Until Dawn

Chapter Four

We drove for hours, through several empty, burnt out towns and didn't find another living soul. We caught glimpses of several of the undead, but in the day light, they didn't even notice the car passing them by. They hid in the shadows, like vampires that would burn in the sun light, only their eyes visible as they blankly stared forwards. I felt a chill race down my spine as we drove past a group of them, half hidden in an dark alley, making a meal of a corpse that looked like it'd been there for days. I had to turn away, despite my new role of being a bad ass, my stomach was still churning at the sight.

"Where we heading?" Poussey spoke up from where she was reclining in the back seat. The sun was finally starting to set as we drove down a long winding road that I knew would lead us back into one of the bigger cities. Janae had told me that she wanted to avoid New York, or anywhere where there would be officers of the law, but we hadn't decided where we would actually go.

"Away from here," Watson answered vaguely, her eyes, always vigilant, searching the road and the fields around us. "Anywhere that hasn't been infected yet; hopefully with a massive army base with lots of guns and bombs."

I looked out of the window, watching the sun as it disappeared, causing Janae to quickly put on her high beams. I scanned the countryside, noticing a sign that welcomed us into another town. Janae immediately picked up her shotgun and rested it on her lap, causing everyone else to follow suit and make sure their doors were locked. I took a deep breath, resting my hands on the two guns holstered on my thighs, squinting my eyes to try and see the town that we were heading into.

There were several gasps when we drove up the last hill and the town was on view for us. Half the houses were on fire and one of the first things I noticed was the white pick-up truck that had been pushed onto its side, burning brightly and outlining many fast moving forms. It was hard to tell who was infected and who was still human as people and undead alike screamed as they ran through the streets. I watched with wide eyes as we passed by the first few houses and Red rolled down her window, just enough for her to slip the barrel of her shot gun through, to immediately fire a round into the head of a passing zombie.

Janae showed no mercy as she drove through the streets, running over anything and anyone who got in our way. I tried not to watch, though my eyes were glued to the windscreen when seemingly out of nowhere, a large man jumped on the hood of the car, black liquid streaming from his wide open mouth. Everyone screamed, including myself as Janae suddenly slammed on the breaks, causing the zombie to fly off the front of the car and into the middle of the road. Janae didn't waste a second as she put the car back into gear, quickly driving over the man that was pushing himself to his feet.

I opened my mouth to speak, but my attention was quickly diverted when I heard a loud, shrill scream, followed by several curses. My head snapped to the side, my nose practically pressed to the window as I stared outside, looking for the owner of that familiar voice.

"Pull over!" I yelled as I spotted a flash of tangled red hair, half hidden behind a turned over car and surrounded by almost a dozen zombies. My hands immediately reached for the two shot guns strapped to my back, pulling them from their holsters.

"What the fuck, Chapman! I can't ju-"

"Pull the fuck over," I growled, my eyes wild as I turned to Janae. I heard Red agree with me from the seat behind me, but hardly paid her any attention as I stared at Watson. She returned my gaze for several moments before slamming on the breaks, our car skidding sideways before coming to a stop, only meters away from where the group of zombies were milling around the over turned car. I immediately opened my door, ignoring the protests of the women inside as I jumped out, whistling loudly and watching as half of the zombies turned around to face me.

"Fuck," I muttered to myself as a herd of undead immediately rushed me. I hardly had time to raise my weapons before the first one was almost on me. I fired straight into its face, not waiting to see if it stayed down before firing again. My half assed plan seemed to work as the zombies all raced towards me, leaving behind the car and the people I knew were hidden behind it. I took a few steps backwards as I continued to shoot, dropping my shotguns when they ran out of shells, and pulling out my hand guns, rather than reloading. I focused my attention completely on the zombies that were slowly surrounding me, aiming for their heads and almost always hitting my mark. I thanked Larry for all the times he took me to the arcade to play House of Dead, despite my lack of interest in it at the time. I dodged to the side when a man, missing an arm, ran at me from around the side of our car, and almost fell straight into a woman's arms. I elbowed her in the face, hoping to Hell that I didn't elbow her in the mouth as I shot the man right through the eye and watched him drop down immediately.

It was then that the car door opened, revealing Red and Jones, both holding shot guns. I noticed that Janae was leaning outside her window firing steadily at zombies that must have heard the noise and were now racing down the street towards us from every direction.

"Nicky!" I heard Red yell in between firing, as I semi wrestled with the woman I had elbowed in the face. "Get your ass over here, now!"

