Ah, The Passing. Seems to have a special spot in all of our hearts.

Why I bombed it before all of this updating, I don't know

Here's Chapter 5: Newcomers!

~Ellis~

"Did I ever tell you 'bout the time my buddy Keith drove his car off a bridge like this?" I asked, leaning against the racecar as we patiently waited for the people on the bridge to get to our side.

"Y'see, it was late at night, an' Keith was driving his car over a bridge when he saw what he though was a bear carcass layin' in the middle of the road." Coach silently ignored me, going through the few weapons we had in the trunk. Rochelle was leaning on the passenger side, half listening as she stared at the street, watching the Infected stumble around as she picked off any commons that grew too close with her pistol.

"Now, he found a stick and decided to poke at it, when he found out it was jus' an ol' lady's fur coat that must've fallen outta her car or somethin'. Then, he thought 'Hey, free coat, right?'" Nick had a katana in his hands as he impatiently stabbed it into the dirt beneath him as he periodically looked up at either me with a death glare or the bridge with puppy dog eyes. He always acted like he hated my stories, but deep down I knew he had to be enjoying at least a few.

"Now, normally owls don't attack a man, right? Well these were sum' pretty pissed off n' hungry owls, and when Keith picked up the coat them owls jus' ambushed him!" I chuckled out loud as I remembered how he looked when we found him. "He had claw marks an inch deep! He jumped off the bridge when he thought 'Hey, owls can't swim, right?' Well, turns out them owls could, and he had to fend 'em off for 20 minutes while treadin' wate-"

"Hello!" a voice called from above, interrupting me, and the four of us collectively turned to see a guy in a black vest and tattoos all over his arm watching us from the bridge. I knew it'd be a good idea to honk the horn! "Hello there!" Coach called back, pulling the few pistols and health kits out of the car. "Could you lower the bridge for us? We're trying to get through."

"I'd love to, but we can't," the man responded, "you'll have to get to the other side to lower the bridge. We can help you once you're there." Nick gave him a skeptical look, and I stopped myself from snickering. "Don't worry, we're cops. When you get over here me and... my other cop friends will help you."

"This guy ain't a cop..." Nick muttered, stepping in front of Coach and glaring up at the obvious biker. "Listen jackass. Get your goddamn ass to lower the goddamn bridge, you greasy, vest wearing monkey!"

"Bite me, Colonel Sanders!" the man yelled back, brandishing his automatic shotgun like a sword.

"Francis, Francis!" a man called, and I saw a tall, dark skinned man come up behind him, limping badly. He had a white suit with a red tie on, and I saw an Uzi strapped to the side of his belt. "Francis, just calm down, what the hell is wrong?" "Suit over here is yelling at me to lower the goddamn bridge!" Francis yelled. It was funny how that's what Rochelle called Nick when we first met each other at the mall in Savannah. The wounded man slightly pushed Francis back. "Listen, we'd love to help, but the generators need to be refueled, and... we lost a man, and there's no way we're going back down there."

I suddenly felt bad for them. Sure, we've had close calls with Tanks, and Nick always trips up over Witches, but luck is always on our side. These two actually lost someone and still stay strong. "What's going on?" someone called as they came from the other side of the bridge.

"Hooooly shit..." I stammered, staring at the woman before me. She was... gorgeous... "Oh, hey there," she called down, and I didn't realize she was talking to me. "Ellis, aren't you gonna talk to her?" Rochelle whispered, looking at me, but I couldn't pull my eyes away. "I... I can't. I-I mean, LOOK AT HER..." I replied, and I could swear she smiled at me. "She's... amazing... Uh... Howdy! Heh, um... Ugh I can't do this I'm so nervous..."

"We'll need to get to the other side of that bridge," Coach said, handing me a pistol, snapping me out of whatever was going on. I grabbed it, and looked back at the girl with Francis, and she was looking at me, and I swore I saw her wink. "Come on, boy, the girl'll be there once we get to the other side," Coach assured me, and Nick snickered. I ignored him, and nodded. But I had something to do first. "Uh, could you guys just wait before we go? I gotta... I jus' need some time alone with the car, incase we don't see it again..."

"Ellis, there's something wrong with you," Nick joked, but I ignored him.

