immediately looked at her then began to worry. But Faith gave us a reassuring smile the best she could easily telling that me and him were very worried at the moment. "It's okay, I'm fine." Faith said calmly but me and Ryan glanced at each other not convinced.
"Okay let's bring her inside and grab something for her." I recommended.
Both me and Ryan did like last time picking her up on either end of the makeshift bed as Jordan lowered the tailgate then we carefully walked down it with a few oh shit moments (you know like you go "oh shit!" when you almost fall, yeah that happened there for the three of us at that moment) We then went to the door of the two story building of our home, Jordan and Remy helped with the doors then we brought her to the couch then Remy brought out the bed that's built in it then we gently placed her on the bed. Afterwords we grabbed a few pillows for her to use. "Faith, are you having any sort of headache, migraine, anything on your body hurting at all?" I asked in a tone slightly edged with worry.
"Really guys I'm fine."
I looked at Remy after taking my mask off and hung it on my pack. "Remy I need two 200 milligram ibuprofens from my mini pharmacy." After saying this Remy scampered off hurriedly then about two minutes later he came back with two of said pills and a bottle of water then handed them to me. "William-" Faith started but I looked at her in the eyes, she saw the worry and sorrow that I had hidden within them. "I've made too many friends in this now fucked up world that I've lost...I don't want to lose someone I care for dearly...I don't want to lose another one. Not again...to go the same route." I said softly my sadness slowly ebed it's way into my voice as I remembered the people I managed to befriend...then lost soon after. "Plus...you know I absolutely hate the thought of you in pain. And the amount of worry I get either it's big or small..." Faith then looked at me then gave a small smile. "Alright Will. I'll humor." I then gave her the pain meds and the water which she downed both. I gave her a smile as my face was tinged with sadness.
"We've lost a lot of people we met, a lot William managed to make friends of surprisingly...You can't blame him for being this worried about you." Ryan said somewhat quietly.
I looked down slightly. "People we meet...died either in a span of an hour to five days or so meeting them...or found dead the day or so after...when it... When the shit hit the fan, I thought I would be able to handle death pretty well," My facial expression darkened becoming a more saddened tone.
"But...family...friends. Some I had to put out of their misery, myself...even with me being pretty much dreamless, there's those rare nights where I get a hellish nightmare…more as a night horror...," I shuddered at the memory of some of them as my composure slipped little bit by little bit. "There were nights I almost lost it…..sorry…. I just went onto my saddened ramblings-" I said looking back up to Faith to see her soften eyes as I sat next to her she levitated off the bed and came up and hugged me. As tears welled up I hugged her back.
With the addition of her I would always manage to cheer up somehow. I let tears cascade down my face as I embraced her and hugged tighter. We broke the embrace after two or so minutes, and I looked up to her and gave rueful smile. "...Thanks….I needed that…" I said as my composure slowly regained and I wiped the tears away as she gave me a gentle smile.
I know it seems I turned really emotional...but think about it, five years dealing with zombies and the deaths of friends and family. Trying to cope but something happens that breaks you some more then how much you already are, trying to push it aside and bottle it up just to survive. It'll fuck with you, totally and utterly. And you finally found someone that you had part in there life, that comes up and tries to help yours. Helping to ease and mend some of the fractures of your being. You'd get a little emotional too.
But, side tracking from that. Let me know how it went. I like having feedback. Kind of like knowing if anyone likes this or not.
Vlad: He's serious people. Send in a "Your doing good, keep going!" Or something of the like. It helps.