I realized that Red must have seen the same thing I did, the flash of Nicky's wild mane as she threw what I could only assume was rocks from her hiding place behind the car. I watched as her head popped up once more, but couldn't wait to see if she was alone or not as the zombie I was wrestling with attempted to sink her teeth into my arm. I growled loudly, grabbing her hair and pulling her head back before pushing my gun into her mouth and firing. I immediately let her go, watching as she dropped to the ground in a pool of thick blood before turning around to see not only Nicky climbing over the car, but Morello and Alex as well.

Thank fucking God.

My eyes fluttered closed in relief, but only for a moment before I was holstering my guns and picking up my shot guns from the ground. Without even thinking, I kicked out my leg as I bent over, feeling my foot impact something before straightening up and racing back to the car, not even bothering to turn around and check what I'd just kicked. I jumped into the passenger seat, reloading my shotguns just as Nicky skidded to a stop near the jeep, giving me a shit eating grin as she clapped me on the shoulder.

"Who woulda thought you'd turn out to be so fuckin' kick ass, Blondie," she laughed, her brown eyes sparkling as she shook her head. "You saved our fuckin' asses."

"Yeah, and if you don't get in the car, she'll be saving 'em again, so move it!" Janae growled from the driver's seat. She had turned around, away from the window where she had been shooting at the large group of zombies that were heading our way. Nicky nodded as she jumped in the back seat, followed quickly by Morello. I was still re loading my second shot gun when I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, causing me to look up and into those stormy grey eyes that I'd been dying to see for the past few days.

"Hey, kid." Alex said softly, her voice hoarse and even deeper than usual. She seemed relatively unharmed, with only a small cut over her left eyebrow and I breathed out a heavy sigh of relief when she gave me a small smile. "That's the second time you've saved my ass."

"Peace offering?" I half smiled with a shrug, ignoring Watson's frustrated growl and the impending zombie attack as I stared at my ex-girlfriend.

"You didn't have to jump out of the car and go all Resident Evil to get me in a car with you, you know." Alex smirked, letting go of my shoulder to readjust her glasses. "You could have just asked nicely."

I opened my mouth to reply, enjoying our familiar casual banter, but I was interrupted by Nicky sticking her head out of the door. "Come on, Vause, you can kiss and make up later. I don't feel like dying today."

Alex gave me one last smile, which I returned before she jumped into the now full car. Janae muttered a sarcastic 'thank you' under her breath before putting the car into gear and turning us away from the hoard of undead. We sped through the town and back out onto the road and I tried in vain to ignore the screams of the people we left behind. I turned my head, glancing at the women crowded in the back of the car and grimaced. There was now nine of us in an eight seater car which was also loaded with supplies. It was a tight fit to say at the least.

"We're going to need a truck at the rate we're pickin' up all these strays," Janae said, though she softened her words with a grin as she looked over her shoulder.

"Sorry about cramping your ride, man," Nicky smirked back, holding onto Morello who was sitting on her lap. "Bet you didn't expect to have to fit us in, eh?"

"It was inevitable," Janae replied, shooting a glance at me which I ignored.

"Yeah, Blondie's been looking out for you three," Red nodded, giving me a small smile.

"Practically grabbed the wheel from Watson to pull us over when she saw you guys," Poussey laughed from the back seat. "Janae woulda been lookin' like Jesus freak if she hadn't pulled over."

"Thanks, Chapman," Morello said sincerely while Nicky just nodded in agreement.

"No problem," I replied before turning my attention to Yoga Jones who was in the backseat between Poussey and Taystee. "Jones, there should be a black and red bag behind your seat. It's for our new travel buddies here."

Alex raised her eyebrow questioningly at me and I just shrugged. "I knew we'd find you and I figured you'd want to get out of that uniform when we did."

"Oh, thank fuck!" Nicky looked like she'd almost start crying with relief when Jones passed her the bag full of clothes. "I thought I'd have to wear these fuckin' khaki's for the rest of my life."

I turned back to face the front, a small smile slipping onto my face at the small amount of happiness that I'd just witnessed after an overall shitty day. My smile only got bigger when I felt a familiar hand once more rest on my shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze before letting go.

"You even got us all a change of underwear, Chapman," I heard Nicky say from behind me. "You're the fuckin' best."

"No more granny panties," Alex said and I could practically hear the smile in her voice. "Wait, there's a fucking g-string in here. Who's that for?"

If possible, my smile got even bigger, and maybe a little bit devilish.