Okay, a bit more action here! So, enjoy!
"Are we going?" Wally hissed at the group behind him as an enormous group of Adults staggered passed their hiding spot. Wally, Dick, Tim and Conner were held back in a small alleyway, hiding behind a dumpster that shielded them from the horde.
"Do you want to die?" Dick demanded hoisting the two sharpened metal poles that he used as weapons back onto the ground as he lowered himself to the damp asphalt. "We're going to be here a while. Just sit quietly and hope they don't see us, I'll try and find another way around." Wally shot him a look, but knew it was best not to argue.
"Alright wait for this group to pass by-"Dick put a reassuring hand on Wally's shoulder and nodded at the other boys before beginning to crawl across the filthy ground, staying as close to the wall as possible and silently praying that the dumpster still made it impossible to see him scurrying away.
"Dick!" Wally swore after him reaching out to snag his arm as Dick stealthily wove around the small obstacles in front of him. Within seconds the small raven-haired boy was out of sight, leaving Wally swearing after him. "I hate it when he does that." Wally grumbled, Tim shrugged,
"I can go with him. I don't want him to be alone." He whispered quickly and then scrambled off to catch up with him. Wally huffed and sat back against the brick wall. Conner raised an eyebrow slightly but didn't say anything as he peered back over the dumpster to see where the Adults were.
"Crap." He swore and then scampered down, away from the dumpster. Wally turned to him and saw the panicked look smeared across his face.
"What?" He demanded, Conner simply pointed over his shoulder and held a finger up to his lips, but it was in vein as suddenly a pound smacked against the dumpster. A hand slithered its way around the edge and a mangled face soon joined it. Conner froze holding his breath and staying as close to the dumpster as he could. Wally glared at him, but made sure he didn't make a peep as the Adult began to stagger passed the dumpster in search of Conner.
Wally thought they were in the clear as the Adult began to stumble away from them, but it was just then that Dick and Tim dropped down from a fire escape right next to the creature. The two dark-haired boys instantly swirled around and saw the now furiously hungry Adult. Dick swore and took his two poles into his hands, Tim did the same with his singular make-shift staff.
The Adult let out a deep-throated growl and lunged for Tim, the boy lurched forward, slamming the blunt end of his staff into the Adult's neck. Still the Adult continued on, staggering forward and now groping at the pole in a mad attempt to get to Tim. Dick took the opportunity and slide underneath Tim's arm and slammed the sharp ends of his poles into the chest of the Adult. It hacked and turned onto Dick. Grabbing him by the shoulder and hoisting him up. Unclenching its jaw it dropped down so it's teeth was around the now frantic boy's shoulder. But before it could close its teeth Tim wedge his staff into the Adult's mouth and sent his spiraling away from Dick. The sickening sound of skin and bone breaking assaulted Dick's ears as he was carried along with the Adult. As the two tumbled to the ground more blood splattered onto Dick's face as the creature moaned and shriek at him in a mad attempt to bite him. Still Dick kept his distance from the Adult's mouth.
The Adult screeched as it flew back, landing on the ground with a thud. The group winced every time a shrill call was released from the decaying, bloodstained mouth of the Adult. Suddenly the call was answered by two more Adult's coming in from the open side of the alleyway. Wally spat and got his sledge hammer ready. Conner backed up slightly and drew his club up from the ground.
Conner, in all honesty had no use of the club other than battering the Adult's away and opening doors when Dick couldn't pick the locks. He was a man to use his fists, and his fists were deadly.
One woman Adult made a grab for Conner, but was met with the butt of his club being slugged into her jaw as she staggered forward. Conner waited until she stumbled back before pulling back the club once again and slamming it into the side of her head, causing and audible crack to assault their ears.
In the early days of the infection, this sound would have sent all of the boys to the ground vomiting from the squelch that joined the ringing of cracking bone, but now they had all grown numb to the squishes and snaps that broke though the Adults once they were hit.
The woman Adult was down, her head split open with tinted dark blood oozing out of the cracks now on the side of her temple. But Conner had seen the damned things crawl back at him with their heads being held on by a thread, and didn't want a repeat. He pulled his foot up above her head and slammed it down. The force released a splatter of blood and gore to spurt out of the shattered skull of the Adult. Once he was content with the mess, Conner spun to assist Wally with his but found the red-head to be in a full out fight with a tall, nearly 200 pound Adult. Wally reared his sledge hammer back, but was blocked by a massive hand, clenching its decaying and cracked fingers around the blunt object. There was a moment of sheer panic in the younger boys eyes as the Adult snagged the sledge hammer away and began to storm towards him, he enormous legs kicking out under him like those of an infant just learning to walk. His knees buckled and shook beneath him as he reeled towards Wally, his bleeding and broken fingers out stretched to clasp around Wally's throat.