~Jason~

It had been three hours of distant gunfire before they began to get close. "Hey, you got a turd on your shoulder," I heard Francis yell at someone, and they grumbled at him. An advantage to being a leaper was that my senses were incredibly enhanced (Although recently I've noticed a faint orange tint in my vision when it was dark out, like some kind of zombie night vision, at the expense of it being blurry at daytime), and it was easy to hear the conversation Francis, Louis, and Zoey were having with the new humans, even from inside the house across the street.

"I... meant to put that there," said the grumbling man, and I could smell the waste on his entire group from here. "Well, you're here, now you'll have to refuel the generator. It burns through a lot of gas and is pretty loud, so get ready," Zoey told them, and I heard another voice say something in return, but it was too quiet. After a while, a loud noise started as the new humans took a lift down to the generator, and I knew it would call the commons anywhere near the area.

"This is why we got guns!" one of them announced, and soon enough the shots began to rang out. It was rather easy to hide in the house. They had no reason to come in, and the only humans near the home were Francis and Zoey, with Louis firing the machine gun at larger infecteds. However, a strange, sharp beeping... thing was thrown in the room, and I crawled over to it, curious. It was still out of view of anyone outside, so I was safe.

It was a white pipe with wires sticking out of it, with a battery taped to the side. Attached to the pipe was a small device with a red, blinking light. It was too bright for me, and I growled at it. Suddenly, the blinking light flashed brighter, and I backed away, just as masses of common ran in and began to attack the pipe. I noticed the burning fuse at the end at the last second, but didn't turn fast enough as it flashed in a bright, noisy explosion.

Luckily, the common that swarmed the bomb protected me from the deadly shrapnel and heat, but the massive shock of it flung me back, head first into the wall. I let out a weak whimper as I heard something breathing heavily nearby, and it slowly turned into enraged roars.

Giant.

It smashed through the tiny door, and stopped dead when it saw me trying to get up. It grabbed me before I could run, and roared as it threw me into the staircase, and I felt a sharp, intense pain across my chest as it hit the stair. It lumbered closer and closer, trying to get around the tiny room, until the humans outside unleashed all of their weapons into its backside. It roared, prepared to slam it's fist into me when one of the humans got up right behind it with a shotgun, and blew a hole clean through it. It collapsed onto the ground, right on top of me, and the bridge lowering made the human run to it rather than notice me.

"Bridge is down, le's go!" he yelled, and the new humans ran across the bridge to the other side, and a few seconds later a loud car engine screamed past me.

I thought I heard someone run towards me, or maybe down the stairs- no, Zoey put things on the stairs so commons couldn't get up. Fresh blood on a human grew closer to me, and a voice inside screamed at me to kill it, to kill whatever human it was. But I shoved the voice back into my mind as I continuously tried to regain focus with no luck. My chest stung like it was just cut with a knife. Was it cut with a knife? I wasn't sure.

"...you alright?!" someone pleaded. Who was that? Oh yeah, Katelyn. Katelyn was okay, that was good. I whined back to answer, although I forgot what she said as I felt her wrap her arms around me. Her shoulder was exposed... I could tear into it right now, get that feeling I got when I killed that man in the store. No! No, not Katelyn! I fought against myself, will against instinct, and I felt my teeth make contact with her skin, and instantly pulled back. I am NOT killing Katelyn, I thought to myself, before the blackness enveloped me.

~Katelyn~

"Jason?! Jason, are you alright?!" I got Jason out of the partially collapsed staircase, and placed my hand over his chest originally to feel if he was breathing. Instead, I felt something warm and sticky, and noticed the gash across his chest. It was long, but not deep. It must've been from hitting the staircase when I saw the giant... the "Tank," as the other Survivors called it, throw him. I wrapped my arms around him once I found his pulse. I didn't let go until I felt something running down my shoulder.

Cautiously, I looked at Jason to see him sniffing my shoulder. As he did, he was... drooling. His mouth partially open, his sharp, deadly teeth were only an inch or two away from my skin, and I could see the pained look as he tried to fight the virus. I jumped back as he slightly bit down on my shoulder. He didn't break the skin, but there were scratches following where his teeth hit.

Oh god... he almost bit me...

