Until Dawn

Chapter Six

"Wake up, not lesbians!"

I jolted awake, bringing my arm up to shield my face immediately as I felt something land heavily on the end of the bed. I opened one eye, peaking through my fingers at Nicky, who was grinning back at me and eating from a packet of chips. With a groan, I let my head drop back onto the pillow as Alex stirred behind me, grumbling about crazy haired ex drug addicts.

"Hey," Nicky laughed, hitting Alex's foot through the blanket that covered us. "But I'm your favorite ex drug addict."

"You are," Alex agreed, her voice gravelly with sleep as she rolled onto her back, away from me. I immediately missed her warmth and she must have known it, instinctively, somehow, because she pulled the blanket over me before resting her hand just above my hip, caressing my skin softly. I smiled to myself before looking up and peeking past the blinds, frowning when I saw how low the sun was in the sky.

"Shit," I muttered softly. "We have to get out of here."

"It's all good, Blondie," Nicky said as she threw a bag of chips at me, narrowly missing my face. "Watson and Ma are grabbing supplies and gettin' shit ready, told me to come in here and tell you to relax until it's time to go. Janae said somethin' about you being awake for days on end and not eating much and you know you need food and rest if you're gonna continue being a badass, College."

I let myself relax back into the pillows, picking up the packet of chips that Nicky had thrown at me and opening it. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I popped the first crisp into my mouth and my stomach grumbled greedily. Nicky laughed as I blushed while Alex gave me a disapproving look which told me she wanted me to start taking care of myself better. I shrugged my shoulders, popping another chip into my mouth before looking up at Nicky.

"I forgot to ask before but I only just remembered, where the fuck did you guys go when we got out of Litch and how did you get so far, so fast?" I asked with a frown, looking between the two women. They exchanged glances before Nicky nodded at Alex, indicating for her to tell the story.

"We ran into the woods after you," Alex started as she slipped on her glasses. "But it was dark and you and Janae were so fast and we lost you pretty quickly. Boo... had been shot down and Lorna was getting a bit hysterical and we stopped to catch our breaths and everyone was just gone. So we went back to the road and ran along the tree line and got really fucking lucky when we found a car with the keys still in the ignition."

"We didn't stop driving for a while," Nicky continued with a nod. "Finally got to that fucked up town just as it went dark and those fuckin' zombies attacked our car, rolled it right over!"

"That was your car?" I asked with wide eyes, remembering the abandoned car that had caught on fire at the entrance to the town. "The white pick-up truck?"

"Yeah," Nicky nodded. "So, of course, we got out and fuckin' ran for it and then hid behind that other car, but those fuckers found us."

"They must have smelt us or something," Alex added with a frown. "So, Nicky started throwing fucking bricks that had been broken when the car we were hiding behind crashed into that shop while I tried to calm down Lorna who was losing her fucking mind and then you showed up."

"I almost fuckin' cried," Nicky laughed, shaking her head. "When I saw you get out of that car, Chapman, I could have fuckin' kissed you, I swear."

"Glad we got there in time," I murmured in response, a small frown furrowing my brow as I thought about what would have happened if we hadn't gotten there in time. I didn't know what I would have done if we'd gotten there too late and they were dead; if Alex had been dead. I thought that maybe I might have just given up.

I mean, what was worth living in a world going to shit without Alex Vause?

I shook those dark thoughts from my head, looking up to find Alex staring at me intently, as if she could read my mind. She snaked her hand under my back and pulled me against her until my head was resting on her shoulder. I sighed, feeling the tension leave my body as I slumped against her, burying my face into her neck and breathing in her scent.

"God, I think I'm gonna puke," I heard Nicky say, pretending to retch and I could feel Alex smile from where her lips were pressed against my forehead.

"Shut up," Alex chuckled. "You haven't left Lorna's side since we got through Litchfield's gates."

"That's true. I was always a step behind her though," Nicky replied with a smirk. "That woman's got a great ass."

"Does she still want to look for Christopher?"

I looked up at this, watching as Nicky's grimaced with a shrug. "She tried calling him on the hotel phone but it went straight to voicemail. She's pretty pissed. He hadn't been answering her calls for a few days before we got out, either."

"Maybe he got eaten?" I offered, earning a full blown grin from Nicky.

"I can only hope, Blondie, I can only hope."

/

Now, this is Heaven, I thought to myself, smiling blissfully as the almost painfully hot water cascaded over my naked body. I had been itching to try out the hotel room's luxurious shower ever since I stepped through the door and I had finally managed to pull myself away from my bed to take a much needed twenty minutes to wash myself and clear my head. It felt as it all my worries were washing away along with the grime and dirt from my skin.