Conner decided it would be a good time to intervene and swung his bat towards the large monsters head with a grunt. The Adult spun around a moment too late at the club connected with flesh and bone and drug and enormous hole into the beasts face. The Adult dropped landing with a squish as he hit the floor, crimson seeping out from underneath him.
Wally looked up at Conner a relieved look clinging to his face as he laughed, "Thanks man" He told him, "Saved my hide!" Conner simply shrugged and went to slam his club once again into the head of the man and then to investigate the damage that the two bodies had done to his precious weapon.
His club was dear to him, something that he had felt a strong connection with since before all of the world had gone to hell. Well, in all reality, it was the leg of a table that he had grown so used to growing up. He would always choose the seat closest to it, he would always choose to hide behind that one when he and his father played hide-and-seek (an extremely rare occurrence, but still, it had happened once or twice) and it was with that leg that he had had to see the end of both his father and his step mother's life. It was with that leg that he had ended their lives.
He attempted to pull himself out of the memory as he looked at the now shaped piece of wood that had served him well many of times before investigating the cracks and dents that now joined the growing amount of blemishes that it held. Hell, it added character, he thought.
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Dick huffed as the Adult finally fell, both him and Tim's poles lodge deeply into the skull of the creature.
"Kill the brain." Tim grumbled and yanked his spear out of the Adult's eye.
"Worst. Idea. Ever." Dick growled, seeing as ninety percent of his other shots would have killed a human, but of course, with these monsters one had to scramble the brain to get anything accomplished. The fuming boy tugged his poles out of the Adult's face and went to join up with Wally and Conner, again behind the dumpster.
"Alright, we gotta move. Dick, did you find anywhere to go from here?" Wally demanded in a hushed voice.
"Yeah, we can go by roof." Dick told him and pointed to the fire escape that we just above their heads.
"Any Adults?" Wally asked,
"None that I saw." Dick shrugged,
"Me either." Tim agreed and lowered himself onto the ground.
"They cracked my club." Conner grumbled and ran his fingers across the now split wood of the club, he'd have to either patch this one up, or finally switch to the other three legs he had gathered.
"I'll fix 'er up for you when we get home." Dick informed him and began to pull himself into a crouch, "Now, we gotta get up there without them noticing." He informed the group, "Because there are like fifty of them just walking around the street." Wally blinked, fifty?
"Since when was there so many?" He demanded, Dick shrugged,
"Honestly, I don't know, but all I know is that it took the four of us to bring down three of them, I don't wanna see our odds against 50." Tim chirped in, "We'd be zombie-chow for sure." Wally smacked his arm,
"They aren't zombies." He hissed at him. "They're just Adults." Tim rolled his eyes, deciding it would be best not to argue with the other boy. Honestly, he knew what they were, they were the walking dead. Regardless if Wally, M'gann, and half of the other kids they had wouldn't admit it, he would. They were reanimated corpses, which was basically the definition of the word 'zombie'.
"Now are we going to go or not? Because we have company!" Dick snapped as another group of nearly five Adults began to swarm in from around the dumpster. Scrambling to his feet, Wally nodded and yanked down the ladder that led up to the fire escape. The metal creaked and moaned against the action, it had practically rusted permanently closed. But still, Wally was able to tug it down in a matter of seconds.
"Let's go!" He called and leapt up onto the rungs of the ladder, moving quickly so that the others could follow suit. Conner took up the rear just as the Adults got within grabbing range. He frowned and swung one of his legs at a swollen looking male Adult, the kick his him in the neck and caused him to fly backwards. Still Conner felt another Adult grab the foot that was still hoisting him up. They were coming in from the other side of the alley now.
Pursing his lips he decided to kick off his shoe. The hard boot landed in the face of the woman-Adult who pulled it off. She squeaked at the contact and let the boot drop to the floor. Conner took the brief moment of being free and scrambled up the rest of the way to the first level of the fire escape. He pulled up the ladder and bounded up the stairs after his comrades.
"Man what happened to your shoe?" Wally demanded as Conner joined them on the roof. Conner simply glared down at the Adults who were now scrambling to reach the ladder and shrugged,
"She liked my shoes." He said simply and leaned against a chimney, letting out a huff he looked over everyone else in the group,
"Everyone alright?" Wally asked,
"Yeah." Dick nodded,
"Fine." Tim agreed,
"Other than my foot being cold, fine." Conner added and Wally laughed,
"We need to stop those narrow escapes." He told the rest of the group, the other boys nodded in unison but didn't say anything as they sat against the roof panting.