Eventually, his body went limp as he finally passed out from exhaustion. It was probably for the best. However, I had given the Coach guy my only first aid kit, and had nothing to help his wound. "Zoey!" I called out, hearing her running to the ladder on the floor above. "Zoey, hurry!"

Zoey climbed down, her hunting rifle still in her hand, as she kneeled down next to me. She noticed the almost-bite mark on my shoulder, and eyed me suspiciously as she pulled her first aid kit off and began pulling things out. I recognized gauze, rubbing alcohol, and a few other odds an ends in her pack, but that was about as far as my medical knowledge went.

She removed his hoodie to clean his gash, and I was surprised at what he looked like. This was the only time I could really get a good look at him.

The most obvious signs of a "Hunter" were there, with his sharp claws, pointed teeth, pale, gray skin, and a few occasional bumps or boils, but the boils were barely there, compared to the major deformities of others of this Special strain. His face was mostly covered in dried blood, but behind that was a relatively clean, healthy face. I remembered seeing his eyes back at the safe house, remembering how they were a light blue, like before he was infected, only a little clouded over. His dirtied, blond hair was now covered in blood - probably from that careless toss of the Nick guy's pipebomb causing the Commons to flood where the boy was - and Zoey told me that the dried bile in his hair was from something called a Boomer. I also noticed Jason's muscles. He was only 10 years old, yet the virus gave him strong, powerful muscles in his arms and legs.

Aside from the Hunter side-effects, Jason still looked... cute. He was the cutest damn thing before the infection, and even when we traveled around as Survivors together, he managed to keep that goofy smile. But, seeing him like this, weak and at risk of falling to the infection, was too much. Letting Zoey finish healing Jason, I hurried upstairs to the nearest bedroom, and broke down into a loud sob.

I didn't give a shit if Francis and Louis found out Jason was Infected, they'd find out sometime. I felt so sorry for Jason. My false confidence in his survival probably left him more terrified when he began to turn, and even after when we were reunited, I still take the blame for this.

If I was a bit more careful, if I managed to at least FUCKING SCOUT THE DAMN AREA FOR THE POOR KID'S BIRTHDAY...

Somehow, my sobs began to choke me, and I actually had to stop to gag as I forced myself to calm down. There was nothing I could of done to save him, and I shouldn't take the blame for fate. I calmed down enough to hear shouting downstairs. It sounded like Francis found out. "YOU'RE TELLING ME THIS BASTARD WAS A FUCKING HUNTER THIS WHOLE GODDAMN TIME?" Francis roared, and I actually had to cover my ears. That guy could yell...

"Francis, get your head outta your ass and LISTEN TO ME," Zoey demanded, and Francis immediately shut up. I slowly made my way out of the bedroom and inched down the ladder to the floor below, and saw Francis, XM1014 Auto-Shotgun in hand, being held back by a struggling Louis. Zoey stood between the biker and Jason, who was still unconscious. "If he was dangerous, not only would Katelyn have already been dead, but he would of attacked the rest of us instead of agreeing to staying out of us helping the other Survivors," Zoey said calmly, but it didn't help Francis's mood. Mostly since he would not give up on the "Jason's a Hunter" fact.

"I DON'T GIVE TWO FLYING FUCKS IF IT REFUELED THAT GODDAMN GENERATOR ITSELF, IT'S STILL A MOTHERFUCKING ZOMBIE," Francis roared back. When he was serious, he would refer to the Infected as zombies, rather than vampires, so I knew he was truly pissed off. And what he said had pissed me off just as well. "HE'S not a fucking zombie," I said coldly, causing him to turn around. "He's my best and only friend. Why would you think I'd let him travel with me if he was a danger to me?" Francis paused, but I still saw the rage in his eyes. As long as it was towards me and not Zoey or Jason. "He didn't ask to be turned, so you might as well treat him with fucking respect rather than treat him like a pest," I finished, letting the venom of it sink in as I smacked him hard across the face. Zoey and Louis were nice to Jason, yet this asshole has to want him dead and say all that shit about him.

I struggled, but managed to, pick Jason up, and returned to the bedroom upstairs. As I wrapped myself in the covers, I gave it some thought before laying the Leaper/Hunter/Whatever next to me under the blankets. I saw him relax slightly, and wrapped a protective arm over him before letting my eyes drop. Francis was going to have to go through me before he can touch Jason.