Getting attacked by Tiffany and killing her? Washed away. Escaping from Litchfield during a riot? Washed away. Finding out that the world had turned to shit while I'd been locked up? Washed away. My worries about my family, Larry and Polly? Washed away.

My fears, doubts, anger and confusion over Alex? Down the fucking drain, along with everything else, where it fucking belonged.

Speak of the devil.

"I thought you said that you'd keep your hands to yourself?" I spoke without turning around, listening as the glass door to the shower opened and closed behind my ex-girlfriends presumably naked body. It had been years since I'd last seen her completely naked, unable to afford that luxury while being locked in prison. Even in the showers at Litchfield, I had only ever seen her with a towel wrapped around her body, exposing only small patches of the skin that I so desperately wanted to see and touch. I so badly wanted to turn around, to memories every inch of her skin and burn the image of her into my brain, but I didn't. I couldn't.

"I haven't touched you yet, have I?" Alex replied, her voice laced with amusement. I sighed inaudibly, turning my head to catch her staring at my body, gray eyes turned dark and stormy, and I felt a familiar tingle race up my spine because I remember the look that she was giving me. I had been on the receiving end of it hundreds and thousands of times, before prison and during.

"No, not yet," the words slipped out of my mouth and I caught her raised eyebrow before I turned back to face the spray of water. I ran my fingers through my hair, ridding it of the last few suds of shampoo as I felt her move closer, until I could feel the heat of her body a breath away from my skin.

And I thought that the water was hot.

"You're getting toned," her lips were so close to my ear that I felt the vibrations of her mouth as she spoke. I closed my eyes as she ran a long finger along my shoulder, tracing the new muscle that had been building since I entered Litchfield. I squeezed my eyes shut as tightly as I could, wanting so badly to turn around and to throw myself into her arms, but I couldn't. I could feel Alex's lust, her desire for my body, like a thick fog surrounding me, but that wasn't what I wanted. I couldn't feel any love from her right now and while I knew that I didn't deserve it, I still wanted it. I didn't just want a meaningless fuck and as selfish as it was, I didn't want to be a binky, because I knew Alex was just scared. She was scared of being free, of living in a world where she had no connections anymore, not to mention the fact that it was overrun with zombies. And she was scared of going through it all alone.

And when Alex is scared, she always buries her feelings with sex but I didn't want to be the box that she hid her problems in.

"I'm finished," I finally spoke, grimacing at the huskiness of my voice as I turned around, not daring to look at the dark haired woman that stood before me. "It's all yours now."

I stepped around her, dodging the hand that reached for me as I opened the door and closed it behind me. I heard her call my name but I ignored it, just like I ignored the lump that was forming in my throat and the look Nicky threw me when I passed her on the stairs. It wasn't until I reached the room that we had slept in together and the door was firmly closed that I finally let myself feel the pain it caused me to turn away from her, again.

/

We were back on the road just as the sun set, watching through the car windows as many of the zombies that had been hidden throughout the city crawled out of their hiding places. It sent a shiver down my spine to know that we had been completely surrounded by the undead while we were sleeping. The further we drove, the more abandoned cars and bodies that we found, sprawled on the side of the road, bodies covered in blood. A few hours after sunset, Janae slowed the car, her dark eyes fixed intently on the side of the road and I turned my head to see what she was looking at. I watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as one of the dead bodies by the side of the road twitched before jerking violently. With an ear piercing scream, it's back arched and suddenly it was off the ground, turning its head to look at our car with blood shot blue eyes that seemed to pierce right through us.

I rolled down my window, picking up my shot gun from in between my feet, never taking my eyes off the man that was staring at me with cold blue eyes. Within seconds, he was running full pelt at our car and I pointed the barrel of my gun at his head, pulling the trigger when he was less than five feet away.

"Shit, girl," Janae breathed as the now headless zombie dropped to the ground, twitching, as I rolled up my window. "Still gives me chills every time you do that."

"Ditto," I heard Alex mutter and I caught her wide eyes from her seat behind Janae. I swallowed down the bile that had risen in my throat, turning to face the front without a word as Janae continued to drive. I had pushed the knowledge of what I was turning into to the back of my mind, unable to deal with the horror of it. I hardly even recognized myself anymore, even though I tried to reassure myself with the fact it was self-defense. I was protecting myself from these things, just as I had protected myself against Tiffany.

You're far past the point of protecting yourself, a little voice whispered in my head, now; you're just killing people, just like you killed Tiffany. They may be zombies now, but they were people once and you don't even care. You're no better than they are.

Think about that next time you pull the trigger, darling.