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Artemis was never really one to simply sit and watch as others waited upon her, but for whatever reason, everyone in this camp thought that she was the one person that needed the most tending to.
She was busing herself watching a few kids. They scurried around her room and attempted to entertain themselves the best they could in the enclosed space. Artemis smiled slightly. She hadn't seen a small child in a long while and it brought a memory of normalcy to her.
"Hi." A small girl smiled up at her, she had tangles of red hair, several splatters of freckles and a large gap between her teeth. Had adults been…around she knew they would have had that gap taken away with braces, but now, it would forever be there, just one large gap. The smile was wiped from Artemis' face. Regardless of the charm of the gap, it was just another reminder of their serious lack of medical knowledge now that everyone was gone.
"Hi sweetheart." Artemis forced the grin back onto her face, "Do you need something?" The little girl scuffed the toe of her dirty, broken shoe on the ground,
"You have really pretty hair." The girl said shyly. Artemis smiled and pulled the bottom-length hair over her shoulder and nodded,
"Thank you. Do you want to braid it?" The little girl's face lit up and she gave her a gapped smile and nodded. Artemis chuckled as the girl clambered up onto her lap and began twisting the long locks of golden hair around her fingers and began making little braids. Several other little ones soon joined her, each wanting to braid the long hair.
…
Roy came in to his room, tired and dirty from the long day of work in the small makeshift garden. He was fuming, seeing as none of these Neanderthals knew how to garden, how to plant the seeds, how to water them correctly without drowning them, how to not give them too much fertilizer. No wonder so many of these kids were starving. Roy grumbled to himself as he cracked open the door, only to freeze in his footsteps seeing a maze of children and toys lining the room. All surrounding Artemis whose hair was done up into many messy braids, all wrapped around her head.
"….why…" Roy stammered looking at the mess of their new room, "Why…" He demanded again when Artemis simply looked up at him and waved,
"The kid's room is getting fixed up." Artemis smiled when Roy didn't respond she continued, "They're barricading the windows and such." She put in, "For some extra protection." Roy nodded,
"Why are they here?"
"I offered, I don't see why this is a problem." Artemis shrugged back at him before going back to holding a few braids that she was being told to hang onto while even more braids were tangled into her hair.
"For how long?" Roy demanded attempting to wade his way through the sea of children. There were probably near 20 children in total.
"Not too long now." The blonde sniggered back at him, "Looks like you get to play army-man for a while." She grinned at him as the boys in the room surrounded him, glad to see another guy to play something other than tea-party, make-over, or dress-up with. Roy was uncomfortable with the kids to say in the least, but still, he allowed himself a few minutes of pretending to be the general of his newly found army.
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Dick starred out the window for a while before turning to Wally and sending him a look. The red-head raised an eyebrow and scurried over to where his best friend was lounging.
"Hi." Wally said and planted himself next to the other boy.
"Hi." Dick responded back,
"What's on your mind?" Huffing, Dick leaned against the window sill in thought,
"Do you ever think it will be the same? You know, waking up every morning to your dad's face, or smelling breakfast ready, walking to the school bus in the morning, or ever getting that feeling back when you remember you forgot an assignment just as the teacher comes by to pick it up?" Wally frowned a bit at the question.
"I didn't live with my mom and dad." He admitted, "we didn't get along" He didn't necessarily want to admit he was beaten and abused by his parents in this life, he didn't see the need for connections to the past like those. "I lived with my aunt and uncle." He flashed back to the memories of his Aunt Iris preparing both him and Uncle Barry insane amounts of food, just as the two got home from an extremely long run. A smile graced his lips as he thought back. "But yeah, it's gonna be like that someday." He nodded. "Maybe not for us, but maybe, if we ever have kids, for them." Dick chuckled at the thought of having any kids and then instantly thought of the parameters around to illness.
"But, what if no one lives past eighteen?" Dick demanded, "What if, as soon as you hit that maturity marker, you just…die?" Wally stiffened,
"No. That's not gonna happen dude. We're immune!" Dick honestly wished he could believe this, but he still had that strong sense of doubt in the back of his mind, screaming at him that this wasn't the case, and frankly, that he only had about 4 more years to live, and Wally, only 2.
REVIEW GUYS! It helps me move like a billion times faster, and whenever I get one I can usually crank out an few pages, if not an entire chapter! So review and let me know
Thoughts/concerns/questions
Requests for couples or side stories
Alright, this week was the last performance of the play I was in (which took my writing time away) and so expect more updates more often!
And a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed already~